Paul Peak, Peak Flowers, and Favorite Foods.

It has been a strange time. I think that is true for everyone, but I feel especially grateful that we have no worries about finances. I used to be concerned that we would retire into a recession, and boy have we ever, but because it was a concern, we planned for a long downturn early on in our retirement. Planning for the worst has paid off. Of course, we also are not spending on travel as we had expected, which helps. We are staying close to home, but trying to enjoy what is right in our backyard.

Our first mid-week adventure turned out to be on a rainy Tuesday. We planned to go to Twin Falls at Snoqualmie Pass, but it was raining so hard that Russ just said he wasn't going to hike in misery and kept driving. He drove all the way over the pass until the rain stopped at Cle Elum, Washington. We hiked the hastily found Coal Mines Trail, which turned out to be a gem.

An old coal tailings pile.

We have started to drive slightly longer distances to hike in some of our favorite areas: Olympic National Park, Mt. Rainier National Park, Snoqualmie Pass, and at Wright Park and Point Defiance (city parks). When we went up the Mowich road at Mt. Rainier, it had just opened, but the last five miles were closed because of snow, so we chose the Paul Peak trail, which goes around Paul Peak and down, down, down to the Mowich River Camp on the Wonderland Trail. We did this section of the Wonderland years ago (backpacking), and I remember climbing up the ridge to finish our hike at Mowich Lake. I definitely remember how sustained and steep the last uphill push was. It wore me out! The Paul Peak trail was marvelously soft and great hiking, but down to start and up to finish trails are my least favorite. It was still a great day out!

Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River

Upper Twin Falls.

Lower Twin Falls

Lower Lena Lake in Olympic National Park. Russ models his mask.

Selfie at Lower Lena Lake during our lunch break.

Friends we hiked with to Lower Lena.This pic is the only one I took without masks.

Me standing on Cathedral Rock with Lower Lena Lake.

The Paul Peak Trail and Mt. Rainier. Log Bridge.

The Mowich River. We hiked down to it.

Mr. Rainier from the Paul Peak trail.

We hit peak wildflowers at Paul Peak.

I infused more vinegar for cleaning the kitchen. I use the lavender from our yard to improve the fragrance of the vinegar. The internet suggestions were to use either lavender or rosemary. I find the lavender works better to take the sharp bite out of the white vinegar fragrance, plus I like that it turns bright purple.

Before.

After one week.

 

This should be enough to get me through to next year, which is good, since the lavender plants are looking like they are done for the year. I've continued my cooking adventures. My garden tomatoes are ripening, so we are moving into a new season of old favorites.

The first two. I always grow cherry tomatoes.

Caprese salad with fresh mozzarella from the farmers market.

Green chile Boca burger with Tim's chips.

Fresh blueberry pancakes with fake link sausage.

Salmon chowder with toasted garlic bread.

Whole wheat crust pizza with zucchini, spinach, and chanterelle mushrooms.

 

I'm amazed, a bit, with how much time I use to just keep our regular home life going. The routine chores, making yogurt, making vinegar, refilling bird feeders, shopping, preparing food, keeping the tea pitcher full, laundry, cleaning. I sometimes try to remember how I got it done when I was working a full-time job and had a 3 hour total daily commute. Mostly I remember that I did less. We went out to eat a lot, plus the house was never really clean. Maybe it was tidy... as minimalists, we don't usually have excess stuff around cluttering up our space, but the floors got cleaned once per year if I was really disciplined during the winter holiday break. I'm discovering the pleasures of simple chores done regularly.

Life at Home: Contractors and Cooking

We have settled in to a new stay at home routine, but it hasn't gone as smoothly as I would have hoped. It's been difficult to adjust from our initial two-week self-quarantine to a slightly looser, mostly at home approach. The contractor hired by the city to put in our new sewer main and hook up the side sewers is now finished, but we are still waiting on the final permits to demo our retaining wall and move it to widen our driveway. The main permit is approved, but the right-of-way permit for the new driveway apron and drain needs additional paperwork.

Excavating!

They had to go very deep to find the side sewer connection.

The yellow natural gas line as moved out of the way.

Final connection under the street.

These are the pipes for both us and our neighbor.

