Hood River to Boise, Idaho

Started the day's drive a little late because someone wanted to do one quick cache. Of course, that made perfect sense! The closest, most interesting one we saw was at a local winery. The area was very nicely landscaped. The side porch was long enough to accommodate several full, colorful hanging baskets. It would have been a wonderful place to stay awhile. Unfortunately, they were closed at 9:15 on Sunday morning. Cathedral Ridge was named Winery of the Year in 2007.

The morning was spent driving and being amazed at the scenery. Oregon is a beautiful state.  We really don't make good time when we travel together because we have to stop a lot. It is hard to bypass a scenic outlook, especially the first couple of days.  Later, we always realize if we are going to get to our destination somewhere closed to the planned date, we can't continue. Anytime we stop we have to check to discover the distance to the nearest cache. Those darn things slow us down as much as the scenic outlooks!

We decided to stop at a rest area. The first thing we saw was a phone booth with signs advertising calls for 10 cents! That I had to check out. I could call all y'all! Would you believe it was "Out of Order"? Imagine that! And, of course, there was a cache within the rest area boundaries. Since it was called, Don't Fence Me In, we walked the fence line. There, Rose's two Bostons were introduced to cows for the first time. They couldn't decide whether to get close enough to sniff or just run. 

After lunch, we crossed over into Idaho. Idaho is another beautiful state. We traveled on the Oregon Trail Highway but did not stop to explore since we had spent so much time enjoying it on our last trip. 

After finally reaching Boise, we checked in and started trying to decide where to eat. Fortunately one of the caches I had marked was one that looked like it had food.  We tried a couple of other places first but I'm sure you know what it's like to try to get in to a good restaurant on Father's Day evening. When we got to ground zero, there was the most interesting looking drive-in. The outside eating area was full of pink umbrella's with white tables and chairs. The menu featured over two hundred items. We both decided to try the signature sub. It was HUGE! Several people stopped by to admire it. The best part to the meal was the sweet potato fries with cinamon butter and honey. Yum! The signature desert was an Idaho Ice Cream Potato made with vanilla ice cream rolled in cocoa powder topped with cool whip and a squirt of chocolate fudge sauce in the bottom of the container. This seemed to be a popular place. A gorgeous 1966 Oldsmobile 442 convertible came through while we were sitting there. The drive-in was featured in a 2009 episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Exciting!

It was a good day!

On the Road... Finally!

Started out the day in beautiful, and overcast, Seattle. We got in a little geocaching downtown, including Kerry Park Viewpoint and one of the Seattle Dino Train caches. Kerry Park was a beautiful view of Seattle! Thanks to Megan for taking the picture!

Then it was time for us to head back to Olympia, run a few errands, and then pick up the pups from Frank's house. Once we retrieved Gizmo and Ollie, we repacked all of the supplies in the car and headed to Hood River, Oregon. We tried to capture the "Welcome to Oregon" sign, but were foiled for the second time as it was on the complete wrong side... 

We continued along I-84 until we reached Hood River, OR. Once we checked in and got the pups acclimated to the hotel, Mom & I headed over to eat dinner at the White Buffalo Wine Bar & Bistro. This place was fantastic! We enjoyed an appetizer of Jalapeño poppers wrapped in smoked bacon, followed by some yummy ravioli (crab & parmesan for Mom and feta & artichoke for me). Got back to the hotel to discover that Ollie & Gizmo had decided to try and help themselves to a little bit of a Kinder Bueno bar and also move my sloth socks (super cute, by the way) around the room. Whoops...



We took a little stroll by the river and now to relax....

And we ran late...again

Woke up exhausted and had a million things to do...we repacked the car then while Rose got ready, I ironed her graduation gown. I put it back in the closet so the dogs could not lay on it. Then, she packed while I got ready. We walked the dogs and headed to Frank's where they were going to spend the night. Finally, we headed to the Tocoma Dome. We were only about 45 minutes behind schedule. Of course, by the time we got to the exit for the dome, traffic was backed up; we felt like we were sitting in a parking lot. After finally, getting off the Interstate, Rose decided to change shoes so that when we finally got to park she could hurry to the staging area. Not a problem, the shoes were in the back seat with her gown.  Uh, gown, what gown? There was no gown in the car! We had left it hanging in the closet at the hotel!

Rose texted a friend who was already in place. Jessi was kind enough to find where they were selling extra "stuff" any of the soon to be graduates might need. But, we were still stuck in traffic several blocks from the dome. When we kept moving by inches and the dome was in sight although still several blocks away, Rose changed out of the 5 inch wedges back into her flip flops. I moved into the driver's seat while she charged up the long hill in the rain toward the dome. I could only pray that all those people in front of me were going to the same place I wanted to go cause I had no clue exactly where that was.

We were suppose to park in lots B, C, or D but they were full as were the next two lots. I finally got routed around to G and had about given up getting in to see graduation. To make a long story short, all worked out. I got in just in time to see the graduates walk to their seats and the commencement ceremony begin. The dome was full. As you can guess, with 1549 graduates there were lots of family and friends who wanted to be there to celebrate.

