the Creme de la Creme

You know what "they" (who are "they" anyway?) say about the weather here in the Pacific Northwest?  Well it isn't true from what we've seen.  We've been here twelve days close to  the coast and it hasn't rained once ... yup, the days start cloudy but have always cleared in the afternoon.  So we chose one of the days that started out clear and beautiful and headed to .... 

TAH DAH .... the creme de la creme ...

Mt. Rainier.  OMG what an awesome, surreal place!  Once again I will say it ~ being from New England we thought we knew mountains .... NOT!

The photo above was not taken from a Chamber of Commerce brochure, I took it, honestly I did!  As well as all the others in this post.  I'm not sure it's possible to take a bad photo of this mountain.  The thing is you can see it from 80 miles away.  The shot above was from about 40 or 50 miles away!

I think we took around 200 photos that day so it was really difficult to narrow it down to 15 or 20 to put on a post.  The photos of the mountain are just random shots of what I thought were the most "outstanding" of the lot!  There are no words I could write that would possibly do justice to this area so I'll let the photos do it instead.

The photo below was of a river bed along the road up and up and up.  In the spring, with the glacier melt the waters apparently are a beautiful blue but towards the end of the summer it is pretty much a brown, mucky color with greatly reduce flow as in the far left of the photo.  I would love to have seen this wide wide area all covered with blue water - amazingly enough some of these trees have been able to survive years of these rushing waters with the early melting.

I believe, but am not certain by any means, that there are two entrances into the Mount Rainier National Park.  We entered at the south western point (UGH just fumbling through my basket of very important travel information ~ etc ~ the etc means yes, a "junk basket", but I can't find the Mt. Rainier info, perhaps it's still in the car??).  Once we entered through the pay the admission gate (no thank you WE have a National Parks Pass for the next year, thank you very much, and in 23 months we can get a SENIOR pass for I believe $10.00 - yipppppeee, age certainly, most definitely does have benefits ~ well earned benefits, that we are delighted are recognized!) it was another 30+ miles up to "Paradise" ~ seriously, I thought I'd been to Paradise many many times over the last few years, but low and behold there is this place called Paradise in WA state and there is the Paradise Inn (and for sure I tried to find a tee shirt there that said something to the effect that "I've been to Paradise and back", but no could find!!).  Gosh darn if I didn't spend half an hour last night perusing their website to find out the elevation of the place.  I thought this was as high as we could go on the road we took in, but in hind sight ("ain't" it just 20/20 for sure!) I think that is incorrect.  I am fairly certain that is as high an elevation as King Richard was willing to travel (in the passenger seat, eyes closed for a great deal of the travel).  Well, no I take that back, King Richard would have preferred that Sir and I leave him off about 3,500 feet (at least) prior to where we stopped).

I've clearly digressed however.  When we reached the Paradise Inn (and search and search for a parking space, just like at Old Faithful in Yellowstone ~ yeah, alright, I won't get on that soapbox right now) ~ which is shown in the photo above looking down at it from one of the trails leading off from the property.

The next few photos are taken from the trail above the Inn.  There are several (perhaps six?) originating from the Inn.  I attempted to get closer to the peak.  Well I guess I did get closer, but two of the trails (each about 1/2 mile from where I was) were listed as something falls ... I assumed waterfalls, but never got that far - Rick and Arlo were waiting for me and I knew it would be a looooong and very very very slow climb for me so I turned back about 1/2 way.  

Along the trail that I did attempt were these wonderful wild flower meadows but darned if I could identify any of the flora (I thought the plant in the photo immediately below is some sort of lupine, but not certain).  The other two, I have no clue - what say you Candyce?

Above, just random shots as far as we traveled, from the trail I tried to walk looking at the glacial paths, the Inn and just the absolute beauty of the entire region.  Another one that has left us scratching our heads wondering how we ever got so fortunate.

As we headed towards the National Park we passed this outstandingly blue gorgeous lake (aka Alder Lake) with a very impressive dam (aka Alder Dam) ~ as you see from the distance in the photo below.  

