Washington and the Northwest!

 We have reached our high water mark for our western states swing.  Washington with it beaches, forests, mountains and attractions did not disappoint.  The big plus here was the weather was perfect, sunny and warm with light breezes.  The locals told us they had not had weather like this for a long time, usually it is raining, windy and overcast.  Timing is everything!!  Our Washington exploration started in Westport, we heard that there was a military campground with 3 sites and a lighthouse.  Well the lighthouse was awesome, the sites... not so much, barely a wide spot in the woods and mosquitos just begging for you to go outside.  One day was enough for us and we drove up to McCord AFB so we could drive down to Mt. Rainer for a day trip.  Mount Rainer is more impressive in person than any picture we could take.  After a couple days at McCord we drove north of Seattle to Whidbey Naval Air Station.  We were blown away after we arrived at Cliffside RV park, not only were the views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the sunset breathtaking, they have a master gardener on staff and he works from 6 to 6 caring for the beautiful flowers he planted throughout the park, he also planted strawberries for all the campers to pick for free.  The first full day at Cliffside was dedicated to going north to explore Vancouver, Canada.  It is a beautiful city but we think that we are not big city tourists because we drove around taking pictures but finding a parking place was like pulling teeth with pliers. Not disappointed but also not a big fan of the congestion that goes along with city life.  The next day we explored around Whidbey Island and the quaint seaports that dot the island.  Much more to our liking!  We did do the tourist thing by going down to Space Needle and the surrounding attractions.   We also took the ferry to Port Townsend to visit our friends from our camp hosting at Chatfield State Park.  Peggy and Howard Doi are hosting again near Port Townsend.  We did have time while on the air station to get in 3.5 mile walks every morning which runs along the beach and into the woods...not a bad way to start your day. After exploring around northern Washington we decided to drive over to Fairchild AFB outside of Spokane.  We also used this stop to replace the front tire on the Ford...why?  Well we had another blowout on the motorhome and it took out our compartment behind the duals along with our compressor that we stored in the compartment.  After replacing both rear duals on the drivers side and driving to Spokane we discovered that some of the debris cut the front tire on the car and it was not fixable.  BTW that is four blowouts in the last three years but on the positive side the motorhome has all new tires and spare so we shouldn't have any more tire problems.  While at Fairchild, which is a beautiful well kept base, we took a couple day trips to Grand Coulee Dam, Spokane, and Coeur d'Alene.  If you don't know, the Grand Coulee is the largest dam in the US and four times the size of Hoover Dam and produces three times the electric power.  Coeur d'Alene is a charming little city with the huge Lake Coeur d'Alene right downtown. As we leave Washington and start our way back to Colorado we still have Idaho, the Grand Tetons, Salt Lake City to add to our backyard exploration.  An added bonus for our trip, Kris and Amy will join us in Salt Lake City to do some family history research and they will leave our grandsons, Kasey and Karsten with us for the remainder of our adventure. 

 

 

 

Lighthouse at Westport where we stayed overnight and toured the lighthouse!

Majestic Mount Rainer

 

Our site at Whidbey Naval Air Station with the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the our backyard!

The Peace Arch on the Canadian Border

The Space Needle in Seattle

This is the sunset we saw every night from our motorhome

The 100s of logs washed up on the beach behind our motorhome indicates the weather is not always sunny and warm!

It is called Cliffside RV park for a reason

George in the sleepy fishing village of Coupesville, Washington

A little windy on the Ferry!  Now we can say that we have taken ferries on both coasts!

Took the ferry over to Port Townsend to see our camphost friends from Chatfield..

.Peggy and Howard Doi

Every sunset at Whidbey was just awesome!

 

Not all RV campgrounds are designed the same,

 the sites at Fairchild AFB are a little narrow!  But the host and the other RVers were very friendly!

 

How did that picture get in here....

Oh maybe because we miss these three sweethearts,

 Karsten, Holly, and Kasey!

 

 

 

B-52 at the Airpark on Fairchild AFB

OK why does the Air Force have train cars?

 

The Lake at Coeur d'Alene...the lake is in the middle of the city

 

The Grand Coulee Dam - the largest dam in the US

 with almost 12 million cubic yards of concrete

 (4 x the amount as Hoover Dam and 3x the generating capacity)

Amazing what you learn reading this blog!

Lake Roosevelt formed by the Grand Coulee Dam, the lake runs about 40 miles back toward Spokane.

 

As we reached our goal of traveling up the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington we can reflect on how fortunate we are to be able to continue this lifestyle and to visit with friends throughout the United States.  Our trip is only half way complete but we will do the return trip in about two weeks rather than two months.  Day trips to the Tetons, landmarks in Idaho, and a week in Salt Lake are all on the agenda for us.  When Kasey and Karsten join us we will let them choose between a few sites so our final leg might be a few more days than we planned but we think they will want to go Dinosaur National Monument to see the bones of the ancient giants, also by traveling the back roads of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming will give them a chance to stop and enjoy the trip.  Can't wait...it will be a different adventure! 

