NFS truck at Buckner Orchard

 

Cabin at Buckner Orchard

This part of the cabin was built in 1910, the original back log cabin was built in 1895 

Stehekin fall color

 

Stehekin River

 

Brian and Toddi

Stehekin mountain cabin 

Toddi, Brian, Connie, & Bob

Agnes Gorge, Stehekin 

Fall color in Stehekin

 

Brian along the Stehekin river

 

Stehekin, Washington

We have just returned from a 3 night stay in Stehekin (Tuesday through Friday). Stehekin is located at the north end of Lake Chelan in the North Cascades. The only way to get to Stehekin is by hiking in, flying in on a float plane (which we did once) or taking the Lady of the Lake Boat. We took the Lady of the Lake Express up on Tuesday.

We stayed at the Stehekin Mountain cabin - our favorite place to stay. This cabin is owned by Don and Roberta Pitts. He was the postmaster for about 17 years and she is the school superintendent.

On Wednesday, Connie's son and daughter-in-law, Brian and Toddi, joined us. It's probably a good thing they didn't come the first night as we had no power on Tuesday night. We had nice weather, especially on Wednesday, the day Brian and Toddi arrived. We enjoyed our time with them by driving up the valley to High Bridge, hiking to Agnes Gorge, visitng Rainbow Falls, Buckner Orchard, and other scenic places in the Stehekin Valley. Bob enjoyed some catch and release fishing.

Brian and Connie had a little cribbage battle - the outcome? Connie - 8 wins and Brian 1 win.

Back of home

 

Front view of new home

 

Back roof/patio

 

Barn Dance in Winthrop

We spent the weekend here in Winthrop. We attended the Barn Square dance, which was lots of fun. We danced at the street dance in downtown Winthrop on Saturday morning. We also attended the Friday night dance, the plus Saturday afternoon dance, and the Saturday evening dance. That was a lot of dancing compressed into about 26 hours.

We're headed to Wenatchee this morning to son, Brian's home. Brian drove by our new home and said it's all framed and the windows are in. So, we're excited to stop by. We'll post some new pictures on the progress.

We're headed to Stehekin on Tuesday for 3 nights. We're hoping the weather will be nice.

Cody at fruit stand where he works

Grandson on the job 

Hike near Hart's Pass

 

Grouse pair

Spotted on hike near Hart's Pass 

Winthrop, Washington

After leaving McChord AFB we headed to the Tulalip casino north of Everett were spent a night. Friends, Bill from Granite Falls, and Carol and John from Hawaii, came over for a visit. Later that evening, we stopped by the fruit stand where grandson, Cody, has been working for 4 months. We were impressed by watching him ring up the fruit and know all of the prices. We’re sure he has learned a lot on his first job. He is in his junior year of high school.

Friday morning, we headed up to the North Cascades to Baker Lake. Friday afternoon we did a 3 hour hike along the Baker river. Sunday we were suppose to do the Park Butte Lookout trail, but after talking to our friend, Doug, it turns out he had to work on Sunday. So, we headed up there Saturday morning, which was a good thing since it was pouring on Sunday. The hike on Saturday was nice – perfect fall weather. We had some partial views of Baker – the clouds were flitting in and out all afternoon. We made it to the lookout for an elevation gain of 2200 feet. We were both pretty tired when we finished the hike.

Since it was raining on Sunday, we decided to head over the pass in the hopes of finding nicer weather near Winthrop. And, we were right – the sun was out on the other side of the mountains.

Monday, we headed up to Harts Pass (the highest place you can drive in the state of Washington) to an elevation of about 7000 feet. We did a ridge hike with about 600 feet of elevation gain. While hiking, we had a few snow showers lightly sprinkle us with our first snow of the season. It was partially sunny, so we had some nice views of the North Cascades.

Tuesday morning we moved down to a state park near Winthrop. After 5 days on only battery, it was time to get plugged into some power. We’re here in Winthrop for a barn square dance that starts on Friday night. We’ve never been to this dance, but we’re sure it will be fun.

Mt Baker playing hide and seek

Park Butte Lookout hike 2200 foot elevation gain 

Friends, Paul and Carol

Enjoying dinner at Pt. Defiance in Tacoma 

Doin the Puyallup

We spent last week in Wenatchee. We saw our house start to be framed (finally)! We will be back in Wenatchee on September 24th, so by then there should be lots of progress.

Friday and today we went to the Western Washington Fair in Puayllup. Those scones with rasberry jam are sure good. This past Saturday we watched Connie's son, Brian, play in a ball tournament. They won their first two games (which we watched) and then lost the next two so they were done. We also went out to dinner with Bob's grandson and wife on Friday night. They are stationed at McChord, but will be returning to North Carolina in December.

Saturday evening we went to dinner with friends down at Point Defiance. In the 1980's Connie attended computer programming school at Clover Park Voc Tech and we were able to have dinner with the two Pauls who were in the class. It was fun to catch up on our careers.

We're headed to the North Cascades. We're hoping to do a hike to Park Butte near Mt. Baker on Sunday. We'll then drive over the mountains to Winthrop for a square dance weekend starting on the 21st.