Monday night, September 20, 2010
Now, Gig Harbor is only an hour or so away from Port Townsend, that cute little town in the edge of the harbor near the ferries. Sunday we were at Point Hudson at the end of Water Street, where they are redoing the marina. Busy place. We're catching up on eating out, with a wonderful brunch at Galatea, paella for one (more like for two) for the Navigator and egg/cheese souffles for the Captain. Eating at 1:00 p.m. meant that was the meal for the day. Why so late? Well, seems we lost all house power as the Captain unhooked from the shore power. Poof, gone. No lights, no water pump, no refrigerator. So no, we're not leaving today. Signed up for another night, went for a walk, decided we'd deal with it Monday when something to fix it would be open. Shore power once again provided everything we needed and with wifi and tv, we're set. The clouds lifted a bit, some pink of sunset showed above, and above that wispy clouds floated by the full moon.
We thought of Kyle Morgan this morning as I watched two boats of paddlers? rowers? as they scooted across the bay in the cold grey drizzy dawn. Kyle's paddling for his school, Mid-Pacific, and kayaking for Lanikai Canoe club in the hot sun on the blue Pacific, which looks like more fun. The cold grey rain and water may actually keep the kids cooler and less sunburned.
Sea Marine, a block away, said they could help us with electrical problems. Two hours later, with the help of their internet search for diagrams of Winnebago's wiring, which apparently is unlike boat wiring, with the converter and main panel under the refrigerator torn apart in the search for the broken connection or blown fuse or whatever, the culprit was located. Between the front seats. In an easily reached compartment labeled Battery Mode, Solenoid and Relays. Who knew? We thought that had to do with the Mercedes engine part of this hybrid, but for some reason this key part of the house power is on the MB chassis. Oh well, $150 later we are now educated.
So three hours later, we're going downtown for Asian noodles at the HanaKanza, which Sus had told us about...closed. Damn. On to the Thai place, and with a walk around the 1893 sandstone Post Office and Custom House and a drive around the wonderful old BIG Victorian homes, we left at 4 p.m. for Gig Harbor. Over the Hood Canal Floating Bridge, looping around Puget Sound and its many inlets, bays, and harbors, through the port of Bremerton, gawking at the half dozen aircraft carriers at Bremerton Naval Base. Commute time... weaving in and out of traffic, on ramps, off ramps, following the gps with the lat/long in to guide us to a safe harbor at Gig Harbor RV. Whew. Made it in time to haul in before the office shut down and dark closed in. Hey, there's some sun and a wonderful sunset. Maybe tomorrow?
Tacoma to Mt. Ranier, Portland and Home
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The sun shone on lovely Gig Harbor, full of yacts. The community looks like a cross between Carmel and Belvedere with gorgeous homes and gardens, densely placed on steep hillsides, and cute cottages, all shining in the clear blue sky. On to Tacoma, over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, also known as Gallopin' Gertie because it bucked and twisted and crashed into pieces in a heavy 1940 storm. Today it is a lovely structure, and sound.
Tacoma itself is much bigger than the little bit we saw as we twisted and turned over freeways under construction and around closed streets to get to the Glass Museum. Set in an area of UW buildings and other art museums, on the waterfront and near the Union Station, now a Federal Courthouse, this Chihuly kiln shaped structure has a lovely outdoor clear glass sculpture in a reflecting pool, a wonderful bridge over the roads and tracks below with towers of aqua glass and a ceiling of undersea creations seen from below, while we saw them from above at the exhibit at the deYoung a couple of years ago. And along the side of the bridge were cases displaying individual fantastic glass creations. The gift shop was lovely too, but the museum was closed. The guide book had failed to mention that winter hours meant not open on Mondays or Tuesdays. We could come back tomorrow; Mt. Rainier isn't all that far away, but getting out of Tacoma was harrowing, so we won't return. It was a relief to be on the road for Mt. Ranier National Park.
White River (named for the glacial till I suspect) camp site gave us a partial view of Mt. Ranier which showed signs of clearing. Rose to race the clouds to the top of Sunrise Point at 6400 feet before the clouds closed in. Majestic views at every twist and turn; the road was engineered to give tourists the best sights of this fabulous National Park. Sheer walls of rock (andecite?), slippery earth held in place by tall trees and brush still flowering, nature on the move with tumbling rocks and water, leaves turning bright yellow/orange/red colors. Fifty years ago, when we lived in Seattle, we seldom saw Mt. Ranier, and then only from a distance; now it is right before us, and even closer when we went the last mile or so to the Sunrise Lodge, now closed for the winter.
