Day 11-15

Friday morning up and out in a leisurely manner.  We are on our way to Sequim Washington where our friends Kath and Tony Beecher live. 

Because we have a little time we thought that we would go by the Mima Mounds Park.  These were though to be burial mounds but have now been proven to be piles of rock left by glaciers as they melted.  It was quite an adventure to find these little babies.  We were following directions put out by AAA so felt that there should be no problems.  Well guess again.  What AAA did not tell us was that the name of the road changed three times and each time it changed we chose the wrong way.  We asked locals how to get to the Mima Mounds and got several different directions.  None of which added up to what we hand in the books (nothing on the GPS).  Finally mom went on her new phone and looked it up on the web.  Amazing, we found the directions and drove right to the mounds.  It was interesting to be out in the middle of nowhere and listening to the tweet of the birds and then to have world war III go off.  There is a gun club on the back  of the property which takes a way some of the  quiet. 

We finally arrived in Sequim Washington at the house of Kath and Tony Beecher.  Kath was my first student teacher at Valencia High School and has now retired after a full life of teaching.  She has moved up here to the Banana Belt of Washington to be with her husband, Tony a retired recording engineer.  Both have amazing hobbies.  Tony has taken an out building (what could have been a really good woodworking shop) and turned in into a train depot for model trains.  He has a really incredible set up that is in the early stages of development.  He has also joined a model railroad club and is turning them on their ear.  Kath has joined a quilting club and has taken over one whole bedroom assigned to that project.  Kath and Tony welcomed Cassie into their home but Doc and Bashful (two cats) were not so sure they wanted to be around Cassie. 

Saturday morning, Kath kept Cassie and Tony took us on a tour of the Olympic Forest.   Tony is a really accomplished photographer so we spent the day taking pictures and learning about my camera.  We started off at Crescent Lake.  This is a glacier lake that has two types of fish that are found no where else in the world than in this lake.  The day looks like it was cloudy but the sun was out most of the day and we were, for the first time without two jackets and long underwear. 

After hundreds of pictures we moved on to Solduk river and the falls.  Once again this was drive, stop, take a picture, talk about the picture and then go on to the next spot.  Yvonne and I hiked out to the falls.  Tony hung around the trail head taking pictures that he had taken in other seasons.  He is trying to take the same picture in all the different seasons as a study.  When we got to the falls it was interesting to find that though the falls were beautiful they were short compared to what we are familiar with CA.  We were lucky enough to be there when the sun was just right so that the rainbow jumped right at us. 

On Sunday we went St. Luke's Episcopal Church and were recruited to the choir.  They were very persuasive about us moving up there so that we could join the choir but....  It was a wonderful service and it was fun to just be in the pews and worship.

We came back to Kath and Tony's house.  One of the discussions about us visiting was that Tony and Kath had a few little projects that they wanted help with.  So we started on putting up shelves and  putting together a loom.  These projects  continued on to Monday but are all completed. 

Throughout the whole four days Kath cooked up a storm.  We had salmon, BBQ ribs, baked brie, apple dumplings, brownies, shrimp and rice, spaghetti, baked chicken and panzella salad.  It was like being on a cruise ship. 

Tony gave Yvonne quite a gift by recording some of her harp pieces.  It makes quite a difference to have someone who knows recording and has the right equipment making the recording.  We look forward to hearing the finished product when he sends us the CD. 

Tuesday, we're off to Kent Washington KOA.   We will use this as our base to see Seattle on Wednesday.  Kath and Tony offered to keep Cassie for us so that we can spend the day with out worrying about Cassie while we sight see in Seattle.  Cassie will hook back up with us on Thursday after being spoiled at the Beecher Doggie Resort.