More Washington (08-28-24)

 But first…..When we take the Bronco on rough roads, we need to air the tires down so the ride isn’t so rough. The compressor we have in the Bronco is slowwwwwwwww, so Paul wanted a new one. We were planning on staying at the Mt. Vernon Elks lodge, so we decided to make an Amazon “run”. Usually we would have things delivered to an Amazon Locker (great invention) but the new compressor is too heavy for that. Luckily the camp host at the Mt Vernon Elks said we could have it shipped to her and she would hold it for us.

Once the order was made, we had a few days to explore before landing in Mt. Vernon. We stopped at a small federal campground that allows reservations, near Baker Lake. I don’t think we saw much of Baker Lake, but we did capture glimpses of Mount Baker.

We did a short hike that day, after taking the Bronco down some sketchy “roads”. 

At the end of the hike was a hot springs. We never know whether there is really a spring that you can get into on these hikes- this one definitely had a hot spring, loaded with people. We said hello and kept going.

The following day we drove up one of the main roads in Mt. Baker National Forest,  where we did two hikes. The first one was a short trail around a small pond. I think it was paved. It was about a mile long,

As we drove up the mountain, it was “clear” that the weather was NOT clear and we wouldn’t have the views of Mt Baker we were hoping for.

Our second hike was about two miles long, down and around Bagley Lake.

The fog was so thick, it was hard to see much of anything beyond the trail. It had a really eerie feeling.

I actually thoroughly enjoyed this hike and all the spookiness that went with it. 

Our original stay in Mt. Vernon was intended to be just a few days, but we extended it twice. We had some errands to do, and there is plenty to see in this area. When making the plans for this area we debated back and forth whether we wanted to spend any time in Olympic National Park and the San Juan Islands.

We have been to that area before, although not for a long visit. In the end we opted to do a day trip through the San Juan’s and skip Olympic. Instead, we booked 11 days in Mt. Rainier National Park, which we have never visited.

Our day trip took us first to Fidalgo Island where we hiked a 2.5 mile loop around Washington Park which sits right on Flounder Bay. In addition to enjoying the ocean views, it was fun to see a juvenile bald eagle fly directly over our heads. I didn’t think to get out the camera, I just enjoyed the fly by.

This land this park sits on was owned by Tonjes Havekost, who, when he died, bequeathed the land to the town, with instructions to “make my tomb a park”, and indeed, his tomb is in the park.

From there we headed to Whidbey Island where were investigated the forts that have been turned into state parks. 

Paul enjoys forts, and I enjoy the views.

Our option from there was to take a ferry across to the mainland, or turn around and drive back the way we came. We drove back the way we came.

As soon as we realized that the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery is an hour from Mt. Vernon, we booked a tour. This is my favorite wine.

The first thing I noticed was how spectacular the gardens are on the property. It turns out that one of the original owners, Nellie Stimpson, was a co-founder of FTD Florists. Her husband Fred, owned and ran a state of the art dairy farm.

The property was eventually bought by a corporation and turned into the winery that it is today. At that time, Washington was not known for it’s wines but after years of experimenting and wine production, in 1974, the Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling was entered into an international blind taste test- and won.

That win catapulted Washington on to the map in the wine industry, and is the reason Chateau Ste. Michelle is considered to be the founding winery in Washington. Their Riesling is apparently the best selling  Riesling in the world.

We assumed we would be touring a chateau, but the “tour” was more or less a special tasting. In fact it’s very clear that this property is laid out for the drinking of wine. They don’t bottle the wine here, nor do they grow the grapes here.

You can drink at a table inside, a private room inside, a table in the gardens, or a private cabana.

 

For over an hour, our guide taught us how to drink wine, and how the right kind of food can change the taste of a wine, and vise versa. One of the wines we tasted was a chardonnay- I am not a fan- but I will say, with the sharp cheese it was paired with, the flavor was considerably toned down for me. I also enjoyed the red blend- their Indian Wells has the tannins softened, making it more drinkable for non-red wine drinkers.

Apparently I am a messy wine taster, haha. The price I paid for being a bit “buzzed” before lunch was that I completely forgot to buy some wine.

The other thing this winery is known for is its summer concerts. They get big name performers. We watched as people started lining up at noon for a concert that starts at 7 pm. The performer was Pat Benatar.  The Beach Boys are performing next week.

After a much needed stop for lunch at a nearby restaurant, Paul and I headed to the Boeing Factory on the way home. Tours sell out months in advance, so all we could do is look around the visitor center, but they had a few interesting displays.

We made friends with a tour guide who wasn’t giving a tour, and he gave us a ton of information about the factory and the company.

He pointed out each building and what it was for, and the history of the factory and the company. Until 2023, only the 747 was built here, and in 1968, while the first one was being built the building it was built in was not finished and the workers actually got rained on while “inside” the building. The building, is in fact, the largest building (by volume) in the entire world.

The buildings for painting are across the way from the main buildings. Interestingly, he said that they do not use robots for painting- every plane is painted by people- they are suspended by wires to do the painting. Apparently the robots “saw” shadows as blank spots and would add more paint. More paint means more weight.

With a few days to kill before our Mt. Rainier reservations, we headed to the small town of Cle Elum. Mostly while there we hiked- what a shock. It seems to be our summer theme and I am ok with that.

Our longer hike was supposed to be 6 miles up Jolly Mountain trail, but at about the 1 mile mark we came across some awesome views, and after enjoying them for a while, we decided to head back down the hill.

