Washington Apples, Mount Rainier, "Mount St. Helens

Please note that due to the world's worst internet service (and I use the word "service" very loosely here....) (It was Innflux internet, in case you want the name...they apparently don't understand the "flux" part.....) I am publishing at least one day late.  This is about Sunday, September 15's "adventures.

We left Yakima Sunday morning on Rt. 12 going west. Our initial “plan” was to drive close enough to Mount Rainier to see it from a distance, and then go back to Yakima and head north. Since we could not see Mount Rainier from any place along the way, we just kept on going along on Rt. 12, and we were glad that we did!

Washington apples, which we eat aplenty in Ohio, are growing in orchards all over this area. It was interesting to see that the “apple trees” don't always look like trees, but almost like grape vines, with supports to hold them up. We saw apple trees that had small trunks and we no taller than ten feet high, and they were laden down with hundreds of apples. I pulled off and drove into an orchard to get this photo, because I was incredulous that one small tree could produce so much fruit.  

A gushing river ran alongside of our road, and for many miles we watched Sunday adventurers river rafting on this roaring water. The scenery became mountainous and the road went up into the mountains. We are not yet “over” the nerve-wracking ride up to see Heaven's Gate in Glacier National Park, so we got a tad worried about where we might be going.

 

 

 

  Even though we were as high as 4500 feet near White Pass, it was nothing compared to Glacier, and we just enjoyed the ups and downs of the highway. We got off to let faster moving vehicles go past us, to take some pictures, and at a place called the Palisades we stopped for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and plums. We had the area to ourselves except for a croaking frog that sang to us while we ate. The Palisades is an area created by a volcanic eruption. When the lava flowed, something, perhaps a glacier, stopped it right there.  You can see that it looks as though something was flowing. ( Or not.)

  At a scenic overlook, we were finally able to see Mt. Rainier! Almost.

When we were in Maine, we never saw the moose I wanted to see. When we were in South Dakota last year, the buffalo herd did not show up. At Chincoteague, the wild ponies were in hiding. At Pike's Peak, the peak was in a cloud, and guess what? The top of Mount Rainier was doing the same thing today!

Nevertheless, what we did see was beautiful, and we took a million pictures and congratulated all the other people at the scenic overlook for getting that far and seeing so much. We swapped cameras and took pictures of each other until we were all new best friends with the whole lot, then we all got into our cars and went on with our drives, whichever way we were going.

The next plan was to get off the main road and drive forty miles south to see Mount St. Helen's, a volcano which erupted on my birthday when it made its presence known some years ago. I recall that as being the biggest thrill of my birthday whatever year it was, and even bought a rock somewhere from Mt. St. Helens in honor of that momentous event.

Today, when the turnoff came for the forty mile trip south and then the forty mile return trip to our main route, did we take it? We did not. Instead, we took this photo of the sign to Mt. St. Helen's. Then I closed my eyes and envisioned that volcanic mountain, and when I saw it in my head, guess what? It had a giant cloud right over the top of it, and I couldn't see it anyway!!! We're pretty certain that we made the right decision.

Somewhere about this point I left Randy and the car at a gas station to cross the road to mail a post card. When I returned to the car, there was a 6 point buck head, newly murdered and heavily cloaked, strapped to the truck bed next to our car, and Randy had made friends with the savage killers of said buck.  I was appalled, muttered, "Poor thing!" a few times, and took a picture to document the murder.  No.  You won't see it. I wish I hadn't.

In fact, the "wildlife experience" that we had hoped for here has not occurred.  We did see two wolves that had been hit by cars alongside the road today.  Randy thinks he saw an elk, but is not sure. We see signs telling us to be careful of sheep, goats or deer, but frankly, we have a better wildlife show going on in our own back yard on any given day than we've seen here!  I keep saying I want to see a bear, but only while I am IN the car.  So far, guess what?  Remember the horses of Chincoteague and the moose of Maine?

 

We drove west to Interstate 5, and headed north towards Seattle. We stopped in Olympia to do our “must see” tour of the State Capitol Building of the State of Washington. It was open to the public even though it was Sunday afternoon. Washington has a dome! Once inside, we were met with an overwhelming amount of marble. We were told that the marble came from Alaska. All the lighting fixtures in the capitol building are Tiffany lights, and they were pretty awesome to see, lighting up all that marble.

We walked all three floors of the building. My photo of the inside of the dome was not shot lying down. Instead, I had to lean over a restraining belt that protects a picture of George Washington that is on the floor, hold my camera out with one hand as far as I could over George, and snap it. I noticed that two light bulbs up there need to be replaced.....................make that three.

                                                 Only one Tiffany, but check out the detail
 

We came out of the capitol building and noticed again how lovely the grounds around it are. We decided to take my thirty minute walk around the grounds, thereby killing the proverbial two birds with one stone. For the next thirty minutes we walked at break-neck speed all around the parking lots, the walkways, the statues and the fountains.

We noticed that very old trees whose trunks are covered with moss have many of their limbs held up with support beams. We liked that. It's sort of like supporting an old relative, I thought: keep it up and living as long as you can.

By 6 PM we were in Tacoma in a motel that has the world's worst internet service, called Innflux. I've done my writing, but this "server" keeps disconnecting me while I add the pictures. I may have to finish this in the morning. In 15 days on the road I have not had one problem getting on the internet servers until this one. I am not a happy camper, but I do have a novel I am trying to get into, so tonight I may just have to sit and quietly read. 

  There's the lemonade in the lemon!


