Sunny days are here again (in eastern Washington!)

In need of some sun and fresh air, Danny and I went to one of his favorite camping places, Ancient Lakes, just outside of Quincy, Washington.  Just a short, easy hike to beautiful buttes (plateaus?) and gorgeous lakes.

 The Wild West

Waterfall

Making dinner

The next morning...brrrrr!!!!

Winter weekend at the cabin

Danny, his mom Nancy, and I went to their family's cabin out near Salmon La Sac.  We had to ski into the cabin since we had to park almost a 1/2 mile away.

Skiing at Lake Easton State Park

Out and about near the cabin

A weekend in Portland

Danny and I go to Portland every February for our anniversary.  This year we went to a health spa, ate at the food carts, had dinner at Portland City Grill, and went cross country skiing out near Mt. Hood.

Cartlandia!  We ate Cuban, Thai, Filipino, British and American cuisine, after which...we felt kind of gross.

Dinner at Portland City Grill

Skiing along the river

Bird Watching in Canada

In early February we went up to see Jackie and do some bird watching. Jackie knew about some snowy owls that were hanging out just on the other side of the Canada border, so we went and saw them. We stayed Saturday night at Jackie's and enjoyed some delicious chili.

Here we are at the Boundary Bay preserve with our binoculars at the ready.

Here are the snowy owls. There were tons of them. I think we counted at least 25. They just sit there and let you watch them. I took these pictures through the scope using my phone. That's why they have that weird black circle.

There were tons of eagles up there. It seemed like every tree we saw had 3 or 4 eagles on it.

Next we went to the George Reifel migratory bird preserve. Here are a whole bunch of ducks.

And here are some sandhill cranes.

Here Meghan feeds the sandhill cranes:

It was pretty fun. It was the first time either Meghan or I had been birdwatching. We saw 32 species including herons, wood ducks, coots, a bittern, red wing blackbirds, and sparrows.

Okanogan Trip

On Super Bowl Weekend we drove out to the Okanogan Valley to visit a friend of mine who is living in a cabin out there on a bunch of farmland. It was a great trip -- we went snowshoeing on Saturday and then cross country skiing on Sunday.

It was really pretty out there. I don't have very many pictures, but there are a few below from our snowshoeing trip. It was also great staying in the cabin -- pretty rustic.

On Sunday we drove back, watching the Super Bowl in Chelan and arriving home pretty late at night.

Death Valley, CA--Las Vegas, NV, January 13-16, 2012

Danny and I went to Death Valley with his grandmother, Elaine.  We drove from her home in Santa Monica, CA to Death Valley National Park.  We stopped in Parumph, NV and finished our trip with some fun times in Vegas.

Danny and Elaine in Death Valley NP

Lots of sky

 Meghan and Danny in shadows

Elaine and Meghan cruising the Strip

Deep thoughts about roulette

First-ever blog post

Welcome!