A little over two years ago I started working on a card game called Itzan, based on Mayan culture. I tested it against myself, and then with Zack’s help, and it just wasn’t very compelling. After our trip to Belize in February, I’ve been thinking about the Mayans again, and I decided to resurrect the game and re-think how it works.
The result isn’t a card game any more.
Of course this is only a prototype, and it has a long road ahead. But I’m working up a rulebook and figuring out how everything works. Will the second attempt at this game bear fruit? Time will tell…
I still love the sunsets here. Today it’s been raining a bit, and the sun slipped below the storm clouds in the northwest and treated us to quite a show.
Right after returning home from our cruise, we were blessed to have Alex and his family come up for a week-long visit. He was able to take some time off work, and the weather around here is starting to get really nice, so he and Kaitlyn decided to take a road trip north. It’s been a few months since we last saw little William, and he’s noticeably bigger and more interactive.
I’m pretty sure I’m his favorite grandpa. Or at least tied for first.
Of course we had to go up to Glacier. It’s only open to Avalanche these days, but there are still some nice trails in that area. William enjoys being carted everywhere, and just happily watches the scenery from a backpack.
Ollie has a little backpack of his own, and he loves stuffing a bunch of random toys and snacks into it, then strapping it on. He dons a fun hiking hat and vest, and he’s ready for the great outdoors.
Every kid loves water, and Ollie’s no exception. He loved the rivers at Glacier, and of course Flathead Lake.
There’s a dam south of Polson on the Flathead River (which drains out of Flathead Lake), and in years past we’d heard it was pretty cool. I don’t get very excited about looking at dams, but in the last few days two different people mentioned it’s worth seeing. We decided to give it a go. It was actually pretty cool!
(Ollie was unhappy about looking into the sun for this picture…)
While in Polson, we went to the Miracle of America Museum, which is definitely… interesting. Ollie loved running around all the outdoor exhibits. He thought the derelict boat was fun…
… but not as cool as sitting in a rusted-out Huey helicopter!
On their last night here, we sat outside as a massive thunderstorm rolled through the valley. We don’t get many thunderstorms around here, and the lightning just lit up the sky almost constantly. I grabbed my camera and managed to capture a few shots of the lightning. This one was at 10:30 at night, when it was quite dark.
It’s so fun to see the wonder and excitement of little kids as they experience new things. William is still sort of a blob who doesn’t do much, but now he’s a smiling, laughing blob who’s fun to carry and tickle and cuddle. Grandkids are great.
Between our houses is a nice concrete patio area that we call “the courtyard”. We’re pretty sure it was originally designed to be an in-ground pool, but the people who built the house in 2001 either decided Montana isn’t a great place for an outdoor pool, or they ran out of money. Either way, they filled in the area with grass.
Over the years, that grass has fought a losing battle against weeds. Finally it was overgrown, and we knew we had to do something. The courtyard is a great gathering spot, and the place where all our summer guests enjoy the grass. We explored several options and finally hired a crew to come up and pull out the old grass, then lay new sod.
Here’s Luke starting a run with his sod cutter. It’s a cool little machine that just rips up strips of grass.
Ollie was visiting, and supervised their work while eating breakfast. He was fascinated by the process.
After about six hours of work, the fresh sod was in place. It looks like a patchwork quilt, but it’s a quilt without weeds!
Now we’ll water the heck out of it so the grass can take root, and by the summer we’ll have a beautiful lush lawn…
We live in a forest of towering trees, which I love. Those trees have to start somewhere, and today while walking down the driveway I noticed a little group of baby firs.
I first saw them last fall, when they were only a few inches high. Now they’re about a foot apiece, and they’re growing furiously (notice their spring tips). In a few years we’ll have a nice little grove right beside the driveway.
A few months ago, we’d been chatting with our friends Woody and Marilyn about the two cruises Pepper and I have taken, and they said, “We’ve never been on a cruise– would you be interested in going with us to show us how it’s done?” Of course! After our Wenatchee stopover, we continued west to Seattle and picked them up at a hotel. They’d flown into town from San Diego, and we all headed to the cruise dock. So here we were, standing in the chilly Seattle sun ready to get on this massive ship.
Marilyn had done some online research so she knew some “tips and tricks” of the cruising trade, and we’d been on a few, so together we navigated the boarding process and settled in for a week-long trip to Alaska. There were plenty of spots on the ship to just relax, so Woody and I did just that.
Modern cruise ships are ridiculously huge, but that means they can offer a lot of variety in activities, food, and spaces. Marilyn is an avid Scrabble fan, so we had to pose by this artwork in one of the hallways.
She’d brought a mini travel Scrabble board, with emphasis on board… she couldn’t find the letters! (She later found them at home on her bed, the victim of some early-morning packing gone awry.) Fortunately for us, the ship had a game sitting in “The Library” area, along with a few decks of cards and other games. For the first time, I was able to beat her at her craft. It was a close victory, but still a victory.
