#245 Nomad Diary. 28 June-4 July 2025. Cockatiel Birds With Aviary Housesit in Sequim, Washington. Cats Too. Raspberries, Currents, Roses Galore! Olympic National Park. Hurricane Ridge.

 

Loving the Lavender in Sequim, WA

Sequim, WA Lavender

Sequim, WA Lighthouse

Tiny Flowers Sequim, WA

Saturday. 28. Getting up at 5:30-6am and taking care of our house sit cockatiels and cats was easier today! Lol. Doing it with two people is a lot easier than trying to do it with one. We got through the animal feedings and had breakfast before 8am today. Around 9am Jeremy and Andrea and Quinn called from Brazil. I always get a big smile with my kids on the phone so I appreciate the attention and time together! Darrell and I had a few animal chores that we attended to. I made two days of fresh food for the birds. Darrell vacuumed the bird areas. We also had to remove the old paper in 4 cages so that it is now fresh for another couple of days. After lunch we went driving around to see some of the local sites. There is a National Wildlife preserve where we took a short walk to a beach view. Then we drove to another short river walk and passed by a lavender farm and stopped to look at the beautiful fields and gift shop. It’s sunny for the first time since we arrived in Sequim. The sunshine is a welcome sight. We did our DDP yoga around 3pm today. I took a nap. 

Sunday. 29. Today the sun is shining high with no clouds in the sky. We have our regular morning bird routine and put off exercise until mid-afternoon. There is a 10 am church service about 10 minutes into town. At church we met Richard and David, Dad and son. Richard is in a wheelchair and recovering from kidney stones last week that put him in the hospital. David and he live in separate apartments in Port Arthur but have been renting here for Sunday worship since the building in their town sold and left them without a place. It was great to meet with them and worship, have communion, singing and preaching. David is a long-time Port Arthur resident and elementary school reading teacher. He said he’s a few years from retirement, but he is thinking about his kids and how much he is looking forward to the school term beginning in a few weeks. After visiting, Darrell and I went to lunch and then grocery shopping for a few items.

Two Days of Fresh Bird Food Made for Housesit at Sequim, WA

Darrell Cleaning Near the Aviary at Sequim, WA Housesit.

Darrell Enjoying Weeding at Our Sequim, WA Housesit.

Kali at Sequim, WA Housesit

Loaded Raspberries at Sequim, WA Housesit

Sequim, WA Housesit

Cat Food Organized By Day for Us By Linda. Pages of Details of Care.

Railroad Bridge Park at Sequim, WA

Railroad Bridge Park at Sequim, WA

In the Aviary at Sequim, WA Housesit.

Sequim, WA Housesit. View From the Kitchen. Two Fawns.

Call to Alabama Grandkids. Owen (3yr.+10mos)

Esther (1yr+11mos) with Dad, Eric

Monday. 30. Today I woke up around 5:30 am. Darrell was sleeping well and I was able to get around our suite quietly enough with him wearing earplugs and a face mask and get downstairs to begin the morning. This morning and through Friday will be focused on animal care. Getting the 12 birds clean water and fresh food is the start of the day. Next is feeding the two cats and cleaning litter boxes. I waited for Darrell to get up to begin serving the animals. He was up by a little past 6. The day starts with Henri, the 28 year old whiteface cockatiel. He gets a drink of fresh water brought into his reach as he is lame, but he can get around his cage in a limited way. He also gets two meds by a tiny syringe into his mouth. He is very cooperative and trained for this routine. While getting the birds up for the day we talk or sing to them. They are tweeting back today. Our first day on the job they were much quieter. Athena is a yellow and gray cockatiel in the aviary and she’s making friends with me. She’s come to my finger 2-3 times and sits in my way staring at me as if to want a conversation. She’s pretty sweet! After we finished feeding the birds, Darrell began to get our breakfast since he’s our main pancake maker. I go to feed the two cats: Maia and Kali. I sit with them while they eat. Kali is more guarded and is wanting more pets today. I get the litter boxes cleaned and head to the kitchen. Darrell has the coffee made and the pancakes are flipping! I do a few of the dishes and then finish preparing breakfast. We are seated and eating around 7 today! I think we are getting the hang of this menagerie. After breakfast, Darrell reads me an article by Nomad Numbers on travel and air quality and life quality. We decide to look for an ionizer and ozone or air filter to purchase once we are in Alabama for a couple months. I spend about 15 minutes chopping up tiny bird salads and storing them in small individual containers in the refrigerator for the next two days of feeding. We plan to go out for lunch. Hoping to talk with Eric and his two littles: Owen and Esther today. They are dealing with getting a new air conditioner just after having their master bathroom flood and the walls torn out and redone! 

Tuesday. 1.  11am Bible class online with our English friends. Jn 18 and 19 with Jeremy Hammonds teaching. The section where Pilate says: what is truth? Struck me in contrast to Jesus earlier saying in Jn 14:6 I am the way, The Truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except by me. Cooked a black beans in our instapot. We spent time deciding on our drive back to Alabama. We figured out who we would visit and our dates. We also found and booked airbnb’s or booking.com properties in Idaho, southern Wyoming, and Iowa.

Darrell's Creative Garden Fruit Sauce. Rhubarb, Raspberries and Black Currants. Sweetened with Linda's Raspberry Jam and Rhubarb Jam.

Darrell at Our Sequim, WA Housesit

Flower. Sequim, WA.

