Washington State…not DC

Posted on October 29, 2013October 29, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Only 4 more states in the countdown. Washington state is a yes. I am able to count that because of my new job. No sooner did I get back from Alaska and I was back on a plane winging my way to the home office in Seattle, Washington. Even with work, I was able to get in a little sightseeing but it wet my appetite for more.

My impression is that the locals don’t appreciate what they have. When I said I might plan my next vacation there , everyone tried to discourage me. They complained about the weather, the crime, (Seattle seems to have a lot of homeless people on the streets) but I was struck by the beauty that surrounded Seattle and I want to see more.

While in Seattle I made a point to visit Chihuly Garden and Glass. www.chihulygardenandglass.com Chihuly Garden and Glass is a new art experience showcasing the most significant works of internationally acclaimed artist and glass pioneer Dale Chihuly.

But in Tacoma, Dale Chihuly led an effort to bring glass to Puget Sound. Today a $48 million Museum of Glass calls Tacoma home.

Tillicum Village is a replica Native American Village located on Blake Island in Puget Sound. About 8 miles by boat from the bustle of Seattle, you can reach this destination only by boat. Recommendations are for a tour as even ferries don’t reach the island.

Of course while in Seattle I still need to visit Pike Place Market. Although it is the oldest continuously operating farmers market in the U.S. it really burst onto the scene when it was featured in a series of advertisements promoting entrepreneurial spirit. I think someone might even have written a book about it. A circuslike atmosphere includes street entertainers and (this is the famous scene) fishmongers tossing whole salmon while shouting “low flying fish!” the equivalent of “Fore!” on a golf course.

Down on the waterfront is another spectacular sight. The Great Wheel. The Seattle Great Wheel was built in less than a year, but its story goes back much further than that. Seattle businessman Hal Griffith had envisioned a Ferris wheel in the city for nearly 30 years, but it wasn’t until he realized he could build one on his own pier that his dream became a reality.

The Seattle Great Wheel opened to the public on June 29, 2012. Since then, it has become an icon of the city and a destination for tourists and locals alike.

Remember highway 101 from my post about Oregon? Well it’s in Washington too and it circles Olympic National Park. The park carries a rare dual designation of World heritage Park and International Biosphere Reserve! The Olympic mountain range stretches through the park where Mount Olympus climbs to 7828 ft., the highest peak in the range.

An speaking of national parks, I can’t forget Mount Rainer National Park and Mount St Helens or the North Cascades National Park.

Once again I have run out of time. I’ve hit my self imposed limit of 400-500 words. That can only mean I have many Washington Vacations to look forward to.

New Tally: 20/27

Oregon

Posted on October 12, 2013October 12, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Oregon is high on my list of “need to visit”…”must see”…”can’t wait to go”…states. Why?…In a few words…Cannon Beach, Columbia River Gorge, Crater Lake National Park, Mount Hood, The Oregon Coast, and Steens Mountain & Malheur National Wildlife Refuge!

Ok so I need to slow down.

Lets start with one of the most well known and photographed locations in Oregon, Crater Lake.

Crater Lake is widely known for its intense blue color and spectacular views. During summer, visitors may navigate the Rim Drive around the lake, enjoy boat tours on the lake surface, stay in the historic Crater Lake Lodge, camp at Mazama Village, or hike some of the park’s various trails including Mt. Scott at 8,929 ft. .

Next the Columbia River Gorge.

Vertical basalt walls along the Gorge are graced with the greatest concentration of waterfalls in North America, especially on the Oregon side of the Gorge.

Cannon Beach…with the distinctive Haystack Rock and Needles marking its shoreline, Cannon Beach is one of Oregon’s quaintest and most picturesque destinations.

Nine miles of beach make a perfect setting for strolling along the seaside, watching diverse wildlife in its natural habitat and building a sand castle in the annual sand castle competition.

Mount Hood….I love Native American legends and the one surrounding Mount Hood and Mount St, Helens is a perfect one.

