WA (Cont’d) – Aug 2025

There are fewer things more iconic here on the Pacific North West part of Washington state as Mt Rainier.  The snow and glacier capped mountain towering over 14,000 feet above sea level is visible from areas all throughout Washington – assuming that is if it’s a clear day.  Seeing this majestic mountain reminds me of the years I spent in Japan, driving to work each morning looking up to see Mt Fuji on a clear day.  There’s just something special to see these beauties off in the distance.  So, lots to explore and do here in the Seattle area, all of which is detailed below in this edition of the Luv2RV blog.

Bothell, WA

I continue my exploration of Washington state, now arriving on the west side of the state along the coast of Puget Sound.  Here I will enjoy my longest stay at one location for this entire trip – spending 11 glorious days here in the Seattle area.  I’ll spend time exploring all there is to see as well as visiting with family.

Speaking of visiting with family, it wasn’t long after I arrived that I was invited out to watch Theo, the son of my nephew Eric, play in a soccer tournament. He’s quite the little athlete, and despite having lost the game, he sure put in a great effort.  Later in the week, I had the pleasure of a dinner out with my brother Gerry, nephew Eric and his wife Danielle and boys Theo and Jack, along with special guests my other nephew Marc and his wife Rena who actually live in Texas and had just happened to finished a week of camping here in Washington.  It was really great seeing them all!

I was also looking forward to seeing my cousin Marie Claire, but as luck would have it, our paths didn’t quite sync up.  She and her husband were in NYC and about to take a trip out to Turkey and would not return to Washington until after I had departed.  Oh well – I guess they will just have to plan a trip to Florida sometime this winter.  I hope to catch up with them sometime soon.

Next, I spent a day running around the area in search of Roadside gems.  And wow – there were a lot of them around here!  First up were the iconic images of the Blues Brothers, Jake and Elwood.  Built of fiberglass and sitting atop the roof at Andy’s Auto Repair, what was once a gas station.  Apparently, these figures exist throughout the country, but these are the first that I’m seeing.  Apparently, Roadside does not really consider them unique enough so no others are listed.  This pair however, made it to the list due to the interesting flaming paint job they have on their pant legs (hard to see in the pictures I took unfortunately).  But they were cool none the less.  Next I visited this monument known as the Space Capsule (at right top right).  It was unveiled on July 4, 1976 and was to celebrate astronaut Neil Armstrong and the Apollo mission that took him to be the first person to set foot on the moon.  The idea came from Dennis Clark, a 19-year old Edmonds High School graduate, and  the builder Howard Duell, an Edmonds Community College art instructor.  It stands about 11 feet tall, made of concrete and weighing in at nearly two tons, and reportedly holds a time capsule with the names of all who contributed to the project.  A Japanese robot was my next stop.  Designed and built by homeowner Darrell Toland, this 15 foot tall robot replica is fashioned from the 1986 animated movie “Castle in the Sky”.  It sits in the homeowners small front yard and reportedly receives gifts from visitors who place flowers or small toys in its outstretched hand.  Apparently, during a particularly cold winter, a visitor placed a knitted glove on its hand.  Now that’s funny!  Next was this giant 18 foot long pachyderm that sits high atop a pedestal along highway 99 just north of Seattle.  This elephant is quite old.  It was built and highly decorated sometime in the mid 1920s to promote a tile business.  Then, in 1946, it was purchased for $500 and became the mascot of the Aurora Avenue Flower shop and became a local town fan favorite.  When the flower shop closed in 2004, there was much concern about the future of the much loved icon.  The space is now occupied by Aurora Rents – equipment rental company, and the elephant, now approaching 100 years old, remains in place and looking good.  The Veterans Memorial Cemetery is home to the controversial scultpurte known as the American Doughboy.  Sculpted by Alonzo Victor Lewis in 1932, it depicts a soldier returning from battle, with a victorious grin on his face.  I believe what originally made it controversial was that it once held a German helmet – presumed to be from a dead opponent.  The helmet is no longer present, and what remains is the smiling grin on the soldiers face.  Last up in this collection was a drive by visit to the House that would not move.  As expected, driving, and more importantly parking, while tooling around the big city in the big boy truck was quite the challenge.  There were more than one occasion where I had no option to stop, and had to be satisfied with taking a picture as I drove by.  Such was the case for this one.  It’s a bit hard to see, but in this picture (at right, bottom left) is a tiny house completely surrounded on three sides by a huge industrial building.  It would be Edith Macefield that refused to sell her house to the big bad developer who had planned to construct a giant building on this plot of land.  So, it ended up the developer just built the building around the house instead.  The building is currently unoccupied, but still standing.

