Tag Archives: Yakima

Hello Washington

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We entered Washington via Idaho into Clarkston for a quick one-night stay at the Granite Lake RV Park. What a weird feeling to be back in our home state after all of this time. Our campground was in a beautiful location right at the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake Rivers. This was just an overnight to break up our long drive before heading to Walla Walla.

The next morning, I loved the drive east as it felt like I was back in the Palouse! We arrived at the Blue Valley RV Park in Walla Walla, our home for the next 3 nights. It was a perfectly located park, just a mile to the downtown area. We were here to visit friends, Don and Trudy, and of course do some wine tasting. The weather was perfect and we were able to visit some places we had not tried before as well as some old favorites. We had a great dinner out with Don and Trudy and a lovely afternoon on the Amavi Cellars deck with them sipping a delicious Rose. So great to be able to see them on our way back home!

Mike and I, Don and Trudy at Amavi

Mike and me, Don and Trudy at Amavi

Cougar Crest!

Cougar Crest!

Pepper Bridge, one of our faves

Pepper Bridge, one of our faves

Mike

Mike doing his “wino crossing” imitation

Next up was Yakima and Camp Cameron for Memorial Day Weekend. Well, we actually stayed a full week, but we had a few friends come and go throughout the weekend. Sunny & Mitch have a perfect set up for our MoHo with full hook-ups right in their driveway. We had a great time catching up with friends, hanging by the pool, wine tasting, hiking and storm watching. We were even able to clean out the entire “basement area” of the MoHo and organize a bit in preparation for putting it up for sale. We said goodbye to them on Thursday morning and made our way to Wenatchee (we left the MoHo parked in their driveway and just drove the car). Huge thank you to them for this and their hospitality!

The group hiking in Cowiche Canyon, Yakima

The group hiking in Cowiche Canyon, Yakima

The three amigas!

The three amigas!

Cidery Tasting

Cidery Tasting

Our camping spot at Camp Cameron

Our camping spot at Camp Cameron, five stars

Amazing views of Mt. Adams from Camp Cameron

Amazing views of Mt. Adams from Camp Cameron

Next stop was Casa de Pflu in Wenatchee to see our other great friends, Marc & Shelly. We spent 4 nights there hanging with them and just enjoying the views from their home, cooking and watching softball and movies. Got a lot of errands done in anticipation of our arrival to the west side. Our 16th anniversary was on May 30 so we had a delicious celebratory dinner with them. The time was too short and before we knew it, Monday June 1 had arrived, our official re-entry date. Big thanks to them for hosting us on our final destination!

Mike & I with the amazing view at Casa de Pflu

Mike & me with the amazing view at Casa de Pflu, Wenatchee

Mike chillaxing

Mike chillaxing

Happy friends

Happy friends

Marc and Mike enjoying their crab

Marc and Mike enjoying their crab

We left Wenatchee, drove to Yakima to get our “house” and headed over the mountains to Bellevue for official re-entry. I can’t believe this time has actually arrived. What a ride it has been and such a great adventure for us, full of amazing memories. Our home for the next 10 days is Vasa Park in Bellevue, then we take the MoHo to the Puyallup Fairgrounds while we volunteer at the US Open golf tourney in Tacoma. After that we are hoping to have found a place to live. Currently, we are catching up with friends and family, looking for a vehicle for Mike and a place to rent. Then, we’ll really ramp up the job search and selling of the MoHo. Lots to do, but exciting to see what the next chapter holds for us.

 

Surprise! 7/24/14 – 7/28/14

Miller beating the Yakima heat!

Miller beating the Yakima heat!

Oh, yes we did! We flew back home for the annual Camp Cameron pool party! We could not risk our perfect attendance for this event and what a great opportunity for us to see our friends and family all in one weekend. We hadn’t been home in 10 mo’s! Left the MoHo in Syracuse, NY on Thursday morning and drove 5 hours down to Philly for our flight. This worked out well with our Alaska Airlines companion fare and we were able to drop the Acura at a dealership near the airport for some maintenance work. Got into Seattle at 9pm, my mom picked us up (she knew we were coming) and we stayed with her that night.

We have missed that view from Camp Cameron!

We have missed that view from Camp Cameron!