Interesting how disinterested we are in hiking in the cold dark forest, not one twinge of jealousy when we see people with their walking sticks, boots on, rain jackets slung over backpacks. Happy to sit with a muffin and cup of press pot coffee and cheer them on. The Wonderland Trail circumnavigates the park for 93 miles. Happy travels I say.
Finally I can tell the difference among Red cedar, used by the natives for everything from diapers to rope, Western Hemlock with its drooping tips and tiny cones, and Douglas Fir with upright groups of cones. Vine maple and big leaf maple are turning, fern, moss, skunk cabbage fill hollows Some of these trees are 1,000 years old. Ohanaprecosh visitor Center tells us we are standing on a layer of rock 10,000 feet thick, and that the volcano is somewhere between 28 and 30 million years old. Stevens Canyon road led to Paradise and Longmire taking us to the 'back side' of the mountaiin, which sits in the middle of the park. Paradise Inn, built in 1917, in a fine example of lodge architecture, tall, high ceilinged, yet warm and cozy, with two fireplaces in the old lobby and a beautiful dining room. The parking lot was filled with vans, campers, cars, SUVs, tour buses, hikers, photographers, gawkers (us). The visitor center also filled with people...and this was by noon. Lots of day trippers from Seattle, I suspect. The video showed photos of 'lahar', rivers of rocks, trees, slurry of all kinds rushing down the mountain after an eruption. I imagine the photos were from the Mt. St. Helen eruption in 1980. Lahar is a very scary phenomenon; they say it sounds like a freight train and moves faster.
A marmot posed by the side of the road, near the Reflection Lake. The Captain steered our modern day covered wagon around the hairpin curves and safely landed us at Cougar Rock campground, near Longmire. Longmire supplied firewood for the evening and gave us the chance to drive across a newly created wooded bridge within the complex. Fire making is a skill and Gene is good at it; we had a lovely warm late afternoon outside while Lucy chased her ball through the woods. Even the sounds of screaming 5th graders in the group camp a road away didn't bother us, but was actually pleasant. Highlight of the campground....a Bio Toilet composting wooden building, from Japan, with a Toto toilet inside. Brown water from the cedar chips it uses to compost was a bit of a shock, as was the warm seat. Half the building is the usable half, with hand sanitizer and a squirt bottle of plain water, and the other half is the mechanism, which we don't pretend to understand. Quite a sight in the middle of a national park forest.
Today is a bit of housekeeping, and since it's raining, I think we'll navigate our way on to Mt. St. Helens to see the recovery. We saw the partial recovery several years ago on a road trip with Meredith and Bill, and still have good memories and a photo or two of the four of us camping on the shores of the lake below the mountain. It was 1959, Gail was eight months pregnant with Brian, Meredith had not gone camping before, Bill was gung ho, and Gene had come prepared with a pop up tent and a thermos of martinis. Meredith decided camping was OK.
We're off to check on our mountain, meet the Saverys in Centralia and spend a day or two with them in Portland.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center just off I-5 is worth the stop, especially when the web cam shows that going further toward the mountain is futile due to closed-in weather. Pretty impressive video showing the lahar (mudflow) roaring down the north side and the plume of cloud and ash reaching toward the mid-West, hour by hour. 150 square miles of trees were knocked down and carried off. Several people lost their lives, houses inundated and slid down the face, everything roaring down along the slopes, carving new rivers and lakes. Spirit Lake rose 200 feet and two new lakes were created. 1980 is still fresh in the minds of people hereabouts, but as in all things contemporary American, our memories are short when it comes to planning. There are still settlements where a new eruption could reach them. Amazingly, 95% of the flora started back in the first year and many animals hidden below the ground re-emerged.
Centralia has a good little Mexican restaurant just off I-5 where Meredith and Bill landed after escaping the Tacoma traffic; an hour and half after dinner we were in Portland. An errand or two here, a dance program tonight, Farmer's Market tomorrow and a look at the possible condo they are buying on the Willamette River, and we head for home. Only plans for the rest of the trip are one more overnight in a southern Oregon State Park, a walk on the Calatrava Sundial Bridge in Redding, then straight home, arriving Sunday night. A good trip.