We hope you are enjoying your summer.  Stay safe and take extra good care of yourselves!

 

 

 

Oregon - a Whole New Backyard Adventure!

We crossed the border into Oregon and discovered a whole new world awaited us, gas was a little cheaper (which is a good thing), people pump your gas here (by law) and the people are very very friendly! Our first stop was Diamond Lake which is 3 miles north of Crater Lake.  Crater Lake can only be described as ..... WOW! Breath taking views, the bluest water and the majestic peaks form what can only be described as God's picture perfect landscape.  Did you know that Crater Lake was not formed by a meteor, it was a volcano that fell into itself and formed the bowl for the lake.  We are so fortunate to be able to travel to these natural gems in America's backyard.  We spent three days at Crater Lake but could have stayed the summer, it is that beautiful.  The pictures we will post of this place can not do it justices.  After Crater Lake we drove back to the Oregon Coast and was not disappointed in the views along the coast.  We plan on stopping at Sunset State Park, South Beach State Park and Fort Stevens State Park each for three days and take in the views.  Our first stop was a little different for us, we pulled in and set up the motorhome to find that we did not have satellite service, no cell phone service, and no internet.....OMG how will we survive? Well,  one of us did really well and one of us needs a hobby besides something to do with electronics!  Pat caught up on her reading while George moped around for three days.  In his defense, he was also trying to get rid of a lingering cold.  The state park was beautiful but there was a canopy of huge trees hanging over the entire park and every morning we were blessed with a cold fog coming from the ocean. The locals around Coos Bay call it "the  Gloom until noon", but we did get out and see some very beautiful beaches, gardens and a lighthouse.  Leaving Sunset Beach we travelled north for a couple hours and pulled into South Beach.  The views from US 101 going north were amazing, Pat took hundreds of pictures.  The town of Newport is a quite little fishing village with two lighthouses, beautiful sandy beaches and it has internet, satellite reception and cell phone service so we are now all happy!  Feeling better we left South Beach and drove to the northwestern most point of Oregon.  It is the land of Lewis and Clark, where the Columbia River and meets the picturesque seacoast.  We did not see all of Oregon but what we did see left a lifetime of memories.

We camped at Diamond Lake and this was our front yard!

 Diamond Lake is 3 miles north of Crater Lake - awesome!

 

Sunrise over Crater Lakle

Is it chilly Pat?

This picture does not do Crater Lake any justice - it has is the bluest water we have ever seen

 

 

The Oregon coast was amazing

Our hook ups at Sunset Beach on the Oregon coast

Lighthouse near Coos Bay, Oregon

 

 

 

Devil's Punch Bowl on the Oregon Coast

Just us on the Oregon Coast

Another coast shot for your enjoyment

Rugged beauty

Interesting house on US 101

Old shipwreck at the mouth of the Columbia river

Replica of Lewis and Clark fort at Warrenton, Oregon

 

This our first trip to Oregon and it did not disappoint us.  From Crater Lake to the Oregon Coast this is a beautiful state.  We are driving to Washington state, another state that offers new and exciting opportunities to discover America's backyards.  After Washington we will start our trek back to Colorado with stops in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.  Stay tune for more amazing pictures(we hope) and our trials and tribulations along the way.  Enjoy your summer!

Southern California - Friends and Sites!

 

We left Tucson and headed west to the Pacific Ocean, Southern California and long but not lost friends. Sorry we missed a few as our schedules were just out of snyc.   Our first stop was Camp Pendleton Marine Base but we did notice driving into the base the gas was $4.00 a gallon, quite different from the $2.17 a gallon in Tucson.  But we settled in and made some calls to friends in the area.  Since we been in this area a few times, sightseeing is not high on our agenda.  Pat and Domnique Shores actually accepted our call and we made plans to meet the following day in Dana Point.  We were all stationed at Ramstein AB, Germany from 1983 to 1986 and travelled to the ski slopes in Austria together.  Pat ad Domnique were perfect hosts, we enjoyed breakfast an toured the harbor at Dana Point while we caught up with each other.  As always with good friends,  it seemed that we had been together just a couple months ago had a wonderful time visiting.  We left Pendleton we drove up the coast and stopped at Seal Beach and Port Hueneme naval stations before visiting our friends Frank and Alberta Rock.  Frank and George were stationed together in the early 70s at Ramstein and it has a few years since we connected when we spent a year in the Mojave Desert while George worked on the B-2 project..  It was great seeing them and they are looking pretty good for some old timers.  Continuing up the coast we stopped at San Luis Obispo so we could visit the famous Hearst Castle and Moro Rock.  We can tell you that Mr. Hearst spent millions of dollars on this little abode and it rivals any castle in Europe.  The architecture, paintings, furniture, fountains etc. are really something to see if you are out this way.  We changed plans at this point and decided that we should do something for Amy....so we drove to Travis AFB to do some wine probing in the NAPA valley.  We found a vineyard not far from the base and stopped in... what do you know...it is owned by Coors and ran by the sister that Kris works for in Colorado.  So now Amy will get some wine from the Coors family...hope she likes it!  We detoured again to do some family history in Humboldt County, California the ancestry home of Pat's great grandfather John Hiram Rease.   Now it was time to leave California and drive to Crater Lake, Oregon but that is a backyard story for another blog.  Hope you enjoyed our adventures in California, we did find out that not all of California is like Southern California which is a very good thing!