Me and Sunny right after the surprise

Me and Sunny right after the surprise

Friday morning, we picked up our rental car, a sweet Dodge Challenger, then took care of some appointments. Drove over to Yak and arrived around 2:30pm to an empty Camp Cameron (except for their new puppy, Penny) as they were out golfing. Mitch was the first one home and I wished we had a camera nearby to capture the look on his face. Classic. Sunny’s reaction a bit later was equally good. Actually, we had a similar reaction time after time as everyone arrived, we kind of felt like celebrities!   I think deep down many thought there was a chance we would come, but hopefully we did a pretty good job of hiding the secret.

Poolside!

Poolside!

Pool games

He did make it through!

Pool games — made it through!

Chillaxing on "the runway"

Chillaxing on “the runway”

It was a great weekend of catching up and spending time with great friends. And as usual, Mitch and Sunny were the perfect hosts! So happy we were able to make the trip. We left on Monday, sad to say goodbye, and headed back over to Seattle. Spent the afternoon and evening with my mom & brother, complete with dinner at our favorite little Mexican restaurant, Tapatio, in Newcastle. We were up and off to the airport at 6:30am on Tuesday morning back to Philly, then the drive up to Syracuse. Our heads hit the pillow about 11pm that night. A whirlwind trip, but so worth it!

Driving away in our Dodge Challenger

Driving away in our sweet Dodge Challenger

Back in Washington! 7/24/13 to 7/31/13

Pool Party at Camp Cameron!

Pool Party at Camp Cameron!

It felt great driving back into Washington and the Pacific Time Zone!  We stopped in Kennewick for a nice visit with Mike’s dad before our destination in Yakima.  As we pulled up the driveway to Sunny & Mitch’s (aka Camp Cameron), we were greeted with the best ever welcome sign (see pic below).  The annual pool party didn’t officially start until Friday, but they let us roll in a bit early on Wed.   My mom drove over from Bellevue and Sunny’s parents, Jerry & Ann, were there, so we had a great couple of days catching up, BBQing and hanging by the pool before the big group arrived.  What a treat to have my mom come over and spend some time together.  Loved it!

Our welcome at Camp Cameron

Our welcome at Camp Cameron

Our RV Site - pretty sweet!

Our RV Site – pretty sweet! (Lana & Traci)

On Friday, we had a group of 12 golfing at Apple Tree and it was toasty!  The pool was a welcome site that afternoon.  The rest of the group arrived that afternoon/evening and the festivities were on.  Food, drink, music, games, pool, hot tub, sunshine and good friends catching up – it doesn’t get much better than that!  As usual it was a huge success and the Cameron’s were gracious hosts as always!  Most people left on Sunday/Monday, but we stayed one more day until Tuesday.  So far, Camp Cameron has been our favorite RV Park!

Life is good!

Life is good! (Sunny & Traci)

We rolled out of Yak on Tuesday morning enroute to Wenatchee and the Pflugrath’s (aka Casa de Pflu).  Their neighbors allowed us to park the MoHo in their driveway and we slept inside the house, which was actually a treat.  Shelly & Marc are babysitting our bed while we are on the road, so it was nice to sleep in it again!  They wined & dined us and we enjoyed their back patio and amazing view.  The smoke from the fires was starting to settle in; hopefully it doesn’t repeat the horrible smoke they had last year.

On Wednesday morning we had a little excitement.  Mike ran over to the MoHo to get some stuff out and he discovered a rattlesnake resting comfortably under the back tires.  It certainly got his attention for the next 20 minutes until it slithered back into the bushes down the hill.  We called Marc to see what we should do and he told us “stay away from it.”  Thanks Marc, genius.  Shell & I went to get much needed pedi’s, met the boys for lunch then took the boat out on the River.  We were enjoying the calmness of the river and just getting settled near the sandbars, when we noticed that a storm was brewing – wind and rain.  We decided we better head in, but when we tried to start the engine it was DEAD.   Looking around there was no one left on the river due to the bad weather, so Marc had to swim into shore walk down to the closest boat launch to get someone to tow us in while Mike, Shell & I tried to keep the boat from blowing into the rocks.  Can you say cluster!  We made it home about 3 hours later than we wanted, but safely and laughing about it.  Stopped at McGlinn’s for takeout and enjoyed another fantastic evening at Casa de Pflu.

The calm before the storm

The calm before the storm (Traci & Shelly)

Heading up to Canada today for 2 weeks!  Can’t wait.  First stop is Penticton/Summerland.  Wi-Fi will be very rare and spotty for us and we have turned off the data on our phones, so it may be awhile before we can post.