Oops! I forgot about this...

Back in April/May, my friend Ruth and I took a short trip to Washington state, for my friend Amber's wedding.  We drove, because this country's beautiful! And, I hate flying. And we drove a round-a-bout way to and from WA, so that we could see more people and places. We had been living in Chattanooga, TN all winter, so by the time we left in late April, we expected 80s the whole trip. But we were wrong. Luckily, we realized our mistake just before we left, and were able to pack enough warm clothes for the trip.

Our first stop was Chicago! I have family there (Grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins), so we stopped to see them on the way, and it broke up the beginning of our trip perfectly. We arrived early, so we had some time to explore the city first. Here's as trite as you can get! The bean. Oh, and we brought a sock monkey, like I do on all my trips. Susie Sockmonkey is her name, and she's tiny and pink. In the first photo, she's sitting on my head. Keep your eye out for her in other photos!

 

My aunt Martha helps run the city ferret rescue. Here's one! 

As soon as we entered South Dakota, we saw signs for "The Corn Palace" so we decided to check it out. Sure enough, the building in the background's facade is completely made out of corn.

Badlands were next. Beautiful!

Timon and his friends! I didn't know we had prairie dogs in the U.S.

Badlands still.

And we saw our first bison! He was getting rid of his winter coat.

We were sure they were going to fight, but they didn't. Just started at each other then went back to grazing. But isn't this the epitome of the northwest prairies?

Mount Rushmore!

...was too expensive to see, so here we are pulled off the highway

Devil's Tower, WY. It's a climbing destination (and sacred site), and we happened to drive by. We explored, but didn't climb.

Yellowstone. It was in the 30s. And it was smelly.

But totally worth it.

This was a surprise. I actually said "holy shit!!" out loud. There was an older couple next to us. They just smiled.

And, finally, after more beautiful driving, Amber's farm in WA. She scheduled her wedding for the perfect time of year in eastern Washington. The hills around her town were green, instead of their usual brown, and the apple trees were in bloom! It smelled heavenly, all day, everyday that we were there. She lives on this apple orchard, but works on a garlic farm. Some parts of the garlic farm are on the same plot as the orchards, but sometimes they have to drive to off-site garlic fields. It's 2 separate businesses that work (and live) harmoniously together.

..plus some goats on the side. I felt like I was starting to get the hang of it, but Amber is WAY better at it than I am...

And the wedding itself! Kiss the bride! Our mutual friend Addy was the pastor. She got ordained when she was in high school. For no reason at all. But she's using it now!!

They set up a slackline for entertainment. I was entertained. Ruth and I had "battles" to see who could stay on the longest. If we had walked to the middle we could have tried pushing each other off, but we never made it. I put this particular photo up because, as you can see, I won.

Then we said goodbye to Amber and moved on. But we headed west, toward Olympic National Park. Here were are a Hurricane Ridge. The snow was 12' deep. We trudged around on top of it for a bit, took some scenery photos, and moved on to other, lower, wetter parts of the park.

the Hoh Rain Forest.

And the beach! Hello Pacific!

The Oregon Sand Dunes. Near the beach, but not actually the beach. This was pretty fun, except for the fierce wind that was blowing constantly. Wind + sand = pain. Especially in the eyeballs.

Pacific, probably in Oregon somewhere. Just a picnic area off the 101

And onto California! Everything was bigger there. The trees, the ferns, the gas prices..

Redwood National Park! This was Ruth and my favorite part of the trip

we wanted to go to a famous beach bouldering spot, but the hike was straight down a tick-infested hill, covered in tall grass. No thanks. And the ocean was crashing against the base of the hill. Guess it was high tide? So we made some phone calls and heard about this beach. Step out of the car, and onto the beach. My kind of approach. 

On the way back toward the east coast, we stopped off at the Tetons. We tried to visit them right after Yellowstone, but the pass between the two parks was still closed, and when we tried to go around, we encountered snow. Just say no to snow. We enjoyed a picture perfect day in the Tetons.

Here's some shots from the summer: I was proud that I led this climb, so here's a photo!

that same day, a snake fell from the top of the cliff right beside us!! It was an eastern hognose snake. I'd never heard of them before

Here's another climb I did.

I was really excited that I didn't fall!

A mystery route.