On Our Way Back Home

Well, we are moving back towards the west. Strangely, we are driving through gray skies and 60F temps while our hometown of Silverdale is posting ALL TIME high temps in the low 100s. Good time to be gone!

We left Rapid City on our way to Livingston, MT this morning. I decided to make a side trip to the Devils Tower national monument - something I had not even heard about before this trip, but it is billed as the nation's first national monument. It was pretty awesome and I really want to return sometime when the weather cooperates a bit more and do the hikes around the base of the mountain. It dominates the surrounding countryside and can be seen from I-90 about 25 miles to the south. The tower rises about 1,500 feet above the valley floor.

We are staying in Livingston and will drive through Montana to Spokane on Thursday. Home on Friday! I am suffering from a slow network connection tonight and cannot post any pics ot my site, so stay tuned for those tomorrow, hopefully.

Our Family Vacation

We are halfway through our trip to Mt Rushmore. So far we have visited Yellowstone and the Grand Coulee Dam on our way to South Dakota. Grand Coulee was pretty cool and the size of the dam is incredible. You can't gain an appreciation of how large it is until you understand it is a mile across! It doesn't look that way. The dam puts on a laser light show every night during the summer. It was pretty cool and Melissa video taped it.

We left the next morning for West Yellowstone. Beautiful drive through a lot of mountains. The weather cooperated and it was a longish drive, but we made it before sunset. The town of West Yellowstone was a busy tourist place and the restaurants were pretty full even at 9:30 pm.

Yellowstone was spectacular. Our day started with sunshine and cloud free. As the afternoon progressed the clouds moved in and we had rain for a while. Our trip highlight was the buffalo herd crossing the highway near Hayden Valley. The picture in this blog is a shot of one of them. It was very cool and a little nerve wracking. I will put up more pictures when I get time.

We arrived in Rapid City, SD Monday evening. This was definitely the most exciting portion of the drive. We drove through a strong thunderstorm east of Sheridan, WY that made driving a pretty dicey proposition. Strong winds, heavy rain and lots of hail. I was doing between 15-20 mph and no one was passing us (we were not passing anyone, either). The best option was to follow the car ahead of you close enough to see his head lights. Reminded me of driving in Idaho during a blizzard. Whew! Also crossed the highest summit so far at 9400+ feet.

Today is Mt Rushmore. We are staying in Rapid City again tonight before heading home Wednesday.

New Driver In The House!

Well, Melissa passed her driver's test today. For reasons that are specific to WA state she must wait until August 5th to be fully licensed (must have permit 6 months before licensed). She was understandably happy, and we couldn't be prouder. I also talked to my insurance agent and she is going to cost me big time!

Not sure if I told everyone, but I currently have orders to be XO on the USS Bremerton in Pearl Harbor. There is a small chance that I could be assigned as an XO in San Diego instead. For now, Hawaii is my next home.