…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…
…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.
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….
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.
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…
Mosaics today with more details to follow during the week.
Jill arrived at SeaTac Airport on Thursday morning and we headed straight to Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle.
Kerry Park on Queen Anne Hill has a wonderful view of Seattle and if you continue down Highland you’ll find this sweet little park.
On Friday morning, bright and early, we headed out to catch the Edmonds/Kitsap Ferry which took us across the Puget Sound to the Kitsap Peninsula. We traveled a few miles to the Hood Canal Bridge which took us to the Olympic Peninsula and then to our destination of Sequim.
We were blessed with more than beautiful views of lavender in Sequim.
Full grown eagles and a couple young eagles still in their nest were a wonderful surprise for us to view. The Dungeness Spit and Lighthouse are the background for this mosaic with the eagles who were nesting above this area. At 5.5 miles in length, the Dungeness Spit is the world’s longest naturally occurring sandspit and home to the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. Dungeness Crab comes from this area.
I have many photos to share from our lavender tour and eagles which I’ll share later during the week.
I’m linking my Mosaics over at Mary’s Little Red House.
Hope to visit you soon…
Lots of photos for you and few words to go with them. I’ll just let you enjoy.
I think this was my favorite home we happened by on Saturday morning. I love the porch and the great yard.
It was interesting to see how many inns and old homes were up for sale. We wondered how people survive in out of the way locations like these, especially in this economy.
Happy Tuesday to all of you!
Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and photobucket stamped versions. They are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.
Dear and I took a little road trip on Saturday to the state capitol in Olympia, Washington. This was our first visit. We have driven by and seen the capitol just off I-5 on our way to California so many times over the last 20 years. It was good to finally get to see it up close.
The Dome and the Cupola.
The Temple of Justice.
The Temple of Justice was completed in 1920, the first building completed of the Capitol Complex.
Winged Victory Monument
In 1938, the monument was dedicated to the memory of World War I veterans.
Winged Victory includes a twelve-foot tall figure of a winged woman known as Nike, Greek goddess of victory, standing behind four life-sized figures of a soldier, a marine, a sailor, and a red-cross nurse. All of the figures are forward-moving and face a distant horizon. “Victory” or “Nike” stands with her wings outspread and her right hand, grasping an olive branch, extended protectively over the servicemen. She embodies strength, justice, and heavenly sanction for their human mission.
Medal of Honor Memorial
The Medal of Honor Monument
This monument was dedicated on Nov. 7, 1976, to honor those Washington citizens who have received the nation’s highest military decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor. The 11½-foot tall granite obelisk is affixed with the Seal of the State of Washington and is inscribed with the names of those Washington citizens who were bestowed this supreme honor. The monument is a full scale replica of the national Medal of Honor monument that is in the Medal of Honor Grove in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
We visited too early in the morning for the indoor tour of the Capitol. The next time we go we’ll plan on the tour.
We really enjoyed our nice weather on the weekend. Tuesday night we are going to enjoy a meal with our kids. Our daughter Katie leaves on Wednesday for a trip to see her Marine in North Carolina since he will have a few days off and there are some family events planned on base. Hope your week is going well.
Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.
We finally had a full day of sun on Wednesday so I packed my camera and headed out to document the golden orb and it’s effect on some of our landscape.
These photos were taken at Log Boom Park on Lake Washington.
I found out this is a male Bufflehead Duck thanks to Bev. Thank you Bev!
Ahhh…that was nice and it’s enough to get me through our next couple days of rain that are in the forecast.
Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.
and makes you wish you were somewhere you could stop and take a photo.
Usually I’m on the road driving when she teases me but on this day I was in the passenger seat and was able to click a few shots from the 520 Floating Bridge driving West from Seattle.
Today is a more relaxed day then yesterday. I won’t be having to chauffeur my daughter around because my son let her borrow his car till we can get her car repaired. Her last final is later this morning and then she gets to enter the full-time work force. Dear arrives tomorrow night and I’m looking forward to that. Maybe I’ll pull out the recipe cards and cookbooks and sit by the fire and plan some menus for next week and for Christmas Eve Dinner.
Blessings on your day!
Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 