5 Day Update

 It has been a few days since the last update. Here's what we've been up to.

Wednesday

The side trip to Glacier National Park meant we had an eight hour drive ahead of us to reach Seattle by Wednesday night. We got an early start and pushed through the drive, arriving at the Tolt-Macdonald Campground before dark. We had a 2 night campsite reservation adjacent to Jennifer and Eric. Shortly after arriving we left to shop for some supplies and later met up with Jennifer and Eric at Christian's apartment. Sunny and Kane were there and after a short tour of the apartment we all walked to a nearby Korean BBQ restaurant for dinner. I enjoyed a delicious dish called bibimbap. 

Thursday

We have been having excellent weather every day of this trip. Thursday was another beautiful day. Jennifer and Eric picked up Christian and we met them at the Seattle Washington Park Arboretum. We ran into a minor challenge finding parking when Waze directed us down a street with a 9' clearance bridge that our 9'6" RV couldn't fit through.  We managed to get turned around and found an alternate parking lot. After a bit of walking around the Arboretum we visited the nearby Japanese Garden and enjoyed a relaxing slow paced self guided tour.  

We were getting hungry and decided to drive to the famous Pike Place Public Market for something to eat. Getting there was another driving challenge dealing with heavy traffic, road construction, steep hills, and scarce parking. But we conquered all the obstacles, and managed to park right in front.

After getting something to eat, we went to Hot Cakes for a delicious dessert, then rounded off our day with a visit to the Seattle Museum of Flight, an awesome collection of air and space exhibits that rivals the National Air & Space museum in D.C.

Although it was a long, exhausting day, we enjoyed the opportunity to spend it with Christian.

Japanese Garden

Japanese Garden

Japanese Garden

Perfect Pike Place Parking

Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

The Gum Wall

Hot Cakes Trendy Desserts

Museum of Flight

Friday

Jennifer and Eric made plans to go looking at boats while we chose to do some sightseeing on our own. We agreed to regroup in Port Townsend on Saturday.

We started with breakfast at the Salish Resort, about 20 minutes from our campground. The breakfast was outstanding, including a little flourish called Honey From Heaven. The Salish Lodge and Spa is right next to the Snoqualmie Falls. After breakfast we took the short walk to the viewing lookout. 

After enjoying the falls we started on a drive to Leavenworth, a town that recreates the experience of a Bavarian Village. They even hold an Octoberfest celebration and we were there at the right time to experience it. It's no Theresienwiese, but it was a fun festival with Bavarian music, outdoor cafes serving sausages and HB beer, and folks wearing dirndl and lederhosen. We had some food and beer, and walked in and out of the shops.  It's about an hour drive through mountains to and from Leavenworth, so we left about an hour before sunset to get to the interstate before dark. We spent the night in Issaquah WA, opting to stay at a Springhill Suites to enjoy a shower and a big comfy bed.

Salish Lodge & Spa

Salish Lodge & Spa

Honey From Heaven

Snoqualmie Falls

HofBrau Beer

Sausages

Prost!

Leavenworth

Leavenworth

Mountain Drive Sunset

 Saturday

We got going about 10am Saturday after taking advantage of the hotel breakfast & coffee. When we left Lakeside on Wednesday, I heedlessly left behind the RV water pressure regulator. Fortunately Eric & Jennifer had a spare they lent me, but I wanted to replace mine so we stopped at an RV sales & supply in Kent.  I got the part I needed and we continued to Port Townsend WA. We stopped to walk through a farmers market in town, then met up with Jennifer and Eric at the campground we had agreed to stay at for the night. 

After selecting our campsites we all drove to see the Point Wilson Lighthouse and stayed until sunset. Then we drove to the town center where we walked around a while before finishing up the night at the Siren's Pub with some food, drinks, and music.

When we got back to the campground, I discovered that the campsite I had selected for it's fair degree of levelness was occupied by another RVer who either didn't see or ignored the payment receipt I had attached to the site post claiming it as mine.  It was late and there were plenty of other open sites, so rather than make a fuss, I parked in a different spot that wasn't nearly as level as my original choice.

Point Wilson Lighthouse

Point Wilson Lighthouse

Point Wilson Lighthouse

Point Wilson Moonrise

 Sunday

We drove into Port Townsend and spent some time in the stores, workshops, and shipyards at the Northwest Maritime Center, then drove to Dungeness to camp for the night.  We took a short hike on a trail leading to the Dungeness Spit, but it was late so we didn't follow all the way down to the water level. We returned to camp and Eric & Jennifer served up some delicious chicken and salad.  We sat outside chatting until it was so dark we could barely see to walk back to the RV.

