RWI0020 - Mad Dash Back to Home-Base
La Conner, Washington
Leaving Seattle was sad for us as we turned North to visit Julie’s Aunt Joanne in the quaint town of La Conner, Washington.
La Conner is just across the inlet from the Swinomish Indian Reservation. A small tourist town with lots of shops, eateries and waterfront strolls.
There is a Thousand Trails RV park on the Reservation side, but we stayed at the La Connor Marina RV park so that we could walk to town and be close to Aunt Joanne.
Pacific NorthWest
Our plan was to stay a couple of weeks, but we ended up staying almost a Month. To the West is the San Juan islands and the Pacific Ocean.
To the North is Canada, and to the east the whole United States. We were staying pretty much in the Northwest corner of our country. We were fortunate to have dry weather during our stay in this lush green territory.
Julie would make the long drive, multiple times to the Seattle/Tacoma Airport so I could take my redeye flight to work in Houston. When I was off work, we would venture the surrounding area.
Vancouver, Canada
Our first day trip was to Vancouver Canada. We loaded up Jack (Ram Truck) and headed North. The kids with newly minted passports void of travel stamps.
The destination was the Grandville Island public market. Granville Island is located on one of the inlets that splits the city right off highway 99. It is a large public market where you can spend an entire day shopping, eating and sightseeing.
For a daytrip, it was a great destination. We walked the entire island market and witnessed street performers, glass blowing, gigantic yachts and great photo opportunities.
I was able to convince the border patrol to stamp our passports for a souvenir on the way into the Country. He huffed and puffed about “this is not normal”, but I’m sure felt better after seeing the kids’ faces as they examined their newly stamped passports.
Whitby and San Juan Islands
JoAnne was quite the hostess, while I was away at work, Julie and the kids went to a fair nearby and Luke got to make curly fries at his cousins Curly Fry food truck. They all also learned how to play frisbee golf in the woods of Anacortes.
Whitby Island is located to the West of La Conner. To get to the island, you cross deception pass. Named so by Vancouver, the pass was not found by his explorers traveling North on the East side of the island. The pass was discovered following the West coastline to the North.
Until Deception Pass was discovered, Vancouver believed the island to be a peninsula. We travelled halfway down the West coast of the island to venture through Fort Casey. Built for strategic defense of the Puget Sound, the park gives visitors access to the underground labyrinth of rooms that occupied, munitions, stores and soldiers. We also were able to do some geocaching at this site.
JoAnne then took us on a Ferry ride through the San Juan Islands to Friday Harbor. We toured the island by trolly/bus stopping at sculpture park. Before taking the ferry back, we ate lunch at the Cheesecake Café and Bakery overlooking the Ferry landing.
Eastward Ho
With a new set of frisbees, and a great fondness for the North West we began our trek back to home base in Kempner Texas – Julies childhood home.
First stop heading east just outside of Spokane: Coeur d’Alene Idaho. We stayed at the Blackwell Island RV Park located at the northern tip of Coeur d’Alene Lake. This RV park had lots of hidden gems, from a little fairy garden to secret paths to the water. Unfortunately, we were only able to stay one night.
I flew out of Spokane for work and Julie and the kids moved on to Butte Montana for a night then Sheradon Wyoming for a night and finally settle in Fort Collins, Colorado for a week.
Special Treat – Visiting Condit Factory
I joined them in Ft. Collins for a few days and then we headed into Denver to meet with our high school friend Mike McGowan at his company Condit.
Condit is a company that design, create and build trade show exhibits. We got the full tour of the facilities and an education of the creative. One of the office spaces had a woodland theme complete with and RV Camper (office inside) and a treehouse (breakroom complete with bar).
It was fascinating to see all these creatives at work. Mike is a snow skiing fanatic and was in the process of transforming his Snowcat into the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine with a vinyl wrap during our visit – see news story.
Another Night at Wally World
We spent the next night in a Walmart outside of Colorado Springs and I took off for Houston the next day as Julie and the kids made their way to Amarillo.
I was hoping they would take the time to visit the Cadillac Ranch, but after another Walmart stay they made their way back to Kempner.
Home Base
Kempner is a great home base for us. It is a 2.5 hour drive to San Antonio where my mother, brothers and many friends reside. It is located in Central Texas near Fort Hood where Julie’s dad retired and was my first Army Aviation duty assignment.
I used to fly the EH-1X – an experimental electronic warfare helicopter while stationed at Fort Hood for the Aviation Brigade in the 2nd Armored Division.
That job gave me the opportunity to fly this reconfigured Huey helicopter numerous times in the California desert and in Germany on a Reforger Exercise.
It also gave me a leg up acquiring a transition to the C-12 (King Air) fixed wing aircraft. My time flying the C-12 in Grafenwoehr Germany gave me the necessary qualification and time to apply for my current position as an Airline Pilot.
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