Monday, August 31, 2015

Along the Lazy River and Go Hawks!

A quick 30 mile drive northeast of the state park took us to Snoqualmie River Campground and RV Park in Fall City, WA. 

There are not a lot of choices to stay in close proximity to Seattle, and nearly all of them were booked through Labor Day. I reached out to a local-turned-full-timer, Linda Davies, for help in finding a good spot for us to spend two weeks.

Linda had mentioned "climbing stairs to plug in" so I was interested to see these sites. Apparently the park floods every year and the elevated electrical boxes solve an obvious problem.

Solving the flooding problem
In addition, only five sites away from the river have sewer hookups for the same reason. There is both a dump site on grounds, and a honey wagon service available. The flooding covers the park in silt making for a lot of dust as well. Rain arriving later in our stay was very welcome!

One of our very favorite TV shows is Treehouse Masters on Animal Planet. The show's host is Pete Nelson who also owns Treehouse Point in Fall City. We had hoped to take a tour but they were booked until mid-September, and the entrance is gated with privacy signs.

But......

When I contacted a local massage therapist for an appointment she gave me two choices for location, and one of them was Treehouse Point! Serendipity indeed.

While I only saw one of the treehouses, it was still fun to be "there". It is a beautiful location, very natural, all about the trees. And yes, the massage was wonderful.

With the campground situated at the convergence of the Snoqualmie and Raging rivers I was hoping it would be a good fishing spot as well having decent access to the city.

Bill was able to get out in the river a few times (while I slept in), and caught his first "fish on a fly". Yay! So sweet to have easy access at last :-)

We took several day trips to the neighboring towns, surprised to see how big a few of them are. North Bend, Carnation, Issaquah, Sammamish, Fall City - it's hard to get "used to" the blend of rural and urban in this area. Finding a Home Depot and Best Buy among the tall trees and green meadows is definitely different for a couple from SoCal. We love it.

For the first time since our launch we've spent a few lazy days in the campground. Riding the trikes and getting Tessa familiar with her trailer, getting our Direct TV set up (football!), reading, taking naps.....it's been pretty sweet along the river.

I did find the nicest Laundromat I've ever seen in the little town of Carnation, a few miles from the campground.


They should all look like this

And we met our first RVillage folks here. Allison and Tom are a wonderful couple who return to the area for two months each summer, having lived here before going fulltime with their little dog Bode. We visited for a while one morning while Tessa and Bode had a grand time chasing each other around their site. Like us, they have already made plans to enjoy "being in the shadow" of the full solar eclipse in 2017, and it was great fun to talk to someone else who even knows about it! No, I didn't remember to get a picture :-(

In addition to being Jeff's home and having an airport, Seattle also has something on our bucket list.

As we travel the country we plan to visit every NFL stadium, and the Seahawks' Century Link Field was our first stop!

Standing on the field
Signed by all the season ticket holders and taken to the Super Bowl, now just outside the locker room
Press Room

Instant Replay Booth - couldn't believe the security restrictions applied to this piece of the game

Tour-mates where the TV broadcasters announce the games

Just six figures a year for this largest suite

Big and bright

I really liked this display from all the high schools in Washington
Standing below the "12th Man" flag pole

Several weeks ago everything was completed for Tessa's service dog certification. She has been in a few restaurants and stores, but this was her first tour. She was a champ, no problem at all.

Tour Dog
We really enjoyed the tour, seeing the "behind the scenes" parts of the stadium, and learning some of the history of the location. We were less impressed with the many references to what it all costs, but overall it was a fun experience. Looking forward to the next 30 stadiums!

After the tour we picked Jeff up and headed back to the campground so we could make the quick trip to the airport on Saturday morning.

Visiting the new grandson deserves its own post :-)



9 comments:

  1. How cool to get a tour of the stadium! Great photos too! Ron and I saw the outside of it when we were there years ago.
    When I sold PartyLite, one of our annual conferences was in Atlanta at the Falcons Stadium. We were seated on the field and in the lower stands. We only used part of the area and the rest was curtained off. but still quite the experience.

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    1. It was really extensive access and for $12 each it was very reasonable. We're hoping to tour most of them, but I imagine timing will mean just "visiting" from outside the stadium in some places.

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  2. Ahhh, all my stompin' grounds! We moved there in 2000 from Texas, I remember being in awe of the trees and lush greenery. And from the Albertson's parking lot, on a clear day, I could see Mt. Rainier. It is such a beautiful place, so glad you got to experience it!

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    1. Thanks for all your help too! We loved Pine Lake, wow, you lived in an amazing spot :-))))

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  3. What a trippy RV park with everything elevated!

    Tree houses are awesome, love that show!

    I sure do appreciate a good laundromat! We've got a mighty nice one here in Red Lodge, MT. I've seen some pretty awful ones on the road...

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    1. I can see how it would flood here - a couple days of light rain have raised the river a foot already. I love having the washer and dryer in the MH, but when not on sewer I use the Laundromats - and yes, there have been a couple I decided I could wear something else :-))))

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  4. We didn't do the inside tour of the Seahawks Stadium but did drive around the outside. The end zone looking at the skyline reminded me of the Colts stadium. One stadium you must do the tour of is Green Bay. There was something so personal about the tour. I guess it was very different because the town owns the team not some big money guy or corporation.

    Maybe I miss something along the line. Why is Tessa becoming a Service Dog?

    Smart plannning in that park with the flooding! Glad you had some native help finding a place to stay:)

    I know that a couple, Allison and Jim, are somewhere in your area for the summer and that they are from there. Did you by any chance mean Jim?

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  5. I went back and checked her signature line and it is Allison and Tom. They are from Kirkland, nearby, and have family still living in the area. We definitely want to tour the Green Bay stadium! You didn't miss anything on Tessa's job. It was something we had been working on and finally decided to just get her certified so I have her with me all the time. It's working out so well, I wish we hadn't waited :-)

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  6. How wonderful to get a massage while on the road -- I keep thinking about doing that and haven't yet. You even got to visit the tree houses! Serendipity, indeed! That was definitely a nice looking laundromat. We travel with three weeks of clothing/linens/towels so that I can be picky about where we do laundry. I just can't abide stinky dirty laundromats!

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