Copyright: KP Gillenwater 2013

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to Spokane, across the Columbia River, the Ginko Petrified Forest, and Yakima, Washington

A traveling day today!  I know there are people who consider "a traveling day" to mean a thousand miles or at least 800.  We did 240 today and we traveled. (Just look at the title of this post......)

We drove past Coeur d'Alene Lake which is on the outskirts of the ares of Coeur d'Alene where we were staying.  This lake covers 49 square miles and is 25 miles long and at places two miles wide. National Geographic Magazine listed this lake as one of the five most beautiful lakes in the world.  We see why.  If only we had a sailboat............. we'd still be there.

But we don't, and we're not.

We drove the 30 miles or so to Spokane, Washington.  You know we'd show you a photo of ourselves at the side of a busy highway, cars and trucks doing 90 while we smile happily that we've made it to another state sign...........but the state of Washington stuck their sign in the middle of the divided highway..............!!  and we preferred to keep on living, so you will just have to do without that shot.

Spokane didn't look as large as it is on the map.  We got off the interstate at some point and followed our noses towards downtown, stopping at the Public Market along the way. It is a very cool place! The image projected of Spokanians (?) is that they are liberal, ecologically-minded, and going to save the world, going by the things we saw for sale at the Public Market.  I had to go back to the car for my camera. Randy wanted to buy the worm farm kit and the portable solar oven that looks like a suitcase.

 

We couldn't help but notice the homeless people all over downtown Spokane. They seem to be everywhere.  We didn't see any panhandlers, but we did see many homeless sleeping in a park, walking aimlessly with all their belongings on them, or rummaging for food in trash cans.

Spokane is known for its skywalks that join buildings together. It is especially helpful for the citizens during the cold winters when they can move over a 15-building area without having to go outside.

 

Finding Sprague Street, which seems to be the main drag of town, helped us to get our bearings. Thelma led us to Riverfront Park, on the banks of the Spokane River, and we got a fantastic parking spot nearby. A large fountain with kids playing in it was at the entrance.

A wonderful, historic carousel is inside a large building to be sure it lasts another hundred years. It was carved in 1909 by Charles Loof, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.  There are two "odd" or "extra" figures on the carousel, one an Ibex goat, and the other a tiger.  I got right up onto the goat and when I realized it had a thick, leather seat belt, I became worried that this merry-go-round was going to give me a thrill ride.  Actually, it was a very long ride, worth the price of the ticket, and it went pretty fast, but I held onto that goat and had a fun time.

We walked all over Riverfront Park near the downtown area.  There are large pots of flowers everywhere, a clock tower, a pavilion for concerts, and a sky ride which we didn't see until we had left the park.  Riverfront Park was hosting a health run of some sort, and there were many families enjoying a Saturday morning and afternoon there.

We got back onto Interstate 90 and drove.  Our new audio book is The Litigators, by John Grisham. While there is a sameness to all of his books, each one has its own unique characters and odd lawsuit, and this one is no different, but we're enjoying it as we ride.

The town of Ritzville looked as if it might have a grocery store, so we pulled in. Their downtown area had been taken over by a "Health Fair" that seemed to have the whole population of 1600 or so involved in it. We asked about a grocery store, and were directed to the Pretty Good Grocery where we purchased a large jar of peanut butter.  Ritzville has some interesting old buildings on their Main Street, we thought.

We continued west and found a rest area picnic ground for lunch.

Washington State has hills and sage and fields of wheat that have all been harvested by now. After Montana, I confess that we were not enamoured with the scenery. Some more hills appeared, a town named Vantage was nearing, and  a sign warned us of a "scenic overlook."  We sort of sneered at it, but got off anyway. 

Oh, my goodness!  We had no idea what was below.............we couldn't see it coming until just about the minute we got off the interstate!

Out of the car, we realized that we were looking at the Columbia River at the bottom of rocky ridges and hills.  Who knew?  It hadn't been visible until then, or had we just not noticed................
We stayed at the overlook for quite awhile. It was 92 degrees.  Little lizards were running on the rocks.  The Columbia River was running below. We had found beauty in Washington.

Back in the car, Interstate 90 crossed the Columbia River, and we were still emoting over the beauty of it when we saw a sign for the Ginko Petrified Forest.  I must have been on guide-book-overload, as I had totally missed that in my role of "navigator" today.

A quick turn and half a mile later we were at the welcome center.  Petrified wood lay all around, and we admired it.  We did not want to take the ride through the park today, but were glad we'd stopped at the entrance area. 

Wineries started to appear, and we drove by fields of peas and wheat. We went up and down humongous hill and small mountains.  Apple orchards showed up, along with fruit signs and a very large area covered with wooden fruit crates for the harvests.  In the distance a range of purple mountains slowly were visible. We were heading into the Yakima Valley.

Fruit Crates

 

 

We pulled into Yakima, Washington at 5:00.  A short, relaxing soak in the hotel hot tub was followed by Mexican food at El Mirador, which translates to "The Viewpoint." It was decorated with lovely, bright colors. We got a good look at Yakima on the way to El Mirador.  All the fir trees lining the main streets are decorated with blue electric lights, as though it were Christmas.  We could not tell that Yakima was so large until we were downtown.  It looks like a city with everything, and it's not too large.  The Yakima Indian Reservation borders the city. There is a large Hispanic population as well.

We've got our motel routine just about perfected at this point.  My suitcase has not been out of the car yet, as it serves as a "dresser" of sorts in the back of the car. Tonight there is no elevator in our Clarion Motel, so only the most necessary things are inside with us.  It is amazing to me how little we really need on any given day.  I guess the lesson in this is simplify.

 

 Copyright: KP Gillenwater 2013