 

 

Dana Beach, the ocean views were remarkable!

George, Pat, Dominique and Pat Shores having breakfast overlooking the ocean

 

George, Pat, Alberta, and Frank Rock good friends for many years!

The mission at San Luis Obispo

Ronald Regan's Presidential library, Simi Valley California

 

Hearst Castle entrance

The heated swimming pool

How is this for a dining room?

 

We really enjoyed California this time around, the weather was great,  and the scenery was just beautiful.  However, it was the friends we connected with that we will remember the most of our swing through the Golden Bear State.  It is on to Oregon, which is one of the few states that we have never visited so our backyard exploring will all be new.  Stay tuned the summer has just began!

Starting our Western Swing with Friends

We have left Colorado and started our swing through New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington, Idaho, Wyoming before coming back to Colorado.  Our plans include visiting friends and seeing this country's beautiful backyards in our western states.  The first part of our adventure will be visiting with friends we have known for a very long time.  We started our journey on May 1st driving to one of our favorite cities, Albuquerque, home of the world's most photographed event, the Annual Balloon festival and our friends Mike and Rita Kavanaugh.  As with so many of our friends, Mike and Rita welcome us as part of their family.  We have known them since 1986 and surprisingly we are still very close.  Our next stop, Tucson, usually a late fall destination, to visit with Tom and Maryann Graue.  We all met in Germany where Kris was born back in 1978.  If you follow our blog, you might remember that we mentioned that it was Maryann (now a retired nurse)  who was responsible for sending George to the doctor for his sleep apnea which was the catalyst for discovering his throat cancer back in 2003.  We treasure all of our friends and enjoy every minute we get to spend with each and everyone of them.   We will be leaving Tucson on May 16th and drive to the San Diego area to see several friends including a young lady who was stationed with Pat in Turkey in the early '70s, a fellow firefighter from our time in Germany who also vacationed with us on the ski slopes of Austria in the mid '80s , and we hope to get together with George's classmate from high school who is RV camping near San Diego.  After San Diego we will venture into the Mojave Desert to visit two other long time firefighter friends also from Germany in the 70s and 80s.  We plan on posting our blog as we progress up California, Oregon and Washington's coastlines and the side trips into some of the natural wonders of this beautiful land.

 

 

Mike and Rita with Pat in Old Town Albuquerque

Rita always cooks a great breakfast and always smiles

Mike is not saluting he thinks he is sweating while he watches Rita do all the work...Ok Mike did make the coffee!

Outside of the old church in old town Albuquerque with Mike. Rita and Pat

This park is just outside of old town Albuquerque and commemorates the cattle drives of 

 early New Mexico 

Not a bad landing spot for our Tucson visit, the desert flowers are still in bloom.  The weather has been great for our visit with temps in the low 80s (the average is in the 90s for this time of year).  Pat is taking advantage of the sunshine to enhance her tan.

Seems Tom likes to cook breakfast so we let him cook breakfast twice for us.  Are we just moochers?

One of the best things about visiting Tucson, we get to see Tom and Maryann's miracle baby, Emme.  She was a preemie and at two years old still weighs less than 20 pounds.  As you can see she is already a Buckeye fan even though her granddad is an Arizona Wildcat season ticket holder.

 

Oh, Thanks Maryann!!!!! 

 I am sure you can think of a few captions for this photo but Tom and I really were fixing his door sweep. 

This might be a fitting picture to say "The End"

 

Our newest trip has just started and we will be on the road for a least two and half months visiting the backyards of the west coast but we already know that if the rest of our trip is like the first couple of weeks.....we are going to have some fun!  Although we will miss our Holly, Kasey, Karsten and their parents; we also know that we are a phone call, Skype, or Facetime away from talking and/or seeing them.  We hope all of our friends and family have a wonderful and safe summer.  If you live on the west coast be very careful we might be pointing our motorhome in your direction just to stop in and say "hello"!