a lot of so..'s and a Road Trip!

 Golden Gate Bridge on the way to Sonoma!

us, after a day of biking and lots and lots of tasty wines. 

we were happy bikers. 

Our educational impromptu whiskey mugs. 

Marshmallows and Crossword puzzles - pretty much the best way to spend an evening at the campfire. 

Trees bigger than my head seems to be able to remember.  

and clouds and fog that begged for a dinosaur sighting

Crater lake.  

we just sat around and stared, it was that lovely.  plus, all the hiking was closed  due to 4 foot  + snow piles. 

The beach at La Push - no werewolf or vampire sightings, alas.  Just deer, giant waves and  trees to climb all over.  

more of Olympic Nat'l forest

no, its not the sound of music, but it sure seemed like it!

Our last hike with deer and marmots close enough to touch.

OK, I know I've been gone for forever and I'm not going to apologize.  That said, I just got back from an absolutely amazing road trip with one of my best friends ever.  She's starting law school in the fall in Austin and decided to spend her summer cruising around the western US in her Grandma's Buick. Lucky I joined her in San Francisco and accompanied her up the coast to Seattle.  It was a whirlwind 12 days of 3 cites, hiking, no showers, temperatures from 32-75 and snow in July!  and, yeah it was a long time to be away from the boy and the dog, neither of whom enjoyed my absence.   B now has a rust spot on his behind from licking his butt in an attempt to fix the hair knots he collects back there...which the boy didn't know about because he was sooo sick while I was gone that he actually called his Mom and she came and helped out.  Never a good sign.  Plus, when I got back, I managed to buy the WRONG flea/tick medicine for B and he ended up having a flea scare and 2 of the biggest nastiest ticks in his beard poor guy. 

But, things are finally starting to calm down. yay. 

which brings me back to this poor blog that I've been ignoring all summer.  taking pictures while trying to make dinner, workout, walk the dog, care for the boy, dress myself nicely and manage to work has been extremely hard and I mostly just don't have the energy to try and make it work most days.  All of you bloggers out there, I am SO impressed!  I don't know how you do it.  Don't worry, I'm not giving up.  While on my road trip adventure I discovered that I don't hate the way my blackberry takes photos, that I DO need an outlet to share thoughts, goals, how I feel and a place to organize/spout out my artistic/creative whatever and really a blog is a great way to do that.  so we'll see what happens :)