Leaving Trabzon after our adventures there, we in the Come See Turkey group made our way through the Pontic and Kaçkar mountain ranges toward Kars. It was amazing to see the changes in environment, topography, and culture as we traveled through river valleys, snowy alpine passes, and down into steppes... 

In June 2017 Travel Tacoma took me to Northwest Trek Wildlife Park outside of Eatonville, Washington. Northwest Trek is a different kind of zoo than I normally see, one that focuses on the Pacific Northwest and one where the animals have a good amount of room to roam, particularly in the 400+ acres of open area on the north side of the park...

Just before Halloween 2016, the Portland Instagram group had a fun little instameet at Fir Point Farms in Aurora, Oregon. Pumpkins were everywhere of course, but so were goats and bunnies and horses and donkeys... plus games like Cornhole and badminton. We feasted on ice cream, donuts, freshly pressed cider. Probably the most fun though was the corn maze -- so beautiful...