Spencer Island & Langus Riverfront Park

Last weekend we headed out to celebrate Keith's birthday a little early with a geocaching trip to Spencer Island. 

Spencer Island is 400 acres located in the Snohomish River estuary.  The northern portion is owned by the Washington State Department of Fish & Wildlife; the southern portion by Snohomish County.  We explored both ends.  According to the signs bikes are not allowed, at least on the south end, so we walked.  This bridge marks the entrance to the park.

We saw a mama duck with her ducklings, swallows building nests from the mud along the riverbank, lots of other kinds of birds (sorry, identifying birds is not my strong suit) and this guy......

A couple pictures from the northern end of the island:

We found this very cool train themed geocache.

Apparently 70 degrees in Washington is pretty warm because some had to strip down to cool off!

The southern portion of the trail consisted of some boardwalks jutting out into the marshy areas.

After finding all of the geocaches on the island that are accessible by foot (several more are reachable by boat only) we headed to Black Angus for a tremendous steak dinner.  Sure wish we still had one of those restaurants locally.  Considering that was the biggest meal we had eaten in some time and it was such a nice evening we decided to head to the Langus Riverfront Park (adjacent to Spencer Island) and find a few more geocaches and enjoy a walk along the Snohomish River.  This was a very clever cache located at the boat launch.  Here is how it looked just as we found it:

Here is what it looks like when you screw off the cap:

The picture makes it seem obvious but it actually blends in quite well.  You just have to notice that all of the other holes on the dock railing are empty!  We didn't realize it at the time but we actually ended up setting our own personal daily cache record by finding 15 geocaches this day.  We had lost track and didn't realize until we got home and got them all logged.

One last picture of a portion of the Langus Rivefront Trail at its most nothern point.  Most of it is paved and perfect for a bike ride; this particular section is grass.

Overall we walked almost 8 miles exploring these two areas.  It's all flat trail so there was very little groaning from Nicole.  This area is located close to I-5 and you never completely escaped the sound of the traffic but I am glad we finally got a chance to explore this area.

We signed up for the Amazing Race through United General Hospital and are looking forward to receiving our first assigned hike this coming Monday!

What Goes Up Must Come Down

This thought kept running through my head on the last two hikes that Keith and I did.

On May 7 we hiked up Bowman Mountain.  We had already done the first mile with the kids and this trip we hiked to the 2.6 mile mark.

The access to Bowman Mountain is off Mosquito Lake Road in Acme, about 4 miles from Highway 9.  It is a logging road.  The gate may or may not be open but public access is limited to bike or foot traffic.  There is active logging right now and I think we had three logging trucks pass us but they always slowed down.  Eventually our path diverged from theirs. 

The first mile is a gradual incline with occasional flat stretches.  After that it is a steady unrelenting uphill hike.  Geocaching along the way helped break up the monotony of the constant upward climb.

I would love to reach the summit one of these days (a 6.2 mile hike one way) but that just isn't possible in the approximate 5 hour window we have while the kids are in school and my current physical condition.  Hiking like this each week though will certainly help the latter.

This was our turn-around point:

The road continued to climb from this point.  Going out and around this clearcut would most likely have brought us to the impressive views that are the reward of this hike; views of Mt. Baker and the Twin Sisters.  Next time!

On May 16 we had plans to hike on Blanchard Mountain.  I tried to research ahead of time to see if a Discover Pass was required.  Well, it is.  We will be getting one but it wasn't worth the risk of a $99 ticket so we headed to Squires Lake.  Hiking through the park we accessed the PNT and hiked to the summit of what is referred to as Alger Alp (1315 foot summit, about 1000 elevation game from the trailhead). 

Again, mostly an uphill trek but not as difficult as Bowman Mountain.  Very peaceful once you get away from the I-5 traffic noise.  We only met two other people outside the Squire Lake Park boundary.  Our reward for this hike was a great view of Mount Baker on one side:

and the Skagit Valley on the other side:

We found two geocaches on this hike, both near the summit.  Also managed to miss another cache on the way up, so another reason to come back in the future.

I will be purchasing that Discover Pass and we'll be heading to Blanchard Mountain on Monday.  Exact destination there is yet to be determined.

Happy Reading New Year!

Taking a little bit of time this New Year's Day to reflect on my reading for 2011 and plans for 2012.

I read 36 books in 2011 and listed to 5 audiobooks. I am enjoying the audiobooks on my short commute to and from work so that is something I will definitely be continuing.

Some of my favorite reads from 2011 were:

"Tatiana & Alexander"--Paullina Simons
A sequal to "The Bronze Horseman". Though I did not find this one quite as good as "The Bronze Horseman", it was worth the time to read the continuing story of the two main characters. Historical fiction, WWII, Russian History, a love story......all good stuff! I have yet to read the last book in the trilogy, "The Summer Garden", so that is on this year's reading list.

