Category Archives: Washington State

Travelling Surprises…

To Chewelah 001On 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.

To Chewelah 003The Attack of the Tumbleweeds!

To Chewelah 009The tumbleweeds crossing the interstate went on for miles. We hit so many and we noticed many trapped underneath cars and in the front grills.

To Chewelah 010It 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.

P1040938It’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.

Snoqualmie Falls

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.

 

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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…

Bumper Stickers

My sister Lana calls me when she sees bumper stickers that make her laugh. She just called me to read a bumper sticker on the car in front of her in traffic. It reads: “Do you follow Jesus this close?” Love it. That would make you think.

My mom is still having her ups and downs and food requests. She mentioned she’d enjoy some fried chicken. My sister Lana decided to drive to the place where my parents first experienced fried chicken to pick some up for them, Knott’s Berry Farm. She ordered the whole meal plus a Boysenberry Pie for dessert. I’m hoping to see a photo soon of them enjoying the meal. I do not need to wish any further. This photo just popped up on Facebook!!

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Katie and Andrew are enjoying their bittersweet days here before they are separated for 6 to 7 months.  They’ve planned some fun things with family and friends the rest of the week. When God puts our Andrew on your mind please pray for his safety and for the loneliness both he and Katie will be experiencing…Thank you.

The last days of August are ticking away! What do you have going?

Here, There and Everywhere…

I’m headed on a new adventure today with my girls. Here are some photos from the road this past week when we visited our son Dan and some other random shots from here, there, and everywhere!

The bridge over the Columbia on I-90 heading East at Vantage.

Friday turned out to be a glorious day in the Pacific Northwest.

The weather gave us lots of hope for future tulip days in April. But in March we always have daffodils popping up to make us smile.

Katie had 16 inches of her hair cut off to send to Locks of Love and she is now a vibrant red head! I’ll give you a sneak peek.

I’ll share the whole look later. As for me my hair is still the same with some grey covered up for now.

Hope you all have a great weekend. I’m not sure when I’ll be posting again because of our whirlwind trip to the Los Angeles area.

I’m Melting…

…or the time in between Winter and Spring in Chewelah. There was a lot more snow on the ground at our son’s place before we arrived. I was happy to visit after the fact. I shared Fall scenes from his property and here are some winter scenes.

This was our daughter Katie’s first visit to her brother’s home so we all trekked about the property for her to get a good picture of his property.

We ended our stay with breakfast at The Chalet Restaurant and Alpine Room in Chewelah, a great place to eat.

We had a wonderful time together at Dan’s place. After breakfast we said our goodbyes and reminded each other that we’ll all be together again in late April when we travel to our niece’s wedding in Southern California from 3 different airports. We’re at that stage in life when our kids are a bit scattered and enjoying life as they should apart from us. We always welcome the times we can come together and enjoy each other. Do your grown children live far or near?

To the Island!

We have several islands to enjoy in our area. One of our favorites is Whidbey Island. On Saturday we caught a ferry in Mukilteo that took us to Clinton at the south end of Whidbey Island. We drove up to the ferry line and were happy to make the ferry that was already loading. We were the last car on…

It was a blustery day. We braved the outdoor deck for long enough to take a photo. This is my cousin Jim, his wife Jeanie, and our daughter Katie.

Our first stop was up the island in Coupeville. Coupeville is located on Penn Cove. Penn Cove is known for mussels. This coming up weekend is Penn Cove Mussel Fest. Coupeville is the 2nd oldest town in the state of Washington. We ate at the Front St. Grill. They had a page full of mussel offerings to enjoy. We chose the Coconut Green Curry Mussels. Delicious!

We walked along the Front St. and enjoyed perusing the shops.

We hopped back in the car and returned to the southern end of the island to visit our favorite town of Langley. This is our traditional photo spot on 1st. St. in Langley. Saratoga Passage is behind us. We spotted a whale in this Passage last year. Saratoga Passage lies in Puget Sound between Whidbey Island and Camano Island.

After walking through our favorite shops we headed back to the ferry dock. When the ferry rolled in I saw these two seagulls perched on the lights above the pilot house. It made me chuckle that they chose the first class perches to roll into the dock.

We were quite pleased that the weather was nicer than what we expected for Jim and Jeanie’s visit and for our adventures. Last night we had a farewell meal together with our company plus my sister, her husband, our son Josh, our SIL Laura and Katie. Hope your week is going well…

More From the Road…

Although the eagles and mountains we saw on our roadtrip were the most majestic of our views we saw other lovely sights. This robin sat still long enough for me to capture with my lens.

The sun played nicely on and through the moss on the trees we passed along the road.

The last photos I took on this trip were of this Orthodox church in Arlington where we returned to Interstate 5 to head home. Love the design of the crosses.

What’s up for you today? We are having a meal tonight with 3 of our 5 kiddos. I’m thinking I’ll set the table with pink, red, and white…

Sun and Eagle Chasing…

Our trip on Sunday up highway 530 in Northwest Washington was one of trying to find the sunshine and spotting some eagles along the Skagit River.

We found both and enjoyed the sunshine and the eagles we spotted. Some of our Mennonite girls get eagles right on their own properties and others don’t have to travel far to enjoy viewing them. Maybe next year I’ll just go squat on their properties to see many eagles all together.

The Skagit River area between Concrete and Marblemount off of highway 20 in Washington is a good spot to see eagles in January. We were a little late to see a good number this year.

The Skagit river was flowing nicely with some interesting swirling that we enjoyed watching.

Tomorrow I’ll be picking up our daughter from the airport for her 1 month stay with us while our Son in law is doing some training off the base. We’re happy to have her here with us instead of on base by herself for the month. We are looking forward to some fun events together. She’ll bring a different kind of sunshine to our home.

Off the Beaten Track…

We had a choice or two on how we might reach our destination for our Sunday drive. We chose the back way. We decided we had enough of the interstate and wanted to see interesting scenes along a smaller highway. We were happy with our choice to take highway 530 to Rockport. We had some good views of Mt. Pilchuk.

How’s this for a tree lined road?

Here we have a little peek of snow covered Mt. Pilchuk. We enjoy roads that wind along rivers.

We arrived to our destination and spotted what we were hoping to see. Can you see it? I’ll have more photos in the days to come.

This week begins a very busy time around this old house. How’s your week shaping up?

A Sunday Drive…

Dear and I decided on a Sunday drive to the North of us on a small highway to see if we could spot some eagles. We were socked in with fog at our house and it was so nice to travel out of it and come into the nice bright sunshine. Funny that we had to go North instead of South to get to the sunshine. I’ll be sharing more photos tomorrow of our outing and the 3 eagles we did spot.

This is the Skagit river at Rockport, Washington, looking East. A different part of our beautiful state. Blessings on your week!