Category Archives: Washington

Day 2 at Cape Disappointment State Park, WA

Our first morning (Thursday, 11 Sept) at Cape Disappointment State Park promised to be yet another warm, sunny, and pleasant day.

Hopefully, we were all able to take a moment to remember the victims from the cowardly terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

We took a leisurely morning stroll on the beach at our new campsite.  Here is the path to the beach – the Urban Escape Vehicle is behind the clearing you can see at the end of the path.

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View towards the beach crossing the dunes.

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Low tide.

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Stilla with morning coffee in hand.

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Stilla poses on the beach 😉

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We jumped in the Silverado a little before noon with the intent to do some more exploring today.  And exploring we did!  We started out by visiting the Waikiki Beach area of the park and the long jetty which protects the Northern end of the Columbia River outlet.  The beach was very similar to the one by our site except it seemed to be littered with a lot more giant drift-wood logs.  It was the “day-use” beach for the park and had a giant parking lot for visitors.  We just viewed it from the road, having just been on our beach earlier in the morning.  This super-long jetty was built in the early 1900’s and is called the North Jetty.   You can read more about Cape Disappointment by clicking this Wikipedia link…  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Disappointment_State_Park

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We gave up trying to walk all the way to the end of the jetty.  It got way too rocky towards the end and we had to carry Coach over the larger rocks.

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There were many people fishing from the rocks on the jetty.  This must be a  popular spot, they were lined up all along the shore.  While there, we watched at least two people haul in what looked like large salmon.  Man, I wished I could go get my little trout fishing pole that I still have bungee-corded to the truck cargo rack 🙂

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This view from the jetty shows “our” beach near the campground.  The North Head Lighthouse that we visited yesterday is on the cliffs overlooking the ocean to the left.

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Large waves broke on the rocks next to us.  It can get pretty loud.

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Our next stop at the top of the hill from the jetty was Fort Canby and the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center which are combined at one location.

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Fort Canby was established in 1852, the state park came about in the 1950’s.  We toured inside the bunker type buildings (it was free) which housed a display of the stored ammunition for the giant guns that once were emplaced here.

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Amazing what the salty sea air can do to metal over time.  This giant metal door, or what’s left of it, is on one side of the bunker entranceways.  I thought it made for a good picture.

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This is where one of the guns used to be emplaced.  They were originally rigged on pulley and counterweight systems so they could peek out over the ridge and duck back down again for protection.

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This is the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse.  It is 1.2 miles from the parking lot of Fort Canby and the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and lookout.  We weren’t up for another hike so soon after walking the beach and the jetty, so we settled on just taking this picture from the neighboring lookout.

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Here’s that long jetty we walked earlier as seen from above.

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The Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center had an entrance fee of $5 and no dogs allowed.  So, Stilla hung around outside with Coach while I breezed through and took lots of pictures… but don’t worry, I only posted a few here 😉

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Inside the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, Cape Disappointment State Park, WA
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Inside the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, Cape Disappointment State Park, WA
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Inside the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, Cape Disappointment State Park, WA
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Inside the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, Cape Disappointment State Park, WA

This is the old North Head Lighthouse light.  These are actually stacked glass prisms that bend light into a concentrated beam so it could be seen for 20 miles offshore.  It was invented by a French guy named Fresnel and it was in service from 1856 to 1898.  These type of lenses were used in more than 250 American lighthouses back in the day.

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Inside the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, Cape Disappointment State Park, WA
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Inside the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, Cape Disappointment State Park, WA
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Inside the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, Cape Disappointment State Park, WA
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Inside the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, Cape Disappointment State Park, WA

After finishing up at the Interpretive Center, we jumped back in the SIlverado and headed back into Long Beach.

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We had seen some advertisements for a Cranberry Farm / Museum tour and thought we could maybe pick some cranberries.  It wasn’t all that great… unless you really like cranberries.  And who knew that cranberries grew real low to the ground in a muddy bog?  Needless to say, we didn’t do any picking, but we did buy some Cranberry Wine and Cranberry Jam for my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

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We ended up eating a late lunch at the same place as the day before.  Mainly because it was convenient and dog-friendly.

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We then stopped at the World Kite Museum.  Why you ask?  Well, it’s just what us retired folks do 😉  It turned out to be pretty lame… it’s hard for me to get excited about kites.  Maybe we should have spent more time there and took them up on their free kite building session.  Anyway, I took lots of pictures again, but won’t post them here.  I did learn that kites played a large part during WWII for training the troops on aircraft identification.