The Multnomah name for Mount Hood is Wy’east. In one version of the legend the two sons of the Great Spirit Sahale fell in love with the beautiful maiden Loowit who could not decide which to choose. The two braves, Wy’east and Klickitat, burned forests and villages in their battle over her. Sahale became enraged and smote the three lovers. Seeing what he had done he erected three mountain peaks to mark where each fell. He made beautiful Mount St. Helens for Loowit, proud and erect Mount Hood for Wy’east, and the somber Mount Adams for the mourning Klickitat.

Mount Hood is often in the news because of the many climbing accidents each year and of course Mount St. Helens became a household name May 18, 1980 when it blew it’s top (I mean side)becoming the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States.

Fifty-seven people were killed; 250 homes, 47bridges, 15 miles (24 km) of railways, and 185 miles (298 km) of highway were destroyed.

There is a scenic train ride to Mount Hood that may figure in my eventual travel plans. Something to think about.

Oregon Coast…Scenic , breathtaking, awesome are some of the adjectives used to describe the Oregon Coast. There’s another scenic train ride or you can drive highway 101 and take your time with the sights. I’m running out of space so any more details will need to wait for another post but I think you get the idea. Maybe my next one will be chronicling my own visit! That would be nice.

So Oregon may be on a must see list but it hasn’t been visited yet. So my tally still stands at 12 visited but is up to 25 still waiting for me.

B & C follow A

Posted on September 14, 2013September 14, 2013 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

I have to do 2 letters here because unless I’ve gotten so old and senile that I’ve forgotten a state, there aren’t any that start with B. So I can cross all the “B” states off my list.

For the “C ” states I have 3, California, Colorado and Connecticut.

C is for California

Maybe. I’ve been to California. I was in LA and went to the Queen Mary.

It was back in the film days before digital. I mostly remember a lot of Smog.

But although I spent a week there I can’t say I “vacationed” and California is such a big state I’d have to say I barely scratched the surface.

I have to drive Highway 1

with it’s majestic ocean views. And Channel islands National Park is another “must”. And Yosemite

(that’s been in the news so much lately because of the huge wild fire that threatened.) There’s Monterey, San Fran and the Golden Gate Bridge

and don’t forget Disney was there before Florida. Nappa Valley or Sonoma, oh my , must go wine tasting, and the towering Redwood trees, can’t miss those, and that’s before we even think about the famous zoos (San Diego) , museums, arboretums..oh I could go on and on.

C is for Colorado

No, a resounding No. Colorado is a definite “must see”. Any state that could inspire the music of John Denver must have something special in the air. Rocky mountain high…watch for eagles, visit Sand Dunes National Park. Look for wildlife. There are mountain goats in those “hills”. Spectacular vistas await. We’ll drive up Pikes Peak, visit the mile high City of Denver. Maybe make a stop in Aspen/ Vale just to say I’ve been there, in the summer because I don’t ski!

Now I have all those wonderful John Denver songs running through my head, especially Rocky Mountain High.

C is for Connecticut

Yes. This is a neighbor state and although I haven’t “Vacationed” there I’ve spent enough time that I am rapidly crossing off many of the things on my list for that state. For example I spent a weekend at a spa in Old Saybrook, I’ve made another visit to Gillette Castle, I’ve ridden the Essex Steam Train

and the paddleboat Becky Thatcher.

I’ve made several boat trips on the Connecticut River, had lunch in the town of Essex CT. I’ve watched the ospry nesting on the swing bridge in Hamden, CT and photographed the Goodspeed Opera House over and over.

I froze while I watched bald eagles at the Shepaug Dam on the Housatonic River. It was the coldest day of the winter.

Still to go, Mystic Aquarium and that might very well be in the next few weeks.

I know for my long time followers that this may be familiar but we didn’t get much farther than this last time. (2011) So tally so far: 3 states visited 4 to go.

Always open to your suggestions and must see/ wanna see ideas! Keep ’em coming! 🙂

What a View from The Space Needle

Posted on July 16, 2013July 16, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Time to explore the Space Needle. I skipped the souvenir shop on the ground floor and followed the signs around and up a ramp where I purchased a ticket. It’s a 1 use ticket so once you go up don’t plan to come back down until you’re done. If you do you’ll have to buy another ticket at $21.00 per ticket that can get a little pricey.

