Aug 14th and 15th
      Seen just after we crossed the Canadian/American border in Sumas, Washington.  There are a lot of farms in Washington many of which we passed as we drove through.  Hadn't seen a windmill for a long time either.  This looks like a house but is really a barn.
      Some kind of farm equipment, I'd say it was a truck but there is no seat in it so I think it was adapted for another purpose.  I love to see churches in little, or big for that matter, towns this was a nice well kept one that caught my eye.  This white barn had an advertisement for the Blue Mountain Grill on it no doubt a way to make a little extra money renting that space.  The barn, silo and other buildings just caught my eye as having been and probably still is a nice farm.
      This one is too funny, this is punkin heads toy hairy animal we call it his baby.  It appears that he thought he needed a drink of water!  We have found it at his food dish before as well.  Do you think he is taking care of his baby?  Guess what city we were passing through in the next 3 pictures?  Yes you are right, Seattle!  Hated to pass through and not stop to see our son and his new wife but we were to be back the next evening for their reception party so we went on down to Ashford and Mt Rainier National Park to spend the day and night.
      We stopped at the Tall Timber Restaurant in Eatonville on our way for breakfast.  This is one of our favorite places as they serve really good food and are friendly.  Oh no another barn! Shaped a little different and found just outside of Eatonville.  Another lake as well this one is Alder Lake between Alder and Elbe on hwy 7.  We passed it a lot when we worked at Mt. Rainier for 3 seasons on our way to Puyallup or Eatonville.  Upon arrival in Elbe you will see train cars that have been made into businesses, here you have Hobo Inn.


        Just past there is the Side Track Room which is a bar and eating place.  We have never stopped to eat there so I'm not sure how good it is.  And past there at the train station is this little chapel, I don't know if they actually use it or not. Elbe is a cute little town, they also have train rides to Mineral during the summer or at least they used to, don't know about now.  Between Elbe and Ashford is a place where the guy makes these large animals and machinery etc out of scrap metal.  It is really neat how they have them sitting all around their place and yes they are for sale. We got a room at the Rainier Overland Restaurant Lodge for that night and went on up to Guest Services offices to see our friends.  One of them, Don Haye Billy's boss when we worked there, had just passed away suddenly a few days before that.  He had worked there a long time so everyone knew him.  The lady , Sandy, that owns the Overland had worked at Guest Services a few years ago so we knew her and her son Jeff. 
       
These are some pictures of buildings at the Overland we stayed in the cabin with the truck in front of it.  The first one is over 100 years old and was moved there by the owners of the Overland some years ago.  The 3 middle cabins are used for storage right now but may be fixed up to be rented some day.  We enjoyed the friendliness of this family and enjoyed our dinner and breakfast there.  Our friends Bob and April had dinner with us Fri night so that was nice.  The next picture is of National Park Inn at Longmier in Mt. Rainier Nat'l Park where I used to work as a waitress.  We enjoyed stopping and seeing a few people we still knew from last summer having worked there then.
    We stopped in Eatonville at the grocery store and saw this old car across the street and the owner was sitting at the table eating his lunch and he looked equally as old.  Next is a beautiful blossom from a weed in the area.  And the last is a shot behind us as we entered Graham which is just before getting to Puyallup.  There was construction in this area when we had left last year and it is all finished and looks great now.  Enough for now I don't know when I'll get back to the blogs.  I need to catch up to the present some time as it is now the 23rd of Aug and we leave for Mississippi tomorrow.  So I have about 9 days in between that I need to write on.