Orcas Island

We have reached our halfway point, 4000 miles from home, the San Juan Islands.  This feels very far away.  We are on Orcas Island, in a damp world of giant ferns and intermittent rain.  The hotel is for sale, but we know we would never survive here - too dark and wet and probably soon cold.  Having said all that, this is beauty.

We drove two hours north of Seattle today to Anacortes and took a ferry to Orcas Island, the largest of the San Juan Islands.  Orcas Islands is 57 square miles with about 5000 people.  (Amelia Island is less than 52 square miles with about 15,000 inhabitants.)


The ferry stopped first at Lopez Island, and a good many cars exited.


Fifteen minutes later we pulled into Orcas Island.  Our hotel is at the
top left of this photo, Orcas Hotel.  We brought the car, so we could
drive around the island.




Orcas Hotel, circa 1904, is for sale. It is listed for $1.7 million.
George keeps pointing out that its annual revenue is $1 million.  So if
any readers are interested in chipping in for this lovely inn and restaurant,
give us a call.


This is the view from the bed, where I was reading. 
I feel like Emily Dickinson in her garret.

After a quick nap (always a necessity) we took the drive around the island.
We saw farms and cattle and made a longer circle than we expected on the way
to East Sound, the largest town.  We stopped at Orcas Island Pottery on the way
to East Sound.



The gravel road to the pottery was lined with tall trees.



All the buildings here were lovely.



There was pottery inside and also outside on picnic tables.

I couldn't decide on any pottery.  It's hard to buy things when I am so happy not having much in my house. Also, this is such a long trip. I keep thinking I'll find the perfect souvenir further down the road.

We drove on into East Sound.  It was a fun town with a busy main street.  There were two guys selling fruit and vegetables plus a bookstore and shops for tourists with sea glass and t-shirts.
When we passed the pub, I parked George there, so I could visit four more shops by myself.  I wandered a bit and then joined him.  We looked out at the sound and thought about what it is like to be on a mooring ball.  This is a protected place with a good weather forecast.  I googled C-Dory, our
current fantasy boat.


Our view from the pub.

Now we are back in our hotel.  The sun came out at 6:30 pm.
I wonder if there will be a good sunset?

Out and About in Seattle

We got an early start today and saw a lot of Seattle.  We started with some sights that most people avoid:  Fed Ex and Jiffy Lube.  George needed to fax a document to Atlanta, so we found a Fed Ex in the Georgetown Center about 15 minutes away.  We noted that there was a Woodcraft store in the same shopping center.  Our looper friends, Michele and Ron Hall from Seattle, own a Woodcraft store here.  Could this be their store?  I went over and asked, and yes, it is!  What a coincidence!  I chatted with the guy working.  Yes, I knew that they are on their boat in Canada now.

The Jiffy Lube man endeared himself to us by offering to let us leave the car there for the morning if we wanted to walk a few blocks to Pike Place Market.  Yes!  We did.  We walked down hill to the market and had a great time looking at all the fruits, vegetables, fish, crafts, and flowers.  Here are a few photos from there:












Of course, we got really hungry walking around the market.  We ate fish and prawns and chips at a counter and then finished up this part of the tour with two more stops.

Starbucks - the original Starbucks is on 1st avenue, across from the market.  It was founded in 1971.



The Gum Wall is down an alley.  It is described as the 2nd germiest tourist attraction in the world.  There was so much gum stuck to the wall, that they worried about its stability and cleaned it in November 2015.  Immediately people started sticking gum to the wall.  It is pretty well covered again, but not layered yet.




We came home for a break (naps and reading).  Around 5:00 pm we went to the Space Needle and rode the elevator up to the Observation Deck.  The sun was out, so we had a great view of Seattle.  I really like this city.  I like that things you need like Jiffy Lube are close in town beside the tourist spots like Pike Place Market.  Another plus is that the traffic is not bad here.



One fun thing about looking at Seattle from the Space Needle was seeing roof top decks.  This one was lovely - good looking furniture, green space, outdoor fire pit.

We had dinner at Westward, a restaurant recommended to us by Tony Helms, a real world traveler.
I hit the jackpot by ordering trout.  There was a sauce that was so tasty, and we dipped our tiny heirloom potatoes in it.  I shared with George, who had a nice cod dish, and we ate every morsel of fish.



I sent this photo to Tony, to show him we were at Westward.  Here's a new goal:  more blue drinks!

