My friend and EVER NEW co-host Hannah McCrane flew home to New Jersey last night after an eight-day stay that had us galavanting  most days to complete the bucket list I made for her first visit to the west coast.

 

Hannah and Lisa took nearly all of the images at NW Trek (which you’ll see below) because I left my phone in the van by accident and because I was the designated driver again (same as last time when Helen Schofield was here a few weeks ago) when we went on the Wild Drive. I took a few photos at the other places, though, so  I’ll post the photographer with each image below so you know who took each of them (in case you want to use them and need to reach out to the photographers to get their permission. Their rights remain with THEM, not me!) 

 

I’m sorry not all of the Westport photos are in the same sequence. I downloaded some but they wouldn’t work for various reasons, so the ones I could show ended up separated from the earlier ones by NW TREK images… but you get the general idea!

Westport Whale and Calves Driftwood Sculpture — image by Hannah McCrane

 

Pirate Ship Boat — image by Hannah McCrane

State Capitol Bldg., Olympia, WA — image by Hannah McCrane

Lisa Twining, Edward Smith and me at NW Trek — image by Hannah McCrane

Hannah in Cheney Center at NWTREK with stuffed bear cub — image by Kris M. Smith

 

American Bison — image by Hannah McCrane

 

Roosevelt Elk Cows — image by Lisa Twining

Roosevelt Elk Bull — image by Lisa Twining

 

Sleeping Marten (his name is Forest) – image by Lisa Twining

 

 

Kris M Smith with stuffed bear cub — image by Lisa Twining

 

Badger — image by Lisa Twining

Badger with pumpkin — image by Lisa Twining

Bald Eagle — image by Lisa Twining

Another Bison — image by Lisa Twining

Black bear — image by Lisa Twining

Caribou — image by Lisa Twining

 

 

Sand frogs — image by Lisa Twining

Swimming Otter at NW Trek Wetlands/Forest Display Center:

 

Hannah at Westport — photo by Kris M Smith

Kris and Hannah with Dinosaur (“Terrible Lizard”) at Westport

images by each other (Hannah McCrane and Kris M Smith)!

 

 

Hannah at Owen Beach — image by Kris M Smith

Hannah at Owen Beach on Puget Sound — image by Kris M Smith

 

Solstice on Tractor Squirrel Feeder — image by Hannah McCrane

 

Hannah in Kris’s cowboy hat,  worn a time or two by DeForest Kelley, too — image by Kris M Smith

 

Snowy owl — image by Lisa Twining

 

 

 

 

Canadian Lynx — image by Lisa Twining

 

 

 

 

 

Cougar/Mountain Lion/Deer Cat/Puma/Purple Feather — image by Lisa Twining

 

Snoqualmie Falls images, Snoqualmie WA

Listen to the sound of the Falls…  (low water output this time of year):

 

And now… back to TODAY!!!

 

The first thing I did this morning was catch up on the things I need to have done pronto: quarterly tax report to the State, quarterly update on my income for tax purposes, so I don’t have to stress during the first of the years putting the whole year together), getting the cats and rats back to where they are used to being, and letting my clients know I’m back in the saddle.

 

Oh, and I cleaned the 55-gallon fish tank and fed Solstice, too.  Solstice didn’t come down to eat this morning, but he was here before I got up because his night-time food stash was completely gone and the water was “raccoon dirty” — proof positive that my boy is alive and well and playing in mud puddles day and night!

 

I will probably add more to this post later, but I’m still playing catch up so I’ll publish this much for now.  You can find out more about Hannah’s and my time together by listening to yesterday’s EVER NEW podcast here: http://ndbmedia.net/EN.html?fbclid=IwAR3dYlwVhi5J30Q1oWGsBQ8pDr7v8YrkmkGwmvNzvnAPr7Qfe_uqOi55N5c

 

Update October 11

 

Okay, I have a free few minutes to go into more detail about Hannah’s visit, so here we go!

 

I picked her up at Sea-Tac Airport at around noon on Saturday, October 1st and we headed for home. I think the first thing we did (as I recall) was to meet Solstice, since he was out and about when we got back. That was a sweet welcome from a woodland inhabitant. She was thrilled.

 

After that, we went through some of my Kelley archives and we started watching about 1 to 2 hours of DeForest Kelley every afternoon or evening so she could see him as a cowboy and on stage at conventions. We also watched LES MISERABLES, THE MUSIC MAN, and 1776 during the course of the week.

 

On Sunday after she went to church, we went to Yen Ching for lunch. She enjoyed everything (won ton soup and sweet and sour chicken).

 

On Monday we went to Westport, WA, so she could see the Pacific Ocean. She says it’s entirely different from the east coast in New Jersey. The east coast is built up extensively along the coast, with Ferris wheels and other tourist-trap-type attractions (as is Seattle here on the west coast).

 

She also says the ocean is a different color. On the east coast near where she lives, the water is brown and blue, whereas here it’s kind of an aquamarine color (or was the day we visited; it was overcast).  We found whole sand dollars on the beach along with lots of cracked and split ones and clam and crab shells, so she gathered one whole sand dollar for each of her family members. (She says they can buy sand dollars in shops, but there are none on their beaches.)

 

On Tuesday we went to Owen Beach on Puget Sound (I may have the days/dates wrong here — we may have gone to Owen Beach Sunday afternoon when she got out of church.) We walked on the beach and along the boardwalk, and visited a bait/tackle/gift shop on the pier, where Hannah got one of her sisters a gift.

 

On Wednesday I drove to Snoqualmie Falls. I had never been there before, but I knew it was spectacular, so we made our way there,  getting lost briefly for about 10 minutes:  a kind lady at a convenience store pointed the way and  I had no problem after that.

 

On Thursday we pretty much vegged at home, watched Solstice and some more movies, and visited the South Hill Mall as our “walking exercise,” where we learned that the new Dr McCoy Hallmark ornament would be released on Saturday, so Hannah put that on as a reminder to go get a couple of them on Saurday afternoon following our podcast EVER NEW.

 

On Friday, Lisa Twining, Edward Smith, Hannah and I went to NW Trek where they took all those glorious images you see above. In the gift shop there, Hannah and I got stuffed animals. She got a bear and I got a larger river otter so it could be “Mom” to the smaller otter Lisa bought me the last time we visited Trek. I looked for a raccoon, since I don’t have one in my critter corral yet, but the only one available was a blonde or greyish one, and I have never seen a raccoon that color and want one that looks like Solstice and Gabriel (the raccoon I reared and released back in 1979), so I left the weird one on the shelf. I will keep looking until I find a Solstice/Gabriel lookalike!

 

Saturday we didn’t do much beyond the EVER NEW podcast, fetching our McCoy ornaments at Hallmark, and watching Solstice from “the green room  (Helen Schofield’s description of my back yard, and I’m keeping it forever!). Saturday  night around 7:45 I drove her back to Sea-Tac International. We got there early so we sat in the cellphone parking lot for about 30 minutes before I drove her to the departure curb at American Airlines, hugged her, and sent her on her way home.

 

We yakked each other’s heads off all week (that’s what two INTROVERTS do when they find each other!  We have lots to say usually but keep it to ourselves until we find kindred spirits to share our thoughts and insights with) and had a great time.  The days flew by.

 

When Hannah reads this she can straighten me out on the days and remind me of additional details.  I’ll include them when/if she does.