Nolan's Friends

First Nolan made some human friends at the park because they owned the same brand trailer we own. Then he was introduced to their cats and a love affair started. This is Bella, a two year old Siberian Forest cat. The male owner is allergic to cats but not to this breed.

Both of them look pretty content.

Then there's Reuben, a three month old fiesty, little devil. He's also a Siberian Forest cat. He spied Bella on the floor and pounced on her. But a lot of the time he's a lovable little cuss and likes to be petted.

Road Construction

Two and 1/2 weeks ago the road that leads to the RV Park we are working at closed. No advance notice. We didn't know what was happening but after about a week we walked down the road to check it out. This is the sign just west of the park entrance.

There were lots of vehicles and signs along the road.

When we got to the end we didn't want to go too close but we could see they had torn up the road and had put in concrete culvert.

Today one lane is open and they were putting pavement back on the road surface.

August Miscellaneous

Well it was time I posted something and since we have an assortment of photos of various items, I thought I would post this collage of photos.

Sometimes we see some interesting RVs in the park. This is a 1947 Westwagon newly restored by the owner standing in front of it. The interior is all wood and very beautiful.

...We didn't get a chance to talk to the owner of this rig but the nameplate says it's a Crown.

....ok we were bad and I made a batch of bars.... we call them chippy-dippy bars, some people call them seven-layer bars but the recipe from Nolan's mother simply says "Nolan's Favorite Bars".

We've seen these signs at every road construction site in the state of Washington.

These are what I have no willpower to resist and the reason I've gained weight instead of losing this summer. No Bake Cookies.

..We drove around the local area to see what else was out there. Close to the dam that creates Mayfield Lake is a resort that has all kinds of rentals, RV sites, a restaurant, a store and a marina. We took this photo looking north to where the Hwy 12 bridge crosses the lake.

....I figured Mossyrock Dam would be an interesting place to check out since, at 606', it is the tallest dam in Washington. Well you can't even walk out on it! Bummers.

..We went back to Ike Kinswa State Park and hiked the trail we started to hike in May when it was really muddy.

This time we got past the spot that was just a big water puddle in May. It's dry now.

Nolan spotted this slug and figured we better get a photo. We see lots of these in the gardens at the RV park. There are larger ones called banana slugs that are, you guessed it, yellow. Ones like this one stretch out two to three inches but the banana slugs can get to 4 or 5 inches long.

Looking down at the arm of the lake that divides the park.

...In places the path looked more like an ATV path than a foot path.

Along Hwy 12 we kept passing this house with lots of bird houses so we decided to stop for photos.

There are a variety of accomodations.

..The one on the right is really big.

Check out the sign on top!

Mount Walker Viewpoint

Along the east side of Hwy 101 on the Olympic Peninsula, the Mt. Walker Viewpoint is reached by a windy, gravel road. We started at 800's in elevation and the viewpoints were at 2805'.

Course it's aways bad on a gravel road if someone is ahead of you kicking up the dust.

Due to the heat and bad air quality, the view was quite hazy. Here we are at the north viewpoint.

Then we headed over to the south viewpoint.

Fort Worden State Park

Fort Worden is a 443-acre park that was part of an important system of coastal fortresses guarding the entrance to Puget Sound.

This display showed the locations of the forts and how they covered the inlet. Sorry, Fort Worden got cut off at the bottom of the photo.

The following photos show the panoramic view from the fort. You can see Fort Casey on Whidbey Island.

You can just make out the tip of Marrowston Island, home of Fort Flagler, in this photo.

The Commanding Officer's Quarters was built in 1904 and is now a museum. Built in the Jeffersonian style, this nearly 6,000-square-foot house features a slate roof and decorated boxed cornices.

The Commaning Officer's Quarters is one of many Victorian houses along Officers' Row that line the parade grounds. The rest have not been restored to the extent that the COQ was but they are now rental units.

Love the oval windows.

All interior photos had to be taken without flash so we have a lot of blurry photos. We don't have photos of the living room but the fireplaces in it and the dining room were ordered from Sears along with the stove in the kitchen and the sliding pocket doors between the dining and living rooms.

None of the furniture is original to the house but it is period appropriate.

This bun warmer was built onto the steam heat register.

See if you can guess the five states.... I'll list them at the bottom of this post.

The washing was actually done in the basement of this home and the washing machine in the corner is just there for display purposes.

Sorry so blurry. This stove was purchased from Sears.

Notice the sweeper and the thin register.

This was originally a servants room but its function changed as the number of servants declined.
Servants were expected to keep up with the household mending and sewing so this room may have served an important function as a sewing room. The vintage Singer treadle sewing machine was a greatly appreciated piece of modern technology. The two white graduation dresses were proudly worn in 1900 (the white cotton) and 1914 (the beaded ivory).

That's a toilet with an elevated cistern and chain. Thanks Carol for making the photo lighter.

Look at the height of that headboard!

Next we went down to the Marine Science Center but it was closed. Since the temperature was in the 80's, the water was full of swimmers.

Nolan was fascinated by this bathing beauty. She sure loved the water.

Looking off the dock, we saw the water was full of jellyfish. A local told us they were harmless.

So have you guessed the five states yet? They are Alaska, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico.

...We were going to stay in Port Angeles the first night of the trip but the temperature was in the 90's and the hotel we had picked didn't have air-conditioning. We ended up in Sequim at a hotel with a/c.