August 28th Olympic National Park: Lake Crescent and Sol Duc Falls

Lake Crescent (and the hills are tree-covered!)

Do you like lakes?  They’re here!

Sol Doc Falls

Do you like waterfalls?  They’re here!  And we saw a rainbow in Sol Doc Falls today!  We’ll have to delete the comment about no rainbows in Washington waterfalls (from our Kauai notes!)

Ron, at the bottom left of the tree

And more trees too! (Of course and they are so tall.)  Here you can hardly see Ron, and we cannot even see the top of the tree.

Joan, by a moss-covered branch

There are two more parts to the Olympic National Park: the Rain Forest (receiving more than 240 inches of rain annually, on the west side) and the ocean beach section.  Interestingly, the eastern leeward side gets less than 20 inches of rain a year, thus allowing a wide variety of plants and animals to have developed and exist in the same park.

August 27th Olympic National Park: Hurricane Ridge

WOW!

Do you like trees? 

Carpets of trees, valleys of trees.

Rivaling the Appalachian fall colors for beautiful trees, these all evergreen mountains also have a different feel than the Wisconsin northwoods.



Do you like mountains? 
360 degrees of them!

The mountains hit you in the face as you turn a corner (on the very curvy road up to Hurricane Ridge) just like Mt. Rainier does along I-5 in Seattle.

     Hurricane Ridge, what comes to mind? 

     Joan has heard about it her whole life, and always thought of cold, rain, and wind.  It is indeed, in the winter, with hurricane-level winds (no, no hurricanes here!) and lots of snow.   But in the summer?  Wonderful! We spent the day there, hiking many paths.  Joan could not stop taking pictures; how will she ever edit any out?

    We were on top of Hurricane Ridge and a guy looked at his cell phone: it said, "Welcome to Canada!"  Hey, we weren't in Canada yet!  But we could see Victoria across the Straits.

 

We are going to Port Angeles/Olympic National Park

Our dilemma about where to stay for the five days while there were renters in the condo was resolved when we decided to visit Joan’s father for two days and then explore the Olympic National Park, which we have not yet been to.  We are usually too busy with family activities to just tour, and, of course, summer would be the best – only? -  time to go.  We will take the ferry from Coupeville to Port Townsend, which requires a reservation!  (Never had to do that before.)

We had a great visit with Joan's dad. We participate with some of his regular activities, like Bingo! and today, there was no volunteer to "call" it, so he did!

www.airbnb.com

   We have just found a new lodging website, www.airbnb.com where people rent out rooms, bed and breakfast rooms and suites, as well as condos, too.  We’ll be staying in a B and B in Port Angeles, but one which is not on the national web listings. 
     (We are also using this service to find a place in Rochester, MN, where there are no Bed and Breakfast homes, no vrbo listings etc.   It will be the downstairs of a home, 1000 sq. ft.  We are looking forward to using this service more.)

Port Townsend

12 noon:  We are in the ferry line now.  This may sound repetitious, but we like ferries!  It's a different ferry, now, we're going from Coupeville to Port Townsend, and we had to have a reservation for this one.  The state highway 20 continues across the water!   Ron wants to see the Puget Sound Coast Artillery Museum and the bunkers at Fort Worden before we go on to Port Angeles for the night.  And Mt. Baker is “out” again in all her glory!

We had a wonderful lunch at the Nifty Fifty’s, a 50’s restaurant on the water and then we saw a submarine!  No doubt, Ron said, from Bangor.

Aug 24th-25th The Sound of Freedom!

9 p.m. Aug 24th We just checked into our room at the Naval Air Station, Whidbey Island WA and we are hearing JETS!!!!! the pilots are getting in their night flying hours.  Where we used to live in Yellow Springs, OH, residents would complain about the National Guard flying over.  Ron would say, “THE SOUND OF FREEDOM!”
      We don't need to tell you that people really believe that in this town of Oak Harbor WA.  (You should have seen Joan’s dad's church service here on the 4th of July!  Why were we  surprised in a Navy town?  A very very patriotic service!)

