A Full-time Life

Sibling Road Trip - Bellevue Washington

We finished out the camping season last month by enjoying some more travel with the tiny trailer.  I'm calling this one the Sibling Road-Trip because we went from home  here in Oregon to the Seattle area (Washington State) for a great visit with my sister and brother-in-law and then across Washington into Northern Idaho for the same  with Bill's brother and sister-in-law at their floating cabin on Lake Chatcolet.    We enjoyed great catch-up times at both destinations and, as always, enjoyed the journey as well.

Here's a picture taken from our doorstep on our first night's stop:     

Mount Rainier, late afternoon in late September

This is why we like staying in our own home-away-from home.  You don't often get a view like this from a motel room.   

We met up with our family the next day.  It was a great catch-up time, enjoying good conversation and reminiscing, good meals, and exploring the area.     One day the four of us visited the Bellevue Botanical Gardens.   Below are pictures from a  beautiful bridge walkway built across a ravine in the 55-acre park.  

 

As the sign says, it's a taste of the wild side in the middle of the city.     

 

 

The whole park is  one of those places that always seem sort of magical to me because of being so close to a major metropolitan area, while feeling  as if you're miles away.  An easily accessible outdoor getaway for city-dwellers  -- and tourists as well.

October and November are Dahlia season in the Pacific Northwest  and the "tamer" area of the park had a beautifully groomed garden featuring these show-stoppers:

 

Who could fail to be cheered by these beautiful flowers.

 

 

Every variety and every color so photogenic.

      

 

 

We saw a few  deer as we wandered around the park and always enjoy these sightings . But the above sign (and chewed up hosta leaves) reminded me of why some gardeners aren't  happy to see them.     Obviously, this park wasn't going to stop the deer from snacking.     I'm sure the sign is to explain to the public that the plant damage isn't because the gardeners are neglecting their work.

 

 

The bees loved this flowering bush.  Plantings in the gardens were all those that would do well in Western Washington's  climate.      

We had a great couple of days, over all too soon, before we got back on the road.  I'll share some pictures from the other side of the State of Washington and neighboring Idaho in another post.  

 

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities:  Thank you to all of the hosts.

MOSAIC MONDAY;   NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;  and  SATURDAY CRITTERS    

KEEPING IN TOUCH ...

... in the time of Corona Virus

 

The first day of Spring in this hemisphere happened last week -- but it was kind of overshadowed by all that other news.   I hope everybody was able to go outside for at least a breath of fresh air.  

 

 

We are using technology to keep in touch during the isolation  -- but for us that really isn't all that different than ever, since we are so far away from family.     Just that it is even more important these days.    

The Blue Jay pictures above are mine -- taken near home (the Florida one) on the first day of Spring.    The rest of the pictures were texted to me from further away  ---   also on the first day of Spring.   I'm grateful that all of our families are well and able to go outside and breath some fresh air.    

The first two below are from Oregon:

 

A Rhododendron  blossom from our daughter and son-in-law's yard.

(in Oregon)

We didn't venture far from home last week.   Nature parks and beaches (and restaurants) are closed here.   We kept busy  -- working on the Canal Cottage project and spending some time assessing our various traveling options in light of the current situation. (Traveling back to our home in Oregon -- nothing more exotic than that needless to say.)

 

 

Cyndi and Jeff's beautiful Black Walnut Tree and the Spring garden under it 

 

The next picture came from our son in Colorado.  Their back yard (taken on, may I remind you, the first day of spring).  It's definitely an outlier among the blue skies and spring flowers:

 

 

 

Colorado people are strong and healthy and happy in all kinds of weather though (aren't they?) --   and anyway, by now, it's highly possible that the snow has melted and the sun is shining.    

My sister sent the next picture from a walk in the park near her Seattle home.    Our oldest son who lives in that corner of Washington State also texted that he  spent the weekend working in their yard.   

 

  

Perfect Spring Days in the Pacific Northwest!  (except for the you-know-what).       As the old song said "The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle" --  it should have added "when it's not raining."    (That is also true for our corner of Oregon .)    

 

(from Oregon) 

Don't forget to keep in touch with those you love. 

And go outside to play as often and as long as you can.

Thank you to our family for essentially writing this post. It would have been a boring blog with just one picture of a Blue Jay.   

 

Linking to the following:  Thank you hosts!!!! 