We decided to stop on the way back (well we tried on the way into the park, but there were many people and dogs and boats and vehicles and we surely did not want a repeat of the craziness that we encountered at Lake Roosevelt.)  On our return it was a splendid stop for Sir to take in the beauty (yeah like he cares about the beauty surrounding him right!!!) and have a coooold swim and perhaps go after a stick or three....

All in all it was a terrific trip, a terrific day, in a terrific area with terrific weather .... isn't that terrifically terrific!

How did this happen?

Seriously, how is it possible that my grandson, and Rick's favorite "hopping friend" had his first day at kindergarten today?  What a wonderful milestone, with a big smile on his face.  Thankfully his Michigan grandparents were there to share in the excitement with Connor and Trisha.  Joshua unfortunately missed it ~ he is in Yuma  ;-(

How I spent my birthday .... by Tracey Whelan

Crossing Puget Sound on a ferry from Seattle to Bremerton.  

Sir was so confused and concerned - seriously, how could he be in the car, and on a boat at the same time?  He didn't hear the car running but felt it and himself moving!!  Very confusing the transportation that day!

It was about a 45 minute or so crossing with lovely sights throughout.  We were a bit dismayed when we got to Bremerton however.  It seemed like there should be a "downtown" area along the water, but darned if we, or the gps (aka "smarty pants") could find it so we ended up having lunch at some "sandwich joint" we found ~ don't even remember the name and I guess it doesn't matter anyway now does it!

We and the gps could, of course, find the Elks Lodge in Bremerton.  The photos below were taken from their property, their beautiful property overlooking the sound.

The mountains you see from their property are the Olympic Mountains - another outstandingly gorgeous range.  The one still wearing snow is the Brothers with an elevation of 6,866 feet.

That's it for today ... two posts in one day is certainly my limit.  Stay tuned for more adventures.

to puyullap

We left Moses Lake (WA) and headed to Puyallup on Monday the 16th.  Along the first 25 miles or so we kept passing these blue signs along the highway.

They identified the crops being grown, crop after crop after crop ~ alfalfa, timothy hay, wheat, potatoes corn ... I found it so interesting.  Often times they had metallic streamers along side (as in the wheat sign above).  I wondered who put these signs there - the farmers or the WA Dept. of Ag?  I suspect it was the farmers, although I'm not sure why they'd do it.  Whoever did ~ thank you.

Eventually we came upon the Columbia River as we approached Vantage, WA.  You know Rick and bridges ~ we came around a corner, headed down a "hill" and spotted the bridge in the photo above.  Rick says "we aren't crossing that right?"  Well I truly didn't believe we were.  OOOPS keep in mind however, I didn't put it there nor did I plan the interstate to traverse the Columbia River (some things really are out of my control, you know!)

It was very pretty for those of us that could look left and right while crossing.

As we were climbing climbing climbing yet another steep grade in the Cascade Mountain Range we came upon this "windmill farm".  It reminded me of the first time I'd seen windmills such as these when we crossed through mid Texas in February of 2008.  I was so intrigued by them and reminded of the battle that's been going on for years and years amongst the residents of Cape Cod and their strong opposition to a windmill farm miles upon miles upon miles out in "their" bay (I guess I shouldn't get on my soap box regarding those from "on cape" (I was recently chastised by a "niece in law" about such a thing).  It is such a passive form of energy I just don't understand the opposition.

Eventually we could see the mountains of the North Cascade National Forest (they range from 8,000 feet to 10,778 feet) off in the distance to our north.  Gorgeous aren't they!

Rick and I have commented to each other several times lately, while crossing the Rockies, the Bighorns and now the Cascades that we thought we knew mountains, being from New England.  WRONG ~ now we've seen mountains.  It truly makes me have a twinge of desire that I had the physical stamina to do some walking/hiking in these mountains and someone who also had the same desire!  Kimberly you and Jack would love it in these parts I'm sure.

