Portland x2

DH and I took another great trip down to Portland Oregon and while this was our second trip down there this year, it won't be our last. Last time we went, we went to the Japanese Garden and the Rose Garden. This time we explored the downtown area and had a great time, even in the rain. Our first stop was the Chinese Garden and we joined a tour already in progess. I really, really recommend going with a tour as the docent pointed out things that I would never have seen and even if I had seen them, I wouldn't have understood what they meant. For instance, (and I hope I can convey the beauty of this) the roof tiles came down to little V points and they were spaced about 4 inches a part so it looked as if you were looking thru a curtain of tiny jewels as the rain dripped off of them.
After the tour, we went into the tea house and each chose a tea. Since my new favorite is white tea, I tried one called jing (something). It was delicious.
Next stop was the Portland Outdoor Market. Reminded me of the 60ies a bit as there were stores that sold "hemp" items, and lots of crafts and food. Musicians were on every corner and there was just a party like atmosphere.
Can't go to Chinatown without having a Chinese meal, so back we went to House of Louie and enjoyed some pretty good food. They have a dim sum menu and it looked great and smelled better.
We were between storms and really lucked out when it came to the weather as we only had a few sprinkles. We stayed overnight and Sunday morning we had a huge breakfast with George and then went to the Asian Market to shop. The prices are reasonable but we found out they have a bigger store in the Seattle area so we don't need to travel down that far just to shop.
All and all it was a great weekend and as always we enjoyed Portand.

Last Day - KOA

Friday we were back in civilization again and stopped at the Ellensburg KOA. It was a nice park and Roy made friends with the owners, but I was a little unhappy with the place. We were there early enough, like noon, but they said they had no sites with either cable or sewer. The site they gave us was so far from WiFi that we barely could use it either. Yet when we woke up the next morning, the place was still about half full and lots of room. I think the reason was because I gave the lady a check. She made a comment that she didn't like bounced checks. If she had asked, I would have given her the debit card or even cash, but she just made snide remarks instead and gave us the worst site in the park.Don't think we'll be back soon, although the Owner did offer Roy a job next summer.

Thursday, what a nightmare

Another beautiful day in Washington and we left Kennewick before noon and drove to Walla Walla, WA and then on to Lewis and Clark State Park. The park was closed, probably because there was a fire in the area so we continued on to Palouse Falls State Park.
The road from Hwy 12 to the park is not a keeper. First it was very narrow and about 10 miles in we came to a bridge that was NOT my cup of tea. It was over the Snake River, about 1000 foot over and it was as narrow as the road with tiny 3 foot guard rails. I would have closed my eyes if I haven't been driving and about a 3rd of the way over this monster, what do I meet but a huge truck. He stops and I had inches on my side and maybe a foot on the other side. I was actually sick to my stomach by the time I go off that bridge and No, I am not ever going that way again.
Palouse Falls State Park was mostly tent sites, but we parked in the lot and for the first time we "dry camped". I was still a little ill thinking about that bridge, so I stayed in the RV while Roy went and took pictures. You see, there is a height issue here also. We were alone in the park, and felt like we were alone in the world. There was nothing in the area and no other campers. At just about dark two other Campers came in but they decided they didn't like it and took off. (I hope they aren't afraid of heights and heading south) When we woke in the morning there was another van camped next to us, but at dawn they left and we followed shortly. We got off that narrow road as soon as possible and on to one that was straight and wider. 

Wednesday in Kennewick

Last of Hwy 14 and I am just as glad to be off of it. While I loved the camping, I am afraid of heights and this road seemed to be teetoring on the top of the world. This is a picture that Roy took from a pull-out, which I absolutely refused to look at. Thats a town way down there.
Our next stop was Kennewick and the Tri-Cities RV Park. We needed a day in town to restock and do some shopping and we even found a decent Mexican Restaurant near the park and treated ourselves to dinner. Roy ordered Tortilla Soup and the bowl was hugh. I had carne asada and it was very good.
The park is very nice with all the amenities, cable TV, WiFi, hot showers, and super friendly staff. We already have reservations to return in June and this time, we are going to spend a whole week there. Within walking distance is a Mall, Home Depot and of course, the Mexican Restaurant. 

Crow Butte Campground

My new favorite campground is Crow Butte. Crow Butte was a state park but has been transfered to private hands and its a great, uncrowded place to camp. The spaces are wide and trees are plentiful and the wildlife is abundant due to its proximaty to the Umatilla Wildlife Refuge. There are over 50 spaces and there were only 4 campers so we had lots of room.

