Picnic Lunch at the Port

Dave played golf this morning.  He plays at 7:30 am because it’s cheaper and cooler at that time of the morning.  While he was gone, I went for a walk around the neighborhood.  On his way home from the golf course, Dave surprised me with a phone call suggesting that we take a picnic lunch to a park near the water.  I was happy to oblige!

This park is part of the Camas-Washougal Port.  It was rebuilt a few years ago and is a nice spot to have a picnic.

The park at the port.

Our lunch time view of the Columbia River.

Boat parking at the Port.

An osprey on its nest.  Handy to be right where the fish are located!

A view of Mount Hood from the Port.

Two monuments at the park at the Port.

IHOP Tuesday

Welcome to my new blog followers, Wayne and Roberta.  Their blog is Our RV Travels.  Check it out!

Not too much is going on today.  This morning, Dave and I went for a 2.6 mile walk around our neighborhood. 

This afternoon I met my friends for tea at our usual place, the cafe at Barnes and Noble.  We spend about 2.5 hours chatting and catching up with each other. 

For dinner, Dave and I went to our favorite “cheap” place, IHOP.  Mondays through Fridays, IHOP offers a senior special of “buy one, get one free”.  It’s an early bird special, and only good between the hours of 3 and 6 pm.  But you can arrive at 5:55 and it still counts as before 6.  We go there quite often on Tuesdays when I have been away all afternoon and don’t have a chance to prepare dinner.  It’s an inexpensive, relaxing place for us to catch up with each other after our afternoon apart.

Visual Field Test

Today I had an appointment at the Kaiser optometry office for a visual field test.  This test measured my peripheral vision.  The visual field test helps the ophthalmologist monitor any loss of vision and diagnose eye  problems and disease.  I had a diabetic eye exam a couple of weeks ago and the doctor wanted this follow-up test done.

The test was performed by a technician.  I sat in front of a machine with my chin and forehead touching the machine.  The eyes are tested one a time, with the non-testing eye covered by a patch.  I had to focus on a small light near the top of the screen. I had a clicker in my hand.  A computer displayed quick pinpricks of light and I clicked the button whenever I saw a light.  The computer then automatically mapped and calculated my visual field. 

I will find out the results of this test in a week or so.  The test was frustrating because when I blinked, I sometimes missed the light being displayed.  I hope I did well on this test, which would show that my peripheral vision is fine.  Loss of peripheral vision is an early sign of glaucoma.  Whatever the results, I will have to learn to deal with it!

This machine is similar to the one used in the vision field test.

Waterfront Trail, Vancouver, WA

It was a sunny, warm day today, so Dave and I decided to go for a walk along the Columbia River Waterfront Trail.  This is a multi-use trail that is paved and suitable for bikes and walking.  Before we knew it we had walked a total of 4 miles. 

We parked near the playground at Marine Park and walked toward the east.  In 1996, the Water Resources Education Center opened.  The Center sponsors many community activities which help to increase an awareness about water stewardship.  Signs along the path educate the public about water resources.

Cottonwood along the path.

Looking across the river at Portland, Oregon. Portland International Airport is across the river. In the distance, we can see the I-205 bridge which connects Washington with Oregon. Expensive condos which have been built along the Waterfront Trail.    The Waterfront Trail.

RV Travel Newsletter

Every Saturday I receive an online RV newsletter edited by Chuck Woodbury.  His RV Travel Newsletter is a quick read, and contains a wide assortment of RV news, trivia, and instruction.  Among the items that caught my interest this week were the following:

• RVTV show begins broadcasting again on July 3. (Not my favorite RV show, but I’ll take what I can get!)
• Mount Rainier’s Sunrise Road is now open, a week earlier than expected.  (This is an an area of Mt. Rainier that we haven’t visited yet.)
• Arizona will reopen five of the 13 rest areas closed earlier due to budget cuts. (Yay!)
• Spokane, Wash., area campers are upset that the Lake Spokane Campground is closed. The reason? No camphost. When one is found the Department of Natural Resources will reopen the park.  (We noticed that Alder Lake Park in Washington needs camp hosts, also.)
• Road work on the east entrance road to Zion National Park will be done at night to accommodate local business owners who opposed longer closures. A third of park visitors use the road, which is now open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., weekdays and 24 hours weekends and holidays. (Of interest to me since we visited Zion in April and drove through the east entrance.)