The next day, I signed up and bought a ticket to take a tour of the Boeing factory.  You can’t come to the Seattle area and not visit Boeing!  Located about 25 miles north of Seattle in Everett, WA they offer 13 tours daily, six days a week.  Each tour group is around 50 people or so – which roughly translates to doing tours for upwards of 5,000 visitors weekly.  It’s quite the well orchestrated process.  They had a nice inside museum-like area that featured a number of experimental aircraft, and a bit of history of the company.  They also had an outdoor observation deck from which you could watch planes take off and land, as well as seeing a number of yet unpainted planes in their final stage of build awaiting their FAA inspections and ultimate flight tests.  However, the highlight of the tour was when we took a bus ride down to the ginormous hangers, said to be the largest factory in the world, where the airplanes are actually built.  Unfortunately, due to trade secret concerns, there was no photo or video taking allowed.  In fact not only did we have to leave our phones behind in a small locker, we even had to leave any paper or pens and pencils behind as well.  They certainly didn’t want us taking any notes along the way either.  So, the best I could do was to take a picture of a picture that sort of showed what it looked like in the build hangers (at left, bottom right).  It was really interesting to see airplanes in various stages of assembly, each bearing a sign that designated the name of its intended customer, along with its purchase number (e.g. Number 3 of 7 ordered).  Most of the planes I saw being built were for foreign airlines (JAL, Emirates, etc.).  It was an awesome tour, and I only wish I could have taken pictures to share.  Oh well guess you’ll all just have to go for yourselves.

After the Boeing tour, I checked out a couple Roadside items in the Everett area.  Nothing too spectacular, but interesting none the less.  First up, this flying saucer craft titled “Landing Zone” was built by artist Peter Reiquam, and sits in Paine Field Community Park.  It’s 16 feet wide and 14 feet tall, making for a useful shelter to avoid rain or to get a bit of shade.  It was created as part of the Americans for the Arts organization, and this submission beat out 28 competing ideas for the plaza.  It even has an acrylic bubble at the top which if you stand directly beneith on a sunny day, appears as if you are standing in a beam of light.  Beam me up Scottie!  Also at this plaza, but not part of Roadside, was this really cool high adventures place.  You get up there really high, connect your harness to the safety cables, then climb around and over rope lines and other interesting obstacles.  Fun to watch, but you wouldn’t catch me up there!  Last up was this giant paper (aka fiberglass) airplane that sits over the entrance to Dillon Works – a company that specializes in the design and building of big artistic things.  Sure is a realistic looking paper plane, and a terrific promotion to this business.

The. next day, my brother Gerry would pick me up at o-dark early, so we could drive out to visit the town of Leavenworth.  I actually had that town on my list of places to visit from my last stop, but ran out of time to get there.  Fortunately, it sits about halfway between this current stop, and my last stop, making it suitable for a visit from either location.  It was just over 100 miles away, and took us about 2 hours to get there.  But it was so worth it!  Gerry had actually been there before, but it had been quite a long time since his last visit.  As you can plainly see from the pictures at left, Leavenworth is a Bavarian/Swiss themed town – with most all building’s architecture having that Bavarian Village look about them.  Even the bathroom signs had a Bavarian flare to them.  In the early 1900s, it was a small lumber community and also held a regional office for the Great Northern Railroad.  However, the railway office relocated in the mid 1920s, and that started the town’s decline.  By the 1950s, many lumber mills had closed, and the population plummeted.  Soon after, the town was looking for options to revitilize things, with a focus on tourism and recreation.  The idea of a Bavarian-Swiss alpine theme was proposed, and the rest is history.  Today, over 2 million people visit this quaint little town annually.  So, I guess their plan worked!

Among the many interesting places to visit in Leavenworth, for me it was the Nutcracker Museum that sure did rise to the top.  The museum was founded by Arlene Wagner, also known as the Nutcracker Lady, in 1995.  Today, its 5,000 square foot, two-story Bavarian style building houses over 9,000 varieties of nutcrackers, and is one of the largest collections in the world.  The collection represents nutcrackers from over 50 different manufacturers, with everything from modern ones to those dating back to Roman times.  It was just row after row, glass case after glass case of nothing but nutcrackers.  It was an amazing collection!  There were certainly lots of the wooden soldier type nutcrackers that you see everywhere, but also lots of other styles too.  There was even one that had been carved out of a wooden match (at right, bottom right).  But not to be left out, the iconic ball-buster herself, Hilary Clinton, is featured in the collection with her own rendition of a leg-crushing nutcracker.  Too funny!  I took lots of pictures in this museum, so be sure to follow the link at the bottom of this blog to see all the other interesting nutcrackers that I saw that day.