Once we parked we decided to spend two nights and we'er glad that we did. On Tuesday the wind picked up and nearly gale force for most of the day. Driving in it would have been scary.

There are a couple of trails, and we took one labelled Sand Beach. About 2/3s of the way down to the beach we saw a huge deer which I called an Elk, but Roy said was a mule deer. What ever it was, Roy took off over the ridge to see if he could get a picture and I continued down to the dunes and eventually back to the camp. Roy didn't see the deer again, but he did see the other side of the mountain.

That evening we went out to see if we could see any deer and Roy got a couple good pictures of some White Tail, like the one above. They like to come into the park at dusk.

Like Columbia Hills, we did hear trains and road traffic, but geese were also plentiful and their honks were much easier on the ears.

I give Crow Butte a 10 plus and will go back. It is just off Hwy 14 west of Paterson and east of The Dalles bridge. Its a keeper.

Columbia Hills/Horsethief Lake State Park

Thats our campground in the background and a fake owl in the tree. I would rate this park about a 6 as the utility sites (only 8 of them) were pretty much one on top of the other. Would I come back, sure. Its a nice park and open til the end of October.

23 Oct 06

Spent a chilly night, mostly because of Roys frugal attitude toward the propane!!! Woke to a beautiful morning with plans to hike to the petroglyphs.

Later: Well while the petroglyphs were awesome we were unable to hike to "She Who Watches", the most famous one, as they closed the hike due to vandalism. Isn't that a shame. We did get to see some that they had saved from the when they built the dam and would have been underwater. They lined the trail with them and the "First People" as they are called, now use the area as a religious meeting area. 

22 October Columbia Hills State Park/Horsethief Lake

Slow to get started and a long drive to the Columbia Gorge and our plans to camp at Beacon Rock fell thru because the campground is closed for the winter, so we continued the drive to Columbia Hills State Park.
On a scale of 1-10, I think we would give this park a 5 or 6. The utility sites, all 8 of them and in a tight little bunch at the entrance to the park, the rest is day use only, but the hikes are interesting and we took lots of pictures.
Once parked and settled in, we walked down to the waters edge and laughted at the "no swimming" sign. Didn't have to tell us more than once, the water looked cold and murky. 

Nisqually NWR

The Delta has many ecosystems and this is one of my favorite places to sit and catch my breath. I am sitting in a bird blind peeking at a duck who, of course you can't see. This date was one of the best for siting birds, besides the duck, I saw herons and some little shore bird pecking in the mud. 

Its been awhile

This tree is actually called "Old Grandpa" by the locals. You go for a hike and no telling what you find to take a picture of. This is September at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge near Olympia, WA 

Destination Brewster, WA

My hubby is a Mason and he was invited to a function in Brewster, Wa and the first thing I did was to run to a map and try to find "Brewster".
Brewster is mid-northern section of the state, above Wenatchee, along the Columbia River. In fact, it started as a ferry landing and was named Virginia City, although the name and purpose were both short-lived. (They actually had to move the whole town, lock-stock and hotel to a better deep-water dock a few years after the first one was developed)
Not a big town by any standards, it didn't take me long to drive through it, and the only great thing I found was a delicious Mexican Bakery that had more selection of pan dulce than I have ever seen. The smells coming out of the building made my mouth squirt and I was sorry my diet doesn't allow breads.
After Brewster the road continued north, now following the Okanagan River and I saw a sigh for the Fort Okanagan Interpretive Center and lucked out to find they were having a talk about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It was presented by a Army Corp of Engineer lady who really new her stuff. I had to laugh, there was another gentleman sitting next to me and when I arrived he asked if I were a Clarky. He was certainly one and Ill bet he knew more about the Expetion than she did. (I have a book on Lewis and Clark at home and I'm going to read it again as the talk was very interesting)
(The photo above is from the site of the Interpretive Center. It is in the high-desert and as you see very deserty in the foreground and very green along the river. On the right side, the green are apple trees and if I were a betting person, I would thing there are at least a billion apple trees in this area. One man told me that lots of farmers are now switching to grapes as wine is better cash crop)
I did stop at one of the many fruit stands. The prices were excellent and I bought some beautiful blueberries that were the size of nickles and sweet as sugar.
The next town up the road was Malott, a scenic little town that was flooded by the Okanogan in 1938 when a dam broke, so most of the buildings are from that time or later.
Last stop was to the city of Okanogan. I wish I had taken some pictures because the Methodist Church faced with river cobbles and the courthouse, built in semi-Spanish style architecture were awesome. Guess we just need to go back some day.
It was a long ride home because we just didn't want to deal with the traffic or retrace our steps. so we headed to Ellensburg and Yakima and then took White Pass over the mountains. The last time I was on this section was with Dea and family when the boys were young. I didn't remember how beautiful the drive was. 

