Adventures close to home

The schedule we've worked out for this summer has so far been fantastic.  Christina and Steve switch midway through the day so someone is at school and someone is home with the girls. Then we both take off Friday-Sunday so we have at least a three-day weekend every week.  We were THIS close to taking off and just driving to Portland today, but decided to adventure closer to home.  We went up to Arlee to pick strawberries.  On the way driving up the highway, you pass under this animal bridge, which we just love - such an animal-focused community!

We were lucky to catch a beautiful, sunny day for our drive - the first we'd had all week!

When we got up to the strawberry farm, we found it was a bit muddy, but not as flooded as we'd thought it might be.

Sadly, the only strawberries to be seen were on Clara's dress - even though the recorded message said the strawberries were ready, the message must have been left over from last year  - the strawberries were still only blossoms!

Look at this timeless beauty - that Clara is such a cutie.

We played around on the farm for a little bit, considering our options.  Elena found it to be her job to keep her Dad out of puddles.

We drove down the street for a bit and looked at horses (the girls are obsessed - they talk all the time about how it will be when they have their own horses - always WHEN, not IF).

 Steve, caring for his two horses, who were galloping back and forth to him on the country road.

We made a stop by this sign, and thought we'd check to see if they had any honey (after the strawberry disappointment, we weren't counting on it!).

These sure seemed like good signs, though - if you click you should see a bigger version where you can see some of the bees swarming around - they were everywhere!

We hit the end of the road, and success!  A honey stand!  It was so charming - it was an honor-system honey stand, and they had everything ranging from our $4.95 honey bear to a $115.00 barrel!

We couldn't help sampling right away - this honey was delicious!

And the views weren't bad, either (Steve took this picture)!

As we drove back to town, we accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up coming in near the airport.  We saw the sign for the Smokejumper Center, and realized we'd always wanted to go see the visitor's center there, and never had.  So, we stopped in and learned all about the brave men and women who jump from airplanes to get fires under control during fire season.  We are so lucky to have the training center right here in town!

(Side note - see the bed there in the corner?  Norman McLean slept on it in his cabin while he was writing "A River Runs Through It").

We learned a lot, and had a very fun morning with our adventures.  It wasn't Portland, but it was still great!