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We then drove around on the beach because we could.  Here’s a couple pics:

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Here’s a couple complementary pics of a horse we saw on Long Beach while we were driving around trying not to get stuck.  I put these in the blog for Cheryl Mikel, because she’s nuts about horses…

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Since we still had lots of nice sunny day left, we decided to head on into Astoria again.  It was only about 30 minutes away from Long Beach.  We visited Astoria back on the 24th of August when we were first on our way up North.  We did a couple day-trips while staying at the Elks Lodge in Longview-Kelso.  That’s the same place we were at when we visited Mt St Helens.  This was all before I started this blog and haven’t found the time yet to go back and post anything on those trips… maybe soon.  Anyway, we didn’t have the chance when we were there earlier to go over the giant bridge and we also missed a couple sights there in Astoria, so off we went.

The bridge is called the Astoria-Megler Bridge.  According to my friend Wikipedia, It is a steel cantilever through truss bridge that spans the Columbia River between Astoria, Oregon and Point Ellice near Megler, Washington. It is 4.1 miles long and was the last completed segment of U.S. Route 101 between Olympia, Washington and Los Angeles, California.  It is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America.

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Once across the bride, we went to the Oregon Film Museum to see more about movies that were filmed in the area, such as; “The Goonies” and “Kindergarten Cop”.  Unfortunately, we got there at 5 PM just as they were closing.

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They did have a replica of the SUV from “The Goonies” parked out front.  This is the car that the bad folks “The Fratellis” ran away from the cops in… complete with bullet holes.

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Here’s a mansion across the street from the Film Museum.  For the lovers of Queen Anne architecture, this is the Captain George Flavel House Museum.  For more information, you can link here…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_George_Flavel_House_Museum

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We then did an internet search on our iPhones and found the location of “The Goonies” house.  We didn’t get a good picture because it’s a private residence and there are signs posted all around about not stopping… so we did a U-turn on the dead-end street as Stilla tried to get a picture.   Funny what people make a destination of just because of a movie… oh well, I guess we did too.

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Then we did a drive-by of the “Kindergarten Cop” school that Arnold Schwarzenegger had a scene in front of.

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Finally, we stopped in the Maritime Museum parking lot to let Coach do his business.  We visited this museum the last time we were here, but this time they had a paddlewheel boat anchored.  So, I had to get a picture.

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The Astoria trolley rolled by just as I was taking pictures.

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We then headed back over the Astoria-Megler bridge and this time we stopped at Middle Village which Lewis and Clark named Station Camp. It’s just a small turn-out on the highway after you get off the bridge.   For more information you can link to this website here:  http://www.nps.gov/lewi/planyourvisit/stationcamp.htm

Interesting place, but it was starting to get late so I didn’t take the time to do the complete tour of the Chinook Village.  I only remember reading the the Lewis & Clark expedition arrived at this place in November 1805, calling it the end of their voyage by water, and spent 10 days or so here while searching out a better place to “Winter Quarter” which ended up being on the other side of the Columbia River.

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There was one more state park that we had bypassed earlier, so we took the time to do a quick drive-thru at the Fort Columbia State Park since it was on our route back to Cape Disappointment.  We also still had our “Discovery Pass” we purchased as part of our campsite, so we figured we might as well make use of it.  This old fort has renovated the old officer’s quarters and turned them into vacation rentals.  Sorry, no additional pics… I know you were expecting them right?  If you really want more information, here’s a link:  http://www.parks.wa.gov/506/Fort-Columbia

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We closed out the evening with a nice campfire and the Cranberry Wine we bought at the farm earlier.  Sorry, no pictures again.   At least, we were finally able to use some of the firewood we’ve been carrying around in the back of the pickup since Lake Tahoe.  The firewood was courtesy of cousin’s Phil and Beth, thanks guys!  There was a lot of wood left over after our week long stay with their group at Tahoe back in July.

OK, that wraps up this post… stay tuned for our Moving Day to Tillamook, OR post.  I’m almost caught up now 🙂

 

Day 1 at Cape Disappointment State Park, WA

Wednesday morning, (10 Sept), we jumped into the Silverado to check out some more of the local attractions.  One place I had in mind to check out was Cape Disappointment State Park which encompasses the whole southern tip of the Long Beach peninsula.  As with most state parks, it is often difficult to get information on-line to determine if our big rig will fit.  So, with that in mind we headed South to the state park.

