The Beginning of An Epic Adventure in the Pacific NW

My annual trip out the Pacific Northwest was a bit early this year.  If you plan on visiting the San Juan Islands with your best friend, you have to make the summer venture.  Who wants to visit an island in the northern most corner of the Pacific Northwest when the temperatures start to drop – not I!

We started talking about this venture on the way home from last year’s girls trip to Victoria… and, again, I left the planning to her.  Lesley runs an amazing website for information on NW events, locales, and general fun.  WhatsupNW.com has really exploded and places we go are excited for her to visit and to be featured on the site.  That means, she has all in the “ins”.  I am just along for the ride – I get to help her interview amazing people in various fields, and we have a blast together.  Honestly, her moving sucked, but we make our visits count.  She travels like I do on solo trips – packing in much in as possible… so together, we power-tour and document for her site, take tons of pictures and soak in as much as humanly possible.

For once the weather was going to be perfect.  There was minimal rain in the forecast.  I was itching for a vacation.  And then I got sick.  I am not talking a little summer cold either.  By the time I landed at SeaTac, I felt like I wanted to crawl into a ball and sleep for a week.  I had no energy, I spike a fever 2 nights before, my nose would not stop leaking, and I was a sneezing mess.  I looked and felt great to see my gorgeous best friend (Jersey sarcasm).    She picked me up; I took some Nyquil and had to apologize to her doggies that are used to me rolling around to play with them on visits.  She let me sleep the first day before she and her husband took me to the small town of Leavenworth.  This place is in the south-central Cascades and completely Bavarian themed.  We walked the streets, and I stopped at a few adorable shops looking at things that caught my eye.  Outside town we stopped at the river dam to walk the salmon ladder and watch some fish jump their way through the waters (and a kayaker navigate the falls) and then headed to a state park to take in a gorgeous lake and mountain views.

The next day, we had a girl’s day with some of her friends (and mine) in Seattle.  Lesley was invited to the VIP rooftop lounge at the Hard Rock.  I rallied and we headed towards Pike’s Market.  The lounge over looked the market!  Incredible space!  We had a blast, eating lunch, grooving to music and playing with beach balls… and it’s all fun before someone gets hurt.  And our story ended not with someone getting hurt, but someone’s expensive bag getting doused in beer.  She was fantastically nice about the whole thing and the staff moved quickly to clean everything up.  We took our own ball away and went back to couch dancing.

After a few hours at the Hard Rock, we walked through Pike’s Market.  I love the market – the colors, the venders, the hassle and the flying fish.  So much to see… more so after the latest expansion.  From the market we played the largest game of Pac-Man ever… it was seriously wall-sized.  And wandered into Gum Wall alley.  Ewwww is the right word here.  It is colorful and uniquely Seattle, and as long as you don’t overthink it, it can be amazingly neat to look at.  Some people just stick some gum on the wall, others make something with it… me?  Andrea and I pooled our gum and made a peace sign… we can all use more of that sentiment today with the situation in North Korea looming out there.

We had an early evening because the real trip was kicking in (and man was I still sick).  We hit the road by 5:30am to make the drive to the port.  This was Lesley’s first trip on an auto-ferry and she was not messing around.  So, we made it to port by 7:30 and were on the water by 9am.  The ride over was seriously cold (this is the northern Pacific NW) and stunningly gorgeous.  The waters were calm, since they are protected by Vancouver Island.  Smooth sailing, clear skies and fantastic scenery meant we were docking in Friday Harbor in no time.   Bucket List trip… here I come.

These Last Weeks of Summer

Travel was sporadic this summer.  Some of that was attributable to heavy travel this spring, some to conflicting schedules with friends, some to an awesome lineup of summer concert and some because of plain financing. I still have not found that money tree.  Honestly, I needed a break after the hectic spring and big trips to Mexico, Nevada and California. 
Things are about to change...




Path of Totality

A year ago, we started talking about the upcoming solar eclipse.  And a year ago I started looking at options.  This was no time to dilly-dally.  Rooms a year in advance in Wyoming were sold out in the path of totality.  After trying everything in Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon, we decided to head to Music City - Nashville.  I have not been in over 10 years and John has never visited.  We jumped on a great room rate at the Sheraton 4 Points and decided to make it a mini-trip.

Well, the eclipse is less than 2 weeks away.  We have a huge road trip planned.  My trip schedule is packed with things I missed my first time to the city, and can't miss things for John.  We booked a ghost pub tour, a dinner cruise on the river, and plan to visit the area national park site, Stone River,  for the big event.  We will hop on and off the trolley to hit big city sites, and drive around to see The Hermitage, Belle Meade and the zoo.  I am super excited to visit the Parthenon again - I swear one day I will see the original in Greece. A few tours of caught my eye at historic homes, museums and historic music halls; I am hoping to catch the screen printing tour at the Ryman.  After the eclipse at the park, if we can hit the road quickly, I think we can squeeze in a tour at Jim Beam after the eclipse in Lynchburg since Stone River National Battlefield is already a half hour south of the city.  It will be a busy three days... and then I have to rush back because I have tickets to another concert the evening after the event.... no, I never do things simply.

Before I get too ahead of myself, we have to make it through this upcoming weekend.  We have some fun planned in Hershey Pennsylvania.  We are going bang our heads to Guns & Roses (hopefully Axel shows up).  Of course the weather is predicted to be nasty - sever storms!   That always makes an outdoor concert fun!  We are playing the amusement park by ear.  I haven't been inside the park since I was in junior high; I have fond memories of riding rollercoasters and the Rotor (a great spinning machine that suck you to the walls).  I hope we can get some quality time in the park and reclaim some of our youth.

