Oh, Sweet Pea

To kick off the school year for all, this past weekend was Pullman's biggest event of the year - the National Lentil Festival!

  Although we missed the Friday evening festivities featuring a 350+ gallon bowl of lentil chili, (mmm!) we did make it for most of Saturday's events that included a parade followed by food, crafts and entertainment at a nearby park.  Better to show you than to tell you about it:

Yes - they actually use this to make & serve the lentil chili.

All aboard the lentil express!

or, the wheatland express! (This bus is not gluten free.)

Butch Cougar!

Look - it's Coach Leach!

 The Wazzu Crew was sort of the grand finale to the parade, so then we followed the crowd over to Reaney Park for food and fun. We made mosaics from lentils, sampled lentil chips ( Plentils!) and learned plenty about the legume family.

 Plus, the WSU Raptor Club was there! (Turns out, anyone over 18 can join the club, you don't have to be a WSU Vet student. Considering membership...) 

This is Widget, the barn owl. It's rare to get so close to a barn owl but his handler said, "He's a very confused owl." You can read Widget's story here.

Widget, the confused barn owl.

 The kids area featured some odd entertainment, including a 'stand-up' comedian whose whole set was making potty jokes (OK, it was a 5-12yr old crowd) and this eccentrically-dressed, somewhat crotchety, though  impressive  juggler:

We even got a photo with one of the festival mascots, Mr. Dan D. Pea!

spokespea for the USA Dry Pea & Lentil council

 Maggie reports:
"The Lentil Fest was very fun and entertaining.
I loved the craft tent.
Hang Loose, Dan D. Pea!"

I like big buttes and I cannot lie

In our last few days before school starts, we've ventured out a bit, both in terms of necessity (Lewiston, ID & Clarkston,WA for the nearest Home Depot & Costco) as well as for entertainment and adventure. 

One sunny afternoon -- we've had nothing but, it has not rained a drop since we moved here --
we drove to Kamiak Butte, a county park about 10 miles away. There's many buttes to explore out here, and while the kids never stop giggling about this, let me clarify is it pronounced BEE-YOOT.

At Kamiak Butte (tee-hee) there's a beautiful picnic area among evergreen trees, a playground and campground, plus a 3 mile hike that takes you to the top of the butte for some spectacular views of the area. I'll have to return to the top with my camera for sure, but we did have a few snaps from the car:

That's the butte up there with all the trees

Are these huckleberries? No, I think not.

 It's so interesting to see the different vegetation out here. I keep looking at trees, shrubs, plants, thinking or asking myself  "what is that?" or "I wonder if I can eat those berries?"

Possibly I have been asking this aloud a time too many because I got two beautiful books about Northwestern plants and trees for my birthday! Still a little leery about trying strange berries yet.

Baby Got Back
You can tell within just the past week that the town is coming back to life as some 20,000 students move back in. While it means a longer line at the grocery or coffee shop, it also adds a welcome energy to the town and campus, and reminds us of one of the reasons we came out here - for WSU. Go Cougs!  Did I mention that Welcome Week features a concert by Sir Mix-A-Lot? Yep.

More about Pullman's other claim to fame in our next post: the Lentil Festival!

Makes you think all the world's a sunny day

August has arrived, ushering in some very August-like temps, so we kicked on the AC for a couple days. (Many people around here, or at least so we've been told, don't have air conditioning. It's usually dry, and often breezy, so it's really not bad without it. I digress.)

However, the haziness of this heat has brought about some beautiful sunsets.

 Now that our around-the-house projects are (somewhat) manageable, we've started exploring the town and neighborhood. Although there aren't as many kids per capita here as in our old neighborhood, M & A have already met a few new playmates to help pass the time. Beyond that, there are plenty of kid things we've come up with to fill our last two weeks before school starts, like:


1.) Play Croquet!


I like being yellow. It looks like I'm whacking at a giant egg yolk on the grass.





2.) Or, make up your own clubhouse with some old curtains and a cluster of three tall Poplar trees.

3) Bike, scoot, or walk on down to Cougar Country Drive-In for a Huckleberry shake.
*As endorsed by Andrew. Mmm-hmm!



4) We also made tie-dye t-shirts. (Are we going full hippie or what?!)  I had bought a craft kit for them from Target several months ago and promised the kids we would make them this summer. With the summer clock ticking, we finally did it, and they turned out much better than I ever thought a $5 kit ever would. Far out!








And, we ventured out on our first hike, at a park just 10 miles north of town, called Kamiak Butte. More about that in another update, but here's a sneak peek from that lovely day, as I snapped a shot from the car:

Gold on the ceiling...

Moving truck is here!

Well, as crazy and frantic as it was to coordinate the house closing, the move-in date, the moving truck, plus the work to be done on the house and of course, getting Internet and TV access, we did it! (Thanks Joe for dealing with 99% of it all) We're back online and getting settled into our new home.

Last Friday, the giant truck we had all been waiting for came and dropped off our 10,000 lbs of home goods. The good news is, almost nothing was broken, just a few furniture scratches. Since then we've been working like machines to turn this place around into feeling like home. 

 

the much ballyhooed black toilet

There was a lot of blue (carpet), gold (fixtures) and black (appliances) so we're taking those one-by-one to update & replace. I can't resist showing you just one of the many black and gold features in the house:


Now we're starting to explore the neighborhood and the town, especially the park across the street from us that is the perfect place to watch the
sun set. 

Top of the park hill; ours is the blue house.

Our own private Idaho

This was our last day in the car! We spent the night in Boise, ID, before the final push to Pullman with Zeke the kitty in tow with us. He was a good traveler for the last leg of our journey. "He did not meow that much," says Maggie.

The drive north into the panhandle of Idaho was very scenic, through tall pine forests and lots of inclines and ravines. We also snaked along the Snake and Salmon rivers, and the blue Jetta just barely chug-chug-chugged its way over some quite steep mountains? hills!

Then before long, we saw the rolling wheat (and lentil) fields known as the Palouse:

 and welcome to the Palouse!

We rolled into town mid-afternoon, greeted by the clear blue skies and cool breezes. The simply amazing weather hasn't let up yet.

The next few days consisted of us sleeping on air mattresses in our new house and anxiously awaiting the arrival of the moving truck.

[photos by Maggie]