A Day in the Trailerhood

Today was a "down day," or as Stacia says, "A day in the trailerhood. Get it?"

We find about every 7 - 10 days we need a down day. We did have to move our spot for the  night....but we also did laundry, Michael ran errands (hair cut), relaxed, and completed a "mega school day."  (This allows us to have history/science/field trip days for 2 - 3 days a week).

In the relaxing category would be FISHING. Lake Pleasant is a Wildlife Sanctuary. Guests are allowed to fish for big mouth bass, but must release them. It's on private property so no license is needed. Stacia and Michael went fishing in the a.m. and caught TWO fish.  They all went fishing this evening and caught one more. Michael hooked it and Stacia brought it in.

 We finally made it to the Lynnwood Chick Fil A. I believe, and I AM being unbiased, this is the nicest Chick Fil A I've been in. I'd be curious to see if the other two in this region (Bellevue and Tacoma) are the same design. There were many things which I could tell were a nod to the local area.  They made me a VEGAN wrap - wrap minus the chicken and cheese, and added in roasted corn. It was YUMMY. Did you know you can BUY the CFA sauce - 8 oz for under $2? You can at Lynnwood. I hear from a birdie that Kale Super Salads will be out "soon." I seriously wish we lived closer to CFAs so I could EAT there. Before today, I took the kids to ate but didn't eat myself. LOL

 

Debra, the night manager, saw that Josiah was going to give us a back stage tour and asked if she could do it instead.  She did a good job. It was fun to see the behind the scenes story. I especially loved that they cut and make their own salads and fruit salads....that they filet and bread their own chicken....it's FRESH and real food.

 

 

 

It was fun to see Josiah settled in his new job at the new restaurant.

Hiouchi RV Resort

I committed to review the campgrounds we stay in - and I haven't reviewed Hiouchi yet.  IF you'd like to see more photos of Hiouchi and area, our latest stay was 13 Sept - 25 Sept. You can click through the blog archive.

Hiouchi RV Resort is located off Hwy 199 in a park-like setting.  It is about 9 miles from Crescent City, CA. We have come to learn the full-hook up RV spots are SPACIOUS by RV standards. The A, B and D loops all border nice fields.

The space behind our site on D Loop

The park has wifi (which we found was on a couple of hours a day), a fish-cleaning station, a water lily/duck pond complete with ducks, a clubhouse, propane, horseshoe pits,  newly remodeled laundry house, level pull-throughs, basketball court, a big concrete fire ring for campfires and a friendly staff. The restrooms and showers are spacious and clean - though you do have to use token for them. Our experimenting shows it to be .25 for 3.5 minutes. We have NEVER stayed here where Hiouchi was 100% full - but it could happen at the height of fishing (Smith River) or Summer (Right in the Redwoods).

In easy walking distance you can reach the Hiouchi Hamlet (gas station and small grocery store) and Hiouchi Cafe (historical cafe with an awesome breakfast). A bit further and you can visit the Redwood Park  Information Center and Jed Smith Park. We found a family bike ride to Jed Smith State Park to be delightful.

We stayed during the "peak season," but by paying the weekly rate it was $31 a night.  Hiouchi RV Resort offers 10% discounts for AAA, Good Sam's, AARP and Escapees (though there seems to be some extra hoops to get this discount?). We have been given a military discount of 10% in the past, though it isn't listed.  They do list a fee for extra people (kid tax) but we've never been charged this fee.

In all honesty, I wouldn't call this a "resort" over a park. I'm still not quite sure what distinguishes the two but this doesn't seem fancier than the parks we've stayed in. I think a hot tub or pool makes it a resort. ::snort::  WE LOVE THIS PARK/RESORT. Michael's mother lives across the river. The area is full of hikes, bike-rides, Redwoods, Smith River fun, AND the Pacific Ocean with all the fun it provides is only 9 miles away.

 

 

RATES:

Charge per person limited to 2 additional charges.

DAILY  

 30 amp camp site $37.00 (Non-Peak) and $43.00 (Peak)

 30/50 amp camp site $39.00 (Non-Peak) and $46.00 (Peak)

*Charge after first two people at $3 per person 

*Charge per extra vehicle/boat/cargo trailer at $2

 

WEEKLY

 30 amp camp site $205.00 (Non-Peak) and $220.00  (Peak)

 30/50 amp camp site $215.00 (Non-Peak) and $240.00  (Peak)

*Charge after first two people at $8 per person

*Charge per extra vehicle/boat/cargo trailer at $5

MONTHLY 

 30 amp camp site $340.00 + electric (Non-Peak) and $390.00 + electric (Peak)

 30/50 amp camp site $340.00 + electric (Non-Peak) and $390.00 + electric (Peak)

*Additional charge after first two people at $15.00 per person. 

**Charge per extra vehicle/boat/cargo trailer at $10 

OTHER RATES 

TENTS Daily at $22.00 

TENTS Daily W/ electric at $25.00 

STORAGE FEES at $55.00/month OR $2.00/day 

DUMP/WATER REFILL at $20.00

Steve and Ginger -Salmon and Waterfalls...