I have several more trips in the works ... this is just August after all.  I have plenty of time to talk about my trip plans for the fall and winter! I don't want to get ahead of myself and not enjoy the moment.

 

 

End of Year 2016 - Lots of Wins and 1 Mission Failure

Let's start off immediately by saying that I did not make it to my final state this year.  It was a goal.  I had a plan... and plans change.  Needless to say, I am miffed about this, but that does not mean I did not do and see amazing things this year.
Year End Summary


States/Territories Visited: NJ, NY, PA, DE, VA, MD, AZ,  NC, SC, FL, LA, CO, KY, AR, WA & US Virgin Islands
Countries: USA, Canada, Dominican Republic, St Kitts, Dominica, British Virgin Islands (Tortola)
Key Cities: NYC, Philadelphia, Tucson, Phoenix, Scranton, Little Rock, Bowling Green, New Orleans, Denver, Victoria, Ottawa, Miami, Charleston
Art Towns – Cooperstown, Charleston, Hot Springs, Coral Gables, Charlotte Amalie




Parks: Mammoth Cave NP, Hot Springs NP, Wright Brothers Nat Memorial, Fort Raleigh NHS, Tumacacori NHP, Paterson Great Falls NHP, Saguaro NP, Coronado Nat Mem, Valley Forge NHP, Hopewell Furnace NHS, Steamtown NHS, Abraham Lincoln Birthplace NHP,  Lincoln Boyhood Home Nat Mem, Fort Sumter NM, Little Rock Central High School NHS, Wolf Trap NP for the Performing Arts, Great Falls Park, Shenandoah NP, Montezuma Castle NM and Canadian National Park 1000 Isles, Dominican Republic National Parks Sanoa Island and the Caves; The Baths, British Virgin Islands; Morne Trois Pitons NP, Dominica



Concerts:  Hall & Oats, Trombone Shorty, Santana, William Shatner, Tony Bennett, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson (THE Beach Boy), Elle King, Bryan Adams, Chic, Duran Duran, Ricky Martin,  Kristin Chenoweth,  NSO and New Kids on the Block plus a lots of amazing Broadway shows (Allegiance, Finding Neverland, Waitress, She Loves Me, Beautiful, American in Paris, Fully Committed, Disaster, Bright Star, On Your Feet, The Illusionists, Sweet Charity [off Bway] and Holiday Inn ), tours Bridges Of Madison County, Maks & Val Dance, Grinch Stole Christmas and regional shows Freaky Friday. (I love live music and theatre)


Aquariums: Virginia Marine Science Center, South Carolina

Ghost Tours: Ottawa, New Orleans

Iconic or Plain Ole’ Amazing Sites: Central Park in the snow storm, Philly Flower Show, Canadian Capital, Little Rock HS, Bathhouse Row,  Parliament in Victoria, Pineapple Fountain of Charleston, Grand Ave in Mammoth Caves, Coors Tour in Golden,  Baseball Hall of Fame, Columbus Museum in Santo Domingo, The Baths in Virgin Gorda, the Caribbean Reef
2016 was a full year.  It was a year filled with beauty, wonder and adventure, beginning with a crazy snowbound trip in NYC in the epic snowstorm and ending in the Caribbean visiting a few new islands. 

This year marked the 100^th birthday of the national park service, and everyone knows how passionate I am about visiting (and protecting) these amazing places.  I made a point of getting to some new national parks, as well as revisiting a few favorites along the way.  And with them, I made it to lots of other types of park units – monuments, historic sites, memorials and more.  With all my visits to national park elements, you would think I would be almost done, but I am not even close.  There is a lot to see out there, and visiting these places helps me connect to our environment just a tiny bit more.  I went out to cave country this year to visit Mammoth Caves in Kentucky  - we hiked by lamp light, we saw cave critters evolved to live in a lightless environment, and imagined rooms filled with gypsum flowers.  I revisited Saguaro National Park in Tucson Arizona to catch a sunset over these iconic cactus before I took off to hike to the Mexican border at Coronado National Memorial, visited a mission at Tumacacori and walked around an ancient Native American dwelling carved into the mountainside in Montezuma Castle.  John and I traveled to Arkansas to honor civil rights history at Little Rock Central High School and partake in a bit of history by taking a traditional bath at historic Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs National Park (I also got in an amazing hike to see the beautiful folded mountains).  I took many weekend trips, some solo some not, to explore area park sites – we rode an historic steam engine in Scranton, PA, at the Steamtown National Historic Site, we learned about theories for Croatian at Fort Raleigh and listened in awe to the stories of first flight at Wright Brothers, both in North Carolina; I learned about colonial iron forging at Hopewell Furnace; visited Hamilton’s designer city at Paterson Falls; and more…

This year finally marked the year I made it to things that have been on my list for what seems like ages– Charleston, SC & its pineapple fountain!  Cooperstown & the Baseball Hall of Fame.  John and I made these trips to celebrate our birthdays… on one, we hit the beach and burned our feet before a monstrous storm rolled in, we toured via foot, bike, boat and horse and buggy to see a Southern gem and soak in the history, and on the other, we wandered an amazing museum on baseball and another on cars, and took time to enjoy a beautiful lake before an amazing storm rolled in practically each day.  YEP, my weather luck is still rolling!