On the way driving to Leavenworth, I happened to notice a few artifacts along the road that I recognized as having been in Roadside.  So, on the way back, we took the opportunity to stop and visit and to grab some pictures.  First up, at a little roadside coffee shop known as Espresso Chalet, were these giant carved wooden Bigfoots (at left, top and bottom left).  At 14 feet tall, they certainly make their mark at this little roadside joint.  Besides just being interesting carvings, they also have another purpose.  They mark the site as one of the filming locations for the 1987 movie “Harry and the Hendersons”.  Produced by Steven Spielberg, it stared John Lithgow as the Henderson family father, and Kevin Peter Hall as the lovable hairy Harry.  This light comedy film tells the story of a Seattle family and their encounter with Bigfoot.  The film even won an Oscar in 1988 for Best Makeup – presumably for the Bigfoot transformation.  Next was this 13 foot statue of Chief Tseul-Ted – also known as Sultan John.  It was crafted by Jerry Carter, who used sawdust and resin to create him.  Unfortunately, it was located on the side of the road near a bridge with absolutely no place to stop or park.  So, I grabbed a quick shot as we drove by (at left, bottom right).  Last up was a visit to this tiny church known as Wayside Chapel.  Outfitted with 4 two-person pews and a small pulpit, it is designed to provide weary travelers a non-denominational spiritual resting spot.  It was a a cute little place.

The next day I ventured off to see three of the five area Dambo Trolls (the other two are located on islands in the Sound and require boat rides to get to.  No thanks!).  The first one I encountered is on NW Market Street in NW Seattle, and is known as Frankie Feetsplinter (at right, bottom left).  He is part of a series of six site specific trolls called the Northwest Trolls Way of the Bird King (the five here in the Seattle area, and one in Portland, OR).  These are the creations of Thomas Dambo, a Danish recycle artist.  He has his works scattered all over the world – many here in the United States.  This first visit stands outside welcoming visitors to the National Nordic Museum, and unlike the other trolls in the series who mostly reside in forests and beaches, Frankie resides here in this urban setting.  My next troll encounter takes me to Lincoln Park on the shores of Puget Sound.  I knew going in that this one would be a challenge.  Parking is limited in the area, and getting to this troll requires a hike through the park on a number of varying trails.  I scoped out my best parking location, and access to the trail which seemed to get me there most directly.  Sadly, that parking lot was full, so I had to resort to parking in the other lot a few hundred yards up the road.  There were trailheads there too from that parking area, but none of them led directly to the trail I needed to be on.  But, I figured what the heck – I could figure it out.  So off I went walking on several narrow dirt and gravel trails zig-zaging along taking me deeper into the forest and seemingly not getting me to where I needed to go.  After a long hike in, I spotted an unmarked trail that seemed to take me in the direction I needed to go.  But this trail was super long, and super steep, consisting mostly of row after row of steep stairs, taking me down the side of what seemed like a mountain.  My only thought going down was the eventual pain I would endure going back up.  But I finally got on the trail I wanted to be on, and found my next troll – Bruun Idun (at right, top left and right).  He sits under the shade of some trees playing his flute, looking out onto the beautiful waters of the Sound.  Really cool!  After my visit, and recognizing I would have no chance of getting back up to the trail I came in on, I decided to take the paved trail that I had originally wanted to go on that would take me to the other parking area.  It turned out to be mostly uneventful, a modest elevation incline, but easilly achievable.  It did take me to the other parking lot, from which I simply walked up the street to the other lot where my truck was.  Easy Peasy!  I should have definitely gone that way to begin with!  The last troll I was to see was way more accessible, and a short hike from a parking area I had scoped out using Google maps satelite view.  Unfortunatly, when I arrived at the parking area, I realized it was not for public parking, and even specifically had a sign directed at us troll hunters indicating it was a No Troll Parking area.  Too funny!  So I pulled into a nearby high school parking area and took another look at Google.  There, I found a much better parking area to a community park and dog play area that was right on the entrance to a trail leading to the troll.  Should have gone there first!  So I parked there, jumped on the trail, and in a short while arrived to see Jakob Two Trees (at right, bottom right).  This really cool troll was just chilling out, hanging onto a couple of trees, watching folks hiking on the Rainier Trail.  The one odd thing about this troll is that it seemed no matter where you stood, his eyes seemed to follow you everywhere you went.  It was kinda creepy!

