Finding Sasquatch

Just to make you a little jealous …I'm beginning to write this post as I sit looking out on to Crescent Lake in Olympic National Park. :)  But more on that later.

Last weekend Jess and I went over to Eastern Washington for a music festival called the "Sasquatch festival". This annual concert features all kinds of various artists; mostly rock bands. I can’t say I am very knowledgeable about that kinda stuff. I had only heard of one of the bands playing. However, the coolest part of the festival was not the music, but the venue. It was held at “The Gorge Amphitheater.”  The stage is set with the backdrop of the Columbia River Gorge! It was incredible! I learned that Mumford and Sons played there back in 2010… why wasn’t I there for that??!!

The music was not the only entertainment either. If there were ever a place for people watching this was it... there were some crazy people! It was very much a hippe, "woodstock wannabe" crowd. It kept Jess and I laughing all day. Of course, maybe the laughter was from all the second hand smoke... if you know what I mean.
Hint: Make this video full screen and take notice of the crazy dancing guy...

Side Note: Driving to the festival required us to go over “the pass” on I-90 which takes you over the Cascade Mountains. (The same place I got stuck on the way over here.)This was the first time I have been back there. It is actually really pretty and not scary at all when it is daytime and there is not 15 ft of snow.

The festival runs all weekend and people just camp on the grounds since it is literally in the middle of nowhere. We only had tickets for Saturday so we camped there that night, and headed out on Sunday. Since it was Memorial Day weekend we decided we couldn’t just go home so we ventured further north to Wenatachee State Park. We went for a little walk to the lake, which was gorgeous, and then built ourselves a campfire, cooked our dinner and roasted marshmallows. Camping is so nostalgic for me. I love the smell of campfires.  Except it doesn't come out of your hair for days no matter how much you wash it.

Now on to this weekend...

My friend and traveling buddy, Sue, who you all know from my Maine adventures, is doing an assignment here in WA right now too!! I am so excited I get to see her again so soon.  She is living in Port Townsend, a quaint, little town near Olympic National Park. It is also a US National Historic Landmark District. This weekend I went to visit her and see a bit of the area. 

Friday, when I got in we went out to dinner and walked around downtown. We did a lot of catching up. It was great!

My goal, on Saturday, was to see the Western most point of the US.
There are two places that claim the "Western most point" title... Cape Alava and Cape Flattery. They both are the same distance west at high tide, but Cape Alava has a slightly more dramatic tide change, so at low tide the land extends further west. Technically, giving it a stronger claim to the title.
However, Cape Flattery boasts the title of "Northwestern most point" with no competition and is on an Indian reservation and I was told there was an amazing Indian cultural center on the way to Cape Flattery by one of the park rangers at the visitors center in Olympic National Park.
So, after much indecision I decided to go to Cape Flattery and consider my goal met.

The drive out there took me on some winding roads, through Olympic National Forest, past Lake Crescent, through ghost towns, onto an Indian reservation, and out to the end of the world... or the country at least :) where my GPS no longer got signal. Not that I needed it since there was only one road and you just drove till it ended. Once the road ended I had to go by foot on a trail. If there was ever a place to spot Sasquach this was it. The trail led me through a forest full of creaking trees and right out to the edge of a cliff. There was a lookout area that was nice and surrounded by railing, but if you walked around the platform there was literally just a cliff. It was beautiful, but in a rugged, dangerous sort of way.

I think I found Sasquatch's home...

The only disappointment... the cultural center that was talked up by the park ranger... it stunk. Oh well. I did learn one interesting fact, though. The indians in that area were expert whale hunters and after they speared a whale one of the men had to jump in the water and sew the whales mouth shut so it would not sink while they were towing it to shore. How do you even do that?! I would not want that job.
Sunday, I took a nice leisurely drive the long way back to my house. Stopping on Whidbey Island along the way. There was a pretty lighthouse and some cute farms with amazing views of the mountains from their backyards. Not a bad place to be a farmer. Humm, maybe a second career? :)

Hawaii!

