West of Here: Homeward Bound 10/10

Tuesday morning came again and it was time to leave Seattle. The leaving was very difficult for me; it's always hard to leave behind people that you love. My plane departed at 4:30 in the afternoon so Trudy and I had a little time to do a few little things. We took a long, beautiful walk with Sailor and then stopped at Starbucks--our first visit there in Seattle--then to the Seattle Art Museum's sculpture garden, home for lunch, basked in the sunshine, and then off to Sea-Tac. We saw this truck (below)on the way to the airport.When we took off from SEATAC, it was clear. I could see Mount Rainier, then Mount St. Helens, and then as we got higher, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Jefferson. I'm not kidding! The last was the most difficult to see but I counted five volcanic peaks over and over while we were taking off and I was kicking myself for stowing my camera--I'll probably never see that again. It was absolutely amazing. These peaks pictured are the Rockies in Colorado but I'm not sure which ones because I do not know from which direction we were approaching. The flights were smooth; we landed in Denver early, departed on time, and landed in Nebraska early.

I walked into a clean house with a tired but happy husband and ten roses waiting in a green vase. It is good to be home.

I am so very grateful to Trudy and John for keeping me and for entertaining and feeding me, for coming up with things to show me and for taking me all over, to Regina for coming to visit, and to Seth for spending all of his free time with me or driving to see me or fetch me, and for bringing me aboard his ship! I'm also grateful to my wonderful husband for making it possible for me to go. I can't say enough how blessed I feel to have been able to take this trip!

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WEST OF HERE is now complete. From now on, I am EAST OF HERE Seattle.

West of Here: Meeting Regina and Alki Beach 9/10

On Monday the 20th, Trudy suggested that we drive to a park where Mount Rainier would be visible, as it was clear outside. There is a saucer-like cloud which seems to be always near Mt. Rainier. John explained it to me but my memory is faulty so I searched the explanation and came up with this, courtesy of the KOMO news site.

The cap cloud (the official name is "lenticular cloud") is formed when warm, moist air runs into the surface of Mt. Rainier. The mountain's topography forces the air upward, which cools and condenses the air -- turning it into a cloud. As the air sinks back on the other side of the mountain, it dries out and the cloud dissipates. That's why it just hangs over the summit area."

Later that morning, I was privileged to finally meet a fellow blogger, Regina! Regina has reserved the rights to the pictures of her and me but she posted a little one of us which you can see here, on her site. I don't think she'll mind if I post the picture of her children: R, J, and L with Sailor (John and Trudy's dog) and S in the stroller. She was kind enough to bring her children along, as I was suffering from child-withdrawal by this time. We met at a park in West Seattle for a morning of playing and visiting. Thanks so much, Regina, for making the trip!

Regina took off with the kids to get them home for naptime. Trudy and I went out for lunch at a wonderful restaurant--we had fish, of course--and then relaxed on the beach for a couple of hours, as it was 70+ degrees outside. Trudy seemed happy to put up with me foraging through the sand in search of sea glass, little spiral shells, and pretty rocks to put in my special cabinet as a memory take home to the kids. She even took me to a couple of different beaches to do my hunting! What a beautiful day to sit and do nothing!

This piece of driftwood was sitting higher on the shore. There were divets, holes, and cups worn into its surface. These little holes were filled with tiny pebbles, rocks, shells, and other sea debris. It reminded me of a Mancala game and was very pretty. After yet another wonderful supper cooked by Trudy, John took Sailor for a walk. He called us from the beach and said that the sun was about to set over the mountains and encouraged us to come down. We did. Thank goodness! You are looking at the sun setting over the Olympic Mountains with Puget Sound in the foreground. Trudy said no pictures of her on the internet but I think that I might just get away with this one....That's me on the left and Trudy on the right. Puget Sound is behind us; so are the Olympic Mountains behind which the sun has set.

West of Here: Leavenworth, WA 8/10

On Sunday the 19th, Trudy and I attended mass, grabbed breakfast, and headed toward Leavenworth, Washington. It is about 2 1/2 hours east of Seattle. We crossed a continental divide so instead of being in a rain forest, we were now in a drier climate similar to Colorado. It warmed up that day and was about 70 degrees, maybe more. We ate, walked, and shopped in Leavenworth, then headed back toward Seattle. We stopped in about three different places on the way back, along the river, and enjoyed the beautiful Washington Scenery in the Cascades.This piece of art caught my attention right away. I enjoy objects which are cobalt blue glass. I believe that this piece was created by Dale Chihuly, a local artist who often works with glass, but I am not positive.I increased the contrast in this picture so that you could see all of the logs on the bottom of this river! We crossed over this river while walking in town and yes, the water did really look green!

The amount of driftwood near Washington's rivers and along Puget Sound is incredible!

This funky green moss is spongelike and dry.

