May 25--Sun. Drove over to Northgate, parked, and took the bus to Folk Life Festival at Seattle Center. Karin is a dancer in the Nonesuch dance group, and the professionalism in this group is happy-making. We gave them a 10. Wandered around the area for a bit, Charlie felt really ill and headed home--he'd caught a miserable 1 1/2 day bug. In the evening Mark, Karin and I went to Mike and Val's for a good barbecued chicken dinner. Everyone tired from all the activity and sun!

May 26--Mon. I went to Central Market and purchased several items I can't find in WF. Later went with Mark to exercise the dogs and to Central again for great salmon that he barbecued later for his mom Doris and her fiancé Ken, Mark's sis Kelley, and the rest of us--Charlie well enough to enjoy.

May 27--Tues. Left our niche by the alley in Seattle a bit after 8 :30 AM. Worked our way through claustrophobic traffic up and over to Rt. 2 east and eventually over Stevens Pass. Rivers Snohomish, Skykomish and Wenatchee were near flood stage and at various points changed from calm and swollen to boiling and frantic. Near the pass there was plenty of dirty snow at roadside and much evidence of recent rockslides, energetic waterfalls--undoubtedly encouraged by clear cuts farther up. Drove through the apple orchards of Wenatchee into the brown fields of the plains, eventually arriving at Sun Lakes St. Pk. near Coulee City. Temp. up to 86 degrees and sunny.

This area has several lakes, despite its dryness, and we had fun birding--found so many Bullock's Orioles and even a Black-headed Grosbeak. The focal point of this area is the Dry Falls just up the hill--remnant of catastrophic floods that that flowed over the whole western area during the last Ice Age. The Clark Fork got clogged with ice, it backed up and finally broke with horrendous vengeance, flooding much of WA, MT and OR, moving tons of earth and enormous rocks like it was tiny sediment. These falls remain as a testament.

May 28--Wednesday

After some initial indecision about staying another day, we in fact headed on eastward. After passing through Spokane and Coeur d'Alene we pulled off at Beauty Creek USFS campground, hoping it has not been closed permanently. All's well; it is still there. Although this tiny and quiet campground was nearly full, "our" site (#9) was open.

May 29--Thursday

The next morning we completed the trip arriving home in late after noon--thus completing the loop which actually began last year. Montana, Wyoming, Utah (where the motor home was stored for 4 months) then onward into Arizona where we eventually turned westward into California, joining the coast near Sam Simeon then all the way northward along the coast through Northern California, then all of Coastal Oregon, and finally into Washington where we turned eastward, crossing Idaho and back home again.

A wonderful journey!