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!
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…
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?
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?
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?
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!
“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.
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.
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?
On Friday we left the Seattle Area at 11:00 A.M. and headed east on Interstate 90 for Eastern Washington to visit our son Dan for the weekend. The road across Snoqualmie Pass was clear of snow and uneventful. As we approached the Columbia River we took notice of the lower water levels because of a crack and repairs on one of the dams upriver.
When we approached the the Quincy area we saw that the wind was really causing some dust storms and as we got closer to the area we saw this eerie sight.
The Attack of the Tumbleweeds!
The tumbleweeds crossing the interstate went on for miles. We hit so many and we noticed many trapped underneath cars and in the front grills.
It was a lot spookier than it looks in my photos. When we pulled off the interstate in Spokane we stopped so an older man could cross the road. He stopped in front of our car and pulled out the large tumble weed that was lodged in our grill. We laughed and thanked him!
We made it to Dan’s in record time and unpacked the car and then headed for dinner.
The roads from Dan’s place to the grocery store on Saturday were quiet and beautiful. I saw a rafter of wild turkeys.
It’s great to travel roads in the great open spaces.
On the way home today the only excitement we had was a snow/rain mix on the pass.
I’ll post more photos of our time at Dan’s place in the next few days now that we are back home again. Hope all is good in your corner of the world.
Scroll Down to the Post Below This One for Kathleen’s St. Patrick’s Day Crawl!
Tuesday was such a beautiful day that Katie and I decided to take the drive to Snoqualmie Falls. Although it was dry with clear blue skies and a few fluffy clouds we still got rained on by the falls themselves. The river was running so full and strong that the spray off the falls fell like rain anywhere close.
On Tuesday evening Katie and I went out together to celebrate her and Andrew’s anniversary. Dear is in Florida until tonight so it was just the girls. We chose a waterfront restaurant because the weather was so great. I’ll share the photos from our dinner on another day.
Today was another glorious day and I even had to turn my air conditioning on in the car. I am looking forward to Dear coming home tonight. How’s the weather where you are? I hope it hasn’t turned nasty for you again…
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 