Life on the road is trouble-free;

not so last week when we prepared to leave Bothel, Washington. The sewage disposal at our site was clogged (yep, that was quite a mess) so we had to use the dump station. When we arrived at our next camp site, Hood Campground, on the Snake River in the Tri-Cities area,

Love the Corps of Engineer campgrounds!

our pick-up refused to start. (After a couple of good cleanings of the battery posts, the problem seems to be fixed.) ABN attempted to put water on to brew tea but the pilot light refused to ignite. Captain started investigating and found the propane valve in one of the outside compartments had been turned off; neither of us turned it off so that remains a mystery.

Catching up with friends…………well it makes the little problems along the way seem like a minor annoyance.

In the Tri-Cities (that would be Pasco, Richland and Kennewick in southeastern Washington) we visited Captain’s longtime friends, Linda and Chuck. On first glance at their lovely hillside home, ABN noticed beets and squash tucked into a beautifully landscaped front lawn; with Fiestaware and a KitchenAid in the kitchen, she knew she was meeting new friends and soul mates. While sitting on their deck, looking over the valley we were introduced to wonderful Copper River Salmon (so much more flavorful than the Atlantic farm grown salmon that we usually eat.)

With Chuck and Linda as our guide,

we explored a few of the Red Mountain Wineries and found some very good wine. Our favorite wines of the day (Linizio Blend, Walla Walla Cab Sauv  ) were found at Cooper Winery.

The best view at Terra Blanca

And it was Tuesday!

While in the Tri-Cities, Captain wanted to connect with friends and colleagues from the nuclear industry. (Local and industry friends, take a close look, you may know some of these folks.)

After getting an oil change and transmission tune-up for The Wanderer, we said good bye to our friends and Snake River,

and continued our search for good Pinot Nior in Oregon.

Driving along I-84, just before reaching Portland, we took a break to hike to the top of Multnomah Falls.

At the top. According to FitBit, over 10,000 steps and 88 flights of stairs.

Oregon Wine Country is truly beautiful with rolling hills covered in vineyards and flowers we can only dream about in our hot and humid climate. Our search for really good Pinot Noir took us through the beautiful Willamette Valley, a ferry across Willamette River and up gravel roads.

A couple of our favorite wineries were Redhawk with drinkable inexpensive wine and St. Innocent for a nice, full flavored Pinot Noir.

Our very favorite was Brooks Winery, not only for outstanding Pinot Noir but also a lovely tasting venue with a spectacular view.

Deck overlooking the vineyards and garden

What goes well with Pinot Noir? Cheese of course! Happening upon the Willamette Valley Cheese Company, we had to stop and do their tasting.

 All the cheeses are made with milk from the cows we could see in the field. 

(Aged Chive and Black Pepper, Aged Asiago and Cumin Gouda found their way into our cheese drawer.)

Guess what else we found in Willamette Valley? Another Aggie! (They are everywhere!)

Michelle and Lowell (Class of ’70) from Colorado Springs occupied the site next to us at Silver Spur RV Park. We had a most enjoyable couple of evenings sipping Pinot and sharing stories. (Lowell is a real “rocket scientist” having worked many years at the Johnson Space center.)

Our palates have been pleased with the taste of fine Pinot Noir and our souls have been refreshed with friends. We have had just enough taste of Washington and Oregon to whet our appetite. We hope this is not our last visit.

We can now hear the call of the Zin and we are on our way!

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What was I thinking?

“by suggesting a visit to Butchart Gardens?” said Captain as he followed ABN around,

hearing statements like “We should plant these,” “I must order some double begonias,” “We need a taller support for our sweet peas,” and “I am ready to go home and work on my garden.”

It is such a beautiful garden and oh so inspiring. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) the climate in which we live is not conducive to growing beautiful roses

fuchsias

and begonias

without a lot of tending.

But we can grow Sweet Peas!

Sunken Garden created in an exhausted limestone quarry.

Lunch in the garden

Located in British Columbia, Canada, the gardens are about a 40 minute drive from pretty Victoria. With gorgeous plants on every corner, hanging from light posts

and flanking restaurants,

it is truly a city in bloom.

The Wanderer was parked just outside of Olympic National Park, so we did a little exploring.

Merrymere Falls Hike

Marymere Falls

As in most small towns, the folks in Port Angeles (PA to the locals) were extremely friendly. We had a great time hanging out with them celebrating the 4^th of July, listening to Fat Chance, a local band.

And of course watching fireworks.

Moving from the small town to the city; in Seattle we were greeted with traffic, horns honking, road rage (Captain has no idea what he did that wasn’t nice), homeless camps and crowds of tourist.

What to do in Seattle, we asked our Facebook friends. In the two days we had allotted, we could not do all that was suggested.

The Pike Street Market was probably nice but we couldn’t really tell because of the crowd.

Enjoyed a cold brew at the original Starbucks.

We are not sure, but suspect there is a city ordinance requiring a coffee bar/shop be located on every city block and a huge percent must be Starbucks. Or perhaps there is an ordinance that forbids folks to brew coffee at home.

In the historical downtown area known as Pioneer Square, ABN left Captain enjoying music in Occidental Square

while she browsed the shops and art galleries.