By the way, in my post for Tuesday, I forgot to mention that before we called it an evening, we took the Silverado all the way up to the North end of the peninsula along the Western-most road and came back down the Eastern-most road… just to see what was there.  Which wasn’t much, probably why I forgot to mention it.  Just more pricey RV parks (that weren’t on the beach) and lots of older run-down houses and trailer parks.

Before the entrance to the state park, there were a couple attractions along the narrow windy road.  The first was Beards Hollow and the second was the North Head Lighthouse.

Here’s a couple of those informational placards that tell a better story than I ever could:

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We posed for a selfie:

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The Lighthouse informational placard shows the trails with a satellite view:

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The inside of the lighthouse was closed for tours so we just wandered around and enjoyed the views.

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Here’s one of the fantastic views from the lighthouse.

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I read somewhere that Cape Disappointment gets about 106 days of fog per year on average – making it one of the foggiest places in the US.  Fortunately for us, we had mostly-clear beautiful skies.

While we were there, the Coast Guard put on a show for us.  It appeared that they were practicing cliffside recovery.  They lowered a guy down from the helicopter to the cliffside a couple times and then it appeared to me, that the pilot messed with him by seeing how close they could get him to the waves below.  I took some interesting video of that.

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These next pics are a couple neat views of the lighthouse and the pathway leading up to the lighthouse keepers residence.

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Another informational placard that describes what the life of a Lighthouse Keeper is like.

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After those first couple stops, we finally arrived at the State Park.

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I checked in at the office which was actually a guard shack in the middle of the road to ask if we could take a tour of the park to see if we would fit.  Since we had already purchased a $10 Discovery Pass for the day when we stopped at the Lighthouse parking lot, they let us through.  We were pleasantly surprised at the number of RV spots they had.. and more importantly, some where actually unoccupied.  So we went back to the office/guard shack to get more detail on pricing and availability on a couple sites we made a note of. Of course, the couple spots we asked about were either reserved or for “admin use” whatever that is.  The nice lady gave us some possibilities and marked them on our map, so we went back to check them out.  We decided on site 162 at a cost of $27 per night which includes the $10 Discovery Pass that unfortunately we had already wasted $10 on.  Oh well – this place was really nice and the majority of the sites near the beach were set up in wagon wheel type circles that gave everyone nice space and access to the beach.  We booked two nights and high-tailed it back to the Sandcastle RV Park to get the Coach before it got any later… it was already noon.

Here’s our awesome new spot:

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I had to be careful with the low hanging branches, but the Urban Escape Vehicle slipped in unscathed.

Once we got settled in, we hit the beach right away.  It was just a short walk across from our site and over the grass and tree covered dune.  Here’s a view of our beach with the lighthouse we visited earlier on the cliff above.

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Stilla spent the afternoon combing the beach for shells.

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The beach was dog-friendly.  We were able to let Coach off the leash… and he made the most of it.  Good thing he always seems to listen and returns when called.

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Proof that Stilla was here 🙂  She took a footprint “selfie” with her iPhone.

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We set up our chairs to enjoy the sunset.  Coach stayed in the shade when he wasn’t chasing sea gulls.  Our RV site is just behind the grass-covered, drift-log-littered dune.

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We sat and watched the sunset before going back to the coach to run the generator so we could charge the batteries for the night.  Did I mention that we don’t have hook-ups?  Also, no internet or satellite.  Life is good!

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End of day 1.  Day 2 episode begins shortly…

 

 

 

Long Beach, WA

It’s been a busy last few days and we didn’t have internet connectivity for the last couple days, so I have a lot to catch you up on.  I will cover our Tuesday (9 Sept) adventure with this post, but since I have a lot of pictures to share from Wednesday and Thursday, I will do separate posts in an attempt to keep your attention.  So here we go:

On Tuesday, we rolled into Long Beach early enough to get out on the bikes and check out part of the town and the beach.

We had a tip from a fellow RV’er for a “good” RV Park, I believe it was called Anderson’s, however, when we got closer to Long Beach we consulted our iPhone apps and a couple websites, and decided Anderson’s was just too pricey.  Our Passport America app turned us on to the Sandcastle RV Park for only $15.  It wasn’t on the beach, but none of the parks really are.. theres always a long dune to cross or you end up getting the site at the end of a long row of RV’s away from the beach.

So, after a short bicycle ride from the RV Park, we were riding the nicely paved path that skirts the beach.

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I took a picture of this pretty cool cartoon map we saw at a local souvenir shop to show you our location.  I think we were parked right by that U-Haul truck at the top 😉

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Here’s Stilla with Coach-in-a-basket riding along the beach path.  You can see some of the boardwalk in the background too.