Portland

We don't seem to have time to lake long trips, but we had time to head south and visit Portland, Oregon and friends in the area. What a hoot.
While I really enjoy rural America, city living does have its merits - like access to some amazing restaurants, art and parks and during our short stay in Portland, we managed to get in a bit of all of it, plus shopping.
We met our friends in a suburb of Portland called Beaverton and parked the car, opting instead to use the amazing Portland transit system where we bought a $4.oo all day ticket and with that took trains, trolleys and buses.
Our first stop was to Goose Hollow where we found the most amazing restaurant for lunch. I had a ruben, drenched in melted cheese, corned beef, sauerkraut and since I am doing Atkins, I didn't even miss the bread.
We walked through downtown, window shopping, art galleries, brousing and sightseeing. Found these little bears playing in a troth, which was one of many artforms in the city.
Our next stop was to Washington Park. The docent told us it was the biggest park in the US, but unfortunately there was a news article in the Portland paper a week later that ranked Portlands green space and only #14 th in the nation. It is large and you could spend days there, checking out the zoo, the museum, the hiking trails, etc. but we opted for the two very famous gardens, the Japanese garden and the Rose Garden. The Japanese garden made us homesick for Japan as it was 'right on' correct. The Rose Garden was a mixture of beautiful sights and smells.

There is much to see and do in Portland and we just scratched the surface. We will be back. 

Beyond the Dunes

The dunes quickly transitioned into a few blades of grass and some weather-worn logs. 

Marshland

This little creek bubbled right thru the park.

DH and I decided that we would love to become Campground hosts so we talked to the couple who were hosting the park at that time. They were doing their first hosting job and had only been doing it for a week so they didn't know if they could recommend it or not. Its only a month assignment so we decided to send for an application. 

Ocean City Park Pine.

The pines were in bloom at the park and gave the air a sweet smell 

9 June Ocean City State Park

The walk happened because I had some ground beef that needed to be cooked and while hamburgers sounded okay, I really wanted to do something else. My meager pantry didn’t hold a lot of promise but knew town was only just down the road and walking along the beach would be fun.
Ocean City State Park is nestled in the tree-line above the beach, but to get there you walk through three different ecosystems, the trees, the marsh, the dunes and then the beach. (I guess that’s 4!) The park is very nice, the spaces are wide apart and off set so you are not looking into your neighbors windows, or smelling his/her dinner. You wake to the sounds of birds and notice that any crumbs left from the night before no longer exist and wonder who dined after you.
From the park, the marsh is really a surprise. While I didn’t see them, I could hear ducks and marsh-birds and the sound of running water. Lilies bloom along a little creek, and spring blooms, clover, lupine, and sweet pea lined the sandy trail.
And then just as suddenly, your in the sand dunes, and your feet are slipping in the soft sand, and the wind blown erosion makes beautiful ripples, and the wild flowers have disappeared and in their place are dune grasses that also bend with the wind. While it was beautiful, it was also hard to walk in, so I headed for the waters edge where the sand here can support cars which are allowed on the beach, one of the few in the US.

While town didn’t look that far away, it was and the longer I walked it kept staying in the distance like a mirage, never getting any closer but not looking far away. I found three in- tack sand dollars which I placed on an old log to retrieve when I returned and kept trekking forward hoping that my feet wouldn’t give out before I got there. Signs of “town” did get closer. A herd of rental horses came into view. Tourists from the hotels began to come out and play in the surf, the blank sand now was full of last nights footprints and finally town emerged with its little tourist trap businesses, moped rentals and fast food joints that hawked fish and chips and oyster stew.

IGA was the closest market in town and I was amazed at the assortment of cheese and salads, sausage and well, lots of beach toys. I ended up with a bag full of some fresh veggies, nuts and no cheese. I also bought a book that listed the wild flower of the Pacific Northwest sea coast. Now I could name my new friends.