We had an excellent dinner (salmon and sable fish) at Ray’s Boathouse on the Puget Sound.

Captain explored the Boeing Factory

while ABN enjoyed a quiet afternoon in The Wanderer.

The best thing we learned (or reaffirmed) in Seattle is that we prefer the small towns where folks tend to be friendlier and less tense.

As we travel throughout our country, we marvel at the mountains, gorges, canyons, oceans, lakes and vistas. However, our best treasures are our people. Nothing gives us more pleasure than connecting with fun and interesting folks. That is exactly what we did on Friday evening at the Gorman Winery Tasting room in Woodinville just outside of Seattle. We spent a delightful evening sipping wine with a local couple, Bruce and Dona. We connected on Facebook to keep in touch with hopes our paths will cross again.

We are now off to do some visiting in the Tri-Cities of Washington.

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Glacier National Park

The Good, the Bad, the Surprises

The Good

If you have visited Glacier National Park, you know this to be true; photos and words cannot come close to describing the beauty. Spectacular is an understatement.

We were fortunate Going to the Sun Highway opened before we had to leave.

Logan Pass

Weeping Wall

Waterfalls were in abundance throughout the park.

With hikes available for every level, we chose a few easy to moderate trails.

At a friend's suggestion, we went to Polebridge for pastries and a leisurely hike  at  Bowman Lake.

After six plus miles on a rough, sometime hairpin curve drive on a gravel road, we found the sign to be true 

(silly us, we thought all those vehicles we met coming down the road were leaving the parking lot.)

We didn’t see Bowman Lake but Polebridge was worth the drive

Especially for the pastries.

We had a lovely hike on Johns Lake Trail.

making a fortuitous wrong turn, we saw the north side of McDonald Lake. 

Avalanche Trail sounded as though it would be a beautiful and not too challenging hike. However, after about a 14-15 mile drive to the trail head, we discovered, (once again) no parking. But we did see shuttles so we headed to the information center to see if we could take a shuttle to the trailhead; guess what, the shuttles will not start until July 1 (they were in training.) The nice lady at the information center suggested we hike on the Lake McDonald trail from Fish Creek Campground. How convenient! That is where The Wanderer was parked. Back to the campground we go; a bit hilly (that must be why it wasn’t listed in the Easy Day Hikes book) but lovely views.

On the east side of the park we hiked Aster Park Trail. This particular day, ABN had decided, for her, it would be a nice meditative hike in which to reflect on God’s masterpiece. And it started that way as we hiked along a gentle path, 

with beautiful wildflowers.

And then we saw this sign

We continued the hike (but did not take the Paradise Point option.)

(at this point, ABN’s prayer changed from gratitude to “Please God, do not allow us to encounter a bear; if you do, please give us wisdom and courage to leave the bear without bodily harm; if that is not the case, please let the first blow make me unconscious so I do not feel the pain.” If you are reading this then you know which prayer was answered. 

End of trail

The Wanderer was just the right size for the park campground.

The solar panel upgrades gave us all the electricity we needed and then some.

With temperatures in the 70’s and lower 80’s during the day, and upper 40s at night, it was perfect for hiking, sleeping and campfires.

The Bad

There really wasn’t much bad except for large mosquitoes, often no parking at popular trail heads and road construction with long delays in and outside of the park. When available (July 1), taking advantage of the free shuttle service would probably be a wise choice.

The Surprises

Wildflowers were plentiful throughout the park, especially on the east side.

Bear Grass, blooms en masse about every 5-10 years (bears don't eat it but deer do.)

The water in the streams and lakes was a beautiful turquoise, colored by glacial silt.

We had a beautiful drive on Tuesday to the east side of Glacier National Park. 

Our campground reservation in the east side of the park had been canceled because of flooding, but we were able to find a spot at Y Lazy R Campground in East Glacier. (Yep, this is a photo of the town.)

As you can see, it is a very small campground

where we met some interesting folks that had similar interest in exploring and finding adventures. Remember when we said if there was an Aggie in the area, we would find them? Meet Alan (class of ’81) and his wife, Donna. They just happened to be parked next to us in a 1996 diesel pusher. And it was Tuesday.

Alan and Donna left on Wednesday; full timers, Jodi and Tom, pulled into the same spot in their beautiful 2017 Class A (love the diversity of travelers,) to explore GNP before continuing on their way to Alaska.

Last Sunday was Captain’s birthday and he wanted pizza and beer (no surprise there.) A Google search took us to a nondescript diner, Glacier Bar and Grill. Even with a 5-star rating, when we entered we didn’t expect much. We were really surprised, the pizza was outstanding.

The best surprise of all was the Bing cherries!

We found this farm stand in Coram, just west of Glacier on Hwy 2. We returned two more times to buy more.

Internet and cell service was sketchy in the park and the Montana mountains; we couldn’t decide whether this was good or bad. Basically it was just a matter of inconvenience at times. (Especially when attempting a blog post.)

Montana ranks as one of the most beautiful states we have visited. As we leave we are talking about “when we come back.”

Currently we are on our way to Olympic National Park in upstate Washington. If all goes well we will have good internet service this evening that will allow us to post. (Didn't happen; but we did find a good spot this morning.)

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