STORMY WEATHER AT THE HOOD CANAL

Sun, hot, chilly, wind, rain, thunder, lightning, (and Susan says) hail! We have had it all on this short trip.. 

Taking the spur route into Westport proved interesting. Enough so that we think we may enjoy a bike bimble around the seaport town sometime in the future. Camp at Grayland, the place I really like, and bike to and around Westport. It could happen.

We had lunch — breakfast food for lunch as they served breakfast until noon and we got there right on the dot! 

One of the issues we (let’s say Susan) are working on is our heater in the RV. It is not working and we are trying to set up a time at The Johnson RV place in Fife to take a look, and hopefully fix. Driving along the way out of the town of Union, we had gorgeous views of our fantastic mountain range. The photo does not do it justice, but here is a peek.

Just as we got to the viewing spot the rain started in earnest and the lightning was flashing. 

We were not expecting this weather! We drove on to Belfair State Park on the Hood Canal and will spend the night here. This is our third body of water, in as many days, to camp by ;’-)

It is near 6:30 and still raining. It will be an indoor game night and some reading in this, our decadent play house. Unfortunately there is no WiFi so I cannot post these past two days. Will wait until tomorrow and find a place that has WiFi. Sounds like a trip to Starbucks is in order.

GRAYLAND STATE PARK

We had no real idea where we would stay last night, but when we saw the sign to Grayland State Park at almost 5:00, we took a chance to see what it was about. Seeing the posted sign “Campground Full”, we were quite sure we would not be staying here, but LO! There were actually four available sites  that others had canceled. 

This park is huge! The individual sites are nicely placed, separated by trees or tall bushes to offer just enough privacy. And lots of trees all around.  After setting up our site and taking time to walk around we were ready to settle in for the night, and would save our walk on the Beach Trail for morning.

Here I am, getting ready for bed...

I had been lamenting (some might say whining) to Susan about not having done any yoga for the past two days! She pointed outside, got out my yoga may and tarp for under it and said — here go do it. I did yoga for the very first time in the complete open outdoors! No tent to hide in this time. It was actually quite nice, especially as there were no people around. Surprisingly, to me, Susan did not take a photo that might embarrass me ;’-).

Breakfast of instant oatmeal, banana and yogurt, and tea/coffee, and we were ready for our walk.

Began our walk on Trail #4..

These trees, on the way to the beach, are very interesting as well as disturbing. It looks like perhaps they may be dying and will not be here much longer.

Once out of the ‘woods’ we had desert like terrain to cross to reach the beach...

For my friends back east — this is not a beach where you romp and swim. It is the cold, wild, rough Pacific coast.

To make our walk into a loop, we came back to ‘land’ and continued on Trail #2. Good thing they have these trail marking signs so we would know.

The wind turbines harness the wind —and there is lots of it..

Susan practiced her teaching skill at the amphitheater. 

Time to get back to our site and move on to our next stop.

COLUMBIA RIVER

Last evening Susan walked down to the beach and got this beautiful photo...

She did a good job of getting the sunset as well as adhering to the ‘rule of thirds’ and did not center the structure ;’-).

This morning I took my walk along the shoreline of the river, and this is the daytime version of the photo...

I so enjoyed my half hour stroll along the river in the sun while Susan recruited a neighboring camper to assist with some kind of ‘technical’ chores in the RV ;’-).

One set of footsteps in the sand —— mine.

Roll On Columbia...

This could be a creature playing ‘slide down the dune’. Maybe a fossil of one ;’-0



Big beach side drift wood...

The tides leave their own interesting prints in the sand...




Nurse log continues to support growth...




I am thinking we will soon (?) be packing up for the drive to the ocean coast. See ya la

FALL 2019 #2 —- IT’S A TOFINO!

