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Road to Spokane

Friday, August 19th, 2011

July 29th

As we left the Cascade Range, the landscape became flatter and more arid. The temperature also increased by about 10-15 degrees. We decided to break up the drive through eastern Washington with a stop at Grand Coulee Dam, another product of the New Deal projects which now supplies electricity for half of Washington. We hesitated about stopping at first (we had already visited Hoover Dam), but there was a fantastic free visitor center about the construction of the dam, electrical production and environmental impact. From there the drive to Spokane was uneventful. We stopped in Spokane at the Nissan Dealership to have our car serviced- we’ve driven more than 15,000 miles already on the trip. We were planning to visit downtown Spokane, but the Friday rush hour traffic and highway construction turned us off. We left Washington for Idaho.

Posted from Custer State Park, South Dakota

The North Cascades Highway

Friday, August 19th, 2011

July 28th

We were rewarded with a perfect day for driving the North Cascades Highway. It was a crisp day with sunny blue skies. Our first stop was at a trout hatchery where we watched women clipping the fins of young trout to identify that they had come from the hatchery. We continued the road and our first views of the snow-capped peaks were near Newhalem and the North Cascades National Park Visitor Center where we saw an inspirational film about the park and about returning to wildness.  We stopped for a hike up the Thunder Knob trail for some fantastic views of Diablo Lake which was created by one of three dams built in the area.  The dams supply electricity for the Seattle area. We were awed by the jagged glacier carved peaks and the abundant waterfalls. Late in the afternoon, we stopped off for another small hike and ended up at a glacial lake with a small iceberg floating in it. A fisherman on the lake told us that he and his son watched bears feeding on berries on the banks while they were fishing. We finally stopped at a little rustic campground where we camped for the evening. The following morning, we drove the last bit of the North Cascades Highway to Winthrop, a mountain gateway town. We passed through early in the morning, while people were still enjoying their donuts and coffee, but the town gave off a fun, western vibe.

Posted from Custer State Park, South Dakota

Whidbey Island and San Juan Island (Puget Sound, Washington)

Friday, August 19th, 2011
July 25th-July 27th After returning to the U.S. from Vancouver, we weren’t quite finished visiting Washington. We decided to spend a couple of days near Anacortes (the gateway to the San Juan Islands) discovering the Puget Sound area.  We set up ... [Continue reading this entry]

Reunion with family: Bellingham, Washington

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011
July 21st-23rd We arrived in Bellingham on Thursday evening...the clouds had disappeared and it had turned into a beautiful sunny evening. In fact, we were crashing a family reunion. My cousin Candace and her husband Ryan just had twin baby boys ... [Continue reading this entry]

Seattle, Washington

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011
July 20th -21st Miraculously, as we neared Seattle, the weather cleared up and turned into a bright sunny day. Our hotel was near SeaTac (the airport)- it was cheaper to stay out there, and we were hoping to leave our car ... [Continue reading this entry]

Olympia, Washington

Monday, August 8th, 2011
July 20th When we arrived in Olympia, the town was deserted. It was a Wednesday morning- Congress wasn’t in session and I imagine a lot of the state workers were on vacation or quietly working in their offices. We learned that ... [Continue reading this entry]

Fort Vancouver and Mt. St. Helens, Washington

Monday, August 8th, 2011
July 19th Crossing the Columbia River and the Washington state line didn’t improve our weather much. It was gray and rainy. It wasn’t a good day for outdoor activities so we decided to learn a little about local history and stopped ... [Continue reading this entry]