|
Forget the wonderful, even the great, we had a fabulous weekend. Just a trip over the mountains, an overnight at Artie & Heidi's and the ride home. But there were too many 'F' words that described the time we had.
Fast The whole trip went way too fast. It was over before we knew it. Time was way too short at Artie & Heidi's and the fast food they served (fixin's for tacos and burritos) was delicious and gone too fast. Fields On the way to Tri-Cities we stopped at an overlook in Prosser. What a view of the farm lands and the Yakima river. Even more dramatic was the ride east from there. We took some country roads across a high plateau and saw huge farms of wheat. It was strange to drive for miles without seeing a fence. At one point we could see the Columbia River, many miles away. Fetch A big event at Artie & Heidi's was getting to know Chewie. He's a friendly dog that loves to play fetch. He has short fur and doesn't seem to be ferocious at all. Artie took him out and showed us a few of Chewie's tricks. We stayed overnight and enjoyed their nice home. Fall This colorful season lent some occasional color to the view along the way. It was the weather that was most interesting. A fog along the plateau west of Tri-Cities looked like a cap on the hills. Low level clouds near Yakima were fun to watch and the view of the Salah valley showed the big picture. Clouds in the trees of the mountains looked cool. Fruity You can't pass through the Yakima River Valley in the Fall without stopping at a fruit stand. The fresh picked Washington apples are so plentiful. We stopped at two stands. One has our favorite selection of fruit. The other has fruit and a great antique selection. Fenton The antique stand has a large selection of Fenton glass. We have purchased pieces there before. Cheryl picked a new bowl and vase. Nana couldn't resist the 'Fenton' glass name plate. You may see that in her apartment soon. We bought enough stuff this time, they gave us some free snacks we had been looking at. Freeway We had no problems on the freeway ourselves, but eastbound traffic flow did on Interstate 90 in the Cascade Mountains. In places, eastbound drivers were diverted onto the westbound lanes as the freeway is being refurbished. After the snow shed rock is being blasted away to widen the road. Fish Finally we got to the fish. Coming out of the mountains on the west side is Issaquah, a small suburb of Seattle. They have a fish hatchery on the Issaquah Creek. It's that time of year and the Salmon are swimming up stream to do a little efing themselves. The hatchery has a fish ladder and storage tanks where the eggs are collected and other tanks for hatching. Lots of view windows let you see the action. We had some foul weather but no flat tires this time. Of course, the main thing was fun, fun, fun!!! Click here to read Barbara's story. Click here to see the video.
|