After graduation, eight of us went to Engine House 9 for a celebratory lunch. The food was good. It was standard pub fare. The best part was the family and friends who came together to celebrate Rose's accomplishment. 

After lunch, four of us headed to Seattle. Our goal was to visit the Space Needle and Chihully's Garden and Glass exhibit. 

The Space Needle, which is located in the Seattle Center, was an interesting experience. It was chilly and breezy on the ground but downright cold and windy up top. The elevator ride took about 10 seconds to take us from ground level to approximately 525 feet. This was my first visit. It was really worth seeing. There was a 360 view of Seattle that included Puget Sound, the sky line of the city and Lake Union. Jillian had lived and worked in the city for several years so was a wonderful aerial tour guide. Megan's parents had shared their memories of the area during the 1960's World's Fair. Her retelling of those stories added even more interest to the visit. After deciding to go back in, we headed for Starbucks and a warm drink before going back down to ground level. Interesting how all these places have the exit through the gift shop.

I can't take these girls anywhere! 

Our next stop was Chuhuly's exhibit. There just are not words to describe this wonderful exhibition. The inside exhibits seem to become more stunning as we moved from room to room.  To really share what we saw, let me ask you to go to their website at chhihulygardenandglass.com. The gardens were so interesting we decided to go to dinner and come back after dark. It was so impressive!

Dinner was at the Skillet Counter where drinks were seved in canning jars and the dinnerware was compostable. This restaurant is a off shoot of the Skillet food truck. It began in an American vintage trailer and grew into a store front entity. Now it has this counter at the Seattle Center. Wonderful food!

We went back to the glass garden before leaving the center. The garden itself was created around Chuhuly's glass. It blends so well. It just looks natural. One fun thing we found was a bird nesting in a glass tree. I wonder if it found the nesting place to be warm with all the lights shining on it and the sun, when there is sun, adding to the warmth. The lights enhanced the glass sculptures. It was fantastic!

What a day!

Thursday was jam packed with fun, a sad good-bye, and lots of work. We met Jillian, McKenna and Zane for breakfast at IHOP. What a unique group! They all have a quick wit and a wacky sense of humor. They played one last game of Heads Up which I am sure entertained our side of the restaurant.

Then it was time to say good-by to McKenna and Zane. It's sad to leave good friends.

Rose and I made a quick trip to Frank's to drop off the pups and headed to Mt. St. Helen's.  That was an awesome trip. We grabbed two caches shortly after getting off the Interstate. The travel bug Hotel was very well done. For our caching friends, it was GC1G3TR. We also picked up GC1T0R5 before visiting the Mt. St. Helen's Visitor's Center.  After a quick tour of the center, we hurried toward the Mountain which was about 60 miles away. It was very cloudy and cool.  There were tantalizing views of the snow covered mountain top. The devastation created when the mountain blew in 1980 was evident in a large part of the area we saw. The areas replanted in 1983 are green and thriving. Along some of the ridges in the distance you can seen green ground cover with some small trees and many white stumps that indicate it was part of the blast area. Rose commented the stumps looked like small white crosses and I had to agree. 

A couple we lunched with the next day talked about witnessing the blast from as far away as Olympia and Yelm. Tam said everyone spent the day outside watching the sky. She talked about how scary it was to witness. Sans was in Yakina the next day. He talked about the ash being three feet high. He did say that the next year the size of the apples almost doubled because of the nutrients in the ash. 

The drive up the mountain was beautiful ( and yes I did keep rolling done the window to snap another picture- thank goodness for heated seats!) We were really excited to reach the Loowit viewpoint but as we walked up to the edge the clouds rolled in.

The area of the blast zone is slowly renewing it self. I wish we had come prepared to do a little hiking in the area but at the same time this southerner found the wind cold and wished for a coat. The gray sky's kept getting grayer. As we were getting in the car to leave the wind changed and the clouds moved away to give us a wonderful view of the mountain top. The crater created by the blast was evident. What a sight! We had to stay a while longer.

As we pulled out to leave, the rain started so we decided not to travel up to the observatory. Neither of us felt the views could have been any better.

Of course, by then we were starving. Going down the mountain we stopped at a place called Patti's Place @ 19 Mile House. The chicken and dumplings were tasty but very different from what we do in the South. The dumplings looked like little biscuits sitting on top of the stew. It really was good.  The elk burger was actually a preformed frozen patty that did not live up to expectations. However, the apple blueberry cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream made up for everything! We almost ordered a second. 

The rest of afternoon was rather mundane. We packed and cleaned and wished Rose's car was at least twice as big. 

West bound and down

There are not eighteen wheels headed west but MerryWeather Rose and I will join Gizmo and Crew tomorrow thanks to the Groome Shuttle and Delta! It's going to be a GOOD day!

Coming Soon to a Highway Near You

In a few short days, Gizmo and Crew will begin another road trip... this time with a new addition. Little brother, Ollie, will be joining Gizmo, Rose, and Aileen on a move to the East Coast! Super exciting, so stay tuned!