Morning Aug 25th The planes started flying again.  And again that evening and the next morning.  Of course, at night, we couldn't see the planes, but in the morning, Joan snapped these photos.

Two aircraft at once!

Deception Pass Bridge in Fog! But it was sunny!

We visited Joan’s dad in Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island today.  There are two ways to get there:  by ferry boat – Joan’s favorite place to be: on a Washington State ferry! – driving to Mukilteo or “driving around” on north I-5 to Mt. Vernon then went on SR20 through Deception Pass State Park.  It takes 2 hours either way if you do not have to wait for the ferry.  A 20-minute ferry ride but allow 30 minutes loading, etc.  Taking the ferry is less driving and more relaxing to have the stop in the middle of the trip, but today we wanted to get gas at Costco in Mt Vernon so we drove around going and took the ferry back (it’s also cheaper on the way back: no charge for passengers.)
When we got to Deception Pass, with blue skies and sunshine all around, this fog bank covered one half the Deception Pass bridge.

Ron Chops Down a “Widowmaker” Tree!

Too close together

Andy had a tree tilted between two other trees and asked Ron if he could chop it down.  And the others too.  Well….of course!  [Good thing he knew how to do it to make them fall correctly..]

Getting the titled one out of the way.

All done!

Aug 16th Free Parking!

The parking lot at the Bloomington IL airport (BMI) seems so full this time!  Have more people figured out that the parking is free?  And being a small airport, it is so easy to get in and out...

Aug 12th-14th 3/71st ADA Delta Battery Reunion in Peoria

Test Launching in the 70's

This reunion was for everyone who was ever in Air Defense Artillery, Delta Battery, in Germany, 1963-1984.  Ron was Battery Commander during 1970-1971.  They kept the Nike Hercules missiles in order there.  

There were over 100 people at the reunion and everyone had a wonderful time.  It was held at the Embassy Suites which was a great place. 

Lots of visiting, a memorial service, sharing time, and several activities, one of which was the Class A baseball game Saturday night.  There’s nothing like a small town baseball game and with one of the most beautiful fireworks displays afterwards we have ever seen!

Watching the game in reunion hats and shirts

We stayed there two nights and then drove to Springfield IL (on the 14^th) and stayed at our son Keenan’s house for 2 nights. He was in Seattle when we first arrived.   Joan had dinner ready for him when he got home, and the next day, we flew to Seattle!

Aug 15th, in Springfield, IL: PACKING DELIMMAS

To pack for Seattle this time,

To determine:

 1.  What things are in Seattle?

2.  What things are in the storeroom here in Springfield, Illinois?

3.  Which things shall we leave in our son’s basement here in Springfield, IL(those items which shouldn’t be heated) and

4.  Which things to leave in the van at the airport? […the free parking one in Bloomington Illinois…]  and then

5.  Which things we'll need when we return for a road trip to Ohio and Atlanta, before we go back to Seattle (from BMI again on Sept 17^th)?     

Is it getting too complicated for us?

Surely not!

 (And surely you all do not want to see a photo of the storeroom! )  Actually, it is much better than the one we had in Springfield, OH!

Chicago Botanic Garden = Unbelievable!

Every garden area is a gorgeous view!  Marv and Myrna took us and we had a wonderful time.  They shared other points of interest in Northbrook, and we also met their daughter and enjoyed her reports of music and the arts colleges in the east!


This is an attraction not to be missed!

Aug 7-12 Good Visits with Aunts and Uncle, Then to Great Friends!

Bob and Ron

You all know by now that we always stop by Rochester MN to see Ron’s aunt who will be 100 this year.   This time, we stayed a night first at Albert Lea to see his great friend from high school (who just lost his wife.)  We had a nice visit, by going to the fair (a joint community church service was held there instead of at the  separate churches) and then we enjoyed the fair and visited one of their high school teachers (who was still around!)