MOSAIC MONDAY;   ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS;   OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS;  SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; WILD BIRD Wednesday;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;  FRIDAY  BLISS;  SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING 

NATURAL WONDERS -- closer to home

 

Cape Flattery

It's time for some more recent travel pictures  -- and definitely time for some pictures of our beautiful natural world.  Toward the end of last month, we went on a ten-day road trip to Washington State.   The next two shots are from the new Point Defiance Aquarium in Tacoma.

 

 

These are straight from the camera shots -- the jellyfish tanks had the best lighting ever.  

 

 

The jellies were almost hypnotic!   

 

Seattle  Spheres 

 

The Spheres are workplaces for Amazon employees in downtown Seattle.  Seattle's a pretty amazing city anyway, but it is jaw-dropping to come upon these spheres in the middle of it!    (Read about them here.)

 

After great visits with family in Tacoma and Seattle (and as usual for me, too few people pictures) we  drove North to the very tip end of the Olympic Peninsula.   

 

 

These pictures aren't in any particular order  -- just a little taste of what we saw along the way.

 

 

Bill got to indulge in his love of mountain driving on the way to the Makah Reservation at the tip of the Peninsula.     I  got to enjoy a hike through the forest  (on a sometimes iffy board walk).  Beautiful forest views along the way and of Cape Flattery once I reached the top.  

 

 

Roses and hollyhocks -- and hollyhocks and roses!

 

On our way home again, just a little way into Oregon, we stayed at an RV Park in Netarts.  It really was a pretty place  -- with gardens to wander through, the ocean across the street -- and (important to those of us who do old-people camping) a very easy drive to good restaurants.

 

    These lazy elephant seals just across the street from our spot were quiet neighbors. 

 

Olympic National Park

 

Grateful to visit with family -- for the interesting places they showed us  (and this post was just a tiny taste  of those)  -- and for the beautiful natural places we saw when we took the long way home.

 

Linking this week to the following:  Thank you to all of the hosts.

 

SATURDAY CRITTERS;  NATURE NOTES;   ALL SEASONS;    MOSAIC MONDAY; MACRO MONDAY   TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; THROUGH MY LENS;  OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  COUNTRY SCAPES;     TUESDAY TREASURES ;  SAY CHEESE;    MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and  FRIDAY  BLISS;      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BEAUTIFUL TACOMA

  

You  know you are a born road-tripper when you jump in the travel van and drive North to Washington State only a few weeks after settling in at home after a  long cross country trip.   (It's a 250 or so mile trip straight up the I-5 freeway to Tacoma .)

       

Mount Rainier in the alpenglow 

 

We had some  non-photo-worthy things to do further up the freeway, but the  days we spent in Tacoma made up for that.   Our oldest son and his family live there and they always find interesting things for us to see and do whenever we visit.

 

 

 

   

Entry to Point Defiance Botanical Gardens, Tacoma 

 

 

 

We always appreciate a clever sign that reminds people how to behave without using the words "No" or "Don't."

 

 

 

It was a good time to visit the gardens .... roses and lillies and other summer flowers were in bloom,

but so were dahlias and mums. 

 

 

A nice view of Puget Sound  from this spot at Point Defiance

   near where we saw several black-tail deer.

 

 

 They were used to people and unafraid -- we got fairly close.

 

  

Lilies and hydrangea

 

 

Most of the flower pictures I took were in my favorite color palette.  

There was floral beauty there in every color of the rainbow, but a lot of the time we were walking and talking and I was not taking pictures.

 

Brown's Point 

A view of Mt Rainier from a different vantage place.

 

My photos never capture people -- or good conversation -- or good food!  But they do capture some of the experiences we shared --  memory makers and memory keepers.

 

 SHARING this week with MACRO MONDAY; OUR WORLD on Tuesday; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS;  FLORAL BLISS; ALL SEASONS;  SIGNS SIGNS;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and SATURDAY CRITTERS.

 

 

 

 

Thank you to all of the hosts.

VOLUNTEER PARK WATER TOWER

 

The Tower in Seattle's Volunteer Park was built as a water reservoir in 1906.   We climbed the 180 steps (!) to the observation deck which put us at the highest point on the City's beautiful Capitol Hill.