Seattle

We made it to Seattle today.  Woohoo!  We were interested in the land on the trip.  Until we crossed over the final mountain, the landscape in Washington was rock and river.  We traveled by scrubby land and fields of hay and beside the Columbia River for most of the trip.  Just when we got here, the trees and clouds arrived to welcome us to the Pacific Northwest.


Banks Lake stretches for 25 miles south of Grand Coulee Dam.


Coming through a tight spot with the river in view.

We are staying in an airbnb on 29th Avenue in Seattle: We're on the east side of town in the Madrona neighborhood.  I walked for a bit this afternoon and really like the houses and gardens.  Flowers are still lush here, even in September.


Here is the bedroom.  There is also a large kitchen/sitting area and a bathroom.


We did not meet the owners: They are out of town.  
I think I would like them because I'm a sucker for yard art.  
This is clothes line with baby socks is in the front yard. 



A blue bird house tucked into the hydrangea.

There is also a little free library full of interesting titles at the street.
I traded in three books I've read + one I rejected and
took three of theirs.  I'm all set now.

We ate at Ivar's Salmon House on Union Lake.  It was delicious.
The Westward Restaurant, which was recommended to us, was closed today due to Labor Day.


Ivar's has Pacific Native art.

Tomorrow we have several tourist stops to make.  We'll see how long we can wander and investigate.

Grand Coulee, Washington

We were lazy this morning, reading our newspaper and then going to Safeway.  George happily got another Safeway card, so we can get shopping deals.  We bought fruit and granola bars and turkey.  Now we have food for breakfast and lunch.

We drove west on US 2 and found ourselves surrounded by wheat and then hay fields.  It is beautiful land.

 
Photos don't capture the expanse of golden fields as far as we can see.


The land gently rolls.

There were tidy farms that look as if drawn by a child:  red house with green roof surrounded
by a white fence.  We did not see as much irrigation equipment.

We arrived at the Great Coulee Dam around noon.  There were a good many tourists there.  The visitor center is interesting, especially for an engineer.


The dam has three power plants attached. 
Two were originally built, and the third was added in the 1974. 

Here are other facts I learned:
Grand Coulee Dam was built between 1933 - 1942.  It provides power and irrigation for the Pacific Northwest.

The reservoir created behind the dam is Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake, named for the president at the time of its creation.

The dam was important for putting people to work in the Depression and for building projects during WWII.

Grand Coulee Dam is the third largest producer of electricity in the world.

When they flooded the land, it killed off the steelhead salmon that the Colville and Spokane tribes had fished.  This ruined their way of life. They were paid a settlement by the US government in the 1990s and also annually.

Woody Guthrie was paid $266 to write songs about the dam, and he wrote 26 songs.  One is "Roll
on, Columbia, Roll On."  This song plays in the museum and on their movie.

A coulee is a valley or drainage zone.


We ate lunch at the picnic area at the dam.


We walked around the historic Grand Coulee neighborhood.

The houses were built in the 1930s for construction workers. The houses are my favorite: colorful cottages that are pretty much the same size, with shady streets and sunny, small yards.  I don't know
why we didn't take a photo of the houses.



At the top of the hill in the neighborhood are three
historic buildings.  This is the Administration Building from the dam construction.
There are also two buildings that were dormitories.  They seem to be single
family homes now.

Our hotel, Columbia River Inn, is at the end of the historic street tour.  Tonight we can walk
across the street to see the laser light show at the dam.  The first light show was in May of 1989.

Addition:  We just got home from the laser show.  First, they released water from the dam, making a white background.  Then there was a cartoon.  The feature was "Many Voices - One River." In 30 minutes they told the geologic and historic story of the Columbia River and the dam.  It was fully told, including the stories of Native Americans, European farmers, and dam builders.  We huddled in the cool breeze with over a hundred others to watch the show. No one rode off at the end, but it was well done.

Corrections:  We visited Travelers' Rest yesterday in Idaho.
Also the apartment in Spokane was 250 square feet, not 500.  Oops.

Spokane, Washington (our 11th state)

We started the day with a win:  Georgia Tech beat Boston College in Ireland, and we got to watch the exciting last 10 minutes of the game.  Then we went downstairs and had a terrific breakfast.


John, the innkeeper at the 100 Acre Wood Lodge, served breakfast.

We drove north through Idaho and a slice of Montana.  We were following the Lewis and Clark trail in the Bitterroot Mountain Range valley.  We stopped at Lolo at Travelers' Rest, the only archeologically confirmed site of their expedition.  There is a state park there, and we looked at their museum. I liked it because they had tables of artifacts with signs saying, "Please touch."  It seemed like a great place to bring a school group.



