Welcome to Sunnyhill

Life on the hill

Good night

Our dear friend Carla just let us know that her husband, Dick, has decided to go off dialysis and begin hospice care. Dick has struggled with diabetes for years, and in recent months has declined significantly. I see his choice as a courageous one. Jay and Carla have been pals since high school, and I…
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Egret

We drove over to Livermore this morning for lunch with a group of Jay’s high school pals. Heading north on 880, at a point where there are 12 lanes of traffic, an egret flew across the road just a couple of car lengths ahead of us. It flew as egrets always fly, with grace of…
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Palo Alto

We arrived in Palo Alto Sunday, 7/22, as planned, after a pretty easy day of driving.  We didn’t get off 101 to drive the Avenue of the Giants, but we saw some pretty spectacular trees. Washington, Oregon, and much of northern California look like the green lungs of the country. It’s reassuring to see so…
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WA, OR, CA

Port Orchard, Tacoma, Portland, Winchester Bay, and Trinidad – whew!  We’ve been busy.  We left Port Townsend Wednesday morning.  Our first stop was Port Orchard.  Mike Dunlap (Jay’s evil twin, as they were known in the union) was away in California, but we had a nice visit with Lolita and saw their very lovely new…
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Yakima and Port Townsend, WA

Sunday, July 15, we drove from Thompson Falls to Yakima, to visit Bob, who Jay has known since fourth grade, and his wife Sandy, who Jay has only known since high school. As in Thompson Falls, there are grandchildren in and out of the house, for a snack,  for a soda, for a swim in…
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Thompson Falls, Montana

We got an early start out of Caldwell Friday morning, but we didn’t get here until about 6:30 – nearly 12 hours later.  Mostly, the day is a blur.  The Bitterroot Mountains block a direct route, so we swung west from Caldwell into Oregon, and north through Oregon and Washington before cutting back east through…
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Caldwell, ID

As I mentioned yesterday, Jay was chatting with our neighbor, Nick, in the RV park.  I didn’t mention that Nick had a Traeger smoker (like Jay’s big one) out behind his RV.  Naturally, the guys got started talking about smoking, and Nick mentioned that they had gotten some great chicken at the market in Hagerman…
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Hagerman, Idaho

We rarely stop along the road except for gas, food, bathrooms and stretches.  So this morning we blew right on past the sign for the potato museum.  I made some sort of snotty remark about a potato museum, but then I got to thinking that there is probably a lot to know (other than boiled,…
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Idaho Falls

A beautiful morning, a meadowlark singing.  On the road again. We saw two magpies, handsome in their black and white, and I saw a tall sandhill crane with that bright red patch on its head. We followed the Yellowstone upstream to Billings where we crossed it for the last time as it sped down the…
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Forsyth, Montana

We left Fargo this morning carrying Sarah’s hospitality and kindness in full coffee mugs, an ice pack for Charlie’s hot dogs (the fridge was off in Clyde over night), and a container of pistachios for an afternoon snack.  We had a lovely visit, and Sarah and I got out in the afternoon to see The…
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