Here's my follow-up from last night's sighting of the "new" flattened constellation. If you recall it looked like a flattened Cassiopeia but over an hour period did not move. Well, mystery solved. The six or so "stars" I was seeing last night turned out to be a series of houses spotted across the mountainside as viewed from our deck. Perhaps it was the beer, maybe the wine or possibly I need new glasses!
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As for today I woke up again around 7 and was soon treated to a mountain sunrise and a surprise rainbow, actually a double rainbow viewed from our deck. Sheila took the rainbow picture at just the right moment as you can see.
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Sun Mountain Lodge View
From Breakfast Table |
Checkout at Sun Mountain was not until noon, so we eased down to breakfast around nine. Breakfast was included in the room rate; Sheila had Eggs Benedict and I had a waffle with eggs over easy and, of course, bacon. Our server this morning Kennon had heard Sheila mention New Zealand to another guest; turns out Kennon had lived for several months in New Zealand just last year, following a woman to Auckland and then working at a dairy south of Christchurch, all before "bumming around" the Queenstown area. He was a good kid with a great story to tell.
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| Fall Colors at Sun Mountain |
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| Hunting Trophies? |
As you might see from some of our pictures, the lodge was reminiscent of the TreeTops Lodge in New Zealand with a serious collection of hunting trophies mounted throughout the building.
I'll make one more comment about the Road Scholars group that was meeting in the lodge. Sheila checked out the Road Scholars web site; turns out this is an international educational travel concept, going to interesting places, spending time learning about the places and enjoying the time along the way; basically a big travel club.
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| Winthrop |
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| Winthrop |
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| Winthrop |
Around noon, we headed back into Winthrop; it's an interesting little town that at some point decided to embrace the "old west" as their design motif.
Moving on we traveled south through Twisp, the home of one of last night's beer offerings and beef and vegetables for the lodge restaurant. We continued south joining up with the Columbia River at Pateros, WA. but soon diverted west through apple & pear orchard country for a drive-through of Leavenworth (not Kansas). Similar to Winthrop, Leavenworth adopted a town design motif, here modeled after an Alpine village, even the McDonald's, Starbucks and Safeway modified their typical outside appearance. In the downtown section, all the stores and residences participated in the facade and almost all buildings were bedecked with numerous flowers many flowing from window flower boxes up and down the street.
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| Leavenworth |
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| Leavenworth |
From Leavenworth we continued south through the Blewett Pass of the eastern Cascade's slope at 4,102 feet elevation dropping into Ellensburg and finally Yakima.
Upon arrival in Yakima, Sheila went to check-in at one of the Best Western hotels and was refused the typical discount we receive as a retired military family; though the site manager tried to recant the refusal and offer an equivalent rate. Incensed, Sheila refused the offer and literally took her business elsewhere, in this case the Red Lion Hotel in Yakima. The good will generated over the years by Best Western may have been expended in this one refusal; we'll see.
At the Red Lion, it was a light dinner at Johnny's, the hotel bar while watching the baseball game. Seems that there is a teachers' convention in town and a number of the delegates were in the bar while we were there. In a matter of an hour, the six teachers to our immediate right had consumed at least six different shots and shooters; they were having a great time, just hope the morning after pain isn't too great and that they are headed to meetings not the classroom.
We returned to the room for the final innings of the playoff game and as by now most of you know, one of us was disappointed with the series outcome, well two of us, that would be me and DJK.
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Q: How Do You Ruin Hummus?
A: Add Artichoke & Spinach. |
One last thought for the day as we look to meeting up with the other MART teams from Carlsbad, Kitty Hawk and Scottsdale. There are a few things I should note that will not be included in breakfast, lunch and/or dinner, at least for this traveler. Here is an obvious example.
As you might see from some of our pictures, the lodge was reminiscent of the TreeTops Lodge in New Zealand with a serious collection of hunting trophies mounted throughout the building.
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