Anacortes to Spokane

After five wonderful weeks in Anacortes with good friends, good food and fun times we said a
fond farewell! We left Anacortes and headed East... our first stop was Spokane, Washington. As a junior flight attendant I had flown to Spokane and had many layovers, however we usually arrived at night and left early in the morning so did not see much of the city. John and I toured the downtown area.
Spokane is located on the Spokane River in Eastern Washington, 110 miles south of the Canadian border, approximately 20 miles from the Washington-Idaho border, and 271 miles east of Seattle.

The city of Spokane (then known as "Spokan Falls") was settled in 1871. The city's name is drawn from the Native American tribe known as the Spokane, which means"Children of the Sun" in Salish. Completion of the Northwest Pacific Railway in 1881 brought major settlement to the Spokane area. The city of Spokan Falls (the "e" was added in 1883 and "Falls" dropped in 1891) was officially incorporated as a city of about 1,000 residents in 1881.It is the second largest city in Washington.

Spokane hosted the firsts environmentally themed World's Fair in Expo '74, becoming the smallest city yet to host a World's Fair. Expo '74 also had the distinction of being the first American fair after World War II to be attended by the Soviet Union. This event transformed Spokane's downtown removing a century of railroad industry that built the city and reinvented the urban core. After Expo '74 the fairgrounds became the 100-acre Riverfront Park. The park has views of the Spokane Falls that runs through the center of town and the park.

John and I had lunch at Anthony's over looking the falls. Such a beautiful day and view!
That is all for now.

Love, Candy and John

Boat Trip to Roche Harbor

Tuesday, August 17th... a beautiful morning and we were off once again.

Our friends, Nancy and Hal Balin had asked a group of us to go on their boat over to Roche Harbor in the San Juan Islands for lunch. Nancy was a flight attendant with Northwest and she and I used to fly together often, Hal was a Northwest Captain. They have a ranch in Klamath Falls, Oregon and spend the winters there and in the summer they come up to Anacortes to spend the summer on their boat "WETOK" .
It was a glorious day on the water ! We boarded at 10am and headed out for a three hour ride.....um sounds familiar!!!!!! Nancy served up bloody-mary's and the stories began.....

As I said, it was a three hour ride to Roche Harbor, a quaint village located on the north end of San Juan Island. Once the "Largest Limeworks west of the Mississippi" and is now on the National register of Historic sites. Many of the old buildings still stand today and one of them houses the Village Market on the corner of the warf overlooking the beautiful gardens. The third photo is of one of two lime kilns that were built by the British under the direction of Lt. Richard Roche, of the Royal Marines as a way of keeping his troops occupied.

After the British troops departed, Joe Ruff filed a claim for the Roche Harbor property and took possession in the late 1870's. The Scurr brothers bought the land from Mr. Ruff in 1881 and restarted lime-stone production.

Limestone was quarried and transported to the kilns where is was burned down into industrial lime which was a major necessity in the production of steel, plaster, cement and paper. At one time Roche Harbor was the largest producer of lime west of the Mississippi. Production ceased in 1956 with the sale of Roche Harbor to Rueben Tarte and family.



The last photo is of Our Lady of Good Voyage Chapel. It sits on the bank overlooking the beautiful harbor. One of the only privately owned Catholic Churches in the U.S., it was originally built as a schoolhouse around 1906 for the education of Roche Harbor Lime and Cement Company workers.

After a wonderful lunch and good company we re boarded the "WETOK" and headed back to Anacortes arriving back at 7pm. What a wonderful way to spend the day!!!!

Being retired is great we all agreed, however we miss seeing our friends and when you can get together and share the day like this with friends, it brings back all the wonderful times that we shared in the heyday of our flying careers.

That is all for now. Hope all is well with everyone...

Love,

Candy and Johnny

Scroll down to see more photos.

More photos

Here are some more photos of our boat trip to Roche Harbor.
The top photo is of the Hotel de Haro, built in 1886, is the center core of the little village, surrounded by beautiful gardens, restaurants and charming marina.