 So I made it to my 39th state and, boy, was it a sight for sore eyes. The sun was out the whole time! Believe it or not, I think it actually takes more preparation to go out in the sun then in the cold. Having to put sunscreen on and hats and bring a change of clothes for when you are done swimming, etc. However, it was totally worth it... seeing palm trees again and getting some nice Vitamin D was a wonderful thing.

When I arrived on Wednesday evening (5/18) I thought I had landed in Fort Lauderdale. Then, I saw mountains in the distance and was reminded that the beaches and temperature are about the only thing Florida and Hawaii have in common.

Thursday, Jessica and I went to Pearl Harbor to see the Arizona Memorial and the museum. It has always been a dream of mine to visit Pearl Harbor and it was almost surreal to be walking around on the very spot this early in my travels. Even though I have this goal of seeing all 50 states (so I was definitely going to make it there eventually), I have always felt like Hawaii was this distant land that I would have a hard time working into my plans. I guess I was wrong about that.
It was so fascinating to learn more about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Although, it was one of the worse attacks in our nations history; it was also one of the best planned and well executed attacks of that time. The Japanese had thought of everything, and they did it all in complete secrecy. There were videos of people who witnessed the attack first hand. They were very moving. There were also some videos of the Japanese fighter pilots who participated. At first I couldn't believe it, but I guess you have to realize that they were following orders just like our soldiers would have if the roles were reversed. Going to the Memorial sight which was built over the sunken USS Arizona battleship was an interesting experience.

I thought I would get out there and be able to contemplate the whole event and the fact that the ship is the grave of over 900 soldiers whose bodies are still inside; but instead there was a huge crowd of people all talking and trying to get pictures and since we had to take a ferry out to it, and we had to leave with our ferry, we did not get unlimited time. Nonetheless, it was a totally worth while experience!

Friday, we went on a hike up to the top of Diamond Head Crater. From the top was a beautiful view of Waikiki. Then, we spent the rest of the day at the beach.

Saturday, we, again, went to the beach...what did you expect? We always went to different beaches, though. Sometimes, more then one in a day. In the evening, we went to a Luau. It was funny how corny and touristy it was, but you gotta do it when your in Hawaii, right? All the performers and workers called us "cousin" the whole time, and the food was just so-so. The dancing was fun to watch... especially the guy with batons of fire that he would twirl at top speeds!

On our last day there, we went to a cove where there was a beautiful reef. We went snorkeling and saw a billon differnt kinds of fish AND a green sea tutrtle, which are an endangered species!! It was a rare sighting. Really awesome. It was one of the most pleasant snorkeling experiences I have had. No baracuda... :-)

Jess and I caught the red eye back to Washington and I got in on Monday morning at 6 am... I went to work two hours later at 8. As you could probably guess... I was a bit tired that night.

I have recovered now and this last weekend we went to a music festival on the eastern side of WA. I will have to save that story for my next post. Maybe I will get two posts in this week.





Easter celebrations and the western side of WA.

I know its a little belated but...I hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Easter!
I have been enjoying my new job. I basically see 2-4 patients a day and I am only "working" out on the road for about 3-5 hours a day. I have a lot of flexibility because I can make my schedule as I want it. However, when I get home the craziness begins. I have to write all the notes for the patients I saw that day... call doctors offices and get orders.... email all the members of the team to let them know the patients progress... let the schedulers know if there are any changes that need to be made to my schedule... call the patients I will be seeing the next day and schedule their appts... coordinate with my PT Assistance regarding the patients she saw that day.....etc. The list goes on and on. By the time I have done all that its late and I am tired of typing. So I say all that to say, today is the first time I have actually been willing and able to sit and write for pleasure rather then work (and that's only cause I plan to finish all my notes tomorrow.)

The rest of this entry is going to be in reverse chronological order, so be prepared :)

Easter Sunday
Jess and I went to church in the morning and then came home colored eggs, had a lamb and quiche lunch, watched a movie and then proceeded to destroy all our hard work and made deviled eggs. :) They didn't stay Easter eggs for very long. Lucky was much more interested in the deviled eggs then the Easter eggs.

