North Cascades - America's Alps

We are officially on our East bound leg of our most excellent adventure!  The journey from Anacortes took us thru the Skagit Valley and  towns like  Mt. Vernon, Sedro-Wooley, Concrete and Rockport.  We "landed" just Northeast of the town of Marblemount, at a little RV Park named Alpine RV Park.  What a gem of a find.  We really enjoyed this place and it was another place our Passport America membership came in handy.  We had full utility hookups, laundry facilities and WIFI for $10/night.  Ya can't be that!  Plus it was quiet!  We were across the road from the mighty Skagit river and I saw a bald eagle on two occasions.  Once flying down the river and the second was flying right over our campsite at an altitude of no higher than 20 feet!  

The day after our arrival in Marblemount, we decided that what better way to get a feel for the Cascades than to take a guided trip down the Skagit River.  None of us had ever done white-water rafting before, so this was a first for everyone in Team Breitmann!  We went with Pacific NW Float Trips and we were not disappointed!  The owner; Capt. David Button, gave me a great military discount on top of the family discount!  Thanks, Capt Dave!  Our guide for our boat, Joe, was awesome.  He had the perfect temperament and knowledge for his task as a guide.  We were all a bit nervous about going down the rapids with the entire family.  Stacey's back was concerning both of us and Hailey was scared.  As it turned out, we all LOVED it and came away injury free!  Thank you, God!

As we set sail, Heidi is all pumped up about experiencing Class II and III rapids!  I had never experienced rapids, so the rating scale for rapids had no meaning to me other than I knew that they could not be too bad because we were not required to wear helmets for Class II & III.  Helmets were required for Class IV and above. 

Hailey smiles for this shot of her and our guide, Joe.  Joe told us that he conducts guided river tours here, in Alaska and in the Florida Everglades.  While he works as a guide for Capt Dave, he also has his own canoe rental business, locally in Bellingham.  Look him up if you want to rent a canoe: Joe's Canoe Rental .  Joe told us that the Skagit River is home to spawning grounds of all five Pacific Salmon: Pink, Silver, King, Sockeye and Chum.  Also, due to the plentiful nature of the salmon, the North Cascade/Skagit river is home to the largest concentration of Bald Eagles in the lower 48 United States.  The only area with higher numbers is found in Alaska! 

Did I mention that the river temperature was FREEZING COLD!  When we got water into the boat, our feet became numb after a few minutes!  Anyway, along our trip we pulled over to have some lunch and we joined a group of "adventure Boy Scouts", who had built a fire.  Here, Hailey enjoys the warmth of the fire.  Great fun to chat with these boys and their scout masters.

Needless to say, I could not capture pictures of us going thru the rapids because I was a bit preoccupied with holding on and taking commands from our guide Joe.  I was one of three of us in our boat with an oar to assist Joe with maneuvering.  However, I think he was quite capable even if we all became "brain dead" with oars! :)  Here, after the rapids and near the end of our journey, Joe let's Heidi have a hand at his seat, as river guide!  You can tell by the look on her face as she eyes some fallen trees in the river head, that she is a bit concerned.  She did great!  

Joe, in front, poses with the two river boat "crews" after a successful run!  The two fellows on the left back row are the other guides from the other boat!  What a great, albeit, chilly time we had!  

Upon recommendation by our river guides, we go off exploring into the North Cascades National Park, along Cascade River Road.  It is "off the beaten path" and few people go this route because it is not well known.  Thanks to our river guides, we got to enjoy this little known piece of what is referred to as the "American Alps"!

I took this picture as we drove the Cascade River primitive road.  While it was primitive, it was passable in our little Saturn tow vehicle.  It was around 26 miles of this.  We had to pay attention, as the road contained no warning signs and contained one-lane, blind turns. 

All along the road, we saw numerous creeks, and rivers that fed into the Cascade River, which in turn flowed into the Skagit River.  The rivers were running hard, fast and high and the sound of cold rushing water was everywhere!

Heidi is our waterfall nut!  She just loves to get up as close to them as possible!  

At the end of the proverbial road!  This place so reminded us of the opening and ending scenes from the movie "The Sound of Music"!  The girls ran across this meadow, where we had lunch, singing.."the hills are alive with the sound of music!" Look out Julie Andrews, the red-heads of Team Breitmann would give you a run for your money!  I was laughing and smiling just watching them, without a care in the world!  Good stuff!  

