Category Archives: Washington State

Seattle and the Shop

Tomorrow I’m flying with our DIL and our two grandbabes to Seattle.

I’ll be giving my full 90 on Sunday at the Major League Soccer Cup game between our team, the Seattle Sounders FC, and Toronto FC. I found this old ticket from 2012 when we played Toronto for our opening game of that season. Seattle is all a buzz with the excitement of hosting this game on our home turf.

I’ll be seeing all our kids this weekend. This is an early anniversary gift our kids had made for us. The photo was taken in Seattle on September 8th. Brought me to tears when I opened it. The best of gifts for sure.

I’m not taking my computer with me because I’ll have a 2 year old in tow and I need both hands without an extra carry-on. I’ll be scarce until next Wednesday.

Dear will be staying home and continuing work on the shop roof.

He’s a hard working guy! Our son chain sawed out the notches on the top of the posts. That was a huge help to Dear.

We’re still hoping the roof will be on by the first big snow. Time will tell.

Hope you all have a great weekend. I’ll check in with y’all next Wednesday or Thursday.

Spokane to Seattle

On our trip to Southern California on October 15th the first leg was a short flight (under one hour) from Spokane to Seattle. It takes us about an hour and a half to get to the airport from Colville. This time our plane was a Bombardier. I took one photo as we left Spokane and when we got to Seattle I tried to get some photos without the propellers.

This is the first time I’ve seen Green Lake so clearly from a plane.

Green Lake is one of Seattle’s most beloved parks. Its expanse of water and green space in the center of a dense urban neighborhood draws thousands of people daily from all over the city. The park serves as a natural preserve for hundreds of species of trees and plants, as well as numerous birds and waterfowl. The 2.8-mile path around the lake provides a perfect recreational spot for runners, bikers, skaters and walkers. Many others use the athletic fields or visit the park for boating, picnics and swimming.

I think this is a view of Lake Union and the larger green area next to the water is Gas Works Park. You can see the Space Needle to the left. The larger bridge might be the Aurora Bridge.

I’ve spent many hours at this field watching the Seattle Sounders Soccer team. I’ve missed being able to go to games since we’ve moved. Tuesday night the Sounders play a game in Los Angeles for the Western Conference Title. If they win they’ll play in the final against the Eastern Conference Title winner for the MLS Cup.

We landed shortly after flying over these fields and made it to the gate to board a much larger plane to fly to Bubank, California. Hollywood Burbank Airport, legally and formerly marketed as Bob Hope Airport, is a public airport 3 miles northwest of downtown Burbank, in Los Angeles County, California, United States.

We are having very cold overnight temperatures the next several days. Monday and Tuesday’s predictions are lows of 15 and 17 degrees and then in the twenties the rest of the week. The highs range from 37 to 48 degrees F. Thankfully no precipitation is predicted because that would mean snow! Time to pull out our winter wear.

To Northport

On Sunday afternoon we turned left out our driveway and headed north to the town of Northport.

We followed our road to highway 25 and turned right headed for Northport. Northport is just shy of 10 miles to Canada.

Northport was given its name since it was once the northernmost town on the Spokane Falls and Northern Railway. It was officially incorporated on June 1, 1898 but has a history stretching back to the 1880s when it was a port and shipbuilding center for steamboat services running northwards into British Columbia during construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, related to its location at a stretch of the Columbia known as the Little Dalles, a rapids and narrows that was a barrier to navigation and which also was an alternate name for Northport itself. In 2010 the census of Northport registered 295 people.

We had a meal at the River Town Grill.

We crossed the bridge over the Columbia River.

Sometime in the near future we’ll follow the highway all the way to Canada and check out some of the towns close by like Rossland, Trail and Nelson. Nelson is where the movie Roxanne was filmed. (Steve Martin)

On the way back home we stopped to take some photos of the Columbia River.

At this spot we recognized the property across the river and the structures at the top of the slope. Our Eastern Washington kids got married on that property in 2015. I zoomed in to make sure it was the spot.

Flash back to June 30, 2015.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig.

We hope to have many more day trips in the future to learn more about our new part of the state.

Mother’s day plans here are going to be last minute and flexible as our kids are still pretty much homebound. The guys are prepped and ready to barbecue something for a meal on Sunday for all the usual suspects.

Flat Stanley in Washington

We’ve been busy on the coast with some fun trips around the area showing Flat Stanley the sights so he can report back to our grandniece, Skylar, who lives in New York.