The second photo is the back side of the shopping area at the harbor.
Some of the many boats in the charming harbor. We saw one for sale that was only $3,890,000.00. I'll take one... but I would probably need a crew!!


The bottom photo is of our hosts, Nancy and Hal Balin.

Thanks for a great day!!

Levenworth, Washington

Saturday, August 15 and we were off again to do some sightseeing! Although the weather along the coast was foggy the report was for sun on the other side of the Cascade Mountains. We left
Anacortes and headed south on Interstate 5 until we turned east on Highway 2. Up, up and over Stevens Pass. Winding up the last two miles to the crest of the pass, you get sweeping views of the forested country to the west. Once over the pass the sky began to clear and the sun was shining once again.

The road hugs the sheer wall of Tumwater Canyon, winding and twisting though the rocky gorge paralleled to the Wenatchee River. Suddenly we rounded a corner, and there was Leavenworth.

Nestled tightly against mountains that rise to 8,000' Leavenworth transformed itself into a Bavarian Village in the 1960's. Until 1962 Levenworth was a rough-edged logging town for much of its first 72 years, but when a key railroad line closed, business owners reinvented the town as a Bavarian burg. And to lure would-be visitors, they created festivals for every season. There was art in the park while we were there and next weekend they have a wine tasting of local wines.

A stroll through Levenworth reveals many quaint treasures, including house-made bratwurst at Willi'w Sausage Haus. We stopped and had a wonderful German lunch and beer at one of the local restaurants.

Levenworth is an unexpected European outpost in the Cascades of Washington.

On the way back to our home in Anacortes we stopped at milepost 58 to view Deception Falls, From the parking area the trail descend into a moss-drenched forest and meanders along rocky streams.




The falls plummets 60 feet in a thundering mass of colliding water. the water carves away at the rock lip of the falls, drills plunge pools in bedrock and bounces from boulder to boulder.
Like all waterfalls, this lovely cascade is temporary. Someday water will reduce the falls to just another rapid along the course of Deception Creek, but a beautiful place to see.

That is all for now.
Love,
Candy and Johnny

Foggy Weather!

The weather here for the past week has been cool, foggy and wet. It has not dampened our spirits, just our sight seeing!!

The weekend of August 7, 8 9, there was the Anacortes Arts and musical festival. They close main street and there were over 200 vendors selling all kinds of items. Some were a little over priced in my thought... oh well, it was fun to walk along the street, sample the food and listen to the music!

On Wednesday, August 13th we headed out for lunch at the Oyster House along the water. Below us were the oyster beds. It was a little foggy but the
food was wonderful and the wine even better! Even though there was some f the view was beautiful.

On Thursday, August 14th, we headed down to Mukilteo, Washington to the Boeing "Future of Flight" Aviation Center The Boeing tour takes you trough its giant facility where you see how today's jets are assembled. When you enter the building you enter the biggest building on earth. Guinness World Records lists the Boeing Everett factory as the largest building in the world by volume at 472 million cubic feet. We were told that all of Disney World would fit inside the building and still have room for a 12 acre parking lot. The Everett factory is like a small indoor city, requiring it own fire department, security force, fully equipped medical clinic, electrical substations, and water treatment plant.

About 30,000 people work at the Everett site, keeping things moving around the clock on three shifts. You can imagine the traffic problems when shift change occurs, which is why they stagger shift hours during the day.

The factory is so big that when it was first built it created its own weather. Clouds actually formed near the ceiling. The weather cleared when an air-circulation system was installed.

There are 1 million light bulbs in the factory.

There are twenty-six overhead cranes that cruise along a 39-mile network of ceiling tracks throughout the factory, lifting and moving airplane components and sections.


There are 2.33 miles of pedestrian tunnels running below the factory.

There are 1,300 bicycles in the factory to help employees get around along with golf carts and other vehicles.

The mural on the six factory doors is the largest digital graphic in the world, according to Guinness World Records.

