Travels with Ari – Days 13-17 – Ari and Ann

Ari here:

Staying at Markay and Jim’s house was fun! There were lots of rooms to investigate, including Jim’s fishing and fly tying room. Mom didn’t know I had been in that room until she found my favorite toy on the fly tying desk. Oops! All the fishing rods and fly tying things were very interesting! Also, I learned how to open a few closets though there wasn’t much of interest in them.

I kept expecting to see a dog, since I smelled one, but Mom said their dog Charlie died a few weeks ago. His spirit is still in the house for sure.

We drove back to Erin’s house on Day 16 and it feels like I’m home! I guess because its familiar, I settled easily in the room we sleep in. Today I’m out roaming/slinking around the rest of the house. The doors and windows are open so there are more loud sounds and they scare me and then I retreat back down to our room.

Then my curiosity gets the better of me and I slink some more.

Ann Here:

Its Day 17 and I will catch you up on a few interesting things over the past several days. After my birthday on Day 12 I stayed at my sister’s place for 3.5 more days, enjoying the quiet of the countryside, the horses and being with family. I was deeply gratified to be able to support them with a few technology things, feeding horses a couple of times and cooking a meal. It turned rainy on Day 13 and rained off and on for a couple of days, so we did not see Mt. Rainier on those days.

My last morning, Day 16, I was doing a project for my sister and glanced out the window and a deer was looking at me! He was a young stag with with beautiful fuzzy antlers growing into a strong stag look. We stared at each other for a full minute. When I reached for my phone to take a photo, he walked away. But I did catch him in the pasture above.

Ari and I drove the hour and forty minutes back to Erin’s in reasonable traffic for Seattle. Reasonable means only 4 or 5 major slowdowns that lasted from 2 – 15 minutes.

It is a very clear, sunny and warm day today, Day 17!

I am enjoying the house to myself with Erin at work, planning my trip home, catching up on this blog, doing some house cleaning for Erin and resting. This morning a Stellar Jay brought something in her beak and buried it in Erin’s chive plant on her balcony. She is flying in and out of an evergreen tree about 30 yards away so must be preparing for babies.

I reburied it so we can see what happens. Nature in the city!