Family Time And Wedding In Washington

Day 28 –

Thursday, Sept 19 – Our first day in Tacoma

We arrived last night to Joe's mom's (Martha) house. It was a slow morning; so nice. Joe and I went to Costco and bought some warm clothes and socks. Then we drove around a really nice residential area that has nice old houses and a view of the Puget Sound. We also did some shopping in a really fancy market, Metropolitan Market.

For lunch, Matt (our nephew), Connie (Joe’s sister), and John (our brother-in-law) came over. We had lunch and lots of talking, teasing and laughing. One reason we came to Washington to attend Matt's wedding on Saturday.

Then Joe and I sat outside while he enjoyed a cigar. The weather was very nice today. Then we watched television while I work wrote and worked on pictures.

Day 29 –

Friday, Sept 20 – Second day in Tacoma

We had coffee at a nice coffee house in Tacoma called Anthem. Joe and Martha had coffee and I had a pumpkin tea. The location is next the old train station and glass museum.

Then we walked around the older area of Proctor in Tacoma. I found some shoes, skirt suit and something for Madalyn at a nice consignment store. Nice area.

Sparky the fish in front of the fire station

Beautiful day in Tacoma!

In the evening we attended the rehearsal dinner for our nephew, Matt and his fiancee, Holly. It was at the Watershed Cafe in Olympia. We had a great time getting to know other family members of Matt and Holly. Ate great food and laughed a lot.

Joe, his mom, niece Alex and sister Connie

Matt, Holly, Alex, Connie
Me, Joe and Martha

Day 30 –

Saturday, Sept 21 – Wedding Day

We just had a quiet morning at Martha’s house. John spent the night too. We all had breakfast together and then Joe and John went out to get coffee. I stayed at the house to work on my blog.

We did drive around the area and saw some beautiful homes with great views of the Puget Sound.

The wedding was at 2 o’clock, but we got there at 1 for pictures. Rain was forecast all day, but God graciously provided party cloudy beautiful weather. The facility, ceremony and reception were enjoyable and beautiful.

Mathew's family

Mathew's mom's family

 clouds welcome!

Joe walked Martha down the aisle 

Alex made a beautiful bridesmaid

They are now husband and wife

Joe's Uncle Howard and Aunt Pat

The happy couple

A beautiful evening!

Cloudy Days of the Road

Day 26 –

Tuesday, Sept 17 – Exploring Majestic Montana

It’s raining.

Raining on Bozeman

 I am so glad that we did our hike yesterday. We found a really good place to have a warm drink in the Historic downtown area of Bozeman at The Leaf and Bean. Joe got a good cup of coffee and I got a cup of Earl Grey Lavender tea. Mmmm. We shared delicious pumpkin scone.

We browsed in some stores and then bought some shoes at Schnee's. Joe’s were on sale and I got a nice pair of Clarks. All the Clarks were 20% off and because we were in Montana there was no sales tax!

 I also found some nice coasters in a store called Sassy Sisters. One of the sassy sisters (store owners) was there and she was so nice. We love Montana, but it is Oct. Not sure what we would think of it in January. I got a post office cancellation stamp and then we were on our way.

We just drove about an hour, and then stopped to take a tour of the Lewis and Clark Caverns. 

We hiked about ¾ mile to the cavern opening. Our guide, Tom, was so nice, funny, knowledgeable and a great speaker. He made it so fun by getting us involved by asking us questions. 

We were in the caverns for almost 2 hours. It was large and beautiful. The caverns have quite a history and a lot of work throughout the years has gone into making these caverns easily accessible to the public. There was a lot of descending and ascending climbing. We saw stalactites, stalagmites, columns, and a green pool. Some more “technical” descriptions were popcorn, drapery, bacon, straws, and grapes. We spent a lot of time here, but it was worth it. When we came out, it was raining pretty hard, so we scurried down to our car.

 

We stopped for lunch in Butte. We had some really good pizza at Broadway Café. From there we took a very pretty detour on the Pintler Scenic Highway.

We continued driving on Interstate 90 all the way through the top of Idaho and into Spokane where we stayed the night in another Ramada Inn.

Day 27 –

Wednesday, Sept 18 – Our final trek west

It’s not raining!! As of last night rain was predicted for this morning. God gave us blue skies, scattered clouds and cool temperature in Spokane instead.

 In the morning we went to Atticus Coffee and Gifts near the Spokane Riverfront Park. Joe had a cup coffee and I had a yummy cup of blueberry green tea. We shared a delicious pastry. I bought a can of the tea bags and a gift.

Then we walked around some of the Riverfront Park. It would be a great place to run. We saw ducks and a giant Red…. wagon.

We made a quick stop to view the gorgeous Columbia River Gorge and the wild stallion sculptures nearby. 

The Columbia River

Wild Stallion Sculptures

Our next stop was to see our friends, Mike and Val Davis in Bellevue. We visited with them at their home for a while and had a cup of coffee. A must when Val and Joe get together. We got to see the puppy show with their “baby” Gus 
(Yellow Lab). He did a great job!

