Forks

Thur Aug 23  Moved to our new park here in Forks where we stayed with Alpenlite on the Sea Food Caravan, many years ago. It is an Ok park but not many parks, along the north coast of Washington.  It has been in the 60's today and a little cloudy but no rain.  They get over 100 inches of rain a year over here.  This afternoon we drove over to the beaches.  There is so much huge driftwood, washed up on the rocky shores of the Rialto Beach and it's hard to walk on the rocks and ocean here is scarey.  Then we drove down through the forest road to Indian town of La Push.  There are a lot of stacks (rocks that stick out of the water with dirt on them), out in the ocean and the beach is nicer here=sandy and water much calmer. Tonight we had pizza at a restaurant across the street from the RV Park. (We've eaten there before).  Hope tomorrow is a nice day as we are going to the rain forest. JVP

hurricane ridge

Wed Aug 22  We woke up today to beautiful sunshine.  After breakfast I packed a lunch, we loaded up the car, took Buddy and had a ride up the Olympic National Park. Our first turnout we could see all the way back to Strait of Juan De Fuca.  We could see our little town of Sequim, the view was just awesome.  We continued our drive up the mountain to the end where the Visitor Center is Hurricane Ridge.  The mountains are covered in trees and the mountains still have patches of snow on them.  The fog settled around some of the mountains and obscured the views in places but it was so beautiful and not really cold, like I expected.  We had our lunch and watched the snow capped mountains.  We met our neighbors from the RV park there, too.  We walked around some of the trails and found beautiful wild flowers, some deer that weren't afraid of people and just let you walk within a few feet from them.  Last night after dinner we wandered over to Costco to see if they had anything we needed.  Tonight we might go in search of elk.  Tomorrow we head on farther west along hwy101 to the coast to Forks, Wa.

Olympic Peninsula

Aug 19th  We have started making our way around the Olympic Peninsula here in Washington. The mornings here are cloudy and by afternoon it is the 70's.  Yesterday we moved to Sequim at a little park that has a pond out in front. We have a little more room here between motorhomes.  We drove down to Dungeness Recreation Area and walked along a tree line path down to the spit.  It is a 5 mile strip of sand that you can walk on all the way to the lighthouse at the end, if you want.  We didn't walk far, as the beach has alot of huge logs and rocks and not very sandy.  We did walk over to a little inlet and saw a bald eagle before he flew into a tree.  John will post picture on e-mail.We drove down through town and saw a lot of nice homes out by the Strait, lots of lavender around as this is the place where the lavender farms are.Town is small although there is a Costco and Wal Mart here.  We ate in all 3 meals yesterday- quite a change for us.  Buddy road around with us all day yesterday and will probably take him today too.  He has gotten so he really wants to be outside.

Seattle

Sat,Aug 19th  The clouds rolled in here on Sat and temp back in the 70's.. Yeah!  We took the ferry into Seattle and went to the Space Needle and Chihuly Glass exhibit.  Chihuly is the one that did the glass ceiling in lobby of Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.  The glass exhibits were breath taking and pictures don't do it justice. Next we waited in line 40 minute  to go to observation deck of space needle and after waiting so long had to hurry as car meter was running out.  It was a nice view though.  Next we headed for Pike Place Market.  The streets are very steep like San Francisco and alot are one way.  We ended up right on main drag and people all over in the street and hard to get through.  We visited the flower market and I got a huge bunch of Dalia's for $5.  The flowers are just beautiful there and so cheap.  We walked around but so many people we went to a restaurant and had wine and bucket of mussels and decided to leave (too many people on a Sat).  By the time we got to Ferry terminal we just missed it so had to wait another 45 minutes.  Had good fish & chips at a restaurant close to motor home.

Poulsbo, Washington

It is Friday Aug 17th.  Yesterday we moved out of Marg and Harry's driveway and into a campground about 10 miles away.  Our tanks were full and weather heating up and need more power for air for us and Buddy.  We have spent the last few days helping pack up the house and they will leave for Idaho on Saturday saying good-by to their lovely home.  Wed., we drove over to Bremerton where we were stationed in the navy, in the early days.  John drove right to our old apartment complex and not much has changed.  We walked along the pier, went to the Naval Museum where we enjoyed the submarine part of it and had lunch on the water at Anthony's fish grotto.  John had his shrimp louie and I had a crab salad and we both had peach ice tea with lemonade.  Very good stuff.  Today it was in the 90's which is hot for here and most homes don't have air.

     We drove over to Port Townsend on Friday, where it was cooler since it is on Puget Sound.  We walked around downtown where the buildings are brick and from the 1800's.  They were just beautiful old buildings.  We had lunch out by the water at the Belmont Hotel.  Had clam chowder and sea food again, after all that is why we are here to eat seafood.