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There was even a whale skeleton for our viewing pleasure.

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Stilla on the beach.

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After checking out the beach for a while, we hit some of the local stores and souvenir shops.

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We chose to eat dinner at the Hungry Harbor Grille because they had picnic tables outside where we could sit with Coach. They even brought him some dog treats and water.  They had an awesome pumpkin pie milkshake,  hey, don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it.

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After dinner, we biked back to the RV Park and chilled out in front of the TV for the rest of the evening.

Stay tuned for the next post… Cape Disappointment State Park – it’s not disappointing at all 🙂

 

Hoh Rain Forest and Lake Quinault, WA

Monday morning at the Oceanside RV Park in La Push WA was cold and overcast with some fog and drizzle.  We felt that there wasn’t much more to see here, pun intended, so we pulled in the slides, put up the jacks and hit the road before noon.  We didn’t have a final destination in mind for the day, we figured that once we got further South, we would just consult our iPhone apps and the Rand-McNally database.  We did want to stop and see the Hoh Rain Forest which is part of the  Olympic National Park.  We had to turn East off Hwy 101 and go about 19 miles to get to the Visitor’s Center.  This is another of those “one way in and one way out” type of tourist attractions.  Before we made the turn to Hoh Rain Forest, we stopped at one of the many turn-outs to view the beach.

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The Hoh Rain Forest is one of the largest temperate rain forests in the US.  It gets an average of 140 inches of annual rainfall.

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I was concerned, as I often am, that the roads and parking lot(s) in this tourist attraction were going to be big-rig friendly.  So I was glad to see a large parking area at the Hard Rain Cafe and RV Park which was a few miles before the ranger pay station.  We pulled into the parking lot and I went into the cafe / RV Park office to ask if we could leave the Motorhome there while we toured the rainforest.  The nice lady behind the counter was more than helpful and directed us to an empty RV site right up front.  We disconnected the Silverado and headed on to the entrance where I presented my Access Pass for another savings of $15 🙂

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Picture of the Hard Rain Cafe and RV Park Office.
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Picture of the free temporary RV site we scored while we toured the rain forest.

Our first stop after leaving the Motorhome behind was to see yet another huge tree at one of the pull-off’s.

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We joined other couples in front of this huge tree to take turns taking pictures of each other.

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This was one fat tree.  Pretty impressive.

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Here we are parked at the Visitor Center.

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I was glad we found a spot to park the Motorhome for this side-trip.  The entrance to the Visitor Center parking lot would have been tough to maneuver while towing the truck… it was a pretty tight corner as you can see from this picture.

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The Visitor Center was undergoing renovation so we had to visit the mobile trailer they had brought in on-site to get information.  It turns out that this park, like all the National Parks we’ve visited so far, is not dog friendly.  They don’t allow pets outside the parking lot.  We had to leave Coach in the Silverado with the windows cracked.  We chose one of the shorter trails to hike.

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This is the informational placard on the trail we took.

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The trail was well maintained and marked.  We meandered through the forest and took lots of pictures.  It warmed up nicely and the sun peeked out a few times during our hike.

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At one spot, there were even fallen trees that were left in place.  We didn’t even have to duck to pass under.

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Evidence that they get a lot of rain here… who would have guessed?

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Stilla posed under a natural archway.

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Got Moss?

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Here I am taking a quick break.

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Some of the trees had some exposed roots that were pretty interesting.

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This was one long log that the trail followed along beside… you can see that it even continues down the hill  out of view if you look at the path below.

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This place was definitely worth the stop.  Wish we had more time to check out one of the longer trail loops, but we had to get back to Coach who was waiting in the truck and the temperature was definitely going up.

When we got back to the Motorhome, we went back inside the cafe to get some lunch.  We figured it was the least we could do to show our appreciation for the free temporary parking.  I don’t know how Stilla does it, but she always seems to find the Germans.  It turns out the owner was originally from Germany as you can see from the Bavarian flags next to our table.

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We hooked the truck back up to the Coach and motored on after finishing lunch.  We ended up choosing an RV Park next to Lake Quinault.  Our travel distance for the day ended up being around 75 miles.  The Rain Forest Resort Village ended up costing $39 for the night 🙁  They didn’t offer any discounts for Passport America, Escapees, FMCA, Good Sam, or Military Veterans unfortunately.  Here’s a picture of the Resort Office / General Store.