We made port in Sitka, Skagway, Juneau, and finally Victoria. The weather forecast had been pretty grim: every day was predicted to be about 45 degrees and raining. As it turned out, there were some sprinkles, but most days were merely overcast and hit 55 degrees or even 60 in the sunlight. Here’s a view overlooking the channel outside Sitka:
We walked a few miles to a bird sanctuary and saw a bald eagle up close. We see them quite frequently in Montana, but they’re always in a tall tree or circling far overhead. Up close, they’re surprisingly large.
Proving that the world is indeed a small place, we actually bumped into some friends onboard! We were walking through a crowd and I thought I saw Mike from a distance. When we made it to port (where our phones worked again) I texted him to ask if he and Carol were on an Alaskan cruise. They were, we met up, and spent some time talking and catching up.
One of the highlights of our time on land was the White Pass Railway in Skagway. It’s an old narrow-gauge railroad that dates back 150 years to the gold-mining days of Alaska. The views were spectacular.
Marilyn wasn’t quite as impressed, I guess.
We explored Juneau for a while, including a trip to Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls.
Our final stop was Victoria, which we’d skipped on our last Alaskan cruise because we didn’t have much time. This time we had several hours and enjoyed a bus tour. The weather was splendid, so it was nice to just be out in the sun overlooking the city.
As expected, we had a grand time with our friends. I enjoyed the opportunity to see Alaska again– albeit on a limited itinerary– but the best part was just relaxing, enjoying good food, good entertainment, and good company.
Pepper and I are taking a cruise that departs from Seattle. We considered flying out there, but decided the drive isn’t that far and has the added bonus of passing near Thom and Katie’s house (well, sort of). So we spent a couple of days at their house and had a great time with those kids. Of course it was funny that I’d just seen all of them a week before on my surprise birthday trip.
In addition to fun around the house, naturally we had to go on a hike. We drove up into the hills and hit the trail. Sefton has a little camera he takes everywhere with him, and he’s always snapping pictures of random stuff (like his Uncle Cosmo).
Hadley, with her short legs, does a great job on the trails but occasionally bats her little eyes and asks to be carried.
Eventually we came to an overlook that was breathtaking. We all had a snack, and Thom and I spent some time taking pictures of the mountain landscape.
Spring has definitely sprung here, and the hills were covered in yellow flowers. It was so pretty.
Thom is finally fifty! To celebrate this milestone, he invited a group of friends to join him and his family at a campground in the North Cascades. It’s been their family tradition to go to this particular campground each year on his birthday, but for fifty it seemed fitting to invite a crowd. He sent me an invitation a couple weeks ago, but since I live almost 450 miles away it was more of a joke. I told him I’d love to join him, but it wasn’t going to work out.
As the days ticked past, I thought maybe I should go. You only turn fifty once, and 450 miles isn’t that far. So on the day of the party I jumped in the car and headed west. Nine hours later I pulled into the campground, and found Thom and a group of friends standing around chatting. When he realized what was happening, he did the best double-take I’ve seen in a long time. It was hilarious and emotional and awesome.
I met several of his friends, re-met his in-laws, and had the wonderful opportunity to see my nephew Julian again. It’s been a few years, and it was great to hang out with him.
We enjoyed dinner and a campfire. Everyone– even the little kids– stayed up late talking and laughing. It was a fun group. The next morning Thom went skiing (of course) and Katie decided to bike up a mountain pass (of course). Since I had to get home, I jumped back in the car. But before heading back east, I wanted to see the pass. Up I went.
Yeah, the North Cascades are breathtaking.
As I drove up the highway, I caught up to Julian, who was biking. He’s the tiny speck in the lower right, climbing the highway just in front of a patch of snow:
He’s an incredible biker and was going faster uphill than I usually go on flat ground.
It was a quick-turnaround trip, but worth every minute. Happy birthday, little brother!
Big Sky Country certainly has its share of beautiful sunsets. This evening I was driving home and saw the Mission Mountains lit by the sun behind me.
About a month ago, driving back from Kalispell, I was treated to a similar scene on the Swan Mountains:
And a month before that, it was the Salish Mountains beyond Flathead Lake:
When I lived in Colorado, I told myself if I ever grew tired of seeing the mountains, it would be time to move. Well, I never grew tired of them (although I moved anyway!) and now I feel the same way about Montana sunsets. Seven years in, I’m not tired of them yet!
Kyra has a remote job, which gives her the flexibility to travel a bit (as long as there’s a wifi hotspot handy). She decided to trek up to Montana for a few days, and we had a grand time.
After a few weeks of cold, the days finally started to feel spring-like. That meant we could play board games outside!
We enjoyed games, lunches at Rosa’s, movies on the big screen, cooking meals, and just hanging out. It’s always a party when Kyra’s around!
