Showing posts with label WA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WA. Show all posts

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Weekend Activities and Trip Planning

Dave and I arrived home from McMinnville on Thursday.  Dave worked a semi-pro football game in Vancouver last night while I stayed home and caught up on some of my  TV shows on TIVO. 

Today, Sunday, we took our bicycles to a parking area near Vancouver Lake and rode on the bike path that goes by the lake and out to Frenchman's Bar.  The lake was creeping up on the grass due to flooding.  No beach was visible and the lake smelled terrible.  Needless to say, no one was swimming, although we saw a few people putting kayaks into the water.  It was too cool for swimming even if it had been safe to do so.

The bike path was fairly uncrowded and we enjoyed a ten-mile ride.  Frenchman's Bar Park is along the Columbia River and we usually see ships when we are out there.  Today was no exception.2011-06-12 12.29.15

2011-06-12 12.28.46

Last Saturday we met Tim and Kiersten at a small airport in Hillsboro called Twin Oaks Airpark.  We feasted at their monthly pancake breakfast and got up close and personal with the runway and some propeller airplanes.

That's Sophie under the white hat on Kiersten's chest.  2011-06-04 09.16.51

I told you we were up close and personal with the runway.  2011-06-04 09.22.46

Tim found lots of airplanes that he liked.2011-06-04 09.29.28

2011-06-04 09.29.24

Yesterday I spent most of the day on the phone getting reservations for our upcoming trip to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.  We leave next Sunday!  That's cutting it close with the reservations, and we weren't able to get all the nights that we wanted at our preferred park, Yellowstone Grizzly, but we got a spot at Wagon Wheel RV Park in West Yellowstone for five nights and then the last two nights we'll be at the Grizzly Park. 

After that we'll head north to Glacier, spending a couple of nights at the St. Mary KOA and then five nights at West Glacier KOA.  It took awhile for the trip to come together, but now that it's all planned, we are looking forward to visiting the two national parks. 

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Wenatchee, Washington

Thank you very much to all who commented on both sets of my Sophie pictures.  As much as we would like to see our new granddaughter every single day, we thought we had better let the new parents settle into an at-home routine.  We decided to go on a ten-day trip with our motorhome.  Our destination was Wenatchee, the apple capital of Washington state.  Wenatchee is a good six hour drive from our home in Vancouver, WA, a bit further than we prefer to drive in a day, but definitely do-able.

We took Highway 97 north from I-90 to Highway 2, then east to Wenatchee.

Map picture

The scenery was spectacular while traveling on US Highway 97.  Those are the Cascade Mountains in the distance.IMG_9328

   IMG_9335

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One of the highlights of a trip to Wenatchee is staying at Wenatchee Confluence State Park--a confluence where the Wenatchee River meets the Columbia River.  When we arrived yesterday, the sun was out, the temperature was fairly warm, but it was windy as it often is in this area.  2011-04-27 13.33.06

We are taking advantage of the final three days of using our senior resident off-season state park camping pass.  We are camping for $6 per night, but not on weekends in April, and not after April 30--until October, that is, when we'll buy another pass for $50 and start the process again.   As Dave mentioned in his blog, this park is fully booked for this weekend because of Wenatchee's Apple Blossom Festival which starts tomorrow.  When we come back here next week, we will have to pay the regular rate of $28 per day. 

Pull-thru site #13IMG_9361

Our view of the Columbia RiverIMG_9353