Day 9 - October 11
If I could only choose one day that seemed outstanding I think it would be this day.
I had breakfast at the motel and then Kent, Camille and I went over to Long Beach. Mike was not feeling too well so he stayed back to rest a bit. We visited the beach boardwalk and I collected a bit of interesting information and walked a bit of the boardwalk while they went down to the beach.
Quinault Rain Forest in the Olympic National Park was like a magical wonderland to me. The lodge was built in 1926 and reminds you some of the old lodges in Utah National Parks and Yellowstone with the big fireplace and a warm atmosphere. The view from the back was breathtaking. The rooms in the lodge itself are around $240 but there are rooms in the other buildings for as low as $104. It is only 2 hours from Seattle.
Campground
World's Largest Sitka Spruce
The Quinault Indians and other Indians in the area have a large influence of the decorative style of tee shirts and other items in the gift shop. On the back of the lodge there is a huge rain gauge using that style. Last year they recorded 13 feet of rainfall in the area. Seventeen feet is the record. (I have tried and tried to turn this picture but can't post the corrected one so just look side wards to see the artwork and majesty of the water levels. Utah is classified as high desert with an average of 10 inches of rain per year. )
We moved on to Port Angeles and went directly to our motel, Port Angeles Inn. We were told that our rooms were on the third floor and were a bit worried until she said that there was an elevator. When we opened the door to our huge room I gasped and exclaimed, "I love it! I love it!" The entire wall was window overlooking the town and the port.
This was the view from our window. We could see the ferry loading and unloading for Canada and other activity on the water.
We had dinner that night with Mark Ellington and his family. It was such a joy to see the progress that they have made. Karen has finished her masters degree and is a nurse practitioner and they showed us pictures of a lovely home that they just purchased and Mark is in the Branch Presidency of the little LDS Branch (42 average attendance) that they attend. I'm sorry that I forgot to get a picture.
Day 10/11 - October 12 & 13
Today we headed for Port Townsend and the ferry across to Coupeville so we could journey on to Royden & Chris's place. The entire drive along Washington 20 was beautiful.
It was just about 2 hours of lovely views on Washington 20 to arrive at Concete, WA and the lovely home of Royden and Chris. I didn't get a good picture but their home sits on a hillside, the highway runs past below and a river is on other side of the road. They have two stories and both front with almost solid glass and wooden decks. The setting is so peaceful and beautiful and the home is spacious and comfortable. Royden has the three-bay shop of his dreams right there next to the home. It is just such a great move for them.
On the front left of their property, sharing the same driveway but on the highway is the home and shop of Sauk Mountain Pottery. We walked down that afternoon and Chris bought me a baking dish because they have our name for Christmas. (It actually may be the top dish of the stack or like it.) Mike enjoyed walking back to the wood fired kiln with Steve Murray, the potter.
Baking dishes - you put them in a cold oven and let them heat with the oven.
After so many days in the car it was great just to relax and spend two nights the same place. We played games, watched a movie, Royden put up his train and Chris fed us royally.
We were so blessed with good weather all along the coast but the rains finally came our second day there. Royden and Chris took Mike and me for a ride to see Mt Baker and the lake there but the clouds were too low and they had drained some of the lake. I did get a rainy snapshot of them and a picture of where two rivers converge, however.
I'll give no more detail than to say that I delivered many small kidney stones while there. This was another tender mercy. I'm not sure that I am "stone free" to this day BUT I had no pain on the trip and only a dull pressure now.
Day 12 - October 14
The fourth tender mercy came in the saving of Laurel and Russell's home. I was awakened by my phone binging around 5 AM with a picture of the flames near their home taken from their bathroom window. They spent the day sitting in their car wondering if they would even have a home to return to. (Twenty-two homes that were close neighbors did not.) Rain came and gave more rain than they have had in a year and that is the ONLY reason they have a home right now. It was a day of worry and helpless feelings for us. Hundreds of people were praying with them and those prayers were answered.
We left Royden's place after breakfast and took HW 20 which was a bit longer but more scenic. It was an interesting day with rain, snow, and sunshine. About 100 miles out we stopped at a town that has a western theme named
Chris told us about the town and told us about a converted barn where concerts are held in the summer. It was a fun place to walk around and I bought another Creche for my Christmas collection.
The next few pictures will share some of the beautiful color, lovely scenery and variety of weather that we enjoyed.
Visitors center on the hill. They do take tours in the dam but we were trying to move along with our day. I took the picture below from a movie that we watched. \
Grand Coulee Dam is the largest concrete structure ever built. Several other dams in the world are larger, but they include earthen berms (when completed 2009, the Three Gorges Dam in China will be roughly three times the size of Grand Coulee). Grand Coulee is 450-500 feet thick at its base and 30 feet thick at the top, and it contains 11,975,521 cubic yards (9,155,944 cubic meters) of concrete, three times as much as Hoover Dam.
The dam has four power plants. The two original power plants, the first of which began producing power in 1941, are called the Left Power Plant and the Right Power Plant. The two power plants, each of which houses nine large generators, are split by the spillway, which is 1,300 feet wide and covers an area of 13.26 acres.
The drive on to Hermiston, OR was much prettier that I was expecting it to be. We were sided by a river or a lake most of the way. We spent the night in the nicest Best Western that we have stayed in. The rooms were big, the pool was nice, it was a complete breakfast and they gave us a little gift travel bag as we turned in our keys that had two bottles of water and some cookies and crackers. We had ribs and steak at Hale's Restaurant that was very good and reasonably price.
Day 13 - October 15
We had planned to drive as far as Jerome, Idaho on this day and then head the rest of the way after attending Sacrament meeting but we decided to make it a long day and get home about 9:45 that night. I didn't take any pictures that day but there was one more giant tender mercy.
We were on our way back to Boise from a little side trip to see the home that Mike lived in when they joined the Church in Nyssa, OR when he felt the need to gun it and speed past a woman that he didn't want to wait and get behind. He slammed the gas petal so hard that it stuck and we went speeding ahead and the brakes would not work. There were cars coming from several directions and a intersection up ahead. I screamed, "Turn the key off" which he was reaching to do at the same time. Thankfully there was a wide shoulder and we were able to pull off as the car died and he was able to unstick the gas petal. Who knows what the outcome would have been but it could easily have hurt or killed us as well as others on the road. I don't want to have to ask for any more tender mercies like that one.
We got home with no further incidents and even had time to go to the store to buy milk and veggies before it closed.
It was a wonderful trip with such a variety of interesting and inspirational wonders of this world.
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