Pacific Northwest Part 2 — Patti Part Two

I’ve been to Seattle so many times, but have never been over the Cascade Mountains into eastern Washington. So that’s where we headed. It’s really totally different as far as terrain. You leave behind the lush growth and green vegetation but it’s beautiful in a different way. Our destination other than to just get over the Cascades was Wild Horse Monument. On a plateau above the Columbia River there is a stunning work of art created by artist David Govedare in 1989 that appears to be a herd of wild horses running. The official name of the art is “Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies.”

Of course I insisted on climbing to the top and the view was worth it.

My brother said it was perfect conditions to find scorpions so there he is turning over rocks to find them. I even turned over a few but luckily came up empty.

The next day we headed north to Granite Falls to the Big Four Ice Caves. They were amazing! The trail to get to the ice caves is pretty easy and well maintained. The hiking around the caves was a lot more challenging and we were glad we had poles.

There are lots of signs warning about the danger of going into the caves. The caves are created by waterfalls coming down through the ice and people have been killed by ice collapsing.

We used our heads and didn’t go inside the caves but just being at the opening you could see the beauty inside. Since it was melting it was almost like rain inside and the temperature was so much colder than even being 30 feet away.

The ice is so much larger than what it appears. Look closely at the lower left on the ice. That’s two people!

It’s called Granite Falls because the mountains are granite - and there are waterfalls everywhere you look. The whole area is loaded with trails to hike but we were at the caves for a few hours exploring so will need to go back to see more.

We’ve been east and north so we headed west. My brother has a beautiful house right on the Pacific Ocean west of the Olympic Mountains. It’s in between the towns of Moclips and Pacific Beach and even though I’ve been there multiple times it always takes my breath away. He rents it out on VRBO and unfortunately for me but great for him it is rented much of the time. So we really just went out for the day but it was still great. I took a 3 mile walk on the beach and saw tons of crabs. The beach sand is packed hard. They allow driving on it so saw some people that had set up grills and fire pits. My brother said he has even seen sea lions and bald eagles on the beach.

The beach goes for miles! The house has floor to ceiling windows. I tell him all the time how lucky they are but they work hard to keep it so nice😊

Here’s the inside of the house. Daybreak on Sunset

So pretty inside too. The master bedroom upstairs has windows looking out to the ocean and there are two more bedrooms on the first floor.

What haven’t we done here?? Gone to a museum so that was next on our agenda. We spent most of the afternoon at the Seattle Art Museum known as SAM, and it was great. Its right in downtown Seattle close to Pike Place Market, and if you check the website they direct you to a parking garage that is just 3 blocks away where you can get a discount on parking. That worked out great and we were on to the museum.

The big sculpture in front is called The Working Man.

The museum has quite a bit of local art which was wonderful. They are a little light in some areas like European and Impressionists, but there are plenty of museums where you can see that so I just like to appreciate what they do have. The huge tree sculpture hanging in the lobby is worth a visit alone. The artist is John Grady and it’s made from a plaster cast of a real 140-year-old western hemlock that grows east of Seattle. It is called Middle Fork. It’s made from thousands of pieces of reclaimed cedar and was assembled by hundreds of volunteers. They also had a really interesting exhibit of African art in particular African masks. A great way to spend an afternoon in Seattle.

Thanks for checking my blog! Not heading back yet so more fun to come😊

#jumpwhileyoucan #justsayyes #chooseadventurealways