Overly Excited in the Pacific Northwest

Yesterday I left you at the cliffhanger of Better Living Through Coffee in the Pacific Northwest.

Carol and I visited Port Townsend. It is a beautiful little town on the water with very stately architecture and art galleries and shops full of unnecessary items to enhance life and coffee and restaurants.

 

As the daughter of a citrus grower from Ivanhoe and the wife of a Trail Guy from Mineral King, cities and towns and beautiful buildings just THRILL me. It is a little embarrassing to take me anywhere because I am just THRILLED. THRILLED, I say.

Excuse me while I calm myself here.

There is a yarn shop in this building. With great restraint I did not go inside. I was already a bit overstimulated by the ferry ride and the beautiful buildings and the fantastic coffee.

No more caffeine for you Young Lady.

Get to the point already.

The point was to see Bob, my former drawing student! He and his wife and their horse (RIP, Porky Doc) and dogs (one less now, RIP Rose) moved there 4 years ago. Mrs. Bob loves it. Bob misses the sunshine and the drawing lessons. I miss Bob.

We had a wonderful visit. He drove us around town a bit, and treated us to a wonderful lunch at a very nice restaurant in a very old building. I could hardly eat from the excitement of it all. (Yeah, I know, I don’t get around and out much.)

We visited several art galleries, and the highlight was dropping by Don Tiller’s studio. Who is Don Tiller? I’m glad you asked. He paints what he calls “contemporary acrylic landscapes”. His work is whimsical and colorful and unusual. Bob took private lessons from him, and Carol took a workshp from him last month. Here, click on this to open his website in another page.

Tomorrow I’ll share some photos of beautiful things I saw while in Washington, the beautiful (and wet cold and rainy) Pacific Northwest.

Better Living in the Pacific Northwest

AFTER we finished working on the design of The Cabins of Wilsonia,  Carol and I went on an adventure.

Riding a ferry is always an adventure to me, but we spiced it up a bit to see if we could rely solely on public transportation.

First we drove to the Mukilteo ferry. I love that ferry. I love all ferries.

 

This is the view of the Mukilteo light house from the ferry. It was raining. Are you surprised?

After that, we caught the FREE inter-island bus. The last time we tried that, we didn’t know that the bus didn’t run on Sunday. That was an adventure too. (We’ve had many adventures in our 37 years of friendship.)

Then we caught a ferry to Port Townsend.

Before I get to the reason for our trip, let me share a photo with you of a business that made me laugh:

Tomorrow I’ll tell you and show you why we went to Port Townsend.

Stay tuned. . .

A California Artist Visits the Pacific Northwest

I went to the Seattle area so my friend Carol could help me finalize the design on the upcoming book, The Cabins of Wilsonia. She taught me how to use Adobe Indesign almost 2 years ago and has an excellent eye for design. I get caught up in “oh, I love that cabin” and “those people were so nice” and “wow that one was challenging” and then I forget to pay attention to the design of the pages.

We worked.

We walked, always either in rain or the threat of rain.

There are some things that are just wonderful about visiting Carol, in addition to just being together.

1. The internet is SUPER CRAZY FAST at her house! Probably isn’t any different than anywhere else in a larger population than rural Three Rivers. But oh my, how thrilling to download a book from Audible in THREE MINUTES! Takes 2-3 tries overnight to get it to download at home.

2. Scarves are for warmth instead of decoration. I wore my knitted items with tremendous thankfulness while in the cold and wet.

3. Ferry travel is the best way to travel, the ultimate in getting from point A to point B. I love it! Carol said that back when she was in college, some kids would study on a ferry. They’d stake out a table and sit and ride and study all day long. Now, you are required to get off when the ferry reaches its destination. If you want back on, you buy another ticket.

Tomorrow I’ll post about some of the things we saw and did AFTER finishing the design work. It was a business trip of course. You weren’t questioning my work ethic, were you?

Final Tahoe Posting

I know, it is Friday and I’m still talking about Tahoe. It was beautiful and this post is for your enjoyment, not because I have a compulsion to finish topics, although that may be a factor here. This post will be long so that I can finish (not that I have a finishing compulsion or anything).

Before my friend The Other JB moved away, we used to walk and hike together. She told me about a lake near Tahoe called Fallen Leaf. I thought it was a small lake with a dusty campground. I was wrong. It is about the same size as Emerald Bay, 3 miles by 1 mile, and has a fancy-pants community of awesomely beautiful lake houses and a few cabins. Who knew? the Other JB, that’s who!

In spite of it being late October, there was sunshine and fall color remaining.

Then, we visited Taylor Creek where the salmon were spawning. This means swimming upstream out of Lake Tahoe to lay eggs and die. There were zillions of dying and dead fish. It smelled like it, too.

The ducks didn’t seem too bothered by the fish and their smells.