 
 

Placards on the brick walls tell the history of Volunteer Park.  (We learned that it was named as a tribute to Seattle's volunteers in the Spanish-American War, which was not at all what we'd first assumed.)   Other signs pay tribute to the Olmstead Brothers who designed the Park's Gardens and lawns. (They designed Central Park and the Biltmore Mansion among other places.)  

A walk around the circular deck gave us a 360 degree view of beautiful Seattle.

    

 

From one window we saw the Space Needle and Puget Sound beyond it.  

Of course you could see the whole City from the top of the Space Needle too.  But it would cost you -- at the very least an expensive meal.  The Water Tower is free and not as touristy.  

We felt like locals because I think everybody else up there was. There was even a small group of four-year-old girls celebrating a Princess birthday in the magic tower!  And of course their mothers (also in costume) were even having more fun.  

We were lucky to have a very knowledgeable local guide in our brother-in-law, otherwise we'd never have known about this great spot.

   

  

The window fences are quite an elegant way to keep people safe.   And of course looking through them is the actual way our eyes saw the views.  Sometimes I shot what we saw.

And sometimes I poked the camera lens through the big spaces above the window fences and just shot away.   

 

Below a couple of views of Emerald City green:

 

 

 

 There is a lot to see in beautiful Volunteer Park and I hope we can go back on our next visit to Seattle.  (The Arboretum where we saw the beautiful orchids and the stinky corpse plant (HERE) is also in this park.)

 Sharing these views of beautiful Seattle with OUR WORLD TUESDAY and GOOD FENCES.

 Thanks to Lady Fi, Arija, Sandy, Sylvia, Gattina, and Jenn for hosting OWT and to Theresa for GF.

 

 Seattle Park's  page about the tower is HERE.  

 

THE CORPSE FLOWER

 

We visited Seattle's Volunteer Park Conservatory earlier this month while   spending a lovely day with our brother-in-law and  sister  (mine, but after more than 57 years together, it all kind of blends together).  

 

 

There were some beautiful orchids and ferns.  But we really went to see the Corpse Flower.  This odd -- and rare -- plant  bloomed in early September for the first time since the Conservatory acquired it in 2006.   (It takes from seven to 10 years for the plant to make a flower.)

 

 

The Corpse flower (Amorphophallus Titanum) was discovered in Sumatra in 1881.  It grows from a large tuber which can weigh more than 150 pounds.  It is said to be the world's largest flower.  Technically it is an 'inflorescence' or a cluster of flowers.  

All of the above information is from the Conservatory.  The information sheet also said "Yes, the flower does smell --  like rotting flesh."  --  But we didn't need the handout to know that.  It smelled awful!

I hate to end a post on a stinky note, so below is just one of the beautiful orchids grown in the Conservatory.  I'm sorry that I don't have any information about it.  

 

Linking this post to TODAY'S FLOWERS and I HEART MACRO. and NATURE'S FOTOS BLO-MA (on Tuesday).   Thank you to Denise and to Laura and to Monica for hosting these wonderful sharing opportunities.

 

POSTCARDS FROM WASHINGTON

Greetings from the State of Washington!  

We are back in the lower 48 after our summer adventure.

 

MT. RAINIER, near Tacoma

Sunny weather -- beautiful views -- lovely visits with family!  Nice to be back.

 

 

Foss Waterway, Tacoma

 

Our kind of place!

I got my postcards all mixed up -- those above are from Tacoma, those below are  from Seattle.  We visited Seattle first of course -- shortly after crossing the Canada-US border near Bellingham.  Tacoma is South of Seattle.

 

 

Two views of the iconic Space Needle ... beautiful Seattle!

 

 

There will certainly be more posts about Alaska --- I have to do something with all the pictures we took!  And besides, blogging helps my memory.   But I wanted to do a closer-to-real-time post to let you know that the trip has ended and we are back to normal (or as close as we ever get to it).

 

 

SHARING WITH OUR WORLD TUESDAY.  Thank you to Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy, and Jennifer, the hosts of OW.  

 

 

FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT, TACOMA

 

Sometimes Tacoma gets kind of a bum rap --  people seem to think of it as the  poor step-sister of its neighbor, the beautiful and justifiably famous city of Seattle.    

 But don't sell Tacoma short.  It's an interesting city with a lot of beautiful public park and outdoor spaces....and world-famous museums.     (And we have kids there.)

 And there's the Mountain!  

 

Mount Rainier and Foss Waterway

 

 

 

Chinese Reconciliation Memorial

 

Part of a monument park that I will post more about later, with a view to Puget Sound and and two big Navy ships in the background.

