November is Here…

…but I still have stuff to share from October.

Some fun times with Auntie Katie in the new outfit Auntie Laura and Uncle Josh bought.

These shots are still from our time at Dan and Jamie’s for the first annual family hunting trip in mid-October.

Fun with gramps and a box on Wednesday night before we left for home on Thursday.

On October 19th we said our goodbyes to Colville and to Dan, Jamie and Addy until next time.

Now back to the present. We have all kinds of interesting weather advisories across our state on this first day of November and the next few days. Snow has even been mentioned. The snow won’t fall on us but north and east of us it’s a possibility. Today I spent some time watching leaves fall from the huge maple in my neighbor’s yard. The leaves twirl as they fall and catch the light as they make their way to the ground. It’s kind of mesmerizing. We filled up our large yard waste bin plus one other bin yesterday and Dear rounded up mounds of leaves twice today.

Above is from our drive. The maple tree is just on the other side of that fence on the left.

Here is a reverse view with part of the tree pictured on the right. Half of the branches come out over our drive. Our privacy fence is on the left and you can’t see our home in this shot. We still have lots of leaves in our future.

This photo was taken in downtown Bothell at the Fire station. Fall really has been amazing here.

This was one of those random catch-up posts, a little of this and a little of that. What are you catching up on?

A Fortnight Ago

The guys were out of the house before dawn to get to the location they would be hunting in. The girls got ready for a sign painting party leisurely.

All of Addy’s grandmothers and her great grandmother were at the party. This photo is of Jamie, Granny Great, Granny Linda and Addy. I forgot to get photos of everyone’s sign. This one is mine.

Jamie, Laura, Katie, Addy and I went out for a snack after the painting party.

When we got home the men were back from hunting with their first buck. We tuckered Addy out.

Addy woke up happy and had snuggles with her mommy and then she was ready to be entertained by her two aunties.

I’ll spare you too many details but when the men got to a certain point in their venison preparations they got all cleaned up and we had leftovers for dinner. Look away before you get to this last photo if you are queasy around raw meat.

We were all tuckered out after a full day of entertainment. Sunday would be the second day of hunting for the guys and it would be Pumpkin Patch time for the girls.

Back to the present: Today was such a glorious sunshiny day in the Pacific Northwest with beautiful color all around us. Glory to God for creating the seasons for us to enjoy.

Hope you all have a wonderful last weekend of October!

Fishing

Each of our family members arrived at Dan and Jamie’s home at different hours on Thursday the 12th of October. The last to arrive were Katie, Andrew and Laura after Dear and I were fast asleep. Dear and I arrived first, Josh drove by himself arriving later in the afternoon. Katie and Andrew hit the road from Seattle after Andrew’s last class at the University of Washington. On their way through Spokane they picked up Laura who flew in after her work day. Hunting Season opening day wasn’t until Saturday the 14th so Friday was deemed fishing day. Dear and our original three loaded up their gear and headed to Lake Roosevelt (part of the Columbia River) to launch Dan and Jamie’s (new to them) boat for a day on the water.

Jamie, Laura, me and Addy enjoyed the morning getting re-acquainted. Andrew worked on some homework so he would be free to hunt on Saturday. Aeronautical Engineering involves lots of hours of homework. Close to noon Jamie packed up some lunch items and the stay at home crew drove to Colville Flats on Lake Roosevelt to meet up with the fishing crew and enjoy a picnic lunch together. The morning family time tired little miss Addy out and she slept through the drive and the lunch and all the way home again!

The views of Lake Roosevelt from one of the day use areas on the lake.

We had the area all to ourselves.

We enjoyed the views and the reflections. Andrew skipped some stones along the still water surface.

It was fun to watch the boat approach the flats where we had set up our picnic lunch.

Everyone made it out of the boat without getting wet.

The boat took off again with one more passenger, Andrew. The rest of us headed home for the late afternoon and evening. We enjoyed a meal together, fish and chicken tacos and then preparations were made for an early start for deer hunting on Saturday. The ladies and Addy had a Sign Painting Class to attend on Saturday. Speaking of Addy…

She is on the move with many skills. Crawling, holding herself up, pulling herself up to standing, side stepping while holding onto the sofa and increasing her balance. She’s a strong little babe. More to come.

