Short visit in Boise

We had a very nice but short visit with Susan and Christian. We arrived at about 4 in the afternoon and left at noon the next day. But that allowed good time for conversation, two meals together, and a couple of walks with the dogs, Ella and Fritz, who we learned are now 14 years old! They came on the scene just a year after Ellen and I met.

Christian and Susan are starting a major house renovation that will run well into the fall. Complete re-wiring and also radon mitigation, that wiil entail moving everything out of the house for several weeks. It will all go into a "Pod" that has been set up in their driveway.  

On our drive home, we stopped at Camas Prairie wildlife refuge in Idaho, and had a lovely time.  It is smaller than Camas national wildlife refuge north of Idaho Falls, but the two ponds that are there were filled with wildlife. And we saw four sandhill cranes.

                   A pond at Camas Prairie wildlife refuge

           A butterfly on a thistle at Camas Prairie

 

               Beautiful grasses at Camas Prairie

               We saw two deer as we were leaving the Prairie

We got back to Alpine a little after nine. Today's been a quiet day. I did do something this morning I've been putting off for sometime: trimming my beard and my hair. I tried to do as much of it as possible outside. But I had to do some inside because I use a hand mirror in front of me while standing in front of a mirror behind me. Cleaning up all the little hairs after that was quite a job. Now I'm going to watch the Three Stooges with Max.

We were not able to get to Salem to visit our friends there this time.   : (
 Duty calls here. We'll take care of Max this week and head for home around the 12th.