Happy Birthday, Roger!

We celebrated Roger’s birthday by touring North Cascade National Park in the rain! Felt like we were back in Ireland! This is gorgeous country even with clouds and mist – can just imagine it’s beauty with sunshine!
Guess what Roger got for his birthday?? Right……a new GPS and a new internet router! Not to mention new jacks for the motorhome!
We spent the week recuperating from our flight from Ireland and waiting for parts for the motorhome.  The jack finally arrived Thursday afternoon so we took the motorhome back early Friday morning and crossed our fingers!
We had the day to “kill” so we went to Pike Place Market in Seattle in the morning and toured the Boeing Plant in the afternoon. We were ecstatic when they called and said the RV was fixed! We stayed one last night in Seattle and then headed for the mountains. Seattle is a lovely area and the harbor and Lake George are really beautiful but the traffic is horrible!
We had hoped to spend some time here in the western Cascades but with no phones, no internet, no TV and rain we’ve decided to travel east!
10/2/2011
We were surprised to see some blue sky and no rain this morning. It turned out to be a great day to drive over the mountains. We stopped at the same overlook as yesterday and got to see the tops of the mountains this morning! We did not expect the Cascades to be so beautiful but, the drive from west to east up and over ‘Rainy Pass” and “Washington Pass” (5,500 ft elevation) was spectacular!
The Cascades are called the “American Alps” - there are hundreds of glaciers and they are called the “Cascades” because of all the waterfalls. We passed by many “weeping” rocks and cascades of water along the road. The west side is rainy and the east side is dry.  It is pouring in Seattle today - glad to be on the dry side now!
When we got back into cell phone range Roger had a voicemail from Samantha and Emily singing him “Happy Birthday.” He’ll save it and listen when he’s lonesome! Heather posted a video in her blog of Samantha demonstrating how to tie her shoes – so cute!
Judy and Marilou got home from Scotland on Friday. They said it was in the 70’s and lovely there – what’s up with that? – we leave and the weather turns nice! We had a great time traveling with them – anxious for them to retire so we can enjoy other great adventures together!