Washington

Michael
"On the way to Olympic National Park we saw a bunch of odd signs involving “Twilight,” later on we found out that it was filmed there. When we stopped at the LaPush Beach, John and I built a really cool fort. It was fun. Then we did a hike in a place called Hoh Rain Forest. Moss was on the trees everywhere. It looked just like where “Big Foot” would be. On the way back, we saw two huge elk. They just kept eating on the side of the road like it was normal to be so close to cars and people. We got some really good pictures, it was cool.

We went to Mt. St. Helens in Washington. You could see the volcano almost the whole drive there. When we got there, it was snow peaked with a big crater in the middle. All the trees fell straight down in a line where the volcano exploded all the way across the hills. We learned that the snow falling in the crater collects very fast and doesn’t melt because it is protected and shaded. The glacier that filled in the crater is the youngest glacier on earth. On the way back we saw a coyote wolf hybrid that had really thick fur."

John
"When we went to LaPush Beach, Michael and I built an extremely cool fort. Dad looked for more agates on the beach. After that, we went into the Hoh Rain Forest and we saw a Bald Eagle and two elk right by the road. The elk were huge! We went on the Trail of Mosses and Dad told us survival stories about when he went through training with the military. This day was awesome because we saw a lot of animals. The thing I will remember most is the eagle and two elk.

We went to Multanomah Falls near Hood River, Oregon. We walked up to a viewing area near the falls and took a bunch of pictures. Michael, Mom, and I went up to the bridge over the falls and Dad took pictures of us and then came up. When we were going up, before Mom and Dad noticed, Michael walked on the outside of a bridge over the small creek with fish in it. On the way back I asked if I could do it and Mom and Dad said I couldn’t try it. After we drove home we took Maui down the jogging path with all the obstacles to the river."

We drove up from Astoria, OR into Castle Rock, WA and stayed a very accommodating RV park.  The Toutle River RV Resort provided us a free stay for two nights. They participate in the Tents For Troops program where active duty military stay free. I had a week or two left before my retirement was official (currently on terminal leave), so it worked out for us. We set up the RV spot quickly now that we are getting settled into a groove. Each week we rotate who gets out to help me set up and who gets out to take Maui on a walk when we pull in or stop for gas. We have become pretty efficient at getting things done now. The car disconnect and hook up process is also a pretty quick flow now.

Having a cookout meal after hiking down to the river - Shelli

On the trail to the river, there were a bunch of obstacles - Michael

Rings like in gymnastics - Michael

John learned this in gymnastics.

I was horizontal with the ground when Dad took this picture - John

I couldn't do pull-ups in the center because there was bird poop there - Michael

Toutle River RV Resort. The sign said free for military and they really meant it.

After setting up the site, we loaded up in the car and took Maui with us to Mt. St. Helens. It was about 45 miles away and the weather was very nice for the trip. We had really nice views of the crater and mudflow areas on the way up and into the Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. We learned a lot about the crater formation and changes since the 1980 blast.

There was an Elk down in the valley - Michael

Mt. St. Helens in the background.

The trees in this picture are all in focus, but they look blurry at the top. The effect doesn't translate as well in the photo as it did in reality.

It looks like my tongue sticking out, but it is a peanut butter cracker. I was giving Maui some water - Michael

A high hill top with trees blown over from the blast. These are big trees even though they look like a bunch of toothpicks here.

Looks a little like a wolf here.

Looks more like a coyote here.

The next morning we dipped back down into Oregon to drive through the Columbia River Gorge and to the tallest waterfall in Oregon, Multanomah Falls. I had seen pictures of the falls and have always wanted to go there. It was way out of the way from our routing in Oregon but not too bad a drive from where we were in Washington. It was overcast and rainy parts of the drive, but it was nice when got to the falls. It was well worth the side trip and we got some neat pictures.

The upper part drops 542 feet and the lower falls 69 feet.

Michael, Shelli, and John on the bridge.

On the way back we took care of several stops to shop for things we needed including a DishNetwork receiver for the RV. We had been using the cable hookups at the parks, or the antenna with success so far, but since we already had the satellite dish and the programming is a pay as you go monthly fee with no commitment, we decided to go ahead and do it.

Making progress North the next day, we went to McChord Air Force base and I made some administrative stops to confirm some pre-retirement issues. Shelli and the boys made commissary, exchange, and GameStop runs. The boys traded in some old Xbox games for new ones and we stocked up on groceries. After taking care of that business, we drove up and West to Port Angeles, WA for the night. Using Passport America club pricing we had a discounted site for just $13 a night that was just a few miles from Olympic National Park.

We went through the towns of Forks and La Push on the way around to start our look at Olympic National Park at the Hoh Rain Forest. Forks and La Push are featured prominently in the Twilight book and movie series. There were plenty of Twilight Tour companies, and Twilight this and that commercialism things going on throughout the area. I guess it is to be expected the little towns would cash in where they can, but I saw one roadside firewood shack selling "Twilight Firewood" that made me laugh. Whether intended as sarcasm or an official money grab, the idea was funny to me. I'm sure some crazy fan has come through and bought some of that special Twilight firewood.  I haven't seen or read any of the Twilight stuff, but we learned today the story line involves the Quileute Tribe with werewolf ties and the vampires from the town of Fork have some issues with them. I guess some people of the small tribe don't want the extra tourism. We saw a sign at one trailer saying "Go Away". 

The water was super clear at this lake - Michael

Michael and I built a really cool fort - John

This was the second bald eagle we saw and he was eating a fish - John

It was raining in the rain forest! - Shelli

Somewhere, under the mossbow - Shelli

Driving back out of the Hoh rainforest.

Nobody saw the higher elk until several minutes after we saw the first one, even though it was not far away - John

This was probably the brightest rainbow I have ever seen.  It was touching the water - Shelli

We drove the RV to Port Townsend to take a ferry across the Puget Sound to avoid driving all the way back down to Tacoma and up through the traffic of Seattle. We were the biggest vehicle and had front row parking on the 30 minute ferry ride across. We had good weather and a really nice view driving by Whidbey Island Naval Air Station on the way up.

Front row parking on the ferry. We walked to the top to check out the view from there, but ended up just staying inside with Maui. He seemed to like it.

 As we neared the top of Washington, our focus turned to getting the last supplies and items for modifications to the RV we thought we would want before we headed off into Canada and the more sparse roadways. We burned a lot of time getting things, finding out it wasn't what we wanted or wouldn't work and returning them, and finally getting things installed. The main thing we ended up with was some new blinds to darken the bunk bed areas. We parked the RV in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Bellingham, WA and just spent the night and the next morning there. It is fairly common for RV's to stay overnight at Wal-marts. However there are really strange people (besides us) that camped out in the Wal-Mart parking lot that far North. There were some vehicles that appeared to be permanent settlements and there was a regular minivan that parked behind us that apparently was a full time home to a family with young kids. We could hear the back opening for diaper changes and crying babies late into the night.

After a frustrating day of trips back and forth to stores including Best Buy, Costco, Sears, Wal-Mart and Target, we finally packed up and drove the remaining few miles into Canada. 

Waiting at the border for the Canadian Customs inspection. Maui was using his "puppy eyes" look to ensure we were given easy passage.