October 2, 2010

Fall has fully arrived in Washington. I think fall may be my new favorite season, it is so beautiful with all the different colors decorating the trees.  A couple weeks ago Warren and I decided to enjoy a day up in the mountains.  It was the two year anniversary of Sierra's Angel Day and we thought the perfect way to remember her would be to be out doors enjoying nature.  The pictures in today's post are all from our drive, look how amazing the views are a little over an hour away from our house. The picture above is of a small lake called Picture Lake. 

This is another shot of picture lake just from another part of the lake.  In the winter this entire area will be covered in snow.

Just above Picture Lake was another scenic stop.  There were nice walking paths and leaves changing from green to different shades of red and yellow were scattered everywhere. 

At the top of our drive there was a number of hiking trails and different spots for taking pictures. We took a small walk along one of the paths but didn't get crazy since we were not planning on hiking that day.

Here is another look out point, it felt like we were at the top of the world.

We hope you enjoyed the highlights of our fall day out. It's was pretty hard to take a bad photo that day.

See you soon......

Summer Time Adventures

This summer our goal was to get out and see our surroundings before the rain starts up again.  Here are some of our summer adventures. The above picture is from one of our warmer weekend adventures.  We went on a 12 hour drive to explore the sights around Mount Baker.  

We have been waiting and waiting for whale watching season, it finally came and we were off on a whale watching tour. 

We were a little chilly, but very excited and patiently waiting to spot some whales.

There's one!  You can see a little Minki whale here, unfortunately no Orcas were found on our trip.  We were so bummed, but we had a great time being out on the water and just enjoying the ride. 

Even though we did not spot any Orcas we did view an amazing sunset.

At the last minute we decided to head up to Whistler BC for labor day weekend. On the way up to Whistler there are a few waterfalls you can stop off and see.  This is an amazing waterfall although in September it's not at it's peak flow.  Hopefully we will catch the waterfall again in the spring when all the snow is melting. 

It was different being up at a ski/snowboard resort without snow.  What do you do without snow....I guess you go zip lining. 

Here comes Warren.

In addition to our little trips over the summer our little brother Wesley came for a visit and to watch the Chargers play the Seahawks. Does this area look familiar to anyone?  We took Wesley back out to San Juan Island hoping to see Orcas....once again no luck.  Maybe next year.  

See you soon

Fun Filled May

The month of May brought us some sunny days, but more importantly it brought us more visitors!  We had two sets of visitors in May and we had a great time showing them around.  As you can see from the pictures below May was still pretty cool and jackets were needed.  We were lucky to catch some sun while Billy, Lisa and Carina were here.  Unfortunately when Brandy and Heidi came the sun was a scarce sight....but we had plenty of wind.  

We were lucky to have so much sun on the day we hopped on the ferry and took our first trip out to San Juan Island.  Here we are getting ready to take a short walk to look for Orca whales. 

Carina didn't spot any orcas, but if you look really closely you can see one of the Canadian islands across the water. 

Here's a fun one of our little niece. 

Brandy and Heidi came prepared with a full itinerary of Pacific Northwest adventures.  We started the long weekend in Seattle, made our way up to Anacortes and then we were off to Vancouver, BC.

This is Burrow's Bay, if you come visit we'll take you here too!

Here we are at Deception Pass trying not to freeze.

The craziest part of summer are the long days.  It still trips me out how long the days are in the summer months.  I took the above photo at 9:00 PM at night and we hadn't even hit the longest days of summer.  

Tulips and Washington D.C.

I know, I know it has been months since out last post.  Once the winter rain started to let up we took every opportunity we could to get out and enjoy the sunshine while we could.  This kept us busy, out of the house, and with little time to update our blog.  Now we are trying to get back on track.  Please keep in mind these next few posts will be a jumble of some of the fun things we have done since our last post. 

Every year in April the tulips are in bloom and Skagit Valley (the county we live in) holds a month long festival to celebrate tulips.  There are fields upon fields of tulips blooming in every color.  

Here are some pink tulips. sorry we don't have more tulip pictures.  Dub was not very happy with the pictures he snapped that day. 

Occasionally we sneak down to Seattle and luckily we caught an amazingly beautiful sunny day at Kerry Park in north Seattle area.  

