Monica Multer

This was one of the stranger looking animals that I stumbled upon on my road trip home. I nearly stepped on him while I was stalking the infamous white buffalo in Jamestown, White Cloud. I was trying to run away from packs of mosquitoes while also attempting to spy the elusive White Cloud who decided it would be a perfect to hide behind a bush as soon as I decided to show up when I saw a small movement on the ground. At first I thought it was a squirrel but it didn’t have a tail and had a bunch of these weird stripes on its back. Then I decided it had to be a chipmunk but I had never seen one like this, with that many stripes and no fluffy little tail. I started thinking that maybe it was a mutated breed between a squirrel and a chipmunk maybe with a third wheel prairie dog thing going on, just maybe. So I was confused and a little creeped out by his eyes. He had such weird black doll eyes that just sought you out no matter where you moved. It was fun though seeing an interesting and mysterious animal like this. My aunt Karen told me that it was indeed a 13 striped squirrel which was something I had never heard of before. So yea, I saw a 13 striped squirrel. Jealous much? ...

I just loved your hair, it had such a life of it’s own and really complimented everything about you. I saw you inside and didn’t get a picture of you and I was really sad but as soon as I walked outside there you were just sitting there eating your lunch overlooking Mt. Rainier. It was perfect. The wind kept throwing your hair around and making the red really light up. Anyways I just wanted to tell you, I love your hair and don’t change it. ...

Today was our last day on the road and we got home around dinner. It was a really long vacation starting on June 28, driving for a week to Upper Michigan, four weeks in Michigan one of which was in Chicago, then a week drive back. So it was a long trip and we are glad to be home. The experiences we have had are unforgettable and will stay with us forever. Glad to be home, but missing the adventures. I can’t wait to see what sort of adventures we go on next.

Yesterday we stayed over night in Aberdeen Washington in a nice location on Heron Street. It was very aptly named because in the morning behind the hotel on a really nice water way there were tons of great blue herons flying back and forth. I love looking at these majestic great blue herons but I have to say, blue herons make one of the most ugly calls I have ever heard from a pretty bird. It is like the sound of an animal being strangled and it is just so guttural and loud. It is a very gross sound for such a nice bird. ...

We began our day yesterday in Seattle on a typical rainy over cast but wonderful day in Pike’s Place Market. The night before it had been closed so we were planning on squeezing out every drop of Seattle goodness from this brief visit. We bought all kinds of fruit including my favorite, the giant sweet Fuji apples. I have to say, Pike’s Place Market has the most amazing flowers I have ever seen. It is a feast for the eyes and the nose. It is amazing to walk through there smelling the flowers and looking at the vast variety of flowers. I would buy all of them if I could. ...

We started our morning out by going to Gonzaga University in Spokane Washington. We walked around the campus and enjoyed checking out the church. It was a pretty nice little school. After that we decided to drive to Mount Rainer National Park. After having a nice lunch overlooking Mt. Rainer we went out on a hike to Nisqually Vista trail. It was an amazing hike through a meadow of wildflowers and finally to an overlook of the Nisqually Glacier and the river that came down from it. ...

I couldn’t post last night because we were staying in Silver Gate Montana just one mile outside of the northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park. We started our day with the Enchanted Highway whihc is almost to the border of North Dakota and Montana. It is a thirty two mile long road that is peppered with statues ranging from ones like this to huge pheasant statues and fisherman. It i really interesting but we only saw the very begining and had to move onward to Roosevelt National Park. ...

We spent all of this morning venturing through Yellowstone National Park looking for wildlife. Before we even left the house this morning guess who showed up behind our cabin again? You guessed it, the red-tailed fox. He caught me by surprise yet again as I heard my mom yell again, There’s a coyote! So as I frantically dashed to the car yet again to get my camera I yelled back, It’s the fox again, not a coyote! ...

Today was the first day of our road trip back home to Santa Cruz and we stopped for the night in Bismarck, North Dakota. Along the way during our 15 hour-long day we saw a lot of interesting things. We started out with Amnicon Falls State Park in Wisconsin which was really beautiful. The falls were really running and the water looked like a mixture of coffee and cream. ...

By 5 a.m. tomorrow morning my mom and I will be on our way back home to Santa Cruz California on a week-long road trip. We will be heading across the top of the US all the way to Seattle and then straight down to home. I am excited to be on the road again and to go home in order to see all of my friends and family.However going home is bittersweet. I will miss Bootjack dearly, its serenity, its untainted beauty, and all of the wonders of our compound. I will miss the lake and the water. I will miss the bald eagles. I will miss the flowers. I will miss the storms that come sweeping across the lake. I will miss my grandpa until I see him again. I will miss the library. I will miss everything. So thank you Bootjack for a nice summer, I will see you next year.