We'd been looking forward to GeoWoodstock VIII for a year and at last it was here! We'd made our flight, hotel, and rental car arrangements several months ago and could hardly stand the wait. Neither of us had ever been to the Seattle area and now we had a great reason for going.
Day 1: Our flight didn't leave Jacksonville until 6:30pm so we had a long day to wait for our adventure to begin, but at last it was here. Not much to tell except that the flight to Dallas and then the second leg to Seattle seemed to take forever. It was agonizing. But at last we arrived... at 1:00am. Yikes! We quickly picked up our luggage and our rental car, then made our way to a hotel near the airport where we had reservations. Time for some much needed sleep!
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| Fife Motel along U.S. Route 99 |
Day 2: Today was our first full day after arriving in Washington and what did we do? We headed to Oregon! The hotel we stayed in the previous night was located on the historic
U.S. Route 99 - The Pacific Highway so we decided to make our way south along this old road. It wasn't long before we spotted an interesting piece of old Americana, the Fife Motel, a quaint little motor lodge. We had our wireless computer in the car and the Biologist posted the waymark while we continued heading south. Within minutes Hikenutty approved it. Now that's what we call service!
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| Covington House Historical Marker |
We continued south to Vancouver, Washington, where we stopped at the historic Covington House, an old log cabin and former boarding school that housed the first piano in the Oregon Country and was the center of social activity in the entire region. We learned that piece of information from the
Washington Historical Marker located on the property! Also at this site was a
Wagon Roads and Trails marker for the Oregon Trail, as well as a
Blue Star Memorial Highway Marker that we visited.
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| Beacon Rock Historical Marker |
Soon after, we crossed the Columbia River and the State border into Oregon and took a drive along Interstate 84 where we enjoyed the absolutely wonderful views of the river, mountains, and waterfalls. We spotted a sign for the Bonneville
Fish Hatchery and couldn't resist making a side trip to see what it had to offer. Now that's an impressive operation. We especially enjoyed the sturgeon viewing area. Talk about a prehistoric looking animal. What a beauty! As we were departing the fish hatchery, we decided to turn to the left toward the overflow parking area so we could check out the view of the Columbia River from there and what did we see? An unclaimed
Oregon Historical Marker about Beacon Rock, a prominent geographic feature named by Lewis and Clark in 1805 that was located across the river in the State of Washington. We hopped back on Interstate 84 and spotted another pull-off, this one at Mitchell Point where we found yet another
Oregon Historical Marker and learned about the former famous Mitchell Point Tunnel that used to run through here.
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| Palmer Glacier |
Back on the road again, we turned south onto Highway 35 in Hood River and made our way to Mount Hood. Our plan was to head to the small town of Parkdale where we were hoping we could see the Eliot Glacier, one of many glaciers on Mount Hood. No such luck, but we did meet some hikers/cross country skiers who suggested we head to the Timberline Lodge in the town of Government Camp where we would be able to see the Palmer Glacier. Yea! So off we went. Unfortunately, the top of Mount Hood was starting to get socked in the day we visited the Timberline Lodge, but a lodge employee pointed out the lower part of the Palmer
Glacier to us and we were able to snap a few photos before it got totally socked in. Whew! That was close! After spending a little time wandering around the infamous lodge that served as the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in "The Shining" (ooh, very creepy!), we made our way to Portland and checked into our hotel. A little while later, we met up with the Marine's cousin Dana, who now lives in the Portland area and whom he hadn't seen in 18 years. We had a great time visiting with Dana, her husband Brian, and their daughter Kailyn over dinner and made them promise to come visit us in Florida.
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| A Family Get-together |
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| Ramona Quimby |
Day 3: Today we needed to head back north to enjoy some of the pre-GeoWoodstock activities. But first we had to stop in Grant Park, a
Municipal Park and Plaza, where the Biologist had found through an internet search that the Beverly Cleary sculpture garden was located. The sculpture garden was made up of statues of Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and Henry's dog Ribsy, some of the most beloved characters in Cleary's childrens' books. After grabbing some photos and the coordinates for these
Famous Fictional Figures, we had just one more stop to make in Oregon and that was to Rocky Butte. Rocky Butte and the area surrounding it were scoured by Ice Age floods and are a
Glacial Lake Missoula Floods Feature. Sweet! At the top of Rocky Butte was a lovely little
Municipal Park and Plaza named after Dr. Joseph Wood Hill. A nice
Citizen Memorial with a
Relief Art Sculpture dedicated to Dr. Hill was located in the park, as well as a cool
Orientation Table that points to several vistas including the City Center, Mt. Tabor, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. Saint Helens, Mt. Ranier, and the Columbia River. It also turns out that Joseph Wood Hill Park was improved during 1937-1939 as a
WPA Project, with stone walls, roadways, and a wide parking platform. Wow, what a great place to visit. And to think we probably would never have come here were it not for the Biologist's waymarking addiction!