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The RV spots were nicely spaced and were all on nice green grass.  There were only maybe 5 other rigs in the whole park.  Except for the price, this is one nice park!  The only other drawback was that we didn’t have satellite because of all the tall trees or phone signal (AT&T).  And only one bar on the Verizon JetPack, but we survived.

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We had supper at the restaurant and lounge that was at the top of the hill on the same side of the road as our RV site.

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Front view of the restaurant and lounge.
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Side view of the restaurant and lounge.

Here is a view of the lake just a few moment’s walk from our site.

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On Tuesday morning we found out that the World’s Largest Spruce Tree was located within the loop of the RV park, just around the corner from where we were parked.

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Stilla posed with her morning coffee in front of the huge tree.

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And now Coach has marked his spot on the world’s largest Sitka Spruce… his new claim to fame 😉

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After checking out the world’s largest Sitka Spruce this morning (Tuesday), we got an early start and headed on down to the Long Beach Peninsula… we got here early enough to get out on the bikes to explore the beach and downtown area.  Here’s a preview below.  I’ll save the rest for my next post.  Stay tuned:)

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Moving Day and Beach Time (Quileute Nation, La Push, WA)

We hit the road from the Conestoga Quarters RV Park by 1130 AM.  Our destination was the Indian Tribal Village of La Push, WA.  The owner of the Conestoga RV Park gave us this tip.  He says it’s one of his favorite get-away locations from his own RV Park.

We went West on Hwy 101 and stopped for pictures at Lake Crescent.

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This information placard (you gotta love these things for blogs) gave us a description of what we were looking at.

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Another view of Lake Crescent.

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Another informational placard at one of the many turnouts we stopped at.

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It didn’t take us long to make the 70 mile trip.  After Hwy 101 finally turned South, it was no time at all before we were turning on Hwy 110 to head straight West to the Pacific Coast!  I think the coast is only about 15 miles from Hwy 101.   We usually like to put more miles between destinations, but this came highly recommended, and it was a little off the beaten path.  So our expectations were high.

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We checked in at the office.

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The Quileute Nation Indian Reservation is sure proud of their ocean-side resort as evidenced by their exorbitant prices.  They got us for $45 🙁  Their advertisement flyer that we picked up at the office claims that this is Washington’s most pristine coastal destination.  We pulled into site #1 and disconnected the Silverado.

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RV Site 1, (front-view)
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RV Site 1 (rear-view)

This is our view out the front window.  We have a row of RV’s between us and the beach.

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Stilla made sandwiches.  We took them along with us to go check out the beach.  We wanted to make the most out of the rest of the day so we can continue on tomorrow… especially at $ 45 a night!

We saw a large bank of clouds on the horizon as we headed West.  By the time we got to the coast, it was completely overcast and it stayed that way for the rest of the day.  With the exception of no sun, the beach was awesome.

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I was fascinated with the huge dead trees that had washed up on the shore.  This one looked like a beached seal on his side with his flippers out in front.

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Here’s another humongous tree.

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Some guys on their personal watercraft entertained us for a while.

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After checking out the beach, we wandered back through the office where we overheard a discussion about a “hole-in-the-wall” that is near our location and is only viewable at low tide.  So we got the specifics and jumped in the Silverado to make the ~10 mile drive to Rialto Beach.  On the informational placard (below) you can see at the bottom where it says “you are here” and then “Hole-in-the-Wall” just North of there.

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Once on Rialto Beach, we had to hike 1 1/2 miles to see the “Hole in the Wall”.  Pretty cool.

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Here’s a closer view.

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And one with Stilla and Coach.

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This was one of the views along the way.

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We say lots of water-eroded rocks and tidal pools.

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We spotted these starfish.  Once we started looking for them, we started seeing them everywhere.

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And finally, for your viewing pleasure, here are some pics of anemones, mussels, and other seaweed type stuff…

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That’s all for now… stay tuned for more adventures 🙂

Port Angeles and Olympic National Park

Yesterday, (Friday), we took the Silverado and went into Port Angeles to check it out.  The RV Park is about 6 miles East of town.

We found out that Port Angeles is the birthplace of John Elway of Denver Bronco fame… GO Broncos!  It is also the site of the “largest prehistoric Indian village and burial ground found in the US”.

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Here’s a picture of us standing outside the visitor center which is also next to the ferry service and port of entry area.

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There were a couple of wall murals in the nearby harbor park.  The informational placard provides some background on the wall art.

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Here’s a placard that gives a little information on the downtown area.

