One more look at the Tetons

The last time I went through the Tetons as a teenager, with Tara and Mom, was in a tow truck. The time before that, as a younger teen, getting Tara to her youth camp on time meant driving through the night through the Tetons.

This trip gave us two successful drives through these mountains, one at the beginning, and another at the end. What a nice change.

Yellowstone National Park, part 2

Yellowstone National Park, part 1

After our evening of many ferry rides, we packed up our Bainbridge hotel room, took one last trip across the bay to Seattle (and the first in our car), and headed east. We stopped at Snoqualmie Falls and lunch in North Bend at "Twede's" who got famous with their homemade cherry pie and "damn fine cup o' coffee" on the short-lived series "Twin Peaks". We didn't have the coffee, but that cherry pie was mighty fine.

Missoula was our stop for the night, and then it was on to Yellowstone. Wildlife sightings included elk, buffalo, a black bear cub, and various birds.

Two last views of Seattle

We're home now from our lovely vacation, but I'm still catching up on my log. Our second day in Seattle had an unexpected twist at the end of the day. After seeing "Inception" near the Space Needle, we took the monorail back to downtown, then hiked down to the waterfront, getting to the pier just in time to catch the 5:30 ferry to Bainbridge Island, and have dinner there. We were pretty proud of ourselves, getting there just before it sailed, getting our tickets from the automatic kiosk, and hurrying up the gangplank to get on board.

About 45 minutes into the ride, I began to wonder why it was behind schedule. (It's a 35 minute ride). At 6:30, we joined the other passengers at the front of the boat waiting for it to dock. Which is when I saw the sign at the pier that said "Bremerton". We had boarded the wrong boat.

We ended up having a very nice dinner at Anthony's, dockside on the patio, and an hour later hopped the next ferry going back to Seattle, and then had a speedy fast turnaround after we docked to get off the boat, run back inside the terminal, buy 3 more tickets for Bainbridge, and then go through the right doors to get to the Bainbridge ferry and get on that boat before it left the dock. Phew. A second night of traveling across Elliott Bay in the dark, with a lovely view of the Seattle lights behind us.

We saw "Inception" in IMAX at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. We played on the giant table and chairs set after the movie.

On the Evening of the First Day

After exploring Seattle, we took the water taxi across Elliott Bay to West Seattle, where cousin Christie Skoorsmith met us at the landing and drove us to her lovely home. Christian had made dinner (with his dad as his sous chef), and had decorated the table and chairs on the deck with a beautiful deep red tablecloth, and gold chair covers. So elegant for outdoor dining! We met their lovely baby Eva, Christian's mom and dad (who were visiting from Arizona), and saw cousin Marie and daughter Grace, Aunt Lois and Uncle Ron, and Marie's friend Eric, who Grace called Barry for most of the evening. Christy, Christian, Marie, Grace, Eva, and Ben at various times played a bean bag toss using Christian's Monkey Wrench Game board. Who knew it was so easy to abolish poverty, provide universal health care, organize a union, achieve true democracy, and elect a pro-labor candidate!

It was a wonderful evening, and so nice to connect with family. The highlight of the evening was when Christian serenaded us on his bag pipes, accompanied by Eric on the drum.

Marie drove us back to Seattle, after a stop to give us a tour of her lovely little West Seattle home, and we caught a late ferry back to Bainbridge Island.

The Very Best Hot Chocolate in the World

Ben remembered from our trip to Seattle 3 years ago that the automatic hot drinks machine on the ferry boat had the best hot chocolate he's ever tasted.

Our first day in Seattle included a ferry boat ride in the fog, a long search on foot to find the relocated Elliott Bay Bookstore (well worth the looong walk), a monorail ride to Seattle Center, lunch at a lovely French restaurant, and a trip to the top of the Space Needle for Ben and Doug.

Rain Forest Mossiness and Ben swimming at Lake Crescent

Lake Quinault Lodge, Olympic Natl. Park

Lake Quinault Lodge was wonderful. We had a beautiful view of the lake from our room, the food was delicious (although we found out after dinner that they would have brought us bread if we had only asked), and the lounge area was big and quiet and relaxing.

This set of photos:

Doug and Ben played chess on the big honkin' chessboard.

Doug and me at dinner - a closed-in porch with windows all around looking out over the lake.

Me with Harvest Moon, a basket weaver and story-teller at the lodge.

Day 2 in the Olympic Peninsula

After saying goodbye to Eric, Carla, and Ryan on Saturday afternoon, the 3 S-Y's stayed the night at Lake Quinault Lodge and explored the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic Natl. Park on Sunday. This took us through Forks, Washington, made famous by the "Twilight" books and movies. In the photo below, Ben is brandishing his Harry Potter book at Bella's red pickup (Bella is the main character in "Twilight").

The top 3 photos are from our stop along the coast, where the forest bordering the beach looks eerily like the forest in "Lord of the Rings" where the hobbits hide from the big black devil horses.

After lunch at the Nilsen's (C and E made teriyaki chicken and rice), we caravanned to Aberdeen, WA with Erik, Carla and Ryan, stopping at Fort Clatsop on the way. We  hiked in the Olympic National Forest with Carla, Erik, and Ryan, and saw a honkin' big tree, as Ryan would say.

Seeing Old Friends

In Portland, we stayed with Carla and Erik Nilsen, wonderful friends from pre-Ben days. Friday morning we took the kids (Ben, Kari, and Ryan) to the indoor bouldering center, and Bill McFarlin joined us. Erik and Carla were my first friends in Ann Arbor, MI, when I lived there on my own for a year while Doug was still in Venezuela. Then when Doug had a temporary teaching job in Portland, they had moved there, and kept Doug from getting too lonely while I was still in Texas.

Bill and Beth McFarlin were our first friends in Fort Collins. We're sorry we missed out on seeing Andrew and Bryn Nilsen, and Beth, Katie, and Sam McFarlin.

Columbia River Gorge

Last Thursday we left the fly-fishing mecca of Ketchum, Idaho, and drove to Portland, via the Columbia River Gorge.

A Best Western in Fort Hood had a wonderful restaurant with patio seating overlooking the gorge.