Two days in Rochester and then we drove to Chicago and had lunch with Ron’s mother’s brother and wife.  We then stayed with our great friends Myrna and Marv whom we met at St Augustine and we also visit with them when we are in Puerto Vallarta every year (we “followed” them down there, liking their resort so much, we purchased weeks on eBay in order to be there too.)

Aug 6th Sad Day=Leaving!

Well, you all feel like that, the day you have to pack up and leave is indeed a sad day.  And we’ll be leaving Telemark where we’ve been a month.  Can hardly wait to get back, that will be in October for two more weeks.  Hurray!  Does that mean it is “home”?

What is worse for this time of packing is that we won’t be at another timeshare for a while, we will be “ living out of suitcases” for almost 10 days while we visit friends and family……the food is the most difficult to plan, having the right foods for Ron.  Staying in timeshare condos sure does spoil us all, doesn’t it?

August 4th Bailing Out the Boat

We got to the Pointe dock this morning to find that the boat we rent from the resort had been pulled out of the water, had more water in it than normally it does after a rain (although we have had some heavy rains this week) and the motor had not been tipped up so it was into the mud.  Of course, when Ron got in to start bailing, the motor went deeper in to the mud, and it did even more, when he went to push the boat into the water from the land after bailing.  The pegs to hold the motor out of the water were not working so he rigged up a rope trick which worked.  After more than an hour, the boat was in the water again!

We went “fishing” but didn’t go “catching”.

Aug 3rd I Wrote My “Book Reports”

Forest Lodge Library, Cable WI

From Joan:  I have read eleven books since coming here to Telemark, seven of which I got from my favorite bookstore, Redbery Books, here in Cable (see my posting on Sept 30, 2010) and another one which was recommended by ladies in the book discussion group held at the bookstore. I checked it out from the library here (yes, we have library cards for the Forest Lodge Library, a darling log cabin!) to see how the author and book was.  Bev Bauer of Redbery Books is happy to receive reviews from her readers so I got busy and finally finished and emailed them to her. See her website at http://www.redberybooks.com/.

Aug 2nd Oh no, we have to find a place to stay for 5 days in Seattle

We fly into Seattle on Aug 16^thuntil the 31^st. Winnie accidentally rented the condo we are staying in from Aug 24^th to 29^th so we will need to replan our weeks there.   We had planned to go to Medford on Aug 19^th for the weekend to hear Natalie perform at the Britt Festival, but we will need to cancel that trip now so that we can see Joan’s mother daily before going north for the 5 days.  Searching now for alternate inexpensive places to stay…

July 31st " It Was A Dream!"

As we returned to Cable, about 8:30 p.m., Joan asked, “Wasn’t today a great day?”

“It was a dream,” he said.

A friend had given us a pass to attend EAA Airventure at Oshkosh for the day, and so we drove back down from the motel in Shawano, WI and had a wonderful day.  It did help that we had been there before, so we were able to connect with people and exhibits we had previously visited, particularly I-TEC (http://itecusa.org) with the Maverick, a flying car (see the CNN report at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7INsC6Ts3qc&feature=related ), and MAF, Missionary Aviation Fellowship (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60CivpeTLcE ).    A particular joy was to see JT Vogt in action, as he interviewed veterans for the radio station WOSH and Ron was honored to be interviewed live on WOSH about the Mustang Ponies. 

Ron is interviewed about the Mustang Ponies

JT Vogt, fellow Mustang Pony and whose party we had been at last night, interviews people all week at Airventure, especially veterans, and he was interviewing Sid, an Airforce aircraft expert when we came along and so he meshed the historical preservation motif together as he included Ron in the segment. 

July 29th Loons!

