TRIP TO BELLEVUE
This past week Linda and I decided to take a quick trip to Bellevue, over on the western side of the mountains, to go shopping at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. It was a beautiful morning when we left Yakima, bright and early. It was perfect weather for taking a day-trip. We were both dressed in warm-weather clothing, but we each had a fleece jacket with us because grocery stores are notoriously cold. As we neared the pass over the mountains we could feel the temperature beginning to drop. Also, the clouds greatly increased in number. We should have known that the weather would be different on the western side because we have taken this trip many times, but we always seem to forget. Anyway, it wasn't too chilly and rainy while we were there, but we were glad we had a fleece with us.
One thing that keeps getting increasingly worse every time we travel over to the Westside is the traffic! We do not have much traffic in Yakima as it is located in a rural area and isn't a very big city. Over on the Westside there is traffic everywhere! We got a little bit turned around going to Trader Joe's, but we finally made it there, then on to Whole Foods just down the road. After lunch and completing our shopping, we got back in the car to head home. But, we had decided to do something we had always wanted to do on one of these trips over the mountains, and that was to go to Snoqualmie Falls. We passed the sign on the interstate every time and always said that we need to go there. Now that we are retired, we have the time. So we headed that way. It didn't take long to get there as it isn't very far off of the interstate. They have a nice parking lot (which was almost full) and a covered walkway over the highway to get to the falls. There is a quaint hotel there beside the falls called Salish Lodge. I have only seen a handful of waterfalls in my life, the most notable being Hickory Nut Falls at Chimney Rock in North Carolina (404 feet), and Multnomah Falls (620 feet) in Oregon. I would put Snoqualmie Falls (270 feet) right up there with those two in terms of impressiveness, even though it is not nearly as high.
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| Snoqualmie Falls |
I didn't take my camera with me on this trip because I forgot we were going to go to the falls, but luckily I did have my phone. In the picture above you can see the falls, and over to the top left-hand side you can see Salish Lodge. It's kind of spooky-looking in this picture, almost like a haunted house. This lodge took it's name from a Native American group of the Pacific Northwest, the Salish peoples. It is owned by the Muckleshoot Tribe and was used as a setting for the TV show Twin Peaks.
As if the falls weren't impressive enough, there are beautiful garden areas to walk by and enjoy the flowers, which looked like they were at the height of their blooming. Some of these flowers lined the walkway beside the falls, which led down to another viewing area. We checked it out and the view of the falls was even better at that point...but you did get some of the spray from the water!
We found a little side area that had some more flowers so Linda and I ventured in there. The weather was a little overcast, but that made the light give the flowers a sort of glowing quality.
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| Beautiful colors |
The colors were absolutely stunning! This flower above kind of looks like an orchid, but is probably an azalea or rhododendron, as were most of the flowers we saw. I have read that the best time to view Snoqualmie Falls is in the spring, due to the snow melt. I've seen pictures of the falls when the water level was low and there was a big difference. I think we went at the perfect time. Below are a few more pictures of flowers we saw while there.
I had to take a selfie while there just to have as proof that I actually went, and then I made Linda pose for a picture as well. I was having a bad hair day, but Linda looks like she just came from the hairdresser! Oh well, we work with what we've got.
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| What's up with that hair? |
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| Looking good! |
After we left the falls we decided to ride through the nearby town of Snoqualmie. The name "Snoqualmie" is derived from the English pronunciation of a Native American word meaning "moon." Funny, I always thought it had something to do with snow. Anyway, we rode through the town and were greatly impressed by the amount of traffic! Although there were no signal lights, the traffic on the side opposite us (heading towards Seattle) was bumper-to-bumper. We had no idea why there was so much traffic in this small town, but we guessed that it might have something to do with people leaving the nearby town of North Bend, where a lot of factory outlet shops are located. We found our way back to the interstate and our trip home was uneventful.
PUZZLE UPDATE
We finally finished the puzzle we had been working on, so here is a finished picture of it.
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| The latest finished puzzle |
This one is called "Reader's Paradise" and is one of Linda's favorites. That's because it's all about books, her favorite thing. This was our second time doing this one. We have now moved on to another puzzle that we've done before. We seriously need to get some more puzzles because it only takes us about 2 weeks to put one together, so at this rate we will be doing them over every couple of months. We only have the border done so far so I'm not going to post a picture because you wouldn't be able to tell anything about it. I'll try to post one next week.
GARDEN UPDATE
I have been working hard the past week to get all my plants in the ground and into pots and I have made great progress. I have all the plants out in the garden now, and in the side areas along the fence. But I still have to plant my Basil plants into pots. I have planted all my plants out in the garden BEFORE Memorial Day only one other year. Most years I have to wait until Memorial Day or later due to last-minute frosts. This year there was not frost predicted, so I started early. I still have to get my hoses put down and then straw on top, but that's not hard. Yesterday, I saw my first volunteer tomato plant out there, and I think it is a Sweet 100. We now have 8 volunteer potato plants to go along with the 12 that I planted. So there will be loads of potatoes again this year. I didn't plant as many pepper plants as usual, and you will be glad to know that I don't have a Baby Hab to obsess over this year (although I do have 2 regular Habanero peppers). The garden has the usual things this year with the exception of a Yellow Straight-Neck Squash that I planted from seeds a friend sent me from NC. As a matter of fact, she sent me a whole box of various kinds of seeds, and I was going to get them started inside. I didn't get to do that because I got sick once we got back from Dad's memorial and by the time I felt well enough, it was too late. Our growing season here in Yakima is way shorter than it is in North Carolina, so in order to give the plants time to mature and produce before frost sets in, you have to start them indoors as seeds in about March. So I am hoping that I can do that next year. At least I did get some squash seeds planted as they usually come up pretty quick and produce well here in Yakima. We will see how these NC squash seeds do.
I like to try something different each year, so this year I have a cilantro plant in my herb garden area. I know some of you are probably saying, "Yuk! Cilantro!" This is one of those herbs that you either love or hate. I don't like it in everything, but some Mexican dishes do benefit from a little bit. I also planted a few parsley plants, but I have grown those before. I remember when Linda and I first moved here to Yakima, we were all excited to get some parsley plants and get them in the ground so we could raise some butterflies. Then we found out that the butterfly that used parsley as a host plant for its eggs back in NC, the Black Swallowtail, is not found in Washington. So sadly our parsley was without butterfly eggs. This year I am growing it for us.
I almost forgot one other new thing I am trying this year: micro-greens. I got a package of seeds and planted them in a flat this past week. Yesterday morning I saw about 4 little green things just starting to poke up over the soil. As the day went on that number grew, and overnight we had an explosion of growth in that flat! Looks like I will be harvesting some of them pretty soon. They are great to put on sandwiches and in salads.
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| Is this some kind of alien landscape? |
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| The micro-greens |
BIRD UPDATE
I was pretty busy this past week with my planting and I didn't have much time for watching the birds. Still, I got out there one afternoon and sat in my chair under the tree. The quail eventually showed up and started pecking around under the feeder and out in the garden. They are so cute when they scratch around and take dirt baths. We got a bag of cracked corn just to see if they would go after it, but it seems like the sparrows and doves like it so much, I'm not sure the quail have had a chance to check it out.
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| Papa quail on lookout |
PARTING SHOT
Summer Girl has been diligent in protecting the house and yard from all those errant birds that are threatening to eat us out of house and home. Here she is on alert status in her favorite spot...my lap.
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| I think I hear something! |
That's all for this week, join us again next week for more exciting news from the Northwest!
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