STUFF I DID AND SAW OVER THE WEEKEND

This is Moses Coulee in central Washington. I took this route between Ephrata and Waterville. I could have taken Interstate highways all the way from La Grande, OR to Seattle but the Interstates practically bore me to tears. Instead I look for out-of-the-way routes through places I haven't seen before.

Badger Mountain Road from Waterville to Wenatchee goes over a very high ridge and offers up some great views of Wenatchee. This view is looking west from near the top of the hill on the road.

Safeco Field is a great place to watch a major league baseball game. There are really no bad seats in the ballpark. My friends and I were sitting in the centerfield bleachers for the 7/11/09 game against the Texas Rangers. I believe this view looks to our right, toward the left field bleachers.

We moved down toward some empty seats closer to the field for the 8th and 9th innings. This is David Aardsma in the 9th, pitching to some hapless Texas batter. Seattle won the game 4-1.

Owwwwww!

Music time with eternal bandmates Kevin, Dennis and Bill? Priceless! I was in a band called The Graphics with them and with our friend Stephen during college years in Eugene, OR. Stephen wasn't able to be with us this time, but maybe next. It was a blast getting together and playing all kinds of music. There may be a Graphics reunion gig in La Grande, OR sometime during the next year! I will be making arrangements for that to happen.

This is Magnolia Park in Seattle. Mrs. Snave and I were married in this park 8/17/85. I was glad to see that the park looks pretty much the same now as it did then.

Casey is such a good boy! He lives with my friend David and family. David, J. Marquis and I had a very nice evening at David's house!

On Monday I headed south from Seattle on I-5 toward Tacoma, and ended up with a rock chip on the windshield that became an 18-inch crack by the end of the day. While driving south on WA Highway 7 from Tacoma, I drove through La Grande... There is another La Grande besides La Grande, OR. This La Grande is much smaller than the one in Oregon, but it is also nice and quiet, and I doubt very much more or less happens here than in the La Grande in which I live.

Taklakh Lake on the flanks of Mt. Adams is a beautiful and wondrous place, even when the mountain is not visible. On the way up the hill to the lake from the main road, I blew a tire...

... and by the time I got to the lake the tire was flat. The mosquitos at Taklakh Lake are among the most vicious I have encountered in a long time! They made changing the tire particularly difficult. Thanks to Matt from Centralia, WA for the help and the bug spray! In the picture, you can see it was my left rear tire that blew. This necessitated a long, slow drive south on the baby spare to Trout Lake, WA and then to the Columbia River, and THEN a 2+ hour stop at a tire store in Hood River, OR.

This is Mt. Adams as seen from the Trout Lake, WA area. Of the Cascade vocanoes, Mt. Adams is my favorite. It is a 12,000+ foot peak.

Here is the Columbia Gorge looking east from the Rowena Crest Viewpoint between Hood River and The Dalles. From here it was about a three hour drive home.

It was a great weekend. The visits with Kevin, Bill, Dennis, David and Jim were the best part. Playing music, seeing a major league baseball game, eating at a nice restaurant one evening, and seeing lots and lots of nice scenery were the bonus material!

And of course it is always great to have family waiting for me at home!