A Full-time Life

Category: The Whole USA

  • FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS … or not.

     

     You never know where you'll find good advice …. or funny signs.  

     

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    This one was on the wall of a river-front restaurant in Clarkston (eastern Washington State).  

     

    And of course this post is linked to SIGNS SIGNS hosted by Lesley.       Thank you! 

  • WHAT A DIFFERENCE RAIN MAKES

     

    Summers are very different where we grew up in Eastern Washington from those in Western Oregon where we moved with our children in the early 1970s.  (We lived there until  we retired and moved away.)   

     

     

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    Willamette River Eugene Oregon

     

    We spent some time in both areas this summer so we experienced both the "wet side" and the "dry side" of the Pacific Northwest.     The contrasts are obvious in these pictures from both sides.

     

     

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    Snake River, Asotin Washington

     

     

    In Oregon, between Hood River and The Dalles along the Columbia Gorge, it appears as if an actual line has been drawn between West and East … you can see where the green ends and the brown begins.     We pass that "line" and continue traveling East to get to Clarkston (460 miles from where we've spent most of the summer).  

     

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    Eugene Oregon

     

     

     This is one of many Willamette Valley Vineyards.     I love the green hills around here, but the price is lots of winter rain.   Nowadays, we are fortunate to be able to enjoy the green results of the rain when we visit  …. without actually having to be here for the rainy season.   These hills are quite different from the rolling brown hills (below) that we grew up looking at every day.

     

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    Clarkston Washington

     

    I guess because we did grow up in such a  dry climate,  neither of us really got entirely used to the rainy gray winters in Oregon, even though we always loved the green results.    

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    Mother Nature's summer contrasts shared with  NATURE NOTES hosted by Michelle whose amazing blog is called RAMBLING WOODS (go visit!) .  

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • BLUE AND GOLD

     

    More blue and gold loveliness from our recent visit to Eastern Washington. 

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    Pretty sure these are all different pictures from the roadtrip landscapes posted the other day for Our World.    

      

     
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    For this post, linked to SKYWATCH FRIDAY,  I tried to include those that best showed the beautiful blue.  Except for the amazing sunset we had the first night of this trip, the skies were cloudless.  

     

     

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    I know that wind machines are controversial in many places, but I liked the way they looked lined up against the sky.  I don't think that Eastern Washington is a major bird flyway, so I hope they are OK here.  There is definitely a lot of wind.

     

     

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    Thank you to Yogi, Sylvia, and Sandy for SKYWATCH FRIDAY  

  • A VERY SMALL TOWN

     

    We took a drive out into the country last week when we visited  Clarkston Washington, the town where we grew up and graduated from high school.  

    Clarkston isn't a big town at all, but it's a little larger than Anatone, a nearby farming community.   Anatone has never been very much of a town…. when I was a child, my dad would always say that it took more time to say 'Anatone Washington' than it took to drive through it.

     

     

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    Bill and I hadn't been back to our old home town and the surrounding countryside  for nearly a decade and this sign was there back then.    

    Anatone hasn't grown any … in fact, I'm pretty sure 38 is probably on the high side, at least for the town limits.  

    There used to be a school, but it has consolidated with another town.  And the few stores that were here are mostly boarded up.  

    Like in many farming communities everywhere, people would rather get in their cars and shop in the nearest malls.

     

    LINKING TO LESLEY'S SIGNS SIGNS meme.  Go visit!  It's fun to see what you can learn about the world from signs.

  • EASTERN WASHINGTON FARMLANDS

     

    We both grew up way over in the far south-eastern corner of Washington State, but it had been almost ten years since we went back for a visit.    

     

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    And we really couldn't remember the last time we'd seen the fields at this after-harvest stage.  I love the patterns strip-cropping creates.   We made quite a few picture-op stops last week as we drove toward our destination.   

    On Sunday, we took a slightly different route as we headed back toward our RV at the lake:   

     

     

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    But this time, the fields weren't nearly as aesthetically pleasing.    After harvest,  farmers sometimes burn the fields to sterilize the soil and kill weeds. I was able to get these drive-by pictures through the very tightly closed window.  

    (The smoky part of the highway was less than an hour of our day's drive….the rest of it was fine and we were well out of the smoke by the time we stopped for the night.) 

