A Life Day

Good afternoon, my friends. We had in mind to do another hike this morning. When we looked at it, we realized it was farther away than we thought. After driving those winding roads to yesterday's trailhead, we decided to just do some walking around the park here. The original trail, as described, wasn't a whole lot different from what we could see right here. Flowing Lake is a county park, and there are paths all through the area. You can see them where the dotted lines are in the image below.

We're in site 33, which is almost smack in the middle of the image above. 

We had grocery shopping to do, and we scored another roll of quarters (for laundry) while we were at the local Fred Meyer store. It's been great traveling in a state where we can shop at our home town store.  Now here's something you don't see every day. This store had a robot named "Tally" that keeps track of inventory. It's a brave new world, my friends.

When we got back, nothing would do until we got Smitty out for a walk. I had him out a few days ago, but there were too many people and too much activity, and so our walk was only a few minutes long. Since then most everyone has left. There are a few other campers here, but it feels as if we have the park to ourselves. With it being so quiet, Smitty insisted that a walk was in his future. He was out about 15 minutes, hunting, hunting, hunting for any available grass. He found just a few tufts here and there, but it was worth it for a little nibble of that Pawshington green.

And you probably can't see her very well, but Sadie stood guard from her catio.

Don't worry, Smitty. I've got your back.

Back inside, the walk was utterly exhausting. This is how they've been spending their time since.

Matthew called while we were at the grocery store. We called him back and had a nice little chat with him. After that, we had lunch and naps, and then we decided to take one of the trails to the lake for which this park is named: Flowing Lake. Right away, we spotted this "citizen scientist" invitation, and I'm all for science. They want pictures of the lake level, and this lake is clearly below its normal level.

The area was fenced off, but we simply walked around the fence. This dock we're on is going to be replaced. It was easy enough to see why. The wood felt kind of spongy, and there were areas where the lake could be seen through holes in the boards.

These lily pads must be so pretty when they bloom.

We saw one lone duck, occasionally diving down for something delicious.

Looking out across the lake, it looks like this. We imagine this is a lovely place to spend a warm summer day.

Heading back to our site, I noticed these two trees and their bark. The one on the left is a Western Red Cedar. On the right is a Douglas Fir.

We also met up with one of the indigenous creatures. We have them in Oregon too. The duck would have enjoyed meeting up with this guy.

And that was a pretty easy-going day. We enjoyed it. 

We'll be moving on to La Conner tomorrow. There is a quilt museum there. I thought there was a quilt shop as well, but it turned out to be one of those shops that's actually someone's studio. It's only open by appointment, and I'm not really interested in that. I did find one close by, and I'll pay them a visit.

As I'm writing, I haven't done any slow-stitching today. After I publish, I believe that will be my next stop. It'll be a good way to close out the day. We're expecting a very rainy day for our drive tomorrow. Happily, it'll be a short drive of just about an hour. We're expecting better weather by Wednesday. Also, I checked the hours on the quilt museum...closed on Tuesday, but open on Wednesday. Hooray!

Okay, my friends. If I'm going to do any slow-stitching, then I need to stop here. Enjoy your evening. If I don't check in tomorrow, I'll be back on Wednesday.

Big Four Ice Caves Trail

Good afternoon, my friends. We had a beautiful day of weather for our hike. It was some distance away...not mileage wise, but time wise. It was about 36 miles from where we are, but it took nearly an hour to drive there because of all the twists and turns. Along the way we passed by this barn. (Sorry about the buggy windshield.)

And we crossed this red bridge. How do you like that color? We figure it must have been a good buy on that color of paint. Also, just beyond the bridge, we passed a sign directing visitors to the "Red Bridge Campground."

So, let's talk about what we're going to see, shall we? This bulletin board had a couple of signs of interest. I've cropped the text parts out and included them below the corresponding sign image. It explains how these caves are formed and why they are so dangerous.

The next two images are cropped from the one above.

Here's the second sign, explaining the trail and the history of the area.

And, finally, this one. And they're not kidding about this, my friends. Stay on the trail.

Okay, so this was an easy hike, immaculately maintained, and easy to follow. We were walking on a boardwalk about half the time.

Looking up, we could see a small glacier. It also looks as if there's a dusting of snow at the top.

And this is the range known as the Big Four.

