No malts at Multnomah.

Just 30 minutes from Portland is Multnomah Falls, which I think is one of the prettiest waterfalls we have had the chance to see.  We visited here on Saturday, and the place was packed with thousands of people going up and down the paths to the bridge, plus dogs of all shapes and sizes.  

Finding a parking spot was a challenge and cars were parked along the very narrow highway half a mile down the road.  In fact, the road was so narrow that we had to pull in one of our side mirrors on the truck so it didn't scrape the rock wall!  Staying on our side of the yellow line was tricky, especially when there were two bicyclists riding abreast on the road ahead of us.  What were they thinking?  

So, not only were there tons of people milling around, along comes a wedding party to be added to the mix!  We were leaving, so I had no idea if the groom and bride manged to walk up the steep hill to the bridge.  Just getting up the huge steps with long dresses on and seeing the photographer scramble around them was interesting sight to watch.  

And as for the title, there were plenty of ice cream cones being licked here but nary a malted milk shake.  Shucks.  : (  I could have enjoyed one of those!

Hooray for LeMay!

Amazing, awesome and amazing!

Yep, those words describe the LeMay Family Collection of automobiles and other eclectic items in Tacoma, Washington.  My longtime friend, Helen, suggested that we visit this museum while we were staying in Olympia.  We were here around 4 hours and I ended up taking over 300 pictures!

Harold LeMay started his own garbage collection business and ended up collecting thousands of cars, boats, bikes, trucks and various memorabilia.  Approximately 600 cars are housed here at  the former Marymount Military Academy.  The rest of his collection is spread out over 200 storage places in the surrounding area.

The first room you are ushered into is the former Marymount gymnasium, stocked full of expensive, and fully restored collectible cars.

Above Sandy and Jerry is a Compass Echo house trailer.  The small trailer was built to 1/4 scale of a regular trailer and hauled around to shows so people could see the floor plans.  Now, all you have to do is get on the Internet to view the various floor plan options and pictures of what the inside and outside look like.

How would you like to ride along in this, inhaling the fumes from the car? I don't think you could even be called a backseat driver from here.  Maybe this was the mother-in-law seat!

Below is a 1929 Windsor White Prince Roadster, complete with the Windsor Coat of Arms for the Prince of Wales.  Buckingham Palace objected to this and threatened to sue.  The company went out of business the next year.  Price new was $1485.00, quite a sum for 1929.

This is a 1955 Chevy Nomad "Playbunny Coach".  The top was chopped down 4 inches, then combined with parts from a Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser,  the front end of a Mustang and a Lincoln rear end in the late 1960's.  I think it would fun to drive this one around

Check out the beautiful candy apple red paint job on this chopped 1951 Mercury.  It now sits in the former Marymount pool house.  The pool room has the cars on top and car parts stored in the former heated swimming pool.

Sandy stopped a moment to let Elvis croon one of his favorite songs to her.  Kind of looks like he is singing "Love Me Tender" and Sandy is thinking about a response..

You have to be "old" to remember these ice cream carts!  This was over in one of the corners, but it caught my eye.  Don't think they have any of these on the streets anymore.

Part of the tour was in this cavernous warehouse, with 3 rows of cars stacked up to the ceiling.  Think of how many tires there are in just this building to keep pumped up!

It would be really easy to park this little BMW, which is only 7.5 feet long.  For access to the single bench seat, you have to open up the front door, which is attached to the steering wheel!  I think this would feel like driving in an over sized tin can and it would be downright scary to drive it on our Phoenix streets.  Death wish comes to mind.

This double ugly car is a 1956 Citroen.  Check out the seats!  This would not be the car you would want to use on a cross country trip.

Harrison Ford drove this car in the movie "Indiana Jones".

This Westfalia VW is perfect for some people, but not for Don and I.  It would be a bit cramped to live in for months at a time!

One of the more unusual items was this 1961Civil Defense Shelter, which you could buy and bury in your back yard in case Russia attacked the U.S.  Maybe there are still some of these around in people's back yards.