 

Foss Waterway is a working and pleasure harbor on beautiful Puget Sound.

 

 

Seaport Project Wooden Boat Museum

 

Wooden boat museum with a reflected view of part of the City.

 

    LINKED to Gemma's SCENIC WEEKENDS and James' WEEKEND REFLECTIONS.  Thank you to both hosts.

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

FOR SKYWATCH FRIDAY  Thank you!!

This is not the best sunset picture I've ever taken, but it is notable because it was taken at 4:30 in the everlovin' afternoon a week ago last Monday! Four thirty p.m. people!

You might think that after a bazillion years of going through this time change every Fall, I'd be used to it. You might think so, but you'd be wrong. Every year, like a (snow) goose, I have to get used to early dark all over again.

I will say that these pictures were taken while we were still in Puyallup (Washington State), just about as far North as you can get in the time zone. A couple of states south (we're now in Southern California), we have light (sort of) until 5 or 5:30. Makes it a little bit easier to fix supper out on the picnic table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

FISHING THE PUYALLUP

FOR OUR WORLD, with thanks to the hosts:

That's our long-legged grandson last weekend, looking for a good fishing spot along the Puyallup River.

Here Grandpa supervises as the fishermen prepare their gear.

It was a lovely day to spend on the river, as you can see.

(Although only the youngest of us was comfortable in shorts.)

Our grandson and his parents moved back to Washington State this summer.

I think they're happy to be home!

WILLAPA BAY

FOR WEEKEND REFLECTIONS (thank you James) and MONDAY'S NATURES FOOTSTEPS, WATERS.

Beautiful Autumn colors were reflected in Willapa Bay, near the little town of Raymond Washington. We stopped here Wednesday for a picnic lunch on our way south.

The Willapa Bay watershed covers an area the size of Rhode Island and includes forested hills, fresh and salt waters, and towns along the rivers.

Four different rivers flow into the Bay. Average rainfall here varies from 65 inches along the coast to 140 inches in the hills. (So that is why we are heading South.)

RAINBOWS ON THE ROAD

This example of driveby shooting is linked to SKYWATCH FRIDAY.

Passing the appropriately-named RAINBOW VALLEY on I-5 just south of Tacoma Washington. (And for those following our roadtrip, this one is out of sync; it was taken on the way to Washington State last week.)

WRONG TURN for SNOWBIRDS?

FOR: OUR WORLD. We took a wrong turn on purpose and we're in Washington State (and yes, that is North of Oregon). Silly us -- even the geese know to fly SOUTH this time of year!

But we are here to visit family and for that we are grateful. So it is a little chilly and and a little damp, but definitely worth it!

This is beautiful Mt Ranier in the distance last Thursday evening, just as we turned into the RV Park where we're staying.

OH YEAH, I CAN DRIVE THAT (Remember Whensday)

  ( I haven't been sharing on ""Remember Whensday" lately because our scanner is not working. These are the last two pictures I managed to get done before the printer connection went gunnybags.  It's attached to the computer that will stay here when we go to Florida, so we're waiting till we get there to worry about it.  I'm taking photo albums with us.)

Those are 3/4 of our kids peeking out the window of our Greenbriar wagon -- sometime around 1968 or so.  This is the car we had when I first learned to drive.  I never saw much reason to learn before that and had to be dragged kicking and screaming into becoming a (semi)independent capable 1960s woman.  This was the year that Bill decided to go back to college and so if I were going to be able to go anywhere or do anything I pretty much had to get that license. 

This is me (not in the driver's seat yet) and our kids -- the oldest one, who wasn't in the top picture for some reason, is there this time too -- and a cousin or two and a passel of neighborhood friends.  We are heading off to the circus.  Remember when the grocery stores used to hand out free tickets?   The Greenbriar looked like a circus wagon itself!  And inside it probably sounded like one  -- full of noisy clowns.

This Wagon had standard transmission (remember those?) and I did learn to drive that without too many problems.  Except I could never put it into reverse gear.  (I borrowed a car from my parents in order to take my driver's test).  Now the funny part of this is that Bill thought, with good reason, that it was just me being a beginner.  Because he didn't have any trouble with it. 