I could not capture the entire panorama of the location we were at for lunch. This picture and the four following it are a series of panning shots from right to left as I panned 180 degrees. No restaurant could compare to the location we ate lunch!  I'm not sure I posted this in a previous blog or not but, while eating lunch here, Heidi, again, comments on the scenery enveloping us.  "Hey, Dad, you know, once again, I find that nature looks so much more spectacular in person than in photographs. And the cities look so much better in pictures than in person."  Hmm...right you are, Heidi!

Here you can see the glacier formation in the top center of this shot!  The vibrant blue ice was so awesome to see.  I'm glad I brought binoculars to get even closer up views!  

We were treated to something not everyone gets to see...a huge chunk of the glacier broke off while were getting ready to leave!  It sounded like a gun shot going off followed by rumbling and snapping sounds reverberating in the valley!  I could not capture it on film.  However, you might be able to see the after math in this photo.  The chunk of ice and snow slid off the cliff and broke into and explode into an array of snow and ice, flowing down the hill.  You can see the flow and fingers of it in this picture. What an awesome spectacle of God's creation!

Stacey takes a picture of Heidi and I on a trail that leads to Cascade Pass.  I had to prod the gals of Team Breitmann to hike up the trail with me, which they reluctantly did.  We all realized how out of shape we've become and that we need to do more of this!  I enjoy it and the gals "put up with it" , knowing how much I "put up with" going along on their "shopping hikes"!  :)

Beauty among beauty!  And all God's people said..."AMEN"!

After our hiking and glacial adventures, we drove on down to this place outside the town of Concrete.  You may recognize the name of this farm from products in your local organic section of the grocery store near you!  We all had a bit of ice cream here!  Hailey had chocolate, Heidi and I had raspberry-chocolate chip and Stacey had mocha-espresso.  Mmmm-good!

A view of the farm!  In the distance you can see blueberry trees as far as you can see from this point.  We had some fresh blueberries from local places like this on our rafting trip!  

Here, Hailey, our flower lover, collects some flowers that she wants to use to adorn the motor home. The smell of fresh lavender was constant!

Stacey and Hailey discuss the flower arraignment and decide what to pick next.  

I had to throw this picture in at the end of this blog entry!  I took this inside of the float trip "bus" that took us to our launch area.  It was posted here, according to our guide, Joe, because of all the worrying comments and "what ifs" posed by many a patron.  A lot of wisdom in that saying.  If your a Christian you will notice this sentiment summed up in Matthew 6:34; "... do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself..."

Starting our 6th month of "full-timin' it"!. Thank you goes to our good family friend, Brandy, for posting this picture on our Face book wall!  So true!  We are "living large", despite having a fraction of the money I used to make!  The time, experience and education we are all having is PRICELESS!  I can make many things but, I can not make the experiences encountered nor can I make more time.
Well, it's eastbound thru the Cascades on Hwy 20 with us..hopefully...making it to the Grand Coulee Dam! 'Til my next postings!  God bless! 

Seattle - Onward!

We repositioned our campsite from Ft. Lewis to Everett, WA, which is North of Seattle, so that we could be a bit closer to downtown and other sites.  This picture is on the evening of  Stacey's birthday.  We went to the tiny town of Mukilteo and bought her some fresh flowers at the Farmer's Market.  Then we ate on the deck of a nice Italian Restaurant.  The weather was absolutely perfect!  We walked down to the water and ate ice cream.  A great time!

We took a side day trip across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and visited the fishing town of Gig Harbor.  Here you see Hailey taking advantage of low tide to explore for sea creatures.  To her left, your right, you can see one of the many "net houses" along the harbor.  These, as you can surmise from the name, are used by fisherman to hang their nets and gear in following a fishing expedition. Many of these "houses" are over a hundred years old.