The pond below was formed by beavers. If you look toward the upper left corner just to the right of where Mike is standing, you can see a beaver lodge.

Here's a closer look at it.

And here, you can see where those naughty beavers have chewed off branches to build their lodge.

We didn't see any beavers on this day, but if you've been reading for a long time, you know that we've yearned to see beavers for a long time. We were happy to finally see one in the wild when we visited Denali National Park last year. It was a fleeting glimpse, but we could check the box on our list after this.

We crossed this bridge over the South Fork of the Stillaguamish River.

Looking to the left, you can see a man fishing at the bottom of the image.

Looking to the right, it looks like this.

And, wouldn't you know it? We take our eyes off our shadow selves for a minute, and we find them in the river. We had to wait for them to get out and towel off.

Continuing on, the trail was gravel/dirt most of the way.

At particularly slippery spots, they'd added this stuff...whatever it's called...for better traction. That was very much appreciated.

It's late in the year for blooming things, but I enjoyed the droplets of water on next year's lupine.

And these tiny white flowers...my phone says they're yarrow, but I doubt that.

We've been blown away by the loveliness of the forests here in Washington.

Continuing on, we marveled at the near-vertical face of the mountains.

As we approached the ice cave, we were warned once again about the danger present here.

Beside the yellow sign was this sobering marker.

Just a few more feet, and we were there. Here's the whole of the mountainside. I left the people there for scale.

Zooming in...

This isn't actually a cave that extends into the mountainside. Instead, it is formed by the piles of snow falling from avalanches. And it's easy to see why there is so much avalanche activity here when you see the steepness of the cliff face.

In spring, other hikers have told of a beautiful waterfall here. This late in the year, it's just a trickle.

Here's another look at the face of the mountain.

Turning directly around from there 180° it looks like this:

And then we headed back to our Jeep and back to the RV for lunch and naps. 

The only other thing I did this morning was to take the first stitches on the center sheep block.

We have another shorter hike planned for tomorrow, and we'll be traveling in the opposite direction for that. I'll say more after we've done it. We'll also find a grocery store to pick up a few things. With the smallness of this rig, and limited space in our refrigerator, we're visiting the grocery store every couple of days to pick up just a few items. Hopefully, I'll have a little more time for slow-stitching as well.

Tomorrow's hike will be less strenuous, and more park-like. You can probably wear your regular walking shoes for that. Get a good night's sleep. You've worked hard today, and you'll want to be refreshed for tomorrow's walk.

Snohomish, Washington

 Good afternoon, my friends. I wrote a one-sentence post a couple of hours ago in which I indicated I wouldn't be in touch for a couple of days. If you're old enough to remember Gilda Radner in her Emily Litella character, please remember her voice when she said, "Never Mind." (And if you're not old enough to remember Gilda, just know she was very, very funny, and she died way too young.)

We find ourselves in Flowing Lake County Park in Snohomish, Washington, this afternoon. We're in an area with dense forest canopy, and so Starlink is out of the question. It needs to be able to see the satellites, or it's nothing but an expensive hunk of plastic. 

When we know we won't have internet access, we check our phones to see how much cell signal we have. My initial check of mine gave me two bars with only LTE service. And who knows why? When I checked it about five minutes later, it still gave me two bars, but 5G service, and I think I can work with that. It really depends on how long it takes to upload pictures. So let's just give it a try. You can set your stopwatch now, if you like.

Okay, here we go. And IT WORKS!!! INTERNET ACCESS LIVES!!!

Ahem. Settle down, now. 

Backing up to yesterday, we knew it was going to be a dark and stormy day. And it was. It rained, and rained, and rained for most of the day. And you know me...when the going gets tough, I bake a pie. This is a Dutch Apple Pie for Two. I was happy to be able to use some homemade apple pie filling that was getting a little old. Also, I'd made too much of that streusel topping at some point in time. There was a sandwich bag of it in the freezer, and I brought that along too. Add one Pillsbury pie crust, and you've got yourself a delicious pie. For a while anyway. Ours is history now.

We kept ourselves occupied in various ways. I had word games and crossword puzzles to catch up on, and I had this little bit left to stitch on my embroidery project.

