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.

Spokane, WA

Since leaving the Zion National Park area, we did quite a bit of traveling.  We stopped for a few days at Hill AFB, UT.  The cats enjoyed the green grass and watching the Magpies fly by.

Magpie

The view was wonderful with mountains on one side and on the other side, we could see the valley all the way to the Great Salt Lake.

View from Hill's FamCamp

We spent one afternoon in downtown Ogden.  We had a great lunch, saw a bike race, and visited the Train museum.

Flowered trees at a rest area in Idaho

We also stopped on the Idaho and Oregon border in a state park, followed by a stop on the Columbia river at the Oregon Washington border in a Corps of Engineers park.

Oh! My! Gosh!  What is that?!

It is so nice to be back in the NW area.  Sandy says she misses all the green, the crystal clear rivers, the tall snow-capped mountains, and the rocky coast.  Oregon and Washington will always have a special place in my heart.

Spokane

We are currently in Spokane, WA. We may be here for a quite a while as Dan's mother is experiencing health issues.

We managed to get here just before Mother's Day so we were able to have a wonderful day celebrating with Dan's Mom along with his sister Sue, and his father Howard.  Dan's sister Kristy also arrived in Spokane this week for some family time and assistance for her mom.

While Dan spends time with his mother's health issues and recovery, Sandy stays busy in the military campground on Fairchild Air Force base:

Everywhere I look in on base and in Spokane, I see flowers.  Of course, most of them are in people's yards and I don't want to be standing in front of their house taking photographs.  Spring time here in Spokane is wonderful!  Not great for the allergies, but it is worth taking a pill to enjoy the beauty.  

I saw some Quail on my way to the campground  dumpster, so I ran back to our motorhome for my camera.  I only got a couple of pictures.  This guy seemed to be the leader.  While the others moved away, he stayed behind to see what I was doing.  Once the others were safe, he took off.

I did spend some time outside before the rain came.  Our first week was filled with sunshine and all the cats were begging to go outdoors.  Of course, I had to take pictures...which the cats were not happy about...

Stop playing with the camera!

Pay no attention to the cat...er..Wizard! behind the curtain!

Now that it is raining, I should get back to my quilting and get off this computer.  Well, maybe after I visit a couple of more quilting blogs....

Lilacs are blooming

Zion National Park (Ogden, UT)

We visited Zion National Park on two different days.  Zion is absolutely amazing to see in person.  The photos below don't do it justice, but we will show them anyway.

On the two days we visited the park, the weather was in the 80s and a little breezy.  Perfect!  We could not have asked for better weather.

We started with a visit to the northern section of Zion National Park.  Because this area is separate from the rest of the park, it was a lot quieter -  especially on a Sunday with the Free Access Week to National Parks underway.  Access to Kolob Canyon is on I-15 and there is only one 5-mile road... a very red paved road and that just added to the whole Zion feel.

We walked two trails.  One trail took us to an outlook over the south valley.  

Looking towards the South Valley

The second trail (Taylor Creek) was a 5-mile round trip.  Since we already did one mile, we decided to hike to the first cabin or hike one hour in before turning around.  

Taylor Creek

The trail doesn't go along side the Taylor Creek.  Oh no, it crosses over the creek several times.  It wasn't hard to crossover since the creek was narrow and there were always a line of flat rocks to make the crossing easier.

Kids were certainly enjoying the creek crossing.  We came upon a Mom trying to get her two kids to cross the creek and stop playing in the water.  You couldn't blame them for enjoying the crystal clear water and the fact that for once Mom could not get mad about their feet getting wet!  It took them twice as long as it did us.  She said that they had to play in the water at every crossing.  Yep, water - the perfect kid-magnet!

The views were grand.  Red sandstone and red cliffs everywhere against the brilliant blue sky and the evergreens. 

The one-room cabin was a surprise.  It was built in 1930. We were expecting a cabin built in the 1800s.  Whoever built it really wanted to get away from neighbors or anyone stumbling upon their little hideaway.  We tried to imagine how they managed to get a mattress up into the canyon.  By mule, maybe?  That must have been an interesting sight!

Day 2 ~ Zion National Park

This is actually our second visit to this park, but it was several years ago.

We are planning to come back again next year with Sandy's brother Jay.  He would like to see Bryce National Park as well as Zion's Narrows.  We haven't seen either one, so we will see something new with him.

