2011 Vacation

We we got up this morning there was frost on the car which was not unexpected at 6000′ and 35°. On the drive up we passed several spots that still had snow on the ground left over from the park’s 44 foot annual accumulation.

While walking around the Mazama Village where we were staying there were numerous tall sticks lining the roadway. These are there so the snow plows know where to clear. At the top (where the red dot is) is a bit of reflective tape to help the drivers pick them out.

This our home for tonight, Casa Rubio. It is right on the beach. What made it even better was there as a restaurant about a 100 yards away that we could walk to and the food was fantastic. We were so close to the Oregon/California border, about 800 feet, if Oregon were to invade California this would be the first line of defense.

We stopped along the road in northern Oregon at a spot that promised to identify the mountains in the distance, but they were barely noticeable behind the haze of smoke. You can see that one side of the road has burned in the recent wildfires that have plagued the region and the other has not.

This is the Cooked River Railroad Bridge south of Madras. There were four geocaches in this little park that included three crossings of the 300 foot deep gorge, the RR, the current 5 lane highway and the old two lane one. The smoke has cleared at this point and you can see several mountains in the background.

A view of Wizard Island in the middle of Crater Lake from the North Junction overlook. Traveler’s Tip: Drive the loop in a clockwise direction because that puts the mountainside on your right. Traveling the opposite direction frequently puts nothing but a huge drop with no guardrail on that side of the car.

A 300 mile day in the car as we went up and over Stevens Pass and down the eastern side of the Cascades to the Columbia River. The west side of the pass was green and lush pine forest while the east side was all dry and scrub bushes. We stopped for a leg stretch and a geocache in the faux Bavarian town of Leavenworth. And we ended the day at the Big Horse Brew Pub where for Donna’s birthday I got a new Brew Pub hoodie and a beer.

We bought some stamps here at the Skykomish Post Office (98288.)

Some of the giant one legged alien life forms that live in the Kittitas Valley.

Scott & Beth have access to a large patch of blackberries and we spent as long as the attention span of a 4 year old could stand. Which means we barely covered the bottom of a bucket. Of course quite a few never even made it to the bucket.

I got grief for posting nothing but James pictures yesterday, so today we have a few of his younger sister Madelyn.

Niece Maddie is a bit camera shy, so snagging a photo is hard work.

Plus, she doesn’t stay in one place for too long.

Lake Stevens is hidden behind the fog on our early morning walk. I wonder where the person is who belongs to those abandoned flip-flops?

Nephew James gets some help as he practices for the roping contest.

These Alaskan Pigs really fly while racing around the track on the grounds of the Evergreen State Fair.

Nephew James is too young to show an actual cow at the 4H show, so he and a lot of future farmers show cardboard ones.