Beaver activity – there is a dam on the creek behind this fallen tree (not to be confused with Fallen Leaf Lake).

See the dam?

See the fall colors? Weird extended summer this year – Please God, send us rain and snow!

We woke to this on the morning that we left.

More Tahoe

If you came here on Friday for Mineral King, I’m sorry. I temporarily ran out of things to show and tell on the subject. I hope you aren’t too disappointed to find Lake Tahoe . . . same mountain range. . . does that count?

We took a short hike, along with what felt like hundreds of strangers, many of whom spoke other languages. Obviously, Lake Tahoe is much more accessible than Mineral King. Ever had to say “excuse me” to pass someone on a trail in Mineral King? Maybe if it was narrow and someone was carrying a large pack. . .

No, we didn’t climb that. I think it is Mt. Tallac.

This is along the trail to Eagle Falls, and ultimately Eagle Lake. (There is one of those in Mineral King. There are probably lots of Eagle Lakes.) This one required a permit for a day hike! In spite of it being late October, there were still some wonderful places of colored leaves.

The falls were barely trickling under this bridge when we were there. This is probably quite spectacular in the spring. We chose not to go on toward the lake, because there was a giant one behind us. Besides, we hadn’t applied for a permit. A permit to day hike! Kind of irritating, if you ask me. (You didn’t, and I don’t blame you, considering my attitude toward such things.)

This is the view of Emerald Bay on Lake Tahoe as seen from the Eagle Falls and Eagle Lake Trail.

Emerald? Looks more Cerulean to me! (That’s an art word for blue. It isn’t quite as fun to say as “indigo” which is a fancy word for “navy” or “alizarin” which is a fun word for red.)

Fridays are for Tahoe?

Is it possible that I have run out of things to write about Mineral King? It is true that my interaction with the place is lessened once the cabin is closed for the season. I might have shown you all the best photos already. Recycling photos is a little boring. . .  a cop-out method of writing blog posts, in my opinion. (Oh great – now I won’t ever be able to do a recycle or you will call me on it!)

So, for a little while, Fridays will be for Lake Tahoe. We’ll see how long I can stretch out the photos from a beautiful fall weekend. And of course, these are photos from which I may be able to paint some day, so it had to have been a business trip, right?

This is my favorite. I love that little edge of light on the side of the trunks.

I took this photo because it struck me as interesting that these colors are gorgeous in nature and gaudy on manmade objects.

Hey Laurie, did you notice these leaves on the ground in your yard? They are at the base of your back porch!

Final Tuesday Cruiseday

Yep, I think I’ve taken this as far as possible. There was one other port, a quick stop in Victoria, Canada, and then a few more days at sea. (Why don’t people say “at ocean”? It is more accurate.)

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The ship employs people to do stuff like this to keep passengers entertained.

 

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I am more entertained by sitting here with my Glay-see-uh colored knitting.

 

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I’m also very entertained by walking in circles on the uppermost decks. It is 1/3 of a mile around the whole shebang.

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We often passed by this movie screen where this marmot or groundhog kept shouting “Alan”. (I have no earthly or oceanly idea. . .)

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Look at my cute little Mama! She was still overwhelmed by the size of our floating hotel/mall/restaurant! This was at the docks in Victoria.

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That city is a knock-out – the architecture, the gardens, the sunshine – Wowsa!

See what I mean??

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That green sail boat was offering a “3 hour tour”. No takers in our crowd. They need a new slogan. (We all grew up watching Gilligan’s Island.)

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Hydrangeas at the Empress Hotel just captivated me.

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Shop windows in the Empress captivated my sisters.

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This fireman statue captivated my bro-in-law, the chaplain to the Visalia Fire Dept.

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Trail Guy and I had a few maps, and this was a piece of architecture I just HAD TO SEE. It was wonderful on the outside, but our time was short, so we opted out of the inside tour.

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Totem poles, historic structures, fancy-pants architecture – Victoria has it all.

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This wants to be painted. (On canvas! I wouldn’t paint the rocks!)

I really do go nuts over beautiful architecture. I don’t make it to cities very often, and am in awe when I do go.

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Back on board, we circled the decks several dozen more times.

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We entertained ourselves by watching Dave Letterman play miniature golf.

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Golf is boring, but being with my family takes the edge off.

15Around and around and around on the upper decks. Good thing that I love being outside and the color blue.

Finally, the cruise ended. We were instructed to put our luggage in the hall the night before. This is my trusty Samsonite, which has accompanied me to China twice. I can always find it in the sea of black rolies, always. It looks HUGE when stored in my workshop at home; next to other people’s suitcases, it is a cute little old thing. Doesn’t it make you smile? It does me! (Or are you smiling because I am finally going to be quiet about this cruise?)

Will Tuesday Cruisedays Ever End?

