A Ride North (and West)

I have always wanted to visit the most northwest part of Washington - Cape Flattery. I have seen the lighthouse several times from the ocean while transitting in and out of port on submarines but had never seen it from land. It takes effort to get up there because it isn't on the way to anywhere else. You have to want to be there. The area is part of the Makah indian reservation. I finally made time to ride up and do a little sight-seeing this past weekend. It helped that a couple of checkpoints on my summer riding rally were nearby - that finally gave me the reason to go. It was a beautiful day in the PNW with almost impossibly good conditions on the coast - mid-60F temps, few clouds and very little wind. I did hit one road block on my ferry ride. The tide was so low that a couple of sailings were cancelled. Luckily it was easy to hang out in the sun and enjoy a nice day. Next time I will check the sailing alerts on my phone app.

Low tides cancelled a few sailings between Whidbey Island and Port Townsend. Lots of sun and a coffee shop made it bearable :)

The coastline near Cape Flattery was beautiful!

Looking south from the Cape Flattery trail.

Looking out at the Cape Flattery lighthouse. It sits on an island a couple of miles offshore.

All three kids made it home for a few days after school was out for the summer. It was nice to have them there, even if only for a few days. Stephanie had a chance to bond with Wilson but had to go back to Bellingham for work. Melissa is home for a few weeks before she heads back to Seattle to work this summer. Danny is off this summer but keeping very busy with running, cross country camp and reading assignments for his AP classes next year. And he had his braces removed!

Danny without braces!

Melissa was home for a few weeks.

Stephanie bonds with Wilson by walking him on the trail behind our house.

Our deer friends are back :)

Deck Ramblings

Jeannette and I (OK, mostly me) decided to build a deck in the back yard. I went through several iterations of me building, someone else building, building a raised deck, building a paver patio, etc. I settled on a raised deck and paid someone to build the structural piece of the deck to make sure it was done right. I came up with the design for the surface and my contractor made it work. Pretty happy with the results.

I decided to not attach the deck to the house. I was having some serious anxiety about tearing up a brand new house to attach the deck and elected to put in another span of posts to support the deck. The existing patio also presented some obstacles since the height of the joists and decking would have been above the level of the house floor if we didn't get creative. I worked through the details with the contractor and we have a nice compromise.

The major work is done now. The planters and benches took me the better part of two weekends to finish up. Another solid reason why hiring a contractor for the main part was a good idea. I have some lattice boards to close up the bottom, and I have the risers for the stairs. I still need to excavate and prepare a landing area for the stairs into the yard. Once all of this is done I can start working on the other areas of the yard to clean it up a bit.

One additional advantage of hiring a contractor was some extra time to ride my bike. I took a two day ride out to eastern Washington and northern Idaho to pick up a few last minute bonus checkpoints for a rally I was finishing. Day 1 took me across northern Washington out to Coeur d'Alene, ID. Weather was pretty good for the most part, just a few rain showers and cool temperatures. Day 2 took me south through western Idaho to Lewiston, ID, and then back across southern and central Washington to get home. Day 2 was a little wetter than day 1. One of the highlights of my trip on Day 2 was a stop in Moscow, ID for breakfast (huckleberry zucchini bread french toast) . Jeannette and I went to college in Moscow and it was kind of nice stopping by and taking a look at the old homestead. Things are largely unchanged in Moscow from what I remembered. The last couple of pictures below show Palouse Falls State Park and one of the dams I wanted to see on the Snake River. The state park is a gem sitting in the middle of nowhere in central Washington off of state highway 261. The roads surrounding it are awesome riding, too. Lower Monumental Lock & Dam is off the beaten path in southeast Washington and is one of dozens that line the Snake and Columbia rivers.

Almost "before". Posts are set and the beams are being positioned to level everything.

Deck is framed and ready. It looks like a lot of framing and blocking, but it was necessary to support the deck layout I wanted.

All decking is attached now. This was the extent of the contractor's work.

Planters and benches complete now. Still have work to do to close up the bottom and add stairs down into the yard. I also need to build a stand in the planters to support the pots we plan to put in each one.

Palouse Falls State Park in central Washington.

Lower Monumental Lock & Dam on the Snake River.