Glacier National Park

Getting to Glacier is not the easiest but you want to see it (and it is worth it). After a night on the road at the Smelterville, Idaho, Walmart, we drove into Columbia Falls RV about 2PM. It was a beautiful drive -- much like the Columbia River Gorge. The mountains were covered with velvet like moss and there were a lot of farm animals--cows, horses, goats--lots of animal farms, no crops were seen. The days are extremely long--sun-up 6am- dark about 10pm.  Early Saturday morning we head into the park and Go-to-the-Sun Road--a 52 mile road full of vistas, hikes, waterfalls, wild flowers, snow and critters.


Gotta get the sign--our last one this trip

fast moving streams



As opposed to the Grand Canyon, the stream that cuts this canyon
was crystal clear

I have found my new favorite flower--Beargrass --we are told we are in luck, these flowers only bloom every 5-10 years and this is a banner year.

The wildflowers were amazing

Beargrass

Honestly, the biggest (and most abundant) Queen Anne's Lace I have seen.

We went all the way east gate and then up to Many Glaciers. This is actually a place and we had great debate about the pronunciation of "Many". Here we saw a moose swimming across Sherbourne Lake. This is my first moose and I was thrilled. Then we turned around and came back to the top of the summit--Logan Pass. Here they have a couple of goats were posing for pictures.

Once again we see the Continental Divide

The goats had really thick coats and traveled in pairs

Marmot

The swimming moose

Saturday we slept in and then headed to a 5 mile hike to/back Avalanche Lake.

 Avalanche showcased giant cedars and a beautiful lake with a waterfall thrown in if you weren't star struck enough. The crowd was almost 100% American--no foreign language was spoken but could have a lot of Canadians since we are so close to the border. Many families--we are missing the kids. Honestly, there were probably a dozen people who came up to Fitz wearing his Tennessee Hat that said they were also from Tennessee, one couple is from Maryville--they were on their way home from Alaska!

　

The Turn

Nick and my brothers play golf and I see Mount Vernon, WA,  as "the turn". We are more than half way through our trip and we have gone as far north and west as we plan to do in the RV. Northwest Washington State was supposed to be a week for us to rest and relax and get ready to head home. It turns out that this area has a lot to offer and we ended up seeing and doing lots of things. Anacortes is the boaters/loopers base in the Northwest. A lot of marinas and islands--we headed there first thing and checked out the ferry schedule. We decided to go later in the week when the weather promised to be warm and sunny to the San Juan's and Friday Harbor.

We took the 9am Ferry to the San Juan's into Friday Harbor (past the Orcas and Shaw islands)

Took the trolley tour around the island and this is Roche Harbor on
the back side of the Island (past the Lavender farm)

Went to take the 4pm return ferry and it was backed up--turns out they
had a bomb scare and had to call the sniffing dogs out

No  worries--we found a nice little bar overlooking the waterfront talked to a man that name dropped Robert Mondavi as he owns Laird Family Winery in Napa Valley and waited for the all clear
we got back to Anacortes around 9pm

Along the way we found a charming little burg called LaConner that had a lot of art, bars, and music.

Found this little jewel along the roadside--just like Craig's at home

Loved the LaConner waterfront on the Skagit River--think the owners are grandparents?

LaConner was full of parks

This park was for Dirty Biter who hung out at the LaConner Bars for 12 years

The one real rainy day we went to the movie--Yesterday (best movie I've seen in a long time). Then we went to Sedro-Woolley (yes, that is the name of the city) and the Logger Rodeo which featured the Chainsaw Carving.

Pretty little burg

The Chainsaw Carving was truly amazing

He's doing the dab (for Holden)

They put pre-finished items up for sale --not inexpensive

At the end of the day they would judge the pieces done and then auction them off
(the one's that won the blue ribbons went for thousands)

We traveled an hour south to Everett, Washington and toured the very neat Boeing Plant tour.

The mural on the super secret factory doors is the largest mural in the world. Boeing is the
 largest employer in the state of Washington--no wonder they are concerned with
 the troubles of the MAX 8 (a 737, not built here) and the federal budget

We saw the planes of the future as well as the building of the 747 and the 777

Customers pick out different specifics for their planes

The 777 doesn't use the aluminum skin--it uses a much lighter polycarbonate

Waiting for delivery

Then on the night of the 3rd we went to nearby Big Lake where they had fun fireworks in a Norman Rockwell setting. On the 4th Mount Vernon does the fireworks.

At a local lake the families came to see fireworks--it doesn't get dark here until 10pm!

Yes-4th of July and I am freezing.  The nice people were sitting with shared their blankets.

Pretty here too.

This was an excellent stop

Whoo--we left Mt. Vernon more tired than we came.

Seattle

We checked into Trailer's Inn RV Park in Bellevue, Washington-- the home of Bill and Melinda Gates and most of Microsoft. While the traffic was bad, that is the only negative I can relate. The RV Park was tight but convenient and clean. Seattle has a lot to offer so we settled on 3 things we most wanted to see--Pike Street Market, the Space Needle, and Chihuly Gardens. Conveniently, Chihuly and the Space Needle are next door to each other. Also within short distance is MoPop (Museum of Popular Music)--right now they were showcasing Pearl Jam. We skipped this but if we had had more time.....Queen is next up and that would have been a must see. We took the monorail from the Space Needle area to Pike Street Market and found their delightful waterfront. This was a great stop! Next up--a week in northern Washington where we will take a breathe, do laundry, restock the coffers and take in the 4th of July.

The Space Needle

I wore my Apple Sweatshirt to tease all the Microsoft-ers in the town

Great view

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation view from the Needle

MoPop

Lunch at Pike Street

Look carefully and you can see the fish being thrown at the market-
-they put on a show

The Seattle waterfront had a lot going on

Even had the Rat Pack

Loads of beautiful flowers

Chihuly!