Winthrop -- Day 2

On day 2, we decided to hit Roger's Lake (Kristina's choice) and Tiffany Lake (Jared's choice).  They were kind of in the same general vicinity (not really, but let's go with it).

We started the day right by going to the Rocking Horse Bakery again (Jared's choice).  There were more pastry choices Jared wanted to explore.  And, we could justify it because we were out and about exploring all day (BIG SMILE).

We reached Roger's Lake first.  It was about 1 mile hike from where we parked the truck to the actual lake.  It wasn't a tough hike except for lots of falled trees on the trail.  Once those were navigated, it was all good.  However, it was also very marshy around the lake and you could lose a shoe if you weren't paying attention.  That's ok though...it didn't stop us.

Once we arrived, we immediately noticed that the lake was "tea color" and that there had also been a fire in the area.  It burned right up to the lake and the lake stopped it.  Regardless, it was a nice lake with pretty views.  Again, we packed the fishing poles with us, but no luck. 

As you can see, it was a little chillier up at Roger's Lake -- warm enough for shorts, but we had a few layers (including a jacket) on the top.

One thing to note is that Indy was CRAZY!  Her energy was on FULL and she was jumping in and out of the lake and running around like the high energy dog she is.  Here's a shot of her coming out of the lake (yet again).

Here she is doing downward dog -- getting all stretched out for more shenanigans!

And this is her, "What was that?" pose.  That dog will chase anything...if she sees it.  Lucky for us, she didn't "see" anything...and she has REALLY sharp eyes.

More lake views...

After Roger's Lake, we headed to Tiffany Lake...it was a slow drive, but worth it.  As with every mountain lake, it required an altitude climb in the truck.  Luckily it wasn't too bad.  After we arrived the campground and trailhead, we had our lunches that we packed with us.  Just want we needed to hike to the lake.  The lake was just a little more than a mile from the campground.

Tiffany Lake was by far the best lake we had seen.  It had some good fishing, but for some reason, there were some loud mouths walking about the lake ruining the fishing for everyone (not to mention the peace and quiet).  And for goodness sake, it was a Friday, why weren't all of these kids in school! That's why we took Friday off from work.  Oh well...we'll be back another time.

And last but not least...one CRAZY dog picture...this sums the day up!

One more thing to mention...on our way back to town, we stop by The Methow Valley Ciderhouse.  It is this really cool apple orchard outside of town where they have apple orchards for cider ONLY.  We each got a cider sampler and tried 4 different ones out.  MUCH BETTER than BEER in Kristina's opinion, and a nice way to end the day.  We also wandered around the orchard...checking out the trees and the various apple varieties!

Of course, after we arrived back at the house again, we headed out to the river to do a little more fishing before heading to dinner.

Winthrop -- Day 1

This year we didn't take much of a vacation.  Kristina doesn't have much PTO accumulated yet since she just started her new job in April, and our trip to Idaho this year didn't work out for various reasons either.  That being said, we decided that we needed to get away for town at least for a little while.  Jared has been itching to check out the Methow Valley ever since we moved here, and especially the Methow River.  We found a house to rent that had the river going right through the property on vrbo.com, so we jumped at the chance to get away for a few days.  The rental allowed dogs as well, so Jared, Kristina, and Indy hopped into the truck and headed to Winthrop, WA for an extended weekend.

We left town after work on Wednesday and drove the US 2 route to Winthrop.  We didn't get to see a lot of the sites along they way because it got dark fairly quickly, but once the sun rose the next morning, it was just gorgeous.  Here are a few shot of the place.  It was a nice rental, but the property was the REAL winner!

The entire back side of the house faces the river.  It is just spectacular, and the property goes along the river for quite some distance.  Luckily for us, some of the best fishing holes were on the house's property.

We didn't stick around long on Thursday morning.  We were starving and the grocery stores were closed the when we came through town the night before, so we headed to Winthrop to find breakfast. Lucky for us, we found Rocking Horse Bakery right when we got into town.  It was a super cool bakery with great coffee and hot chocolate, and more pastries than one could ever eat.  We definitely started the day out right.

After breakfast Jared wanted to explore a few lakes in the area:  Cougar Lake, Campbell Lake, and Davis Lake.  They were all to the north of town and in the same general vicinity, so we headed that way.  We hit Cougar Lake first.

Thanks to the zoom function on the GPS we were able to locate it.  Signs were rare, and it wasn't near the road as the maps had indicated.  You could tell that there had been a fire there in the recent past, and it was recovering.  However, it looked like a potential spot for a future visit.

Next we tried to go to Campbell Lake, but the road was washed out.  The fire a few years back had hit pretty hard and the fires were followed by rain (which happens alot), so the road was blocked. That's ok though because you could hike in, but we opted not to do so that day.  Good thing too because later in our adventures Kristina overheard a conversation among some fisherman that indicated there are tons of snakes around Campbell Lake -- and that is definitely something we wanted to avoid this trip.

Lastly we tried Davis Lake.  Very nice lake and had lots of good spots around it.  People were fishing the day we showed up, but they were using bait.  We threw a few casts with the good ol' Panther Martin and a fly and bubble with no luck.  That's ok though, we didn't try that hard, and it was time to find some lunch.

We had lunch in Winthrop again.  Winthrop is a very cool little town with a nice little downtown area.  So after lunch we mingled around the town, and Kristina did a little shopping.  She wasn't looking for tennis gear, but oddly enough she found a decent amount of it, and it was on sale.

