Whidbey, Washinton Aug.8

Hi everyone, We spent another day at Cascades because it rained all day and we decided we would take a chill day. And I mean chill. The temps. only reached 62. I loved it! A little cool for George. Today we arrived in Whidbey. We are camping at Deception Pass State Campground which is a popular destination camp. Not expecting to find a site, they had one left for our R.V. What luck! It is beautiful! Giant redwood trees, beautiful Cranberry Lake and right on Puget Sound. We drove into Anacortes which is a popular little town. It just so happened that they were having an art festival there and we found the one parking spot left in the town. It reminded me of trying to find a parking spot in Key West at Fantasy Fest. We walked and walked and ate and ate. It was fun! We are going to stay another day and explore the area. Pictures will come later. I miss you all and wish you were here. This is an experience that we have dreamed of for a long, long time. So enjoy the journey with us!

North Cascades Natl. Park, Aug. 6

Another beautiful park! 10 million acres of untouched, glorious, magical beauty! We arrived here this morning and drove through this vast wilderness for miles and miles. We arrived at the camp and couldn't believe how dense and quiet it is. The smell of pine, the gorgeous green rivers and the clean air, not to mention the mountains themselves make this a wonderland of spectacular diversities. It's craggy peaks and blanketing forests, bald eagles and mountain lions are just a few of the treasures found here. Precipitation that falls on protected upper watersheds and headwaters works its way down, all year long, to the Skagit and Stehekin rivers. Everything is connected here: bears, salmon, eagles, humans, forests, glaciers. I could go on and on. There is so much history here. We are so grateful to live in a country that has so much natural beauty and we wish we could have you here enjoying it with us. Oh, by the way, the handsome Indian in the picture, picked me up at the visitor center.

Grand Coulee Dam, Washington, Aug.2 & 3

Hi everyone, We left Idaho and are in Washington. We are staying at Spring Canyon Campground which is a Nat'l Park camp. We were heading towards a state campground and just happened to pass this one, and are we glad that we did. We have a great view of the dam and the mountains surrounding it plus a view of the Columbia River. Grand Coulee Dam is one of the largest concrete structures in the world. It contains nearly 12 million cubic yards of concrete. You could build a sidewalk four feet wide and four inches thick and wrap it twice around the equator. You could build a highway from Seattle, Washington to Miami, Fl. Grand Coulee Dam is the largest hydro power producer in the U.S. Isn't that something? We took a tour of the power plant yesterday. The power generating plant pumps water uphill 280 ft. from Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake to Banks Lake. This water is used to irrigate 670,000 acres of farmland in the Columbia Basin Project. More than 60 crops are grown in the basin and distributed across the nation. There is so much more information to post but you can always bring it up on Google if you are interested. This little town we are in was built for the workers in 1935. Another quaint, interesting little town. We loved it! We are so grateful to be able to travel and meet such interesting people and see so many things. We are living our dream, as our good friend Dick Wise told us. Love to you all

Farragut campground, Idaho, Aug. 2

We drove out of Glacier this morning and arrived at Farragut campground. This area has a lot of history also. We visited the Brig Museum which was a Naval training base during World War 2. It later became a jail for p.o.w.'s. We are on a lake, called Pend Oreille lake. It is a beautiful, 1200ft. deep lake where the Navy maintains a research facility using mini submarines because of the lakes depth. Very interesting! A lovely area where we ate dinner on a floating dock. We won't be in Idaho long, but it has its own personality. We enjoyed it very much. See you in Washington tomorrow.

Glacier Nat'l Park, Montana, July 30 thru Aug. l

Hi everyone, We had a beautiful drive through the rest of Montana. Rolling meadows of grain and wheat. We arrived at Glacier on Saturday morning. I did not realize how much history there is to this lovely park, named originally Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. The land was settled by the Blackfeet, Salish, and Kootenai peoples. Glacier represents a vision of a world in which people set aside their differences to work collectively in the interest of all life. This sacred place is the embodiment of hope. Hope lives here in the recovery of animals like the wolf, swan, grizzly bear, lynx, bull trout and long-toed salamander. Glaciers that lie against mountains erode cliffs by repeatedly freezing and thawing, plucking rock loose. The same erosion may carve a mountain ridge. Unlike rivers, glaciers erode wide-bottomed, steep-sided, u-shaped valleys. Deep glacial lakes fill the bottoms of some larger glacial valleys. Where a small mountain glacier once joined a larger valley glacier, hanging valleys remain today. We were so amazed at the shapes and colors of the mountains. I know that nature sculpted these masterpieces, but I believe God had a hand in this beautiful mountain range. We drove the 51 mile road up to Logan's pass which was around 8000 ft. We also visited Hungry Horse, and Whitefish where we had a lovely meal and Montana's famous huckleberry pie. A lovely, lovely area that we want to come back to. Love you all