The next day, I took the two and a half hour drive to visit Mt Rainier National Park.  It was a long day driving there and back, but seeing the mountain close up was really spectacular.  This particular park was the fifth to be designated as a National Park, and received this designation in 1899, and was to be the first national park made up of a forest.  The park consists of over 236,000 acres, and totally consumes all of the 14,410 foot Mt Rainier.  The surrounding area is made up of water falls, valleys, meadows, and lots and lots of treed forest area.  Mt Rainier is the highest point in all of the Cascade mountain range, and hosts lots of glaciers along its sides.   It’s also an active volcano – though there has not been an eruption in the past 500 years or so.  However, it is regularly and closely monitored for seismic activity.  I drove into the park from the south, travelling on Rt 706 which leads to Paradise Valley Rd, then on to Stevens Canyon Rd – the later of which is typically only open and traversable from early June thru mid Oct due to heavy snow accumulations.  This road winds through the park, taking you to some really breathtaking scenery – with stops like Christine Falls (at left, bottom left), and Reflection Lake (at left, center).  It was a mostly clear day with light cloud cover, so Rainier was nicely visible throughout the day.  Truly Spectacular!

There were lots of really scenic places to stop and enjoy the amazing views.  I even ran into a couple that appears to be getting married who were taking pictures mountain side.  Sure is an amazing backdrop!  I also stopped and took a few pictures from Longmere visitor center – where I also got my national park stamp for my book.  One of the more interesting items there was this giant slab or tree – a Douglas Fir cut in 1963 from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.  It was easily 20 feet in diameter and estimated to be many hundreds of years old.

Another day I wanted to do some sightseeing in downtown Seattle.  However, I didn’t want to deal with the big boy truck and parking.  My brother Gerry suggested I experience all the various public transportation options that are available in and around the city, using that to get around to all the places I wanted to see.  He even “loaned” me his ORCA card – a card available to seniors that offers rides on any of the various public transportation options for only $1.  Armed with that, and the bus schedule and park and ride suggestion he also provided, I was on my way.  I actually spent a couple of hours in advance plotting and planning all the various transportation types and pickup and drop off points along the way.  I made a master plan on the days trip, verified efficacy of that plan with my brother, and off I went.  It was a Sunday, so parking in the Kirkland South Park & Ride was going to be a piece of cake – and in fact it was.  From there, I would pickup the 255 Bus (at left, center) that would take me University District and the Campus of the University Washington (UW).  Then from the UW station, I would walk down into the tunnels to pickup the underground Link Rail (at left, top) and take that to Westlake Center.  That was pretty crowded with standing room only. From there, I could catch the Monorail (at left, bottom) over to Seattle Center – right in the smack of downtown and home to the famous Space Needle.  The Monorail was much less crowded, and a nice scenic ride through the downtown.  I then reversed all of these steps to work my way back to the Park & Ride.  Everything worked out flawlessly, and the ORCA card made all the necessary transactions along the way super smooth and simple.  It was a lot of fun experiencing all these various public transportation options and a great way to get around to see all the things I wanted to see.  Thanks Gerry for the suggestion, and for the loaner ORCA card!

So part of all these public transportation options were designed to get me to the University of Washington (UW).  Besides being a really beautiful campus, there were actually a couple of interesting art pieces to see there in the open space of the campus known as Red Square.  First up is this Broken Obelisk (at right, bottom left) which was designed by artist Barnett Newman.  There are actually four of these exact sculptures around the United States – three originals were fabricated during the artists life in the mid to late 1960s, and a fourth created in 2005.  Others are located at the Rothko Chapel, Houston; Museum of Modern Art, New York City; and Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, New York.  The one here at UW was installed in 1971 and was a gift by art collector and philanthropist Virginia Wright.  Also present in the area was this giant statue of George Washington (at right, top right).  The founding father and namesake of the university, he stands tall and proud and has done so since his dedication on Flag Day June 14, 1909.  Sure glad this statue wasn’t part of the statue tear-down nonsense during the riots of 2020.  Lots of old and beautiful architecture is all over the campus, including this incredible football stadium home to the Washington Huskies since 1920.  This massive stadium has seating capacity exceeding 70,000.  Amazing!