The olive green car below was driven by Mr. Cunningham on the TV show "Happy Days".    Okay, maybe you aren't old enough to remember seeing the program when it was originally on prime time TV, but the reruns are still around!  Who can forget the Fonz?!

Jerry is looking at the car hauler that Harold LeMay bought just so he could transport the cars he bought back to Tacoma.  There is an interesting story behind this.  Harold purchased these cars at auction in 1999, then drove them back and put the truck, cars and hauler in a storage facility.  Mr. LeMay passed away, and no one else knew where these were.  Last year, his son went to check out some of the 200 places they store cars and found them, just as they were left 14 years previously!  The cars (except for one) have not been moved from the car hauler since the auction.

Olympic National Park

We finally made it to Olympic National Park, one place that I have wanted to visit for many years.  It sits at the northwestern top of Washington, so it is quite a drive from Arizona.  Now, Sandy, Jerry, Don and I have been to the national parks in the far reaches of America:  Acadia in Maine, the Florida Everglades, Saghuaro National Monument in the Southwest and Olympic.  All four corners!

 It took us a bit over 2 and a half hours to drive up to the Visitor Center here, near Port Angeles.  It was a beautiful day, with plenty of sunshine.  We were thankful for that, since we brought a picnic lunch with us.  The map below was at the visitor center, showing us all the stopping places along the perimeter (there is NO road through this enormous park)  Hwy 101 encircles the park, and it would take a full day of driving with no stopping to go around it.

 Fall was in the air, and the Vine Maple by the Visitor Center was showing off its autumn colors.

We drove up a gently winding road to Hurricane Ridge, which gives you breathtaking scenery and a view of the mountain range, complete with numerous mountain tops and peaks.  Yes, it was sunny, but the wind was chilly up there.  We were pleased that we brought our jackets along.

This sign was posted in front of the mountain range at the Visitor Center, allowing us to figure out all the different peaks. Here, winter snow lingers into early summer.

 And to prove that we were there, and not swiping pictures off the Internet, here are actual photos of us in front of Mt. Olympus!

In the "hood" at Hoodsport

Actually, we weren't in the neighborhood when we went to Hoodsport, but it was the best thing I could think of at the time.  Hence the title: In the "hood" at Hoodsport.

We traveled about 45 minutes north from Olympia and our friends, Helen and Milo, traveled about an hour south so we could see them.  It had been about a year and a half since we last met up with them because they moved from Colorado Springs to Poulsbo, Washington.

After a picnic lunch provided by Helen and Milo, Helen led us on a 2 mile hike in the Staircase Campground.  If you talk to Sandy, she went on a WALK, not a HIKE.  She doesn't do hikes.  Just ask her!

If you think your eyesight is going bad and the pictures seem a bit blurry, it is not you!  I got a new, smaller camera, and it was the cheapest one that Walmart had.  BIG MISTAKE!  Most of the pictures taken on this day are out of focus, or in focus in one part of the photo and blurry in another.  Go figure.  The camera is going straight back to the store and I will get another Nikon Cool Pix for my second camera.

Okay, I'm off my rant now and settled down.  I better get re-focused on my blog.

There was one area in the Staircase campground where the trees were covered completely with moss.  This one looked like it was draped in long, white cobwebs,

while this one looked like it came off a set in a scary monster movie.  The gnarled, moss covered branches made it look rather ominous and sinister.

Helen and Jerry walked on ahead of us.  I'm sure she was telling him all about this part of Olympic National Park since she and Milo have been here before.  She is like a walking encyclopedia and has a boatload of information stored in her head.

And what walk/hike in the woods would be complete without a slimy green slug?  I'm sure Sandy and Jerry's small grandsons would love one of these!

Helen knew where every interesting point was on the trail.  We took a side trail to see a gigantic Western Cedar tree with a 14 foot diameter lying on it's side.  Think of all the cedar lined closets that could have been made with this tree!

