Snoqualmie Falls, October 2009

I had been wanting to go for a ride to the mountain area of our state. I love seeing the vast array of color that God spreads across our state every year at this time. Seeing and experiencing God's beauty gives me great joy and relaxation. To God be the glory. He has created such a wonderful place for us to live.

So last Saturday, October 24th, the kids and I set out for a ride. My hubs had a previous commitment. I had been hoping that sometime in October we could all go, but every weekend seemed to be full. Good thing we went because the storms have pretty much blown all the leaves off the trees and flooding has started in many areas.

Off we go to Snoqualmie Falls just about 45 minutes from here. I've been there several times, but I don't remember going in fall. The views were spectacular and a misty fog hung over certain areas.
We ate pizza first and found this river access area behind the local bowling alley. Looking upstream.

Looking downstream. It rained significantly in this area the following day and the main street flooded because of leaves clogging the drains. The river didn't actually flood.

J and H enjoying the view and posing for mom.

Me posing by a big tree stump in the Snoqualmie River.

We walked over to the train station. We were seeing kids in costumes so we followed the crowd and found out there were train rides. We bought tickets for later that day.

A little fall decor.

The must have Gazebo picture. I'm sure I have a few of these in my stacks of pictures from days gone by.

Signs that this was a flourishing logging community in past years. This tree is huge. Can you imagine it standing tall in the forest somewhere? It would be a mammoth of trees. We left here and drove to the falls about a mile away.

Look what I found near the gift shop. Beautiful!











Can you tell I love this tree? Its gorgeous!

SNOQUALMIE FALLS!

It gets misty as we get closer to the observation deck.


This is Salish Lodge. What a view they must have. I've never stayed there, but I think Nan over at Momstheword has. Do share, Nan.

The very misty observation deck. It was like rain and I was afraid my camera was going to get too wet.

The beautiful trees as we head back to the parking lot.

The bridge back to the parking lot. Those would be my kids again.

Me and my gift shop purchases. Even the vines on the fence were beautiful. Thanks, God.

Back near the train station we see the train going by.

Wave everybody.

Some local fungi growing in the train yard. Cool looking mushrooms aren't they?

Looking at some of the old trains in the yard.

There was hot cider, coffee and crafts for kids in this old train car.

This is the train station from across the street. It is the coolest building. I love how it curves around the front. The gift shop is in there.

Another view of the curve of this cool building.

Waiting for the train.

All aboard!

Are we excited or what? I believe I was the most excited, but I know they enjoyed it.

This train is so old. It was decorated with fall decor. I just enjoyed everything about this day. I kept looking at the water stained ceiling and wondering what each little door or window was for. I think it might need a heating system for the Christmas train rides.

From the top of the falls. Salish Lodge across the way.

Spilling over.

The Snoqualmie River headed for the valley.

Mt. Si from Fall City. Cool city clock there too.

The train we rode on. Pretty cool,huh?


Bye, train. What a fun day and the weather was perfect! Thank God for each day and live it to the full.

HAPPY FALL! BLESSINGS TO ALL!

Guess What We Did?

We went for a ride last Saturday and guess what we did? I'll be posting in a couple days. I've missed you all. Thanks for dropping in. Happy Fall!!!

A Night At The Fair

I love going to the fair and students and school employees get free passes to go to the fair every year. I didn't care how tired I was, I wanted to go to the fair. I took some pictures, but I'm not good with my camera and all of it's options yet so some aren't so good.

The first thing we did was visit the World Vision walk through, hands on display. My daughter is holding a water can on her head to see waht it might be like to carry water every day for a distance. The can was only about 1/8 full and she didn't walk with it at all. I think she got the point.

Grinding corn into meal. She thought it was fun. My son said no thanks.

My son did try the drums though. My daughter loves music and singing.

There was a large table at the end where kids could grind corn into meal again. My son said no thanks again. But when the man asked if he wanted to...

he jumped right in and seemed to enjoy it too.

There was a lot to see and read. Here are some handmade dolls from Africa.

This is a First Aid kit that we can purchase to be delivered to any country displayed with some carved items.

Back out to the fair. Headed to the barns we see cows getting bathed probably to be shown in the arena.

Here's one in the arena. It's fun to watch the handlers trying to get these huge animals to move just the way they must go. They are beautiful animals.


Ooops! What's a country fair without some cow pies? Sorry, I'm not a country girl so I don't see cowpies everyday and I think they're funny.

These little piggies were born the first week of the fair. They were so cute. My daughter got to pet one, but I missed the photo op.

Here's one being held for petting.

Here's some with mom.


On to the Hobby Hall for collections and handmade crafts. Legos are a hit with kids so there are a lot of Lego displays. This was a really long one with a lot of detail.

This is the other end of the display. Freighthouse Square is an actual place about a half an hour from here.

A Betty Boop ollection.

A frog collection. I have a few frogs around my house mostly because my "Friend Frog" sends them to me. I send some to her too. My "Friend Frog" is one of my besties from the Navy. We were roomates and we were in each other's wedding's. Our kids are the same age, you know, a "Friend Frog"? There is more to the story, but I won't bore you right now.

I love fair scones so we stood in line to get a dozen. I freeze most of them for breakfasts. They weren't made very well this year. Hard to find good help I guess. My mom & her friend made scones at the fair for six years in a row. Not anymore though.

Here they are those lovely, flakey, jam filled goodies.

My son having a refreshing drink.

My daughter eating her sour Gummie worms in the huge food court building.


The lighted fountain as we were leaving. We only went on the shy ride. We hadn't saved money for the rides which was fine. My kids would rather ride with their friends anyway. I'm not much of a rider anymore. Most people go to the fair for the rides, at least I used to, but now it's all the other stuff.

Me and H.

Me and J.