Yep. Next week. Promise!

After Juneau, we went to a place called the Tracy Arm Fjord. It is a narrow canyon of water with the Sawyer Glay-see-uh at the end. The ship cruises slowly up the canyon at some crazy early hour in the morning, and if you have any sense, you’ll disregard the fact that you were out exploring Juneau at 11 p.m. and get your arse out of bed at 5 the next morning to see this beautiful side trip. Further more, if you have any sense at that time in spite of being dangerously low on sleep, you’ll dress warmly for heading outside and upstairs into the icy wind.

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The water was really this teal color. Really!

 

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The icebergs really were this blue. Really!

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Brrrrrr, where are we going?

 

Cool! Is that it? Can we get any closer?

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Oh. Don’t want to be a sequel to that movie. Guess we won’t hear or see any of that famous “calving”.

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That’s okay. I have a telephoto feature on this little camera.

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This was Michael’s favorite part of the whole cruise. He spent the rest of the trip lamenting the fact that we didn’t get to be close to shore. The reason was that the casino couldn’t open unless we were miles out to sea. I finally told him to take it up with the captain.

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That was a small craft which was able to get closer to the glay-see-uh because it could navigate safely through the icebergs. I think it could, because I didn’t hear any news stories about sinking ships in Alaska. Of course, I didn’t listen to any news. Why would I? Part of a cruise’s magic is to escape!

Cruisedays, Tuesdays

This is Chapter Six of Fun Things I Will Never Do Again (Unless Someone Else Pays) or “My Alaskan Cruise”.

Juneau might have been my favorite stop. This could be because we were there the longest of all the ports. After visiting the Mendenhall Glay-shee-uh, we went up Mt. Roberts.

Mt. Roberts has a tram, which costs $31 and zips you to the top of a mountain above Juneau. Not us – we are Trail Guy and Mrs. Trail Guy.

We meandered through the streets of Juneau, following a map I got back in the 1980s when I thought I might move to Alaska. (I was an idiot, but let’s not think about that too much.)

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These folks in Juneau really take advantage of the long days of sunlight during the summer. We loved seeing the results of the gardening efforts.

 

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Steep streets, steps everywhere.

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I was pleased and amazed to see this very place, same view, in the overpriced book that the cruise ship sold about the various ports of call on our journey.

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When we got out of the neighborhoods and closer to the trailhead, this was the view.

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This is probably just a stream. Looks bigger than the Kaweah River!

 

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Hmmm, that would get your attention in the winter. (There’s a typo in the sign. . . just sayin’.)

 

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It was steep, muddy, uphill and 2.5 miles to the top where the tram is. There are more trails at the top, but we were muddy and sweaty and done. However, we started pretty close to sea level, so this sort of hike wasn’t nearly as huffy-puffy as hiking in Mineral King.

 

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Nice view of Juneau below!

 

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Really really nice views up there!

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Hey! There’s our ship!

I told you these cruises are all about the ship, right? We had a tiny sense that we were out there on our own during our long day in Juneau. I’d like to go back and stay a week or two.

Oh – about the tram? We spent $20 at the top of the tram, and showed our receipt, which worked as a ticket for a quick and thrilling descent back to the port.

 

More Tuesday Cruiseday

Chapter Five of My Alaskan Cruise, or Cruising is a Fantasy Life, or Fun Things I Will Never Do Again (Unless Someone Else Pays)

Our third and final day with feet on Alaskan soil was spent in Juneau, the capital of Alaska. It is disconnected from the rest of the state unless you fly or use the ferry system (or arrive on a cruise ship. . . maybe you could canoe or kayak too).

This day will be divided into 2 parts, because although there were 3 parts to the day, the 3rd part was not photographed. It was a walk through the town at about 9:30 at night. It was light enough to take pictures, but the light was flat.

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Just your average view on your average day on your average bus, going to see an average glacier, by the name of Mendenhall, a non-average sort of name.

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HEY! We have these in Mineral King and in Three Rivers!

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Trail Guy was pleased that there were trails. We walked about one easy mile to Nugget Falls. It was a walk, not a hike, because there was no food in our packs, just cameras and binoculars (and maybe some knitting.)

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Who are these people? Just a bunch of Tulare County hon-yocks. That’s Nugget Falls to your right, and the Mendenhall Glacier to the left behind us. (or “Glay-shee-uh” as the ship’s naturalist said.)

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Check out those blues! Blue is God’s favorite color. It is mine too. Doesn’t make me holy or anything. Just means I have one tiny thing in common with God.

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Hey Trail Guy, it’s easier to hike on flat stuff at sea level, ain’t it?

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The bus was delayed due to a Fourth Of July parade. No worries. Waiting is seldom a problem for me. See that yarn? The color is called “Hawaii”. Nope, I think it should be called “Glay-shee-uh”.

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