Puyallup to North Cascades - August 2nd to 3rd

My visit with my Phend cousins, Jim and Nancy Zellerhoff, was quite enjoyable but way too short. Nancy and I are 3rd cousins. Jim and Nancy had attended two reunions of the Jacob and Louisa (Fisher) Phend Family. In 1996 it was a two-day affair at the "farm" where Mom and I were living at the time and in 1998 the family gathered in Kalona, Iowa. In both cases, Jim "volunteered" to be the auctioneer for the white elephant and craft auction, doing a magnificent job each time!

Even though it had been 17 years since we had seen each other, we had stayed in touch up until  2009 when I started traveling. We didn't run out of things to talk about - Nancy does genealogy and family history research too and had recently gotten involved with helping a daughter-in-law find her birth parents. So, yes, we had lots of things to discuss. And I got to meet her sister, Sue, too. Thank you, Jim and Nancy, for your hospitality!

Sunday morning we parted ways. I headed north on Interstate 5 through the most populated area of the state of Washington, taking the long, scenic route back to Mount Rainier. Nancy had told me that traffic shouldn't be too bad on a Sunday morning... if that was light traffic, I'd sure hate to see it during a  weekday morning! I dislike driving on Interstate highways at all and strongly dislike driving on them in a city. I could blame it on age, I suppose, but I was a nervous wreck by the time I got to the Burlington exit where I got off of I-5.

I stopped to get some groceries and just sat in Van Dora for about 10 minutes to settle my nerves before venturing into the supermarket. That task completed, I decided on a short excursion to Whidbey Island to satisfy my curiosity.  When I was in the Navy and was due for a trasfer, several times I requested Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. So I drove out that way primarily to see what the area was like. I'm sure the area is much different now than it was 40 years ago!

Curiosity satisfied, I returned to Burlington and followed State Road 20 into the Cascade Mountains stopping early for the night at Newhalen Campground in North Cascades National Park.  I melted with the temperature at 95 degrees but garnered enough energy to walk along the 1.8 mile Skagit River Loop Trail a little later. Thankfully it was an easy trail but only briefly followed the river. I did take the opportunity to splash some of the cool river water on my face and arms and sat in the shade of some trees along the edge of the river for a while. For some reason, I left the campsite without my camera, so no pictures there.

The next morning (Monday, August 3rd) I continued east on State Road 20 stopping at several scenic overlooks on the way  east and south to US 97. I stopped for the night at Mineral Springs Campground about 30 miles north of Ellensburg.

The strange, bluish-milky, glacial-water of Lake Diablo was fascinating.

Some folks were seeing the lake from a different perspective.

A portion of the highway on its way through Washington Pass.

At Washington Pass.

I haven't figured out what this little guy is carrying, but the rough paved path wasn't helping him any.

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Becky Wiseman, "Puyallup to North Cascades - August 2nd to 3rd," Kinexxions, posted September 14, 2015 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2015/09/pallayup-to-north-cascades.html : accessed [access date])