After we were done downtown we headed to the market in Winthrop to pick up some groceries.  Our plan was to have simple breakfasts, pack a PB&J for lunch, and then go somewhere for dinner.  We were on vacation weren't we?  So we picked up a few must haves and headed back to the house and enjoyed a nice afternoon of fishing along the river.

Around 5pm, we headed into Winthrop again and had some pizza at East 20.  We highly recommend this place and we will definitely be back when we pass this way again.

Headed back to the house after dinner, and it was getting quite chilly and dark...so we got the maps out for the area and started planning for tomorrow.

Backyard Wildlife

We were out in the backyard enjoying the weather, AND doing some work when Kristina noticed that there was a stellar jay pecking at the plastic front on the "squirrel" peanut box.  Considering the fact the we kind of like the stellar jays, even though we know they are ornery, Kristina went over and propped open the lid so that he/she could get some peanuts and he/she was sure glad Kristina did that for them.  It did turn out though that there were approximately 6 stellar jays partaking of the peanuts. They would come to the box, one at a time, grab a peanut, and then head off and let the next jay eat. It was quite entertaining, so Kristina ran inside and grabbed the camera so she could take some shots of the them.

However, the stellar jays could not be outdone by the gray squirrels.  The had to sneak a turn in between stellar jay visits as well.  Those gray squirrels are sure acrobatic little creatures!

Then much to Kristina's surprise, the pileated woodpecker decided to have some peanuts too. He/She did not seem to mind at all that Kristina was right there taking pictures.  Kristina was actually taken by surprise that he/she was so close.  Soon the woodpecker flew off to a nearby tree, but as always, it was impressive while it was there.

The wildlife sure likes our backyard, but what's not to like.  It is perfectly shaded and serene.  It is a refuge for people and wildlife alike.  Jared does an OUTSTANDING job of keeping it beautiful.

And then look what else showed up, a douglas squirrel.  She was incredibly close to Kristina and made her way to the corn.  We say her because you can definitely tell she has little ones that she is feeding, just look at her underside.

What a great backyard!

Unexpected Woodinville Things To Do

If you know Kristina, you know she is always on the lookout for new things to do, especially local things.  Now that she lives in Washington, there are always more and more things popping up -- even in Woodinville.

On Saturday, Jared and Kristina were having their good friends the Prokops over for dinner.  It wasn't supposed to be anything fancy because it was mostly about Akiko and Kristina getting to watch some U.S. Open Tennis.  That being said though, Kristina is always thinking about things for Alice to do when she comes over to Woodinville.  This time, the Prokops met us at the Gold Creek Trout Farm in Woodinville first, so Alice could have her first fishing experience.

Anyone that knows Jared, knows that he always wants kids to have good first fishing experiences.  So we thought that the Trout Farm would be the perfect place.  It is a quaint place with ponds of trout. The couple that runs the place has these ponds in their front yard and the ponds are fed with Gold Creek (hence the name).  It is a pretty good setup, and the cost depends on how many and how big the fish are you catch.

Alice was able to haul in 4 beautiful trout in the span of 1 hour.  She did a great job!  Jared was super impressed that she didn't get bored or want to stop.  She fished the entire time and was very intrigued when the fish were caught.  Jared had to get the fish off her line for her, especially the two that swallowed the hook, but otherwise she did it all.  Here's her catch!

  

Again, NICE JOB ALICE!  Woohoo!

Kristina also found The French Bakery in Woodinville on Saturday morning.  She was short on time so she stopped in to buy something lovely for dessert that night -- and she found ALL SORTS of WONDERFUL pastries!  She decided on chocolate eclairs and a baguette.  She definitely will be going back because everything she bought was ROCK STAR!

Way to go Woodinville!

August Rain

Wow...September is already here, and it is obvious that fall is right around the corner.

August was a good weather month -- again, mostly dry.  Our rain gauge only registered 1.47" of rain.  The month overall was cooler though (or so it seemed).  Near the end of the month, there were a few mornings, we actually needed jackets and the sky was a bit overcast.  We'll take whatever summer is left...

Iron Goat Trail

Iron Goat Trail is located on the west side of Steven's Pass just before you really start to climb up the pass.  There's an interpretive center at the trail head which talks about the railroad that used to go through here, and the incredible hardships they encountered trying to keep it open and operable in the winter months.  This area receives a ridiculous amount of snow in the winter, and has numerous avalanches every winter.  At one point in 1910, a train full of passengers was swept off the track by an avalanche and swept down into the Tye River below!  Nearly 100 people died in that event.

Now, the tracks are gone, and there is a wonderful trail in its place.

The interesting thing about this trail, is you run across all the relics from the time when the train ran through here and the amazing things they did to try to protect them from avalanches, like this huge wall that runs in nearly mile-long sections.

The wall is aging now, with water often seeping out of it leaving lots of calcium deposits.  The wall was put here to support a wooden snow shelter that went over the tracks.  The shelter was made of huge timbers and was much like the porch of house in design.  The avalanche would slide over the top and continue down the hill below, leaving the train intact.

Here's Indy relaxing while Jared takes pictures.

The other amazing thing they did here is create incredibly long tunnels through the mountain to further protect the trains.

This little cave is actually an access tunnel the engineers dug out to the center of where the real tunnel would be.  This was apparently common practice, and they would use it tunnel from the inside out.

They also had a little reservoir above the train area with a wooden spillway.  This was more difficult to get to, but was pretty interesting to look at.  This existed to help fight fires that the old steam trains would often cause as they went through the area.  Burned down forest was no help in thwarting avalanches, and in fact made them much worse, so they figured out that they needed to protect the forest to save themselves.

There were great views all around, and the day was perfect at about 78 degrees.