2012 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1962 World's Fair and the construction of the Seattle Space Needle, which was the center piece of that event and forever changed the skyline of  the city of Seattle.  It is now an icon of Seattle.  This particular World's Fair was one of the few World's Fairs to ever make a financial profit. The Space Needle is 605 feet tall and 138 feet wide and weighs in at a hefty 9,550 tons.  It was constructed to withstand 200mph winds and a 9.1 magnitude earthquake.  It is also protected with 25 lightning rods.  The elevators that take visitors to the top have 6 cables and each cable alone is capable of lifting the elevator.  The trip to the top takes only 41 seconds and offers breathtaking views on the way up as the outsides are glass! 

The Space Needle has an observation deck at 520 feet with the rotating SkyCity restaurant at 500 feet.  One can see not only the Downtown Seattle skyline, but also the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, Elliott Bay and surrounding islands. Here Hailey uses one of the several telescopes to get a closer aerial look of the surroundings.  Hailey was initially very nervous about going up but, once atop, she was enthralled and lost all of her fear.

The Seattle skyline as seen from the Space Needle observation deck.  In the left center of the picture you can barely make out Mt. Rainer amongst the clouds.  It was another gorgeous summer day!  

After a day running around Seattle, we stop in at a place called Game Stop, where we had dinner.  The place also has many different arcade games and attractions.  Here we find a "retro arcade game" of PacMan. This particular one is a four person version.  The fellow in the front left decided to enter our game and it ended up with a three way tie of me, Heidi and this fellow.  Here you can see Hailey scores a victory, when she consumes my PacMan!  What a blast to relive my youth of playing these games!

Road Dog!  Here Molly demonstrates the proper posture for traveling down the highway.  We get many looks and "pointings" accompanied by waves and smiles!  Woof! 

We leave Everett and travel northward to just south of Bellingham to the town of Anacortes. Our goal is to explore San Juan Island, one of the major islands in the islands of the same name. 

Here you can see why we chose Anacortes to explore the islands.  Anacortes is one of two major ports for ferry service to the islands and Vancouver Island, Canada.  We loaded up our car and set sail to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

Here is a picture of a ferry, as it passes along side ours.  These things are MASSIVE and could easily hold both our motor home and our tow vehicle.  However, to do so isn't cheap!  So, we decided to just take a day trip over with our car.  It was about 45 minutes to an hour sail time. 

Hailey enjoys the views as we weave thru the beautiful San Juan Islands. 

The girls of Team Breitmann take a stop at San Juan National Park American Camp.  This was the site in 1859 that American troops were stationed for 12 years, during heightened tensions over border disputes with England that nearly led to war.   This camp was positioned on the southern most point of the island, where a clear view of the approaching straits could be defensible.

Here the girls pose at the sign at the North end of the island at the English camp.  The sign says it all.  

The English Camp historic site featured live interpretive exhibits with folks in period costume.  Here Heidi learns some duties that were expected of a spouse of one of the English soldiers.  She learned that if a married woman was left by her husband, either intentionally or by death, she had 60 days to find a new husband or she would be shipped back to England. The lady here is telling Heidi how soap was made and how to do the wash.  Only the undergarments were washed because the uniforms were woolen and could not be hand laundered.  The uniforms were just combed out if they got dirty. 

Here the girls learn about the differences between a rifle and a musket, as told by one of the English soldiers stationed here. 

Yep, another Jr. Ranger badge for Hailey!

What a great gem we stumbled across!  We stopped in at a "farm" on the island where we could pick our own raspberries, strawberries, beans, currants...you name it!  Here the girls admire the chickens as the friendly farm dog named Pretzel tries to convince them to play! 

Hailey harvests fresh eggs right from the chicken coop!  I cooked some up for breakfast the next morning.  

Heidi has a blast picking raspberries! 

Hailey seems to have a way with cats, as one of the two farm cats comes out to say 'hello' to Hailey.

Picturesque, up-scale Roche Harbor on the very North end of the island.  Just drop dead gorgeous houses with breathtaking views!  We sat here and indulged in some ice cream! 

We spent an afternoon walking around Anacortes Historic district, much to the delight of Hailey.  She loves antique shops and there were plenty to be had!  Here she stands in front of an eight foot can of salmon!  We had a nice relaxing time here in Anacortes! 

It's off to the Cascade Mountains for Team Breitmann!  Til' my next posting!

Seattle Stakeout

Team Breitmann crossed over the Columbia River on a soggy morning and on into the 42d State added to the Union. It  is known as the Evergreen State......The Great State of Washington!  The state was named after our first President; George Washington and is the second most populous Western State, right behind California.

