Washington State

We arrived in Washington state the evening of July 4th.  Washington does not take nearly as long to cross as Montana. 

Can you believe these Washingtonians put blankets around their hay bales?  I'm not sure if they're trying to protect them from snow, rain or the cold.  Lots of hay fields in eastern Washington.

 We were buzzing along the freeway and see this sign for George, Washington.  Very creative

 This is one of the most picturesque areas along the trip from South Dakota to Washington.  You come down a hill and you see this bridge that crosses the Columbia River. When we moved the Hoekstra's from Iowa to Washington, coming down this hill was the only traffic backup we encountered.  Guess what it was?  They were cleaning the highway at the bottom of the hill just before the bridge. 

Someday I would like to take a river cruise on the Columbia River - it is such a beautiful area.

 A wonderful SURPRISE - we could see this majestic mountain off in the distance and realized that it was Mount Rainer.  We have only see this mountain from the air because it's usually in the clouds - it was gorgeous and we were rather excited.  Mount Rainer is south of Seattle and we were looking at it from eastern Washington.  The beauty that God provides for us to enjoy!!!

 Even a couple more barns.....

 a wind farm with the mountains in the background...

 smoke rising from the trees and mountains - Peter said he especially likes to see this

 When we got over the Snoqualmie Pass, we encountered a traffic back-up.  FORTUNATELY it was in the lane going east - I'm sure it was at least 20 miles long.  Luckily our lane was smooth sailing.  After we turned off the freeway, there was also a backup on the little two-lane highway we like to take to avoid Seattle but once again, our lane going north was just fine.

 our lane

 Almost to Lynden.  They have these enormous marshmallows here - can't imagine making a s'more with one of these.

Well, we're here.  When we drove into the Hiemstra Hideaway, we were pleasantly surprised with how beautiful the cottage looked.  They had been working very hard to get it painted and all spruced up.  Maybe I'll have pictures of the cottage next week.

Have a good weekend coming up.
Love to all,
Gramma and MOM

Going to Washington

I decided that I was soooooooooooooo far behind on my blog that I would start with last week and then possibly go back to the beginning of summer and then back again to the present.  Got all that?

We left Brandon about 12:15 last Wednesday heading for Sturgis.  Spent the evening and Thursday morning with Rich and Henrietta.  Had a nice time as we usually do.  If their home sells quickly, which we hope it does, it would have been the last time we were in Sturgis.  Left Sturgis about 10:15 on Thursday morning and took the "shortcut" through Wyoming.  It's supposed to save us about 100 miles but it certainly didn't save us any time this trip.  But considering that we left SD late, had several construction zones and just the extra time of going on 2-lane roads, we were OK with it.  Got to Billings, MT and had to make the decision of going on to Bozeman (another 130 miles) or just stopping early and staying in Billings.  We chose the second.  Left again Friday morning and put in a long (630 miles) and went all the way to Ritzville, WA.  Montana is such a diverse, beautiful state and I always take lots of pictures and they just stay on my camera.  This year I decided to focus on old barns.  Here's a sample of what we saw last Friday driving along.

Barns are interesting and my camera does not do them justice but this is the best I can do from my car window going down the freeway at 70mph.

This next picture is not a barn, of course, but just one of the many goody snacks we devoured during the day.  Snacks are good for you, we've decided and indulged in them frequently.

Saturday we traveled from Ritzville to Lynden.  More on that later.  Hope you're all staying cool in the Midwest.  Washington is in the mid 70's to low 80's but a cool breeze and lots of sunshine. 

Love to all
Gramma and MOM