the trip and living in a hotel

Greetings everyone!

This post is a little belated because we still do not have regular internet access.

The car ride was long. We traveled about eight hours a day--K tells me the kitties were less than cooperative, meowing most of the journey. My birds were excellent though, and the fish behaved (and survived).

The scenery was pretty dull through South Dakota (Wall Drug signs were probably the most entertaining thing we saw.) Although the "Mount Rushmore! (As seen in Disney's "National Treasure 2!)" entertained Kevin. We stayed in Rapid City the first night, and I cannot recall anything particularly memorable during the ride.

Day two took us through Montana. Now, this ride was worse than South Dakota. We were on some little podunk road forever not knowing when the next gas station or little community would pop up next. It was probably at least 50 mile stretches of nothing at a time. We experienced a few interesting things though:

• Pilot cars - We had to sit at some road construction for ten minutes, waiting for a "pilot car" to guide us through the minefield of construction with its potholes and unpacked gravel. Luckily the friendly construction man supplied us with Jolly Ranchers. Good thing there was a pilot car because I was at the head of the convoy and we pretty nervous about safely leading the 10 cars behind me through all the equipment and things. The concept of a pilot car was new to me.
• Oversized load - We had to literally pull off the road to allow GIANT trucks to pass by us. Interesting to us at the time... but hey, this is Montana.

Toward the tail end of our drive, we did get to pass through some beatiful national forests. Finally, we landed in Butte for the night.

The last day consisted of driving through Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and Washington. Not too bad considering there was beautiful mountains and forest for most of the drive. Lots of construction though :(

After enduring the extremely long and construction filled drive, we made it to our hotel in Edmonds, WA (about 15 miles north of downtown Seattle). The hotel staff person who helped us book our room did not know the proper rules and regulations--lucky for us. His error allowed us:

• A place for our cats to sleep - regulations only allow cats for two nights, we got to keep ours there for five nights.
• A place for our birds to sleep - regulations prohibit birds, we got to keep ours there for five nights.
• A cheap nightly rate - our rate was $60/night, it was supposed to be $80/night.

We lived there until Monday when we moved into our new apartment. Currently, we are in the process of unpacking. Pictures will come once all the mess is gone!

We took alittle trip to Discovery Park. Very beautiful there and beautiful day to do it--75 and sunny!

On the beach, looking at the mountain in the southwest.

We played a little frisbee on the beach. Now, I am not very good at frisbee which is why K has his pant leg rolled up. I threw it in the ocean probably 5 times. Oops.

A little more sand and water--facing to the northwest.

For my amusement, a cute little sign/pun.

That's all for now! Talk to you all soon.

--R.