The photo below was taken by Helen, and I borrowed it from her Facebook page.  Thanks, Helen!  Guess that is why you're seeing me in the pictures for a change.   Sandy is holding on tight to the cable of the swinging bridge, which she wasn't so sure of when we had to cross it.  None the less, we all made it safely to the other side.

No sway to this log bridge and it was sturdy enough to hold the three of us!

And to make a good day even better, we made a stop at the local coffee company that also carried homemade ice cream.  Can't beat a combination like that!

We were all trying to decide what kind of ice cream we wanted.  Most of us wound up with blackberry cheesecake, absolutely delicious from the first bite to the last.  Between the coffee and the sugar in the ice cream, we all were wired up enough to drive home without getting sleepy!

Thanks again to Helen and Milo for planning the day for us and furnishing the picnic lunch.

Olé for Olympia!

With Bountiful, Utah behind us, we had two more days of driving before we met up with Sandy and Jerry (Don's sister and brother-in-law).

The rolling, grassy hills as you enter into southwestern Oregon remind me a whole lot of Arizona's Interstate 17 between Phoenix and Prescott.  Hard to imagine this is the Pacific Northwest.  Right after I took this picture, a motorcyclist passed us up, holding one hand way above his head.  I took a longer look and realized he was taking a picture at 65 miles an hour.  If it were me, I'd be holding onto that motorcycle for dear life. 

It got more interesting and scenic as we headed west along I-84, where the Columbia River flows between the borders of Washington State and Oregon.

 As we got nearer to Portland, we could see Mt. Hood almost straight in front of us.  Signs along this stretch stated there were chain up areas in case of snow.  That made me very thankful we were driving this stretch on a sunny day, devoid of any type of snow, sleet or rain.

After a one night stopover in Fairview, Oregon (just outside Portland), we had only two more hours of driving until we reached our meeting point.

For four days, we will be nestled between the pine trees and ferns at the American Heritage RV Park in Olympia. Ah, peace and quiet!

There are so many vines, bushes and undergrowth here you can hardly see from one site unto the next one.  Quite different than most private RV parks we encounter.

Ah, I smell bacon, and as I peek through the bushes, it looks like Sandy and Jerry are cooking breakfast!  I have to check this out.

Yep, Jerry is stationed at his favorite outdoor grill, cooking up some yummy eggs.  Gotta go, my stomach is calling me!

Beautiful Bountiful

After two days of driving on wind-whipped Interstate 80, we arrived in Bountiful, Utah.  Traveling across I-80 is boring, with few towns/trees/scenery along the way, and we were glad to have a James Patterson audio book to listen to for 8 hours.  Gas mileage dropped  as we slogged our way west, wishing we had a tail wind instead of a strong head wind.

At least when we were on Interstate 84 in Utah, the landscape got more interesting. Here is a view from one of the rest stops in Utah.

We arrived at Fran and Phil Fidel's home in Bountiful on Thursday afternoon.  Luckily, we got the best site, F-1, which included a free spot and meals!  What a deal!  It was a tight squeeze, but Don managed to ease the 5th wheel back into the cemented side area.  There was just enough room to open the door on one side and partially put out the bottom slide on the other side of the RV.

Our hosts, Fran and Phil, posed for a photo under their beautiful Weeping Birch tree.  I've seen and heard of Weeping Willows, but this is a much prettier tree.  Sure wish they would grow in Arizona, but I guess they would look rather strange in our xeriscaped front lawn.

Our gracious hosts not only fed us, but they also chauffeured us around Salt Lake City and Bountiful.  Of course, one of the stops we made was at the famous Mormon Temple in downtown SLC.

 Looks like Fran is either waving at someone she knows, or is trying to get her point across to Phil. Sometimes it takes a little animation to get your point across to the male gender!  Need I say more?....  At our age, I don't know whether it is because we are hard of hearing or just using our selective hearing button.  :- )