Our visit to Dan and family in Washington was great. Lots of rest and family time. We got to Dan's in time to help celebrate Brandon's 13th birthday (hooray!) Brandon's favorite place to eat is Mazatlan, so we went there for a celebratory dinner.

Taught Dan, Alyssa and Brandon how to play Rummikube, LOVE THIS GAME! Our friends Henry and Pearl introduced us to it on a prior camping trip. Rummikube will make your brain hurt trying to figure out your next move. In exchange for whupping the kids at Rummikube they taught me a Wii car racing game. I was pitiful, I kept driving off cliffs, driving the wrong way, etc. Needless to say, after one complete game (3 races) the kids let me off the hook!

After Dan's we spent a couple of days at Cousin Jerry's house in southeastern Washington. Never been to that neck of the woods before and it was a big surprise for us, it's desert! Really beautiful basalt bluffs nestled up against the Columbia River, gorgeous county. Like California, Washington has turned their desert into agricultural land. Cherry's, potato's, spearmint, apples, wine grapes, corn, asparagus, etc are grown here. Had a really nice visit with Jerry and Lucinda.

Back on the road again, we head to Portland for a stopover with Niece Jeanie. It was nice to see Jeanie, Paul and Cal, but it's time to go home. We had planned on driving half way home and stopping at Seven Feathers Casino for the night. Instead, we kept driving and made it home by 9:00 pm. We were pooped, but really glad to be home. 

We traveled 13,271 miles in the truck, hauled the trailer 8,121 miles, spent almost $4,000 on diesel, and had more than $6,000 in truck repairs. Alaska was incredible, we're already talking about going back. Loved the people, the spectacular scenery and of course the amazing animals! I will be posting lots more photos  on Facebook in the next week, so stay tuned.  

So now that we're home, the weeds are taking over, all of my roses need pruning, but everything will have to wait until after Halloween. It took three days to clean the four months worth of dust from inside the house and another two days to unpack the trailer. I also did 11 loads of laundry. I think Maggie is glad to be home, although I am not sure she remembers the house. I am off to see Kimmy, Jeff, and the kids for a few days, then it will be time to start Halloween. Just as Google changes it's Doodles for holidays and other noteworthy occasions, I will be changing our blog's format for Halloween. All the Alaska articles will be still be there, in case anyone needs to catch up on their reading. Thanks for following along!