Once in awhile-now and again-this is us

we stopped in Tacoma to see union station. some of these old restored train stations are as beautiful as a capitol buildings. since this is chihuly’s home town, of course it has some of his work in it.

you can see the difference size of the wholes in the tubes.

since they restored it to a different use, the train artifacts weren’t  displayed. only a few pamphlets survived. it was a chance to see another part of the history of the trains though.

the museum of glass was right across the street, but we didn’t venture over there again since we had spent a whole day there in 2010. you can watch them blowing the glass in that big cone shaped building. we had seen the capitol that trip too so we didn’t visit that either.

we drove on down the road and ended up in castle rock for the night. I finally got to use my cherished item from the blacksmith.  most of the campgrounds we’ve stayed at haven’t allowed campfires, maybe because of all the forest fires,  I don’t know. so I haven’t gotten to use my poker. it’s a big one too. you don’t have to stand close to the fire to use it. it’s going to look nice on the fireplace at home, where I can see it every day and remember an amazing moment in time.

oh what a night

stay tuned

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omg. I love this mans work. i’m sorry, just to warn you, I may put in too many pictures here. I’ll keep the words to a minimum. you can’t really describe them anyway.

in the gift shop you can buy his pieces.

it was a wonderful day. we had the most delicious crab cakes and lime coleslaw in the café. chihuly displays all his collections under glass in the center of the tables and on the walls.   jerry has the green reel on the  left.

and on the ceiling

the gardens are in the shadow of the space needle. we didn’t go up this time. been there done that.

stay tuned for portland

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we got up even earlier sunday. we knew what lot we wanted to park in, so we had to get there early to give jerry his pick of spaces.  we made it. and only one block away from the market. the same place we parked four years ago.

today was much better on the freeway wouldn’t you say?

we went in the market today.

of course we had to put our fingers in the pig.

2010

we bought some smoked salmon.

I would have loved to buy some of this shrimp, but we had just paid thirty dollars for a pound of salmon.

the flowers are so beautiful.

the line to go in starbucks.  see their sign at the end.

we saw the gum wall this time. it’s plastered with gum almost to the end of the alley.

as we drove out we saw this sign at the entrance to the market. your idea caught on ray.

we thought we’d try our luck parking at the gardens of glass. we’ve seen the museum of glass and bridge of glass in Tacoma last time.

so stay tuned.

but just one more picture

did you know that Canada has done away with pennies?  when you buy something they round up or down.   I think that’s a good idea. since they said it takes two pennies to make one penny!

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we found a koa campground  in kent. it’s about as close as you can get to the city. 20 minutes. seattle is not an rv friendy town either. I guess none of the major cities are.

the campground was having a $5  b.b.q. that night. a raffle drawing too. so we went and had hamburgers and sat and people watched.

come on let’s go

no, i’ll take the leash and you follow me

hamburger or hot dog?

we had a good time. I went back to the coach after a while  and jerry stayed and talked to everyone. and, he won a $15.00 gift card raffle prize.

we got ready and drove into the city. the space needle is dwarfed by much  taller buildings now.

ooops. maybe Saturday wasn’t a good day.

this is all we saw of the public market today. no place to park close enough to walk to it. every lot was full. no lots near the chiluly garden of glass either. too many people.

we saw this beautiful view of mt. rainier on the drive back.

we we’re near a city tony wanted us to check out so we drove over there.

we found your house tony.  i’ll send you an email with some more pictures.

we had an enjoyable day, even if we couldn’t do all that we wanted. we played dominos and watched the moonrise.

tomorrow is another day

so stay tuned

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for joni’s birthday I wanted to share a few heart pictures I haven’t posted yet.  are you guys starting to see hearts everywhere too?

and who can resist a picture of a dog.  this dog was in a camper that was parked next to us at butchart gardens. he eventually poked through the screen and jerry had to go and put it back.  we were afraid he would jump out.

okay joni, it’s your birthday and you turn 68 nine days before I do. so “happy birthday” old lady.

jerry say’s eat cookies first

I say

we found a value village in Burlington. so in honor of joni’s  birthday were going in to find her a present. what will it be?

I found the perfect thing to put on your backyard table joni.  whadda ya tink?

and let’s all remember…………….

we are in seattlle  now

stay tuned

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we found out why hwy99 might be less traveled. it’s like a roller coaster. a winding, turning, climbing, narrow, with switchbacks road. but the landscape is beautiful and makes the drive worth it. for me anyway. jerry probably feels different.

this dog was fetching a big stick. he would bring it back but not to the man. he would have to go pick it up and throw it again. the dog got impatient and started going in the water and getting rocks. he would hold his breath, for 3 or 4 seconds, while he found one to bring back and bury.  I couldn’t believe he kept doing it over and over again. the owners said he has done that since he was a puppy.

we are always getting asked to take a pictures for people. but I think it’s much better without people in the view most of the time.