Then we went to Red Mill. It is a really good hamburger (or chicken in my case) restaurant that was featured on Dive-ins, Diners and Dives. The food was really good and the company was even better! We picked up Missy and the way,

 so we got to visit with her too. On the way home, Mike gave us a sightseeing tour of Seattle. It was fun. There was a lot of traffic and Mike maneuvered through it like a pro.

We stopped off at the Fremont Troll. Mike dropped us off with Missy so that we could get a quick photo. We have never heard of the Troll before, but know we are educated! 

We got back to their home safely and headed to Joe’s mom’s home in Tacoma. It was really nice to visit with Mike, Val and Missy.

A Thousand Mile Tour

Day 24 –

Sunday, Sept 15 – Rollin’ From Des Moines to Rapid City

We left about 6am! It was fun to get going when it was still dark. It wasn’t long though before I was napping. Joe didn’t get his coffee until we got to Sioux Falls, SD. It was raining and cold in the morning. Our next stop was Cabela’s in Mitchell, SD. Joe signed up to be a member of the NRA! He even got a $25 gift card to boot! 

Guns and more guns and lots of ammo

Inside Cabela's

Next on our agenda was to visit the World's only Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. We have been there once before. It has quite a history. It is a multipurpose facility that was built in 1892. They redesign the facade every year using all parts of a corn stock. 

We stopped and had lunch at doo-wah Ditty’s diner in Kimball,SD; a little town with the population of 707.

Like every other state, South Dakota is beautiful. It mostly very flat.

Crossing the Missouri River

S. Dakota beauty

We stopped for the night in Rapid City. We were only 30 miles from Mt. Rushmore, but since we have been there twice before, so we didn't visit it.

Beautiful afternoon in Rapid City

We went to Chapel in the Hills. It is a replica of a chapel in Norway. There was a one room cabin museum full of unique antiques. The small chapel had beautiful woodwork. The weather was beautiful, sunny and calm. 

The cabin museum

"For me and my household we will serve the Lord"

This was a nice area behind the chapel

From there we walked around the old town area. Unfortunately, the shops were closed, but we got to see the statues of the US presidents on the street corners. There was also an alley covered with graffiti, which was unique. It looked like it was set aside for that purpose.

The first time that we have seen this

The graffitied alley

Thomas Jefferson

Rapid City

   We had light dinner of a chopped salad mix from the market. We ate in our clean cheap hotel room at the Grand Gateway Hotel, while we planned our next leg of travel to Tacoma, WA.

Day 25 –

Monday, Sept 16 - Rapid City to Bozeman

Our next 2 day trek

We started our day getting great coffee and scones from Sturgis Coffee Company. It is an attractive, rustic coffee house and store.

Great sign at the door

We had another day of perfect weather! The scenery was amazing; green rolling hills with some bigger hills and spuratic trees and clear blue sky!

 We stopped at the Geographic Center of The Nation in Belle Fourche, SD. Who knew? We didn't until today. The actual spot is 20 miles north of there out in the middle of someone’s field, so the city made this nice monument in town for people to visit. There are flags for the 50 states and on each flag pole is a book with the names of the people that have been killed in the-line-of-duty since 9-11-01.

Joe standing in the middle of the United States

Funny sign

 Shortly after leaving the nice small town of Belle Fourche, we drove through Custer National Forest and Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. Both had hills with pine trees, but still very open.

 Our next stop was at Little Bighorn Battleground National Monument about an hour east of Billings, MT. We got out of the car and it was warm! We walked up to the monument and around the area and watched a film about the battle.

Grave sites on Last Stand Hill

7th Calvary Memorial on Last Stand Hill

National Cemetery

We stopped in Billings, MT for lunch. We ate delicious wraps at Rocket Gourmet Wraps and Soda. We skipped the soda though. We ate outside at a sidewalk table because the weather was so nice. We continued east on I 90 to Bozeman.

When we entered into beautiful Bozeman is was sprinkling. 

There was a short hike we wanted to take and decided that we better do it that night, because rain was forecast for tomorrow. The drive to the hike, Palisade Falls, was further then we expected, but we are so glad that we didn’t turn around. When we got there it was 6 o’clock, 60 degrees, partly cloudy, and calm aka Breathtakingly Beautiful! It was only about .6 miles to the falls, which was good because it was getting dark. The hike was easy and so pretty all the way. I took so many pictures.

Nearby beauty on the way to the trailhead

The trail

Palisade Falls

Beautiful Sunset

When we were done, we met Stephen and Allison Fanning for ColdStone ice cream. They moved to Bozeman from Sapulpa,OK for Stephen to attend Montana Bible College. We had a great time talking with them and getting to know them better. We look forward to watching how the Lord uses them.

We stayed a comfortable night at a Ramada Inn. No frills.