Our "Sunday" day off on Thursday

Today is our weekend "Sunday" so we drove over to Waterville to the North Central Washington County Fair.  We talked with the 4-H participants about their horses, watched a class of young steers being judged and visited the exhibits.  In town, we stopped at Coyote Pass Cafe for lunch and directions for a back road return to Wenatchee.  Before heading for the hills, we visited the Douglas County Museum which had extensive collections of dolls, rocks, tractors, farm equipment, native artifacts, dress and local family history.  One of the curators gave us a personal tour for more than an hour.  We headed for camp via Badger Mountain, up over 4000' and into East Wenatchee where we could hardly see up any canyons in the north west due to forest fire smoke outside Leavenworth.  We had some rain on the ride back so I was glad we had stopped to put the top on the Jeep, though the rain was hardly enough to put out any fire.

$6 for an elephant ear!!!

Sonny buying a chance on $23k or a 2013 Chevy truck or Camero.

Setting up in the City park for a vintage market on Saturday.

Douglas  County Muesum

Vintage travel trailer

I remember this interior from my childhood.

A row of vintage campers

Farming country near Waterville

We followed Badger Mountain Road to East Wenatchee 

Old farmstead along the way.

Back at the campground, children's work

Pancake or a mushroom ???

Sand Castles at the beach

More children's creations

Don't want to misbehave in this family or you will have to ride on top!

 After chores on Saturday, we drove up
White River Road exploring.  We took a few
side roads and found this makeshift
campsite with a great view of Dirty
Face Mountain. Campers really ought
to take home their equipment when done
camping.

Saturday evening at the amphitheater, after a few rousing campfire songs,
we met Stephen Middleton who isa renown flutist from Shelton, WA.  He shared his
collection of Western and Eastern flutes, several of which he had made and he educated
 the audience about one of his favorite, the shakuhachi. He performed original
compositions and let the audience try playing the flutes.  His collection even included
two examples of nose flutes and Native American double flutes.  It was a magical evening
listening to the haunting sounds he created to sound like playing in a canyon in Utah.  

Steven Middleton playing a Native
American flute

Today, (Sunday) we cleaned campsites and then took a break to have a "real meal" at Applebees in Wenatchee.  We had a few groceries to get before heading back to the campground.  We took several back roads through pear orchards.  The forest fire near us in Leavenworth is still being fought but the smoke wasn't visible as it was a few days ago.

A day to enjoy our surroundings

The sun was up, the sky was brilliant blue and the lake was unusually calm so we borrowed a canoe and paddled for a couple of hours. So calm and peaceful though once out on the lake, we could see the smoke from the Eagle Creek fire about 20 miles away.  After our paddle, we took the Jeep and got some local advice on where we could ride to get a view.  The roads aren't well marked so we were on an adventure.  We got up to 3800' and could barely see the lake through the smoke haze.  Along the way back, we checked out a campground on the Chiwawa River  and another in Finner Creek before heading into Leavenworth for snack.  We ended the day back on the beach watching the sunset.

Beach creations

Sunset behind Emerald Island last night

August Blue Moon

Eagle Creek fire over the hill behind Peshastin

Smoke plum behind Leavenworth Safeway

Osprey nest on Rt 207

Early morning reflection on Lake Wenatchee

Smoke in the valley from Eagle Creek to the southeast

Man in control of the canoe

Beach art work

Children can create with natural elements

.. 

Along the road at Finner Creek.  There were 3 campsites, one right beside
the stream to listen to.

Not much traffic here

Around 3500'

Chiwawa River

5 hours after our paddle on the lake, the smoke had blown in

Children's chalk work in the camp road

Can you see the heart?

After glow of sunset

Dirty Face and Emerald Island from the beach

End of a happy day............

Campfire cops on patrol

The next morning, as we are getting ready to head in town for golfing and shopping, we hear "thumping" music. The music rules are that it should not be heard outside your site and certainly not by the Campground Hosts who are a city block away!  I wandered over in the direction of the noise and sure enough, it was the campsite that we had to visit last night to put out a fire.  Grrrrrr.  The music was shut off amid grumblings from the campers that it wasn't "quiet time so why did they have to turn it down?"  Some people have no respect for others who come to escape the city noises and enjoy the forest.  We were not sad to see them depart.

I drove to Cashmere while Sonny played golf in Leavenworth.  I had a great time in the antique stores looking for ideas.  After his golf game, Sonny met up with one of his work buddies from Boeing who has a place in Plain.  

Fridays are busy days getting ready for a full house weekend.  We did 42 sites.  The day ended with a sunset walk on the beach.  Saturday, after our chores, we drove into Leavenworth to the KOA where we had friends spending the weekend.  It's always a good time visiting with them. When we returned, the first thing we noticed was the smell of burning charcoal in the air.  We hunted it down and found a large family cooking chicken.  We had to put the coals out and felt bad about upsetting their meal but the burn ban rules.  They had a small propane grill but said it stopped working.  At 8 PM, we went to the amphitheater to learn about wolves.  I had a chance to lead the audience in a few camp songs while we waited for darkness to show the slides. Sunday, we broke our 42 site day by getting 46 done in 6 hours. At that point, we were glad to sit down. Later in the evening, we went down to the beach to look at the full moon and watch for shooting stars. I don't think it was late enough for the shooting stars and the wind was still strong so we didn't stay long.

Cashmere, WA

Sonny made a fountain similar to this one

Our "uniform"

Table carving

Children's compositions

One family brought a blow up theater screen for outdoor movies.

Two are plastic and one fell out of the tree onto the table

Table scribblings

A new idea for camping in  your SUV

Beach Art

Sunset behind Emerald Island

Full moon shot

Blackberries from our yard in Port Orchard

Children have the most imaginative ideas.

Leila, the pot bellied pig from Monroe comes to the beach