3 October 2016, Monday
We spend most of the day working on plans for our trip home. It is difficult to decide what to see while breaking our journey into manageable daily drives! The rest of the afternoon is spent preparing a very tasty mushroom pie for dinner.
4 October 2016, Tuesday
More trip planning, groceries, visits to bank, post office, Verizon… O receives compliments from three different individuals on his red plaid wool LL Bean vest. I guess they don’t see many of those out here!
5 October 2016, Wednesday
O and I walk together to the shop with the purple sign and silver scissors for our once a year Redmond hair trim. We return to the apartment, share a PB and J sandwich and drive to Rattlesnake Mountain for an afternoon hike.
No, there are no rattlesnakes here. Early settlers thought the seed pods of the camas plant sounded like rattlesnakes when they were shaken in the wind. The camas plants were cultivated in this area by the native people because the roots are edible and a good food source. (As an aside, the Nez Perce introduced Lewis and Clark to the camas plant, initially with unfortunate digestive results, but eventually the members of the expedition came to consider the roots very good.)
O and I do not see any camas plants, but the forest is beautiful as we wind our way up the switchbacks to a lookout. Although today started off damp and cloudy, the sky is blue when we arrive at the rocky ledge. After spending some time admiring the view we descend to Jazz and arrive back at the apartment in time to have dinner ready for S and K when they return home from classes and clients.