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A few pictures of the harbor area:

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We also drove out on the sandpit that is named Ediz Hook.  It projects north-easterly for three miles into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  We got out and wandered around the shoreline.

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Coach was afraid of the tentacle looking seaweed branches that were washed up on the rocks.

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View of Mt Baker across the Strait.

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Later in the afternoon, we we drove through the Olympic National Park entrance and showed our pass.  Saved another $15.  It was a 17 mile winding paved road to Hurricane Ridge, which is only accessable from Port Angeles.  The views were magnificent.

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Deer were going up to people in the parking area.

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View from the side of the Visitor Center at Hurricane Ridge.

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View from the back of the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center.

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Here’s another informational placard to describe the view.

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And yet another informational placard… what would we do without them?

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This is the view back into Port Angeles from the top of one of the short trails at the top of Hurricane Ridge.

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I will try to post the pictures tomorrow from the trip we took today (Saturday) into Victoria B.C.  We took the ferry over for the day and also visited Butchart Gardens.  It was a nice trip, albeit expensive.

We also plan to pack up and move tomorrow.  Check-out time is noon.  We have a destination on the West Coast of the peninsula in mind, so we’ll see how that goes.

 

Moving Day (Port Angeles WA)

On Wednesday, I followed through on my promise to mow the Sawyer homestead.  It was the least I could do in return for his hospitality over the last week.  It took a few hours to finish the 5 acres and I was sure to feel it afterwards… it was a lot like work – you know – that other 4-letter word.

David mowing the Sawyer homestead

 

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I also stayed motivated and got on top of the Motorhome with a hose and bucket and washed off all the tree sap and residue from being parked under the trees in Lake Tahoe, Eagle Lake, and Crater Lake.  While I was up there, I also did a good inspection to make sure all the caulking and seals were in good shape and that my air conditioner panels and solar panels were all still fastened down properly.  All was in order 🙂

Stilla made another super meal for dinner, we had Jaegerschnitzel.  I think both Nate and I gained a couple pounds over the last several days.

On Thursday morning, I loaded up the Harley and bikes.

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My goal was to hit the road by noon so we had plenty of time for sightseeing and to find a campground for the evening.  I also had to chase down Nate’s chickens at one point, it turned out that his coop has a “trap door” on the side that wasn’t closed properly and when the chickens found out… it was just like lemmings going over a cliff.  Actually, it was no big deal rounding up the chickens.  I was able to account for all eleven of them once they stopped moving around.  They were happy to get back into their coop, they knew where the food was.

We hit the road by 12:30 and took I5 to Olympia and then got on the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway, Hwy 101 towards Port Angeles.

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Coach took over the navigator seat while Stilla made snacks.

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We even passed John Wayne Marina on the way.

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The trip took us about 3 hours and was very scenic.  We passed by a few RV parks and State Campgrounds that sure looked nice, but we had already used our Passport America App to help us choose a place to stay.  It told us about the Conestoga Quarters RV Park in Port Angeles that accepted the PA rate of $13 (valid for two nights, weekends not excluded) after September 1st.  However, it turned out that the PA App was wrong… when we arrived the manager told us they don’t accept the PA rate until after October 1st.  He said he tried a number of times to get them to update the PA database.  Also, he had just given away the last spot we could have fit into!  But, he offered to put us into his “overflow” space for free and move us to a pull-thru site in the morning.  The daily rate after the free night is only $27, so all is well and the Urban Escape Vehicle got to exercise the generator for a little while.

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This morning, (Friday), we moved into the pull-thru site and took the bicycles off the Silverado.  I’m always worried we have too much rear overhang with the tailgate down and the bicycle rack mounted.  It’s probably OK when it’s being towed on the highway behind the motorhome, but for running around town, I’d rather take the bikes and rack off.

We then went into Port Angeles to do some sight-seeing at the harbor and we also drove into the Olympia National Forest.  I’ll save those pictures for my next post… it’s getting late now and we have to get up early to catch the ferry over to Victoria B.C.  which is our plan for tomorrow… so stay tuned.

 

Promotion Ceremony (Ft Lewis, WA)

We visited Ft Lewis today (Tuesday, 2 Sept).  Fort Lewis is now called Joint Base Lewis-McChord or “JBLM” for short in another government attempt to save money.  Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base merged on October 1, 2010 due to BRAC initiatives back in 2005.  You can find more information on this merger here if interested:

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=9900

 

Next to the Main Gate at JBLM
Next to the Main Gate at JBLM

We went to JBLM for a couple reasons.  First, a soldier that worked for me back in the 601st ASB, Katterbach GE (2003-2005 timeframe) contacted me on Facebook and invited us to his promotion ceremony.  I humbly accepted and we drove through the horrendous traffic on I5 to make it in time for the 1100 event.