Just a random photo along the journey from Moses Lake to Puyallup of an old abandoned building - I seem to be on a "kick" of abandoned building photos.  I wonder if they were abandoned before or after the interstate became their front yard?  I want to know a portion of the stories the walls could tell.

And somewhere along the way on that travel day, Sir Arlo awoke ..... and moved off his bed (where he travels).  Hmmm that could be a topic for another post - when I'm not backed up with three more pending posts!  

I did accomplish a few things today - some of the emails I owe, some sewing until "heat n bond" really annoyed me and I have to re-do an entire project because the damned stuff didn't bond!  I only wasted about five hours on that one!  I had done another of this project using steam a seam and it worked perfectly.

oh dam

Yeah, Oh damn, I'm so far behind in the things I "need" to do ~ blog posts (I think I'm four posts behind), replying to/writing emails (I think I owe ten people emails), planning our sight seeing adventures not to mention planning our next couple destinations.  I guess I'm a bit anal about our destinations - I "need" to know where we'll be next - what campground, fairgrounds or lodge.  If we didn't have Sir Arlo I wouldn't care about such things, but I'm the one that takes him out in the morning (these days in the vicinity of 6:15) and I have safety concerns about where we are for that reason ... Obsessive behavior you say ~ hell yeah I don't deny it, but I just can't get beyond that mind set!  Further, I'm "behind" on a couple sewing projects I wanted done by now!

With all that said, I had to do some back tracking to figure the last post and the pictures I'd uploaded for this post and not much of it made sense to me!  Because of the brain cramp I had to go into our iphoto to figure where the heck the photos were taken and what I was thinking (now seriously, could you go back and figure why you did something a week and a half ago and make sense of it!?!?) when I uploaded them in the order I did - consequently I deleted eight from this post and will put them in the "proper chronological order"!  I do make things difficult for myself don't I!

I believe I "promised" a post about our most interesting trip to the Grand Coulee Dam when we were staying in Moses Lake a week and a half ago!  So here we go ....

With several recommendations that we see the Dam while we were sort of in the area (60 miles or so south) off we went late one morning.

Arlo did some swimming in Lake Roosevelt.  Only a brief swim ... as I said previously, words can not adequately describe our Lake Roosevelt experience, and we realized in hind site that I truly should have videoed our experience.

It went like this .... when Sir swims he is on his "short" (six foot) leash and sometimes on his "long" (30 foot) leash.  This particular day he was on his 30 foot leash.  There were some boaters there putting their boat in the water ~ we usually take Sir to boat launches to swim because there is a short walk in shallow water then he reaches swimming depths so he isn't wading while chasing a stick or ball, but is actually swimming.  Of course we waited for the family to get their boat launched and truck/trailer parked and boat loaded with whatever you load into a boat for a fun afternoon.  As we were walking down to the launch a truck pulled in and an older gentleman asked me if Sir was going to go swimming ~ to which I responded that yes he was going to swim for a few minutes.  Rick was walking Sir down the launch ramp - leashed of course (isn't that what a responsible dog owner does in a public area?) when this "gentleman" let his two dogs out of the back of his truck - unleashed and they run full speed for the water ... Well Sir doesn't want anyone or anything running at him full speed (who does) so he barked and ran towards the "offending" dogs as much as he was able because Rick had his leash shortened to about three feet.  Well said "gentleman" went absolutely ballistic about "slap that son of a bitch - if you don't slap that son of a bitch I will" .... we pointed out to him that Sir was leashed and his dogs were not ... he just wouldn't stop - we didn't respond to him again for five or so minutes while he just kept it up non stop - I'd never seen anyone so out of control - sir was wading in the water - his dogs were swimming and coming towards Sir a few times and he just wouldn't stop with his insanity.  His mouth and vocabulary were just out of control and at one point I asked him if he was talking to me to which he replied "no I'm talking to your husband or whoever that son of a bitch is" ... clearly SOB was the phrase of the day, as well as several "F bombs" ... continuously ranting about slapping that SOB ... his wife was absolutely horrified and walked away from him as soon as he started.  Finally after about fifteen minutes of this insanity he left - with our wishes for an enjoyable afternoon - use your imagination to figure his response to that!  I was so proud of myself to have not engaged this crazy person other than to ask if he was talking his filthy mouth to me and Rick didn't reply at all other than to wish him a nice day when he left .... UGH

The first two photos are of Lake Roosevelt .  The one above is of the Lake looking towards the top of the dam.

