We met up with Dwyers during the evenings in Seattle. I was at the conference so just pictures are of food;)
Second Austin pigout
Sushi
Author: rugreen4u4632
Seattle + trolls
We transitioned into town after the work week and made the most of our time. We visited the Ballard locks which is how Seattle boaters get to and from the lakes to the ocean. We also took a trot around green lake and the woodland Park area and feasted on dungenous crabs.
The weekend started with a California Honeydrops concert and an amazing dinner with the Austin tribe of Bellevue and a thorough hunting of trolls.
This link should show all the trolls. There are some in Asheville now which gives us something to look forward to.
https://share.google/NTQwJQIDw5fWSYP3M
I have to include the video of Jingran making the dumplings.
Lastly, I’m not a serious foodie, but omg this how this hole in the wall diner, Dish Cafe serves.
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PAC NW
I’ve got a conference in Seattle, so we have taken a week before to explore Whidbey Island for my future book writing home (jk I’m not creative enough to write a novel). But if you were going to write a novel this is where you do it.
I was working by the bird feeder which was a nature channel distraction. Here are a few of my favorites.. downy and paleated woodpeckers and a red shafted flicker.
We did take a hike on Ebey’s landing but somehow missed the mega pod of orcas that just happened to be passing through and the Aurora borealis on last Tuesday, but we had a fabulous hike on the cliffs. We even saw Mt Baker.
Roxborough and Chatfield State Parks
We left Ridgeway and drove the nail-biting 11,312 feet through monarch pass pulling the clamshell. It was slow going but Rusty (the Rav4) made its 9th trip across the Continental divide. George has diagnosed me with hill anxiety. There’s a beer for that. In fact. I want someone to name a beer ‘hill anxiety’ in my Honor.
We parked the camper at Chatfiel turned the AC on, went to eat Mexican and moved onward to Roxborough State Park. Roxborough is a hidden gem but doesn’t allow dogs. Ringo was pleased. I think he needed a day off.
We had a relaxing evening at Chatfield before getting up early to drop Fiona at the Denver (circus) airport to return to Raleigh for her last year at NC State.
The top out temperature was 106 degrees yesterday somewhere in Kansas. The last picture is on our way home. Shawnee lake outside of Topeka Kansas, which was 22 bucks. Cha-ching. We should arrive at Edgar Evans State Park in TN tonight.
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Molas Lake outside Silverton
At first we were just going to Ouray but realized the hikes we planned were actually on the perimeter trail. It was also a hot day, so we headed for higher elevation. The hike we did yesterday outside Silverton was at 12k feet so we headed back that direction and stopped at Molas lake. It was also less smoky today. (Bonus)
We by-passed Silverton since we had already decided to eat in Ridgeway. We ate at the local brewery (again) and had pizza (again), but it was delicious. The wood fired pizzas are yummy in these small mountain towns.
Silverton and smoke
We went to Silverton to do the Colorado trail near Molas lake. There is a kick ass boondock campground here that we need to remember for next time. To get from Ridgeway state park to Silverton you have to take US 550 (The million dollar highway) which goes over Red mountain pass. I haven’t been through since 1992 when George and I did a cross country trip after our freshman year of college. The road was built by a private citizen and originally served as a toll road for the mining trade to get north/south between Ouray & Silverton.
Along this road, you can see all the dead silver mines which is also why the Uncompahgre River in ouray is yellow. As it rains, iron from the mining caves the leaches out into the water table. Makes me think twice about drinking the water here.
Check out the signage on the red mountain pass. You don’t see that every day. We also had another rare sighting. We had a gnome at the trail head sharing wifi so I knew the day would turn out great.
Colorado trail
We went into Silverton next and grabbed a pizza and brew. Nice little train tourist town. Very chill after the train left.
It got super smoky today while we were out. You can’t even see the mountains from our campsite.:(
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Telluride, CO
Headed to Telluride today after an another amazing campground chef breakfast. I do love some eggs at the campground.
It was a great evening chilling at the campground, playing cribbage, and reading books. Dinner was smoked salmon that Fiona brought from Alaska and free dadcation cheese.
Ouray
Beautiful hike today on the perimeter trail around ouray in the same Juan mountains. We are staying in Ridgeway state park which is also beautiful. We are having a great time. Honestly, on the hike I got a little tired so my soak in the hot tubs was amazing. George was a good sport about letting me get my soak on. It felt so good.
Colorado
I met up with George on Wednesday at the end of dadcation3.0. He dropped the Dad’s and picked me up the same morning. They probably caught the same plane . Courtesy picture of the dads.
Fiona arrived today exhausted but she got to see the borealis from the plane. We are on our way to Ridgeway state park. We hope to avoid the Rio Blanco fire that has burned 75,000 acres in 7 days.
New York to Shenandoah.
We’ve had a couple of nice beautiful travel days. It was interesting to see corn rows with mountains behind them. We stopped at a brewery for lunch in Ellicottville, NY. Highly recommend if you end up near the area. We stayed the evening at Allegheny State Park in South Western NY. This park is huge. I wished we had more time to explore here. There were bike paths and a couple of lakes. I’m sure it’s gorgeous in the fall.
We decided to grab some of that beautiful corn for our campground feast.
Next stop was shanondoah np, but since we were going through Maryland, we stopped for a dozen crabs. It was 95 degrees outside, so they even let us bring our doodle in.
We are leaving loft mountain because something happened to the water and they have no showers but the campgrounds were beautiful. We are on our way to a county Park outside Abingdon called Washington county Park.
We just finished Miracle and Wonder about Paul Simon interviewed by Malcolm Gladwell. It was fabulous. Highly recommend.
Austin Semi Sabbatical 