 

Kevin Lamar is promoted from SFC to MSG
Kevin Lamar is promoted from SFC to MSG in front of the 7th ID Headquarters building
MSG Kevin Lamar
MSG Kevin Lamar
Some of the promotion ceremony attendees.
Some of the promotion ceremony attendees.

Congratulations to newly promoted Master Sergeant Kevin Lamar!  He was (and is) a superb Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) that could always be counted on to get the hard jobs accomplished.  As I’ve said many times before, my success in the Army as a Chief Warrant Officer is directly attributed to the many fine NCO’s that I had the privilege of working with that did the “real work” and made me look good.  MSG Lamar is certainly one of those professional NCO’s and his promotion is well-deserved.  After the ceremony, where many kind words were spoken, we then graciously accepted the refreshments (aka “free lunch”) in one of the nearby conference rooms.

Refreshments after the promotion ceremony.
Refreshments after the promotion ceremony.

Thanks for the invite MSG Kevin Lamar!

The second reason we went to JBLM was to get my meds refilled at the base hospital.  That went fairly well after a couple of long waits at different branches of the Pharmacy.  It took most of the afternoon because they had to call Ft Carson and transfer my prescription.  Then we had to get another ticket to get the prescriptions filled.  There sure are a lot of retirees here 😉

After a short tour through the main PX… we had to see if it was any different from other posts/bases… It wasn’t, then we headed over to the FamCamp on base to see what it looked like for future reference.  It is called NW Adventure Center JBLM and they have 48 full hook-up sites.  It is located on the shore of American Lake.  The fees are as follows:

  • 50-amp with lake view – $25 per night
  • 50-amp – $22.50 per night
  • 30-amp – $20 per night
  • They also have tent and overflow sites available for $7 and $5 respectively.

We drove through the campground to check out the sites.  I was pleasantly surprised, I would definitely stay here if we didn’t already have the awesome spot at my friend’s house in Yelm right now.  Plus the price is right 😉

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to take any pictures when we were there.

We made it back home (Nate Sawyer’s homestead) in time for Stilla to reheat the leftover Sauerbraten from yesterday’s meal for Nate before he came home.  BTW- We also saw Nate at the promotion ceremony and he gave us a quick tour of his office, aka closet 🙂

 

The "Closet"
The “Closet”

Coach was patiently waiting for us to return from another day’s adventure without him 🙁

"Coach" and "AWOL" in their pen
“Coach” and “AWOL” in their pen

That’s all for now… have to go mow the yard for Nate, figured it was the least I could do for his hospitality here, then maybe I’ll have time to get up on top of the coach to give it a washing and maybe waxing before we hit the road again.  We were thinking that Thursday would be a good day to head on up to Port Angeles and then…who knows…?  South along the Pacific Coast Highway?

Lazy Sunday (Yelm, WA)

We’re still hiding out at my friend’s house in Yelm, WA while we wait for everybody to go back to work after the Labor Day Weekend so there’s room at the campgrounds again. I’ve found out it’s tough getting a spot at any popular campgrounds during holidays. It seems that the “locals” always reserve the good places, sometimes weeks or even months in advance.  I’m pretty sure we could find a spot at the FamCamp in Ft Lewis (now called Joint Base Lewis-McChord aka JBLM) or maybe even a local Elks Lodge, but it’s been a nice break to hang out here and do day trips in the Silverado.  Over the last several days we have taken trips to Mt Rainier, Northwest Trek, and Seattle.  I’ll bring you up to date on the Seattle trip with this blog post today but will save the others for a later time.

On Thursday, we drove to Seattle with Stilla’s friend Christine acting as our guide.  Christine is a friend of Stilla’s that she knew from Colorado Springs many years ago, they have stayed in touch all this time.  We met up with Christine on the 25th after we left Kelso, WA and stayed outside her house for a night on the street.  She lives about 20 miles from where we are now.  She also took us on a tour up to Mt Rainier, but again, I’ll save that for another post.

It was overcast in the morning but cleared up nicely by the afternoon.  However, since we went up in the morning it was too late for us to have a good view of Mt. Rainier from the top of the Space Needle.  The mountain is a pretty awesome sight, we can see it from the house.

