We arrived in the northwest one car short (and we only HAVE one car!) as the power steering had gone out on the new towed car. The correct parts arrived and we were back at 100 percent without any feedback that towing the car had anything to do with the fault. So we will continue as planned and hope that it was just a fluke.
Temperatures in Annacortes, Washington, are wonderful in the summer. Being mostly surrounded by water, wind coming from most directions has to pass over the cool water, resulting in pleasant days and nights. We could get used to this. Next year's plan is actually this year's original plan postponded to next year, so next summer looks to be just as pleasant.
One of our local car trip explorations was canceled due to the Canadian border being closed, so we instead ventured to Moclips, on the southwest Washington coast. We had no idea that Washington had such nice long, drivable sand beaches (somewhat) like Florida. We also did a quick trip to see Blaine, WA.
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| A foggy beach walk in Moclips, WA |
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Lovely sunset in Blaine, WA
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Us enjoying an outdoor meal with Sheila and her niece, Sarah
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After a great long visit with Sheila and her cat, Tay, we picked up Max's anchor (jacks) and headed for our annual stop in Texas. Our only two stops in Idaho were Boise (so we could check out the Boise Zoo) and Twin Falls. The high desert driving through this state was also really interesting.
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Sadly this is as close as Maren could get to a Boise Zoo giraffe
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| Us with the Snake River in Twin Falls |
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| The magnificent falls in Twin Falls |
By the time we got to Salt Lake City in Utah we ran into the smoke from California fires. It didn't keep us from visiting the local zoo, but did cause us to limit our outside time (and our view of the mountains in the area.) In the last blog we talked about how the weather had been "just missing us". Well, we really cut it close in Utah as we were on the edge of some severe winds that were just north of us. If the weather had waited two days we would have been in the middle of it with hurricane force winds, freezing temperatures, snow, and subsequently, closed roads littered with accidents and toppled trucks.
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Thirsty elephant at Salt Lake City Zoo
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| Another giraffe Maren couldn't get close to |
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| Polar bear doing a balancing act on a rock |
We safely traversed a mostly winter-white Wyoming and dropped south to Colorado Springs, which was smoky from both local AND California fires. No surprise, it didn't keep us from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, one of Maren's favorites. We also count this zoo as great exercise as it is built on the side of a mountain, so hiking around and seeing the animals is a workout.
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| White Wyoming on our drive |
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| Maren with the bronze stature of Penny, a giraffe calf at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo who wasn't able to survive issues after her birth. She won many hearts, including Maren's. |
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| Maren with Bailey, a super sweet gal who gave birth to her first calf 10 days after we saw her. |
Our first stop after entering Texas was Palo Duro Canyon where we spent a day driving around the park and marveling at the rock structures. Our final zoo was near Fort Worth, Texas, and that left us with just a one-day drive to Georgetown where we planted stakes for a month and got through a routine list of doctors, dental cleanings and time for hand washing and waxing Max.
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| A cave at Palo Duro Canyon -- and a very small Jeffrey inside it |
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| Maren makes another giraffe friend |
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| Sooo close! |
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| The first striped hyena we've seen |
This year we regret not being able to visit with all of our local friends and really hope 2021 is a better.
Wishing all of our family and friends stay safe! Go Gators!-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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