5-21-03: Fairy slipper, the local version of an orchid.

5-21-03: Different view of the same flower.

5-21-03: Not sure what these flowers are either, but I like the very three-dimensional appearance of them.

5-21-03: I managed to catch this shot of a hawk circling overhead.

6-1-03: Knowing the bounty that forest fires can bring in the mushroom world, we heard about the forest fire at Deer Point off of Lake Chelan and decided it was worth the drive.

Little did we know, but Eric's Subaru was on its last legs. It was starting to show signs of overheating on the hills on the way up. We didn't think too much of it – the hills were long and steep. On the way home, though, after a great weekend of camping and very successful mushroom hunting, the car began to heat up on a bridge just outside of Chelan. We managed to just get it off of the bridge before the engine died. Even after letting it cool off and refilling the radiator, though, it still showed no interest in starting again. We decided to walk to the nearest exit to look for a phone.

Chelan is not exactly the most populous part of Washington. The next exit wasn't far away, but had only a scattering of houses, no sign of services for miles around. We decided to knock at the door of the nearest house to use the phone. We called our friends, who agreed to come rescue us – even though it was 7pm on a Sunday night, and we were at least four hours' drive. They seemed to regard it as a great adventure, and were happy to come rescue us. The owner of the house, though, overheard our call and heard us talking about waiting the four hours for our friends. He invited us in for a glass of water. Sure, we said, we were just going to wait in the car.

We got to talking about the other wayward travelers who had stopped at his door step. Then he poured us each a cup of tea. We traded some more stories. Then he told us that his wife was pregnant and couldn't drink, but he had a bottle of wine he'd been wanting to try. It was a dry red (our favorite) – how could we say no? We ended up talking the entire four hours, when our friends finally found us and brought us home. Later (after the baby would've been born) we arranged for a bottle of dry red Norton and a bottle of champagne (Brut) to be sent from Stone Hill Winery in Missouri, to thank the family for their hospitality. It was certainly the best time we've ever spent broken down on the road.

6-1-03: We had seen this fire pit at Icicle, the area of the July Creek burn in the 2002 pictures, and approved of the design.

6-1-03: On the windy ridge at Deer Point, it seemed like the best way to build a fire. We do enjoy mushroom hunting in the burns, but we weren't going to chance starting one!

6-1-03: We were rewarded with ample mushrooms (see the photos in the mushroom collection) and also some unusually relaxed wildlife. This wild bunny didn't seem to mind me taking its picture at all.

6-1-03: In fact, it seemed to be only half listening.

6-1-03: We also found this little guy, which I believe to be a northwestern boa.