• RV Short Stop:  Cahokia Mounds, Collinsville, Illinois

• Museum of the week:  Museum of Western Colorado in Grand Junction

• Fulltimer Tips:  "Staying Put" has advantages

Mount Rainier National Park, Part 2

We left Alder Lake Park this morning and now we are home once again.  Our initial visit to this park was a success and we walked around the park this morning before we left in order to identify sites that we would prefer to reserve.

Yesterday’s blog about about our day trip to Mount Rainier National Park got too long, so I am continuing that post today.   Paradise Inn was the next place that we visited.  It had the rustic charm that we have come to expect from national park lodges.  The Inn is located across the parking lot from the visitor’s center.

After finishing our sightseeing in the Paradise area of the park, we had our choice of going to Ohanapecosh Visitor’s Center or back the way we had come to visit Longmire Visitor’s Center.  We chose to see new scenery and headed towards Ohanapecosh.  We will visit the Longmire historical area on another trip.  As we drove down the mountain from Paradise, we saw lots of snowbanks that hadn’t melted yet.

Below is a view of Mount Rainier with snow in the foreground.

One more view of Mount Rainier, including clouds.

During the drive down the mountain, we came upon this scenic view.  At Box Canyon, we went for a walk along the trail.

 

A natural tunnel.   At Box Canyon we were surprised by an unexpected view of  Mount Saint Helens.

Our final visit in the national park was to Ohanapecosh Visitor’s Center, which was smaller than we remembered, but had some nice displays.  We returned to Alder Lake Park via Highway 12.

This trip to Mount Rainier National Park makes nine national parks that we have visited so far this year.  And, yes, they are America’s treasure!

Mount Rainier National Park, WA

We spent the day in Mount Rainier National Park.  Our first view of the mountain came as we headed east shortly after we left Alder Lake Park.

We entered the park through the sign above and used our park pass to get in free instead of paying $15.  Our plan was to head up to Paradise, but we got distracted from that plan when we crossed this bridge and saw Christine Falls.

The sound of the rushing falls, the fast moving stream, it was all a memorable experience.  Our next stops were to take a couple of pictures of Mount Rainier.  The mountain creates its own weather system, and the clouds move fast.

Navada Falls was our next stop.  This early in the season the falls are spectacular.

We continued on our way to Paradise.  The spectacular views of the mountain continued.  We finally made it to the new visitor’s center at Paradise.  We watched the movie and perused the displays. Back in the parking lot, we ate the lunch we brought with us.  Below was our lunchtime view as we ate in our car.

Tomorrow we leave this area to go back home.  I’ll wrap up our trip to Mount Rainier National Park on tomorrow’s blog.  Thanks for reading my blog and stay tuned for Mount Rainier, part 2!

Traveling from Ellensburg to Alder Lake

We didn’t rush this morning and finally left Ellensburg around 11 am after getting gas then hooking up the car.  The weather was sunny and warm with a bit of haze.  The trip took about four hours with a stop for lunch by the side of the road on Highway 12 at White Pass.  In the winter, White Pass is a ski area.  Even in the summer there’s still snow on the mountains.  The elevation at White Pass is 4500 feet. The rolling hills between Ellensburg and Yakima. Mount Adams with Yakima in the foreground. Mount Rainier, west of White Pass on Highway 12.

On the way to Alder Lake Park we saw some beautiful views of the lake.  We reserved one of the biggest sites in the park but it’s still a fairly small pull-thru.  After manuevering this large motorhome into the site so that we could use the hookups as well as put out both slides, Dave got out a couple of “Lego” boards to help get us level.  The automatic jacks didn’t do a good job this time, so Dave put the jacks down manually. 

We have full hookups here at Alder Lake, but are “roughing it” with only 30 amp service.  We’re experienced with 30 amp since we used it for 20 years in our other two motorhomes. 

Our Verizon cell service is very weak here, but with the antenna booster, we are able to get enough service to get online via Dave’s phone.  There are a lot of trees in this park, but we got a satellite signal.

This park is quiet and serene.  The lake is beautiful.  We could only book two nights here because they were full for this weekend.  We’ll make the most of our two nights here and enjoy a more natural campsite than we had in Ellensburg! Alder Lake was created in 1945 when Tacoma Power put in this dam at the Nisqually River. The swimming beach at Alder Lake. Site #71 at Alder Lake.  No highway noise here!  As RVers, we are able to enjoy and appreciate many different kinds of camping experiences.