Space Needle, Seattle WA
Space Needle, Seattle WA

Stilla was a little nervous in the elevator, the windows face outwards.  It goes up 520 ft to the Observation Deck at a speed of 10 mph.

Riding up the elevator at the Space Needle
Riding up the elevator at the Space Needle

 

View from inside the Space Needle elevator
View from inside the Space Needle elevator

 

Here are some pictures of the view from the top:

View from top of Space Needle
View from top of Space Needle

 

Mt Rainier should be on the horizon, but it was too overcast to see
Mt Rainier should be on the horizon, but it was too overcast to see.

 

View from top of Space Needle (zoomed-in)
View from top of Space Needle (zoomed-in)

 

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Seattle skyline from top of Space Needle (zoomed-in)
Seattle skyline from top of Space Needle (zoomed-in)

 

Evidence that it was actually us that took these pictures :)
Evidence that it was actually us that took these pictures 🙂
More evidence that we were there :)
More evidence that we were there 🙂

After we got down, we took the tram to Pike Place Market.

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Stilla and Christine in front of Tram in Seattle WA.
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Informational Placard on Pike Place Market

We heard that Pike Place Market was a “must see” when visiting Seattle.   According to Wikipedia it one of the oldest public markets in the US.  It overlooks the Elliott Bay waterfront and was built on the edge of a steep hill.  It consists of several lower levels located below the main level, all full of unique shops and restaurants.  The street level has fishmongers, fresh produce and craft stands.  We were told to watch for the fish to be thrown around at the fish stores.  The workers would toss the fish around when someone had placed an order while shouting or sometimes singing a jingle.  We spent the afternoon exploring this unique place, here are some pics:

Sign at one end of Pikes Market
Sign at one end of Pikes Market

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Stilla found a friend
Stilla found a friend

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We found the Pike Place Brewery and decided to sit down for a meal and drinks.  I ordered their beer sampler which consisted of 6 small glasses of their most popular beers along with a pizza.

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The brewing system extended through the floor of the upper level.

The top of the brewing system extends through the floor of the upper level
The top of the brewing system extends through the floor of the upper level
Lower portion of the brewing system
Lower portion of the brewing system
Stilla and her friend, Kristine
Stilla and her friend, Christine.
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All kinds of memorabilia and cool stuff was hanging on the walls and ceilings.
Wall art.
Wall art.

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I just had to take pictures of the cool beer coaster collections displayed in the hallway on the way to the restrooms 🙂

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We kept seeing these really neat tour buses which were actually restored and converted WWII amphibious craft.  Maybe we’ll take that tour next time.IMG_2212

Not sure what this was about, but there was one portion of an alleyway that was covered in bubblegum.  Amazing what people can get started, eh?IMG_2239

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OK, that’s it for now… will post again soon.  Stilla is making Sauerbraten mit Knodel for supper as a “thank you” to Nate for his hospitality.

 

Hello world! This is my first post

This is my first post.  I’m new to this blogging thing, so please hang on while I learn  this blogging platform and update the website in order to keep all my friends and acquaintances up to date on our current location and latest adventure.  It can only get better from here, right?

I will try to go back to when we started our “full-time” Motorhome adventure (May 2nd, 2014) and post some text and pics of the places we’ve visited in order to bring this blog up to date.  But I’ll save that for later…

Today we are still boondocking aka “moochdocking” near Seattle WA at the home of my old Army buddy (Nathan Sawyer).  I’ve known him for many years, both in Germany and Ft Carson, CO.  It has been really great seeing him again and catching up on old times.

Coach parked at Nate's homestead.
Coach parked at Nate’s homestead.
Major Nathan Sawyer coming home from work.
Major Nathan Sawyer coming home from work.

Thanks again, Nate for allowing us to hang out on your awesome homestead while we take day trips in the pickup truck to see the sights around here.  Since it’s the Labor Day Weekend, we are also enjoying the added bonus of not having to fight the holiday traffic and beg for camping spots since we don’t have advanced reservations anywhere.

Nate's house with the Silverado parked in front… finally downloaded the Harley and put it in the garage
Nate’s house with the Silverado parked in front… I finally downloaded the Harley and put it in the garage.

We’ve been lucky with the weather up to now, but it finally started raining steadily today, so I guess we won’t get any riding time in on the Harley once again.

My Army buddy, (Nate) had prior plans for the Labor Day weekend so we volunteered to watch the house and dog, feed the chickens, etc., while he is away.  We’ll just hang around the house(s) today and take care of stuff here while we wait out the rain and Nate’s return on Monday.

Will post again soon.