Okay, we've spent the time between Mother's Day and Father's Day back Michigan. Caught up with old friends, covered a bunch of miles, collected (sort of) a patent award and set off all over again.
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| We visited Dulcie and Kevin Hostetle in beautiful Prince Gallatin State Park in Pennsylvania in May. |
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| Scotty and Nora |
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| Leandro played so well. He also graduated from middle school. |
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| Liz finally saw the R.E. Olds museum. |
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| Marching against Monsanto in Flint. |
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| Dianna Gale Harrison |
We used up a week after Father's Day booking it cross country between Michigan and the Olympic Peninsula in far western Washington State. For those who enjoy cross-country driving (me), it was a hell of a trip. Every hour with a new vista and unrivaled sights. Our second day out, In the western U.P. we saw a bald eagle flying over our truck and a little later, a black bear foraging in a berry patch right alongside Highway 2 and a fox running across the road. All that and pasties for lunch. The U.P. bled into Wisconsin and Wisconsin bled into Minnesota etc. Once we got into western Minnesota we began a long climb. Liz kept a log of elevations. From eastern North Dakota (not nearly as boring as I'd been led to believe) to Missoula, Montana we climbed from 2000 feet to 6500 feet. One note: even though we spent a bunch on fuel (2400 miles at 12.5 mpg, you go ahead and do the math, I find it too painful) our accommodation bill for the week was $41. Best deal, Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota - $5, with a view of the Painted Canyon thrown in for free. Of course we did spend a couple of nights parking with the semis, lulled to sleep by the throb of big diesels. We really hadn't been paying enough attention to our GPS and were shocked to be in downtown Seattle and instructed to turn North (!) straight up toward Canada, then onto a ferry for a $90 boat ride. Next time in this area we'll make a more southerly approach.
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| Painted Canyon, Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota |
The Olympic Peninsula is just another world. Much of the time you're on some island or another without quite realizing it. I've seen about 5 miles of 4 lane divided highway and I suspect that's about all there is. Driving here is an exercise in claustrophobia with narrow 2 lane roads bordered by deep forest right up to the edge. Suddenly, the woods will give way to a little town or an ocean view or a clearing across which you can see the mountains in Olympic National Park. By the way, when I talk about going somewhere or doing something in this area, just assume I added "in the rain" about 2/3 of the time.
Once settled in an RV park we spent the first day exploring Seattle. Chanced upon a free walking tour hosted by Jake, a young entrepreneur. He walked us through the famous Pike Street Market, into the old town then back along the waterfront. That was only a couple of miles so we headed into the city to the Space Needle, again only a couple of miles. The 74 acres surrounding the Space Needle is covered with museums and other attractions designed to drain your wallet with your hardly noticing. This is the home of the Science Fiction Museum, part of the EMP, Experience Music Project, inexplicably centering on Jimi Hendrix. Maybe the endowment by Paul Allen of Microsoft has something to do with that. Anyway, the whole thing is very well done with sections for sci-fi, fantasy, horror and lots of rock and roll. Then came the Chihuly glass exhibit. The man is nothing if not prolific. Thousands of organic looking glass confections. I understand this is not the only exhibit of his. Just another tramp of a couple of miles to a great little British Pub themed restaurant and onto the ferry (much cheaper for just our bodies, minus RV turtle shell) back across Puget Sound.
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| Seattle Art Museum, Hammering Man sculpture. The arm with the hammer moves up and down all day every day except Labor Day. |
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| Liz messing with monkfish, Pike Street Market |
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| Interesting feature. Every manhole cover contains a map of the city with a gold dot showing your location. |
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| Liz standing in front of the vortex, Sci-fi museum. |
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| A very weird visual effect screen in Horror section of EMP museum. We had a ball with this one! |
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| Just one of hundreds of exhibits in Chihuly Glass and Garden. Opened in May 2012 near the Space Needle. |
Next day we started our exploration of Olympic National Park. Since the park is about 1300 square miles, this was just a start. We drove about 40 miles to Hurricane Ridge, way the heck up there, about 6000 feet. Unfortunately the view was the same as from the inside of a ping pong ball. Pure cloud from about 4000 feet on up. Nice drive up and back, just not real photogenic.
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| Okay, I cheated. This is what we would have seen if Hurricane Point hadn't been socked in. |
Tomorrow we rise early and take one more expensive ferry ride into Canada, onto Vancouver Island. We'll spend 10 days there which everyone who's been there tells me is not anything like enough. We'll be out of phone service for that time, so bear that in mind.
