Winthrop to Concrete, WA (North Cascades Hwy)

Dan's Mom had great improvement in her medical situation, so we decided it was time to move on down the road.  After spending one night in Winthrop Washington, we drove across Washington Pass on highway 20 into the North Cascades National Park.

Great view of the Liberty Bell

Stepping outside to feel the cool moist air that is filled with rich earthy smells of soil and trees brings back memories of camping during our early years.
  
We don't remember seeing Cottonwood seedlings floating in the woods when we went camping many years ago, however here in the national park, they were everywhere.  Giving the illusions of tiny fairies floating and swirling around in a magical forest….
                 .....delightful….enchanting....
                                            tickling my nose....sneezing..........a lot!
.....despite the hay-fever, we are enjoying every new discovery. 

                                    

Sandy took a lot of photos between waterfalls, moss covered trees, and wildflowers.  She has loaded them into our Webshots albums into 2 separate folders.  One folder has a lot of Macro shots.  Our first day was perfect with the sun shining through the treetops giving her plenty of photo ops.  Our walks turned into long ones because she spent more time taking Macro shots then walking.

  
Here are the links to our two new albums in Webshots:  Textures and Colors  and Views of the North Cascades

This area has so many textures and different shades of green with occasional pops of brilliant colors from wildflowers.  It is almost an overload of color, textures, and smells.

While walking the cats, Sandy and Hitch were driving each other crazy.  She wanted to take pictures and he actually wanted to walk.  Sandy spent a lot of time trying to coax Hitch in going her direction, but he would not change his mind.  He was on the move and he wanted to go his way.  In the meantime, Dusty was doing his own exploring.  He was walking on top of fallen logs and actually trying to climb a few trees.  Meowing quite often.  He was a very happy cat.  Squirrel and Max also enjoyed their time outdoors, but not like the other two.  We think all the cats wore out their sniffers because they were all in a deep sleep that afternoon.

The last couple of days were perfect for water shots with overcast weather and an occasional sprinkle of rain.  We drove back up the pass and stopped several times to view waterfalls.  The rivers are running deep and swift from all the snow runoff.

Newhalem is a company owned town.   Seattle City Light built the small town of Newhalem and maintains the dams on the west side of the North Cascades.   The town is small, but beautiful as they tried to keep much of Mother Nature present with large green areas filled with trees and flowers.  There is a small grocery store and the company’s old housing looks well-maintained and spacious.

They even have a gazebo built from recycled parts from Diablo's switchyard.  The shadows it makes are interesting, but not much cover when it rains.

Temple of Power Gazebo

With no hook-ups, we decided to spend only three nights in the National Park.  We will be staying in Concrete, WA for two weeks before moving on to Blaine, WA.

Since our arrival, it has been raining.  We are hoping for a break in the weather later this week so we can go visit Baker Lake and Mt. Baker's National Park.

By the way, if you are active duty, now is a good time to get an annual pass from the National Park Service.  They are free with proper ID information.  Go to http://www.store.usgs.gov/pass/military.html.


For the past couple of days, we have been following  a Scottish nine-year-old's blog on school lunch food and raising money for an under-privileged kitchen for children.  She was recently in the news when the school officials told her she could no longer critic or take photos of her school meals for her blog.  The blog has gone viral.  We have added Neverseconds to our Blog list at the right.

We plan to spend the next several months on the Washington and Oregon coastline using our Thousand Trails membership campground chain.

Happy Holidays!

We hope this message finds you and your family safe and warm. We have heard about the unusually cold weather people are getting all over the States. Even Whidbey Island in Washington’s Puget Sound got snow in early December. We are staying pretty warm and dry so far, but people are worried about another cold winter here in the Keys .

In late November, Sandy’s brother, Jay drove all the way from Illinois for a visit. On his first day here and within the hour of his arrival, Dan took Jay out kayaking around the campground. Jay promptly had himself baptized by tipping the kayak over while trying to look at an Iguana sitting in the tree above him. At least, it was a warm and calm day to go swimming in the marina. Later, we took him to an area of the marina where he could get pictures of the iguanas without getting wet.

Some of our plans had to be changed because of a cold front coming through, but we managed to do quite a bit during Jay’s short visit. We took him to Mallory Square for the Sunset Ritual and walked around Key West afterwards. Of course, we had to take him to the Southern Most Point and Mile 0 for photos. We spent one day taking a 70 mile one way boat trip to a very isolated outpost - Fort Jefferson (1860) at the Dry Tortugas NP. The seas were not too rough, but the Captain had to zig-zag around Lobster traps to avoid taking out the floats.

Once we landed at Dry Tortugas, we had the option to go on a tour or to do our own thing. While Jay did the tour and took pictures, we decided to wander around on our own. After lunch, Dan went snorkeling along the Moat walk while Sandy did some more exploring.

We learned that this was the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd and three other conspirators after they were found guilty of conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. Three years later, Dr. Mudd was released from his life-long sentence after treating yellow-fever victims during his imprisonment.


We have linked the National Park’s website so you can read about the fort's history.  Dry Tortugas Album

We spent a couple of hours at the Key West Garden Club (KWGC) at the West Martello Towers (1863-1873). The KWGC rescued the unfinished fort from being leveled on the south side or Atlantic side of Key West. Now the West Martello is listed as a National Historical Site and has a rare collection of native and exotic plants. We had to remind ourselves as we wandered along plant filled pathways and into garden rooms that this was supposed to be the fort’s old brick walls. Banyan Trees and Bromeliads were growing on many of the walls. The Club has done an amazing job and they only ask for a donation.  Key West Garden Album

Well, Jay did not get a chance to parasail or to snorkel any of the reefs. He did find lots of good subjects for his 3-D photography.  If you are interested in seeing Jay’s photos, here is a link to his album.  From the pictures he took, it looks like he had a good time.

We have also added a few more photos to some of our older albums.  The links below will start where the new photos start:

More Key West

Key West Critters

Have a safe and Happy Holiday!