In Washington – See Hawks

Trekking to the Trek

cecil — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:45:51 +0000

Bobcat

Almost two years ago we visited the front entrance of Northwest Trek, located outside of Puyallup. On that trip we just snapped a photo of the entrance sign as part of the Tourism Revealed contest; but we vowed we’d get back to actually take “The Trek” someday. That day arrived last Saturday when we picked up my sister and headed out to see the animals.

Northwest Trek is a combination of a zoo and a free range viewing area which they refer to as their “free roam”. The actual trek is a ride on an enclosed trolley that traverses the entire 500+ acres where you can see all manner of “wild” animals.

The zoo portion of the exhibits is great for viewing, but I have to admit I found myself wishing the animals, especially the black bear, had more room, as he constantly paced back-and-forth in a 15 foot area. (This is called stereotypy.)

Here are some of the animals we enjoyed seeing:

WildEagle

WhiteWolf

Moose

Elk

Eagles2

Eagle1

coyote

Cougar

Chipmunk

BullMoose

BullElk

Bobcat

Leavenworth Weekend

cecil — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 18:09:19 +0000

Pepper and Salty Dog enjoy the camp site

(April 25-27) Although it is early in the “camping” season, we ventured over Stevens Pass (only a few flakes of snow) to the Thousand Trails RV Park north of Leavenworth for a three day stay. We’re a little surprised that things are not as green here as they are Granite Falls, but then we are several thousand feet higher in elevation so that should have been expected.

Lots of the campers arrived late in the afternoon, but even with those arrivals there were only about a third of the sites taken. It may be that the Thousand Trails RV Parks are not often full, or (more likely) it is still early in the season. It’s our second actual RV outing and we learned some very good lessons on the first. We threw out the idea of using hand signals for backing up the trailer and went to walkie-talkies. The Rhino 120s we bought for our Mexico trips came in very handy. With Linda directing and me driving we backed the thing into it’s spot in under 5 minutes. It would have been 3 minutes, but she said “left” and I went “right” and I had to pull forward and try that again.

Despite the dreary weather forecast we enjoyed blue skies and huge white cumulus clouds hugging the snow capped mountains all weekend. Hiking along the trails with dogs, relaxing in the camper, strolling the not-so-crowded streets of Leavenworth and a long overdue visit with cousins Dana and Anne made for a very nice get-away. The drive home was a bit white knuckle as we had a significant snow shower returning over Stevens Pass and we were down to 45 MPH up some of the steep grades.

A stop for lunch at the Sultan Bakery was our last stop before parking and it was a great place to eat. Parking in Sultan is not exactly accommodating for a truck pulling a 32-foot fifth wheel but we found a spot in a residential neighborhood near by and walked. We parked the RV and got unloaded about 10 minutes before a huge rain and hail storm arrived to welcome us home.

La Conner RV Park

cecil — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 18:48:05 +0000

(April 2014) – La Conner RV Park was our first “camping” location (See map at the bottom). We chose La Conner because it was FREE and it was CLOSE to home. A free membership in Thousand Trails RV Club came from the dealer as part of our purchase, so we stay free. We liked it close to home so if things went badly we would have an opportunity to bail out. We didn’t bail out, and in fact it was a most enjoyable weekend.

Arriving on Friday, we choose a “pull through” spot so we wouldn’t have to do any backing. But the spot we selected at the front gate was already taken when we got there, so we opted for a back-in spot after all. Fortunately, Linda and I had practiced our backup signals that morning in the Target parking lot. We got backed in OK using hand signals, but walkie-talkies are definitely on the “stuff we need” list.

The park was quiet and the people were certainly friendly! We’re new to the RV world, and it’s encouraging that everyone makes eye contact and most speak as you walk around the park. Below are some of the photos we took in and around the park.

Let the Adventures Begin …

cecil — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 23:50:02 +0000

Having looked forward for many years to our ability to travel, it seems that the time is finally at hand. My parents have passed and our “home care” responsibilities are done. We have a caretaker for the property and we purchased an new RV – a 31.5 foot fifth-wheel. (More on that here.)

As our plans firm up I will update this travel log with our plans as well as posting photos and descriptions of the places we visit. Our first outing will be a weekend in an RV Park in La Conner. We planned our first outing to be close to home, and a short visit, because we needed to practice. Sort of working the kinks out of this RVing – a whole now adventure for us.

We hope you’ll follow along and share the virtual adventure with us here and perhaps even meet us and share the fun! If you have a favorite place to visit, let us know by clicking on the comment section below and tell us where you think we might enjoy visiting.

Oh yes, the name “See Hawks” – An obvious reference to our World Champion Football Team, but we are off to see what we can see, so let the adventure begin …

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