Winter to Spring

 It's been a long cold winter this year.  Starting out with more snow than usual, but the girls seemed to enjoy it when they were out, but cold wet weather led to many indoor days as well.

After the first of the year and the election of Donald Trump, we both became more active in local and national politics.  Below Marlene stands in the rain outside of our local Republican Representative's office, to let her know how we feel, even though the Representative never showed up.  Oh, and no one paid us to do this.

 By the end of February we had a great break from the rain and cold, for a week long trip to Florida, and on to Mexico.  This was our third annual "Blues Cruise" hosted by Joe Bonamassa with a large number of other Blues artists. This year the cruise started from Tampa, rather than Miami.  We spent an enjoyable day seeing the sites before we set off on the cruise.  We especially liked the old town area of Ybor, and had a wonderful lunch in the oldest Spanish Restaurant in America, the "Columbia" shown below.

After our day in Tampa we boarded our ship and sailed on to Costa Maya Mexico, a smaller and somewhat nicer resort area than Cancun, where we went last year.

We enjoyed a little shopping before we went on a bus ride to see some of the nearby Mayan ruins .

 The Ruins were amazing, and they had not even been discovered until the 1970's, being totally covered in jungle.

But during  most of the trip we were occupied by listening to almost continuous music onboard ship from morning to late at night.

 

The highlight of the cruise was 3 Bonamassa shows.






               
                                 

The week went quickly, but we were happy to see the girls again.

and they seemed happy to see us

The wet weather continued after we got home, and the Washougal River was the highest we have seen since we've lived here.

Finally some encouraging signs of spring

Sunny Sunday in February

Beautiful Sunday, a bit windy with the high in the low 50's. Mount Hood is looking glorious. I am still wanting to get that good shot. This taken from where we walk the dogs, about two blocks from our house. Martin and I decided to take the wolfhounds out for a walk today. Guido had his walk yesterday and got to run errands with Martin, the lucky dog, loves our van and makes a bee line for it whenever he sees the side door open! I spent my Saturday, doing my usual house chores, and running a few errands. These weekends fly by, before I know it I am in my back to work mode, last week of February where did the month go?

Here are the daffodils that are on the blog in an earlier entry. I was excited to see them blooming this week. Their color is so intense. I love the blooming primroses that make my front flower garden full of bright primary colors.


There are videos here. Click on them. The first one is Heartman standing next to me instead of running to catch up with Martin. This is a great area for us to take the dogs off the leash and let them run without worry of traffic or a bunch of other people. This road runs in front of the small water treatment plant for the City of Camas and a dredging company that is located on the Columbia River. The Columbia River is on the left side of the screen in both the videos.
Sailor is running to catch up with Martin. You can tell how windy it is today. I wore my earmuffs and my good wind blocking fleece jacket, though you would think it is summer time by the way people are dressing. No coats, flip flops, I guess the Pacific Northwesterners have no toleration for winter. Martin just told me we have record low temperatures headed our way, I hope he heard that forcast incorrectly! I don't want to lose all my spring time flowers!