Walking back was beginning to get painful, but I had no choice and kept trying to focus on which log I left the sand dollars LOL, it took awhile as I checked about 2 dozen before I found the one and retrieved my booty and sat for awhile. Some gulls joined me, hoping I would feed them. They were mostly young ones, with brown coats, the adults seemed to hang back which is probably why they lived to be adults. One old crow (raven) was the bravest of the lot and got right up to the edge of my foot. By the time I returned to the motor home cooking was the last thing on my mind, I just wanted to sit and read. (I did end up cooking dinner and Roy came home and joined me and then returned to his doings stuff.

8 June 06 Ocean Shores, WA

This is going to be a short trip, as the drive to Ocean Shores is less than 100 miles, even taking the long way around to avoid the Interstates.

Roy is spending the weekend at some sort of Masonic function so that means Ill have most of the time alone to enjoy the beach flora and fauna. His meeting is at the Ocean Shores Convention Center and what do you know, the hotels have WIFI and I am hooked up to the internet. (Battery won’t last long though, so I won’t have time to surf the net.

The weather seems do’able. Cloudy but promising sun for later today.

Sunday, headed home.

One last look at LaPush and more whales greeted us this morning. This is a totum outside the LaPush Restaurant. Our local friend told us that a group from California bought the restuarant last winter. I wish them well.

Our trip home was beautiful, and we really took the long way home. We kept south on Hwy 101 until we got to the town of Raymond and then turned east on Hwy 6. Raymond was deserted and then suddenly we came to the town park and it looked like the whole community was there in mass. Isn't that cool.
We drove thru one farming community after another and I would have pulled over to take pictures but the road was narrow and no place for poor Casita to park. She did get a lot of bugs in her teeth, we we got home we were amazed at how many bugs had ended their short lives on our grill.

We are really ancious to get on the road again. Gas is nearly $3.00 a gallon and I am boycotting Exxon, who is taking a lot of flax right now for giving their retired CEO 400 million dollars, but I learned on the news today that Exxon is the one comp
any that is really looking and exploring for more gas/oil reserves so maybe I will boycott Chevron instead. Had to laugh, there is a local Mom and Pop gas station that sells Chevron flying a jolly roger flag over their business. What does that tell you.
I don't think we will be going anywhere in May as I am going to help out at the Red Cross at Madigan, Sumo is on and have a few medical appointments. In June we are going back to the coast, but this time, we are going to Ocean Shores area. Maybe after that, we can take off again

Aka'lat Island, La Push, WA

Today it is know as James Island, but since ancient times it was known as Aka'Lat, (Top of the Rock) in the language of the Quileute people. It was a burial gound for chiefs, a fortress in times of defence and considered a resting place for the ancestors.
The waters just to the left of the Island are were the whales feed and the town of La Push is just to the right.
We stayed at Lonesome Creek RV park and its rated right at the top of our list of best spots to RV. 

Derelict Boat, La Push Harbor, WA

We woke up on Saturday morning to a glorious day, the wind had died out, the clouds had all disappeared and we were left with only sparkling sun and surf. Quickly we made a pot of coffee and took our cups out to the beach.
OMG, the first thing we noticed was that it was full of surfers, and they were all camped at the other end of the beach, so that is what the folks meant by quiet. But what really excited us, was there were whales about a 100 yards out, feeding, playing, blowing.. and when I looked at my guide book it said that this was an area where folks came to whale watch. Here we thought we would see nothing worth writing about, and we find whales. We counted about 3 of them, but water spouts were everywhere so there may have been more.
After breakfast, we walked along the beach to the town of La Push, and came first to the harbor where we found this delelict boat. There was just something beautiful and sad about her and Roy dreamed of restoration. The town itself was pretty small, maybe 100 or so homes, but it does have a Coast Guard Station and restaurant and a small school.
As we walked around I just happened to notice an eagle sitting in the top of an old pine tree. We stopped to take some pictures and met a local gentleman who told us the eagle had a nest in the tree but the winter storms had knocked it out.
He also told us about the Fisherman's Memorial, a Coast Guard boat went out to rescue a sailboat and a huge wave picked it up and tossed it on the rocks of James Island, killing all on board. The sailboat was also lost. He told us about 80 MPH winds and how the surf has killer logs that folks have to be so careful of. We weren't surprized, there are tons of logs littering the beach.

Another cool thing is we have now visited our second Indian Nation. This area is mostly Quileute country.
We continued to walk around, enjoying the sun, the surf and more whales. As it turned out Saturday was the warmest day of the year, Sunday would be even more beautiful.