"Adventure is worthwhile." ~Amelia Earhart

Back in October, I whisked away to Snoqualmie Pass and stayed in a friends family condo. It was a good little get-away. In January, my friend Holly and I decided we should take a little mini-vacation this summer. I got the okay for staying at the condo and we set the date. We both took Friday the 13th off and after I went to a funeral we got on the road to head to our destination. Our plan was to stop at Snoqualmie Falls for a picnic and to see the falls. They are beautiful!! So much water and power.

 Me...with a poor view of the falls. I wouldn't give up having that railing though...

 Holly and me!

 Once we got to the pass, unloaded my car and got settled in, we opened a bottle of wine and poured it in the classy cups and sat down to enjoy a card game.

 Cheers!!

 We kept score and made a bet that who ever lost the card game had to pick where we'd eat dinner out the next night. Holly and I have a hard time deciding where to eat, what to do, etc so this was an appropriate bet. I lost the game so I had to pick the dinner place. 

Saturday morning we got up and headed to Leavenworth. It is a cute little Bavarian inspired town.

 It was hot and a bit sticky...please ignore our "shine." 

 There were flowers EVERYWHERE and I loved them.

 We stopped at the gazebo for some music, walked through an art show, went to a Christmas store and I got an ornament and we had ice cream to save us a bit from the heat.

 The music group was called AlpenFolk and they played fun music...a classy looking accordion...

 ...and even the wooden spoons (the younger guy).

 After a dinner of German sausage and sauerkraut at the Tumwater Inn we headed back for the condo.

We watched a movie and then stood on the balcony for a few hours and chatted. We saw lots of shooting stars and later discovered that a few miles away the Northern Lights were seen. Too bad we weren't up higher, but so glad we saw what we did. 

Sunday morning we got up and hiked up the ski hill right behind the condo. It was beautiful!

 Snow still in the peaks.

 These low laying flowers remind me of dogwood flowers...I need to find out what they are, exactly.

 Once we got done hiking we got ready to head home, packed the car and got on the road. We stopped for cherries (and coffee/steamers) in Snoqualmie and got on our way.

We'd seen a sign for Meeker Mansion on our drive up to the Pass and decided we'd stop if the timing worked out. And, it did. 

When we were pulling off the highway to stop a little mouse came crawling up and out of the engine area of my car, walked across the windshield wipers and back down. We popped the hood and looked for it when we stopped and couldn't see it. Hope it made it out safely.

The mansion was a nice stop. They are restoring it (it has been home to the Meeker's, a nursing home, hospital, etc) and there are some pretty detailed things that were fun to see.

 Door hinges above, door handle below.

 This is one of the rooms they are in the process of restoring...stripping paint to see original ceiling design.

 Shoes of the children, which were eerily tiny...

 Ceiling paintings....I love these...

 Piano (one of two and very large)

 Another ceiling...

 And the weirdest thing...hair art. Apparently, they would get bored and decided they'd create these things with their hair...weird.

 Fireplace...

 Mansion from the front.

Once we got back to the Portland area I dropped Holly off at home and headed home. Rested from a great weekend away with a good friend and I wished we could go somewhere else again...but, back to reality and dreaming of the next trip!

Just a wee bit o' food

A friend of mine lost her dad to a battle with cancer. She was hosting the reception after the funeral service at her house. Another mutual friend of ours and myself took her to run errands, pick up food, set-up chairs and tables and I did the flowers for the house the day before the service. Just for a little proof that there was a  lot of food....

...and that wasn't even all of it. Some of it came to my home to live in my fridge for the night.

"Retire from work, but not from life." ~M.K. Soni

This lovely lady is "retiring" from work. And even though I don't work in the same building as her any longer, I'm going to miss her greatly! 

Many blessings in your retired life, Diane. See you soon!

A Quiet 4th

After a bit of a hectic schedule with life, I was looking forward to a quiet 4th. A day to rest and reflect. I politely declined a few invites of a fun filled 4th and instead stayed home, did things I needed to do at home, slept in (which was the polar opposite of what I'd done last year) and then at dark I walked up the small mountain I live on to see a wide expanse of fireworks...both city and those that folks were setting off in their neighborhoods.

Here is my view...plus a bit more.

All-in-all, I am thankful for my quiet, rejuvenating day off the celebrate the wonderful freedoms we have in this country! 

Burning Fire

My friend, Mary sent me a text message on Friday to see if I wanted to join her for a building burn. She works for a school district and if they have a vacant building they donate it to the fire department to do practice drills on...they really start it on fire and get real life experience, without the trauma that a fire causes to those affected. I said I'd gladly go and we settled on doing brunch first. We went to the Old Town Battle Grounds coffee shop as they have vegetarian (for Mary) and gluten free (for me) meal options. It is housed in this old church and it is really adorable. I resisted taking photos. It was hard. We ordered and sat outside in the semi-muggy for this area weather. It had been months (really, like 6 months) since we'd caught up on life. There was a lot to fill each other in on.

After eating, we headed up to Amboy, WA, where the building was. The scheduled burn was supposed to start at noon and we arrived at 15 til, and it had already been going. We headed over after parking and watched from one side, then made our way to the other side. It was fascinating. 

Mary at the burn. You wouldn't normally take pictures of yourself for fun in front of a burning building, but something like this isn't normal, so we did.

 Check out all that black smoke.

 The intensity of the heat made me acutely aware of the fire related struggles many in the country, especially the Colorado fires, are experiencing.

 We kept waiting for this wall closest to us fall...it did...after we started walking back to the other side and couldn't see the area.

Thanks for the unusual adventure, Mary!