Washington State Trip

This past week (July 16-21) Pat and I had a great trip as we went to Washington to attend the PNW Regional Annual meeting. The meeting was held in Olympia (sorry, no pictures from there because I was in meetings most of the time.) We did have a great time in Seattle as well as the couple of days that we spent in Bellingham.

I will apologize for the number of pictures, but there were a lot of great moments. We will keep the text brief for you.

This picture was taken from the top of the Space Needle where we had lunch in the revolving restaurant. The weather was fantastic!



You just don't get that many days in Seattle where you get to see Mt. Ranier like this. Do you see it in the background? Those are not all clouds.

Looking across the Puget Sound.



Pat took this great shot from the bottom of the Space Needle.



Admiring the terrific seafood in the famous Pikes Marketplace.

Pikes had enormous quantities of beautiful flower arrangements for sale.



These next two pictures were taken while we were dining with business friends at CJ's Beach House in Birch Bay. Amazing sunset. I took the first one. Pat took the second.




A great waterfall on the road to Mt. Baker. The name of this falls is Nooksack Falls.



Another great view on the Mt. Baker Highway.

Moss on the trees and ferns everywhere made quite a sight.



Mt. Shuksan



These next 3 pictures were taken at Picture Lake towards Mt. Shuksan. An incredible picturesque place. Wouldn't you agree?

We didn't know it at the time of our sightseeing trip, but the road up to the ridge, known as Artist's Point, had only been open a couple of days after being plowed out. You can see the snow was still very deep.

A great shot with Mt. Baker behind us.

We stayed at Hotel Bellwether located right on Bellingham Bay.



Looking across the port from the other side of the hotel.

On Top of Old Smokey (actually Ben Lomond)

Through Jeremy's encouragement, both he and Suzanne, Tom and myself climbed to the top of Ben Lomond. Jeremy wanted to be on top when the sun rose so we left at 3:00 AM. We didn't quite make it to the top by sunrise, but we got to the ridge.

As a side note, sandwiched between this hike was my two rock concerts. On Friday, Pat and I went to Salt Lake to see Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick. On Saturday night we went to Wendover so that I could go to the Boston concert. (Pat rode with me, but didn't go to the concert as she doesn't enjoy loud music like I do.) We had to come back late Saturday night for church so needless to say I wasn't worth a fiddler's nickel by Sunday night.

Here are the two lovebirds at the ridge.



The sun coming up right around 6:00 AM



The "wise one" in contemplation. (or is it gas?)



Still some snow at the upper elevation.



Can you see Cargill right off my right elbow?



Great flowers everywhere.



A Stewart family favorite.

Black and White Days

Our region, the Pacific Northwest Region, was selected to make a video presentation about how we do business with large dairymen. This video will be shown at the President's Forum in September. The President's Forum is a big to-do where they bring in the top 2% of the employees from all over the world to celebrate successes and share best practices. (By the way, I was selected to go to President's Forum for the first time.) I was interviewed and overall helped facilitate shooting for a day at one of our good customers in Idaho Falls. The film crew were great. They were very professional having done work for TV, National Geographic and the like.

Getting ready for a shot. To my left is my sales consultant, Kenneth. The big guy on the far right is Seth Cannon, the dairy owner. Along with him is his manager, Alex.

The head cameraman doing his thing.



This dairy was right in the middle of processing their haylage. They dumped 125 truckloads a day in this pit. The film crew were amazed.





I thought the grandkids would enjoy seeing these big tractors play dodge'em in the haylage pit.

The Mighty Snake River

Pat and I look forward to our annual whitewater rafting trip with the Woolley's the last week of June each year. This year was no exception. We stay at the East Table Campground located about 12 miles east of Alpine, WY. This region had a late spring so there was still a lot of snow melt coming down the river. This picture is of our camp the first night. Wild flowers were abundant and beautiful.



Another shot of our campsite with the early morning light. A note of interest to all of you hayfever sufferers. Every day you would have to deal with a heavy coating of yellow pollen all over everything. I've not seen anything like it before.



All things bright and beautiful!



We have really enjoyed last year's Father's Day gift. The Camp Chef gets a lot of use and we love it.

This is our launch area. I was grateful for the wetsuit this year (even though they are a little bit form fitting). The water was definitely cold.



One of my favorite positions. We basically ran the river, ate good food, played games, rested and read. Still enjoying the backpacking hammock that the Dalpias' gave me several years back.



Standing in front of the two rafts we used this year. Sometimes we are adventuresome and use really small rafts for a greater thrill. Not this year with the water flow. We are wearing our "I Survived the Snake River" T-shirts.



A great natural frame near our campsite.



All good things come to an end. We're packing up to go home.



The river was flowing about 22,500 CFS (cubic feet per second) when we left. Last year on the same date it was flowing around 5,000. This video will give you a feel for "Lunch Counter", one of the biggies.

St. George

OK, here's the deal. Patty and I grew tired of the stock market, wanted to invest in real estate, and so we bought our retirement home early in St. George. We'll stay in West Point, but will use this new place to run away regularly. This is a picture of our brand new backyard.

We just got home from church and took a self-portrait in the front yard.


One of the truly great things about our new location is being only 35 miles from Zion's National Park. This is a picture of the incredible sheer walls at the Upper Emerald Pool. We took a leisurely? stroll up the trail on Sunday with our sack lunch.

Patty really enjoyed these flowers along the trail.

A front view of our new home.

A quick peak at a video of the backyard. The grass is all of 3 days old. 6 days ago this area was bare dirt. The landscapers did a terrific job.

Jeremy's Graduation # 2

I took this video (with my digital camera) of Jeremy receiving his diploma with his Section 7 in Gaston Hall.

Jeremy's Graduation

Hi, everyone. We have been sufficiently motivated by Jeremy & Suzanne and Holly Anna & Jason to start our own blog. It certainly is a great way to stay in touch. Our maiden blog is of Jeremy's graduation and a few other activites we enjoyed in DC. Hopefully, you will find this of value. Love, Dad and Pat

The opening graduation exercises at the main Georgetown University campus. This was held in the Hoyas practice pavillion. A whole lot of attorneys. Can you spot Jeremy from the back?

The proud father and son.




Cleary Gottlieb law offices. Jeremy's new place of employment.

The lovebirds enjoying the beautiful U.S. National Arboretum.

We learned a lot about the art of Bonsai. We will be very disappointed if the Dalpias clan does bring back a Bonsai creation. We had no idea that there were so many different varieties.

As we strolled around the exhibits we were amazed at how old these things were. But then, we stopped in front of this one with Jeremy. This Bonsai is 400 years old. Not only that, but it was only 1 1/2 miles from the epicenter of the Hiroshima nuclear blast and survived unscathed!

A pretty great shot of the WWII Memorial.

A pretty great shot of dad as you look towards the Lincoln Memorial.