Dungeness Spit, Sequim, WA

Wednesday. 2. Heard from Eric today that they got moved up to get their new air conditioner tomorrow! We are very happy for them. I got a haircut today. I went to a consignment shop and looked around. Our son Samuel let me know he is one step closer to getting his trip finalized for October when we are meeting up in England and cruising back to Florida together. Darrell and I went out to the Dungeness Spit to walk along the coast. It was freezing cold and we had not dressed for the cold. We stayed about 30 minutes making a walk down to the coast and back up the hill to the parking lot. We have gone out to this park twice while here and there are a lot of people there. The spit is really cool looking with huge driftwood all along the skinny curved sandbar.

Thursday. 3. It’s in the 60’s today and this weather is just cool enough to wear a sweater. We got our morning bird and cat chores done in less than a hour today! It’s also the day that we get to take off from the bird-cage cleaning chore. That chore is for tomorrow as well as making two days of fresh bird food. Darrell made some of his delicious pancakes today and we finished off our pork tenderloin. After breakfast and an hour long call to Darrell’s mom and sister, we are off for a mid-morning coffee in town. Then we go shopping at the Goodwill store. I found some very nice summer tops, but not any local tee’s which I am interested in. We went out for lunch and had one of our best restaurant experiences yet at The Sunshine Cafe. It’s only been open for a year, but Darrell said it was his best burger out of 3 he has had in this town. Jacqueline, the owner, was so happy to get his review. We went to Wal-mart and got a few items and then came back to our house and exercised. 

Drive Up to Hurricane Ridge. Port Angeles, WA

Overlook on Drive Up to Hurricane Ridge. Olympic National Park.

View of Waterway to Canada from Olympic National Park

Hurricane Ridge. Olympic National Park.

Olympic National Park. Hurricane Ridge.

Olympic National Park. Hurricane Ridge.

Hurricane Ridge. Olympic National Park.

Olympic National Park. Hurricane Ridge.

Port Angeles, WA Mural

Friday. 4. Today we drove to Port Angeles to go to Hurricane Ridge inside Olympic National Park. We stopped for coffee in the town. We drove to the park entrance and arrived just at 10 am, which is opening time. There were a few cars in line and we got in quickly. We drove uphill through the beautiful forest. We came to the first pull off, overlook and got out for pictures and a walk. Once we got back into our car we decided to drive all the way to the top. We got up there, and the huge parking lot was getting full fast. We got a parking space, visited the restrooms and took off on our first hike. It was straight up and beautiful. We were hiking and enjoying the park and then driving further and then down and out for about two hours. The number of cars kept increasing. There were parking lots at trailheads with no places to park. When we exited the park, the queue of cars was about 2 miles long! We drove into Port Angeles, parked, walked around and had lunch at an Asian place. Then we drove back to our house. It was a lovely excursion!

Nomad Notes: Having internet and social connection adds a lot of enjoyment to our travels. I have posted in fb and had comments back and forth with friends around the world! Trying to remember how I feel about our experiences in the days following. As we spent time this week making our road trip plan to get back to Alabama by July 25th, we were astounded by how far of a drive it is from here! This is quite a hard core road trip for us. Thankfully we do have some 2, 3 and 4 night stays along our way. 

We have 20 days. Here’s our plan:

July 5th, Saturday, Drive: Sequim, WA to Moscow, Idaho. About 400 miles and 7 hours of driving time. Stay with the Jones family. We met Larry online at our Tuesday online Bible class. He’s the preacher for the church of Christ in Moscow. Stay 3 nights through Tuesday noon. 

July 8th, Tuesday. Drive Moscow, ID to White Bird, ID. 115 miles and 2 hours driving time. One night at an airbnb.

July 9th, Wednesday. Drive White Bird, ID to Boise, ID. 190 miles and 3 ½ hours driving time. A 4 night house sit through Sunday July 13th. 

July 13th, Sunday. Drive to Salt Lake City, Utah for afternoon worship where our nephew Jason Hamilton preaches. Then drive about ½ hour to Tooele, Utah to spend 2 nights with Darrell’s brother Steve and wife Janine. 375 miles and 5 ½ hours driving time.

July 15th, Tuesday. Drive Tooele, UT to Savery, Wyoming. 360 miles and 5 ½ hours driving time. 2 night stay at a YL Ranch.

July 17th, Thursday. Drive Savery, WY to Chappell, Nebraska. 310 miles and 5 hours driving time. One night Airbnb stay.

July 18th, Friday. Drive Chappell, NE to Papillion, NE. 360 miles and 5 hours driving. 3 nights with Darrell’s brother Jeff and wife Gaye. He’s the preacher at the church of Christ there.

July 21st, Monday. Drive Papillion, NE to Muscatine, Iowa. 300 miles and 4 ½ hours driving time. 1 night at a Bed and Breakfast. 

July 22nd, Tuesday. Drive Muscatine, IA to Westfield, Indiana. 315 miles and 5 hours driving time. 3 nights with my sister Annette and her husband Ron. Also visit my sister Linda and her husband John, nieces and nephews, etc.

July 25th, Friday. Drive Westfield, IN to Madison, Alabama. 425 miles and 6 ½ hours driving time. 8 week Airbnb stay!! Yay! Visiting our three sons who live in the area. The oldest, Eric, is married to Erin and they have 3 (4 in September)year old Owen and 2 year old(in August) Esther.

Why are we going so ‘fast’?!? Well, it could be worse. We do get some down time and some good family and friends visiting along our way. Mainly getting back to Alabama for Darrell’s next eye injection appointment on July 31st. We selected our Alabama airbnb and our check in date before the doctor appointment date was set. This gives us extra days to be settled ahead of the appointment. We can feel moved in and mostly settled once Darrell goes for this treatment.