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We had a free day as we arrived so we visited Snoqualme Pass

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and Lake Kachess the other side of the Pass

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with its beautiful beach.

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Coming home we just had to visit Snoqualmie Falls

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And Snoqualmie train depot

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That evening we had dinner with Diane's son Geoff and Theresa

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That night Mount Ranier showed its beautiful head

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The next day Geoff and Teresa got married! This was a bonus that we did not expect

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Then it was time for the cruise to get underway. We left Seatlle late afternoon and dusk found us in the Straits of Juan de Fuca looking at the Olympics

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The next day we cruised the Pacific (rather rough) and then the inside passage

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Typical Scenery

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The second day was cruising in Glacier Bay. I guess "Bay" was the name before global warming - The Bay is now a fjord almost 100 miles long with the glaciers at the far end

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Our first glacier sighting

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This full-size cruise ship gives an idea of the scale.

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We had camp followers

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Then the second glacier

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Note the beautiful blue colors

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Another check on the scale. No, this was not a cruise ship. You can just see a man standing on the back of the boat

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The first stop was the next day at Juneau. This is a typical very small town crammed up against the mountains

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But the best glacier was at Mendenhall. Notice the blue again

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We took a nature trail back to the bus

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The bus then took us the Glacier Gardens where they have upside-down trees. Twenty feet of trunk stuck in the ground and the roots ten feet in the air covered with mesh, moss, soil and flowers. There were dozens of these!

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And the rest of the gardens were very pretty

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And they had more flowers in their cafe for a photo-op

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Their grounds have an eagle nest with a camera showing the action.

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The next day we arrived in Sitka. By far the prettiest town

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And that night we got a folded towel on the bed

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Next day was Ketchikan

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And a Logger Derby that they put on three times a day

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Our dinner companions Flo and Penny just happened to live twenty miles up the road in Boerne and FairOaks

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The next day was cruising back but we stopped in Victoria, BC in the evening and went to the Butchart Gardens.

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Beautiful

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Fireworks are a Butchart specialty on Saturdays and they were the most spectacular we have ever seen.

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Back in Seattle we did laundry on Queen Anne Hill where the apartment dwellers live, then took a ferry and ended at Hurricane Ridge near Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula.

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Port Angeles is a headquarters for growing lavender.

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Next day we visited the Hoh rain forest.and looked at ferns and moss for a few hours

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When a tree falls vegetation grows over it. Here is an example of trees growing on a downed log (a "Nurse" Log)

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When the nurse log decays the trees that grew on it often have a tunnel under the trunk

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That night and the next we stayed at Lake Quinault. A 1930's hotel

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The totem-pole looking object is a rain-gauge - 200 inches per year.

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They have their own rain-forest trail that we took

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And a lake to sit by. They have a campfire here each evening to gather around

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The next day we left an drove around the lake to visit a VERY large Western Red Cedar

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That was hollow

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This fungus was obviously growing very quickly - it has encompassed a recent fern frond

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The scale of the trees was very large

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Later in the day we arrived at the Oregon Coast

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This is the "Octopus" tree

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We stayed the night in a fisherman's lodge just north of Tillamuck

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And continued on to Depoe Bay

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And Newport. All the Oregon bridges seem to be decorated by spires. We concluded that they were ancient burial markers for workers killed during construction

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At the end of the afternoon we were at the Sandunes Park by Florence.

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It was cold for some

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But others walked where she thought the edge of the water should be.

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The dunes were a paradise for off-roaders

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Another bridge just before we left the coast.

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In Roseburg we met up with Diane's cousins who have moved out there

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And stayed in a very nice Casino

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The next day we travelled up the North Umpquah River and voted it most beatiful ever.

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There were wayside stops

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And Little hikes to waterfalls.

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Finally we arrived at Crater Lake/ Voted by Diane as most beautiful of the trip

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Notice the different colors of blue. In the shallows it even went green.

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Wizard Island is at one side

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The drive around the rim dips down in places. This run-off is from the rim itself.

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Lots of ground squirrels

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We stayed at Diamond Lake Lodge. Definitely the worst of the trip. The room had a thirty-year-old carpet that performed double duty as a wall protector behind the door

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Next day was to Bend, Oregon. Diane had always wanted to go fly fishing so she got a surprise trip

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Peter was talked into trying it also.

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The rock formations had wonderful basaltic columns everywhere.

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Next day was Mount St Helens.

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The mountain was cloudy so we took the nature walk. We tried to figure out how a snail can get to, and live on, an isolated lily pad

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Finally back in Tacoma to see Gracie again

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Training to be a plumber

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The mountain was still out

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And the next day we met up with Austin in Tacoma before heading home