9/18 - Bellingham, WA. I ended up staying here for two days. 1st day, I had an 8 AM appointment for my A Service - basically an oil change and inspection. No surprise after all the dirt roads in AK that they found that my air and cabin filters needed to be replaced. They also suggested replacing my rear brakes. Of course, I'm at their mercy, so hopefully they're honest. I decided to have them do this, but they couldn't do it until the next morning. So I stayed another night in their parking lot and they worked on it in the morning while Zoe and I took a long walk. We found a railroad trail nearby, so that was perfect.
While in Bellingham/Burlington area I did laundry, shopped at Trader Joe's to stock up (YAY! 1st time since June 2 before heading to AK), had my tires rotated at Discount Tire (if I didn't mention this before, I highly recommend getting tires from them or somewhere that offers free rotations) as I had done about 9K for the whole going to AK trip, and got my hair cut. Whew!
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| Bay view from Bellingham |
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| The Granary |
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| Whatcom Lake |
9/19 - After my the brakes, tire rotation, and hair cut, we left town and headed to a HH winery not far away. It was a beautiful day and I was looking forward to getting there and sitting outside and relaxing. Instead I ended up visiting with several other HHers for the rest of the day... It was fun, but I didn't get the chill time I was looking for. Sometimes I feel like I'm going from A to B to C and/or being with other people too much and I need my down/alone time.
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| HH Eagle Haven Winery in Sedro Woolley, WA. Also an apple orchard and we were told to pick what we wanted. |
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| I took some of the wine grapes and they're pretty yummy. Not sure what the grape is though. |
9/20 - Heading out towards North Cascades NP on Rte 20. A couple I had met who lived in the area told me this was worth going for the scenery and I'm so glad they did as I really didn't know where I was going. And here I am finally in a NP that allows dogs on trails and it was in the mid 80s, so way too warm for Zoe. We did do a bit, but I did several short hikes on my own.
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| Smoke map 😒 |
9/22 - I had found a great place to stay. It's near a neighborhood, but on forest service land, so totally OK to park. I didn't get there until late and there was one other camper there, but there was a ton of space.
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| View from campsite |
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| View from campsite |
9/23 - Heading towards Bend, but unsure where I'm going. Thought I'd go to a HH winery in The Dalles or a Chestnut farm?
In the end I found another winery - Jacob Williams in the Columbia River Gorge - and I'm so glad I did. Awesome white wines and a beautiful setting. The trains were very noisy though... It's also right by a road, but not too busy at night. They even supply ear plugs! It is often very windy here, but I lucked out and it's pretty calm.
I was the first here, so I could pick my spot. Nice and level, right on the Bluff. I went in to sample the wines and afterwards ended up visiting with Mike and Wendy for a while who are from Bend area, so they gave me some good ideas.
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| View from parking spot at winery |
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| Mount Hood! |
9/24 - Very calm here this morning! Lovely!
Cora, my cousin's daughter, (does that make her my cousin, once removed? 2nd cousin??) lives in Portland, but it looks like I'm not going to see her. It was very last minute and she and Andy are busy and I'm not set on going into Portland anyway, so I'm just going to head to Bend/Sisters area. Right now I'm heading to the town of Hood River and am going to have lunch at the Pfreim Brewery. When in the Olympic Peninsula, a guy gave me one of their beers and I loved it, so I have to go. I hear it has great food too.
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| Morning view from bedroom window |
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| Morning view of Mt Hood from bedroom window |
I took a walk down the hill though I was warned by Wendy that it was very steep. It didn't look too bad to me, but Zoe decided she wasn't interested in going, so I put her back in the van and went on my own! The hill was a bit steep, but not too long and no more steep than Villard Ave, the big hill we had to walk up and down to and from school. It felt good to do it on my own at my own pace and get my heart rate up a bit, even for that short bit.
The negative of the lack of wind was that the windsurfers/kite surfers weren't out.
I went to the Pfreim Brewery and did a flight and really didn't like any of them (6). I even had the one I loved before. I waited for my food, thinking that maybe that would cleanse my palate, but no such luck. There were a couple that were ok, but none were great, and one was horrible. Ahhh, expectations... While I was waiting for my lunch, Wendy and Mike texted saying they were on their way over, so they joined me. Wendy didn't end up liking her beer either.
We drove into the center of town, thinking we'd walk around there, but it didn't inspire me and it was really warm (mid 80s), so we left to find a place to park for the night. We went to the Chestnut farm, but it wasn't speaking to me either (hmmm, this seems to be a theme for me today!), so we continued on. After trying a couple of spots, I ended up at Bennett Pass Sno Park for the night. It's cooler and there is a nice road in the trees that Zoe and I walked on. She really isn't enjoying walks these days unless there are a lot of doggy smells. Maybe that's always been the case, but with her limp, she really does not look into walking at all. It makes me sad. I'm going to have to leave her behind a lot more... 😒
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| That's a lot of beer for midday! I didn't like them much so didn't drink them all... |
Many views of Mt Hood
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| From where I parked for the night. I think this is Mt Hood, but many mountains around here look similar... |
Amazing stars. I'm not sure how well they come across in this medium though...
Awesome pictures. Give Zoe some love for us.
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