Hiking & Vaudeville

Posted by Thane
I just wanted to keep up the Bellingham connection and we definitely prefer goofing off in this beautiful weather rather than unpacking boxes! This weekend we went to Whatcom Falls Park.
It was one of the first places we visited in Bellingham when we came up here 2 years ago. One of the reasons we fell in love with this area was the wonderful trail system that they have right in the city. Whatcom Falls Park is just one of many and is a 241 acre park right in the middle of the city with over 8 miles of trails within the park. This bridge was part of the WPA project in the 1930's. There is a bench to sit and view the falls. A beautiful forest in the middle of the city. The trails lead throughout the park to many of the neighborhoods in town.
After the hike we went to Boulevard Park on the Bay to see the Aqua-Chautauqua Vaudeville show. There was a flyer at our local library, it was free, and just a short walk away so we couldn't resist. We found out later that this group was in Grass Valley in February and this tour was dedicated to Utah Phillips! It was an amazing show with lots of stuff for the kids to do and great entertainment for the adults.

Great music with a 15 piece band. Juggling, acrobatics and comedy for all. Great people watching in the crowd.
Well, wish you all were here. We should have our place fixed up for guests fairly soon and we love company. Also we would LOVE to hear from anyone on our blog list. Tell us how you're doing and whats new.

Landing in Bellingham

View from our new front room.

Posted by Thane
On our way from Glacier we stopped in Spokane to see some of the old places that Dave, my Stepdad lived when he was a kid. He would talk about his childhood but as a child I never got to go there. It is a beautiful city of about 200,000 people. The neighborhoods seem great with plenty of parks and a nice sized downtown. I called my Aunt Jean to find a couple of addresses of where Dave used to live as a kid. This first house was where he lived when he was in grade school, what a mansion! The next house was when he entered Junior High. It was on a tree lined street with a large parkway down the center of the street. I think I could live here! On leaving Spokane I changed my mind though. Heading south toward Oregon it got pretty dry and desert like. I need moisture. We traveled on to Oregon and the Columbia River Gorge and then the backroads by Mt. Hood. Beautiful orchards in this area, just in time to bring some fresh fruits and berries to Stef and Paul (Melissa's sister and brother-in-law) in Corvallis. We mostly rested in Corvallis thanks to Stef and Paul. Thanks you for the wonderful stay, with gourmet meals, and a fluffy bed with beautiful views of your garden. These pictures are from the year before because I was so rested I forgot to pull the camera out here! It has grown exponentially since these pictures were taken. We also visited Melissa's Mom and showed her some photos on the computer. She's not too computer savvy and following a blog wasn't in the cards. We finally were able to get in to our Bellingham house on the 3rd of July just in time for fireworks out on the Bay. We lived with no furniture for about a week until this badboy came.They're having fun up the steps. Looks like we have some weeding to do! They had to back the truck up for 4 blocks to get out of here! Kat, Melissa's daughter, had plans to move in to the downstairs apartment but it looks like it needs a bit of remodeling before that will happen. Luckily we have a back bedroom and bath upstairs that she can use till the apartment is finished sometime in August. She already has a special ed teaching position in Mt Vernon about 25 minutes away which start around Labor Day.

From the house we have been walking almost every night. It is 10 minutes down to Boulevard Park on the water and then you can travel the interurban trail along the water either south to Fairhaven or North to Downtown Bellingham. Both are about 15 minutes either way from the Park. Most nights a sax player plays here at sunset. It gets dark about 10 or so now but we usually stay out later getting a gelato or a beer at Archer's Ale House, the local pub. Here you can nurse one of their many fine beers and play cards or darts or have some pub food. It reminds me of Cheers. Everybody say a big HI to Alicia, the best waitress in town! We went over to Whidbey Island where Penn cove Mussels are raised. Even Kat , who always hated them, now loves mussels. These really are the best! Here is a shot of Mt Baker from the Island. After unpacking boxes for several days, we needed a day off so we all piled into the car and headed out for a drive. We ended up on Lummi Island with more great views. Must have been laundry day on on Lummi!


