Sisters Trip

Heading to the Med with my sisters today. I will post if I can. 

Reunion with Kremer Clan

Sunday we went to our cousin Jack's house for a reunion with some of our Kremer cousins. The theme was German food as that is what we all grew up eating. We had sausages, sauerkraut, German potato salad, apple strudel, sour cream raisin pie, German chocolate cake and more.

AND. Great conversations with our cousins, their children and grandchildren. What a lovely day! We also celebrated a birthday for my cousin. We decided that we need to do this more often than every ten years. 

Perham Lunch

Today I got to have lunch with some of my good high school friends. Thanks Bonnie,  Betty, Shirley and Audrey for a great visit! It was so nice to catch up! 

Bonnie and Betty are going to start thinking about our 50th reunion soon, so if anyone can help that would be terrific! I told them if I could do something, I will. 

Earlier this morning my sisters and I drove over to Dent to meet an old friend (Karen Ohman) for breakfast and we also got to see some of our old next door neighbors, the Klinnerts. Really nice ! 

Annette and I took a photo of our old house ( they have resided it) on our way back to Perham. 

Reunion with Cousins

Last evening my sisters Donna, Annette and I drove to Detroit Lakes to visit with our Spry cousins. Thanks Barb for getting your sisters and brothers together on such short notice! We had a terrific time! What a great group! We talked and laughed and ate to our hearts content. 

Barb had old photos and all kinds of remembrances in boxes so we got to see  lots of photos of our younger selves and our moms and aunts and uncles. Really great to see them! 

And I want to thank my cousin Doug for sharing his memoir of his sister Karen, who died in an accident years ago. It was really special! 

Heading to Minnesota

We stopped to visit with our friend Ann at her cabin. Bill's daughter Lynette and some of Ann's other friends, Louie and Lucy, were there too. It was a poignant and lovely visit. 

Got to spend time with Tug, Otis and Miss P too. Nice dogs! 

Today we drove on and are stopping in Bozeman. Saw some interesting sculptures pass us by on the freeway. 

Deception Pass to Wenatchee

We stopped at Deception Pass for quite awhile yesterday. You could see Mt Baker to the north and Mount Rainer to the south as we drove. We hiked a couple of paths and ended on the beach where there were lots of fishermen. A group were taking a break - they weren't catching any - and allowed me to take their photo. 

 We took highway 2 to Wenatchee, which was lovely. No photo does the drive justice. 

But since we started late we could not get into the park we had planned and were directed to Lincoln Rock instead. It is a nice state park. No hook up for tonite , but our solar will be fine. 

We drove past Leavenworth without stopping. Maybe we will go back today. 

As we were leaving base yesterday I finally took some photos of the blue heron that was there everyday. 

Of course we had another lovely sunset before we left Whidbey. Gorgeous! 

Coupeville

We had mussels at Toby's Tavern in Coupeville. We also did some browsing in the cute shops. I saw this sign outside of one shop. 

On our drive into Coupeville we saw a couple of deer. The one I took a photo of was not spooked at all. It was busily eating the blackberries on the side of the road. 

We drove by the library. I worked in the old one back in the. 80's. 

We took a ride out to Fort Casey and visited the lighthouse. 

We hiked on the fort, too. 

When we returned to our campsite Mike finished a sign to add to the signpost forest here in the rv park. 

It was another lovely day on Whidbey Island. 

Whidbey Island

We are camping at Cliffside on Whidbey Island. It is gorgeous here! We saw Mount Baker as we drove north, as it was a blue sky day. Today it is high overcast, something I knew well when we lived here. But last night and the night before we saw a lovely sunset. 

We are camped looking over the water. 

The campground here is one of the nicest Military campgrounds in the country. The manager has planted flowers and keeps the grounds pristine. He is also an artist who uses the driftwood to make lovely sculptures. 

We will be here for a couple more days. It is very relaxing! 

A Short Stop in Seattle

We stopped in Seattle and visited with a few friends, but also missed many because we did not stay long enough. 

