Out and About, Here and There

Well, it's been a busy week here in the Atomic City and elsewhere.  For one thing, I bought a house.  (!)  Yes, after a month of looking around at what was available, and going to lots of home showings, I wound up getting the first house I saw -- the one next door to my mother's, a house that once belonged to my grandmother.

Three bedroom, 1-1/2 bath, 1960s updated ranch, 1400sf on a 9000sf lot (most of the yard is in the back, fully fenced).  Garage, tool shed, covered patio, plus a bonus 8x16 or so outbuilding that has heat and light.  Inside pictures will be available after closing, which is end of this month.

Yay!  So that's that ticked off the To Do list.

In other adventures, on Wednesday I hung out with the urban sketchers again, at yet another winery.

There were horses!  These folks take visitors on tours around the fields -- nice!

Fellow sketchers enjoying the view:

My sketch:

Over the weekend, the Hounds and I took a little one-day mini-vacation.  On Saturday morning we drove a bit over two hours to my friend Michelle's summer place in Ronald (population: 265).  We stopped along the way, first at Vantage for a pit stop:

And then in Ellensburg to visit the Central Washington University campus.

There's a small Japanese Garden on the campus, where I ate lunch and did a sketch.

We reached Ronald a bit after 1pm, and there the Hounds had a happy reunion with their Seattle pals.

 Truman and Winston

Pippin and Chloe

Michelle took us for a splendid drive through the Cascade foothills, where we saw Lake Cle Elum:

And the Cle Elum River:

We stopped at a campground for a stroll -- here are Winston and Pippin exploring:

Then we dumped the Hounds back at the house, and went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in nearby Cle Elum.  On Sunday morning the Hounds and I strolled through the town of Roslyn before heading back to Richland.

It was a very relaxing getaway all round, especially since I no longer had to worry about hunting for a new home!