First, today is our one month nomadiversary.

The kids and I got up early and got our "table school" done this morning. My thought is on field trip days (or weeks) we are getting lots of history and science, so when time is limited we'll focus on math and language arts.  

Michael and I searched online and called a LOT of private parks and state parks as we need to be out of here 2 Oct. I actually called each private park listed in many of the cities north of Seattle. Each place told me they were full. Amazing. Finally, we gave up and called Fort Lewis. We'll be staying at their Travel camp (Fam Camp).

I have known Ginger for years and years. Today, we met for the first time. I had fun explaining that to Stacia.  Ginger is a dear online friend. Steve, her husband joined us - and that made this much more enjoyable for Michael. We all had a great time. We met in Issaquah at the Triple XXX Rootbeer Drive In.  Steve and Ginger waited inside. We waited outside. ::snort:: This is a great spot to eat! We had a table right by the fireplace - loved the decor. The food was tasty and PLENTIFUL - the rootbeer amazing!  While we were eating a man came in and asked if we owned the 15 pass van with the AK license plate and the stick figures. Um - yes. I thought he was going to rant at us...but he was excited to find out we had 9 children. His wife is expected their 7th and they've been debating which type vehicle to buy. He texted her a photo and they both loved it all - our plate, our figures, the van - and so he came in to see if we wanted to sell the van. ::snort::

With fully satisfied tummies, we left to find the Issaquah Fish Hatchery.   It was GREAT fun to watch the salmon spawn, jump the ladders and such.  This was free. I don't think I'd seen so many salmon swimming upstream since we moved from Alaska.

 

Don't these smiles just REFRESH your soul? They did mine.

 

Ginger was FANTASTIC with Princess Chatterbox!

Yuuki wanted to get close and personal with the salmon

Big Fish in Issaquah

 Our final stop was Snoqualmie Falls. The falls were breathtaking and Steve and Ginger say the falls are low this year.  We enjoyed the view from the upper lot. The kids, Ginger and I hiked down to the lower level. Steve and Michael drove down and met us. We saw more Salmon spawning down here. Another free site to enjoy in the area.

We were so happy to see some of the more "natural" sites Washington has to offer. We left Steve and Ginger feeling refreshed; as if we'd made new family friends.

Steve, Ginger, Stacia, Me, Nolan, Alex

Some wild water slides?

We met up with Josiah at his apartment. I love this apartment; it's bright and sunny. We like his choice in furniture too. ::wink:: He took our living room and kitchen furniture when we down-sized.

 

The Museum of Flight

It's amazing we have NEVER been to The Museum of Flight here in Seattle.  Josiah knew Michael would love it and suggested it, as did several others. We went today - Josiah took his first weekday off since mid-August and joined us. Actually, the boys spent the night with him and so they all met us there. On the way we discovered the joy of the TOLL LANE in Seattle. We expected a spot to PAY (as we did in Japan) but Josiah says they took a photo of our license plate and will mail us a bill....

While at the museum, we participated in a one hour tour, saw every exhibit, crossed the street and saw the Space Center and toured through all the static displays.  This is a great museum. It was exhausting. We'd been warned it would take a full day. It did.  We didn't absorb as much info as we would have liked to and are sure to go back. Tuesday's are "Two for One Tuesdays" - a good day to visit. Thursday they stay open late and 5 - 9 p.m. is free. BUT we bought a MEMBERSHIP which will allow two adults and all our kids under 18 in for FREE for a year.  The membership was a steal for us - it is only $14 more for the year than it would be for our family of 5 to go once. We don't plan on staying in Seattle all year. We've been looking for a museum which participates in  the Association of Science-Technology Centers  (ASTC) passport program, so we could buy a reciprocal membership. We'll not only be able to visit The Museum of Flight when we visit Josiah, but we'll be able to in to more than 290 other museums around America (and a few in Canada). The discount may vary per museum but we've heard favorable reports from other families participating in the program.

This was a great day. We had studied the Wright Brothers and the advent of the flight age a couple of weeks ago. It was fun for the kids to see the full-sized models up close. We highly recommend this stop when in Seattle. Below are some photos - I'm sure Michael will label some of the planes at a later date.

Lunar Module

Our tour group

Overwhelmed with the choices? LOL

Michael shares a bit more insight about the SR71

Pilots of SR71 sign this - fun to see the name of the pilot Michael has talked with

I think, yes.

Who knew? It's already been done.

Every day we seem to have a little reminder of Japan. Today it was in the middle of the Museum of Flight - a write up about Clyde P (Michael can finish his name) and Miss Veedol. The flight from Misawa, Japan to Wenatchee, WA.

Shuttle Simulator - we crashed it over and over

Stacia LOVED the hands on exhibits

These two had fun with the bottle rockets

The first jet-powered Air Force One - used by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson.

Presidential toilet - just had to add this to my toilet museum and Japanese toilet collection

  

Yep - we'd be great visiting the White House. LOL

The Concorde - England to NYC in 2 hours and 52 minutes

Boeing 787 Dreamliner (inside pictures don't do it justice)