Sorry it's been a few days since I've posted.  Hopefully when the girls start schooling later this week, I'll be able to get back on a daily routine.

We've been having a really good time in sunny Washington and now Oregon.  It's so nice to be out of the rain and finally feel like it's summer time.

On Thursday, August 19th, Mickey spent the day doing some minor repairs on the rig while the girls and I went in to Seattle to visit the EMP and Space Needle. The Experience Music Project /Science Fiction Museum (http://www.empsfm.org/) and Space Needle are located in Seattle Center, which made for a lot of fun without a lot a traffic.  The girls enjoyed the interactive stations at the EMP and even liked learning about "old timey" musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and the Supremes.  The picture to the left is of the girls in front of a sculpture in the lobby of the EMP.  The sculpture is made entirely of musical instruments and is over 2 stories tall.  I've posted the close-up picture below because we thought it was such a great wallpaper pic for music lovers.

View from top of Space Needle

View from the ground.



On Friday, we toured the Boeing facility in Everett, Washington (http://www.boeing.com/commercial/tours/index.html).  What a place!  The plant building itself is the largest building (by volume) in the world.  We were able to see aircraft in different stages of production.  We saw the new 787 Dreamliner, which should be in service sometime next year.  Our tour guild told us the demand for the 787 Dreamliner is so great, that if you ordered one today, it would be 7 years before it would be delivered.  A new passenger feature is the window.  It's larger than the average passenger window and has no pull-down shade.  The passenger controls the amount of light coming through the window electronically.   The facility was really impressive.  Wish I had pictures to post, but they have a no photo/video policy.  You can't even take a purse or cell phone on the tour.

On Saturday, we moved further south to Castle Rock, Washington. We met a really nice couple at camp, Les and Sally Barker.  We so enjoyed our visit with them and shared smores over the camp fire Saturday night.  They have such a cute little dog, Buddy.  Though he and Sophie didn't really hit it off.
Thanks so much to them for the travel suggestions and websites.

On Sunday we went to Mount St. Helens (http://www.mountsthelens.com/).  It's been 30 years since the volcano erupted.   Sure doesn't seem like that long ago.  There are several visitor centers along Washington 504.  We stopped at three different sites and were pleased to find really good ranger talks at each stop.  We learned about the three different types of volcanoes ( shield, cinder cone, and composite).  Mount St. Helens is a composite volcano.  We also learned about wildlife living in the crater as well as the formation of the youngest glacier in existence forming inside the crater.  Unfortunately, it was really cloudy the day we visited, and the picture below is the best one we were able to take.  You can barely see the edge of the crater below the clouds.

Mount St. Helens

Along Washington 504 we also stopped at the Forest Learning Center (http://www.weyerhaeuser.com/Sustainability/MountStHelens).  It's a center sponsored by Weyerhaeuser where you can learn about the timber industry and it's efforts to protect the environment and help maintain this sustainable resource.

After dinner Sunday evening, Mickey and I were enjoying the movie Can Can, with Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine.  I just love the old movies and their music.  The girls were watching with us, at least at first.  A few minutes into the movie, Katy went to her bed to read.  A few minutes after that, Hannah looks at me and says "Oh, I get it now.  This is an old people's High School Musical."  Needless to say, she didn't last long after that.  Apparently listening to Justin Bieber is much more entertaining.

Yesterday, we moved a little further south to McMinnville, Oregon.  We're staying at a really nice park, Olde Stone Village (http://www.oldestonevillagenw.com/rvpage.html).  The park has nice, wide,  paved sites, a heated pool, tennis and basketball courts, and is beautifully landscaped.  Again, I wish we could stay more than just a couple of days, but we have lots to see and do, so move on we must (tomorrow).

Today we had a great visit with my cousin George.  We hadn't seen each other in several years, so it was really nice to catch up.

Inside the "Spruce Goose"

George went with us to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum here in McMinnville (http://www.sprucegoose.org/).  It's where Howard Hughes' " Spruce Goose" is on display.  Us girls aren't that into air planes, but it is a really interesting place.  The "Spruce Goose" is HUGE!  And the girls, as always, enjoyed the interactive stations.




Tomorrow we're headed to Eugene, Oregon.  We'll be meeting up with Ron and Nancy there.  We also have our last shipment of books waiting on us in Eugene, so school will be starting by the end of the week.  The plan is to spend at least a week, maybe 10 days in Eugene.  We need time to get acquainted with our new schedule (school til early afternoon, then sight seeing after). 

To our family and friends back home, we're thinking about and miss you all.