We were surprised with this bit of history in Bothell and happy that part of the Red Brick Road has been preserved.

Flat Stanley is on a flat tractor just off the red brick road. After we read this history we walked to one of the bridges over the Sammamish Slough in Bothell. The Sammamish River (Slough) connects Lake Washington in Kenmore to Lake Sammammish in Redmond. We wanted to show Flat Stanley the part of this river that Skylar kayaked on a couple years ago.

We walked to where the Sammamish Trail and the Burke Gilman Trail meet.

We continued on to the University of Washington after this stop to see the Cherry Blossoms and beyond for other iconic sights of Seattle. I’ll share my photos from the other stops after we get home to Colville.

I’m way behind in visiting but will catch up when I’m in our Country Bungalow.

First Road Trip of 2019!

We decided Thursday evening to hit the road Friday morning (January 11th) to visit our western kids. It’s a 5-1/2 to 6 hour drive from Colville to Bothell. The weather window looked real good for crossing the Cascade mountain range so we packed up for a quick trip. We had to be back home on Sunday.

This was the only photo I took on our trip west. This is the Vantage Bridge over the Columbia River Gorge. Our drive was smooth and easy all the way to our destination. We did not stop except to get a few gallons of gas in Cle Elum before going over Snoqualmie Pass into Western Washington.

Our first stop was at La Corona and these two joined us for an early dinner.

They just got their keys to their very first home. We were excited to make the trip to see their new home in person.

Before Dear and I left for this quick road trip I had made a big pot of Borsch. I froze several containers of the borsch and we took them to Western Washington for our kids to enjoy. We dropped off a container for our Colville kids, too, on Thursday afternoon.

Perfect for a warm up after playing in the snow.

While we were in Western Washington we didn’t take any photos except for the selfie at La Corona. After La Corona we all gathered at our oldest son’s home for some family time. On Saturday we drove to Katie and Andrew’s new home and had a little tour. From there the guys went to the big box store to get some things the kids will need to fix up their home. The girls gathered along with my sister Lana to do some fun shopping at our favorites, HomeGoods, TJMaxx, Target, Hobby Lobby and Costco. After Costco we all gathered at Josh and Laura’s again for a meal together that we brought home from Costco. I bought some new wall art for our country bungalow.

Early on Sunday morning we left for our trip back to Colville.

This is a new wild animal crossing bridge over Interstate 90 just east of Snoqualmie Pass.

We saw a lot of birds of prey from Cle Elum on through Ellensburg. Hard to get good photos speeding along the interstate at 70 miles plus. This was one eagle I was able to capture. After Ellensburg as we headed up and over Ryegrass we encountered some heavy fog that put a huge strain on our eyes.

Once the fog cleared we continued listening to our book on cd that helped our trip West and back East fly by. We were listening to the new Inspector Gamache crime mystery by Louise Penny, Kingdom of the Blind.

Dear got a migraine and I had to drive so no more photos till after we left Spokane and Dear was ready to drive again. In Spokane we stopped at Home Depot and Costco before heading north on highway 395.

The rest of these photos are from after we stopped for dinner in Chewelah at El Ranchito. The road from Chewelah to Colville is one we are very familiar with and the scenery changes seasonally but some things stay the same.

The big C and the cross are the landmarks we see as we approach city center in Colville.

We dropped off some goods for our kids in Colville that we purchased for them at Costco and had some sweet time with Addy before we headed the 8 miles home again, home again, jiggety jig.

It was good to get home and heat up the house before we hit the sack.

We still have a cd to listen to for the Inspector Gamache story’s end. Our trip afforded us 9 cd’s out of 10. Do you listen to books on cd? We love to travel that way.

We had/have 3 family birthdays this week. More about those events to come…

Westside Celebrations

On the first day of December we made the drive south to connect to interstate 90 and east and over the Cascade mountain range to the greater Seattle area of Washington, about 365 miles.

Our oldest son and daughter-in-law welcomed us to their new home for the weekend with a beautiful suite for us to stay in.

Their home has been decorated beautifully by Laura and now the Christmas touches have been added for the month of December. We spent a quiet Saturday evening in their home.

On Sunday we saw them off for a fun birthday adventure with Laura’s side of the family and then we prepared for our trip north to Canada for the annual Mennonite Girls Can Cook Christmas dinner. As we prepared for our journey we had the revelation that we had left our passports way back in Colville. We were so sad to realize this mistake on our parts and started considering what to do. Since I have an enhanced license we decided I would make the 2-1/2 hour drive on my own. The roads and border crossing were great and the afternoon/evening was fabulous. It was so good to see the “girls” and their husbands again. While I was in Canada Dear was able to enjoy a meal out with our Western Washington kids!

