The Fishing Bug

The last couple of days in Washington have been beautiful. The weather has cooperated, and we have had warm days and clear blue skies. Sienna is warming up to us, although she is still trying to figure out who Paul is. I am able to hold her more and more and she isn’t trying to get to mom or dad.

On Wednesday we took a drive on the Chuckanut Highway. This is a coastal drive that takes you from Burlington, WA to Bellingham, WA. Washington has such a beautiful coastline. There was one place I intend to return to, Taylor Shellfish. Taylor Shellfish is a retail store that sells it own farm raised mussels, clams, and oysters. The also sell fresh caught fish. I am planning on making us a steamed clam and mussel dinner in the near future, can’t wait. Paul says that as long as there is some kind of pasta, he is in. Here are some pictures from Laribee State Park which is part of the drive.  If you look close at the second picture you can see the house that I would love to have.  The one sitting precariously on the cliff above the ocean.





At the end of the highway is the little community of Fairhaven. This is where we had lunch at The Big Fat Fish. Of course I had the steamed clams with a cup of clam chowder, Paul has the fettuccini with clam sauce. The only real difference between the two was that Paul’s lunch has fettuccini noodles and a little more lemon, They were both quite delicious. We will be going back there one night for dinner

Yesterday was spent taking the dogs on a nice long walk along the Skagit river and then Paul and I tried to help stimulate the economy in Downtown Mt Vernon. They have cute little shops that are still trying to make ends meet in the downtown area (just like Fallbrook). There is a great kitchen store and some other shops that we bought things for us and some gifts at. (BTW, Mark, we bought a new 3-player cribbage board for those weekend camping trips.) All in all it was another great day.



This morning Paul met David here at 4:30am to try to catch a few salmon. Well, as the pictures show, they were successful!. Paul caught one and David caught two. So right now I have some beautiful salmon filets in my refrigerator that will be barbecued for dinner tonight - Yum!







Today we are planning on going to the Mt Vernon farmer’s market and then I don’t know what the rest of day has in store for us, but tonight there will be salmon!

Anyway, see you all in October. Love DD

A Big Blue Boat and A Volcano

On Monday before we took a drive to Mt St Helens I snapped this picture of a big blue boat making its way down the Columbia River.


It looks like it is barely in the water, but, I know better then that.

The drive to Mt St Helens was a pleasant one, there were plenty of turnouts and at least four visitors centers. There are still a lot of fallen trees and the valley still looks very barren. The mountain was steaming when we were there (upper right ridge of the mountain) so that was kind of interesting.



This long bridge is located at the furthest edge of the blast zone when Mt. St. Helens erupted.



And here is Sassy at Mt St Helens (dogs weren't allowed to be anywhere on foot, because they scare the wildlife...so we just put her in the back of the truck for her "I am here" picture)



As for "scaring the wildlife", this little fellow practically jumped into the truck with us and the dogs after we took Sassy's picture!



When we were coming down the mountain we stopped at a little hamburger stand in Castle Rock and had a really good burger, fries and a couple of shakes. We took the lunch to Seagate Park and had a wonderful picnic. Spanky liked the park since it had a lot of trees and a trail that lead into the wilderness.

We got back to our little trailer at around 4:00 and prepared for our move to Mt Vernon the next day.

We arrived in Mt Vernon on Tuesday afternoon and got settled in our new park. It isn’t the best of parks, but it will do. Rita, the lady who owns/runs the park has a reservation system that made my head hurt. There is no computer, all she has is a very large piece of grid paper that has all the sites in a column on the left and the date of the month on the top. Everything is done by hand, in pencil so cancellations can be erased. It is really interesting to see someone run a business who hasn’t embraced any kind of computerized system yet.

After we were settled, we went to David and Amy’s for the afternoon. Sienna is getting so big. She is walking and talking and has such a little personality, Although she still isn’t that sure of us, she doesn’t break into tears anymore. She let me pick her up and kiss her but just after that she wanted down. That OK, baby steps are fine with me. For dinner, David barbecued some chicken and salmon that he had just caught the day before. I had the salmon and it was delicious. We had a wonderful evening and I know there will be plenty more.

The only down side of the evening was that Paul lost the temporary crown he had just had put on before we left, so yesterday was spent at the dentist. The tooth was in such bad condition, they finally decided to just pull it. Our local dentist had put the crown on as a temporary fix, thinking that Paul would need a bridge at a later time. Well, the dentist here said that the only fix right now was to pull it and have our dentist do a bridge when we get home. He is doing fine, he has had no real pain, so I guess the trip can continue as planned.

Today we aren’t sure where we will be going, so I will write about it later. See all of you soon. Love DD

Wanderings further north

Sorry this is a little late, but we are staying at the Premier RV resort just north of Eugene Oregon and the WiFi here is really spotty. This park is nice and quiet. Our site is on an end and we have a really nice grassy area. The park really caters to the RV'r - there is even a daily paper delivery to your site. Here are some pictures of the Salem in our camp site





On Saturday we went to the Eugene Saturday Market and the Farmer's Market in downtown Eugene. There were a lot of beautifully fresh vegetables and fruits being sold, as well a crafts and homemade artwork. We bought a few t-shirts, some things for Sienna, as well as a homemade blueberry pie and some fresh salad greens. The rest of our time in Eugene was spent doing laundry and just reading and resting at the park. I now know one way to tell if you have been through Oregon one too many times... you recognize the gas station attendant from the last two trips you have made through Oregon.