We set up camp on Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM),  near Tacoma.  We camped on the portion of JBLM, formerly known as Ft. Lewis.  The base was named after Capt Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame. This base has 25,000 soldiers assigned to it and they are constantly training.  We hear the staccato of .50 caliber machine guns, artillery, the occasional Chinook, Blackhawk and Apache helicopters along with C-17s flying right over head to do air drops on the Lewis drop zones!  Ah, the sounds and sights of freedom!

Hailey sets up her own Fort on our campsite!  Appropriately named, don't you think?

Hailey raises the Colors in front of Ft Hailey!

Hailey shows me the "decorations" of flowers she made to the evergreen trees on our campsite.  

Hailey demonstrates how to "chill" during our first week here in Washington, State.  We really needed to slow down and "regroup".  The girls finished out the "school year" and are taking a week off before we jump back into school.  With us traveling and not doing school every day, means we gotta pretty much do school all year round. Thanks for showing us how "chillin' is done, Hailey!

Heidi practices her face painting on her sister, in between selling their famous fudge!  They completely sold out of fudge.

We take a trip to Seattle and get our picture taken in front to the famous Pike Street Public Market.  Opened in 1907, the market is one of the oldest continually operated public farmers' market in the United States.

Heidi and Hailey enjoy some fresh seafood right in the market.  Here, Heidi had some clam chowder and Hailey some shrimp cocktail. 

Heidi shows off one of the largest shrimps that we've seen.  We  each had a couple of these! 

Hailey really enjoyed the floral portions of the market!  We bought a HUGE bouquet of sweet pea arraignments for $5. 

Heidi shows of some Rainer Cherries that she bought.  We ended up eating them all as we wandered around!  Good stuff!

After we attended a local church called The Little Church on the Prairie, we went out exploring and stopped at Ft. Nisqually, a reproduction of how it might have looked in 1855.  Two of the buildings on the site are original, the rest are period reproductions.

Ft. Nisqually was the first European trading post on the Puget Sound and was a completely private business venture of the British-owned Hudson Bay Trading Company.  It was never a military outpost.  The location of this venture was chosen as a central location for the fur trade because of excellent ship anchorite, its convenience for overland travel, the friendliness of local Indians and outstanding prairies for grazing animals and growing crops.  The diagram above show what the outpost might have looked like in 1855.  

A view from inside the Fort.

Heidi discuss the finer points of cooking circa 1855! 

Hailey was fascinated with the blacksmith shop and the live demonstrations!  Here she watches the foot powered wet stone in action. 

Here the master blacksmith shows Hailey a knife he crafted.  The handle is from an elk with a hand hewn steel blade. 

Hailey inspects a beaver pelt at the Fort's supplies store.

Hailey tries her hand at grinding beans into coffee using a period reproduction coffee grinder. 

Hailey tries out a typical bed that a family child might have "enjoyed" while living at the Fort.  These beds were certainly not for someone who would expect a soft mattress, that's for sure!  Can you say, board stiff! 

One of the local Indian tribe ladies shows Hailey how she does bead work. 

A typical "home school" primer circa 1855.  I made sure the girls noticed the scripture in the lower middle!  

Heidi tries her hand at a typical 1850's childhood diversionary game that taught hand-eye coordination.  It involved holding two sticks, one in each hand and using them to toss a ring in the air and catching them on the opposite stick.  Not as easy as it may seem!  

We celebrated the 4th of July here in the Seattle-Tacoma area.  We visited many local festivals in the area.  Here Hailey, our lover of sidewalk chalk, admires an artists work.  

Here's Hailey on JBLM awaiting the fireworks.  In the tent in the background, there was the 59th Army Band that played music before and during the fireworks display.  I must say, this display was the absolute finest fireworks that I have ever seen...bar none!  Way to go Army!  As we celebrated, we remembered the price paid to declare our independence and the price of freedom...it is not free.  Here is a portion of the Declaration that we celebrate each year:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with one another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.  That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.  Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are suffer able, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.  But when a long ration of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, its is their duty, to throw of such Government, and to provide Guards for their future security.
Happy Birthday USA!  God Bless America!
Till the next posting!