Sunrise on the loons

Wednesday night, we went to a lecture at the Cable Community Center about the LoonWatch program.  It was so interesting and when we got home, we looked on Youtube and heard more samples of loon calls.  Beautiful!  See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ENNzjy8QjU . This morning, when we went to the lake, we saw what we thought were the mother ducks and her babies who have a nest (?)close to Telemark’s dock, swimming away as they do every morning when they see us.  But, no, they were a group of loons – apparently “rafting”, as they call it when they are getting ready to migrate.  Usually they are only singles or one pair.  They were calling to each other too, this morning.  We went by them as close as we ever have!  The loon has been our new favorite bird since we started coming up here.  (Joan loved cardinals best before!)

     We actually saw a lot of wildlife today.  We saw a duck family very close, we saw otters playing in the water near us for a long time, and tonight when we went for our walk, we saw a fox, who crouched down while we passed and then sat up watching  until we were out of sight, then ran again.

Duck Mirrors

July 28th Ron Caught a Fish!

This morning, we got up at 5 a.m. and drove out to the lake, went out although it took a while to bail out the boat from the storm this week....

Water under the bridge

Anyway, he caught it, a Northern Pike, within the first 5 minutes of putting the line in the water – we tried for another hour but no more.

 Quite a good deal for us – dinner tonight!  Yum!

Remember, this may not be much for many of you, but for us, it is a BIG deal.  Ron says he has found out that there is a big difference between "fishing" and "catching!"  He fishes a lot.

July 23rd Moving Day

      We are moving to another unit today, leaving the lake unit (Telemark Pointe Red Apple Club RCI#2253) to the Telemark Christiana Villas (RCI #1831) on the hill above Telemark Lodge. The lodge reopened this year and is in the process of remodeling, and we are very happy about it as it was closed last year. Therefore this year, we have a swimming pool available, the indoor one and the large outdoor one is filled, heated and ready to go, but no lifeguards available. It is scheduled to open August 1st, so, hopefully, we can enjoy it a few days, as we will leave here Aug. 6th.
     We’ve had two weeks in this unit and then 2 weeks in the next one, both 2 BDs with one day overlap which we like very much in order to move more easily. When we first decided to timeshare full time, a TUGGER commented that he would not like to lose a day of his vacation every week (in our case, a day of our life?) to pack up and move on. I have mentioned before that simply moving from one timeshare to another is not too bad: pick up the stuff, put food in ice chest and go, especially if it is only a one day’s drive between stops (even though that means packing up the van carefully, yes!) and we look forward to the next stopping place. And it does keep us more neat and organized (?)  But, of course, it is hardest when we are getting on an airplane, because it can be tricky planning where we will be next and packing accordingly. For example, from here we go to Seattle, after 4 stops to the airport in Bloomington, so we’ll have to pack for that trip. When we return to this vehicle August 31st, we’ll be visiting our son there again, then driving to Xenia, OH and maybe Knoxville, then back to IL again to catch the plane back to Seattle on Sep 17th, and we will not come back east again until October 5th, when we will return to Telemark for 2 weeks in October, and then begin our drive south for the winter.
     So the next time we will be unpacking the whole van into a timeshare condo will be back here October 10th.  Hmmmm…we need to make sure that nothing we need for the shorter stays in 4 different places and several different times is buried in a plastic tub! 
     But Ron just said that we will be unloading the van in Springfield IL, where we have a storage unit, so we can drive with a lighter load to Ohio.  Joan is going to take a lot of her teaching files, though, to a teacher friend there who is starting to teach science who has never done so before.  So the van may be loaded after all to Ohio, but then, not on to Knoxville.
      Oh, oh, it just turned dark, cold, windy… a thunderstorm just started. But we can load the van in a GARAGE here!  Telemark Pointe units have large garages!

July 21 Our Anniversary and Perfect Weather

For the first day since we’ve been at Telemark Pointe, we could spend almost the whole day on the deck.  With a perfect temperature of 78 degrees and a very slight breeze, with both sun and shade available, we had breakfast there and then sat and read our books, while enjoying the lake view.  So far, the almost two weeks we’ve been here have either been too cold, too wet or too hot to spend much time on the deck.  What a shame!  But what a beautiful day today!

