Transitions and Twofers...

I seem to not have enough time now that I'm retired to do all the things I want to do. I've always had more interests than time and resources allow but I suppose that's better than being bored.

Recently I had the chance to help two dear friends, Tim and Melody, undertake a major life transition consisting of a move from Denver to Seattle, Washington so that they could be closer to their daughter pending the birth of their first grandchild. On a Wednesday afternoon, after the moving truck had departed, we hit the road out of town driving two cars. Of course, the first major challenge was simply getting out of Denver during rush hour, but Tim assured me that all would be well as Denver traffic was nothing compared to what we would experience in Seattle. Sure, I thought to myself, how could anything be worse than Denver at the height of rush (maybe they need to rename it to slow) hour. Three days later I'd be acknowledging that Tim was right - Seattle traffic, if it's possible, is worse than Denver's.

Heading north on I-25 we eventually made it to Fort Collins where we took the shortcut to Laramie, Wyoming. Thankfully, not everyone in Colorado was headed to the Cowboy State so traffic finally lightened enough to start enjoying the ride. From Laramie we then turned west on I-80 and headed towards Rawlins, home to about 9,000 brave souls and named after General John Rawlins who, in 1867, was in command of troops protecting the crew surveying the route for the first trans-continental railroad. Seems he was thirsty and found a spring in the area where he claimed he had the most refreshing drink he had ever tasted. Naturally they immediately named the place Rawlins Springs.

There are some really big trees, and big leaves

in the Pacific Northwest!

Next morning we were up not too early and set off towards Boise, Idaho with the road taking us through Wyoming and into Utah where we saw the Great Salt Lake before entering the Spud State (Idaho is the top contributor to the U.S. potato harvest contributing almost a third of all potatoes grown in the U.S.). From Boise, it was one more day's drive to Seattle before I got the chance to experience what REAL traffic is like.

Tim and Melody were gracious enough to make sure it wasn't all work and no play so we stopped at beautiful Snoqualmie Falls on the way into town and then the next day they took me on a whirlwind tour of some of Seattle's major sights. Here's the video of some of what we saw:

Oh, and as the title of this blogs mentions, it's twofers! I finally had enough time to finish the video from our summer trip to Michigan and this one features our jaunt to Mackinac Island and then to Sault Ste. Marie for a tour of the Soo Locks. Here's that video:

I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Melody and Tim for letting me tag along on their excursion and I wish them happiness as they settle in to their new Seattle digs!