The other reason I wanted to visit UW was that I was here once before – some 40+ years ago.  I don’t have many recollections of that trip including the campus or this beautiful fountain.  What I did remember and wanted to see again was a view of Mt Rainier framed by a long tree-lined grassy area.  I found that view once again, but sadly Rainier was not being very cooperative and was mostly hiding behind some clouds, or fog, or maybe even some smog.  But if you look closely at the bottom of the picture at left, you can faintly make out the outline of the mountain’s summit.  The fountain, known as Drumheller Fountain – so named in 1961 to honor the University Regent Joseph Drumheller, actually dates back to the early 1900s.  It’s also known as Frosh Pond, and is the centerpiece to lots of university hijinks – mostly targeting freshman.  Beginning in 1909, sophmores would dunk incoming freshman in the pond as part of their welcoming and initiation.  Likewise, student pranks have led to other things making their way into the pond including a number of live fish, and once even a Domino’s pizza delivery truck.  On the day I was visiting, there were lots of other people there – taking pictures near the pond.  Apparently it was about to be the beginning of the school year, and students were making their way onto to the campus.  So, lots of families were saying goodbye to their kids for the semester.

The next series of public transportation venues got me to downtown Seattle near the infamous Space Needle.  The area around the needle was vibrant and filled with lots of people, shops, and various street vendors.  One particular vendor that caught my eye was operating out of a modified Airstream RV turned into a pastry shop.  As if the RV wasn’t enough to catch my attention, a quick glance at their street pie offerings noted a strawberry rhubarb option.  Well, it was just about time for a break and a snack, so a pie and a mocha latte would nicely fit the bill.  Also nearby was this really cool oddly shaped and colorful building that the monorail that I rode to get here actually goes through.  This place was the Museum of Pop Culture (aka MoPOP) and was founded by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen in 2000.  Originally it was known as the Experience Music Project, and has evolved to MoPOP.  This 140k square feet museum features exhibits covering everything pop culture.  After touring other area attractions, I didn’t have a lot of time to actually visit the museum, and frankly my interest in pop culture is kinda limited, so I opted to save the $40 entrance fee and skip this one.

I did, however, pay up to take a ride to the top of the Space Needle.  In fact, the senior rate with tax totaled $46.20.  A far cry from the 1962 $1 ticket price as noted on the history wall.  This Seattle city icon stands 605 feet tall and was built in Seattle Center for the 1962 Worlds Fair.  Its design and construction was done to withstand up to a 200 mph Cat 5 hurricane – twice the code requirements set forth in 1962, as well as the ability to avoid structural damage in an earthquake with a force of anything below a magnitude 9 on the Richter scale.  That’s pretty impressive for something built in the early 1960s.

But the best part of visiting this amazing structure is to take a ride in the elevator up to the top.  It’s a 41 second, 10 mph, 520 foot ride up there to the peak, which houses an 0bservation area, bar, and restaurant – all sitting on a rotating floor.  The floor contains several sections made of high strength glass, and is definitely a source of acrophobia when looking down.  The rotation is done with several small low horsepower rated motors, producing a complete 360 degree rotation about every 45 minutes.  The views from up there are nothing short of spectacular (as long as you don’t look down!) offering panoramic sightings of the downtown Seattle skyline, many of the area mountains including Baker, the Cascades, and of course Mt Rainier, as well as magnificent view of Puget Sound.  Also of particular interest are what appear to be a pair 3D daddy long-leg spiders sitting atop the Seattle Center Armory (at right bottom left), but are actually two dimensional murals created by artist Marlin Peterson in 2012. The mural uses optical illusion to make the oversized arachnids appear to be taking over the building when viewed from above.  Pretty cool!