This creek runs through Travelers' Rest. There were kids in it, building a dam.

After reaching Missoula, Montana, we turned west and drove on I -90 to Spokane, Washington.  We crossed back and forth over the Clark Fork of the Columbia River at least 10 times.  We also went back into Idaho. Along the way we stopped for lunch at Haugan, Idaho.  There was no good place to stop, so we ate at a picnic table outside the casino/liquor store.  George thought that was a good photo
location.


I felt safer eating here than at the tables behind the casino near the woods.

We arrived in Spokane around 4:00 pm, Pacific time.  By crossing the time line, we had been given an extra hour in our day.  We checked in to our airbnb apartment.  It is a well designed 250 square feet.  We watched The West Wing on Netflix and then went a few blocks away to a sports bar to watch the Auburn/Clemson game.

That game was a disappointment for me, but we enjoyed being at the bar.  We ate yummy nachos and cheered with the EWU fans as they triumphed over WSU.  Both schools are just an hour from here, so the place was packed with them.  They had a close, exciting match.  We came back home and binged on West Wing for another couple of hours.  Happy Saturday!


Great use of space:  There is a built in kitchen on the wall you don't see + a bathroom with shower.

The 100 Acre Wood Lodge

We left Idaho Falls today and drove north.  We passed 3000 miles on the trip, and we averaged 39 mpg for the last tank of gas.  Here are a few of the sights on the trip:

A building with a sod roof;
Fields of hay and sugar beets;
6 deer running across the road in front of us;
A herd of black cows along the road, being moved by a guy driving a truck and another on an ATV.


Here is the view.

We lost the internet and listened instead to the rock musical Tommy by the Who, which George downloaded yesterday.

We crossed the 45th Parallel.

As we arrived in Salmon, we had a sinking spell.  The sky was darkening.  There were fires nearby; we could smell smoke.  We called our airbnb hosts, but they didn't answer.  Then we lost cell service.
Should we continue to North Fork?  Were there fires on the road ahead?  Where was a picnic area for lunch?

We finally found a city park with shady tables.  After eating, we felt better.  We met a couple of guys at the golf pro shop in the park, and they were reassuring about the fires.  Yes, three fires started last night due to lightning.  But they were not worried.


This tree was in the city park.

We continued north to North Fork and finally saw a sign for our lodge.  When we pulled up, we were so relieved and happy.

  
100 Acre Wood Lodge


The North Fork of the Salmon River, which backs up to the lodge.

We had a relaxing afternoon, walking around the property and visiting with other guests.
In the morning there may be elk on the lawn during breakfast.

We had a delicious Mexican meal at Ramey's.  Our 14 year old waiter is the grandson of the
owner and chef.  Grandma makes pies too.  We ate delicious huckleberry and peach.

Idaho Falls, Idaho

We drove into Idaho today, our 9th state.  The land changed a bit.  We saw hay fields and horses instead of bison or corn or soy beans and sorghum.  The wheat was cut and stacked.  The fields were golden.



First, we went through Jackson, Wyoming.  What a fun town!  Next time we come this way, we will stay here.


There are antler arches at each corner of the city park in Jackson.

Then we were out in the wide open spaces and crossing into Idaho.  We had quiet miles ahead of us, so we listened to podcasts:  This American Life and Fresh Air.  Terry Gross replayed an interview with Gene Wilder.  What a mild mannered and quiet man!  We remembered several of his famous jokes from Young Frankenstein. We drove to Idaho Falls and checked in to our Comfort Inn.  (We are fans of this chain.  I may contact them and offer to do a commercial.)

We did our laundry, which had piled up while we were in the parks.  Then we watched TV.  What a treat!  Finally, we ventured out to walk on the Greenway, a walkway/bike path beside the Snake River  and right through town.  It seems like the coolest thing in Idaho Falls.  The sky was ominous, and there were storm warnings, thunder, and sputterings of rain.  We returned to the hotel and watched the news.


The Snake River.


The Japanese Garden in the Greenbelt.

We came back out for dinner (delicious halibut and salmon) at the Sandpiper Restaurant.  It was busy, and everyone was happily sitting outside, looking at the greenbelt.  We never did get a really good walk today, but we are feeling content to be in Idaho.

Update:  Yesterday we worked a long time, trying to find lodging in Missoula, Montana, on Saturday.
After failing, we discovered the reason:  The Missoula Grizzlies host the St. Francis Red Flash at home on Saturday evening in the Big Sky Conference.  So there were no hotel rooms.