InSPIREd Sunday

Saint Edward Seminary (sometimes “Saint Edward’s Seminary”) was an institution for developing Catholic priests in the US state of Washington. Dedicated to Saint Edward the Confessor and located in the city of Kenmore, it operated for 46 years before closing in 1976. The seminary and most of its grounds now constitute Saint Edward State Park. The seminary was located on a 366 acres (148 ha; 0.572 sq mi) property purchased in the late 1920s. Building plans were scaled back in 1929 due to the Great Depression. In 1931, the seminary opened as a minor seminary; it became a major (college level) seminary in 1935. In 1958, Saint Thomas the Apostle Seminary opened as a major seminary on 50 acres of the site and St. Edward continued as a minor seminary. The Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle closed St. Edward in 1976 and sold it to the State of Washington in 1977. It became Saint Edward State Park in 1978.

On Tuesday Dear and I drove to St. Edward State Park to hike the North trail. There are several trails that take you down to the shores of Lake Washington. After getting down to Lake Washington we hiked the Seminary trail back up to the parking lot.

This is the Royal Arms of St. Edward the Confessor. I zoomed in on the bell tower to get a closer look. There are plans in the making for restoring the Seminary into a hotel.

I’ll add one photo from the North Trail that we hiked, too.

Psalm 96: 11-13 (ESV)

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
    let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the Lord, for he comes,
    for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
    and the peoples in his faithfulness.

I’m linking up to InSPIREd Sunday with Beth and Sally.

We are having a nice low key weekend. Some light rain has returned. No great walks today. I did clean out my closet with a few bags filled to go to Goodwill. Feels good to reassess the things that are cluttering my closet and thus my mind. Hope all is well in your corner. Do you get a long weekend?

Snoqualmie Falls

Dear, my sister Vera and I drove to Snoqualmie Falls on Saturday January 28th. The falls weren’t at their fullest on this trip.

On this day we decided to hike down to the bottom of the falls. Our first time to do this.

It was nice to have a different view.

The river was fast and furious and frothy!

After our hike down the trail and the harder hike up again we decided a nice cold brew and good meal were the next thing to enjoy.

Linking up with ABC Wednesday, F is for Snoqualmie Falls. Thank you Mrs. Nesbitt, Roger and the friendly ABC team.

Flashing back to Sunday evening and our early Valentine’s day celebration with our kids Josh and Laura. I’ll share more tomorrow. Happy Valentine’s Day ABCers!

Canoeing on Lake Washington

I need to catch up with my posts on some of the fun things we did with our leftover wedding company the first week in July!

We headed to the Waterfront Activities Center at the University of Washington to rent some canoes. Thankfully the adults outnumbered the kiddos!

Here’s my crew, Jackson and Hope!

A warm day on the lake.

My niece Michelle and my sister-in-law Mandy with Avery in the 2nd canoe.

The third canoe had my brother Leonard, sister Kathy and nephew Andrew.

My crew had to work hard since we were the crew with only one adult on board!

Duck and Ducks!

At this point we were all headed back to the dock to turn in our canoes and life vests.

It was a great experience to canoe on Lake Washington amidst the water lilies, ducks, turtles and blue heron. We were ready for a cool down and some refreshments when we were done but had to take one last shot to prove we were on the University of Washington campus! We have two graduates from the University of Washington in our family and soon we’ll have another one when our son-in-law Andrew finishes his course of studies after his service with the Marines!

A Taste of Ste Michelle

Moving along with my tour guide hat on Monday June 17th we visited Ste Michelle Winery in Woodinville, Wa. This is on the quiet side of Lake Washington about 17 miles from Seattle.

The winery is open for tours every day and during the week you can see the bottling operation in progress. They do not bottle on the weekends.

After the short informative tour filled with the history of this land and winery we were guided into the tasting room.

We were told to hold up our glasses and look at the color of the wine. I’m so obedient…sometimes.

After the tastings my niece and her hubby got a lot more animated.

Is that the wine talking?

From Ste Michelle we went up the road a bit to the Redhook Brewery. The next available tour there was at 2:00 so we had lunch at the Forecaster’s Pub attached to the brewery and then I left Debbee and Lenny with my Brother-in-law for the tour and I headed home to get ready for the U.S.A. vs. Ghana World Cup Game. Thanks for coming to the rescue Steve because I didn’t want them to miss the tour but I was not willing to miss a second of the once in a lifetime game. Josh and Laura arrived before the game started and the rest of the crew arrived in enough time for the 2nd half and the win by the U.S.A. We all had dinner together and a few rounds of Mexican Train. Soon I’ll show our tour of Whidbey Island and the grand finale of Debbee and Lenny’s trip to Western Washington.

It’s Friday today and soon we’ll be in full swing with our Weekend Warrior hats on. While Dear works on ceiling lights, ceiling fan and ceiling drywall I will be available to offer a hand here and there and feed my warrior. What does your weekend look like?

A Good Start…

On Sunday afternoon of day 5 of the New Year Dear pipes up and says, “do you want to go out and take a walk?” I said, “let’s go while it’s still light and dry.”

The morning started in the 20’s and there was lots of frosty ice on the deck, roofs, lawn, and sidewalks so we bundled up before we headed out.

Not too much excitement here in the neighborhood to report but here are some things I took photos of…

Little varmints have been busy in the neighborhood. They sure were digging in a straight line!

She did not fly south and she was squawking up a storm upon our approach. She was perched on the roof of an out building.

By the time we got way up this hill I was breathing quite heavily and used the excuse to stop and take a photo of where we had come from and the view from the top to catch my breath. Those mountains are in the Cascade Mountain range.