So thankful for our family time all together under one roof for several days.

We are busy back here at home getting the kitchen ready for new quartz counter tops. I have taken some before photos so I’ll have a before and after post in the future. We are scheduled for templates to be made next Wednesday. With the quartz chosen we now will choose the backsplash product.

Hope all is going well in your corner of the world!

A Worthy Side Trip

On Thursday October 12th we struck out early from our home in Western Washington for our first annual family hunting trip in Eastern Washington. Our kids, their spouses, and our little grand enjoyed several days together all sleeping under the same roof. I will be sharing posts from our times together over the next several days. First we had to get there. Our trip from our home to our son’s home in Colville, Washington is about 351 miles.

We generally leave our home before 6am and our first stop is breakfast at The Cottage Cafe in Cle Elum on the eastern side of the highest pass we cross over the Cascade mountain range. Continuing on we descend into Central Washington with rolling hillsides and lots of farmland. One of the highlights of our trip is crossing the Columbia river at Vantage. On this trip Dear was getting sleepy and we pulled over at the Wild Horse Monument just after the Vantage Bridge to switch drivers. This was about 135 miles into our trip. I drove the next 147 miles to Spokane and since I was at the wheel I veered off our normal route turning right on Division instead of left to try to find this beautiful church.

The bell tower of this church can be seen from many parts of Spokane and I had seen it on so many trips always wanting to get to it and inspect it closer. It proved a little elusive but with Dear’s help we finally found it and we parked and enjoyed a walk about it and were so happy to see the front door wide open so we could go inside, too.

The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

St. John’s Cathedral is one of the few examples in the United States of classic Gothic architecture. Its detail includes the French influence. The Cathedral, begun in 1925, is the fulfillment of the dream of the Right Reverend Edward Makin Cross, third Bishop of Spokane.

A solid masonry with exterior stone quarried near Tacoma, Washington; the interior of the nave is of sandstone from Idaho, and the remainder of the interior is of Indiana limestone.

The trefoil window of the Holy Trinity proclaiming God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

On our drive looking for this cathedral in Spokane south of I-90 we discovered some very nice neighborhoods and a beautiful park we’d like to return to in the future. We had the cathedral to ourselves on this day and we were happy to take it all in. After our side trip we headed north on Division to stop at Costco before we continued the one hour north to our kids’ home. More posts on our family time to come soon.

Linking up to Tom’s Tuesday Treasures and also Our World Tuesday. Thank you to our hosts and hostesses.

Barns and More

A few farm scenes from Northeastern Washington for Tom’s Barn Collective. These shots were taken from the road on the way to our son’s home for some family time together last week and weekend.

Back here in Seattle we enjoyed the last season game for the Seattle Sounders v. Colorado Rapids.

A Sunday afternoon game and the sun came out to warm us after several days of rain. The tifo for this game was exceptional. Tifo [ˈtiːfo] is the Italian word for the phenomenon of supporting a sport team. In some countries (but not in Italy) it is mostly used as a name for any choreography displayed by fans in the stands of an arena or stadium in connection with a sport event, mostly as part of an association football (soccer) match.

We especially enjoyed our time this afternoon since the Sounders won 3-0 and we now get a bye before we head to a playoff game.

Hope you all are having a good weekend and that it ends well.

Tulip Mosaics

Tulips last a short time every year and I’m always keen to see them in the muddy or dry conditions on the tulip farms north of us in Skagit County. Dear and I traveled north on Tuesday morning May 2nd. The tulip festival usually runs the month of April but because of the weather and a late bloom this year they extended the festival into the first week of May.

One of our favorite stops is at Roozengaarde in Mount Vernon. They always have a beautiful display.

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is the largest festival in Northwest Washington State. Each year more than 1 million visitors come to experience over 300 acres of brightly colored tulips.

Who is behind the tulips? Roozengaarde was established in 1985 by the Roozen family and Washington Bulb Company, Inc. The Roozen family business of growing Tulips, Daffodils and Irises is the largest in the world, covering Skagit Valley with more than 1200 acres of field blooms and 15 acres of greenhouses. William Roozen emigrated from Holland in 1947 with years of experience in the bulb industry. He had a good back, strong hands, and a heart pulsing with dreams. Roozen started a bulb farm on five acres of land, holding meetings in a garage and toiling long hours beside a few hired hands. He saved money by buying used tractors and farm equipment.

