Washington State Sights

Wow, we've been seeing a lot around here. Washington state is a beautiful place, with our favorite kind of landscapes: coasts, mountains and forests. I hear it even has some desert on the east side, but we haven't seen that. We're on the Olympic Peninsula now, but I'm going to backtrack just a little to catch up.

While still down in Woodland, WA, close to Portland, we were very close to the Ridgefield Nature Preserve, and visited that a couple of times. It's a wetlands along the Columbia River. We saw a nest of bald eagle fledglings, but couldn't get a good picture of them. They wouldn't turn around, darn it. We also saw a single coyote out hunting, and heard her little pack celebrate when she got home with wild whoops and cries. Love that.  Spotted a beaver and a few nutria (!) too. There were lots of ducks: a new one for us was the cinnamon teal, a beautiful little duck. But here was the best of the day - a Wilson's Snipe.

And this tree swallow wasn't too shabby either.

Before we left Woodland we also headed up to Mt. Rainier - an overnight trip. Although it was far, we didn't think we'd be getting any closer once we were on the Peninsula. Well, we never got a view of the mountain because of the clouds, but we did take a few little hikes and crossed the glacial wash of the Nisqually River on this log bridge.

Saw many waterfalls, big and small.

And this tiniest little wildflower, no bigger than a dime. 

On the first of June we moved north to Sequim, WA. Sequim is on the Olympic Peninsula, and although the area is known for it's high rainfall, Sequim boasts 300 days/year of sunshine. It's weather is temperate year round, and it is about equidistant from the mountains and the Straight of Juan de Fuca. Lots of lavender farms because of the mild winters. We have been getting lots of cool, cloudy weather though, even if the sun does peak out for at least a few minutes every day. 

Once here, we started exploring the area. West of Sequim is Port Angeles, kind of a funky logging town, that has grown up to be a busy ferry and lodging town for those visiting Olympic National Park. It has an active port that deals mostly with lumber and paper, and a five mile spit that protects the port.  The spit is a nice place to view the harbor, the Straight, Vancouver Island and the sunset. 

Right in Sequim are the Dungeness National Wildlife Preserve and Recreation Areas with great views, trails and beaches. We've walked around there a couple of times. This picture of the gull is looking down over a cliff at the surf below.

View of the Dungeness Spit from further down the same cliff.

East of Sequim is Port Townsend, another busy port, but with a different character. It is a Victorian town, with a large marina that harbors and repairs mostly fishing boats, and some person sailing boats and ocean going yachts.  It draws many visitors and has a high quality downtown area.  The flavor of the town is kind of steampunkish, and in fact they're having a steampunk festival there this month.  Adjacent Fort Worden has a beautiful old naval campus, with wooden buildings and a lighthouse.

...a beach rose amongst the drift wood.

Then we drove out to Cape Flattery, which was my favorite experience here so far. The drive is kind of long, passing through tiny towns along the coast, and finally through the Makah Reservation at the most northwestern tip of the continental US.  There is a wonderful trail out to the Cape, through deep woods along a rustic board walk,

with big spooky trees and sweet undergrowth of ferns and wildflowers all the way. 

At the end of the path you emerge suddenly out of the woods onto the cliffs above the ocean and these incredible views of deep clear blue water, sea stacks and crashing waves. 

When the sun came out, the colors were glorious.

Rick had his camouflage outfit on, so you might miss him in this picture. 

The next day we went to the Hoh Rainforest, and I'll post about that soon.

One Beautiful Picture

Rick took this photo recently at John Wayne Marina near Sequim, WA with his Sony A65 using an 18-55 zoom lens. Some may have seen it already on Facebook, but I wanted to share it with as many friends as possible. Enjoy this beautiful day!

One Year Anniversary

We've been "dancing 'cross the country" for one year now and in honor of our anniversary I thought I'd post a geographical review.

We sold our home in Naperville, IL on May 31, 2011 and moved out the same day. For the month of June we hung around in motels, in the RV dealer's parking lot, and in a nearby campground until we felt we had everything in order. Since then we've been traveling, staying places anywhere from one night to two months.  Aside from this blog, and taking photographs, here are some other ways we've recorded our journey.

This was made in Google Maps, then screen captured and imported to Picassa. I hope to learn how to remove the lettered pins soon.

This is a sticker map, common among RVers, that we've put on the outside of the RV, near the door. You can get them at Camping World and add state stickers as you go.

These are old fashioned paper maps from a US and Canada atlas that I keep track of our travels in. The one above is Southern California where we spent about four months this winter, and the one below is Oregon.

As we travel, we usually don't buy souvenirs, as we don't have room to keep them. The one exception is refrigerator magnets from the National Parks we've visited. Here's the western US collection. I try to arrange them roughly geographically on the freezer door.

Our plans for the next year include continuing north to Sequim, WA where we will stay for one month, then on to Vancouver Island, BC for three weeks. Then we start the long trek diagonally southeast across the country so that we can be with family in South Carolina for Christmas 2012. We will probably winter somewhere in Florida, then head north to New England for summer 2013 to see many friends and family and get a few New England contra dances in. 

As always, our purpose is to gratefully embrace opportunity, explore possibilities, 

have new adventures, and dance as we go.  

