San Juan Islands, Washington

After the great "hot spot" yesterday, we decided to ferry over to the San Juan Islands, a short drive, but a 45 minute ferry ride, to find the hot springs on Orcas Island. The morning was so foggy that you could barely see your hand in front of your face and the trip out to the islands was a white one. Because of the fog everything was running late and we had to take another ferry to get to the Orcas. The weather was clearing and we were surprised to see the many islands that made up the San Juans. After a car ride around the entire island we found the hot springs--now owned and operated by a private enterprise who informed us there was no vacancy and they wouldn't let us use their pools. Bummer! Oh well, we found a nice little place to eat and had a wonderful shellfish boil.

Olympic National Park, Washington

We got up early to take another ferry ride; this time from Whidbey Island over to the Olympic Peninsula, about a 45 minute drive and a 30 minute ferry ride then another 45 minute drive to get to Port Angeles. Besides the national park, we thought we'd visit some old college friends, Ann and Phil Ritter.
The Oympics were beautiful and full of variety. There were the mountains, rain forests, and old growth trees. We also found a hot springs--with about 200 people! So we skipped the hot springs, went back to Port Angeles and found Ann and Phil still weren't home.

Ann and Phil Ritter

After having so much fun in the Olympics, and having a delightful northwestern fare dinner in Port Angeles, we realized that the ferry back to where we came from would leave before we got there, so...

We decided we might as well stay over and go to Phil's church the next morning. We figured Walmart would deck Mitch out in long pants and a clean shirt, and I had to laugh when I realized it would also mean new shoes! So with a few necessities we headed to at least seven motels before we could find one that had a room. Oh well, it was good to hear Phil preach the next morning and we had an enjoyable time renewing our friendship. We figured it had been ten years or more since we had see them last.

When it was time to move on, we discovered a tire problem and had to stick around to get it fixed which meant we were too late to make our next Thousand Trails stop. But we did stop at the friendliest casino in the world (that's what they say!). It was very friendly. We camped overnight for free, they gave us a free dinner and free breakfast the next morning. We figured the two plastic glasses they gave us cost $76.00!

Mt. Rainier National Park

After seeing the devastation of Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier looked pristine and totally harmless. Actually, it is considered an active volcano! It was a gorgeous day to view the mountain, with a cloudless, blue sky.

Mt. Rainier National Park

Glaciers, fields of wildflowers, forests, and waterfalls!

Hwy 20 West into the Cascades

Stop here! I don't know how you normally read my blogs, usually I post everything so it's displayed in chronological order from the bottom of the blog and it makes sense to go to the last pictures you saw and start there. I was taught to post the last first so that the reader starts at the beginning and scrolls down in order. Today that's how I'm trying it. So start here and then scroll down.

Today we decided to take a car tour of the North Cascades and ventured about an hour east of La Conner when Mitch said, "I read about Baker Lake Road..." and made a sharp left. The little road trip turned out to be a lot of fun, and reminded us of our good friends, Bob and Jo.

Getting there is half the fun!

So we drove off the beaten path, the guy at the resort said "...about two miles up the road...". Little did we know that two miles up the road was closer to three and a half of buggy road cart path with a lot of pot holes. "Then," the man said, "follow a little trail a quarter of a mile or so" which we did. A nice trail back into the woods with great scenery and a lot of quiet. And what did we find?

The end of the trail!

...if you were Bob you would have hurried to the end of the trail for the 102 degree hot springs pool nestled in the solitude of the giant trees and dappled sunlight, ...if you were Jo you would have donned the long sleeves and mosquito fighting garb of the lady picking elusive huckleberries along the side of the trail, ...or you could just enjoy the beauty of the 10,000 foot Mount Baker!

