Living it!!: Our New Home and a little past info!

As most of you have hear Janelle and I moved to Port Angeles at the start of October. It has been so nice living here. Our living room window has a view of Mt Angeles and we can hear the ferry horn blow (but not to loud). Janelle has started her practice and she is quickly getting through the growing pains of getting her new business on its feet. I am so proud of her. She spent 9 years in school to become a Doctor, but only received maybe a 16 hour lecture on how to be a business woman. Now she is tackling both at the same time. GO JANELLE!!! She gets most joy from seeing her patients, it's all the other stuff that tightens the curls in her hair, but she is doing it. As she gets further into the business things will become more simple. Your prayers are much appreciated!

I am still working in the Southwest District, stationed in Kalaloch, it's about a 1.5 hour drive. It has been everything I have been looking for in a job. It has many dimensions and you never know what the next day is going to bring. Some of the focuses during the summer were beach patrol (consist of walking the beaches during the day and night. The night usually found the most situations as you would step into a groups fire light and surprise them with "Good evening, Park Ranger" as you could imagine the underagers, drugs and drunks etc.. There are also around 300 campsites in the Southwest District, so campground patrol gave a lot of variety as well, once again a night walk through the campground a hour after quiet hours usually had the most interesting situations. Patrolling traffic was good experience, we have highway 101 going right through the park, so you could work traffic as much as a person could want, it's a 13 mile stretch that goes from 60 to 45 to 55. We did have a few motor vehicle accidents which puts you into 2 roles (Law Enforcement and EMT). This summer we had a dozen plus EMS calls (heart attacks, broken hips, alcohol poisoning, knife wound, car accidents etc, our ambulances are 30 minutes away so it gave you plenty of time to work on the subjects. We also have some back roads that are used for fishing, if they are not fishing or sight seeing they usually are up to something they are not supposed too. In Quinault there are in-holders (people that own houses on park land) it's a neighborhood so we get 911 calls for DV's and loud neighbors and etc etc, so I was able to enter a few houses, even retrieve to people wanted with warrants in Florida, that was cool since one tried to hide. I had a dozen warrants I came across, most were releases because county jails were full. Now, our focus is mainly on hunting around the boundary of the park and fishing. You see you can't hunt in a National Park but hunter comb the outside of the park and sometimes illegally on purpose or accident shoot a nice Elk (or other animal) just inside the park. These are the big numbers of people we are seeing, we still do the other stuff but it's a lot quieter. Anyways that was my summer of work in a nutshell, I have about 2 more months left to work before I am done till next May.

BUT.....I wrote this to tell and show you our house and neighborhood. We have a 3 bedroom place with a large fenced in yard and a garage that is separate from the house. The people before had many flowers around the house as well as tomato plants, we have had tomato's growing out our ears. They are wonderful but are just coming to an end. THere was also some corn and cucumber plants which we have utilized as well. We have heard P.A (Port Angeles) is a great place for gardening, Janelle is really excited for spring, she will have lots of space to repeat her gardening experience from this summer, I will post that picture as well (from her garden in Seattle)

I am loving having a garage, I have been trying to organize it. I love having a place to use my tools! I will build Janelle a gardening corner. Our 3 rooms have been designated as bedroom, office and spare bedroom, it's nice to know we can house company since all our family and friends live at least 2 hours away.

P.A is a beautiful little city (I believe around 18,000 people). The restaurants have a lot of character to them, they are all like the little places in the city you fall in love with, real food! The ocean is no more than a mile away, a easy walk. There is a ferry that goes to Victoria, Canada. I do think everyone should try and visit Victoria at least once. The ferry drops you off in downtown so you don't need to bring a car. It's a big city with personality. It is great for shopping, restaurants, theatre, art, or just sight seeing. It is also a great Island to scuba dive off of!! On the other side of us are the mountains. The Olympic National Park (my employer)we are a 30 minute drive to hurricane ridge a beautiful spot that looks over ALL the mountains, I will post a good picture of Janelle from this summer on the ridge.

There are more hikes than we could probably ever do in this park, but we will try!!! This area is also the best river fishing area in the state, some beautiful rivers flow out of the peninsula. So I look forward to learning all of them, I have learned two already and I will post a picture of some fish I pulled from one.

Lake Crescent is 20 minutes away, it's a crystal clear blue lake that is around 600 feet deep carved from glaciers. I scuba dived it this summer and the underwater rock cliffs and walls are beautiful, they go forever down!! So are are many beautiful lakes to kayak on, as well as the ocean (because our beach runs east and west, we don't get much for waves). There is amazing hunting here as well but I have not gotten into that hobby "yet". I have gotten into mushroom hunting, I have learned the Morel, chanterelle, oyster, shaggy main, bolete (porcini) chicken of the wood, and the different russula's plus of course some poisoness mushrooms, a fun hobby!! Everything in the town is within about 5 miles from our house, Janelle has road her bike to work a few times. We live a half block from the main field where soccer takes place, football games etc. I have already walked over there once to try and pick up a soccer game. We also live a few blocks from our new gym, the YMCA, it's a nice community place. Janelle is in the middle of rating her favorite coffee shops, I think she has at least 4 rated so far. This seems like a warm community and Janelle and I are looking forward to becoming part of it. Here are some pics of our house!