Day 17 Wenburg State Park, Washington

Here is our present location.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=48.136999,-122.284259&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=48.148679,-122.34066&spn=0.09552,0.346069&t=h&z=12&om=1

This has been a rather boring and rainy day too, so I will try to liven it up with an old picture taken at Wall Drug in South Dakota a few weeks ago. That horse almost threw me! We left KOA this morning picked up gas, groceries and found a campsite at Wenburg State Park. It has been raining for the last 2 days. It is just a light rain and the temperature is in the low 50's. Everybody we see outside is just wearing a light jacket, no poncho, raincoat, or umbrella. Our guide said yesterday that only people from out of state are seen with umbrellas. This is Seattle area and it rains all the time so I guess people get used to it. We have been wearing raincoats. The last 3 pictures are where we are camped . It has a beautiful lake, but it would be a lot prettier if was sunny and warm.

Day 16 Seattle Tour

The small touring van with driver picked us about 2:30 PM. There was 11 of us in the van. We buzzed around Seattle for about 5 hrs. It was supposed to be a 3.5 hr tour. I guess we got our money's worth. We left the bus and walked through historic Pioneer square. There we seen the glass house where we watched them putting glass into kilns and making all kinds of beautiful and expensive things. Then we went thru the klondike national historic park. There we learned all about the Alaskan gold rush. This park was in Seattle because this is where they outfitted the prospectors. We walked thru Farmers Market for about 20 min. We went by the home of Amazon.com. We we by one of Boeing facilities that had the 1st 747 and a Presidential air force one. Didn't really see either one. The picture of Barb and I in front of the waterfalls is where UPS parcel service started. We went to the Ballard locks which had the salmon ladders and also saw a cruise ship go thru the locks. What happens in the locks is the ship is lowered from one level to another. We seen the troll under the bridge. There is a story behind that is too long to go into. We seen numerous other thing too many to mention. Am very tired, think its bed time.

Day 15 Mt. Rainier

We camped last night along the Ohanapecosh River at Mt. Rainier. This morning it was raining. I went out and took some pictures, and talked to the ranger. He thought that due to the rain and clouds it would be a waste of time to take the spur road to the highest point to view Mt. Rainier. The mountain is 14400 and highest viewpoint is 6500 ft. The road thru the park had been closed since Nov 06, due to 18 inches of rainfall in 36 hrs had washed out roads, trees, etc. Our luck was such that today at 12 noon the road was due to open. We drove up at about 11:50 and the ranger was just opening the gate. Lo and behold we were first in line. There was very few cars on the road and then the rain stopped, the clouds opened up and we could see the mountain. We drove the spur road 16 miles up to 6500 ft. It was fantastic, endless scenic views, and we took picture after picture. We were overjoyed. Later we drove up to one of the suburbs of Seattle, Kent, WA. We are staying there at the KOA campground. We have reservations for a tour of Seattle tomorrow. Here are some pics. The order is somewhat messed up. The ones with the river are from 2 days ago at Columbia river. If you click on the pictures they will get larger.