Christmas 2021

2021 was slightly better than 2020! We were able to get our vaccinations and therefor felt reasonably safe in some activities.

We moved from Bremerton back to West Seattle on January 4, 2021. Traditionally, we travel to a beach to spend Christmas, but this year we decided to stay closer to home. We have two beaches within a few miles of our apartment.

We went to downtown Seattle's tree-lighting ceremony at Westlake. There were a lot of people, but not a crowd. Almost everyone was wearing their masks. We rode the World's Fair Monorail up to Seattle Center for dinner. The traveling exhibit from Lego is there. It is on our list to visit.

We were able to re-start the Westside Presbyterian Church Handbell Choir. They haven't played since we left 16 years ago! There are members who still remember us ...

Here is our Christmas tree. 

Dress-Me-Up Ernie got a new Christmas sweater and gazes out the window at the parking lot.

We went to the Woodland Park Zoo Lanterns exhibit in Seattle. It is different from the Tacoma ZooLights. They are both very nice and Christmas-y.

We took the Argosy Christmas Boat tour. We were treated to a wonderful concert by the Dickens Carolers Quartet.

This is the closest "Christmas Light Show" in our neighborhood. There aren't as many of these as there used to be.

We went out walking the beaches from our home on Christmas Day. This is Lincoln Park Beach. We had a very nice, sunny day! That night, we got 4 inches of snow. It has been a week, and the snow and cold are still here ...

This is Alki Beach. It is the second beach near us.

On New Years, we took our usual walk through Lincoln Park. As you can see, we have lots of new snow in the Olympic Mountains.

Best wishes to all of you in the New Year!

 

North Cascades Loop

In early June, Alonda and Jim decided to get out and go on a trip they had planned a year earlier, but postponed due to the pandemic, We decided to do a road trip by car, since this was a safe way to travel. 

This is the Snohomish River Park. We stopped to enjoy the scenery, to have lunch and go for a walk.

Taking your own lunch along is easy in a car (lots of room) and it is cheap!

We went hiking at a place called Wallace Falls. The trail started in the sun because of the power line right-of-way. You can tell it was going up.

The hike turned into the woods and got a lot cooler. There are actually a lot of streams and small waterfalls in the Cascade Mountains.

This is part of Deception Falls near Gold Bar, WA. We never found out why is was called "Deception" Falls. It seemed pretty easy to tell what it was! It was also VERY loud.

Once you walked further along the trail and got away from the falls, the area was very quiet and peaceful. The water was very cold.

Icicle Gorge is near Leavenworth and had no icicles that we could see. The temperature was in the upper 90's.

Part of what makes this Gorge famous is that it runs mostly due south. This means that the east side of the Gorge gets a lot of afternoon heat and sun and is much less green than the west side. This wasn't very obvious next to the Gorge, but if you moved 20-100 feet away from the water, you could definitely see the difference.

This is a 9/11 Memorial in the town of Cashmere. This year's high school graduates weren't even born yet ...

This is Ohme Gardens in Wenatchee. A couple started this during the Great Depression by moving rocks around and bringing down plants and trees from the nearby mountains. After the Ohme family could no longer keep up with it, they sold it to the State of Washington which sold it to Wenatchee County. It is quite popular for weddings and as a place to go during the hot summers.

This is the view of the Wenatchee River from Ohme Gardens. All those big buildings are processing and cold storage facilities for apples. Wenatchee really IS the apple capital of the world.

We took a little side trip to a town called Manson. It is on Lake Chelan. We have ridden the boat up the lake before.

We only ate one meal in a restaurant. This was the best Italian restaurant in Wenatchee. They had outdoor dining with misters so it wasn't too hot!

Rocky Reach Dam is one of several along the Columbia River. We wanted to visit the dam, but they are not doing tours because of the pandemic.

This is the city park at Pateros. If you went out on the water and about 40 feet straight down, you would be in the original town of Pateros. When the Wells Dam went in, the entire town was flooded. It was (sort of) rebuilt by the government, but it is obviously not the same. This is also one of the places where two rivers join together.

This state park is very nice and popular, but you can see a lot of the forest fire damage. 2021 doesn't look like it will be much kinder to the trees ...

Twisp is a small town in the Methow Valley. The Valley has water and is in the foothills of the Cascades. It was an important farming area and is now moving to recreation, tourism and the arts.  Twisp has a center for artists and small manufacturers which was set up using old Forest Service buildings. Actually pretty interesting! 

The Twisp Works also has a very nice demonstration garden of native plants next to the Methow Valley Interpretive Center.

We visited a LOT of waterfalls. This was "Falls Creek Falls."

The town of Winthrop works hard on its "Olde West" look and reputation. When you read a lot of the history, you realize the original town was about one-tenth the size of the current tourist area.

We were following the North Cascades Scenic Highway route. 

A lot of people follow the Scenic Highway Route in a clock-wise direction. By going the other way, you get a much better view of the mountains. If you go the wrong way, you will never see some of the views since you will be going the other way!

Ross Lake is one of the hydro-electric sites for Seattle. 

Diablo Lake is famous because some of the water has "glacier flour" in it and looks murky green. The glaciers grind off a lot of rock powder which comes down every spring. Two years ago, we took the (free!) Seattle City Light boat tour of the lakes and hydro-electric dam.

The mountain areas have a lot of creeks and gorges to stop and enjoy.

One of the many waterfalls along the route.

We stopped, of course, at the Visitor Center. We wore our masks whenever we were around other people. This was actually the last stop since we were going counter-clockwise!

Lunch in the park in the heat.

Wonderful trip! Highly recommended!

Northwest Trek August 2020

Feeling a little shut in, Alonda and Jim learned about the driving tour through the Northwest Trek Wildlife Park in Eatonville, WA. Because of the COVID pandemic, Northwest Trek doesn't use their trams to take visitors around the park. They set up a "Wild Drive Tour" that allows about 12 cars to convoy through the park. The guide is in the lead vehicle and narrates through the FM radio. It was a little pricey, but it turned out to be very well done and very interesting. Neither of us had been to Northwest Trek for many, many years.

The first "stop" on the tour was going past the garages where the trams are in storage.

Here we are in the convoy! No CB radios, though.

Here we are passing Horshoe Lake. A flock of Canadian Geese were settled in to enjoy the sunshine.

This is a male caribou. He was really hard to see. His antlers are covered with velvet and are still growing. At this time of the year, the males and females group up separately. If they don't, the males fight and lose their antlers before they finish growing.

These are Mountain Goats. They aren't in the mountains, though.

This is a Pileated Woodpecker. They are a very big bird and look for insects in dead trees.

These are Roosevelt Elk.

Everyone knows what Bighorn Sheep look like. You can't miss those horns.

A buffalo that is more properly known as an American Bison. This animal is about the size of our car. They aren't aggressive, but it was a good thing he was far away. Their breath is really terrible!

This is a female caribou. Both sexes have antlers. This is what makes the species so unique. The theory is that the females have antlers so they can compete with the males for food. The photo came out this way since we were shooting through the car windows.

Blue Heron. We actually see these birds fairly often where we live.

Try to be creative when you are looking for safe things to do during this pandemic time.