This blog is about the next chapter.... about love, about life and about adventure! It is for our family and friends to follow along... so they know where we are! Catch us if you can!
We had a great campsite!!! We wished we could stay longer.
There's an annual fundraiser for woodcarvings in Libby and the contestants have 4 hours to complete their work. The finished products are then raffled off and there are several at this park.
We stopped at the Cabinet Mountain Brewery and sampled a brew...
...And tasted a warm pretzel with the most delicious Swiss and cheddar and whole grain mustard dip!!!
Al went on the Kootenai Falls hike
A suspension bridge
Check out Al's video below! He takes you on a beautiful narrated hike to waterfalls.
There was a pathway to the river. Al said the water was really cold!
7.16.26 For Al’s birthday we drove to
Winthrop to walk through the “old west” town of Winthrop. Fun! Wooden boardwalks and lots of
shops in old buildings. We stopped for a warm cinnamon roll and iced coffees.
We walked up and down the street and then on to Twisp to mail post cards and
the postmaster recommended that we eat burgers at Burger Bros. Awesome! They
gave All a deal for his birthday. The cheese curds were garlic parmesan and
very good!
We were so
full we just ate chocolate ice cream for supper.
The cinnamon rolls were warm, soft and so good!
Happy Birthday, AL!!!
Welcome to Sheri's, the diet ends here!
Vicki told Al, "No dieting on birthdays!" He adhered to that advice all day!
The was roasted on-site and it was soooo good!
7.17.26 Laundry and rest! We walked down to the river.
7.18.26 Travel Day! On to Winchester RV Park in Republic, Washington. More mountain driving. Went into Republic and browsed an old little craft store, stopped at the local brewery and tried their brew. Ate burgers at Esther’s.
On our way to Republic, we saw miles and miles of apple orchards!
The was a great site and so quiet! Loved our stay here.
What is the in the sky??? We didn't notice it until Vicki pointed it out, No clue what this UFO is!
The craft store...A little less than I'm used to.
7.19.26 Al went for a hike and played catch
up. He saw a covey of doves, prairie dogs, chipmunk, horses, elk tracks, ducks,
wild huckleberries and a huge pine cone!
7.20.26Just like that… Our Washington time
is over.
There is never enough time but we hit the hot spots!
Let’s
summarize a few Washington facts:
Mount
Rainier is the tallest peak in Washington and is the headwater of 5 major
rivers. Mount Adams is the states 2nd highest peak at over 12,000
feet.
Washington
has both a rainforest and a desert. The Hoh Rainforest gets 12-14 feet of rain
per year and just over the mountain, Sequim gets only 16” per year. Washington
landscape goes from heavy moss and forest on one side of the mountains to
cactus and sage on the other.
Lake Chelan
is 50 miles long in the eastern Cascades and is the 3rd deepest in
the United States at 1486 feet deep. The top of the canyon to the bottom of the
lake is deeper than the Grand Canyon!
Lava is two
miles thick along eastern Washington. Eruption after eruption flowed on top of
each other and built up. The “stacked” look along the Columbia River shows the
layers.
Mount Baker…
In 1998-1999 Mount Baker got 1140 inches of snow. It’s the most snow measured
in one location anywhere on Earth in one season. The snow was 9 stories high!
It snowed that much because Mount Baker sits right where the Pacific meets the
Cascades, the perfect storm.
America’s
biggest block of concrete: The Coulee Dam on the Columbia River. It is the
single largest concrete structure ever built in the United States. It used 12
million cubic yards of concrete, enough to pour a sidewalk 4 feet wide that
would wrap around the Earth’s equator twice.
The Columbia
River goes through the Cascades, creating the Columbia River Gorge.
Washington
has 5 active volcanoes: Rainier, St. Helens, Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount
Adams. All active, all monitored.
Washington
has the longest lava tube in America on the south side of Mt. Saint Helen
called “Ape Cave.” It’s 2.5 miles long underground.
Snoqualmie
Falls is 268 feet tall, that is 100 feet taller than Niagara Falls.
The Olympic
mountains used to be at the bottom of the ocean.
Washington is the only state
named for a President.
Mount
Rainier is the most dangerous in America. The threat is the ice! If the volcano
moves, the glacier will start melting and mix with rock into “Lahar”- a fast-moving
river of mud, and bury entire towns.
Washington
grows 6 out of 10 apples in America, most in a desert irrigated by the Columbia
River.
The North
Cascades has over 300 glaciers, which is more than any other national park in
the contiguous United States—containing about a third of all glaciers in the
Lower 48 and more than the combined totals of Glacier and Yosemite National
Parks.