We left the Premier Resort on Sunday and made the short trip to the Columbia River RV Park in Woodland Washington. The park is right on the Columbia River and our site has a front row view.

Paul sitting behind the trailer looking at the river:



The view of the Columbia River from out site:



We will be here for two days and will then finally get to Mt Vernon to see David, Amy and Sienna. I hope to stay there for three or four weeks. More to come later.

DD

Crater Lake and Beyond

Yesterday, the heat wave was predicted to continue, so we took a drive to Crater Lake and to explore the waterfalls along the Umpqua Scenic byway. At over 6,000 ft the air was a little cooler at 80 degrees and the scenery was spectacular. On the trip to Crater Lake you pass the Rogue River gorge where you are able to walk the gorge and view the river as it cuts a path through the granite and lava beds. There are beautiful waterfalls and swirling pools of water.







We continued on to Crater Lake and once we got there we were in awe. There are no pictures or words to explain the magnitude of the lake. It is theorized that the lake was formed from a volcano that collapsed and after seeing the size and sheer cliffs that go to the water I have to believe that this is probably true. I have attached two pictures of the lake.

Crater Lake in all its beauty



Sassy Enjoying Crater Lake



We tried to see some waterfalls in "Thunder Valley" along the Umpqua Scenic Byway, but I guess that in Oregon, they just expect you to know where to go and how far you have to travel off the main highway to see them. The Waterfall hunt was a bust, but the trip was relaxing and beautiful - so much green and so much water. Here they almost have too much water, to bad it can't be shipped down to us.

We have been staying at the Moon Mountain RV Park in Grants Pass, Oregon. This is a great little park that really caters to the traveler. Although they couldn't do anything about the heat, they were great at suggesting things to do in the area. This is a picture of our view in the morning - notice the thermometer only reads 67 degrees, which was at least refreshing in the early morning before it hit 100 degrees!



We have moved north to Eugene (Go Ducks!) and are planning on staying here for two days to do laundry and perhaps finally relax a little. There is still more to come... DD

Jennifer and "The Babies" are gone.

After a few days of getting all her things either sold or donated, Jennifer was finally ready to hit the airport with her cats and best friend Roberta to head for her new home in Washington DC. The last thing I heard from her was that they were on the plane, one cat was sleeping and the other was talking because he wasn't happy about the situation. I know that Jennifer will really love living and working in DC and that she will miss us as much as we will miss her. We definitely will miss visiting her in Chico, although we will still stay here when we are traveling through in the area (you can't keep Spanky from his beloved Bidwell Park! If dogs could smile he would be grinning from ear to ear when he is walking there). Here is a picture of Sassy grazing in the grass and Spanky cooling his feet at Bidwell Park




Another picture of Sassy after her walk at Bidwell



Tomorrow we leave for Grants Pass, Oregon, hopefully it will be a little cooler and a little more peaceful. CSU fall classes start on Monday, so there are a lot of students and parents in town which makes it seem a little more crowded that it should be.

On the Road Again! Paul & DD

Chico or Bust

We made it - our first stop... The drive to Chico was fairly uneventful. Leaving Fallbrook at midnight was a little scary, but it did make the drive a little easier because there wasn't the traffic and crazy drivers. I was surprised that the Grapevine had as much truck traffic as it did, but most of the big rigs looked like they were empty and they were going along at a fairly fast speed. I-5 was the same exciting route as it usually is, but I was glad we got our Sirius Radio. That made the trip a little more enjoyable (Classic Vinyl is currently my favorite station). We arrived at the Almond Tree RV Park in Chico at noon and were set-up shortly there after.

We have been busy for the last few days helping Jennifer get ready for her move to DC, going to Bidwell Park with the dogs and installing our new TV in the trailer.

The TV installation was fairly easy after Paul and I decided that we were really over thinking the whole process. It took us a little over an hour to get it installed after we purchased all the required hardware and wood. It fit perfectly in the hole that Salem had provided for a TV and now we have a real TV to watch at night after busy days.

Here are some pictures of the TV after we installed it:





The TV works great and the sound is perfect. There were some bad reviews online about the sound quality, but, we can hear it perfectly, even with the air conditioner running.

Larry the cat is slowly adjusting to trailer life, although he is not pleased with the change. He meowed for the first 5 hours of the trip and then decided that his situation wasn't going to change anytime soon so he just glared at us through the bars of his crate. Here is a picture of him being miserable in the trailer.



And, yes that is his litter box and he is perfectly happy in there. Paul and I cannot understand this, but, he is Larry after all!!!

Here are two pictures of the dogs after we have taken them on a walk in Bidwell Park. They are perfectly content with their situation...




I will post more later on this week, before we leave for Grants Pass Oregon on Wednesday. See you all in October.