After Colorado, we returned to Flagstaff briefly to put Howie (our travel trailer) in storage, then drove north to Utah. It was time to meet up with Kathy and Bob for a couple weeks of exploring and adventures, yay!
We picked them up in Salt Lake and continued north to Idaho. The eventual destination was Olympic National Park, and Kathy does a fantastic job of finding all sorts of interesting things to see and do as we go.
Starting with an adorable AirBnB in Twin Falls, complete with its own mural:
And an apricot tree out front, where the owner encouraged us to pick a bunch of fruit. John had only to hear the word "ladder" and he was up the tree immediately (and the apricots were so delicious!):
An excellent first dinner with our travel buddies:
Our favorite part of Twin Falls is the deep canyon with high bridges over it. Randomly we happened to see a group of people base jumping off of this bridge! I think we tried to take pictures but it's not an easy thing to capture on camera. You'll just have to take our collective words for it.
Kathy and Bob brought Big Duck along for the journey, and he helped us with navigation (our version of a Jeep duck):
Kathy found us this remarkable double-decker bus to stay in for a night!
Hanging out in the upstairs space:
Kathy is ready to take this show on the road:
We had time to wander around Boise and explore the mural alley:
There are some talented muralists in this town:
We had a wonderful time in the Re-POP Gifts store, which has a TARDIS that you can step inside:
So many fun things in that store:
The shop owner was happy to take our picture with this Ted Lasso sign, too funny:
Amazing piece of outdoor art with swings to sit on:
Making sure we got a selfie with the state capitol:
There might have been a lost phone retrieval process in here somewhere, but eventually we made it out of Idaho, through a section of Oregon, and into Walla Walla Washington. One of the first things we saw there, still not sure what this was about:
We stayed at the Finch Hotel and enjoyed the outdoor space in front:
The nearby university was an interesting place for running and walking around and checking out some art:
And some life imitating it:
Check out my café and lounge!
We can also highly recommend the Maple Counter Café around the corner.
Onward to the northwest, where we happened upon George Washington (not coincidentally, in the town of George in Washington), who knew?
Our next AirBnB featured goats! We got to feed them banana peels, excellent entertainment for the morning:
Leavenworth was worth a few hours of exploration (more goats!)
Bob might have found his next pair of shorts here:
The town is cute, quaint, with a bunch of fun shops and some good food. I believe this is where we happened upon a bar showing Bob Ross on the TV screen, as a bonus.
Thanks for including this stop on the itinerary!
Awesome treehouse (and delicious coffee) at the Aroma Coffee Company in Fall City:
Our first Dambo troll! John has been telling me about these for a while now, and happily Kathy and Bob are also on the lookout for them. We were very excited to meet Jakob Two Trees in Issaquah:
While we were talking about trolls, one of us randomly asked about gnomes. Turns out there actually are some in Seattle! Valley of the Gnomes is a small park with a gazillion gnomes hiding in all sorts of fun places. The more we looked, the more we found. It was an unexpected and entertaining detour. Thank you to whoever put these out there:
Look, we found another one :)
More Seattle creativity:
Drive-by art sighting:
Obligatory shot of the Space Needle:
Another troll, yay! I think they like the weather in the Pacific Northwest. Frankie Feetsplinter is at the Nordic Museum in Ballard:
While we were in the area, we went over to check out the Ballard Locks:
The locks have a "fish ladder" to help salmon swim upstream:
The whole operation of moving boats from one water level to another was interesting to watch. Workers helped them queue up and move into the lock, then the doors closed and water was pumped into or out of the lock to raise or lower the boats so they could proceed:
We were on a troll roll, finding this one under a bridge (not a Dambo creation but still really cool):
It's ferry time! John wandered to an upper level and caught our attention in order to get this fun photo as we were waiting in line to get on:
The ferry was awesome, gliding away from Seattle with views of the city on a lovely day:
Hello Mount Rainier!
We had a nice overnight on Bainbridge Island. During a run I found some rock stacking art:
One more troll to keep us company! Pia the Peacekeeper was happy for some new friends:
Poulsbo was another fun stop. We stood in line at the bakery (decent pastries), walked around to all the little shops, got a kick out of the Euro-style market, and failed at removing swords from a stone:
Unsurprisingly, Troll Haven popped up on our radar, so we made a little detour to see this fellow waving at passers-by:
We stayed near the town of Sequim for several days as we were about to start our Olympic National Park adventures (next post - this one's already long enough!). This area is known for lavender farms, so we had to stop at the Purple Haze to check it out:
Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge caught my eye on the map because it has a long sand spit with a trail on it, all the way out to a lighthouse. The gang was happy to walk around the park while I did a run out to the end of the spit (I have great friends!)
Such a scenic place:
I even got a little tour of the lighthouse, super cool:
Upon returning to the parking lot I was informed by a park person that there is actually no running allowed - um, what? That was a new rule for me. I apologized (won't do that again, sorry), and was really glad they didn't tell me that when I was miles away at the remote lighthouse.
That was a funny ending to the first half of our adventures with Kathy and Bob. More to come!
Photo credits include John, Kathy, and Bob
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