Cottonwood Cottage, Winthrop, WA
Finally getting a chance to update the blog with a rundown of our fun-filled long weekend trip to Winthrop, WA with our friends Bill and Patti to celebrate Patti's birthday. It's been a rough week as I haven't been feeling up to par, but finally got some fabulous antibiotics and am on the mend!
For a full photo-album and comments, click here to access our Facebook photo album with more extensive photo journaling of the awesome time we had :) I'll sprinkle some teasers throughout this post, too.
Wednesday night, I met Ron after work in Bellevue and we headed to North Bend to Bill and Patti's for an early start the next day. Our plans changed a bit, as we were originally going to drive over all in one car. But we got a call that DH's Granny Jo was in the hospital in Kennewick and not expected to make it much longer. She's 93. So we decided to drive to Winthrop via Kennewick so we could see her, his Aunt Joyce, and his cousin Mike.
Thursday morning, May 13, dawned warm and sunny at the house...a great day for a road trip...
We were on the road by 9am and got to the hospital around 12:30, no thanks to MapQuest, who directed us to the middle of a residential area about 5 miles from the hospital! We were SO lost. Thankfully, there was a crew of hispanic landscapers just finishing up a job who very graciously led us to the street we needed, or we'd probably still be driving around trying to find the hospital.
Granny had rallied, and while she looked tired and frail (currently topping off at 75lbs), she was feisty. We had a good visit with her and Joyce, then said our farewells and Joyce drove us to pick up Mike at the adult activity center where he hangs out a few days a week. Mike just celebrated his 50th bday, which is a wonderful milestone for a Down's fellow. DH is 6 mos younger than Mike, and Mike never lets him forget it :)
We got lost one more time trying to find the Burger King the hwy sign promised was Just Off the Road, found a Quizno's, grabbed a late (3pm) lunch, and ate on the road, finally on our way to the Cottage. We passed some beautiful scenery, listened to a long Nano playlist I made up along the way, and arrived at Cottonwood Cottage at 7:30pm Thursday night. Here we are, enjoying the river after a long day in the car...
Bill and Patti had driven over via Wenatchee and arrived at the Cottage around 3:30 - they'd left North Bend about 30 mins after we did.
Some scenery from around the Cottage the night we arrived...
Friday May 14 was Patti's birthday, so we had a really fun day celebrating her! The day began with a visit from some of the locals, a little family on its way through...
Then Patti and I went for a bike ride and saw the sights including the river and a stream...
And a family of geese in the neigborhing pasture...
After our ride, we all went into Winthrop for lunch and shopping, and this was one of the cutest sights we saw...
See the little nose poking up over the door? There are three dogs in the car!
Here's the little guy!
Got back to the cottage and Bill fired up a game of Bocce Ball, which they won...cuz, frankly DH and I weren't trying that hard...ha!
Then we had BLACKBERRY PIE for Patti's Birthday Dessert, with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream...yum!
A couple more young visitors Saturday morning...
After a hearty breakfast, we headed up to Sun Mountain Lodge for some bike riding. Poor Bill had taken a spill at work earlier in the week and hurt his wrist, so no cycling for him. He dropped DH, Patti and me off, then hung out at the Cottage until it was time to come pick us up. Here are some views from Sun Mt.
The path we took was deemed by the Activities Desk gal as "easy"...sure, on the way DOWN the mountain! It was the back UP on very narrow trails that was NOT easy! But we had fun and survived...tho there were a couple "route consults" we had to stop and make when we switched trails...wonder if MapQuest was responsible for the maps we used...hmmm....
Along the way, we enjoyed plenty of the Arrowleaf Balsomroot flowers, and saw an osprey in its nest.
Two cyclists happy to be that much closer to the lounge...
We'd started our ride at 11am and were back at the Lodge by 12:30pm. DH dropped us off at the Lodge Lounge and proceeded to cycle his way via backroad paths back to the Cottage, having a few adventures and obtaining some minor injuries along the way. We got back to the Cottage before he did, and we were in the Lounge a while! Patti enjoyed a bloody mary and I had a big dish of homemade chocolate ice cream. Bill arrived around 1:45 to pick up us up.
That evening, the boys fired up the fire pit to grill bratwurst sausages.
On the menu were Cajun Spice links from Farmer George's butcher shop in Port Orchard, and Jalapeno/Pepper Jack links from Costco. I ended up accidentally eating one of the jalapenos, and mamajama, that sucka was hot!
We had a leisure start to Sunday morning, bid farewell to our local "timber tiger" having a breakfast of dandelion seeds...
...then tidied up, packed up and hit the road around 11am, heading back towards home via the North Cascades Highway.
Diablo Lake Scenic Overlook,
then in Newhalem for a refreshing hike through the woods followed by the devouring some ice cream floats...
...and after about an hour break, were back on the road. We stopped in Sedro Woolley (which is just fun to say and always makes me think of caterpillars for some reason) to fuel up the cars for the last leg of the journey. We parted ways there, saying our farewells after a very fun weekend, Bill and Patti back to North Bend, and us back to Port Orchard.
This was our last view of Sedro Woolley, and a fitting last shot for this blog post :) We pulled in our driveway at 5:35pm Sunday night, pooped, but full of fun memories!
What a cute collie!! But then again, I know better than that...
ReplyDeleteAnd I think that was the longest blog post evah.
We crammed a LOT into 3 days...it's hard to "condense" sometimes!
ReplyDelete