MT ERIE NEAR ANACORTES,WA

Our friends Rocky and Dick took us to a place near Anacortes called Mt. Erie. The view was so beautiful and of course it was a nice time of day, late in the evening.

Dick said this is NOT the Pacific ocean, but I said it eventually is and so kept calling it that. It looks big enough to be the ocean. But since he and Rocky use to navigate these waters, guess I'll take his word for it.

On one of the paths we found this marker and I thought it was so special, wanted to share it with you. A few words that make a big impact!

hURRICANE RIDGE

As the crow flies, Hurricane Ridge is northeast of Hoh rain forest. This was taken looking south from the visitors center.

Is this not just beautiful? Looking to the west it is about 7000'. The snow melt furnishes water to 2 rivers and the ranger said they are very short on rainfall. I was surprised, because there for awhile everywhere we went the rain was already there or coming.:)

It is kind of looking at MT. Rushmore, you never get tired of it ....

This is a scar that was caused by an avanlanche in the 40's. The ranger said it has filled in quite a bit and will soon won't show at all.

Olympic NP Rain Forest

We explored Olympic National Park from Port Angeles. There is a GS park about 15 miles from Port Angeles on 101 that was pretty handy. The rain forest is really awesome and notice the elevation.

Here is a short history of what happens to trees in a "blow down". During winter storms trees are blown down and of course die. Eventually the dead log becomes covered with mosses and liverwort becoming a nurse log for tree seedlings. I hope you can see the small trees growing on the log.

In time the young tree's roots reach the ground and start to grow rapidly. Soon surviving trees grow in a line along old trees, forming a colonade.

Years later when the nurse log decays .... tunnels thru the buttressed bases mark where the old log laid.

NEW 3M COATING

The 3M coating that came on the coach had gone bad and was still under warranty, so we found Woody's Tinting that could take the old off and put the new on. He lives in Ellensburg,WA. We got there about 8am on Tuesday and he and his helper started taking the old coating off. What a nightmare! It started to look like it was going to take a week to take that stuff off.

So he called for more help. John and I helped all afternoon. My forefingers were so sore the next morning I couldn't even fasten my bra. I could barely push the button on my camera. Anyway they worked all morning on Wednesday and about 11, finished.

The new coating looks so good, so bright and shiney. The other coating had mildew or mold under it and looked pretty crummy.

This is the crew that worked. Freddie, Austen, Scott (fireman), Sam, Dave (state trooper) and Paul also a state trooper. Did they have some stories about some of their stops. Paul has this side business for when he retires. We left about 3:30 for our campground about 3 1/2 hrs away close to Chehalis. One bonus bookdocking there at Pauls house was their garden with tomatoes AND permission to help myself!

FLIGHT DECK PICTURES

The museum has a flight deck that you can climb up to. When you get there, they have the control tower speakers and it is really interesting to listen to them. Just as we were leaving I heard this plane coming in ...

so started taking pictures ........

and they came out pretty good. I saw a hugh jumbo coming down to get in postion to hold, but was going to take quite a while to get there, so left. I'll bet that would have been a sight! Actually I could have stayed there all day and watched and listened, but John is by airplanes landing like he is by rocks. "Once you've seen one landing, you've seen them all". He was ready to go to the car!

BOEING TOUR

This is where the tour starts. Your ticket gets you into the museum and we looked around while waiting for the tour to start. I didn't get a lot out of museum, lots of facts and figures ... guess if you are an engineer. We were loaded on to 2 buses (packed) and taken to ......

this building. I could give you lots of facts, but you just don't realize how big this thing is until you see it. It has a huge underground hallway and all the water pipes and utilities are overhead. We loaded on an elevator and went to the 4th floor. There you could see 747's in various stages of construction. In one area they had them on an assembly line that was moving 1.26 inches a minute. In another part there were 2 side by side, that was with the wings on. No heaters, all the lights, machines running and body heat keeps the building warm!

These are some that have been painted and waiting to be tested before new owners take over. Emirates, someone from India. You can see the runway where planes are tested, part of it being repaved. I think he said it said 10,000 feet long. It is not a commercial airport, used only for customers and testing planes.

This is one of the engine suppliers and Pratt Whitney is the other.

FRIDAY HARBOR (San Juan Is.)

Hey is this a great looking crew or what. We are on our way to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. Believe it or not we took a day off from playing pickleball.

The ferry left at 8:45 and we are about 15 miles from the park to ferry parking lot. It cost 11.60 to ride(ah the nice thing about being 65) The ride was about an hour and 20 minutes. We then bought tickets to ride the island bus that made several stops. You could get off and stay as long as you wanted. We only stopped at 2 stops. But that took about all afternoon.

This was one of the stops, a beautiful park and wildlife, no whale sightings.

The water is so clear and pretty.
I have had terrible connections here at LaConner TT. There is wifi at the park, but it is pretty sorry. It is pretty sad how accustomed I have become to having nice connections at the coach, so that makes me pretty lazy to gather up all my "stuff" and let you know what we have been doing.
The low tonight is suppose to be in low 50's! MORE COVER! We move the 5th and from there will take the Boeing tour.