From the Hoh to the Hospital. We Go See Washington

 The Hoh Rain Forest

This summer has been busy for Sheryl and me and although we had a great time in California with the family, Sheryl was sick and we just headed straight home. We could see our window of opportunity in August, so we packed up the motor home and decided to go see the parts of Washington State that were new to us. It was 100 degrees when we left here but after visiting Tyler and Meghan's house project we headed for the Washington Coast and out came the sweatshirts, and the heat was history.  We took three days heading slowly up the Olympic Peninsula viewing all the Lewis and Clark history sights, eating fresh crab, and having wonderful walks on the beach. The motor home life is lazy. The motor home life can be slow. The motor home life is good.  In Olympic National Park we headed up into the Hoh Valley and walked amongst some amazing trees. The cedar and spruce are unbelievable as they get 12 feet of rain per year.

We seem to stop at all the sights.

This tree was the only thing older than us in the park

After the rain forest we drove around to the north side of the park and up to Hurricane Ridge on a magnificent day. The 360 views were stunning.

We did have some fun meals in the little towns we visited but normally our chief cook whips us up something in the motor home then we have an evening by the camp fire.

Deception Pass - Whidbey Island

We had never seen North Cascades National Park, and knew nothing of it.  However being that it was a National Park we figured it must be worth seeing. Was it ever. The drive up Highway 20 just gets better and better culminating at Washington Pass. It's a gorgeous hunk of geology and well worth the drive.

We have to take pictures of everthing

Yeah, that's not the sign ya wanna see on your vacation.  As we traversed down the east side of the cascades we decided to visit Lake Chelan as it's a place I had often heard of but never seen.  It was pretty cool, a little like New Zealand's Queenstown. It hasn't the same natural beauty (no place does) but it has bunches of watersports and adventure activities for folks of all interests.  We had trouble finding a campsite but finally did and pulled out the chairs next to the water, poured a cool one, brought out the pistachios and life was good. We planned out the next day's 50 mile boat ride, trip to a waterfall etc., when Sheryl began to complain about her foot starting to hurt.  We headed into town and had a fun dinner but it was on the second floor and she struggled just getting up the stairs.  Even after wine her foot still hurt but now she could not get down the stairs unaided and was nearly in tears. She just could not walk and I rounded up a wheelchair for her, when a guy in a golf cart rescued her and drove her back to the motorhome where we could barely get her up the two stairs.  She was sure her foot was broken and I thought it was gout as she had had no trauma to her foot and it was obvious she was n excruciating pain. She later rated it as bad as childbirth! I had to drive back to the campsite to pick up our things and she was just wailing in misery by now. That was it. At her request/demand it was straight to the hospital where gout was diagnosed and morphine was injected in he backside, pills were swallowed, and after half an hour she could again bear the pain. Our vacation was over. It was a long drive home.  We are tired of these doctor adventures on our summer trips. Bummer.

You can tell this was taken on the way out as she is smiling. You shoulda seen the way in...