We've been enjoying remarkably nice weather. Pleasant sunny days in the 70's, and cool nights in the 50's or high 40's.  We've had no rainy days. That's surprising for an area that is known for its rain. Heck, even their big volcano is named Mount "Rainier". 

Boat Shop

Jennifer in a Hollow Tree

Dungeness Spit

Dungeness Sunset

 

 

Glacier National Park

 We heard from Jennifer that they were making a side trip to visit Glacier National Park Tuesday on their way to Seattle. We took a look at our location and travel itinerary and decided we would join them. With a quick departure from our Garryowen MT campsite, we could make it somewhere near the Park entrance by Monday night. We've found that getting out of the campground and on the road seems to take us about 2 hours so we hoped to improve on that.

Although it was still taking us about 2 hours Monday morning, we had started early so we still had a good chance of covering the distance. However, during breakfast a cup of coffee somehow tipped over and spread across the table, dripping down on the floor and rug below. We acted quickly to soak up the spill, but our 2x3 Ruggable® got soaked.  We didn't want to leave it like that so I took it to the campground shower and hosed it down.  We thought we'd dry it in the laundry but the coin-op dryer required 10 quarters and there wasn't a change machine, so we laid it in the sun on a picnic table while we finished getting ready to leave. It dried some, but was still quite damp so we put it in the RV bathroom to finish drying.  Needless to say we didn't accomplish our departure goal that day.

We managed to get as far as Choteau MT and camped there for the night. Dinner was burgers at a family restaurant in town. The next day we met Jennifer and Eric at the St Mary entrance to Glacier N.P. and we all rode together in our RV along the "Going To The Sun Road". The road was closed about midway in, but we were able to drive to Logan Pass and back.  We stopped for a hike to the Baring Falls, and a picnic lunch when we got back. We took pictures at many of the scenic overlooks, including Jackson Glacier.

After leaving the park we followed Hwy 2 along the south end of the park to West Glacier. From there Jennifer and Eric continued to Yaak MT, while we went to Lakeside MT to camp for the night.  We will meet up with them again near Seattle on Thursday.

Choteau Restaurant

Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park

Baring Falls

Baring Falls

Jennifer getting a better view

Tunnel

Another Waterfall

Jackson Glacier

Glacier National Park

Westward Ho!

 The past couple of days we have continued our westward progress, while taking time for some sightseeing along the way. After leaving the Sioux Falls area we stopped in Mitchell S.D. to see the world's only Corn Palace. We've actually seen it more than once before on previous vacations, but it is a fun place to take a short break from driving.

The Corn Palace

Corny pictures

Farther along I90 we came across the 1880 Town. We had visited there back in the 1990's when it was a small roadside attraction that advertised being home to the horse from Dances With Wolves. (ask me to tell you the story of that visit sometime)  The attraction has grown into a complete western town replica that now includes the grave of the horse from Dances With Wolves. We had to stop for old times sake.

1880 Town

Our next stop was at the famous Wall Drug.  We arrived kind of late as the shops were closing, but we had time to grab dinner in the Wall Drug Cafe. 

Our overnight was at a KOA campground near the town of Custer, S.D. We got in late but the friendly folks at the check in stayed open until we got there and even guided us to our campsite with a golf cart.  Because of the late hour we didn't bother getting out of the van to make hookups, and opted to essentially boondock in our paid full hookup campsite. That also meant we couldn't use our furnace since I hadn't gone outside to switch on the propane.  We slept ok with our blankets, but it was a cold morning when we had to get out from under them.

Our next day of touring took us to see the in progress Crazy Horse memorial. There was a special event taking place so we weren't able to go to the visitor center, but we were allowed to park at the entrance and take some pictures from there.  I was impressed by how it is coming along.

Crazy Horse

We also paid a repeat visit to Mount Rushmore.  It was nice being there in the off season. Close parking was readily available and the site was not crowded at all.

Our last stop was Devil's Tower in Wyoming.  I have not been there before and it was something I've wanted to do since the first Close Encounters movie.  The monumental butte is impressive even from miles away, and awesome to view up close.  We passed some cute prairie dogs on the outbound drive.

Tonight we are in a campground in Garryowen Montana with a nice view of the Wild Montana Skies.