Last week, my oldest son and I took a little vacation and did some camping. We have lived in Washington state for ten years now, and I have come to love this state so much! However, I've never explored much of the state over on the east side of the Cascades. So, we headed up to Winthrop, a small western town just on the other side of Cascade National Park. We stayed in a KOA Kabin along the Methow River. Very beautiful area. A little hotter over there, since it's considered high dessert. But still very low humidity and very tolerable temps. Here's a few pics of that cute little town.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~From there we headed over to a very remote part of the state and visited the Grand Coulee Dam. This is the largest dam in North America.
You use to be able to drive across the top of the dam, but that was before 9-11. So, we decided to take the tour...that is the only way to go across the top now. Such a spectacular sight!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Eastern Washington is known for their numerous amounts of farms and produce, such as cherries, apples, peaches, tomatoes, grape vineyards, Walla Walla onions and miles and miles of wheat fields. Much of this is grown in the southeastern part of the state. And a new type of farm has risen across the territory. They are called wind farms, and we have quite a few of these in our state. This was the part of the trip my son was looking forward to. He is very interested in green living and has been researching these farms. So, when on the long remote road to our campground, we happened upon one of these farms, he was quite excited. The area is littered with dirt roads, taking you through wheat field after wheat field. I soon learned that these dirt roads also served as short cuts to various surrounding towns. Definitely no rush hour traffic to deal with out here! It was on one of these roads that I was able to drive directly to one of these wind farms. We were in a very remote area, and with no people or vehicles in site, we ignored the "posted" signs and decided to walk up to one of these wind turbines. The steady turning of the blades and the low intermittent humming sounds, were very soothing. These turbines were all nestled among the wheat fields, which were filled with deer, coyotes and pheasants. We even spotted a golden eagle perched atop one of the posted signs that lead to one of the turbines. Our first trip up there was on the first evening of our arrival. The turbines were a unique beauty with the sun setting sky in the background.
We decided to head back up the next day. It was on this day that we became so bold and walked up to one of the turbines. This is my son nearing the turbine; me, still a distance away. This gives you an idea of how tall they are!
And finally, I made it up to the turbine and stood directly under the blade as it slowly spun around. Was quite a site! And a little scary!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~We also visited the beautiful Paloose water fall. Gorgeous area!
And VERY rugged!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~And finally, on one of the days we drove over to Pullman, Washington, home of Washington State University. I fell in love with this college! I may have to take my youngest son over there come time to start looking for a college to attend. It's only a few miles from the town of Moscow, Idaho, which is home to Idaho University. I never knew they were less than 10 miles from each other. Anyway....I always love seeing weird and wacky sites. Like Cadillac Rance down in Texas, and the shoe tree in Nevada (a tree littered with shoes tied together and thrown over the limbs). So when I came across this weird and wacky site in Moscow, I just had to snap a photo! Now tell me...have you ever seen anything more weird than a Jo-Ann's right next to a Micheal's?! Go figure! LOL!!
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And now that this little vacation is over, I'm back to sewing. Finished up a couple of watermelon pieces and will be listing on my website later today. I've started working on fall and Halloween and hope to start listing those very soon. And finally, I have my next newsletter typed up and will be mailing it out once I get a few more items finished up. In it is a free fall pattern, a couple of special offers and I will be drawing the names of two subscribers to receive a free ornie. So, if you haven't already, make sure to go over to the right and sign up to receive my newsletter.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer! Stay cool! ~~Annie
Hi Annie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your vacation pics and showing off your state, cause I'll never get out there to see it. I've seen the blades being transported to their new homes. They are big!!!!!
Lois L.
you took the same trip my best friend Kimmy took..and they loved it..love all the photos you shared..and that is pretty wacky with the 2 stores next door to each other..but I would call it one stop shopping..:) glad you are back..Have a wonderful week;)
ReplyDeleteI was taking pictures of wind turbines today!!! We have thousands out here. They vary in size but many are the size of small planes with 3-story long blades. A place up in Lubbock, TX makes most wind turbines out there.
ReplyDeleteWinthrop sure looks pretty and so quaint!!!
That was some very awesome pictures Annie..Thank you so much for sharing. There are quite a few of the wind tubines not far from where we will be moving.
ReplyDeleteMaybe someday I can post some cool pictures in my blog :)
Ahh, such beauty. I'm so glad you and son enjoyed yourselves and were a little adventurous:) Thanks for sharing Annie:)
ReplyDeleteWish I could have been on that trip with you! Looked like so much fun! The wind turbines facinate me. Never realized they were that large!!!!!
ReplyDeleteOh wow! The waterfall is breathtaking. My boys would have loved to have been with you at the wind farm as they and their father are interested in renewable energy. We don't have many wind farms here in our part of Maryland but there was some talk of the electric company putting them offshore along the coast line of our beaches. Thanks for sharing with us.
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