Tag Archives: Day Trip

Mount Baker Highway

On Tuesday morning bright and early we headed north on Highway 9 to see some sites on the Mt. Baker Scenic Highway. Our first stop was in Snohomish for breakfast at Jake’s Diner. Fueled for the day we headed farther north just below the U.S./Canadian Border.

“Rated one of the top hiking, skiing, snowboarding and scenic drives in America, Mt. Baker Highway takes your breath away.”

Our stops were at Nooksack Falls, Picture Lake and lastly Artist Point at the end of the highway.

From the falls we traveled on toward the Mt. Baker Ski area. We started the part of the road that in 10 miles climbed 3,200 feet.

I’m not sure what the significance of the raven sculpture on the sign is. Dear and my last and only time here was in 1988 or 1989 for a winter ski trip with friends just after we moved to Washington State from California. It looks a lot different in the winter.

Our next stop after the falls was Picture Lake and I’ll devote a whole post to it on another day.

Picture Lake is in the Heather Meadows Recreation Area.

Today we are awaiting news on who our next Senior Pastor will be. Our former pastor followed a calling to become a Navy Chaplain. We will get to meet the new candidate on August 27th. We are excited to see and hear him on that day. I’m tapping my feet and keep checking my emails to see the announcement. I’m not called the Wonderer for nothing! Hope you have a good day!

Update: Got the email from church at 1:00 pm and got to meet our new pastor candidate and we are encouraged and looking forward to the future of our church.

Autumn Mosaics

kettle

We took a drive a couple of Mondays ago to see what we could see along Hwy 9 and Hwy 20 north of Seattle in Washington state.

2016-10-10-fall-drive2

We saw some lakes we hadn’t seen before like Big Lake.

2016-10-10-fall-drive

It was a beautiful drive for the hours we had until the rain came in.

2016-10-10-fall-drive1

Along the Skagit River in Rockport.

mohai61-001

This afternoon Josh, Laura, and I attended the final season game of the Sounders Soccer Team and said goodbye to a fan favorite player Zach Scott. Winning this game means we are now headed to the playoffs. We are happy fans. We also had a wee visit from our dear daughter in law and her Granny who were on this side of the mountains for a memorial service for Granny’s brother. It was a great afternoon from start to finish.

Linking up to Mosaic Monday hosted with Maggie at Normandy Life.

All Aboard!

Judy and I decided to pull together a trip to the Seattle area for the Mennonite Girls Can Cook who live in British Columbia. Judy came up with a plan for the 7 B.C. girls to drive to Bellingham, Washington and hop on Amtrak south. It’s hard to corral that many girls and come up with a good date for everyone but we finally did and Wednesday June 25th would be the day. When the day was finally here one of the 7 had to stay home. Life happens…

DSC07990bI made a sign so they couldn’t miss their tour guide and limousine driver for the day. The car the rental agency gave me seemed as big as a limousine. This photo that Bev took catches the big white limousine SUV in the background. Thanks Bev for the photos I’m stealing from you for this post.

DSC07993

The Girls 009Our first stop was the Queen Mary Tea Room near the University of Washington.

2014-06-25 The GirlsWe each had a different china pattern on our tea cups.

The Girls 021The food was delicious and presented nicely. We finished up at the tea room and after checking out the Tea Emporium we drove to our 2nd stop of the day, University Village.

The Girls 022

Girls Seattle-001“University Village is an open-air lifestyle shopping center which offers a unique formula of locally-owned boutiques and signature national retailers. U Village is a regional destination for home furnishings, popular fashions and unique gift items with a distinct collection of restaurants and eateries.”

DSC08009We all enjoyed the beautiful flowers that were blooming in hanging planters and large planters throughout the center. We gave ourselves a time limit and we managed not to lose anyone while we were here.

Next stop before our dinner reservations would be my humble home. A couple of the girls had been to my house before but it was new to the rest.

girls train 2It was fun to have everyone in my home for a quick refreshment and tour.

DSC08014

DSC08012

The Girls 030We stole Dear away from his bathroom renovation work to take a photo of all of us together on our deck steps.

The Girls 027We made dinner reservations at the Beach Cafe on the Edmonds waterfront which was  just a hop skip and jump away from the railway station. The girls wouldn’t want to miss the train.

The Girls 033

The Girls 034Several of us chose the different fish tacos for our meal while others had shrimp and scampi dishes. We shared a couple desserts just to top everything off with. By this time in our day we were rather beat and forgot to take some photos of our dishes and desserts.

On to the station and our goodbye hugs.

The Girls 035A lovely day from beginning to end.

I’m already making plans for an Island getaway for the next MGCC girls day out.

Here’s our day through Anneliese’s lens.

Tonight Dear and I are meeting up with Josh and Laura to celebrate a late Mother’s Day/Father’s Day meal together. We will also celebrate the U.S.A. advancing to the round of 16 with our 2nd place finish in group G.

 

All Aboard!

I’m traveling back to Katie and my Amtrak Cascades train trip to Vancouver B.C. last Thursday before Christmas Eve and Christmas activities commence!

Vancouver & Snow 001We had to dress with a few layers because the temps on this day did not stay above freezing for long.

2013-12-20 Vancouver & Snow8We started our journey in Edmonds, Washington. For many miles the tracks are right next to the water and it felt if I leaned towards the window I could land in the water.

As we approached Everett, Washington I wondered if we’d see a battleship or an Aircraft Carrier.

Vancouver & Snow 010I wasn’t disappointed.

Vancouver & Snow 012I’m glad I don’t have to clean off that rust…

So many interesting things to see with my camera.

Vancouver & Snow 019Vancouver & Snow 022After Everett the tracks came inland and we got to see some rural views before the tracks bent back west to the water.

2013-12-20 Vancouver & Snow7Looking back I caught a glimpse of Mt. Rainier and zoomed in to catch our famous volcano in the distance.

2013-12-20 Vancouver & Snow5It was fun to see the views of Semiahmoo from the train. Dear and I spent our anniversary at the inn which is right next to that water tower.

Seeing Semiahmoo I knew we were very close to crossing the border into Canada.

2013-12-20 Vancouver & Snow11White Rock, B.C.

Vancouver & Snow 049The train station in Vancouver.

2013-12-20 Vancouver & Snow12We were underwhelmed with the Christmas market that was our destination choice. Thankfully food is my love language and Finch’s Tea and Coffee House came to the rescue. We really enjoyed our baguettes and Lady Grey tea.

2013-12-20 Vancouver & Snow13This was in Katie’s words a “Hipster” establishment. The menu was posted on the blackboards. They delivered most of the sandwiches on brown waxed wrap paper.

2013-12-20 Vancouver & Snow Betty from Mennonite Girls Can Cook made the scarf next to my nice big cup of tea for me and the really cool thing about it is that she included slots in the scarf that serve as hand warmers/slot pockets.

Vancouver & Snow 058Speaking of that large cup of tea, we had to take our signature sipping tea shot!

We visited some antique shops in the Gas Town area of Vancouver and a fun shop called Old Faithful.

2013-12-20 Vancouver & Snow14We walked back to the train station and boarded our train for our long trip back to Edmonds. We were very happy that there was a dining car on the train with several food and drink choices. The trip back was in the dark so it seemed slow and long to me. It really helps to be able to see things out the train windows that are interesting to make the trip seem shorter. If we do this trip again we’d like to spend the night and only travel one way each day. I do like the quiet stress free aspect of traveling on the train.

Well here we are with just a couple days before Christmas. How are you doing? I hope you are calm and collected and that you have time for joy and peaceful moments.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Corrie Ten Boom…

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away your ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”