The contractor did replace the curb and driveway apron to the new width, which was a big relief. I did not want to have to demo their freshly completed work to do our next steps.

The new, wider driveway apron and replaced curb.

Since we returned, I've been very appreciative of our full-size kitchen and it's counter space. I've tried to step up my cooking game and make all the favorite recipes that need an oven. I am a seasonal cook, too, so it is marvelous to have our local, fresh produce after months eating the winter storage vegetables.

Meat-less meatball sub sandwiches with green salad and quarantinis

Happy hour with beer for Russ and a local berries sangria for me.

Asparagus and mushroom risotto with wine.

Asparagus and morel bread pudding. So good!

Grits and greens breakfast. I used spinach for this one.

Asparagus-gruyere tart with green salad.

We have also been hiking and walking some of the parks and trails close to home. I haven't taken too many photos of these, since the areas are all very familiar to us, but I have tried to get a few shots with the expectation that I will post them here. We've also been using our copious free time at home to read, so I finally replaced the cover for my Kindle. The old one has been disintegrating since our trip started, and I finally was home long enough to take delivery of a new one. This one is an improvement in many ways: it's lighter, it can stand up the Kindle for reading at a table, and it has an elastic strap to hold the Kindle from behind when reading.

Flowers at the train tracks. Chambers Bay.

Snake Lake from the Scott Pierson trail.

Not from a hike. The new Kindle cover.

On Our Last Leg

It seemed like a big push. I tried to minimize the number of nights we had to find somewhere open to stay, so each day turned into a long day of driving. We left Idaho Falls and Continued North to Missoula, Montana, where we stayed at Jim & Mary's RV Park. We've stayed there before, but this time they closed all their support facilities of office, bathrooms, and laundry, so we had to be self-contained. Luckily, we are! They seemed incredulous that we were (via phone) when they saw our small trailer.

From Missoula we went west on US 12 through the Nez Pierce-Clearwater National Forests on one of my new favorite scenic highways. It rained hard on us for most of the day, so most of the photos I took look dark and gloomy, but it was very beautiful nonetheless. We stopped for the night in Clarkston, Washington, at the Hell's Canyon Resort. Oddly, it wasn't on the canyon part of the river, but was in a nice protected marina right in town.

Leaving the main road for US 12.

We stopped here for lunch. A Settler vs. Native American battlefield where everyone lost.

This is how I ride as the passenger. With my shooter ready.

Rainy but spectacular.

This is the Middle Fork Clearwater River.

Russ takes a photo at a rest area.

Happy hour with Gin & Tonics plus a cheese plate. Note the rain.

The marina dock at Hell's Canyon RV Park.

Looking west from the RV park. Town is behind us.

These Lewis and Clark journal entries were in the sidewalk.

Our final day saw us drive through the heart of the Palouse. We were on a smaller highway, passing through small farming towns. I loved seeing the towns. Most of them were built long enough ago that their down town areas were brick storefronts  with a midwestern vibe. I managed to get one photo out of the front window as we hit a t-junction in Waitsburg. My favorite town was Pomeroy.

Old fashioned town in wheat country.

Our final stop was at a favorite... Wine Country RV Park in Prosser, Washington. We often come here (a couple of times per year) for short visits to a sunny place during the long, dark western Washington winter. We chose to stay for two nights, because our city is replacing our sewer main and we didn't want to come home to a large ditch where our street used to be.

Wine and cheese plate for dinner... when in Wine Country.

A nice relaxing evening with no travel the next day.

Take out from Davy's. That is deep fried asparagus.

Aplomado Falcon. The falconer was living in his RV next door.

The back road to Union Gap, WA.

Lunch from Los Hernandez. Asparagus tamales!

I managed this shot from our moving car.

From home. The new sewer main is in, but not connected to us.

We made it home, but had to unload the trailer from it's storage area in multiple trips, since we have no room on our street to park, even temporarily. I'm exhausted, and ready to turn in, but will not be able to sleep until I get somewhat unpacked and shower. It hasn't been the trip we planned, but it was a good trip regardless. Our next adventure will be from home as we self-quarantine for two weeks and the city finishes working on our side-sewer.