The rail spur running uphill to the factory from Great Northern Railway's tracks below is the steepest active standard-gauge railroad in the United States.



The bottom photo is of the Dream Lifter, a Boeing 474 that has been modified to accommodate parts of other airliners to be built. Moving parts around the world can be a real problem. There are hinges near the tail the open up the back end to slide the parts in and out of the aircraft.

We were able to see the flight line working on the new 787 Dream liner and also the new 747-8 freighter that is 20 feet longer than the old 747-400 aircraft! We also saw the 737 line. The 737 one of the world's most popular aircraft. The assembly line move along at about one inch an hour.

What a great way to spend a cool rainy day!!!!

On Saturday we are off to Levenworth up in the mountains.... more on that later.

That is all for now,

Candy and Johnny

LaConner

It was a beautiful sunny day to off we went to the little town of La Conner for lunch. According to the brochure: There is nowhere else on Earth quite like La Conner. Nestled in evergreen forests of cedar and fir with the Swinomish Channel lapping at its shore, this Victorian era waterfront village invites you to remember the slower pace of a gentler time.
And they are right! It is a quaint town along the river with lots of shops and restaurants.

The history of La Conner is that shortly after the American Civil War, Alex R. Underwood built a small log cabin on Sullivan's Slough. He and another settler, Michael Sullivan, began the enormous task of diking the Skagit flats to reclaim the land from daily high tides and annual flooding. Before diking, the Skagit flats consisted of a maze of shallow sloughs and unusable marshlands.
Alonzo Low arrived soon after Underwood and in 1867,. founded a treading post on the west side of the channel. The going was rough, and Low sold it 14 months later. Thomas Hayes from Snohomish took it over and established a post office as well. In 1869, he sold it to a well-to-do and educated newcomer by the name of John S. Conner.
Conner took over the post office and renamed it in honor of his wife, who had traveled with him and a wagon full of children across unsettled territory. The former Louisa Ann Sigfried, at the age 27, was the only non-Indian woman when she arrived. Conner took the first two initials and her married name to for the town name of La Conner

The town sits along the Swinomish Channel. There is something about La Conner's connection to the water that sets it apart from other towns its size. This village was built when waterways were the primary means of transportation. In those days, the biscuit whistle would blow at the cannery just around closing time. The womenfolk knew to put biscuits in the oven as the men made their way through town.

Walk around town and you may see the town's official mascots - a family of wild turkeys. The fowl appeared in the spring of 2004 and soon had a brood of eight chicks and have been around the town ever since. We did not see them the day that we were there, maybe it was too hot and they were keeping cool in the shade!
From the photo's you can see the Rainbow Bridge. It provides a beautiful view of La Conner. A few years back the arching bridge was scheduled to be repainted the standard Department of Transportation green. To prepare for the work, painters coated the bridge with red primer. Townspeople loved the color so much, the contacted Olympia. The folks in the state capitol shook their heads and allowed the Rainbow Bridge to remain "unpainted"


John and I had a wonderful lunch at Seeds out on their patio under a beautiful old tree. Then we wandered through the town. Unfortunately it was one of the hottest days that we had had here in the Northwest and it was no fun window shopping... the places here do not have air conditioning. We did not stay long, it was just too darn hot!!!
It has cooled down around here and we have been relaxing with our NWA and other friends that are Yesterday we did drive up to the town of Bellingham to the local farmers market, another cute little town. We had lunch and went to the market. The weather was cool and we had some fog which finally burned off around 3 pm, but it was a nice drive. We hope to go back again so that I can get some good photos. With the fog, it is impossible to take photos.

Well that is about all that we are doing, today it is foggy again so we are getting caught up on things that need to be done.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Love, Candy and Johnny

Map of our adventure

Here is a map of our 2009 Summer Adventure. Just click on the balloons to see where we have stopped along the way, You can also click on the arrows to zoom in or out to see all of the map and our stops along the way... Candy

View Summer 2009 RV Trip in a larger map