"Full Dark, No Stars"--Stephen King
I usually either love or hate Stephen King books. This one I loved. Four short stories that I found very interesting and entertaining. This was one of those books this year I could not put down until it was done and it's possible I may have neglected a few household chores and/or not heard everything my family said to me during this time! Also by Stephen King this year: "Mile 81" and "The Long Walk" and listened to "The Gingerbread Girl"; although I don't recommend these as highly.

"In the Garden of Beasts"--Erik Larson
Mom and I picked this book to read on our Yellowstone Trip. We had previously read "The Devil in the White City" by this author (also highly recommended) and had been wanting to read this one as well. The first surprise was that the book was non-fiction. It tells the story of America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany in 1933. Very interesting to read about the changes happening in Germany during the build up to WWII and a glimpse inside the life of an ambassador.

"The Invisible Bridge"--Julie Orringer

Although I am slowly transitioning the majority of my reading (and all new book purchases) to my Kindle, this was one of three books I bought at Costco this summer. Hey, if Keith is going to send me to do the Costco shopping, there will be some collateral damage! Another WWII historical fiction epic but the main characters were from Hungary and I don't think I've read anything previously that looked at the persecution of the Jews in that country and the country's involvement in the war. Highly recommend this one!

And, my biggest accomplishment this year, was reading the entire Bible. This is something I had wanted to do for a long time. This summer I joined an online challenge to read the Bible in 90 days and I did it! There is no denying it was tough at times. My reading took place during All Star and tournament baseball, summer trips to Yellowstone and Birch Bay and busy geocaching weekends. But it is an accomplishment I'm proud of.

I don't want to set too many reading goals for 2012. I read on the whim a lot of the time but I do want to finish "The Bronze Horseman" trilogy and read "The Hobbit" again before the movie arrives in theatres in December. I am also reading The Bible again, but this time over the entire year and in chronological order.

Right now I am reading "Alva, That Vanderbilt Belmont Woman". On our trip to New England this past Fall, we stopped in Newport, Rhode Island and toured the "summer cottage" she and her husband had built there. It was one of my favorites of the homes we toured. I saw this book in their gift shop but decided to buy a used version from Abe Books. The author is attempting to tell Alva's story in "her own words". This glimpse into the high society of New York City in the last 1800's and early 1900's is quite interesting.

Portland ME to Hyannis MA

The rain finally caught up to us today. It was heaviest this morning and by early afternoon had tapered off enough that it did not affect our plans.

We had to make the decision not to visit Boston this trip. We couldn't decide on only one or two things to do there and knew we had to see Plymouth today as well. Judging by the traffic only, we probably made a good decision. We still got to see a portion of the city driving through on the interstate.

A quick stop in Duxbury to the oldest cemetary in the United States to visit the resting place of George Soule. He was our ancestor who came over on the Mayflower. Once in Plymouth we first had a New England lunch of fish, chips and chowder and then visited the Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower. It is not nearly as large as I was expecting and it's hard to imagine 102 people on board. We also saw Plymouth Rock. I was expecting something larger. The story behind that is quite interesting, I would recommend you check it out.

There is also an 81 foot granite statue in Plymouth called National Monument to the Forefathers. I will post some pictures later but it was really amazing. It is the tallest granite statue in the United States and was quite impressive.

From Plymouth we took the scenic route to Hyannis on Cape Cod, which is where we are spending the night. Some of the homes are amazing, we have enjoyed looking at the different architectural styles and the fall/Halloween decorations.

Tomorrow we plan to explore Cape Cod a little bit more and take a tour of a potato chip factory and check out some lighthouses. There is also an ice cream shop boasting that they have the best ice cream on the Cape so we'll probably have to check that out too. Then we will be making our way to Newport, Rhode Island to tour a couple "summer cottages". If you would like a sneak peek of what these families considered a "cottage", check out this link:

www.newportmansions.org

Til' tomorrow!

Bartlet NH to Portland ME

Our first three stops of the day were only a short distance from our hotel in Bartlet, New Hampshire. First on the agenda was the White Mountain Cider Company for fresh hot apple cider and fresh apple cider doughnuts. Yum! Next stop was the Mt. Washington Auto Tour. Mt. Washington is the highest peak in New England at 6,288 feet. The drive to the summit puts you well above the treeline and today there was 70 miles of visibility. The highest wind speed ever recorded was here back in 1934 at 231 mph. The building that the weather observers used at that time had to be chained to the ground to keep it from blowing away:

After the drive back down Mt. Washington we went to Wildcat Mountain and took a gondola ride to the summit. This gave us just another beautiful view of all the fall leaves and surrounding mountains.

Then it was time to head to Portland, Maine. For the first time on this trip we arrived at our destination before dark! We were able to spend some time out by the Atlantic Ocean at the Portland Head Lighthouse. Since we were there and had time we decided to see if there were any nearby geocaches. We ended up finding the very first geocache ever hidden in the state of Maine. It has been there for 10 years and has been found over 1000 times. After spending some time in the blustery wind by the Atlantic it was time for some chowder! We did a search for nearby restaurants and decided on Gilbert's Chowder House simply because of the name. Located on the waterfront in Portland, it did not dissapoint! We all had clam chowder in a breadbowl and it was first rate!