Goings on in Silverdale, Washington

Aug 14th  Weather has been beautiful here in Washington. .Next day I didn't feel good so Bob, Laurel and friends went to reunion. We kicked back here and they got back late.  Sunday we drove over to Marge and Harry's kids home in Brainbridge Island.  We had a great BBQ and nice to meet their family.  The rest of this week after Bob & Laurel left we have been helping to pack up the house so they can load the U Haul on Thursday and head for Idaho.  Today we went and saw the Under Sea warfare Museum which was about the newer Missile submarines.  We had lunch at Olive Garden and went to Costco and looked around.  House is looking pretty empty and we have had a good time sitting up here in the hills, looking out to the Sound and enjoying our new friends.  Tomorrow we will move to a camp ground in Polsburo since our tanks are full and we might need some air for our doggy since it might get up to the 80's  or so.

Washington

Aug 11th  Silverdale, Washington  We didn't get away from Eugene, Oregon where we had windows done until about noon.  We went out for breakfast and waited till we could go.  It was a noisy night with lots of trains passing right across the street.  We drove as far as Centralia, Wa. and spent the night.  I did laundry and we just relaxed and had a good nights sleep.  Got up early and arrived here at home of a friend of Bob & Laural's (long time friends of ours from Idaho).  The house here is huge and beautiful and it has been sold as of today and new owners move in in a week.  There isn't a lot of furniture here but they do have some personal stuff to move out.  We had quite a time getting the motor home backed in their long driveway but we did it and are hooked up to electricity and water although we certainly don't need air conditioning.  We have the cool breeze off the sound and foggy in morning.  We took the ferry over to Seattle and drove through town on a Friday going to Bob's Family Reunion close to Kent.  The skyline was so pretty and a couple of cruise ships in port.  It was good to see Bob's family and had spaghetti for dinner in his great nephew's property.  Buddy is still doing good, we are glad we dont have any medical emergencies to worry about with him. I am carrying him in and out of the Coach so he dont fall.

Redwoods & Eugene

Aug 8  We arrived here in Eugene yesterday and today are having 3 windows repaired.  It is foggy and cool here this morning and sun will be out later.  We so enjoyed our time in Trinidad, Ca along the coast.  We could hear the sea lions barking out in the ocean from our camping spot.  We took Buddy with us and drove and walked through the redwoods.  They are such magnificent trees.  They are so tall and wide you just can't see all of it.  They call the trees cloud sweepers.  We saw a large herd of elk right along side of the highway.  We drove into Crescent City and had lunch and than headed back to camp.  The next morning we drove down to the pier and walked on the beach.  The sand here is grey.  We saw a couple of Boston Terriers there and really made us think about whether we would someday get another one.

Wine Country and Beyond

Friday Aug 3-4th  Friday we got up early and headed for Napa to do the Wine Train.  They gave us 2 tastings of wine and then we boarded the train.  We had a gourmet lunch, I had steak and John had salmon and we shared.  After that we went a few cars down to have coffee and desert and watch as miles of grape vines and winerys went by.  The train was slow, food great and after a while you've seen enough of the vines.  But glad we finally did it.  We came back to camp, had a whopper jr. and went to see Ice Age 4, which was cute.  Today we arrived via 101 to Trinidad, Ca  on the coast where the redwood trees are.  We had fish & chips for dinner and clam chowder.  It is quite cool and misty out this evening.  We walked along the pier and checked out this small town.   Tomorrow we will go exploring and then head to Oregon to have a few coach windows that are foggy fixed.

San Francisco and the Napa Valley

We arrived here in Novato, just north of the city about 30 miles on Tuesday. We have a favorite RV Park that is in a good position for us to visit both SF and the Napa Valley. We went back in the city for dinner at our favorite Italian Resaurant, Pasquales, close to the Golden Gate Park. We have been going there since we were in High School. Same people own it. Decided to come on back home instead of going to the marina for Ice Cream. Oh, I forgot to tell you we took a short cut up from San Jose on Hwy 280 which went through the middle of SF on 19th ave. with the Motor Home. That was interesting, one thing though we save the $25 fee that we would have had to pay going across the Richman Bridge. Yesterday, we hung out, Virginia had her nails done, then we headed north to the Sonoma Valley to check out the Winerys. It was a great day.

July 30 2012  We have spent the last 3 days in Pismo Beach at our Family Reunion.  We had nice cool weather which everybody loved after the heat at all of our homes.  The farthest traveled from Utah and we had around 95 people come.  We spent the time visiting, eating, horse back riding, walking in the sand dunes and on the ocean beaches, wine tasting, golfing to name just a few.  Our room was great for serving and cooking food and we all fit for our meals.  We were one of the last out of camp after saying good-bys to rest of family and headed north for our summer trip.  We spent the night here in Morgan Hill which is near San Jose.  It was in the 90's here today, quite a change from our 70 's beach temp.  We plan to make it as far as Seattle and Idaho before coming back.  We will try to post every couple of days to let you know our whereabouts and what we are doing.  Buddy is doing Ok.  He doesn't make it up or down the stairs so we are carrying him in and out but he likes his walks and was very curious as to what was going on with all the families and dogs at reunion.