The trees are in full winter mode. This weeping willow has so much character.

We got home as the sun was setting and casting a wonderful glow onto the maple in our neighbor’s yard.

We really need to make walking a habit for this new year. We used to walk more regularly but have fallen way out of the habit. Do you walk regularly?

(I stayed up way too late watching the season 4 opening of Downton Abbey. I’m still hooked and very tired.)

Who Would Have Guessed…

…I left sunny Seattle and flew to overcast misty Southern California. I’ll leave you with something else that I left behind…

Our apple tree is full of pretty blossoms. I’ll share more later.

I’m in my hotel room in Costa Mesa and will be heading over to Huntington Beach for dinner at my sister’s soon. Tomorrow the rest of my family arrives. Let the celebrations begin…

A Little Drive…

…to 3 Little Towns.

On Saturday morning of Memorial Weekend Dear was inspired to take a drive just across the Cascades to visit Cle Elum, Roslyn, and Ronald.

We left early in the morning and our first stop was for breakfast in Cle Elum.

Friendly people and good food if you need someplace to eat on your way across the Cascades we recommend this cafe. They have “acres” of parking…that cracked me up but I suppose if you are traveling in R.V.’s and pulling trailers filled with bikes and camping gear this is the place for you!

We got some great inside information from the family sitting next to us on visiting Roslyn and Ronald. After breakfast in Cle Elum and a stop at the small town hardware store we headed West to Roslyn.

Incorporated in 1886 the coal-mining town of Roslyn played an important role in Washington State History. The extensive coal fields in the area fueled the Northern Pacific Railroad’s trains during construction and early operation of a direct rail line through the Cascade Mountains.

Roslyn also claimed fame because of the T.V. series Northern Exposure. It was called Cicely on the show and suppose to be in Alaska but the filming was done on the streets of Roslyn, Washington.

The Brick is Washington’s oldest continuously operating bar established in 1889. They are also known for Northern Exposure being filmed there and a movie called The Runner Stumbles with Dick Van Dyke. The Runner Stumbles was also filmed at the Immaculate Conception Church in Roslyn shown below.

We were too early for most shops to be open but we weren’t too early to hit some garage sales. We found some real good bargains in Roslyn. Items priced at 10 cents and 50 cents. Woohoo that’s what I’m talking about…

We always are able to find some great yard art in these little towns we visit.

Our last little town was Ronald and this is a photo of the General Store. There wasn’t much else in this town but we found this stellar example of yard art!

What do you think?

We headed home from this little town and made it back in time to mow and weed whack the yard.

Happy Birthday President Washington!

These were taken inside the Washington National Cathedral. Beautiful rays of light were cast on this statue of George Washington.

Katie and I are leaving on any early ferry to cross the Puget Sound to the Kitsap Peninsula. After we pick up our good friend Beth we’ll cross the Hood Canal and keep going West to the George Washington Inn for High Tea. Stay tuned for photos of our time…

Have a great Wednesday….

A Little Slice of Lake Washington…

It’s time for Alphabe-Thursday with our great teacher Jenny! We are on the letter W.

I live in the state of Washington so I’m surrounded by W. I’m just showing a little of the North end of Lake Washington today. There are two floating bridges that cross Lake Washington and lots of beautiful inlets and homes and parks on the shores of the Lake. Bill Gates of Microsoft fame has a home on Lake Washington. The University of Washington is also adjacent to Lake Washington and if you’ve ever watched a football game on T.V. where Washington is playing you’ll see the beautiful backdrop of the Lake from one of the end zones.

Speaking of W, we are also surrounded by water here in our state. Sometimes that water is falling down on us. Our Western boundary is on the Pacific Ocean. Some of our Northwestern boundary is on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. In the Seattle area we are intersected here and there by the Puget Sound. We have the mighty Columbia River running through our state. We have many wonderful Islands.

I took these photos today Wednesday September 21st so you can see we are cloudy again with a chance of rain. It’s not cold, though. We are heading to the upper 70’s today.

Thanks for visiting. Soon I’ll be waltzing over to see what you are sharing for the letter W.

Sequim Lavender Farm Tour…

Because Moisi is my father we made it to the Lavender Festival over an hour early. Most farms weren’t open to visitors until 10:00 A.M. so we got our bearings with my favorite navigator in the back seat. Last year I journeyed to the festival all by my lonesome. It’s a lot more fun with my navigator and a bloggy friend who understands that we take photos of everything! Jill and her camera are great companions for me. You’ll need to check out her beautiful perspective of our days, too.

Here’s my navigator, Katie. We had time to stop and look out at the Dungeness Spit and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We gave a shout out to our Canadian friends across the Strait. Hello Pondside and to the east of Vancouver Island, hello Girls from MGCC!

We picked the roads on the perimeter to travel and were happy to spot this away from downtown spot for breakfast. A great start to our farm tour. We all chose the 1-1-1 for breakfast. One egg, one piece of sausage or bacon, and one pancake or piece of french toast.

Jill was served her coffee in a lavender mug. While we were waiting for our breakfast the owner of the restaurant brought us a bouquet of flowers for the table. He showed us the bush the mock orange blooms came from that were in the bouquet.

When breakfast was done we were ready to head to our first farm of the day…

I’m going to have to break down my posts by farm so that my posts will be manageable. Oliver’s was a nice start with just a few other people around. Each of the farms had nice gift shops to shop in and some of the farms had several vendors on sight with their tents ready to lure you in to buy their wares…

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Washington