We are now checked into our hotel and have done our planning for tomorrow. It looks like Boston has hit the cutting room floor and we will not be spending any time there. We have found the time just goes by so fast and any time spent in the city just devours your time. Boston is a trip in and of itself.

So tomorrow we will be heading to Duxbury and Plymouth Massachusetts to visit the Mayflower replica and then we will be spending some time on the coast between Plymouth and Hyannis on Cape Cod. Here are few more fall foliage pics.

Lake Placid NY to Bartlett NH

Woke up to a sunny day. We didnt' spend much time in Lake Placid. Here is a quick pick from the road of the ski jump training facility. I always thought that would be a scary thing to do and after seeing these ramps, I'm convinced.

We are trying to find one geocache in each state. Our New York find was in Elizabethtown in this very neat Colonial Garden. I am sure it is even prettier in the summer when all the flowers are blooming.

Our route across Lake Champlain was via ferry. It was only a 15 minute crossing. The old Lake Champlain bridge was demolished and they are building a new one, scheduled to open later this year.

The drive across the Green Mountains was just gorgeous. Really hard to describe all the wonderful colors and I don't think the pictures do it justice.

A bit of a side detour took us through the Northfield area where we saw three covered bridges in addition to this one we saw earlier:

There is only one place in Vermont you can see two covered bridges at the same time and that is in the Northfield area and so it was neat to see those as well.

Our next stop was the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory Tour. Honestly, we were not impressed. We had been enjoying the peaceful nature of New England and wondering where all the people are......well, we found them at Ben & Jerry's! That place was insane. And to top it off they were in between flavor changes and so we didn't actually get to see ice cream being made. We got a free sample of ice cream but since the line to buy ice cream seemed to extend clear back to Washington State we decided to move on. If you are a real Ben & Jerry's fan you would probably enjoy this. If not, I would not recommend taking the time.

Our next tour was a bit more successful. We did the granite quarry tour at Rock of Ages. They are mainly in the memorial stone business but the quarry was amazing. They are sitting on a quarry of granite that is approximately 52 square miles and extends 50 miles beneath the surface. If they continue to quarry granite at their current rate they will not exhaust the supply for another

4, 500 years. Here is a couple pictures of the quarry. Our only disappointment here was that the workers had already finished their day so we didn't get to see the actual work being done.

The color of granite is completely dependent on the area in which it is quarried. Barre VT granite is gray. The nearby Hope Cemetary will now only allow memorial monuments made from the Barre granite. This cemetary has extremely personal and creative headstones. Here are just a couple examples:

After the cemetary our main goal was to get to our hotel in Bartlett New Hampshire. The drive is very enjoyable with neat views around every corner.

Well, it is time to start planning tomorrow's adventures and then off to get some sleep.

Niagara Falls, Ontario--Lake Placid NY

We have arrived in Lake Placid. Today was a long day of travel spent mostly in the car.

This morning we enjoyed the beauty of Niagara Falls. The sheer volume of water that flows over the falls is incredible and it's almost overwhelming to be standing right near the brink as it rushes over the top. It would be very easy to spend a few days here marveling at this creation and checking out all the museums, shops and attractions. Obviously with a long drive ahead of us we had to settle for a bit of a whirlwind visit.

The wait at the border took about an hour and our next planned stop was in Lockport NY. We knew we had missed the 11:00 tour and thought we would have to wait until 1:00 but with the holiday they were running tours every hour so we just made the 12:00. The tour took us around Locks 34 and 35 on the Erie Canal. We learned a lot about the history of the canal and how the boats travel "uphill" 60 feet through the locks. Then we actually entered a large penstock pipe to tour the Lockport Cave that used to divert water to run three factories that used to be along the canal. The cave was blasted out of solid rock. The cave tour ended with a short boat ride inside the last portion of the cave.

After finishing the tour we watched several boats travel through the two locks, very interesting.

Then it was time to get some miles out of the way. Unfortunately that meant we had to drive a couple of hours on I-90. Traveling with all the toll roads is quite an experience. We paid $7.05 to travel on I-90 today. The signs are a bit confusing too. As we were exiting I-90 and were getting together the exact change for the toll we saw a sign that said "no cash". We thought that was very odd but put the cash away and got the credit card card ready. Hand the credit card to the toll booth attendant and he tells us "cash only". We thought it was kind of funny although he was kind enough to explain to us how the special express lane worked.

Anyway, after that the country started to get very beautiful. We are seeing lots of fall colors. We drove into the Adirondack Mountains and kept driving until the sun went down. At times it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. After dark, we stopped for dinner at the Adirondack Hotel on Long Lake. Probably a very beautiful spot during the day!

After dinner we drove straight to Lake Placid. Staying in a nice hotel that suddenly seemed to materialize without much else around. Must be on the outskirts of town. We look forward to seeing this place in the daylight.

Tomorrow's agenda includes a ferry ride on Lake Champlain, a drive through the Green Mountains of Vermont, covered bridges, ice cream at Ben & Jerry's factory, a granite tour in Barre and a visit to Hope Cemetary.