 Easter Eve: Saturday
Saturday was the most beautiful day I have seen since I have been here. It was a sunny, warm 68 degrees and everyone was out and about! Jess and I had a perfect day! First, we visited Snoqualmie falls which was beautiful, and then went to a local winery (there are a ton in this area.) We did a tour and wine tasting. The tour was one of the most interesting I have ever been on. The guide was a retired high-school teacher and he was very animated. He went into all kinds of detail about the wine making process. All the way from how the weather effects the fruit, to the "toasting" of the inside of the oak barrels and how that brings out more red color. Then, he taught us the proper way to assess and taste the wines.

After the tour we spent a few hours out on the lawn of the winery reading in the sunshine. A bunch of people come there with blankets, buy some wine from the store and enjoy the day with a glass and a book. I just finished the book I was reading called "Firefly Lane". It was a good book about friendship. Dawn sent it to me while I was in Maine, but for one reason or another, I had not had a chance to read it till I got out here. Little did I know that the whole book was set in Seattle! It was kinda crazy how every time Jess and I would visit some place new I would read the book that night and the characters in the book would go to that same place. I mean EVERY time. From the popular, Pikes Place Market, to the not so desirable location of Pioneer square where the homeless people hang out. It was weird! But, I loved being able to visualize exactly where they were and what the author was describing. After one of the characters moved to Bainbridge Island (which we'll get to), they went out for a nice dinner on Alki beach... and segue...

The weekend before last we spent a lot of time west of Seattle. (We live east of the city.) There is a beautiful area called Alki beach which has a ton of cute restaurants and shops right on the water. We walked around a bit even though it was quite cold, but we warmed up by sitting near the fire pit at one of the local Mexican restaurants where we had dinner.

Also that weekend, we took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island.

It was amazing seeing the contrast of the big city on one side of the ferry and the island with trees on the other side.
After wandering the book stores and knick-knack shops on the island we headed back to the mainland and went to the University of Washington. Better known to the locals as "U dub." U dub's claim to fame is the plaza of cherry trees which bloom at this time of year. Thankfully, we made it there before all the blossoms had fallen off.

There are some pretty amazing places around here, and I have only seen the tip of the iceberg so far! :)

Tip Toe Through the Tulips!

So Jess and I have been doing some exploring of WA over the last two weekends. However, none of it has including snow shoeing... :)
Two weekends ago we went on a hike. It was cloudy and the trail was all muddy, but still, you can't deny that all the rain does make everything a beautiful shade of green. Lucky, Jessica's new golden retriever, goes with us on a lot of our adventures.

The rest of the weekend we spent looking around town.
This weekend the Annual Tulip festival began. Jess and I participated in the Tulip Run which began at 9:30 Saturday morning. Now, I had heard throughout the week from a few of my patients and co-workers that the weekend was supposed to be "really nice." I took that to mean it would be sunny and maybe a little warmer than usual. Well, I have to get used to the fact that when people around here say it's going to be "nice" they really mean "it will probably not be raining the entire day."  In that regard, they were correct...it was a nice day. (If you think nice is 50 degrees and overcast.) It was pretty cold waiting for the run to start, but I warmed up real quick! :)

After the run we went to one of the gardens that showcases the tulips and daffodils. They grow some in greenhouses for the display gardens, but the coolest thing to see are the immense fields where they grow the tulips and daffodils for harvesting. The daffodil fields were unbelievably gorgeous! I have never seen so much vibrant yellow in all my life. Unfortunately, the tulips did not get the invitation to attend their own festival. Mother Nature had other plans. The only tulips that we saw this weekend were the ones planted in the gardens that came from the greenhouses. The huge fields of tulips were not in bloom. The ones in the gardens were beautiful, and we got some great pictures! Of course, I have posted some on here, but to see them all go to this link...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2224411&id=33407719&l=eef4cd976c 

Once we were all daffodiled-out we drove over to Deception Pass State Park. We walked on the beach that looked just like a scene out of Twilight, and discovered all kinds of miniature wildlife in the tide pools. Fun Fun!