The Roozen family’s hard work ethic spans at least six generations. The family first began raising tulips in Holland in the mid-1700’s. In the Skagit Valley, Roozen (which means “roses” in Dutch) worked for other farmers before setting off on his own in 1950. Five years later, he purchased the Washington Bulb Co., founded by two of the area’s first bulb farmers, Joe Berger and Cornelius Roozekrans. The Washington Bulb Co. now farms about 2,000 acres of land. In 1985, William Roozen handed the business down to his five sons and a daughter, Bernadette Roozen Miller, who passed away in 1996. William Roozen passed away on July 13, 2002 and, with 35 grandchildren, was confident the family company will keep growing.

We had another garden adventure in May that I will share this week. Our daughter Katie took this selfie of us on that adventure.

Woke up this Monday morning to sunshine! What a nice sight. This week is the last quiet week at this old house before we start traveling east, south and further east.

I’m linking up to Mosaic Monday with Maggie at Normandy Life.

Barns in Tulip World

When we travel to Skagit Valley to see the tulip fields we get the added bonus of seeing some barns along the way.

I spy myself taking this photo in our side view mirror!

The purpose of our trip to Skagit Valley was to visit the gardens at Roozengaarde and the bonus were the views along the country roads.

A horse beyond the tulips out of focus but the tulips were the focus of this trip.

I’ll leave you with this masterfully taken selfie of me and Dear. I have a lot of work to do on my selfies, yes?

Our Saturday is a mix of tweaking, painting, sorting, recycling, and trashing. I’ll have a few hours break at noon for soccer south of downtown Seattle. What’s on your agenda?

Linking up with Tom the Backroads Traveler for The Barn Collective.

Zoom In to Tulips…

So many beautiful varieties of tulips and I’ve only shown you some of them. More coming soon.

Wednesday we managed to mow half the lawn and then finished up this morning. We had another sunny day today up until about 3:45 and now we are having a few thunderstorms roll through. Dear and I picked up Katie today and headed to the Seattle Japanese Gardens where Katie enjoyed a Japanese Tea Ceremony course for one of her college classes. She wore a tank top today! Our warmest day to date this year.

Highway 231

Our journey home from Colville via Highway 231 on Tuesday April 18th started just on the outskirts of Chewelah. We turned west off of Highway 395 and continued south on 231 all the way to Interstate I-90 in Sprague. All the photos were taken from the passenger seat of our car.

We traveled through the small town of Valley, stopped to have breakfast in Springdale. Continuing south we passed through Ford, Long Lake, Reardon, Edwall then connected to the interstate in Sprague. We enjoyed going on this unfamiliar road instead of our usual trek down Hwy 395. Not having to deal with Division St. through Spokane was a treat!

Linking up with Tom the Backroads Traveler for The Barn Collective.

Road View Report

So happy to report our drive over Snoqualmie pass was uneventful and smooth sailing.

The Ryegrass rest area was our first stop to change drivers. From this point to Vantage there was an Elk migration warning. We kept a keen eye on the road and the hillsides for Elk but didn’t see any.

The worst conditions we had were on Division driving through Spokane where the potholes were huge! Hwy 395 also had some potholes to watch for. Yikes. This winter has really taken a toll on the roads!

We made to our son and daughter in laws just before sunset and this is the view from part of their driveway (minor road) after switchback #1 and before switchback #2 and #3 that leads up to their home. Glad our 2 wheel drive did not get stuck in a rut on the driveway!

Today Dear is starting to paint the nursery and a dresser and toy box truck. I’ll be taking the dog for a walk when I see the outdoor temperature gauge rise above 20 degrees. Here’s a “good morning” view from Dan and Jamie’s world.

Being on the road most of the day yesterday made for a dismal amount of steps for me. We’ll see what today yields. I hope to get around to blogs later this afternoon. Hope your Thursday is starting nicely. So pleased the sun is shining today and it’s not snowing here right now. How’s it in your corner of the world?

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Travel Washington State