In June work took us to our nation's capitol.  It was my first time in DC, and let me tell you I don't ever want to go back in the middle of summer.  No joke, we thought we were going to melt. When we left home it was a nice cool 60 degrees.  When we got to Washington DC it was a scorching 90+ degrees with 90% humidity. Not a good combo for two people that haven't seen temperatures above 68 in over 8 months.   

During our sight seeing adventures, or heat torture chamber, which ever you prefer, we randomly ran into the rest of the Womack clan that was in town. 

Congratulations to our brother-in-law on his graduation!

Here is Warren in front of the White House trying not to look like he is about to pass out.  

Even though the heat was a little overwhelming we had a great time.  We got to see DC and visit with family at the same time.  Stay tuned, our next post will be popping up very, very soon. 

Twilight Edition

For all of you Twilight lovers this post is for you.  

When Ryan and Thao come for a visit we went on an adventure and along the way we had the abbreviated Twilight tour.  That's right we drove right through Forks and Port Angeles Washington.  Thanks Thao for helping convince Warren to take our little detour.  

We started out our day with a ferry ride.  This was our first ferry ride. It is nice to drive on sit back and enjoy the trip. 

Our ride is coming to an end as we approach the ferry station. 

Here is the real Welcome to Forks sign.  This is a main attraction in Forks, WA right now.  After we were done taking pictures there were four other cars lined up waiting. 

We couldn't leave town without stopping by the high school. 

You can see that Forks has capitalized on the Twilight series.  Tours leave regularly from Dazzled by Twilight. 

And last but not least we drove by Bella Italia in Port Angeles. I know this looks nothing like the movie but here it is.  

Unfortunately we did not have enough time to make it out to La Push, but I hear it is beautiful.  We will make it there eventually and when we do you will see pictures.  

Next up tulips and more tulips from our day at the tulip festival.  

See you soon.....

A Friendly Visit, A Rain Forest, and the Winter Olympics

Sorry it has been so long since our last post.  We have been busy trying to get out and see everything the Pacific Northwest has to offer.  We still have a very long list of places to go and experience.  You can bet that these posts will not end any time soon.  Since our last post we have had a an adventure filled visit from friends  and we even made it up to Vancouver BC to check out the Olympics before everything wrapped up.  

Spring is in the air and flowers are blooming signaling the end to winter. Yep, we officially made it through our first winter.  Stay tuned because a post in the near future will be all about the Tulip Festival that comes to Skagit Valley every April. 

Our friends Ryan and Thao came up for a visit in February, they were up for an adventure and we did not want to disappoint.  Off to the Olympic National Forest we went.  We took our first ferry ride across the Puget Sound and drove all the way to the Hoh Rain Forest.  Here are some pictures from our journey.....

 This is Lake Crescent within the Olympic National Park.  The water was so calm and clear allowing for a perfect mirrored effect with mountains soaring from clear waters.

Another view of Lake Crescent with rolling clouds.

Ryan and Warren squeezing in a photo opportunity.

We passed through both Port Angles and Forks on our way to the Hoh Rain Forest. I know all of you Twilight fans are jealous.

After a 45 minute ferry ride and 3 hours of driving we finally made it to Hoh Rain Forest.  To say it was breath taking doesn't give the forest justice.  It was absolutely amazing, the amount of green moss everywhere was insane and as you can guess it was wet and raining.  We were soaked after a short 30 minutes of walking around. Thanks to Ryan and Thao for all the photos of the rain forest. 

Before Ryan and Thao left us we took them to see some local Anacortes sites. 

Instead of posting a picture of the plain tree this time you get one with Ryan :)  We had such a wonderful weekend with our visitors, come again soon!  

A couple weeks ago we decided to catch sunset on the water.  Doesn't it sound so romantic to sit on the beach watching the sunset with the one you love?  As we were on the beach I was looking around to find couples and families huddled together to catch the end of the day, then I looked to my right no Warren, looked to my left still no Warren, hmmmm.  That's right you guessed it he was running around the beach taking pictures while I was quietly enjoying the sunset on my own.  

Just after sunset, such a peaceful time of day.

Every once and a while I take control of the camera.

The Olympic Cauldron was a fantastic sight to see in person.  Vancouver is an amazing city.  We did not make it up to Vancouver during the main portion of the Olympics, but made our way up during the Para-Olympics. 

Just before crossing the boarder back into the US.


Whew, that was a long one.  For all of you thinking about coming for a visit you are always welcome. We promise to take you on an adventure!