Our second day we hiked a 3 mile trail to Cheese Rock in a nearby local park. The rock did resemble cheese somewhat, and also had some decent views.

In keeping with our exploring on days when we move to a new location, we made plans to visit Boulder Cave on the way to Mt. Rainier. The amount of people allowed to visit each day is limited so we had to get a reservation online ahead of time. The trail to and through the cave is about 1.5 miles long. As caves go it wasn’t terribly interesting. 

Change of Direction (06-02-14)

There are good reasons why full time RVers say they make their plans in chalk (easily erased) and Jell-O (not very firm).  Here we were, headed to Alaska via Idaho when all of a sudden …we weren't.

 

Nothing bad happened, really, but Roadmaster shipped us the wrong sway bar for the second time, and they suggested that if at all possible, we come to their factory, and they would install the correct one themselves. They had to actually give us a prototype, since that's all they had.

      Since we REALLY wanted the sway bar, we decided to drive the 350 miles southwest to Vancouver, Washington, to get it. The new sway bar is much thicker and will keep the truck from rocking side to side with the camper on top.

 
 


 
 
We took two days to drive across Idaho and Washington, and much of the trip was along the Columbia River. We wouldn't have seen the Columbia River Gorge area if we hadn't changed our plans, so it was a nice bonus for us.
You can see Mount Hood in the background of this picture of the river.
 



 
 

Looking to see what there is to do along the way, we found that there is some really good hiking in  The Gorge area, so we drove hard to get close enough so that we could spend all day Sunday hiking. We spent Saturday night in a National Forest campsite- we could never have even driven through this campground with the trailer.

 
 



 

The ranger at the campground warned us that our planned hike for the next day is an extremely popular and crowded one, so we got up early and hit the road. Along the way we passed Horsetail Falls, which is literally  the right next to the road.

 
 
 





 
 
 

Multnomah Falls is the most visited attraction in the state of Oregon (so says the visitor center).  Assuming that most people will just walk to the overlook, we planned a 7 mile hike that ended at Multnomah Falls. This worked out very well for us.  There weren’t that many people on the trail, and we passed by tons of waterfalls.
 
 





 
 
 

 

Fairy Falls was one of the first named waterfalls we passed.

 
 
 
 






 
 
 

This one has no name that we know of, but it has an awesome pool at the bottom that would look very inviting on a hot summer day ( but not a cool, spring day).

This waterfall has a cave next to it and had an interesting mist that appeared to be coming out of the cave.

Finally, after 7 miles and about 1000 feet of total elevation gain, we were finishing the hike at Multnomah Falls.  Although this picture came out kind of interesting, the fact that the sun had just risen above the falls made it impossible to get a picture of the whole thing. This is just the lower falls- above this are the upper falls, which I couldn't get a good shot of.

This is the best shot I got of the upper falls, and I had to play with the picture to get it to look this good.  Oh well.  If you like waterfalls, this is the hike for you!

After our hike, we drove to the Elks Lodge closest to Roadmaster- this was our second Elks campground stay this weekend.  I think they’ll work out pretty well for us.  First thing Monday morning, we were at Roadmaster, ready for the new sway bar. 

The guys we met there were awesome, and once they were finished installing the sway bar, we got a tour of the factory.  Everything is made in the good ole USA and even the materials are US Made.  Just what we like to hear.

The best news is that the new sway bar made such a big difference that we noticed it before we had even left the parking lot!

So, finally, after a few delays, we should be crossing the Canadian border this morning.  I have no idea when I will have WI-FI to post any thing for the next week or so.

Fresno Happenings (05-13-14)

Things have been winding down a bit in Fresno.  There are just a few more details for Kirk and Paul to finish and then Paul’s part in  Kirk and Karen’s condo projects will be finished.
The new floor has been laid, most of the cabinets have been painted (the bottom doors will be finished tomorrow), the appliances are in, and a lot of baseboard and walls have been painted.









Of course, life is never all work and no play…

  Last week, while Paul and Kirk were busy,  Kevin and I took off to Sequoia National Forest and hiked the Hart Tree Trail.

Hiking among the Sequoias is always awesome.  They are enormous! This trail was about 7 miles long, with maybe 500 feet of elevation gain.  The weather was perfect for being on the trail.

  At one point we were supposed to pass by Fallen Goliath (NOT the tree in this picture.)  Goliath has been on the ground since before any recorded history in the park.  Unfortunately when we got there, we could still smell the smoke from the fire that destroyed this giant Sequoia..  Apparently just a week or so ago someone set fire to the log and it almost all burned in the fire.  Too bad.

 
Mother’s Day weekend was spent relaxing at Kirk and Karen’s cabin near Shaver Lake.

The 6 of us always have a great time together, whether its cooking, hiking, working on projects, or playing cards.

Part of the reason we are still in Fresno is because tonight, Paul becomes an Elk!  I am sure there are many good reasons to become an Elk, but for us, the biggest reason is that many Elk lodges have small RV parks attached to them. This may come in very handy, especially on our trip to Alaska.

Speaking of Alaska- our scheduled day for bugging out of here is next Tuesday.  We are quickly taking care of all the last minute details required for that, and just today we rented the enclosed storage unit that will house our Mobile Suites for 5 months.

This weekend we’ll take off for a short trip to L.A. to see our daughter one last time before we leave.