In the beginning, we were foutnate that Susan could rope coerce convince bribe persuade gently ask her long time college friend Shirley to drive down to Portland with us. SHE SAID YES! Shirley drove down from her home in Mount Vernon (40 minutes north of us) to spend the night at our house for an early (4:30 a.m.) departure! That calls for a good friend! Shirley will spend some time in and around the Portland/Eugene area visiting with friends and family while Susan and I go tootling around in the new RV. When ready to leave the area, she will drive our van home. Thanks to Shirley, we will not have to drive two vehicles home ;’-). Not only did it make this nice for us, but Shirley was great fun to have along for the drive down. (And she thinks she got the better end of the deal!).

This will not surprise Sarah, but we arrived at Johnson RV in Sandy, Oregon about four hours before our scheduled 2:00 Appointment. Fortunately they were ready for us and we were done way earlier than we would have been with the original time. Art gave us the near two hour tour of our new RV — inside and out. As many will correctly imagine, Susan had a lot of questions.

We spent a ton of time transferring (too much) gear from the van to the RV so that we could release Shirley before beginning our paper work for ownership. After paperwork was completed we took off for the maiden drive. First stop was DMV in Camas WA for tax and license (ouch!). We are legal in Washington. So off we continued to to our first night of ‘camping’. 

We headed toward the Washington coast and stopped at the Skamokawa Vista City Park that Susan had learned of from one of her online ‘lists’. The campground is on the Columbia River and is not too bad of a spot but has very few trees and not a bunch of privacy. An ok place to stay for one night.

It is a learning experience! As Susan says —- we will need to take our time, be patient, not get too frustrated with things, and we will end up loving it! As I say — for now it is a learning experience and things are not all in the correct places (plus we have too many ‘things’), and we don’t quite know how everything works or is supposed to work.

Speaking of work...

Susan is at her chores for the morning. ;’-)

Sleeping last night was not the best for me but that is no surprise. Will make an adjustment or two tonight and see if that will help.

All that, and we have no remorse for having made the purchase. We look forward to lots of fun adventures.

FALL 2019 ADVENTURES: #1 — A REUNION

This Fall has gotten very busy as there are four (4) adventures all in a row!! No sooner do I unpack from one and I need to pack for the next, oh my. 

Adventure #1– Susan’s 50th High School Reunion (Mercer Island High School) was this weekend — Saturday and Sunday, August 24 & 25. In June we had “practiced” bicycling from home to, and back from the hotel in Kirkland where the reunion would be held. The practice run went well, and we did it all in one day ;’-). This time it would be more leisurely and —— decadent ;’-).

On the way to the hotel we spotted a bench in the shade and stopped to have our packed lunch at this arm of Lake Washington. It is along a short trail just at the outskirt of Kirkland.

T

We had a good ride to the Woodmark Hotel yesterday and Susan enjoyed her HS reunion dinner and event last evening. I enjoyed a delightful (solo) dinner at the restaurant in the plaza of the hotel. I did not have to walk far at all to get o it ;’-). And a quiet evening in the room — watching the Seahawks almost lose a game they were leading all the way to the last quarter! Fortunately they did win.

Thanks to Susan we have stayed in this ‘posh’ Woodmark Hotel and our swank room has this view of Lake Washington. If not for Susan I would not be staying in such a posh place! She decided to treat herself (and me) and splurge on the pricey room — I think close to $300. I think the main reason for that high price has to be the view of the lake. The room is very nice but we have stayed in as nice or nicer places in the past (that had a microwave which this does not), and a fine breakfast included (which this does not have), for much less cost.

But there is no doubt about it — we enjoyed the luxury.

Our room with a view...

We had no need to leave early the next morning, so lounged around a bit in our posh room before getting geared up for the ride home. And taking a few photos ;’-)

We took a different route home which gave us another adventure of riding the bike trail across Lake Washington on the 520 bridge.

With a view of the Husky stadium from a different angle.



We wound our way a bit through campus and enjoyed Drumheller Fountain spouting us a hello.

We soon approached Green Lake and started looking for a place that serves brunch. And we found it ;’-) I asked a delightful couple to take our photo and it turns out she had to be the best one to ask because she took a couple of very good ones. They are here from Brazil.

It was a great adventure and the weather could not have been better. Now we are home and I must think about the next packing chore as we depart on Tuesday (today is Sunday) for THAT adventure.