A Visit with Friends

On Monday, we drove up to the charming town of Woodinville, located northeast of Seattle, to visit my friend Arlene and her husband Bill. Arlene and I were friends in Pittsburgh, and she moved to Seattle a number of years ago. So it was a no-brainer that when we were in Seattle, we would take the opportunity to visit. 

Arlene and Bill graciously hosted us at their beautiful home. We sat on their back deck and enjoyed great conversation. Bill gave us some tips on things to see and do in the area, as well as the best ways to get around. We also admired the trees and flowers adorning their property. One particularly tall tree was possibly a Sitka Spruce. It looked like it was close to 6 feet in diameter and well over 100 feet tall. Arlene and Bill grilled for lunch and served up a most delicious meal, one of the best we’ve had since we’ve been here. It was absolutely awesome to connect with an old friend. 

Bill gave us some directions on how to take back roads to our campground from their house so we could avoid the heavily trafficked interstates. The drive home was one of the smoothest since we’ve been in the area. It was also scenic with the ever present mountains in the background.

On the way to the campground, we stopped to view Snoqualmie Falls, a beautiful waterfall in an awesome setting over granite cliffs.




Comments

  1. Arlene & BillAugust 13, 2024 at 2:54 PM

    Your visit was sweet but too short. Time spent with friends always seems it's never enough time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 14, 2024 at 2:48 PM

    I treasure all my friendships that’s so nice you got to visit with friends and then learned back road travel ! I would say that’s a successful day !
    Keep on Truckin !
    Ellen Hebert Hutchinson

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 24, 2024 at 5:21 AM

    Very nice to have and be able to enjoy your old friendships. Glad you got to find a route around the traffic and enjoy the beautiful scenery at the same time. Can’t beat that!
    Cathy

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Grotto

Image
 On Sunday, we drove from Dubuque, Iowa to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with only one sight-seeing stop along the way. Sunday afternoon, we stopped at The Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa.       This is an amazing grotto which actually consists of many different grottos, the purpose of which is to preserve in stone the story of the fall of mankind and his redemption in Christ. The Grotto was started in 1912 by a priest, and when the priest died 42 years later, others continued the work. The Grotto is made of stones, rocks, and minerals from all over the country and the world. We first visited the museum which showed some of these specimens and where they were from. After visiting the museum, we walked around viewing the different grottos. The Grotto of the Ten Commandments contained a statue of Moses holding the tablet that the Ten Commandments were written on. This grotto contained a few stalactites. The Paradise Lost Grotto depicted the Garden of Eden...
Read more

Nothing But Fog

Image
On Thursday Joe, Denise, and I went into Mt. Rainier National Park. It is about an hour's drive from our campground.  Entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park We saw a lot of beautiful scenery on the way there and throughout the park.  Our first stop was at the Paradise Visitors' Center. Denise and I took a short hike (up a steep path) to Myrtle Falls. Myrtle Falls In the visitors' center, we learned that the weather is unpredictable. Mt. Rainier is so humongous that it actually creates its on weather. The clouds and fog move inland from the Pacific Ocean and they slam into the mountain. Extremes in the weather are the rule here in the Mt. Rainier micro climate. You can incur raging winds, sudden downpours, and in the winter, blazing snow.  Because Mt. Rainier is a volcano, there is a hot layer of magma underneath the mountain. The magma creates steam and it is not unusual to see some of this steam escaping at the summit, even during the winter when the mountain is snow cove...
Read more

Far North Montana

Image
On Thursday, we left Kalispell and started heading east toward home. On our way out, we saw the mountains in the morning light, and they formed a beautiful silhouette against the morning sky. We started off by repeating our drive along the edge of Glacier National Park. Although we had seen the park the day before, the mountains were so beautiful that we couldn't help but take more pictures. It is just simply a beautiful place. You just feel like you want to take a picture to capture a little bit of it and take it home with you. As we were leaving the town of Kalispell, we noticed a plethora of signs about Jesus. There were signs in front yards, on sides of buildings, in front of churches, in fields, and there was a huge horseshoe shaped collection of billboards, all with religious messages. We traveled west to east across Montana on Highway 2. This highway is in the very far north of Montana. This sign served as a reminder of how far north we were. Turn left for Canada We passed t...
Read more