There were other things to see around here in Seattle Center including this labryrinth (at left, bottom right) a really cool artists-created playground and climbing area.  Lots of kids were enjoying this area on this nice bright and sunny day.  Next, sitting in front of the MoPOP center was this memorial statue of Chris Cornell (at left, bottom left).  It was created by artist Nick Marra in 2018 – commissioned and donated by Chris’ wife Vicky, to celebrate the Seattle born musician and frontman to the Grunge band Soundgarden, who helped put Seattle on the map as a world class music city.  Next was this really cool totem pole sitting among a group of trees.  Known as the John Williams Memorial Totem Pole, it was created by artist and family member Rick Williams, to raise awareness of the traditions, history, and culture of Seattle’s native population.  Last up, I wanted to visit the Gates Foundation Discovery Center – located just a couple blocks down the street from the Space Needle.  Their theme is to “arrive curious, leave inspired” and has exhibits focused on the foundation’s work to fight poverty, disease, and inequity around the world.  Admission is free, and would have been an interesting place to explore.  Unfortunately, I was there on Sunday, and they are only open Wed thru Sat.  So, no viewing for me.

So after taking all the public transportation options to get me to UW and Seattle Center, I reversed them all to get me back to the Kirkland Park and Ride.  I did make one minor mistake being at the wrong stop to catch the necessary bus to get me back, but I quickly realized that and hiked across the street to the correct one.  When I arrived back to the P&R, my brother was there to pick me up to take me to downtown Kirkland where he showed me around, and we grabbed a terrific early dinner.  Kirkland is a really cool city, and a favorite of my brother Gerry.  After a hearty meal, we wandered around town so I could get a sense of this really cool place.  The waterfront was especially nice with its nice clear water, marina filled with expensive boats, and terrific views of the downtown Seattle skyline off in the distance (at right, bottom right).  Also while walking the streets, I noticed an art piece that I immediately recognized as being listed in Roadside America.  Known as the cow and coyote dress-up statues, this bronze of a coyote howling and sitting on the back of a cow, is apparently dressed up in costumes by the local  townfolk to celebrate various holidays.  Nothing to celebrate on the day we were there though.  Also along the waterfront was this other really cool art piece of a group of children holding hands and jumping in the air in play.  I would have thought it too would have been in Roadside, but alas it was not.  Maybe I’ll have to submit it for consideration to be added.  A really nice end to a really nice day, and a really nice visit to the Seattle PNW area.  Thanks again Gerry for being a great host and helping guide me to lots of interesting things to see.  I’ll see you next week in Portland!

Slight Change of Plans

If you’ve been paying attention like I have to the west coast fires, you would have seen that there are a large number of them wreaking havoc all through Oregon and California.  One in particular that I’ve been closely watching is the Pickett Fire working its way across Napa Valley.  I’ve been keeping a close eye on this one since I was scheduled to be staying in the area in less than two weeks (Red Star).  Well, my watch came to an end this morning.  I received an email from the Napa campground that I was booked and scheduled for a week’s stay to inform me that my reservation has unfortunately been cancelled.  Apparently that campground, which sits on the southern boarder of Napa Valley, was commandeered to be a staging area and headquarters for the fire crews.  All reservations for the next month have been cancelled, and I suspect they might have also encouraged those already staying there to go ahead and leave.  So, I immediately started checking out other options, figuring I would need to avoid the Napa area all together.  I ended up rebooking the week’s stay at a KOA further to the west in Petaluma (Blue Star).  I was thankful that I was able to find something this late in the season, and also being not too far out in the future.  I suspect my quick action once I got my notice played a role in getting something suitable.  Oh well – such is the life of a full time RVer.  One of the necessities to being a nomad is to remain flexible as you never know what might happen down the road.  And this is a perfect example for the need for that flexibility.  While I’m sad for the folks who are being impacted by this fire, at the same time I am dissapointed that I might not be able to do much winery hopping.  Guess I’ll know more once I get in the area in a couple weeks.  Fingers crossed!

Final Thoughts

What an amazing 11 days spent in the Seattle area!  So much to see and do, and wonderful time spent with family.  In fact, it has taken me a full 2 and a half blogs just to cover what I’ve seen and done in Washington State.  There sure is a ton of amazing areas to explore.  As is often the case, the time went by quickly, and offered only a glimpse into the wonderful world of this part of the country.  The weather was mostly fantastic, and confirms why this is a preferred area to be in during the otherwise hot and humid summer months.  This stop concludes my westward trek, and now begins my trending towards the south to explore areas within Oregon and California.  So much more to see here on the west coast, and I’m truly looking forward to the adventures that await.  So stay tuned here on the blog for updates as I continue my nomadic trip onward.  Till next time, be well and safe travels.

I only show a sampling of my adventure pictures here in the blog, and do so mostly in collage format for brevity and ease of reading. If you want to view an album containing individual full fidelity and hi-res images of all my travel pictures related to this specific blog, click the image below. Enjoy!