September

We've spent most of the Summer commuting back and forth to the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Parker Cruise & Tour office in "The Studio" on the prairie. When you call the Parker Cruise & Tour office in Kirkland and ask for extension 103, it actually rings on my desk 1200 miles away! Our computers are linked from Kirkland to South Dakota, as well.

One of our favorite things to do in the Black Hills is to visit to Mt Rushmore and have breakfast at the Mt Rushmore Cafeteria. We're surrounded by National Parks and Monuments here; many of them are easy day trips, including Mt Rushmore, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Badlands National Park, Devils Tower. Our own back yard is near trail heads connecting to thousands of miles of hiking and biking trails.

We're starting to get that "odd weather" that signals the end of the prairie Summer; beautiful days followed by rain showers, then a day in the 50's, then... another beautiful day followed by a wind storm. Over the next couple of months the cold days will start to outnumber the warm days, but we've been known to have periodic days of beautiful weather until as late as mid-November. We never get much snow in the Southern Hills, and when we do it's usually extremely dry and just blows away.

We'll be back in the Northwest for most of the rest of the year. Our plans include one more Alaska cruise with a Parker Cruise & Tour group and Norwegian Cruise Line.Later in the Fall we're looking forward to the pre-inaugural cruise of Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas; a twin to the largest cruise ship afloat, complete with a few new enhancements, we hear! We'll be traveling to Ft Lauderdale for the event. Unfortunately we could not convince Norwegian Cruise Line or Royal Caribbean that our two Shar Peis and our Dalmatian are "Service Dogs". They certainly enjoy their time with us on the prairie, but the canines will have to stay home supporting the local Dog Sitting business while we enjoy the high seas without them. Our daughter Melody will be home for Thanksgiving. (Melody is a Business Journalism Major at Arizona State University). 

Parker Cruise & Tour Talk, with Jim Dai & Kelly Parker will be starting an 8-week run starting soon! Stay posted! KIXI AM 880 starting September 18 from 9am to 10am!

Regards,

Kelly & Sue Parker