From the house we can see the Olympics, Mt Contstitution on Orcas Island, the Canadian Cascades, and Whistler - also in Canada.
We went down to the wharf to get fresh Halibut. Melissa had this cooked up and served less than an hour after I bought it at the wharf.Our neighborhood is called South Hill - it is the green hill in the background on the right - this shot was taken from the dock where I bought the halibut. This great local produce and flower market called Joes is all organic. They don't even use organic pesticides so I guess you could call it all natural.. We've been cleaning up the garden with the help of Green Man gardening. He has been hauling off truckfuls to the Greenwaste at the community garden. Here is a picture of the front of the house. It was built in 1907. It has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths, a dining room, sunroom and living room upstairs with about 1600 sq feet. It has a basement downstairs in the back half and a studio apartment in the front half with about 500 square feet. It is on a little over 2 lots with the house on one lot and the garden on the rest (to the right in this pic). Spring in the garden - with all the blooms from last year. We haven't managed to escape those nasty deers - they walk right through our yard. We had 3 big bucks in the yard the other day. These little guys are next door under our neighbors porch! A shot of the kitchen. And the bath. More pics to come as we fix Kat's apartment and unload the rest of our boxes. Meanwhile we will be looking out at this and thinking of ya'll.

Big Decisions .... GV or north to Glacier National Park??

Posted by Melissa
Sorry it has been so long since we last posted. Internet access has been a bit of a problem. The following entry is actually from the end of June.
Well, the time finally arrived when we needed to make a really tough decision. As most of you know, we left Carlo, our sweet cat, in Grass Valley while we were on this trip. Carlo enjoyed time staying with our friends, Marsha and Steve, for a few weeks and then moved back to our old house where the new owners, Kerry and Dave, welcomed him back. We have been missing Carlo very much - especially at night when he usually slept at our feet. But - we also knew that he had become very comfortable with Kerry and Dave and that he had really bonded with their young son.

They were really hoping that they could adopt him. We decided that since he was so happy back in his old house and especially with his new buddy and because a 2 day road trip may be very stressful for a cat that howled the entire time whenever he was in a car, that we would leave Carlo there. (We are still missing you very much Carlo!!!)

We then realized that we could decide whether to return to Grass Valley to pick up a few things we had stored with John & Tracy and visit with friends or to just head north to Bellingham. Also if we headed north, we would have time to see Glacier National Park before arriving in B'ham at about the first of July. The smoke and heat (we heard that California had 1500 or so fires and horrible heat as well) sealed the deal! We headed north!!

Much of Montana is wide open spaces - Big Sky Country is an well deserved moniker. The horizon was flat for much of the drive so that when we began to see mountains off in the distance we were excited! We stopped for lunch in the little town of Wolf Creek (the name reminded of us home), but it was sooo small we couldn't find an open cafe. We stopped in the Post Office -about the only open place - and asked about something to eat - she recommended that we drive another 40 miles or so to the next town and stop at the Buckhorn Bar. We had been really hungry for a steak lately and thought this might be a good lead so we headed back out on the road.

It was a little scruffy on the outside - but in we went. The inside was about the same - but with the added bonus of smokers!*@#%! Have we mentioned lately that we miss some things about California! Oh well, we settled in and ordered - 10 oz top sirloin for both of us. It turned out to be one of the best steaks ever. It came with the standard baked potato and a HUGE salad with house made dressing - all for $10. WOW sorry no pics of lunch - it was all gone by the time we thought of it. But if you are ever near Augusta, Montana- try it out!
After that it was off to Glacier National Park. We began taking pictures well before we were in the park - this was the road to the park. Another view from the road outside the park.
It was absolutely beautiful, quite different from the Sierras that we are used to. We spent two nights here and can't wait to go back. I'll let the pics do the talking...

The park was celebrating the 75th anniversary of the completion of the Going-to-the-Sun Road. - an engineering marvel that crosses the park . We were here around June 30th and the road was still not cleared over the pass - it had about 10 feet of snow left and required surveyors to lead the snow equipment safely through. Thane thought about returning to work for about 10 seconds - but instead he bought a hat with the Going to the Sun logo on it!! We drove up as far as we could - to Jackson Glacier Overlook. From here we could see one of the few glaciers remaining in the park.In 1850 there were 150 glaciers in the park, today there are 26. They are all expected to be gone by 2030. Get there fast if you want to see any!!

We were also able to see where the Hudson Bay Divide meets the Continental Divide at Triple Divide Peak from this road. This peak is the dividing point for three major drainage systems in the US - the Hudson Bay, the Pacific Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico (it is the sharp peak just right of the center of this picture). We didn't hike it so we will have to take their word about the 360 degree view - maybe next time.

