When Can I Go Again?

I thought it would be a great time to post today. 

This weekend is filled with events around the local area which have driving me to seek refuge in my own home. We have Hoop Fest in Spokane, which touts itself as the world's largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament. This year over 27,000 players are signed up with another 250,000 expected spectators. 450 courts. The entire downtown district is shut down.   

Tomorrow we have Iron Man here in Coeur d'Alene.  That will be a day long event as well and downtown is already overflowing.  I used to live on the course and am so glad I don't now.  It was fun to watch once but....

I really enjoyed blogging over my vacation and have decided to try and blog regularly-maybe not daily because my life is actually pretty boring, but a couple times a week because I'm sure I can eek out five hundred words here and there about something in that time period.

So I've had a couple of days to relax and unwind and believe it or not, I'm ready to go again! 

 Granted, it's nice to have the familiarity of home but I'm also quickly reminded of why I wanted to get away in the first place.  Everything  I left is still here now that I'm home. Laundry. Litter boxes. Many other things that begin with the letter "L."

Feel free to insert an epic face palm at any time. 

Time to toss on some music-I think I will blog to Daughtry today.

I find myself really restless, and it's honestly unexpected.  It couldn't be that Mariah immediately reverted to the child that I suspect has an alien living inside of her.  It could be the fact that one of my cats  (Caspian) is now plotting my demise because I dared show affection for a feral cat-you know, the one I've taken care of for four years.

 I don't see what the big deal is-she actually wanted to come inside for once and Kaley and I let her in on different nights-only for ten minutes, mind you.   You would have thought that we had tortured, abandoned, and tossed him away like a used tissue the way he responded. Just because Jude decided to play with Caspian's catnip toy he repaid Jude's visit by promptly peeing in  one of the bathtubs. I can't leave out the mournful meowing and pouting. 

I had planned to take a lot of pictures while on this trip but due to some unexpected circumstances I focused on simply visiting and spending some quality one on one with Mariah and my relatives.

Speaking of photography, Art Wolfe ("Art Wolfe's Travels to the Edge" on PBS),  whose work is amazing, is offering a FREE online day course on July 18th and I was able to sign up before it was filled-I admire his nature landscapes so much. I am over-the-top thrilled that I am going to be able to participate. I'm sure I will take a bajillion notes.

Being the paranoid individual I can occasionally be, I will make sure I have a couple of computer backups in case any of mine decide to give me grief. If you are interested in learning more about who he is and what he does, or maybe even sign up to take the course, go here.  

I am in the planning stages of a short camping trip and am probably going back to Montana.  I really want to get back to the Ross Creek Cedars area-the one that was too iced-over to get to last March.  I did a bit of research and there is a really neat interpretive trail I'd like to shoot.

I've selected a couple of favorite ocean wave shots to share with you. The focus I had this year was the reflective quality of the waves and the spray that crested them from the wind. I've decided to print a couple out and send them to my parents and aunt & uncle as a thank you for such a nice time.

I'm ready to go and truly relax and enjoy the woods.  The smell of a campfire. Watching marshmallows burn and morph into science fiction creatures. The damp morning dew. Sunscreen. Bug repellent. The sound of my flyswatter, which will joyously be destroying the mosquitoes that will not be able to resist me. A flyswatter battle might even break out between Kaley and I.

 You just never know.

 I will be checking with the Forest Service over there before I decided on where to camp.  I'm down for a lot of things, but bears in camp isn't one of them. I'm thinking the area around the Yaak River or Bull Lake. I'm even considering going back to the Kootenai River Campground.  

One of the things at the top of my list is to see if I can find the amazing wood carver I blogged about on my last camping trip over there. This time I plan to buy some of his work if my mission is successful. 

I'd like find out what his story is-I just know it would be amazing. Who knows-maybe he will let me interview him. I shall keep you updated on this upcoming trip that is supposed to be simple and will probably end up being carried out like an international coup.

Until next time,

Robyn