Quality Time Together…

Last Thursday Dear and I loaded up the car and headed East to enjoy some quality time with our kids. Our son-in-law Andrew wasn’t given time off of work to be able to join us and we missed him dearly.

On Friday (Halloween) we had a great hike on and above our son Dan’s property.

Our sons, Dan and Josh.

A Selfie from Josh and Laura.

Our daughter Katie and daughter-in-love, Laura.

Laura took this photo of Katie on our hike with her phone.

We had some great views and enjoyed lots of fall color.

My son shared some apples from his trees with the deer.

We enjoyed hiking, shooting, shopping, eating, and playing games together. We marvel at the world God created for us to enjoy and the people He has put in our lives to love and encourage us on our journey.

Dear and I stayed at a farmhouse close to our son’s home so the kids could enjoy staying up late and sleeping in while Dear and I tucked in earlier and woke up early each day. On Saturday morning all the kids came over to the farmhouse to enjoy a meal that Dear and I prepared for them. We bought some local made sausages and Dear made his fabulous Swedish pancakes and we added eggs to round off the meal.

Later on Saturday Dan and Jamie made us their famous fish tacos with their home made cabbage salsa. Dinner was so delicious. I’ll share the salsa recipe soon on Mennonite Girls Can cook. I’m so sad I didn’t take one photo of all the good eats we had.

We enjoyed three sunsets in Eastern Washington.

Dan and his girlfriend, Jamie.

Before we headed back over the Cascades to Western Washington we enjoyed brunch together.

We consider any time we are able to spend with our kids quality time.

I’m linking this post to ABC Wednesday for the letter Q. Thank you to Denise Nesbitt and the ABC crew.

Q is for Quality time spent together with family.

The Barn Collective

We just returned home from Eastern Washington where we saw some great barns. This wasn’t the kind of road trip where I could yell “STOP” around every corner to take a photo. We were headed over the mountains to spend quality time with our adult kids. Here’s the little barn that is on our son’s property.

I’m catching up at home as we just arrived back yesterday at five in the afternoon, in the dark, in rain showers. The time change always throws me for a loop and soon it will be getting dark at 4:30 in the afternoon. That always takes some getting used to. Hope you all had a good weekend. I’ll get my post from our time in Eastern Washington ready to go tomorrow.

Joining in with Amy at Rose Street Reflections for The Barn Collective. Click on over to see some great barns from around our world.

InSPIREd Sunday…

St. Mary of the Rosary on Main Street in Chewelah, Washington. The first two photos were taken on Halloween and the third photo down was taken on a trip we took to Eastern Washington in the summer of 2012.

Linking up to InSPIREd Sundays hosted by Beth and Sally.

I might not be able to visit until I get back to Western Washington and I have a more consistent Internet connection. Happy November everyone!

Horsin Around…

We’re having a good time in Eastern Washington and I’ll share all about it when we get home again, home again, jiggety jig. Beautiful colors, wonderful family and lots of good eats!

These photos are from our Halloween Hike where we saw some scary evidence of bears in the vicinity. Hope your Halloween isn’t too scary! We’re ready to welcome the wonderful month of November…

InSPIREd Sunday ~ Roslyn, Washington

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Roslyn, Washington.

Roslyn is that city made famous for the T.V. series called Northern Exposure. We enjoyed a little road trip there. It’s just off of I-90 going over the Cascade Mountain range in Washington State. Since I referenced Northern Exposure here’s a photo from Roslyn that you will recognize.

Thank you to Beth and Sally for hosting InSPIREd Sunday. Click on over to see some pretty church spires from around the world.

Wow! We’ve had five Sundays in August this year. It’s labor day weekend so of course we are laboring. How about you?

Good Fences ~ Oysterville

My fences this week are from a trip Dear and I took a couple years ago to Long Beach, Washington. These fences are in Oysterville, Washington.

The texture that the moss or lichen added to this fence was very interesting but the damage to the wood is probably significant, too.

This is the oldest house in Oysterville. We enjoyed walking through this little town and also reading up on the history.

You can click over to TexWisGirl at Run*A*Round Ranch to see other fences from around the world.

Can you believe we are coming up on Labor Day Weekend here in the States? Got any plans?

Coupeville and Langley

When traveling on Whidbey Island we like to stop in Coupeville for Penn Cove mussels, Freeland for antique shopping, and our favorite town on the Island, Langley, for shops and a nice stroll.

On our trip last week after exploring Deception Pass we headed south to the Island County seat of Coupeville. My plan was to have lunch at Front Street Grill and introduce Lenny and Debbee to Mussels. Coupeville sits on Penn Cove which is known for their mussels. I forgot to take a photo of those mussels. Both Lenny and Debbee didn’t think they liked mussels but after they tried them they became fans.

Front Street Grill offers a whole page of mussels in different sauces that are delicious. This photo is from our trip to Coupeville with my cousin and we had the Coconut Green Curry Mussels. This time around we chose the Rockefeller sauce because someone in the group detests coconut! How can you go wrong with a sauce described like this “Spinach, bacon, Pernod, shallots, garlic and cream. The great thing is that all the sauces for the mussels were Gluten Free.