We toured the Many Glacier Hotel with a park ranger. He told great stories about the hotel and the park. The hotel is closed for the winter and sometimes in the spring when they come to reopen the hotel they find great snow drifts inside. This old black and white photo was in the hallway of the hotel (those are about 10' ceilings).
Well, it didn't look like that when we were there.
This old hotel was built in 1914 by the Great Northern Railroad as part of an overall plan to get people to ride the railroad. It prospered right away and through the 20's but was nearly closed down in the 1930's during the depression. One story was that the hotel employees fought valiantly to save the hotel from a forest fire and when it was all over and they notified the owners - the owners replied with "why didn't you let it burn?" Lucky for us they didn't.

Here is the view of Swiftcurrent Lake from the hotel balcony. Yep, this view and a glass of wine and I am set for the evening! Trivia Question: Did you know that the movie scene in The Shining where Jack and Wendy Torrance are driving through the mountains on their way to the Overlook Hotel was filmed in the park? Now you do!

We stayed at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn and Cabins with a great view of the mountains.
Thane found this van parked outside of our hotel on our first night.And we found this sign the next day on a trail (sorry about cutting off the left side of the sign!)We were really hoping to see a grizzly on this trip (from a distance and while in our car! ) but alas we did not.

This ... ...and this was about as exciting as the wildlife got in the park for us.
We found this little wayside cafe just outside the park. I'll tell you right away that they poured about the best margarita of the trip. Seconds?? - No way - I was hoping to be able to walk again before lunch was over. I think the bartender was pouring for heartier mountain types than me! It sure made up for some really lousy margaritas we found elsewhere on this trip. Did I mention that I am really loving margaritas these days? ahhh - retirement!!!

This place was so cute with murals and artwork all over the place. I loved this map of the US.





and these cute bathroom doors.







Overall we absolutely loved Glacier Park and hope to return there soon for a longer stay.

Next up: Spokane family roots and visiting family in Oregon before arriving in Bellingham.

Cody & Yellowstone

Posted by Thane
We ended up getting in to Cody, Montana kind of late, but just in time to sit down at a great club to hear a female singer/guitar player. A relaxing time hearing covers of Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt etc. We shared a table with a cowboy who worked summers at a dude ranch with his son who gave us a tip as to where to get the best steak in town. Down to the "Prime cut" we went and indulged ourselves in the first steak of the trip, a flatiron,rare that was perfection.
We also went in to Sunlight Sports, a great outdoor store, how they got that snowcat in there I don't know. It was on the second floor!
Going in to Yellowstone from the East we came upon a Moose and it's calf and a couple of Buffalo right on the side of the road. Also a sign warning of Grizzly Bears, something we don't encounter in California when we are out hiking! Further in to the park we saw many geysers and waterfalls of all colors and types and colors. I see some paintings in here. And here. And here. Then off to the Old faithful Inn to grab a beer, play some cribbage on the deck and wait for Old Faithful to blow (check out our little video below).

Next up-Glacier National Park.

South Dakota Badlands & Mt. Rushmore

Posted by Melissa
Heading across South Dakota towards the Badlands, we couldn't resist driving through Mitchell to get a picture of The Corn Palace (thinking of you Kat!).
We continued a bit down the road and began getting hungry. We pulled off the highway looking for a small cafe and a gas station. We kept coming up empty handed as the towns we found looked like this...Yes, this is the main downtown section of this small burg and there is not a single car on the road. I will point out that this was a Sunday, so maybe on a weekday these places are open - but we really thought there would at least be a small cafe where we could eat lunch. We managed to find about 3 of these kinds of towns in a row before we actually found something open. Seems like there are a lot of little towns that are barely hanging on.

We made our way to the Badlands National Park and settled into our little cabin at the Cedar Pass Lodge. It reminded us a bit of our old home with a knotty pine interior. The temp was just right and the wind was blowing mightily through the open window. It was nice to not use a/c for a change. We are getting a bit tired of hotel rooms with wall a/c units blowing right on the bed. We were treated to a fierce lightning and thunder storm in the night (I've always loved thunder and lightning) but woke up to blue skies.

The little guy on the right was just outside our door...the prairie dog (on the left) was a little further out.










The badlands kind of sneak up on you - after driving across the flat, grassy prairie, they start with just a few little peaks and then quickly open up to views like this.

We were hoping to see large herds of buffalo, but found they were a little too far away to get good pics - maybe we'll have better luck in Yellowstone.