I could have sat at the river all day! What a beautiful, peaceful sound the rushing water is!This is a cave near a trail we were walking.

The moss was so healthy and green and it grows everywhere!

There was still snow here that was melting. In fact, on our way to Leavenworth we came through a mountain pass and there were people skiing! I have not been skiing nor had I seen people ski before that day.This area lost many trees to a wildfire. Nature has its own way of thinning populations.

This is Index, WA, roughly 60 miles from home. Traffic was backed up to here from Seattle! It's a darn good thing that we were stopped in traffic amid such beautiful scenery.

It made waiting much easier. This is the Skykomish River.

West of Here: Twin Falls and Puget Sound 7/10

Saturday morning arrived (the 19th). Trudy and I took Sailor, their dog, for a walk. Seth called late morning to say that he was on a ferry headed toward his car in Everett and that he would come to Seattle when he got to his car. He arrived, picked me up, and we headed toward the Cascade Mountains, to Olallie State Park for a hike. We went through the Twin Falls area which receives over 90 inches of rainfall per year! This explains all of the GREEN!

This is my brother Seth and me at the top of our hike. The upper falls can be seen behind us. This is a look down the falls from a bridge which was positioned over the river. I enjoyed all of the contrast in color: the red of fallen, decomposing trees, the bright green of the moss, and the darker green of the ferns and trees.

After we reached the top of our beautiful hike, Seth and I turned around to head back down. We were pretty tired and glad to be going downhill. We approached a steep stairway which led off of the main path. We wondered whether it was a shortcut to the trail below or whether we'd have to climb it after we descended it. We decided to go anyway, knowing that we were in no rush. I'm so glad that we did because the waterfall pictured above is what we would have missed if we had bypassed it! It was too long for one frame so use your imagination to put together the pictures. It was breathtaking!

Everywhere, there were live trees growing out of dead trees! I hadn't seen this before and was fascinated with it. The picture I included in Monday's Daybook was taken on this hike.

After eating a wonderful meal of homemade lasagna (thanks, Trudy!), John, Trudy, Seth, and I went for a walk to Puget Sound. This was the view at sunset--the Sound comes up to the mountains with a partly cloudy sky. *sigh*

West of Here: Around Seattle 6/10

The first day that I was in Seattle, I went on a walk with Trudy. When we came up from the park and headed toward her home, I saw this sign posted. It seemed appropriate to me since this visit to the Pacific Northwest was most definitely WEST OF HERE ... west of my home in Nebraska.

We spent the first day enjoying the outdoors with a walk with Trudy, time with my brother Seth, and a mini-concert with Seth and John. Wednesday was a day at Pike Place market and downtown Seattle with Trudy and an early turn-in, as Seth and I got up at 3:00 Thursday morning to head to his aircraft carrier in Everett for the most amazing experience, complete with Prowlers doing touch-and-go demonstrations on the flight deck: a Family Cruise. Where do we pick up on Friday (the 19th)?

Trudy and I were sitting in her kitchen enjoying a wonderfully brewed cup of coffee and breakfast. My phone rang at about 9:00. It was Seth. He said that he was looking at downtown Seattle. We knew what this meant ... the USS Abraham Lincoln was coming south through Puget Sound and it was nearby! I asked Trudy if we could see the ship from the nearby park. She said she knew a better place. We hopped in the car and went up to Alki beach to watch my brother's aircraft carrier come through the sound! It was amazing to see because I knew that my brother was on that ship and that I had been a guest on it just the day before. We watched it until we could not see it anymore.

Trudy took me to several coffee houses around the city. She knows that I have access to Starbucks here in Nebraska, so she wanted to give me a chance to sample a variety. This coffeehouse, Zoka, is in the Wallingford neighborhood. We got donuts across the street at Mighty-O Donuts. I had a French Toast cake donut, very tasty, organic, natural, vegan, etc., but most importantly, it had frosting! We took our coffee and walked back through the neighborhood to the car, smelled some fragrant rosemary along the way, and admired all of the gardens.

Trudy picked an excellent restaurant for lunch (care to leave the name of it in the comments section?) and we took sandwiches to go and headed toward Gasworks Park, in toward the lake, and watched float planes take off and land while we were eating. I drew a red arrow pointing toward a float plane which was preparing for take-off.

After we left the park, we went to Ballard, or Chittenden Locks, watched a few boats go between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, and looked at the fish ladder. We then went to Washington Park Arboretum. The trees were blooming and the park was beautiful. We spent quite a bit of time walking and talking there. The park smelled better than Bath & Body Works! Every few steps there were new flowers to smell. I took a wonderful picture of Trudy and her beautifully thirty week pregnant self in the park but she said no pictures on the internet *sigh*. On the way home, we stopped at the Japanese Garden. After the Japanese Garden, we stopped at The Seattle Fish Company for fresh salmon!

:: Above, The Arboretum :: Below, the Japanese Gardens ::