Points West:

That Spouse o' Mine and I took a trip out west-northwest this week. What fun we had! (For the most part...) We left our home in the midwest at the pathetic hour of 2:30 am, in order to catch a flight that That Spouse o' Mine said would be good: we would have a full day when we arrived!! Yippee! Except...we (I) had no energy when we arrived in Seattle! Whoopee!

From Seattle , we grabbed a bus north to Bellingham, WA, where the College Boy studies. We "borrowed" his car for the week, and headed back south to Seattle again, this time to visit our Sea Ice Niece. I.E., she is a soon-to-be grad student at UW, studying the aforementioned. She is a fun fun niece, and a great homestay hostess, to boot!

Crack of dawn the next day, that Spouse o' Mine and I grabbed a coffee (hey - it's Seattle) and some croissants and drove south to Salem, Oregon, to our first orchard:

Blueberries:

The blueberry growers had about 150 acres of bushes which had just finished blooming and had little tiny blueberries developing on their branches. Add to this springtime venue a whole lot of bees!! The blueberry growers utilize bees for their pollination in the spring, and let me tell you, the bees were buzzing all around us! They were not at all interested in us or alarmed by us: they ignored us. (I didn't ignore them, though!). The bees stay on the blueberries for about six weeks, I am told, spreading their wealth of pollen.

After doing blueberry business, we drove down the road to Monmouth, Oregon, and watched the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Track & Field Championships: the College Boy! His race was the 10K. That's 25 laps around the track. These guys were FAST! Faster than the speed of light? Or...maybe a faulty photographer? I prefer the former.

Along the way down south, passing Kalama, WA, in particular, I spied a lot of bald eagle nests. And bald eagles!! I was beside myself. Osprey, too! The morning after the track meet, we continued on our trek back east/northeast, following along the Columbia River (you know, Lewis & Clark's final river to the Pacific Ocean?). We stopped and hiked around Bridal Veil Falls.

The Columbia River is really wide, and between Portland and The Dalles
is some of the prettiest scenery I have ever seen.

From The Dalles we headed back north to Washington again, to cherry country:

In 4 more weeks these cherries will be red and ripe.

Never a day without bicycles for us Armstrongs!

We caught a road race while we were in Wenatchee. Always a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon! We were standing in a cherry orchard while they went by, of course. Then we followed them as they competed for "King of the Mountain" prizes up some unbearably steep (in my cycling mind) climbs.

This is a glimpse of Wenatchee from the top of the "King of the Mountain" cycling climb. There are orchards all up & down the Wenatchee river. It is really pretty there.

We visited a few more orchards and packing houses and then we were off for parts west/northwest once more, to take the College Boy out for dinner and to return his car. It had been suggested that we take the northern route across the Cascades, which was reported to be beautiful. And, the road which was closed all winter was now opened. So! Off we went, two happy clams.

We drove for quite some time past cherry orchards and apple orchards and pine trees, on lots of winding rural roads. There were dinky little towns out in the middle of nowhere, and even more orchards and small farms. After a couple of hours, that Spouse o' Mine commented that he had not seen many road signs.

Huh.

But we continued on our merry way, discussing glacial rock, the forest fire from a decade ago, and eventually, all the rocks in the middle of the now-narrowing road, and wow: there sure were lots of fallen trees across the road. The forest service had come through and cut a one-lane middle and left the ends of the fallen logs just laying there.

Huh.

We drove and drove and drove.

Suddenly, around a small bend, we found ourselves at the end of the road.

No kidding! The road ended, just like that. There was no more. What??! Just after the road ended, there was a trailhead.

Huh?

That Spouse o' Mine and I consulted our map.

Omigoodness.
We were off-course.
By a lot.
In fact, where we SHOULD have been close to the Pacific Ocean, we were instead close to the Canadian border. Just a few miles from it, in fact.

Huh.

What do you suppose the Canadian border patrol thought? Did this happen frequently? Were we being watched? We didn't have our passports. Would the Cunnucks laugh as much as that Spouse o' Mine and I were?
I doubt it.

So! We backtracked many miles, and found the correct route to the Pacific Ocean and to our son, the College Boy.

En route:

FINALLY, late in the afternoon, we found ourselves once again in Bellingham, Washington, home of the Vikings. And our boy. He took us to a great oyster restaurant and delivered us back to our hotel. But not before we got a great picture of the College Boy in his dorm complex, complete with GIANT rhododendrons. Amazing, the Pacific Northwest.