We headed from the Badlands through the South Dakota Black Hills to Keystone, SD. This town has an amazing array of tourist shops selling candy, t-shirts, and other souvenirs -a bit overwhelming. There is a mini shoot-out on the street to try to entice you into their wild west show. This has to be one of the tackiest tourist towns I've seen - but in a beautiful setting with the forested black hills serving as a backdrop to the little shops.
After visiting Mount Rushmore - pic at top - we headed out a scenic drive in the Black Hills. This little road has great open views of the mountains, lots of scenic pullouts, amazing "pigtail" bridges
that were designed to be used in tight areas instead of switchback roads. Of course, Thane was interested in the design and engineering aspect of these (you can click the pic if you want to read it). There were even 3 tunnels on the road (this one is a double tunnel) and Mt Rushmore is perfectly framed in one of the tunnels. We drove through miles of forest that had been recently cleared with the trimmed/downed trees neatly stacked. It really opened up the views and I'm sure will prevent the kinds of fires that are currently burning all over Northern California. We both wondered though how they came up with the funds to do such a big job.


Up Next: Cody, Wyoming and Yellowstone

Chicago

Posted by Thane
Arriving in Chicago even at 7 pm the traffic was less than desirable, but it was just in time for a Chicago style deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati's. We decided to stay out by the airport and take the train in to town, a much better choice (thank you Ruth) than staying downtown.

The El Train was great, just like I remembered it in the movies , going past old, brick apartment buildings with a variety of people on board. The day we went the White Sox and Cubs were playing each other, so there were lots of fans were on board. Like a sign said on the train said: "The Red Line," the only thing Cubs and White Sox fans have in common!










We got off at the Miracle Mile (great architecture and high end shopping), walked past the Old Chicago Water Tower, the Wrigley building and then spent some time at Millenium Park where we had to get a Chicago Style dog. Go girl!

I tried to get a picture of our reflection in the "Bean"




















and checked out the fountain, a cool respite in downtown on a hot day. This fountain flashes pictures of different faces and the eyes move and/or twinkle. Kinda cool.

















I knew that Chicago was on Lake Michigan but didn't realize it as such a harbor town!











After the Chicago fire I'm sure these fire escapes were mandatory.
















Would you climb down these?














or these?

We went to the Field Museum a natural history museum to check out the dinosaurs, ancient Egyptian artifacts and mummies.


There have been several mass extinctions in earth's history. We are currently going through another one. This sign tells us why - click on it to make it larger so you can read it.

Makes ya think!






another sobering fact....










I always wanted to see the Chicago Art Institute.We were able to see Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, a favorite painting of mine.and Georges Seurat's Sunday at the Grande Jatte, a favorite of Melissa's. It is so cool to see the originals after seeing them reproduced in art books. Melissa was excited to find an exhibit of paperweights and we were both amazed at the extensive collection of beautiful art. It would take two days to really see everything in this museum and in the Field Museum.

We loved Chicago and will surely be back. From here we had planned to go to Iowa to see where Melissa's Mom was raised but with all the flooding we decided to re-route our trip more northerly. We went through rural Minnesota staying at this B & B in Jackson that used to be a boarding house for railroad workers. We walked down to the fairgrounds on a Saturday night to find stock car races - check out the video below. People came from far and wide for these races as well as for the famous (per the locals) homemade caramel corn, as did we.


Up next: the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills

Lucy & Chautauqua

Posted by Melissa
We headed from Niagara Falls to Chicago via the scenic Chautauqua area of New York - thanks in part to my son Spencer who called us after reading a travel article on this area. Jamestown,NY is Lucille Ball's hometown. We stopped by the Lucy-Desi Museum and really enjoyed seeing all the photos, costumes, and memorabilia. We watched some of the old TV clips and really enjoyed her character's silly antics.

I am continually impressed with the age and character of the towns we have seen on the east coast. Even the alleys are interesting - this is in downtown Jamestown where both the sreets and alleys are paved with brick.We drove around the lake stopping for lunch in Bemus Point. We stumbled upon the Hotel Lenhart, a quintessential east coast resort overlooking the lake. This hotel has been owned and operated by the same family since 1881. Is this old school or what??The prices are not too bad considering that they include both a full breakfast and full dinner. The prices are less on the second and third floors because there is no elevator.I think I could manage to while away a few days here!As we continued our drive around the lake we found that there is a sizable Amish community here as well. Our drive through the Pennysilvania Dutch area was on a Sunday so the Amish were not working, but instead were out and about visiting. This time it was a work day and we saw a farmer working the fields..and several Amish men building a barn.Hey Spence - This is your kind of country - check out what we found at a country gas station.....
Yep - that is a bait dispenser machine!

Up next: Chicago