The revolving SkyCity restaurant is 500 ft up the Space Needle and was only the 2nd revolving restaurant in the world. The restaurant makes a 360 degree revolution about once every hour. I didn’t eat there. I expect it is expensive and even with reservations people were waiting on the upper deck.

As I waited in line for the elevator I had the opportunity to get a souvenir photo. No one else was going to take my picture so why not?

The elevators hold 25 people at a time. Once we were loaded the attendant welcomed everyone to the Space Needle and told us to “look quick” because we had 43 seconds to see the sights before we reached the Observation Deck at 520 Ft.

The center part of the observation deck is enclosed and they have snack bars and drink bars located around the center core. Tables are placed around the circumference so you can look out over the city as you snack or sip your drinks.

Step down about 5 steps and go out a door and you are outside with only a railing and some glass panels to separate you from the drop to the ground. The outside track doesn’t move. You have to walk around it to see the different areas of the city. I didn’t realize it but the door I chose to use brought me right out to the view of Mount Rainier. Once again my mouth was hanging open.

Mount Rainier was so “there”, “in your face” , I don’t know how to describe it. After chasing the elusive Mount McKinley all of last week, to step out and see this awesome mountain right in front of me just took my breath away.

Mount McKinley is taller than Mount Rainier but Mount Rainier is closer so it looks larger and, forgive me for saying this, more impressive. (at least to me). I’m really glad I had a chance to see Mount Rainier so soon after Mount McKinley as my impressions were so fresh in my mind.

I may not be in Alaska but sunset in Washington State was pretty late too right around 9:30. I didn’t want to stick around that late this time and since I planned to come back to see Chihuly Gardens I decided to head back to the hotel. I needed to be back at the office at 8am and jet lag was definitely confusing my body clock.

Around the MT. Mckinley Princess Wilderness Lodge

Posted on July 3, 2013July 3, 2013 by Dusty Roads

This was my favorite lodge.

It may have been considered more remote but I thought it was much nicer than the Princess lodge we just left. After all, how many times have you opened a door with antlers for handles.

A shuttle takes you around the property and all of the drivers were great. A female moose gave birth to twins the day before we got there. The little ones were too small to move far so she was right there beside the road. The drivers always stopped so we could get a glimpse of her through the trees. Try as I might I couldn’t get a clear shot.

We even walked down in hopes of getting a shot without bus windows but for such a large animal, she and the babies were hidden well.

The lodge was afraid all the attention would stress Mama Moose and that she might charge and injure a guest in an attempt to protect her babies. They said if people kept going down there they would be forced to make her move so we only made the one attempt. We didn’t want her forced to move babies so young.

The main pastime at this lodge was Denali (Mt. McKinley) watching. They even had an alert system similar to a wake up call. If you wanted a call when the mountain was visible you signed up and got a phone call, no matter what time, when the clouds cleared and the mountain could be seen.

I must have been getting tired at this point because there was a horse drawn wagon ride that I wanted to take but I forgot all about it until we were boarding the bus to leave!

We didn’t do any tours here. I was on the courtesy internet quite a bit wrapping up details of my job offer so that I could be sure to have a job when I got back from vacation. They had a great gift shop with some of the most unique and reasonably priced souvenirs of our trip. We did quite a bit of shopping here.

Even though we were farther in to the interior or maybe because we were, spring was really springing here. Temps were getting up to 60+, almost breaking the 70 mark. That was the trigger for Alaska’s unofficial state bird to make it’s appearance.

These mosquitoes are huge and plentiful. One of our new friends had bug repellant plastic bracelets and shared some with us. To my surprise they worked.

Denali (the mountain) watching was really interesting. When we got up in the morning the sky over the Alaska range was overcast but the mountains, except for Denali stood out clearly.

The line of mountain tops was so well defined it was hard to believe there was a “missing mountain”. About mid- morning Denali suddenly popped out of the overcast.

Cloud banks drifted and shifted in front of her but that only added to her mystique.

We spent a relaxing morning mountain watching before we had to climb back on the bus for the last leg of our journey to Anchorage where we’d be reunited with our luggage and spend the night before our flight home and back to reality.