Until one day we needed to borrow my father-in-law's pickup for some reason and so we traded cars for a day. When "Grandpa Al" brought it back he said quietly "Billy, there's something wrong with this (*&%) car.  It won't go into reverse gear."  Um --- let's just say that he didn't get quite the exact reaction from Bill that I did when I made the same complaint ;>))).   I guess the wagon was just a one-man car.  

I can't remember how we resolved this problem.  Bill probably fixed it -- as he has done pretty much every other thing that ever went wrong -- eventually!  The scanner's next on the list.

A PIONEER HERITAGE (Remember Whensday)

Here's a backyard picnic with several generations of Bill's family.  The picture was taken in the late '40s. It is in Clarkston Washington, where both Bill and I grew up.  Third from the right on the right hand side of the table is his great-grandmother who, as a small girl, was on one of the last wagon trains to cross the country on the Oregon Trail.  She said she walked it twice.  (To get rid of her excess energy, her parents would send her to run ahead of the wagon for awhile and then back.)  Great-grandmother Elliot did not pass away until Bill was in his early teens, so he remembers a few good pioneer stories. 

This picture of Bill was taken at around the same time as as the family snapshot above.  Back then, he would far rather play with the dog than have his picture taken with his parents and grandparents.  Weren't we all like that back then?  And now wouldn't it be nice to be able to go back and revisit those days, so we could hear more stories?

(Click on the snapshots to see them better.  This is my first attempt to scan old pictures and it really works well!)

When we were older than most of those old relatives in the first picture, we were lucky to get to visit the museum at the start of the Oregon Trail in St. Joseph Missouri.  And here is Grandmother Elliot's great-grandson standing at the point where she started her journey way back when.  We would ask her more about the journey if we could.

Click on the link below to see other peoples' "Remember Whensdays":

Remember Whensday

 

LIBRARIES

I’ve always loved using public libraries but thought we’d have to give them up when we sold our Springfield home to travel full time.   But we’ve been pleasantly surprised to get a visitors card in several of the places where we’ve stayed a few months.  You’d kind of think that people who could pull up their house and leave at any time would be poor risks for borrowing books, but instead we have found that Winter visitors are welcome to take out a card. There's a small fee ($8 to $10 so far) and all they ask is an RV Park address and our cell phone number.

It’s great to save money by not having to buy books for a few months.  But besides that, I like the ambience of a library.  I like to look at books and imagine having time to read them all.   

When we visited my sister and brother-in-law in Seattle recently, we toured  the amazing Seattle Central Library which opened in 2004.  The architect was Rem Koolhaas.  The print guide to the library is called "Cool House", so now we won't forget the name of that architect. 

I wondered if a building this massive and modern would even feel like a library.  It really does because there are lots of small and friendly spaces within the big one.    Although the map room alone (for example) is as big as some of the small libraries we’ve used, the whole building has been designed for readers.  There’s a café inside, a large but cozy reading area called the living room, and tables and chairs in every section. 

We learned that Koolhaus chose the art work and furniture as part of the design.  The different levels are built as ramps, similar to a parking garage, with the shelves arranged crosswise and leveled.  The Dewey Decimal System numbers are incorporated into large blocks on the floor, so it is easy to find the section you want.  My sister found a book of Kentucky history that mentioned one of our great-uncles.  (He fought a duel over politics – but apparently both parties were poor shots and nobody was hurt!)

The whole library is e-wired and there are tons of computers everywhere for public use. 

This is a view from a top floor window.  You can see the Amtrak Station Tower. 

The library was only a small part of our most excellent personally led tour of the wonders of downtown Seattle.  Our guides had to go back to work on Monday.  It was raining and we had some time before our train so we hung out there for a while reading magazines, drinking lattes and exploring the stacks.   If I lived in Seattle I’d be there a couple of times a week.  Maybe more often during the rainy season!

But while we’ve stayed on the lake this summer, Cyndi and Jeff have let us piggyback onto their family card at the Fern Ridge Library here in Veneta (pictured at left).    It’s considerably smaller, but there are, after all, considerably fewer people here than in Seattle.   We have borrowed great books and the staff is so friendly.  No lattes though!    This library also gets a lot of use – when I stopped by one afternoon the school bus let about ten high school kids out right in front of the building.  Before I left, they were on the computers doing their homework or quietly searching the stacks.  I love that libraries are a welcoming place for every age. 

No matter what size it is, a library is a great community resource and I am always happy when we get to use one again.