it was still the three day weekend when we got to whistler. and whistler is not an rv friendly town. there is one rv park and it was full. they were not very helpful. the streets are very narrow and are posted with ‘no sleeping in your vehicle overnight’ everywhere. it seemed like strictly an upscale tourist trap, so we drove on. I didn’t even take any pictures.

we found one more rv park outside of town. it was full but the very friendly man made room for us in a little tiny place with this view. no hookups but who cares.

the water pump for the back of the coach went out. on ‘that road’,  which it is now called, on a sunday of a three day weekend, with no towns until Vancouver. 80 miles away. we made it  there, but no repair shops were open.

the howe sound, on Vancouver’s  west shore is the prettiest color of blue. I tried to get a good picture but this is the best I could do.

all our tourist plans went out the window when we got into the city

jerry wanted if fixed in the states anyway so we found a camping world in Burlington, Washington. we crossed the border with no problems. last time they took a bell pepper.

we got a water pump Tuesday morning, jerry put it on while I was in a goodwill.  it works perfect now. but that didn’t fix the toilet so we had that done and now we can go on to seattle. I guess I should say the toilet worked if you flushed it the whole time with a cup of water. we were never without it.

today is august 6th and it’s a special day for someone special. Sharon turned ** today and we wanted to send her wishes.

happy birthday Sharon, we love you. jerry and jill

from one member to another

hope we haven’t eaten these before we get home. I remember how good they were.

talking about hope, I have one last picture for Sharon.

all roads lead to hope

tomorrow is joni’s birthday

stay tuned

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we could see the town across the water. the contrast of houses was interesting.

salmon season opened august 1rst. jerry watched as the people got their spots ready on the banks of the river.

it looked like grandpa teaching grandson old methods

some things have improved

can you see the heart in the hills

we went into town as we were leaving the next day

so stay tuned

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we woke up the next day and thought about staying another night. but we were too late. our space had been reserved by someone else. the 4th is bc day and is a three day holiday.

so we went into the little town. we headed to the old wooden bridge to see the osprey nest.

the baby was waiting for it’s mama

after she fed them she would shield them from the sun

there’s a webcam focused  on the nest and you can check it out: lillooetnaturalistsociety.org/news.html. or just google it. they come back to it every year

if you look for the motorhome up a little way from the river on the right, that is were we were parked

everyone is fishing now.

jerry talked to some of the people on the bridge. we wanted to find some smoked salmon, but since the season just started here, it was to early.

he did find out there have been a couple of bear attacks recently. I guess where you find salmon, there will be bears also. all the campgrounds warn you about being in bear country. they also have cougar attacks. the wilderness can be dangerous.

since the town has an abundance of jade, pieces are placed all over town.

I don’t think we have a piece of jade.

we headed south again, passing so many beautiful places.

so stay tuned

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we got off  hwy97  and took the lesser traveled hwy99.

our first stop was Lillooet, a first nation territory. we found this fabulous campground. you could walk to the little beach it had.

jerry got out his metal detector and found iron ore

and hopefully a piece of jade

you can also pan for gold

I found some old mine remnants

there was an old wooden foot bridge

with an osprey nest on top

it was so beautiful, we decided to stay another night.

so stay tuned

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one trip we went to a lot of cemeteries. this is our first one this trip. it was small and there were recent headstones, so it’s still being used.  cemeteries can evoke a lot of emotion. is that there purpose? I don’t want to be buried, and i’m not sure why people do. is religion a big part of wanting to be buried in the ground? no one has to answer that.  just thinking out loud. we all have different beliefs. right or wrong, good or bad.

I want to put in a few more pictures from town. on our way out we stopped and watched the blacksmith working. he was a younger man and we started talking to him. he had a sense of humor and we were enjoying the conversation and got interested in what he was making. he was telling us all about his grandfather and father being blacksmiths and learning from them.

he has been at barkerville 10 years. you could tell he knew what he was doing. he would put the metal in, keep checking the color,  put it back in, bring it out, pound on it, put it back in. then he took it over to the vice and twisted it. he put it back in, took it out, put water on it, twisted it, put it back in, pounded on it some more. so on and so on.

I guess it doesn’t take much for me to have fun, because this was so much fun. watching and talking all about blacksmithing.  who knew.  he told us all about the pine beetle that is killing the lodge pole pines up here. we’ve seen the dead tress the whole trip, but the road out here, the hills were covered with dead trees. nothing has been found to stop them.

we stood and watched him for a long time, and I decided I had to have the item he was making. it was so amazing to see it made. from start to finish. he cleaned it up and it was mine. I will cherish it forever.

we’re going to stop in whistler before we reach Vancouver. it’s 240 miles from Williams lake where we are now. so I don’t know if we’ll get there today or not. we might see another blacksmith along the way. ha ha.

so stay tuned.

and don’t forget to leave a comment

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