Day 21 ~ Evening

Monday morning we were on the road once more. We left our wonderful RV site in Wenatchee heading to Chig's sister Charlene's home in Marysville, WA, just north of Seattle. Since planning our trip, I had been looking forward to visiting the town of Leavenworth. We would be passing through the town enroute and planned a stop for a few hours. The former logging town was tagged a "welfare town" during the 50's and in the 60's started a plan to transform the town into a Bavarian Alpine Village to attract tourist trade. The town is now a thriving destination. Unfortunately, as we approached the town, I told Chig to turn on the wrong road and it took us over one hour to find a place to turn around. We ran out of time and continued on our trip to Marysville without a stop. The reward was the stretch of road starting with miles of rolling apple orchards and later large stands of pine trees. We travelled over Steven's pass along a canyon following the Wenatchee River. The beauty was breathtaking. We will save Leavenworth for another trip.

Chig's brother Keith and his wife Alice took the ferry from Kingston to meet us at Charlene's. Keith's son Ron, Charlene's son Jeff, Leanne and their two children, Sabrina & Quentin also came to visit.


Back row:
Chig, Jeff, Keith, Alice

Front row:
Me, Charlene, Sabrina, Quentin




Charlene's second son, Todd, works as the lead facilities engineer for the Space Needle. Monday night he met us for a special needle tour.



Here is a picture from the observation deck.






Then the tour became very special. Todd took us in the bowels of the space needle. We climbed up a flight of stairs, then ladders, through a hatch to the very top roof. The interior felt like we were in a submarine, 600 feet in the air. On the very top roof, I took this picture of the needle.
Chig & I stayed very close to the center of the roof. Cory joined us for the tour and was comfortable standing at the roof's edge. The sky was clear and the view was spectacular.






This commercial picture was taken before went to the top.

Todd, Charlene, Me and Cory.

Today we moved closer to Seattle to Vasa Park Resort on the shores of Sammamish Lake.

Our Honda battery quest continues. On Monday morning Chig went to the Honda dealer in Wenatchee. They confirmed the battery has dead cells but did not have the right replacement in stock. I called ahead to a dealer in Everett and confirmed they had the battery. This morning Chig took the car in and they tested the battery 4 times and said it is fine. By the time he drove back to Charlene's it was dead again. We may wear out our jumper cables before we make it home. There are definitely frustrations when traveling.