Tri-Cities, WA - Jul 23 to Jul 30

We make a return to Richland, WA.  This place really feels like home to us - which it was for three years from 2005 to 2008.

We extend our stay by three additional days with a move over to Hood Park on the Snake River.

The Unlimited Hydros are in town but we won't actually go down to see them run.  Too Hot and too much money.

North Cascades to Chelan, WA - Jul 22

This one is just a travel day leaving the North Cascades and making it to the Lakeside RV Park in Chelan.

The weather turned to pretty solid rain as we left and the drive was just slightly nerve racking driving the winding roads with a wet road surface.

But the weather has totally cleared by the time we reached Chelan.  We had a really nice dinner overlooking the Chelan Riverside Park and the Chelan River.

Rasar State Park & North Cascades, WA - Jul 17 to Jul 21

Next stop is Rasar State Park near Concrete, WA.  This will allow us to experience the Mount Baker area and the North Cascades National Park both of which are deep in the tall trees and old growth rain forest.

Anacortes & La Conner, WA - Jul 11 to Jul 16

This segment of our travels begins with a totally new experience for us - we take our RV on board a ferry from Port Townsend, WA over to Whidbey Island on our way to Anacortes, WA.
It was only a bit more expensive to do it this way but saved us a whole bunch of hours of travel time.
It felt really weird rolling our huge rig onto a boat but she fit with room to spare.
And the guy playing his folk guitar all the way across made it extra special.

Sequim & Port Townsend, WA - Jul 05 to 10

We make the transition from Portland up to the Olympic Peninsula and land at the Rainbow's End RV Park in Sequim, WA (pronounced skwim) on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

And then for the final day we moved over to the Point Hudson Marina RV Park in Port Townsend.
We have decided to leave here via the ferry from Port Townsend.

Our first day of touring was spent in the seaport town of Port Townsend.  It's an interesting little town with lots of unique old buildings and shops.

We got a tip on a restaurant and wound up at Sirens with an upper deck that overlooked the harbor.  Pretty good food, really good beer and a great view!

They has a really nice Scottish Ale but the glass was especially interesting.

The next day we the town of Sequim itself.
The weather forecast called for 80% rain but it turned out to be a beautiful day.

And a good day for Wine Tasting which turns out is really good!

Day three we headed the other direction to the town of Port Angeles primarily to do laundry and wound up with another forecasted rainy day that turned out beautiful instead.

Normally we would have also headed up to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park but the mountain tops were socked in.

So we stumbled onto Downriggers overlooking the Victoria Ferry landing and had another really delightful lunch.

On Sunday we move over to Hudson Harbor Marina in Port Townsend and manage to grab an RV site pretty much right on the waterfront.

It's a wonderful site for lunch and dinner watching the traffic in and out of Seattle on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

We watch three cruise ships heading out to sea as we eat dinner.

And take a really nice walk along the shoreline after dinner.

Portland - Fairview, OR - Jul 01 to Jul 05

After a whole lot of searching for a place that could provide us with a spot over the Holiday weekend, we make our way up to an RV Park in the Portland area at Fairview, OR near the Columbia River.

On Saturday we meet Shelly and her kids MacKenzie & Michael for a pretty nice day at the Portland Zoo and pretty much wore ourselves out.

And on the way home take a tour of the Pittock Mansion that overlooks all of Portland.  The house was built in 1909 by Henry Pittock who was the publisher of the Oregonian newspaper.

Sunday we head down to Oregon City, a ways south of Portland.  This is the town that marks the End of the Oregon Trail.

It also is the location of the Willamette Falls of the Willamette River.  The photo here is from one of the tour brochures that described them as being the second largest falls in the country, and we were really looking for to seeing them.

Not to be overly negative but we were quite simply stunned at the current reality.
The falls have been almost totally blocked off and are just barely visible.

And the level of disrepair of all of the adjacent industrial buildings is shocking.
It became pretty clear to us why the Willamette Falls are publicized as little as they are.

I guess there is quite a lot of History to be proud of but the destruction of the natural environment is too bad.

On July 4 we had a nice holiday lunch at another McMenamin's restaurant at Edgefield.
This is a major area concert venue.  We had wanted to visit it for quite some time and spent a while exploring all the building and gardens of this former "poor house" from the depression era.

Definitely not a poor house today!