The heat extremes are gone; the Weather Channel reports the Hayward temperature at 81 with 0% humidity.  Quite a change from the rest of the week.

The boat we rent to fish...and the gorgeous sunset

We had thought about going out for breakfast at Garmisch resort, as we have some years by boat….but they don’t have breakfast any more except on the weekends.  So may have to wait.  Anyway, at Ron’s question, “Do you know a wonderful place to get a fabulous meal?” Joan answered, “Yep, right here in our condo!”  In order to meet Ron’s dietary requirements, she has prepared much of the meals from scratch but they are turning out delicious.  For example, this morning, we had the soy flour high fiber pancakes, stuffed with nuts, with blueberries added for Ron and chocolate chips added for Joan which are fabulous: crunchy, so good.  Ron uses sugar- free jam, while Joan uses honey with them.  Lunch is homemade vegetable soup from scratch but with chicken, soybeans, and includes cabbage, green beans, cooked carrots, onions, and anything else handy in the fridge (!) in a tomato base, from the Mexican tomato bouillon cubes.  We add sour cream, (fat free) and Parmesan cheese.  
   We did go out to eat supper, following a review from the local paper, to the Enchanted Inn, but disappointingly, it was not “Enchanted.”

Telemark bonus weeks (and others)

A TUGGER QUESTION:  [/QUOTE]Did you have any difficulties finding a TS unit during peak seasons, e.g. summer, Christmas and holidays?[/QUOTE]

And [/QUOTE]Question on #Timeshares & maintenance dues

---

Could I ask the other poster's question again? How many timeshares do you own? What does it cost you in maintenance dues to accomplish 3 years living in timeshares?[/QUOTE]

To answer the first question:  So far, no.  Planning ahead is the key....so we will see how our last minute plans work for next year.

       We are not very picky -- we like the smaller homey resorts instead of the big highrise glitzy places.   Also, we take advantage of last minute bonuses, like here in Telemark:  owners have great bonus opportunities: 

1.       If there is availability 3 weeks prior to a check in date, an owner can have a week for $199 (in any sized unit that is available.)  Two years ago we, stayed 6 weeks in the summer.  We had reserved the 3 weeks we owned and then got 3 more weeks in August. 

2.       If you pay your MF before Jan 1^st, on Jan 1^st, you can reserve any unit for any available date during the year (no need to wait the 3 weeks) up to the number of weeks you own for just $150/week.  We own 3 weeks, so we are staying 6 weeks this year at Telemark.  Prices like these mean our MF’s are cut in half.

3.       Telemark will deposit a red 1 BD RCI week for an owner for $139.  We received 12 TPU’s for it this year, which according to some, I thought was a good TPU price rate.

4.       Another program allows us to get 2010 RCI deposited week for just $50.  We just bought 4 of those, and with a white 2011 week, which is only $99, we will combine them all for the $99 RCI fee and get over 50 TPU’s for $400.

5.       Telemark weeks, any season, any size available are now offered for sale for $299.  It might be something to check out, since the Telemark Lodge has sold now (after a couple of “iffy” years) and is being remodeled, so there is hope for much future development.

      We will be watching to use our bonus weeks we already have in Platinum Interchange and Trading Places next year.  For example, last year we spent 6 weeks on the BI.  We reserved some weeks ahead of time with Platinum Interchange exchanges and also Wyndham points.  Then lo and behold, suddenly a week appeared at the Kona Hawaiian Village in Platinum Interchange and within the 90 day bonus week availability at exactly the time I needed.  So we were able to cancel and get all our Wyndham points back and pay $120 for the week at KHV!  Although that doesn’t happen all the time, and we know you all get bargains like that too, it makes us very happy and helps our planning.

     At present, we have 14 weeks deposited and 8 of those are bonus weeks, so we really need to use them in order to saved $$ next year.  Unfortunately, bonus weeks have to be used between 90 and 45 days out, depending upon the exchange company we have them with.