Seattle Washington

Wednesday June 13th: Today we drove into Seattle to see the city, the bay, and the Space Needle of course. Our first surprise was to discover that Seattle was built down the side of a pretty steep hillside, one that could rival some of San Francisco's best in my opinion. We got off of I-5 at Seneca St and pointed the nose of the truck down, down, and still more down hill until we finally got to Alaska Way along the harbor. This road is directly under WA-99, an elevated highway. Once there we drove through the parking area for about five blocks until a young homeless man, directing cars into parking spaces that were right in front of them, pointed us into an empty space. I gave him a couple of dollars - "for the shelter tonight". Stopped for lunch at the harbor and ate the house Northwest Fish Chowder and Fish and Chips. The table overlooked the harbor and we watched a fireboat tied up and a large ferry dock and unload. We then walked down Alaska Way until we came to the right street to go uphill toward the scenic downtown shopping area. Walked on over to the Space Needle and went on up to the 580 foot level where the view was awsome. Here is one shot that we took overlooking the Seattle city center and with the Mountains and Mt. Ranier off in the background.

Victoria BC

Friday June 8th: We moved yesterday, this time up to the Olympic NP penninsula to Diamond Point K/M Resort just south of Sequim, WA. Today we took the ferry from Port Angeles, WA over to Victoria BC. Victoria is a very pretty town, the capitol of British Columbia Province, and gets a lot of income from Cruise ships that pull in there. We walked down town along Warf St and through China Town over to Government St. and back to the harbor area. Had a good lunch about 3 pm. This picture was of the "Government Buldings" and a large standing carved/painted totum pole. We spent a very pleasant day all in all and watched a seal play in the water beside the ferry as we waited to pull out.

Mt. Ranier NP Entrance

June 6th: Drove over to the Mt Ranier National Park today. It was a very nice drive and the park area was beautiful. This is a picture of the Park Entrance.

Toutle River Valley toward Mt. St. Helens

As we left the Visitors Center we drove on toward Mt. St Helens and finally stopped at an overlook and restaurant by the Toutle River Valley. This picture was shot down the valley looking East. Georgeous view.

Mt. St. Helens and Mt Ranier WA

Wednesday June 5 and Thursday June 6th: We had moved up to the Thousand Trails Preserve near Chehalis, WA on Tuesday and settled in. As we moved into Washington the weather became rainey and cooler as a front moved in to the area. It had been in the 80's up here last week while we were in the 50's on the Oregon coast. Now as we come to Washington the temperature has dropped into the 50's for us. I surely didn't expect to be wearing coats this far into the summer.

Wednesday we traveled down I-5 to the Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center. The had a good movie about the eruption in 1980 and a model of the volcano that you could walk down into to see the various layers and magma chambers. They also had a very nice nature walk out through the marshy land, about a mile around that we enjoyed.

The picture above shows the overcast very well. If you count the third peak to the left of the big center peak, that will be Mt. St. Helens.

Pacific City Thousand Trails Preserve

Friday June 1st. Arrived at the Pacific City Thousand Trails today. The beach is just across the road and down through the woods. Very pretty walk. We have been taking the dogs and walking the beach each day. One day we drove up to Tillamook, OR to visit the Tillamook Cheese factory and have lunch. Just a beautiful relaxing weekend. We will leave Monday for Chahalis, Washington. Here is a picture of a bit of the Oregon coast.

South Jetty/Florence Oregon

Still Thursday, 31st of May: From old town Florence we drove out to a park where we could walk on the beach and on out a stone jetty the helps herd the river as it meets the Pacific Ocean. Walking out the jetty into the ocean was beautiful, but cold and windy. We didn't stay on the jetty long, but went back toward the campground and then out "South Jetty" road into the NP area in the dunes. Some four wheelers were having a go at one of the dunes and we got a picture of it.