Seattle

It was off to Seattle to check out the wharf district and Pike Market. It's a lot bigger that it was in 1988. There were about four floors for five blocks of farmer market type shops--from flowers (smell those lilies!) to jewelry to knick knacks (smell the incense) to fish mongers (smell the fish) and tons of people. There was every type of food to be had and we enjoyed lunch at a little chowder place with plenty of sun and a flutist in the background. The homeless guy with his four suitcases and big plastic bag is behind me so you can't see him!

La Conner, Washington

We're home again, this time at Thousand Trails La Conner, Washington, nestled in the tall trees, enjoying the moderate temperatures (77 degrees today), with Puget Sound in our backyard.

Brayden

Brayden

Brayden is six months old now and has three teeth, two on the bottom and one on the top. He can almost sit by himself and gets up on his hands and knees--just rocks, doesn't go anyplace yet.

Brayden

Caryn sent some pictures I just had to share. Brayden has grown so much since we saw him last. He's even eating solid food (doesn't look like he likes it a whole lot!)

Crater Lake

Here we are at the end of our day. The camera took this picture itself, so we had a couple of laughs trying to get that to happen.

The drive around the rim is 33 miles of winding, up and down mountain sides, skinny little roads, but the pull outs were often and we stopped for all the sights. We even stopped for a little lunch in a very cozy little picnic area. There wasn't much for ground cover, a lot of the pinkish red leafy plants, a little of the green with with purple floweres, and a little of the small yellow flowers. There were a lot of trees, however.

Crater Lake

We took another day trip to Crater Lake, interesting geology and spectacular scenery. We entered on the north side and passed through the Pumice Desert, 100 feet deep pumice so very little vegetation grows there at all. Crater Lake is about six miles of caved in volcano. This is Wizard Island, a smaller crater in the lake. We are at the north side, way up high looking down, and it is very cold (about 54 degrees) this morning.

Thousand Trails--Bend/Sunriver

We left Salem and traveled over the mountains to the high desert of Bend, Oregon. We're parked among the trees (no satellite here) but have a beautiful backyard. The mountain on the left is Bachelor Mountain, then South Sister, and Broken Top.

We spent a day doing the Newbery National Volcanic Monument which encompasses the Lava River Cave, the Big Obsidian Flow, Paulina and East Lakes, crater buttes, and lava flows. It was fascinating to walk the mile through a solidified lava tube until the sand just filled it up. It was amazing to see the huge pile of obsidian that sparkled black glass everywhere. And the beds of rocky black lava that flowed for acres around small hills where the only trees grew was hard to imagine. I'd have pictures of all that, but I forgot the camera.

Much of the time we are just taking it easy, a day of this, then a day of that.

The end of Rally Evenings

After Happy Hour and a very nice meal to close up the Rally, we find Audry has lost her maracas to a set of jugs and Gerry looks on in amazement one more time! It's campfire time (without the campfire). But we do have Connie on the guitar; we try to remember the lyrics to old tunes, and with more wine no one seems to mind that most of us can't sing, and the circle grows bigger. Finally, the night security guy joins us because everyone else has gone to bed. It was another good rally.

More Rally Evenings

The last night is always a good time. This year two of the four "table couples" purchased new coaches and were in the drawing for $10,000. Jerry and Marilyn bought a new Signature which they will pick up in Oregon in November and Marlene with hubby Renny, who was out doing the walk through in their new Diplomat, was excited with her $2000 check.

More Rally Evenings

Even though it was a slow dance, comfortable shoes are a must!

What comes next?

Rally Evenings

So, after we have an afternoon of nibbling and imbibing we head to "Happy Hour" where the booze runs like water (and there is a huge salad bar)--let's see--scotch or salad?!

Then comes the dinner (and usually some nice wine to go with) and the entertainment follows. Sometimes we even dance!

Here's the Minnesota group together again. Marilyn finally got Jerry out on the dance floor.

Gettin' in the Spirit

Oh yes, there were those who found the cloths and spiffed themselves up for the evenin'. There's Lady Dell, Bob and Jane, and Dan and Cari looked pretty "down home".