Debbee and Lenny with Penn Cove in the background.

I thought this was a creative name for this stand located at the end of Front Street.

We headed south again to our final destination on the island, the little town of Langley. We stopped at this garden store hoping some flowers would be blooming on these great trellises. The greenery was nice but we had missed the blooms.

Langley

Langley sits above Saratoga Pass.

My brother in law, Steve, sits on bench.

We got a refreshment here and then headed to the Cinton Ferry Dock.

I think this was Lenny’s first ferry ride.

It was a still glassy day on the Sound. Another great tour behind us we headed off the ferry to meet Josh, Laura, and Dear for dinner on the mainland. After dinner we said our goodbyes to Debbee and Lenny since they’d be headed back to Southern California the following morning.

We had a busy weekend around here and Dear didn’t get as much done as he had hoped to on the bathroom. You know how it goes with projects in old houses you end up finding things that need to be re-done when you open up walls and take a good look at old pipes. I have a couple days off before I put my tour guide hat back on and I’ll be sharing later in the week about the largest tour group I’ve been responsible for to date.

What’s on the list for your first full week of summer?

Good Fences ~ George Washington Inn

The George Washington Inn is situated on the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Port Angeles and Sequim with views of the Olympic Mountain Range in Washington State on the Olympic Peninsula. It’s a great choice for a getaway with easy access to Hurricane Ridge and the Olympic Mountains or Dungeness Bay. The third weekend every July Sequim is known for their wonderful lavender festival. This would be a great spot to overnight for the festival.

My daughter, girlfriend and I attended a George Washington Tea here on Washington’s birthday in February a couple years ago. On that day we were treated to a rainbow looking out the back of the Inn and onto the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

We were happy that George Washington was the special guest at the tea in his honor.

I will be linking up with TexWisGirl at Run A Round Ranch for Good Fences #12.

My Feedly source has been attacked for the second time in 2 days and I’m not getting my usual updates on the blogs I enjoy visiting. They are working on developing some protection and getting back online. If I haven’t visited you can blame it on the attacker!

M is for Mt. Vernon…

“Mount Vernon sits at the center of Skagit County, a true slice of Pacific Northwest heaven located halfway between Seattle and Vancouver, BC. About 25 miles wide and 95 miles long, some of Washington’s most scenic and pristine landscape is found in the Upper Skagit’s North Cascades National Park. From there the land flows like the Skagit River through nutrient-rich farmland to the shores of the Salish Sea.”

In April people from around the world descend on Mount Vernon and the Skagit Valley for it’s annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. Here are some photos to show you why. My daughter Katie and I headed north form our house to see the blooms on Monday. We enjoyed a wonderful 70 degree day and got a little sunburned as we tiptoed through the tulips!

It’s best to wear mud boots when you go to the tulip fields!

Beautiful daffodils bloom here, too.

Later this week I’ll be posting more of my photos from our Monday in Mount Vernon!

ABC Wednesday is a weekly meme that originated with Denise Nesbitt and now others keep it rolling along.

I’m also linking up to Outdoor Wednesday hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer.

Country Fun vs. City Fun

Last weekend we traveled five and a half hours to our son’s home in the northeastern corner of Washington state. We were definitely in the country. There are things that you can do in the country that you are not free to do in the city. We have fun doing those things…

We arrived with the sun shining and blue skies.

There aren’t a lot of restaurants to choose from in the country compared to the city but you can still find some real good ones. We had my birthday dinner at The Chalet in Chewelah and we all enjoyed our meals.

Early on Saturday morning the snow started falling. We weren’t expecting that.

Thankfully the snow only lasted till noon and then melted nicely. On Saturday because of the cold and snow Dear and Dan did indoor projects.

In the country you can count on early morning visitors of the 4 legged variety that aren’t dogs or cats.

They make themselves at home.

We love the wide open spaces in the country. While walking out on Dan’s land on Sunday morning it was great to hear all the different birds chirping and the creek running.

Dan is fortunate to have a huge shop where he can work away from the elements. The shop had lots of old tools from the previous owner and Dan displayed some of the older ones on the walls.

You can’t do this in our city but in the country we got a great bonfire going cleaning up lots of debris around the property. While we worked outside our corned beef meal was cooking away in the slow cooker. When the clean-up for the day was done my family did some shooting. It’s nice to shoot out in the open instead of in a enclosed shooting range. In the evenings we enjoyed sitting around eating and enjoying each others company.

Before we headed home on Monday morning we drove north into Colville to the National Forest Service office in town to pick up my Senior America the Beautiful lifetime pass and we got a free Military dependent pass for Katie. We joined the locals in Colville for breakfast at Zip’s.

It was fun sitting and listening to the good ole boys talking about their doings and their take on what happened to that Malaysian plane.

Our 6 hour drive home back to the city was uneventful and that’s the way we like it.

So…are you a country mouse or a city mouse or maybe a little of both?

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Washington State