The two shots above are of the Dam from one of the lower observation areas.

The lousy photo above is to show the "light board" that is used for the nightly light show on the dam.  No we didn't see the show!

We traveled past Banks Lake between Moses Lake and the Dam.  We had a grossly disgusting bug splattered windshield so there were not many blog worthy photos, or photos even worthy of saving on iphoto for that matter!  I suspect that the one below was taken through an open window.  I just loved how the water sparkles with the sun on it.  Hey, how about that beautiful blue sky as well!

Also in our travels that day we stopped at Dry Falls (we were warned in advance, thank you Chris and Larry, not to ask where the falls are).

This area reminded me of a "mini" grand canyon ... the terrain is so similar.

The end.

where's the tumbling tumbleweed?

As I'd mentioned previously (mmm it might have been on facebook tho) I was surprised to learn that there are areas in Washington state that the locals refer to as the desert.  This area is west of Spokane for 100 or so miles then a large area to the north (in and around the Grand Coulee Dam area - a different post).

How animals survive here is beyond me - but these fellas sure do look like they were surviving quite well!

This area reminded me so much of our first travel through the southwest and how much Rick loved the desert - me, well not so much.  I whined and whined (true story although I know it is hard to believe) that I wanted to see green ~ I was so tired of brown brown brown every where I looked!

There even were dust storms.  Then we'd be driving along and come upon these pretty little bodies of water!

We stayed in Moses Lake (WA) for three nights ~ had to have emergency road service come help us as we were leaving (trying to leave).  We had blown a hydraulic line and couldn't raise our jacks - no jacks up, no moving!  

So we got a very late start yesterday and came to Puyallup, WA at the base of Mt. Rainier - wait till you see photos, oh it is outstanding.  It's so hazy that I can't get a decent picture of it, but we'll be here for at least a week (although not at the Lodge where we are now, we are leaving here tomorrow and going to the Fairgrounds).  The mountain is covered with snow - it is 90 degrees down here at the base but the mountain itself is covered!

AHHH fresh fresh fresh

oh stop that ... I'm not the fresh one anymore ... it is fresh PRODUCE I'm referring to ~ there's just nothing like it for sure.

Along the way I love love love to frequent "farmers markets" ~ don't know what it is about them but it is one of my passions.  I've stopped at a few vendors along the side of the road lately (selling from the back of their pick um up trucks ~ seen some darn nasty sweet corn amongst them, lots of watermelons (no fans of them in this house) and pretty much learned to just keep on goin'.  

With all that said, another of the benefits of membership in fraternal organizations (and there are many benefits to our lifestyle ~ perhaps a well deserving post at another time) is that often times when those members have an abundance of fresh produce they bring it into the respective lodges to share - oh thank you so much brothers and sisters ...

Gotta go make us a tomato "samich" on lightly toasted whole wheat - light on the mayo, with salt and pepper.

Hopefully said "samich" might sustain me enough to work on the back log of photos I've loaded for future posts ~ let's see which will it be, the one of the trip from Coeur D'Alene to here in Moses Lake (through what the locals call the desert) or the one of the trip yesterday up to the Grand Coulee Dam (what the locals call the higher desert) that will be a post that no words can possibly describe the encounter we had and foolishly didn't video ... not to mention the post, sans photos, of our last 48 or 72 hours here in Moses Lake (Chris and Larry, I hope you are reading this, because ML is everything you suggested it might be) or our trip today (again, sans photos) to Potholes State Park and Potholes Reservoir ....

Okay, the bread is done toasting .... stay tuned y'all