R.V. FUN

        I have lived in Washington for about 25 years now and have barley seen anything local!  I've worked on Saturdays for so many years that only left Sundays for exploring this area.  Every time I took vacation it would be to go somewhere cool, fun and far away! Usually warm and sunny too!  Last year we took the r.v. to long beach, where I had never been and decided that this years we should plan a vacation right here in Washington!  We did just that.  There is so much to do and so much to see we planed 8 days in the r.v. and went mostly around the western border.  Many of my clients told me about some great places to see.  We started out up north at Fort Warden (port Townsend) then went west toward the coast, stopping first in Sequim where we had the yummiest breakfast at the Oak Table here I ordered the house specialty.  Apple Pancake!

Then we went to the Olympic game farm.  It is a place you drive though and get to feed the animals.  They only get wheat bread.  The animals are mostly former movie stars.  One of the bears can wave at you.  It was pretty cool!  The buffalo are very big up close, kinda scary even! Except there was a baby buffalo.  He ran after us for more when we were driving away so of course we ad to stop again!

This one was a baby buffalo

Next we went by the Dungeness spit.  It is the longest spit in the world (I think)  It is 5 1/2 miles long.  there is a light house at the end but we didn't walk out to it.  We drove by Crescent lake.  It was beautiful.  The lake was so clear and blue you could see the bottom. 

Next stop was Ruby Beach.  It was gorgeous!  We even went back the next morning too!

Sammy playing in the ocean

Here is a cool tree at Kalaloch beach, where we camped for the night.

We stopped a few places along the road the next day.  One was the Giant Cedar Tree and another place we stopped was the Westport winery, where they had a really cool outdoor area with lots of sculptures and stuff!  David liked this ship.

Next stop was Fort Stevens, Or.  We stayed there a few nights and got to walk around all the gun stations and grounds.  We hiked about 10 miles here. Even Sammy, poor girl, she was a trooper and did great!

 We headed east on the 84 and there was a lot of beautiful waterfalls along the way.

Finally we made it to Mary Hill.  I have to say this is one of the nicest camping areas I have ever seen!  There isn't a lot to do here but the river was nice and the view beautiful.  We skipped lots of rocks.  The lots were huge!  They all had plenty of sunshine and plenty of trees too!  We had plenty of room to play bocce.  There is a winery, concert venue, art museums and a awesome full size replica of Stonehenge.  It was built as a memorial to war veterans. I had know idea this even existed ad only a few hours from home!  The whole trip was wonderful and the weather was perfect too! I can't wait to go back to several of these places again and explore even more local areas!

.....more summer....

  Just when we got back from Europe we had so much going on!  I was swamped at work, there was a few birthdays going on and I had a huge charity garage sale I was helping with.  My friend Cindy founded a non-profit organization called "Just Because".  It's nice because 100% of all money collected goes straight to the needy and zero operating costs! (All operating expenses are volunteer or out of her pocket)  She asked me and a few of her other friends to be on the board.  This was our first fund raiser and are trying to do another one this year.  If anyone has any ideas let me know.
  The next weekend was the Swift Family Reunion!  I think most of you have all heard/read a lot about it and scene many pictures already.  It's a good thing because I don't think I have to many photos of it.  I'll try to drum up a few though.

Watching rockets

Sub Zero making ice cream

Malachi wanted his hat frozen too!

  Then just the other day David and I got a chance to meet Marcus Trufont.  He is an amazing football player and played for the SeaHawks for many years but this year changed to Jacksonville.  He was very nice and let us take pictures and signed lots of autographs!

 

  This weekend we has a bbq at David's brothers house.  He lives about 25 minutes away in Covington.  He just moved there a few years ago from Puyallup and is really into trains.  He has been working super hard on making a huge cool track and then invited lots of people over to see it.  He asked David to man the grill so he could run the trains!

We still have many activities planned for the rest of summer from wedding receptions, more bbq's, camping and David's favorite pass time....Boating.  I look forward to the rest of summer and hope to blog about it too.

summer 2013

Is it just me or does it seem like I either have nothing going on so nothing to blog about or so much going on there is no time to blog! On that note I'll start out with my trip to Europe!  For several years now I had been wanting to go to Italy and/or a Mediterranean cruise for my 40th birthday.  That's right I said 40! Where has the time went......Anyway I've had so much going on the past few years I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, but I did!  David and I flew from Seattle to Rome where we spent  4 nights and then went on a 7 night cruise to Sicily, Greece, Turkey, and Crete.  It was wonderful! Everything was so beautiful and there was so much to do!  I especially loved the pizza in Italy!  I hope to go back someday to see more!  If I had to do it again I would skip the cruise and see more of Italy by land!  Here are some pictures....

coliseum

Tuscany

trevi fountain

Sicily

Pantheon Greece

Turkey

I will try to post more fun summer stuff soon!

a few more pics

Here is just a few more photos for those of you who haven't seen any yet.  I included the cool sketch too!

Wedding

Yes it's true David and I got married on January 26th 2013 in Las Vegas.  I have been meaning to write a post about it but got home and went right back to work.  I was also waiting to get some of the pictures back.  I wanted to thank everyone that made the trip to Vegas with us! and I especially want to thank Doranda for taking some amazing pictures! There was no outside photography during the ceremony.  There was an on-site photographer though and here is the link to see those photos if anyone wants to check them out. www.aspecialmemory.com/photos/dtmadsen  They are only available for viewing for about a week or two.  They are available for purchase.  They have a $50 minimum and I do plan on ordering some if anyone wants to add to my order they are $6 for an 4x6 (I think) and need to let me know by 15th of Feb or sooner. As for the photo's Doranda took I can get from Costco if anyone wants those. (I think they are way better!) (I tried to pick different photos then other people posted.)

The trip itself was quick and fun!  We flew in Friday got married on Saturday walked around on Sunday and flew home Monday morning.  We stayed at The Rio Suites.  It's not a bad place and it was free with my rewards card!  Our friends Cindy and Rob have a truck they keep there and let us use.  When we landed we went right to get our license. Then went to pick Cindy and Rob up at the airport. We spent some time with them and went to bed early.  Saturday morning we got up ate breakfast then got ready for the ceremony.  A limo picked us up and took us to "the Wedding Chapel" downtown, where lots of my family was!  The whole thing took about 30-45 minutes.  The ceremony itself was only like 5 minutes!  After Doranda took some pictures of us by the Bellagio hotel.  Rob, Cindy David and I then went to dinner at one of my favorite places to eat. Mon A Gabi in the Paris hotel.  We then headed back to the Rio.  On Sunday we walked around the Venation hotel and a sketch artist draw a great chalk picture of us! Finally Sunday night we went and saw The Beatles Love.  A Cirque Du Soleil  show at the Mirage.  I have seen a few different Cirque Du Soleil shows but this one was the best!  That's about all we got in a quick weekend.