Lake Chelan and Back

Odessa
What a fun weekend I had. I met up with Daughter in law Janet and granddaughter Cammie at Lake Chelan for a "girls" weekend while my house in Odessa turned into deer hunting central for the guys!

I got to Lake Chelan Friday afternoon after a trip over some back roads in Eastern Washington. I saw a lot of country I hadn't seen before! After getting settled in to the timeshare at Wapato Point we decided to go exploring. All of us have been to Lake Chelan many times, but there is always something more to see and do. AL and I had at one point in time, owned a piece of property in the little town of Manson on Lake Chelan. It was in a community that only allowed manufactured homes; they had to be new when the went on the lot and there were/are very strict guidelines on what you could put on your lot. We purchased the lot for around $15,000 and sold it in 2001 (against my better judgement) for double what we paid for it. Well, the lot with the house on it now is for sale. So I had to inquire. $499,000! OUCH! THere is still one empty lot in the development, so today I called to inquire on the price of the lot....$125,000! ARE THEY CRAZY? And it isn't even a view lot! Damn, another one lost! Oh well! SOme you lose and some you win and some are rained out!

Anyway, we went to dinner at a very nice pub in Chelan and had a great meal. Then it was back to the condo to pretty much give in for the evening.

Up Saturday and off to breakfast at a place called Blueberry Hills. WOW, is all I can say. This place started out as a fruit stand, and as they say, accidently turned into a restaurant. They only serve breakfast and lunch, but boy is it ever good. I had the best Eggs Benidict I have ever put in my mouth! After stuffing ourselves we headed for Winthrop, WA. Winthrop is a little town in the Methow Valley. It has a "western" theme to it and it just a cool little town to go poking around in. It was a beautiful drive through the Methow Valley. I stopped several times to take some pictures.

Methow River















We wandered (yes, Jennifer, wandered) through Winthrop poking our noses into some of the shops. Had to buy some candy at one...I was craving a carmel apple. Had lunch at a pizza place that was very good. Then we drove to Pearrygin Lake where Janets parents were camped. What a beautiful place that is. I will have to remember that spot to come back to next year with the 5th wheel and stay a while. We visited with her parents for a bit, then headed back to Chelan. It was getting a little cool outside by the time we got back. We decided to play Chicken Foot (a dominos game--it's addicting) and wound up grilling burgers and playing until late in the night. What a fun night tho.

Sunday dawned just as beautiful as the day before. We lazed around the condo for most of the morning and then decided to go back to Blueberry Hills for lunch. I had a cheeseburger (of course) with blueberry mayo...and it was good. After lunch we headed back into Chelan for some retail therapy. I needed some socks for my cold feet! While in town we kept hearing and seeing all these rescue vehicles going out of town on our side of the lake. Hmm...first we thought accident (the road to Manson is somewhat treacherous) but then we saw the fire trucks heading out, then the water trucks...FIRE! We headed back towards Manson looking for smoke and didn't see a bit. We drove to the very end of Manson and when we turned around we were amazed to see the big black plume of smoke from just over the hill. Hmmm...so off we went to see if we could find where the fire was. After a few attempts we gave up and decided to take a ride up to the ski resort. It was a very pretty ride, fall colors and all. And to our surprise, when we got to the ski resort, we found the fire! The ski hill was burning.


















On our way back down into town, we saw this on the lake....

We still have no idea what it was. It looked like a low hanging cloud, however, when we drove about 100 yards further down the hill it completely disappeared. Very weird! And there wasn't a cloud in the sky!





We played cards last night after having our dinner. We all finally gave up and went to bed late.

This morning I was leaving for home and Cammie was headed back to Seattle. Janet will stay at the condo and wait for Ric to arrive from Odessa where he was hunting this weekend. BTW, no deer were hurt this weekend, and only a few ducks lost their lives.

The drive home was uneventful....pretty county on a very pretty Autumn day. The weather has warmed up some, it is only suppose to get into the low 50's tonight! This week I will be busy finishing packing the 5th wheel and getting it ready to go when I get home from San Francisco. I leave on Friday for Seattle and fly to SF from there on Saturday. So until the next post, most likely from San Francisco...have a great week!