It didn't take long until I had it finished. This is Block 12 of 12 of the "Snowmen and Reindeer" project. When we get home in a couple of weeks, I'll put it with its brethren and move the whole thing to the "Quilt tops to finish" portion of my white board.

So, next up will be the center block for "Home is Where My Flock Is." Originally, I'd planned to stitch this one last, but realizing it was a good take-along project, I decided to do it next. There are still a few smaller blocks to finish.

And with the party just a few days away, I'm making this my project for October's...

Like a boy scout, I like to be prepared. It's hooped up and ready to go, but I have not done any stitching yet.

Today was our day to move along. The beginning of the drive had us driving the interstate which was as hectic and slow as ever. We drove past the city of Bellevue.

You can read more about Bellevue at its Wikipedia page right here. In short:

Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area, and the fifth-largest city in Washington. It has variously been characterized as a satellite city, a suburb, a boomburb, or an edge city. The population was 151,854 at the 2020 census. The city's name is derived from the French term belle vue ("beautiful view").

Bellevue is home to some of the world's largest technology companies. Before and after the 2008 recession, its downtown area has been undergoing rapid change with many high-rise projects being constructed. Downtown Bellevue is currently the second-largest city center in Washington state, with 1,300 businesses, 45,000 employees, and 10,200 residents. In a 2018 estimate, the city's median household income was among the top five cities in the state of Washington. In 2008, Bellevue was number one in CNNMoney's list of the best places to live and launch a business, and in 2010 was again ranked as the fourth-best place to live in America. In 2014, Bellevue was ranked as the second-best place to live by USA Today.

More than 145 companies have been located in Bellevue; companies currently headquartered there include PACCAR Inc, T-Mobile US, and Valve. The technology company Amazon was founded in Bellevue by Jeff Bezos. It's also the home of Ann and Nancy Wilson, co-founders of the rock band "Heart."

Okay, and when we finally left the interstate, the off ramp took us into Monroe, Washington.

This is what Wikipedia tells us about Monroe: 

Monroe is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is located near the Cascade foothills at the confluence of the Skykomish and Snoqualmie rivers, which form the Snohomish River. The city is part of the Seattle metropolitan area and is 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Seattle. Monroe's population was 19,699 as of the 2020 census.

The confluence of the Skykomish and Snoqualmie rivers had originally belonged to the indigenous Skykomish tribe, who predominantly occupied the area between modern-day Monroe and Index. The confluence itself was known as Tualco (Lushootseed: squa'lxo), and a nearby Skykomish village named S'dodohobc acted as a trade post between several Coast Salish groups. A separate settlement near modern-day Monroe was used by the S'dodohobc band of the Snohomish people. The land around the confluence was cleared into a prairie and used to cultivate berries, hazelnuts, and other plants. The Skykomish were among the tribes to sign the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855, effectively ceding their traditional territories, including the Tualco and confluence areas.

The original name of Monroe was "Park Place."  The original Park Place post office and general store were abandoned and replaced by a new building that opened in 1890. John Vanasdlen, operator of new store, petitioned for the reopening of the post office but was rejected by the U.S. Post Office Department, which only allowed a single-word name for new offices. "Monroe" was chosen by Vanasdlen to honor of U.S. President James Monroe. The new post office for Monroe was granted by the U.S. Post Office Department on March 19, 1890.

Okay, and finally, we were into the rural areas I was expecting when we started the day's journey. We saw a few barns along our way.

I was surprised I could capture this one, it was a distance away and behind me when I took this shot.

And then this one. Is it a barn? Hard to say, but that bale of straw that says it is.

Okay, so that's all I have for you today. We're here for the next three nights, and we have a couple of hikes planned. I'll say more about those as we do them. Today I'm just happy to be back online. We were in a good area at our last spot, until the storm knocked out power to the campground. Apparently the park is on a well because we had no water either. (The well pump is electric.) So I paid for a site with electricity and water, but we only had it for one of our two days there. Since it wasn't the fault of the park, I'm not expecting any compensation for that. When I make reservations, I'm looking for the least price per night and the best ratings. I'm just glad I didn't reserve a site in a more expensive park.

And now, the weather is significantly improved. We should have good weather for the next several days. I'm looking forward to getting out and doing some more hiking. Don't put your hiking boots away just yet, my friends. We'll get out there again tomorrow.