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| Orientation Table |
We hated to leave Portland without having had the opportunity to do much exploring there, but we needed to make tracks back to the Seattle area. We checked into our hotel in Renton, just outside Seattle, in the early afternoon and decided to grab some lunch. The front desk clerk highly recommended the Whistle Stop Ale House, which not only had great food, but was a nice addition to the
Pubs and Inns category. Then back to our hotel for a short rest before heading over to the "COWWS Friday Meet & Greet and Luau" at Lake Sammamish State Park. Turns out we had to travel 3,000 miles to see some of our old friends from home! We had a nice time catching up with Sights2c, IceCreamMan, Mrs. IceCreamMan, Turtletoes, and TeamSnook, as well as meeting many new geocachers and waymarkers from other places.
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| sights2c |
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| TeamSnook's better half & Turtletoes |
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| GeoWoodstock VIII |
Day 4: At last GeoWoodstock VIII arrived and off we went. We ran into a few other folks from home today - Clan Barron, paintfiction, blakdogs, and MS Wahoo and had a great time trying to find the items on the Scavenger Hunt list. We caught a glimpse of Doc-Dean while we were eating dinner, then never saw him again. There were soooo many people there! It was a Mega-Event after all! Fun, fun, fun.
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| The Marine & Clan Barron |
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| MS Wahoo & more Clan Barron |
After leaving GeoWoodstock, we spent a little time wandering around Seattle, including the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is located. We found a few geocaches and enjoyed all the interesting art work around town. We visited several pieces of art that were part of the
Seattle Art & Seek, as well as an interesting
Abstract Sculpture, a
Figurative Public Sculpture, a
Peace Memorial, a piece of
Kinetic Sculpture and Art,
Coin-Op Binoculars, and some lovely
Bottle Art. This town is full of it! Art that is!
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| The Marine, Tag-along2, & In-Cahoots |
Day 5: Our last day in Seattle and we decided to make the most of it. We returned to the Seattle Center to try to find the "Under the Needle" cache. We tried to find this one yesterday, but a couple of muggles were unknowingly guarding the cache and we didn't have time to wait them out. Today, we decided to give it one more try, but alas a couple of different muggles were occupying ground zero today as well. Darn it! But then one of the muggles knelt down and started fiddling with her shoelaces while the other pulled out her camera and started to take pictures. Now why would a muggle take a picture of another muggle tying her shoelaces? Aha! These weren't muggles after all! Yea. So after we busted In-Cahoots and Tag-along2, the four of us started looking for the cache together. Turns out we weren't actually at ground zero, but fortunately the real ground zero was muggle-free and we nabbed the cache at last.
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| Kobe Friendship Bell |
After parting ways from our new caching friends, we stopped to check out a Kobe Friendship
Bell at the Seattle Center, which was also a
Permanent World Fair and Expo Structure, a
Sister City Memorial, and a
Gift from Another Country. We decided to leave our car where we'd parked it at the Seattle Center and flagged down a taxi to take us over to the Groundspeak Headquarters for the "Lost and Found Celebration" event. While wandering around the event, the Biologist spotted Signal the Frog and got her picture taken with him for a
Photo Goal visit. A bit later we called for another taxi and had it take us to Pike's Public Market, where we found a
Magic Shop with a
Coin-operated Fortune Telling Machine in front. We finally found the famous Pike's Fish Market, but can you believe it, it was closed for the 4th of July holiday! Shoot! Oh, well, I guess we'll just have to come back some day.
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| The Biologist & Signal the Frog |
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| Spirit of '76 Marker |
We next decided to head toward the waterfront, but first passed by Beecher's Handmade Cheese shop, a nice little
Dairy Creamery. Upon reaching the waterfront, we found a virtual cache and another
Washington Historical Marker and a
Spirit of '76 bicentennial marker. Then we headed downtown and passed several
Neon Signs and
Artistic Neon Lights on our way to the Monorail, which we decided to take back to the Seattle Center. We took another stroll around the Seattle Center enjoying more of the
Seattle Art & Seek targets, as well as a
Citizen Memorial and another
Peace Memorial, this time a Sri Chimnoy Peace-Blossom. By now it was time to find a place to eat and get back to our hotel for an early night as we had a very early flight to catch the next day.
Day 6: Alas, our trip was ending. We got up around 3:30am so we could get to the airport in time to turn in our rental car and catch our flight. We were two tired puppies by the time we got home, but it was well worth it. We greatly enjoyed our visit to the Pacific Northwest and hope to go back some day.
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