     

    Road-trip  pictures shared with OUR WORLD TUESDAY.  Thank you to  Lady Fi and  Our World's team of amazing bloggers.  Visit them and the OW links to see what's going on out there.

  • ON THE BEACH

     

     Sometimes when you walk on the beach you see as much by looking down as you do by looking out.  

     
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    There are whole other worlds in tide pools and shell formations.


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    I liked the way the colors reflected up through the transluscent jelly fish.

     

      
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     Linking to I HEART MACRO.    Thank you to Laura for hosting and reminding us to share the l beauty up close!

     

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    We looked — out and down  – as we walked at Kopachuck State Park, near Gig Harbor Washington last month. 

     
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  • STRICT LIMITS

     Another sign from our summer roadtrip.

    We could hardly believe this sign on the door of a campground bathroom (and shower facility)  in Dothan Alabama:

     

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    My first thought?  "Somebody in this family could be in serious trouble."  

    Well, actually that was my second thought.  The first was "maybe we should have stayed someplace else tonight."    

    But it was  OK …  we have all the basic needs in our RV anyway.   So we never did find out how exactly the policy was enforced.  

     

     

    FOR:  SIGNS SIGNS hosted by the gracious Lesley.

  • FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT, TACOMA

     

    Sometimes Tacoma gets kind of a bum rap —  people seem to think of it as the  poor step-sister of its neighbor, the beautiful and justifiably famous city of Seattle.    

     But don't sell Tacoma short.  It's an interesting city with a lot of beautiful public park and outdoor spaces….and world-famous museums.     (And we have kids there.)

     And there's the Mountain!  

     

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    Mount Rainier and Foss Waterway

     

     

     

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    Chinese Reconciliation Memorial

     

    Part of a monument park that I will post more about later, with a view to Puget Sound and and two big Navy ships in the background.


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    Foss Waterway is a working and pleasure harbor on beautiful Puget Sound.

     

     

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    Seaport Project Wooden Boat Museum

     

    Wooden boat museum with a reflected view of part of the City.

     

        LINKED to Gemma's SCENIC WEEKENDS and James' WEEKEND REFLECTIONS.  Thank you to both hosts.

  • NEED AN APPOINTMENT?

     

    This building looked like  an old outhouse    ….  but the sign definitely wasn't what you'd expect:     

     
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    We saw this when we were walking around the old west town of SILVER CITY Idaho (click to read yesterday's post).    And I forgot to ask anybody about it.   

     

    Linked to SIGNS SIGNS, the perfect meme for those who like to take pictures of the printed word.  Thanks to Lesley.

  • SILVER CITY

     

     Twenty-six rocky uphill dirt-road miles from the already-remote Oregon town of Jordan Valley Oregon lies the sort-of ghost town of Silver City Idaho.  "Sort-of" because while the town looks like it did in the late 1800s, the structures are all privately owned and some of them are occupied, mostly as summer homes.

     

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    Remains of Wells Fargo Express office

     

     The whole town is on the National Register of Historic Places — and the outsides of the buildings can't be modernized or altered.   There's no electricity, but other modern conveniences can be added to the insides of the structures.

    Silver City was founded in 1864 after silver was discovered on nearby War Eagle mountain.  Soon it was a bustling little community of 2500 people with 75 businesses and was even the county seat  for a few years.

     

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    Idaho Standard School

     Although mining never did come to a complete halt, the original War Eagle mine became depleted and financing for other mines failed.    As agriculture in the lower valleys grew in importance with the advent of irrigation, population in this extremely remote mountain town declined steadily and by the 1930s it was a nearly unoccupied ghost town.    

     

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    Former Silver City Saloon

     

     A kind of revival began after World War II when transportation became more available and visitors to the area increased.  Property owners and Owyhee County have worked hard for many years to preserve intact this remnant of Western history.  

     Today there are just a few businesses on the old Main Street… a small inn/ restaurant  (where they cook using propane gas),  a souvenir shop, and a campground.  But no grocery store or gas station.  

     

     

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    Deadman Alley and Sommercamp Saloon

     

     Every old-west town has to have a street that was the scene of  gunfights and stabbings and  Silver City is no exception.

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    Getting off the beaten track on roadtrips is a fun part of OUR WORLD, so this post is linked there.  Thank you to the hosts.