Christmas 2018

at El Dorado West in Burien

Jordan made a few Christmas decorations, then started decorating on 12/11. He hung the stockings on the stair rail, but had no idea what to put in them. Steve said he would take care of it. He put gifts in ours, but there was nothing in his. Rusty & Steve both had a 4-day weekend. We watched the 1964 cartoon Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on Friday night 12/21. Rusty found some decorations & set them up on Saturday 12/22. His fiber optic tree had been repaired.  We watched The Christmas Chronicles with Kurt Russell as Santa Claus that night.

Christmas Eve was a beautiful day, sunny & fairly warm. We had pork loin & polenta with mushroom sauce for dinner. We watched the 1965 cartoon A Charlie Brown Christmas. Christmas Day was cloudy. We exchanged gifts that morning, then had dim sum at Hong Kong Seafood Restaurant for lunch. We drove to Burien, where we toured beautiful Three Tree Point on Puget Sound. We visited Jordan's mother at El Dorado West & gave her gifts. Back at home, Rusty made roast chicken, yams & green beans for dinner. It was a busy Christmas Day.

Vashon Thanksgiving 2018

Fauntleroy Ferry Dock

MV Kitsap ferry

Vashon Island

Vashon Ferry Dock

The Hardware Store Restaurant

Steve inside The Hardware Store Restaurant

Inside The Hardware Store Restaurant

Click here for more photos of Vashon Thanksgiving.

We went to Vashon Island on Thanksgiving Day to have a buffet of traditional food for lunch at The Hardware Store Restaurant. We took the ferry there at 11:30 & had lunch at 1. It began raining heavily after lunch. We drove around the island for a short time, looking at the scenery from the car. Then we took the ferry back to Seattle. We didn’t really have dinner. Each of us found something to eat & we watched the Netflix film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

November Rainbow 2018

November Sunset 2018

Halloween 2018

Halloween was on Wednesday 10/31. The weather was good. It didn’t rain & the temperature was 55 degrees. 44 kids came to our door & got a total of 98 pieces of candy. They ranged in age from 2 to 13. Only a few were our nearest neighbors. One kid lost his Mercer Middle School student ID card just outside our house.  We weren't able to find our decorations from previous years.  Jordan made new decorations & taped them on our front door.  We had 2 pumpkins, but didn't carve them.

October Sunset 2018

October Garden 2018

Phlomis species (Jerusalem Sage)

The view toward Beacon Hill

 

Chamaecyparis nootkatensis ‘Glauca Compacta’ (Dwarf Blue Alaskan Cedar)

Arctostaphylos ‘Sunset' (Manzanita)

Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Prostratus’ (Trailing Rosemary)

The garden in October was most beautiful at the end of the month, after it had rained significantly. There was almost an inch of rain in the first week of the month, then very little until the last week when it rained more than 2 inches.  Total rainfall for the month was 3.78 inches, 0.30 inches more than normal.  The average monthly temperature was 53.8 degrees, 1.0 degrees more than normal.  The highest temperature was 72 on 10/16.  The lowest was 43 on 10/23 & 10/24.  In the final weeks of the month, Jordan raked leaves almost every day, because so many fell on the sidewalks & alley from our huge Oregon ash tree. He stuffed them in bags, then dumped them in bare places in the garden.

North Central Washington

Rainy Lake, North Cascades

Washington Pass

Mazama, Methow Valley

Methow River, Big Valley Wildlife Area

Jordan & Rusty traveled to Okanogan County & Chelan County in North Central Washington for 3 days from October 13 to 15.  They crossed the Cascade Mountains on the North Cascades Highway (Hwy 20) on Saturday morning.  They stopped to walk to Rainy Lake at Rainy Pass.  They descended through Washington Pass into the Methow Valley, where they stopped in Mazama, walked to the Methow River in the Big Valley Wildlife Area, then stopped again in Winthrop.  They drove on to Omak (pop 5,000) where they spent 2 nights in the Okanogan Valley.

Omak, WA

Okanogan Valley from Whistler Canyon Trail

Similkameen River

Shrub-steppe on the Osoyoos Reserve 

Lake Skaha from Skaha Bluffs Provincial Park

On Sunday, they traveled north through the Okanogan Valley.  They stopped to walk the Whistler Canyon Trail, which provided a great view of the Okanogan Valley.  They had lunch in Oroville.  They walked across a pedestrian bridge over the Similkameen River.  They crossed the international border into Canada.  They walked a trail through shrub-steppe at the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre (pronounced in-ka-meep) on the reserve of the Osoyoos Band of the Okanagan Nation, in Osoyoos.  They traveled farther north, where they walked in Skaha Bluffs Provincial Park in Penticton.  There was a beautiful view of Lake Skaha in the Okanagan Valley.  They had dinner in Penticton, then returned by the same route through the Okanogan Valley to Omak.

Chelan, WA 

Lake Chelan

Pybus Public Market in Wenatchee

Wenatchee, WA

Antique Mall in Wenatchee

Click here for more photos of North Central Washington.

On Monday, they traveled south through the Okanogan Valley to the Columbia River & on to Chelan. They walked along the Chelan Riverwalk Park & the few blocks of shops on E Woodin Ave, the main street. Then they drove along the lake to Lake Chelan State Park, where they walked to the water. They went on to Wenatchee through a beautiful mountain valley called Navarre Coulee, then along the Columbia River. They stayed 3 hours in Wenatchee. Rusty ate lunch at the Pybus Public Market. Jordan took photos of the market & the downtown historic district. They spent nearly an hour in an antique mall. Not far from Wenatchee, they stopped in the town of Cashmere at the Aplets and Cotlets factory store. Then they returned to Seattle on Interstate 90 over Snoqualmie Pass.