We had dinner Friday night with our friends Rita and Al.  

On Saturday we had coffee with Ann. 

Saturday evening we went to dinner with our former next door neighbors and great friends, Katie and Tom. Only I forgot to take a photo! We had a great time and went to our favorite Thai restaurant, Buddha Ruksa. 

I missed a visit with many other old friends, but we will return again on another trip. Seattle is still our favorite place! 

Portland

We arrived in Portland Wednesday. Thursday we went to Luscher's Farm, a local park and community garden. Our friends, Doanne and Mark, took us to walk the paths and see the scarecrows put up next to each garden. It was really neat! 

In the evening we managed to visit with my nephew and his wife and see their boys, Will and Lucas. They are really nice boys ! 

This morning we are heading to Seattle, but before we left we met our friend Tina Ching for coffee at Downtown Stumptown. What a treat to get to visit with her! 

Museum of Glass and Gig Harbor

We drove from Pacific Beach to Gig Harbor and this morning we drove over to Tacoma to visit one of our favorite museums. We watched them work in the hot shop for forty minutes and then visited the rest of the museum. 

There was a quirky exhibit that had lighted letters that visitors were encouraged to wear. I choose the R and Mike went with an exclamation point! 

We took a walk on the glass bridge. We could visit it anytime and enjoy it. 

Tonight we met our friends Phil and Veronica for dinner here in Gig Harbor. It was really nice to catch up with them! 

Tomorrow we head to Portland. 

Rialto Beach and Random Photos

I was not going to blog tonite but I have wifi so will just post a little. Today we visited Rialto Beach at Mora. It was very foggy and the waves were crashing big time. Mike waded just a little and I took a couple of photos, but we could not see the big rocks so only stayed a few hours. 

Yesterday we hiked a little on Shi Shi Trail so I am posting a couple of photos I took on the trail there, some interesting mushrooms and a face-like tree stump I liked. 

Tonite we are in a camp that has electricity and water but they have not built the showers yet. It is an interesting trip I must say. 

Cape Flattery, Neah Bay and Sol Duc

Yesterday we drove to Neah Bay to fulfill another bucket list item for Mike. He wanted to reach the most northwestern  point in the lower forty-eight states. This morning we took the hike to the end of Cape Flattery. It was a nice hike. A Seattle family was out there and took a photo of us. 

We found a campsite when we arrived last night - dry, as nothing much was available otherwise. Mike says I am a glamper - meaning a glamour camper who needs cable tv, electricity and nice showers. Hey, we did five days in Denali and a couple of days in other places without those amenities. Besides, we have 400 watts of solar on the top of the van so we have electricity. We just can't run the microwave or the air conditioning.  But we don't need them, and haven't needed air conditioning since we left Minnesota. 

On our way here yesterday we took a detour to Sol Duc Falls. The falls were beautiful and we met a nice couple who are full-time rvers. They have been full timing for twelve years. Needless to say, their rv is quite a bit bigger than our van. 

Today, after we took the hike to the point, we were walking back on the trail and it started misting. So we drove into Neah Bay and visited the Makah Cultural and Research Center. This museum houses the remains of the Ozette village. The village was buried by a mud slide around 1750. It was rediscovered in the 1970s. Because it was buried in mud that hardened around the items, they were preserved in a remarkable way. The museum has been organized around the items and set up as if the visitor is seeing the village as it would operate based on the seasons. It starts with the whale and seal hunts of spring, goes into the fishing, basket and clothes making plus building seasons of summer and fall and ends in a replicated winter long house. It was one of the better museums I have visited on the trip, as it kept my interest the whole way through with the story it told. I could not take any photos in the museum so took one of the Native Makah figures outside. 

We also drove out to the fish hatchery and Mike went inside. I was tired so I took a short nap. He came back with a salmon, as the manager of the fishery was celebrating his last day on the job. He had lots of fish and gave Mike one. I guess I know what is for dinner tonight. We also took another hike on part of the Shi Shi Trail. I definitely got my steps in today.