Gig Harbor

After spending the afternoon at the Tacoma Museum of Glass we decided to head north rather than drive through Tacoma and Olympia on Route 5 during rush hour.

So, once safely across the Tacoma Narrows bridge with high wind warnings (remember Galloping Gertie, the bridge that collapsed due to structural defects?) we found the very cute harbor town of Gig Harbor.

As you can see, it's a very protected little harbor, with many recreational and fishing boats, and homes along the shores.

It has a small historic downtown, including the Skansie Netshed, one of the buildings left from the homes and business of the Skansie family, one of the town founders.

While hanging around the docks, we watched some young people receiving lessons in high kneel, or Canadian canoeing, which I have since learned is an Olympic event. It seemed to be very difficult, as balance is much harder to achieve in this position. The lesson starts on the dock. See the foam pad under her knee? Can you imagine balancing this way while paddling in a canoe?

These two boys struggled along in tandem as they came into shore.

We watched long enough to see this young man successfully set off on his own. See the unusual shape of the canoe? Looks incredibly unstable.

Bravo!!!

We found some supper at Tides Tavern overlooking the harbor and then headed home on the back roads through the Kitsap Peninsula. 

Tacoma Museum of Glass (MOG)

Yesterday we took a rainy day drive to the Tacoma MOG and an unplanned side trip to Gig Harbor.  It was a moody day, swinging between brief downpours of rain, dramatic clouds and bright blue sunshine skies. This proved to be a perfect backdrop for the architecture and outdoor exhibits of the MOG, as you can see here.

This glass sculpture in the fountain is called Fluent Steps and represents the different states of water.

Fluent Steps and the MOG building

The cone part of the building is the Hot Spot .

Another view of the Hot Spot.

Inside the Hot Spot is a glass blowing studio presented in proscenium theater style, with the audience looking down into a pit with five oven doors, kilns, and a team of working glass blowers. One of them doubles service as an MC of sorts, fielding questions from the audience and describing what the glass blowers are doing. There is a catwalk around the "stage/pit" so that you can view the work from all sides.

The glass blowing studio theater.

The ceiling is the inside of conical Hot Spot
which also serves as a chimney. 

This man standing is blowing air into the glass at the end of his tube, and the other man is holding a mold that forms the glass as the bubble inside it expands.

This man is rolling his tube with a glob of glass at the end, which he is flattening the bottom of with 

another tool.

Glass artist Cappy Thompsen's rendition of a glass blower.

Another permanent exhibit at the MOG is the Bridge of Glass, which seems to serve as a giant display case for pieces made by Chihuly, the very well known glass artist who is from Tacoma. One of my favorite displays, the Seaform Pavillion, was the glass ceiling of the bridge above which thousands of Chihuly pieces are laid out in a crowded chaotic fashion reminiscent of the tide pools I saw on the Oregon coast.

The Bridge of Glass also has two glass structures called the Crystal Towers.

After a full afternoon at the MOG, we surprised ourselves by heading over to Gig Harbor for dinner. Stay tuned for that, coming soon.

Rainy Day to Catch Up

We've had about two weeks of great weather, and it looks like now we're about to have a week of rain. This is a perfect time to catch up on laundry, cleaning house, cooking and blogging about what we've been doing in the sunshine.  So today I baked the worlds best brownies. Here's the recipe. Try them. I promise they are the best. I got the recipe out of a Bon Appetit magazine that I picked up in a laundry room. I'll never make any other brownies again.

Brownies from scratch today!

Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter and Walnuts

10 T (1 ¼ sticks) butter

1 ¼ C sugar

¾ C unsweetened cocoa powder

2 t water

1 t vanilla

¼ t salt (generous)

2 large eggs, chilled

1/3 C plus 1 T unbleached flour

1 C walnut pieces

Position  rack in bottom third of oven

Preheat oven to 325

Line 8x8 pan with aluminum foil and coat with nonstick spray

Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat.

Continue cooking until butter stops foaming and browned bits form at bottom of the pan, stirring often, about 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and immediately add sugar, cocoa, 2 t of water, vanilla, and ¼ t (generous) of salt.

Stir to blend.

Let cool 5 minutes (mixture will still be hot).

Add eggs to hot mixture 1 at a time, beating vigorously to blend after each.

When mixture looks thick and shiny, add flour and stir until blended.

Beat vigorously 60 strokes.

Add walnuts.

Transfer to prepared pan.

Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out almost clean (with a few moist crumbs attached), about 25 minutes. Cool pan on rack. Using foil lift brownies from pan. Cut 4 by 4.

OK, here's what else we've been doing:

Mt. St. Helens

Olympia, WA - Wooden Boat Festival

Astoria, OR and Cape Disappointment, WA

Vancouver, WA farmers market

Mt. Hood and Timberline Lodge

Cascade Dining Room at Timberline Lodge

Timberline Lodge lobby

Timberline Lodge staircase

Hiking ...

with my good friend Carolyn.

Bird watching

Biking - We are living on Dike Access Rd. which runs along the top of a dike between the Columbia River and farming land (corn, raspberries, grass, cattle). It's a level ride for several miles. Along the way we've seen many bald eagles and an elk that has joined the local cattle herd.

Driving in and out of Portland three times to get our computer fixed. Now we have doubled the size of our hard drive to accommodate all these photographs.