 

On our second day of visiting Zion, we took the shuttle to the end of the road.  We walked the mile to the mouth of the Narrows and watched a couple of ladies cross the river wearing flip-flops.  There were a few people crossing with tennis shoes and some were barefooted...must have tough feet.   Watching them crossed, we decided we would have to come prepared to walk to Narrows ~ water-proof bags for camera, walking sticks (most definitely!), and good walking shoes.

He almost went in face first

 The Rock Squirrels are little beggars. They will walk right up to you and start begging.  We didn't see anyone feeding them and there is a $100 fine if caught feeding them, but somebody has been doing just that.  We also saw one squirrel checking out an empty stroller for food while another was trying to get into someone's backpack.  Shameless little critters!

No food?  Fine.  I'll beg from those people.

Nom! Nom!  Delicious bark.

Yea, I see you eyeing my bark.  Go get your own.

After our first walk, we took the shuttle to the Lodge and had a delicious taco/salad bar lunch.  Yum!  We walked off our lunch by crossing the street and taking the Lower Emerald Pool trail.  We got a little wet on that trail from the upper pools dripping over the overhang into the lower pool below us.

Lower Emerald Pool

The two trails we took are easy for children since they were all paved.  We  read there are a couple of more that are paved and wheelchair accessible.  

 

Sandy says she better get into better shape this winter if she hopes to see the Weeping Wall as well as the Narrows and Bryce National Park next spring.  The Narrows is 9 miles long.  Of course, we probably won't do more than a few miles into the Narrows.

 On our way home, we had an unexpected opportunity to watch the Utah Firefighters in action fighting a wildfire on a hillside near the road.  The helicopter was filling up nearby and flying right over our heads on their way to the fire.

Water being dropped in front of the Firefighters

 Later, we heard on the news that the fire was out after it burned 500 acres.  Two Firefighters were hurt and no homes lost.  Kudos to the Firefighters!  They have a very tough job.  We hope the two hurt will recover quickly.

We will be visiting Dan's family in Spokane next week.  It'll be nice to celebrate Mother's Day with Dan's parents and sister.

Happy Mother's Day!

Viva Las Vegas (Ogden, UT)

We have some catching up to do.  We are now in Ogden, UT at the Hill AFB FamCamp.  So, we will start with our visit to Las Vegas.

We were very busy seeing the sights of Las Vegas.  We would spend one day on the Strip walking and seeing sights  and spend the next day re-energizing.  So much walking!  

This is Sandy's first time to Las Vegas.  On our first night, Dan drove down the Strip while Sandy took a few photos.

Our first full day on the Strip, we stopped by Bellagio's Conservatory to see the spring flowers.

We watched the fountain show in front of the Bellagio.

We visited the second floor of the Venetian to watch the Gondolas float down the canal.

We spent one evening in vintage Las Vegas downtown.  We ate dinner at Hash House a Go-Go.  It is a good thing we decided to split a salad because "Huge" salad described on the menu is an understatement!   The couple next to us could barely see each other over the mound of food on their plates.  This restaurant doesn't believe in small portions and it was delicious!

We could imagine Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack walking down the street....

Vintage Vegas

This is why we were in the downtown area.  We were here to see the Fremont Street Experience.  The canopy has thousands of LED lights and speakers setup for the light show.

There is a zipline ride that goes down the length of the canopy.

Zipline riders

On the strip we also went to The Secret Garden that was setup by Siegfried and Roy at the Mirage.  We thought it was a little pricey, but how often do we get the chance to see white tigers and white lions?  The day we visited we saw a total of eight large cats and quite a few dolphins getting fed along with a few tricks.

Big mouth and teeth!

Sandy loved how close we could get to the tigers and lions when they came to the fence.  Only one came close enough for us to see his pale blue eyes and to take in just how big he was compared to us.  Notice the double fence...keeps paws in and hands out.  Plus, bushes made a two-foot barrier between us and the fence.

Still they are gorgeous creatures and we can see why Siegfried and Roy love them so much.  Here's some more photos from the Secret Garden.

Yep, we felt just as exhausted as this big guy.  We had a great visit and would not mind visiting again someday.

 We lost about $6 on slot machines with minimal play, and won about $110 on craps.  Very little gambling, mainly just sight seeing.  We stayed at the Thousand Trails campground on Boulder Highway, taking advantage of our annual membership.