OCEAN, ATVS AND BABY COHO SALMON

Mama bear leaning against a tree resting her arms on a log; looks like she's at the dinner table. I think she is suckling the cub.

Aileen, John and Anne, note the bear droppings, there were a lot of them all along this road.

End of the road

Mitzy the snow dog

A waterfall aolng the way

Aileen took these two of me playing in the snow

Here's brother in law John having his turn

I called my uncle and aunt Mac and Nancy on Wednesday, to see about visiting them after lunch and that was okay. Just after that phone call, our realtor called wanting to fax us some paperwork so I called cousin Dale to see about having it sent to his business and he was okay with that. The fax was waiting for us when we got there so we signed it and sent it right back. Awhile later came the second one, the removal of the subject to’s. Signed and sent it back. It sounds like we may have another deal in the works with another offer on our buyer’s property. Closing date this time would be August 16. I guess we’ll continue to wait and see. At least our buyer has committed further by having the home inspection completed as their expense and signed off on it.

We had a good visit with the relative’s. Cousin Dale’s son was engaged to Tina (who was pregnant) when he fell to his death about two years ago. Tina and the twins came while we were there so that was neat. One of them is interested in eating all the time and the other is interested in anything mechanical. Another cousin Christine came while we were visiting also. I took some pictures of the twins but it was difficult working with my 100-400 in such close quarters with two moving targets. I had to manually focus a lot as I was too close.

After lunch on Thursday, while Aileen went for a nap, I went to town. Put gas in the truck and ATV, got a couple groceries and water at Anne’s. I looked at magazines for awhile then went and visited my cousin Steve at his shop. We had a good chat. He’ll soon be 72 and has no intention of retiring. He is a very happy chap, content to be on his own. I remembered it was way past time to defragment my computer so started it before supper. 16 hours later it was finally finished!

On Friday I dropped Aileen and her laundry at Anne’s and went to the waterfront. I watched the ferry and passenger shuttle along with a big sailboat and a shrimp boat passing by. There was lots of activity to watch all along the waterfront including the three ladies and ten babies. Anne ordered pizza for supper as we were going to the Coho minnow release and needed to be on the road early. Aileen's great nephew Travyn really enjoyed himself. I took lots of pictures but it was very difficult with all the reflections in the pool even using my polarizing filter and high ISO of 5000 and 6400. I helped herd the fish into the net when they were getting thinned out and harder to net. Leaving there, we drove out to a couple of wilderness camping spots checking them out for next week.

We had a slow start to Saturday but after a bit it was decided to go ATVing. It was noon by the time we got going and lunch was quite late as we didn’t eat until we were way up the mountain above Noomas. We did see a five point bull elk fairly close but he wouldn’t stick around for his portrait. It was a gorgeous day up there. It was sunny here but sunnier there. We wandered around a few roads then at one point John and I crossed a deeper ditch and played in some snow. Aileen took a few pics of me and I took some of John. When we returned to the trucks and had finished loading the ATVs, John looked over the bank and there was a bear and cub down below us. She went into the trees before I got my camera out. After a late supper we went for our walk out to the point then played Mexican Train at their trailer. John won, followed by Aileen, Anne then finally, me.