I’ll share about the party and the rest of our weekend in other posts.

I watched the service for President George H.W. Bush on Wednesday. What a rich experience that was filled with reverence and emotion.

Have you ever read the lyrics to Hail to the Chief?

Hail to the Chief we have chosen for the nation
Hail to the Chief, we salute him, one and all
(We salute him)
Hail to the Chief as we pledge cooperation
In proud fulfillment of a great, noble call

Yours is the aim to make this grand country grander
This you will do, that’s our strong, firm belief
(Our firm belief)
Hail to the one we selected as commander
Hail to the President! Hail to the Chief!

Hope your week is going well.

What to Do? What to Do?

I’m wondering what I should do with my three remaining days of living in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. We recorded yesterday and received our keys at 6pm. It was getting dark when we headed over to take a quick walk-thru to drop off a small load of stuff. We (myself, son, DIL and grandgirlie). Dear remained on the west side of the mountains with responsibilities to wrap up.

This is our new driveway and I went to the street to take photos of the drive for our container delivery people. Addy spotted me and made a run for it to join me. I had to catch her at full speed before she toppled over! This was yesterday.

Today I drove the six hours from Colville to Lynnwood with my companion on CD being Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope. Now I’m deciding what I want to do on this side of the mountains before we leave to our new home on Sunday. We are moving from a major population area of close to 4 million to a community of about 5,000.

Before I left on Dear’s birthday to head to Colville to deliver paperwork and a check to close on our new home we celebrated Dear’s Medicare birthday with our kids on the western side of the mountains.

The Wild Turkey Capital…

…of the Pacific Northwest.

Colville lays claim to that title. All of these turkeys were on our son’s property last weekend and we’ve seen many a rafter of turkeys on the roads we travel around Colville and Chewelah.

Now we haven’t seen one of these on the loose but this bull was spotted just a couple properties north from our new house. We definitely won’t be in the big city anymore.

It’s good and it’s scary with many unknowns but we look forward to be settled in by the end of September with all our stuff around us again. We also look forward to meeting our new neighbors. We hear they are good neighbors and will strive to be good neighbors as well.

We Need Relief…

…from our smoke filled skies. Praying our fires are contained and no new fires start.

We left Colville this morning and we had smoke filled skies all across eastern Washington, central Washington, over the Cascade mountain range and into Western Washington. It’s sad to see so much smoke. It also is hard on the eyes, throat, lungs and sinuses.

“The Air Quality Index jumped from a 156 (Unhealthy) last night to a 202 (Very Unhealthy) this morning. Inchelium is at 203 – these are the worst levels in the State of Washington. Folks should stay inside with the windows closed per the EPA, or go to malls or other places with filtered air.”

Looking forward to clear skies ahead.

No Yard Yet…

…so no new yard art for us.

Way Out West

On our last trip over and back again we finally pulled off of Interstate 90 to get a closer look at this establishment that has peeked our interest on every trip we’ve made to Eastern Washington. We had an empty trailer being towed behind our truck so it’s a real good thing the yard was closed.

The statuary farm at 11610 White Road is the best roadside attraction in Eastern Washington, if not the entire state.

The scores of items that face Interstate 90 near the Medical Lake exit are random and weird and strangely compelling. The whole oddball ranch looks like it was designed by Salvador Dali on acid, but that’s not the case.

This is the work and vision of a bearded and intense Spokane businessman:

Mike Ferguson.

“It’s all out of his brain,” said Ferguson’s brother, Mark, who owns 11 of the 21 acres here. “He knows how to barter. He knows how to make a deal.”

Mike named the place Way Out West, and I’ll second the “way out” part.

You can read more about this property and the owner here.

We are still feeling displaced and out of it, (out of this world). We are being taken care of well with a comfortable spot to lay our heads and few belongings that aren’t stored away in shipping containers (3- 8x8x20 of them). We are busy each weekend making round trips to our son’s home in Northeastern Washington where he’s opened up space in his shop to store Dear’s shop stuff until we find the elusive home of ours.

We leave on Saturday mornings and arrive Saturday afternoons, unload, relax a bit with hugs from Addy and understanding from her parents. We then travel back to this side of the mountains on Sunday.

You will all be the first to know when we find “the house” for us.