Our next trip was to Virginia to vist Jeff and Laura.  The weather was really nice for the first 3 days, and then the blistering heat came.  Jeff barbecued on Saturday, the 3rd, and some friends of theirs came to eat Sunday evening, the 4th, and we went to watch the fireworks from the parking roof of some building where Jeff works.  The fireworks on the mall (which was quite a ways from us) was not all that great and lasted only 20 minutes.  But there were fireworks surrounding us from different neighborhoods.  The day we had chosen to go sightseeing on the capitol mall was so, so hot.  We got to see 2 things that we had not before, up in the Washington Monument and in the Capitol.  The Capitol Visitor center is quite impressive, and Jeff was able to get us some last minute tickets for a tour.  Our capitol is beautiful, worthy of our country.

This room was the orginal House of Representatives meeting room, but it got too small.  Isn't it pretty?

This was our next trip, camping in Arkansas in May with our friends Brenda and Tony.  The weather was just perfect and so was our campground.  Though we had been to Hot Springs before, we did some things that we hadn't done before, like taking a Duck Boat tour. We panned for crystals (not all it's advertised to be, but I did get some pretty ones), went up in the observation tower, found out that it was too expensive to go into the hot baths, played miniature golf in a creepy place, and picnicked in some nice parks.  The actual Hot Springs National Park is free and beautiful.  It actually had a nice campground with hook-ups, but we didn't know that.  A stream ran beside it.  It was such fun with Brenda and Tony.  There was a super clubhouse in the campground, and we went over there every night to play Mexican Train or Phase 10.

Here we are going into the lake on the Duck Boat.  (Glad it didn't do like the one in Pennsylvania that was hit by a barge.)

This is the stream in Hot Springs National Park.

I am long overdue for saying anything here.  We have taken 3 trips and I have not said a word!  The first was a 7 day cruise in April that went to Honduras.  We'd never been there before. One of their products is mohaganny.  We bought a beautiful ice bucket out of mohaganny.  One of the highlights was a visit to the oldest church building on the island. When a hurricane came through, it was the only things still standing.  A lady there told us the history and sang some hymns for us, acapella.  It was quite moving.

On our stop in Cozumel, we went to this museum that told Mexican history starting from the Mayan civilization.  They had replicas of the Mayan structures, then of the Catholic Churches that were built. It was awesome.

 It looks real, doesn't it?

I don't write on this often enough, and I forget how to put all the pictures in my phto gallery.  I must do that later.

Between our house and the neighbors is a Mulberry Tree that the deer love.  There is no fruit on the tree - only large leaves.  The deer seem to congregate under this tree and try to eat leaves (that they can reach).  All the leaves that were close to the ground have been eaten so it is not unusual to see one of them stant on their hind legs to reach the leaves.  They even bring their babies to this tree.  Makes me want to taste one of the leaves myself.  Must be like deer candy.  Here are a couple photos:

This morning I looked out in back of our house and saw something that looked like “ears” against the house behind ours.  I got the binoculars to get a closer view and it was a fawn.  This is the first one I’ve seen this season – there will be many more to come.  We walked over and took the photo.  I got within about 5 meters to take the photo.  The mothers will leave the babies for a short time as they go find something to eat.  The babies will stay very still to avoid detection – I could have probably picked it up but that would risk hurting both the deer and me.

While I was working in the back yard today Pat took a photo because there were some deer watching me.  They don't seem to be bothered with me in their "space".  I counted 4 deer when I looked at the photo.  Here is the photo:

We have been having some problems with our shrubs being eaten by the local deer.  Some refer to these Texas white tail deer as neighborhood pets - some residents feed them which they are not supposed to do but they look so cute.  I have placed wire cages around some of the plants to protect them but the deer will eat anything that extends through the wire or above it.  I decided to try one of those motion activated devices to place in one place to discourage the deer from eating those plants.  Looks scary doesn't it?

Yesterday we watched as a herd of about 7 deer approached the device.  The largest doe came close and stamped her feet - at that point the device started speaking and making noise and they all ran away as we laughed.  They are not afraid of the looks but they don't like the noise that it makes.

We took a seven day trip down to the Caribbean this last week.  The first stop was Roatan, Honduras, a lttle island just off the coast of the Honduras mainland.  This is a beautiful place.  Here is a photo of our ship:

 The Voyager of The Seas

While visiting our daughter and her family in Laramie, WY I took the opportunity to drive (about 1 1/2 hours) to Saratoga, WY to visit the hot spring pool there.  Saratoga is a small town of about 1,200 people.  The pool has been named "Hobo Pool".  I'm not sure why because I haven't seen any "Hobos" there on any of my visits.  The water temperature varies from about 106 degrees to 110 degrees F depending on how close you are to where the hot spring flows into the larger pool.  I was told that the pool remains free to the public because it was a condition imposed by the local American Indian tribe that donated it to the City.  The pool is about 30' square and is open 24 hours/day.  There is no fee nor life guard.  It's really nice to sit in the hot water while the local temperature is below freezing.  The hot spring flows into the pool and out into the adjacent river (North Platte River).  I really enjoy visiting this pool - Pat does not like the sulfur smell.

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We are vacationing here in Laramie, Wyoming, visiting our daughter Mandy and family.  Early in January they had a horrific snowfall that hindered getting in and out of their driveway and street.  What you see in this picture is just leftover snow from that storm, (taken from their front porch).  Also in the picture is our grandson Brandon.  I'm sorry he is in the shade because he has the remnants of a black eye.  He said he got it by hitting a chair. (??) We are mainly relaxing and enjoying the grandchildren.  Doug, however, has decided he can't resist the call of the hot springs in Saratoga , WY.  He even bought a new swimsuit for the trek.  (As you can imagine, it was hard to find a swimsuit in the dead of winter here, but he managed.) 

We are watching the weather forecast to time our drive home.  We were thinking of staying until after the Super Bowl, but there may be a storm coming Monday along our route, so we are not sure yet.  One of the things we MUST do is go to Brittany's gymnastics class to see what she is able to do since we were here in the summer.  We have been given strict orders about that.