Portland to Seattle

Powell's Bookstore at Night

We arrived in Portland a couple of weeks ago and stayed on Hayden Island at the Jantzen Beach RV Park.  For those of you who are geographically challenged, Hayden Island is on the Columbia River between Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington.  The park is wonderful with nice wide sites and full hookups, grassy areas at each site, and located right on the Columbia River with a trail along the river where Allan walked the dogs.  I think he took a million photos of the river and the bridges but sadly we do not have any of the park itself.  We had lots of plans for Portland but ended up doing a lot less than planned.  We did visit Powell's two times, each time dragging in a couple of bags of already read books and dragging out an equal number of unread books. 

Recycled Glassware

One of the books that I got on a whim was the bestseller by Jenny Lawson called "Let's Pretend This Never Happened", a memoir of her life which were events from her past which ranged from bizarre to humiliating and were all hilarious.  I read portions of the book to Allan and he was in stitches.  We also visited the farmers market in Vancouver, Washington where we not only saw all the usual fresh produce but also saw about 100 vendors who were selling recyclable objects.  It was amazing to see what people could do with trash.
I guess our only real outing was to The Grotto.  The Grotto is a Catholic Monastery which happens to have an outdoor altar carved into a rock wall face. 


The Grotto Altar

The Elevator up to the Second Level

The Monastery

Allan in the Gardens

There is seating around the altar and there is also a regular church.  It is in a wooded setting and people come to light candles and sit near the altar.  But you can take an elevator up to the top of the rock face and there is the monastery building where a few retired Fathers are living and the adjacent gardens where visitors can come and walk the trails and meditate.
The following week was spent up in the Seattle area, although I really shouldn't say Seattle, because we stayed at the Maple Grove RV Park in Everett, Washington.  I would not recommend this park to anyone unless they just needed a spot for a night or two.  It was basically a tight parking lot and it seemed even tighter to us because we were next to a fifth wheel with children.  One of the children was a toddler, who was at the screaming stage of conversing and she screamed when happy, screamed when angry, and screamed just to hear the sound of her own voice, I think.  When you are only five feet away and have thin walls, screaming from morning to night, day after day, can become very tiresome.  Then to top it off, we were there during the week of July 4th.  And fireworks are permitted in Everett, so every night leading up to the 4th, and of course the night of the 4th, and even after the 4th, we had to listen to rockets and explosions from dusk to midnight each night.  Allan said that the street behind the park, where he walked the dogs, was completely covered in firework litter.  Now, did I mention that I got a migraine.... yes, of course I did.... what else could I expect with all that noise pollution. 

That Kid Is Disturbing My Nap

So we did not do much while we were in Seattle, just one tiny little trek down to Pike's Market and that was about it.  Instead we hung out close to home and made one last drive to Redmond for the farmers market on the Saturday before we left for Anacortes.

Sharon Picking Out More Pastels

I am pleased to report that all is now well.  We are in Anacortes in our favorite site.  The weather is wonderful and we have already been to Dakota where I have been replenishing my Giraults plus adding a few other little colors, some papers, and some portfolio inserts.