Orange Beach & Frog Pond

Late October is the perfect time to visit The Frog Pond at Blue Moon Farm!  Cathy Steele hosts some of the best music at her eclectic little paradise.  The Pecks graciously hosted us at their beautiful Orange Beach condo and in turn we took them about 10 miles outside Foley, Alabama to what appeared to be the end of the earth, parking the pickup truck in the middle of a field.   Our friends (from the Keys) Don and Susan joined us to see what it was all about.  Grayson Capps and the gang once again put on a show.

The Pecks also took us to "The Garage" in Fairhope; a great little shop with an art studio attached.
A great few days with good friends.  Life is good.

Washington

The 6 amigos (Pfluegers, Mangums, & Waldreps) took another road trip.   This time, we headed to the state of Washington.   The Mangums and Pfluegers got an early flight and were able to see some of Seattle before the Waldreps arrived later that night.  

SEATTLE

The next morning the six of us visited Chihuly Gardens to see the awesome blown glass art.  It was truly amazing.  

We then took a boat tour of Lake Union and saw where “Sleepless in Seattle” was filmed, the University of Washington stadium, and lots of float planes landing on the lake.

The weather was perfect!

Port Angeles

After two nights in Seattle, we picked up the really, really large van we had reserved.   It gave the group lots of room for luggage and to spread out.  We lovingly referred to it as our BAV.

We took the ferry to Bainbridge Island, where we made an impromptu stop at a quaint little village near the ferry terminal, got a little shopping in and had a picnic lunch in the park.  Our destination for that day was Port Angeles.  Patty had found us a wonderful house on Lake Sutherland for two nights. It was so nice, we hated to leave!

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Not having planned very well, we found ourselves at the cabin before making a stop at the grocery store.  So, our wonderful husbands made the 20 mile trek back into town and returned with a big bag of hamburgers for dinner!  

The following day, we visited Lake Crescent Lodge and drove to the end of Hurricane Road to an overlook.  But the high point of the day was stopping along the side of the road to watch the salmon running!  It was absolutely crazy.  

We made our needed stop at the grocery store and spent the evening at our cabin grilling filet mignons and lounging outside around our campfire.   

Lake Quinault

Another picturesque day in Washington!  We visited the Hoh Rain Forest before heading to Ruby Beach.  

The driftwood that had accumulated on this beach was amazing.

We drove on to Lake Quinault Lodge for the evening.   This was a very comfortable rustic lodge with an awesome view from the room's deck.  We had dinner about a mile away at the Salmon House. After a full day of touring, we made an early evening of it.   We met up for breakfast at the Quinault Merchantile.  It was a great little market right across the street from the lodge.  

Alta Crystal

We got plenty of windshield time today!  The vastness of this area became apparent today.  But we still managed to hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail!  (Or that was what some of the group thought.)  After hiking a couple of miles, we decided to turn back because when we looked over our shoulder, we could see a dense fog rolling in.  This is not somewhere you want to be visually impaired.  We had also began the hike too late in the day and were worried about it being too close to dark.  (With age comes some maturity).  This was an absolutely spectacular hike!  The views in every direction were remarkable.  Truly God's handiwork.

We stayed at Alta Crystal Cabins.  We had reserved a 2 bedroom loft and a one bedroom studio apartment.  As usual, we drew straws to determine who slept where.  Richard and I got the private studio.  The Mangums and Waldreps decided to drive to town for dinner.  But having had all of the BAV we could handle for one day, we opted to visit the Alta Crystal main office which sold a variety of items to cook for dinner.  We grabbed a cheese pizza, a bottle of wine, and stayed in.   After dinner, we took a walk and found a hot tub in the middle of the complex.  We returned to our cabin to change, and relaxed in the hot tub along with two young couples that had actually hiked the entire trail.  We shared stories of our hiking adventures and quickly realized their day had been much more strenuous than ours.

MOUNT RAINIER

The next morning we headed to the pinnacle of our trip, Mt. Rainier.  But not before a lot more windshield time.  

One of our first stops was for a short hike at the Grove of the Patriarchs.  This was a forest of old growth trees.  

Although not pictured, Sam did get in his head stand on this swinging bridge.

Next stop...Reflection Lake.  True to its name, well, lets just say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Mt. Rainier National Park is a must see!  This 14,410 foot wonder can be seen from Seattle, but there's nothing like getting up close and personal with this beauty.

A short walk to the waterfall was agreed to by all instead of the longer hike up to the base of Rainier. Definition:  A walk is when you stay on concrete, a hike is when your feet touch dirt.

The colors this time of year were remarkable (late September).

We loved the marmots that were everywhere you looked in this area.  They were fun to watch and very photogenic.

Late that afternoon, we had come full circle and were back in Seattle for some more touring on our last day.  The trip would not be complete without a visit to The Market Theater Gum Wall.  This is a brick wall covered in ACG (Already Chewed Gum).  Its located in an alleyway in downtown Seattle, under Pike Place Market.

I'm not sure if Richard is making a deposit or a withdrawal!

Another epic journey!