Thanks to the generous hospitality of Mark and Kelly we spent four restful days at their cabin/house on Lost River Road in Mazama. The little town of Mazama is located off Highway 20 East of Anacortes. The three-hour trip includes elevation through the North Cascades National Park near Mount Baker. Mazama sits in a mountain valley so it is much warmer in climate than Anacortes or Guemes Island from which we came. The temperature this morning when we had coffee sitting outside on the deck was a cool 62 degrees. This afternoon the temperature hit 87 degrees.

Brian, Emily, Amaya and their dog, Sallie, spent three of the four days with us so we had lots of time for games with Amaya. I think Sandy and I played more games of Uno and Go Fish and Tic Tack Toe than we were accustomed to but Amaya’s smile was worth it. Most of those days were spent just relaxing and hanging out. Brian is always interesting because he has a plethora of thoughts, considerations and observations to share. He likes to nudge you along until you finally come to believe he was right. Emily is progressing well; her foot seems to be healing on schedule. Walks with Brian, Sallie, Sandy and Amaya usually ended up at the river so Sallie got to chase sticks into the water until she was worn out. Tuesday morning, we left the hammock life style headed out for places unknown and roads less traveled.

We started our day at 62 degrees and ended it at 102 degrees. And, talk about the roads less traveled, try Highway 20 East to 79 South, to 365 South, to Highway 84 ending up in Baker City, Oregon. We saw some beautiful parts of our country. Most of the day we were in foothills and mountains. There is lots of land and very few people in South Eastern Washington and North Eastern Oregon. Tomorrow we plan to explore parts of Idaho we have not yet seen.