Category: Seattle

Salish Lodge and Snoqualmie Falls – Day 6

22 May 2023

When Joel picked me up at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport yesterday I had been awake since 4:30 am PDT on the 20th of May. I got into Fort Lauderdale around 10:51 EDT on the 21st of May, so that means I had been awake for approximately 16 hours. I was a zombie. I also had a backache from sitting on the plane for 7 hours of flight – even though they were first class seats with a little more leg room.

Joel dropped me off and I immediately found my A/C didn’t work. The thermostat apparently has batteries and they died while on the trip. I had to search through my file of manuals to find the thermostat manual to see which type of batteries and how to replace them. Then I had to reprogram the thermostat to finally get the A/C working.

After that it was grocery shopping, unpacking, storing the suitcase (ladder work), washing clothes, folding clothes, and cooking dinner. I was about to drop. I went to bed at 6 pm (fortified by two stiff bourbons) and promptly conked out. I got up twice to pee but immediately went back to sleep. I got out of bed at 8 am and realized I had slept soundly for 14 hours. I feel much better today!

First up was a phone call from Holy Cross oncology wanting to schedule a chemotherapy consultation. Darla had tried to contact me before my vacation and I had tried to reach her to respond but that didn’t happen. Today we agreed on the same date as my echocardiogram, just earlier than the echocardiogram (this Wednesday). I assume they will tell me what nastiness to expect. Without my knowledge, they had already prescribed two drugs: prochlorperazine (anti sickness – think sea sickness type of drug) and ondansetron (nausea and vomiting). Actually, both work similarly. I had CVS mail me the drugs. I hate going to CVS and the $4 shipping charge is worth not having to deal with the store.

Next was making entries into my check book app. It’s hard to keep checking accounts in order when on vacation and it takes time to go through credit cards and make entries from the trip. Invariably, something is forgotten and I have to do a “reconcile” entry after all is said and done.

I’ve been on the computer ever since I got breakfast put away. First, some insurance work for the flood insurance. They asked for a photo of my drivers license. I didn’t want to send the photo email so I asked about other forms of identification that showed my home address. No, that wouldn’t work. I had to have a photo that I could black out everything but the address. I scanned my license and did block out everything other than the address and my name. I sent it off. No, wait, you also have to send the photo with the issue date. That meant another scan, re-blocking, and re-sending with the caveat that Florida licenses do not have an issue date but they do have an expiration date. My mistake, they do have an issue date and I resent that photo. I’m waiting now for the same request with a different set of blocking parameters. God bless insurance companies because I certainly will not.

Next up were surveys from Amazon and the Salish Lodge. I normally don’t do surveys but I wanted to input my opinion on these, more so the Salish Lodge. I gave the staff and valet excellent reviews but panned the food. My final recommendation for the lodge was “Get a new chef.”

The appointments person at Holy Cross made four additional appointments for chemo infusions without notifying me. They just appeared on my Holy Cross App that I happened to check. Included in the appointments were day-after-infusion injections. I assume these to be one of two things: nausea or immune system boost. I’ll probably find out about that on Wednesday.

It was good to be back home. This is gonna be a very busy week with all the appointments. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Hiking in the woods and seeing waterfalls gave me peace of mind and I feel I am in a better place to start the process involved with my breast cancer treatment. I look forward to the time after the initial infusions that I might be able to get back on the trail and do some more hiking. Hopefully, I’ll get used to the chemo quickly and will have enough stamina to continue to get out in the woods.

Meanwhile, here are a few photos that didn’t make the original posts.

The hike back up the Snoqualmie Falls Tail – the trail was paved, for the most part and wheel chair accessible if you had someone to push you uphill.
Devil’s Club (Oplopanax horridus) – Snoqualmie Falls Trail
Devil’s Club (Oplopanax horridus) I particularly like the species name.

My first view of this was along the Avalanche Lake trail in Glacier National Park several years ago. The photograph above is the mature branch of another plant I found along the Twin Falls Trail. In Mississippi, they have a similar plant, Aralia spinosa, and it is called Devil’s Walking Stick. It’s really nasty. I can attest with a personal story. I was collecting plants at Tishomingo State Park and began an uncontrolled slide down a hill and I grabbed the first thing that came into view. That was a big mistake. Click on the link and you’ll see why.

Giant Horsetail (Equisetum telmateia) – I love horsetails. Over the years, I’ve found four species in the wild. They are an extremely primitive plant reproducing by spores but also by rhizomes. They can form additional rhizomes and new plants at the joints. The stems are hollow. I’ve got a few more to find. The Biota of North America Plant Atlas lists 18 species.
Giant Horsetail (Equisetum telmateia) – the rather odd looking structure on the plant is called a strobilus. Underneath the scales are numerous sporangia containing thousands of spores each.
Prolonged exposure of rapids on Snoqualmie River below the falls.

Snoqualmie Falls Trail
Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus) – I’ve photographed this two other times: the South Kaibab Trail on the north rim of the Grand Canyon and in Redwoods National Park, Yurok Loop Trail.
Red flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum) – the flower color varies from white to pink to really dark red. I’ve photographed this at MacArthur-Burney Falls State Park near Redding, CA on the Burney Falls Loop trail and at Rainbow Falls at North Cascades National Park near Chelan Lake.
Rainbow in the mist of the Snoqualmie Falls
One of those “night” photos of Snoqualmie Falls that the iPhone “corrected” to daylight. It was really quite dark when I made this photo.
Prolonged exposure of a cascade on the way to Franklin Falls.
I think this tree is a western red cedar. What is interesting to me was the trunk had been damaged and five branches came from the trunk and then some of those branches had branches. This plant has had a hard life.
Trail to Franklin Falls – it was a little muddy but otherwise an easy hike.
Franklin Falls – I hiked down as close as I could but any further and I was in danger of slipping. The older gentleman that I referred to in early posts was hiking with a buddy when the falls were frozen and the buddy fell through the ice into the water below. The older gentleman reached for him and pulled him to safety.
Siberian Spring Beauty (Claytonia sibirica) – when I first enrolled in a plant identification course back at Ole Miss, this was one of the first genera I identified. It was the more widely distributed Claytonia virginica. There are 26 species of Claytonia recorded for the U.S. So far, I’ve found seven.
Siberian Spring Beauty (Claytonia sibirica) – I first found this plant at Redwoods National Park several years ago. I didn’t recognize the genus at first and after walking a little further on the trail, the genus Claytonia popped into my mind. Tricky thing, the mind.
May Lily or False Lily-of-the-Valley (Maianthemum bifolium) – this is a European plant that has escaped into the wild. There is some confusion as to the genus but you can still find it under this title. It tends to form large colonies and probably is considered a beautiful “nuisance.”
Herb-Robert (Geranium robertaianum) – another European import that seams to have made the noxious weed list.
Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) – my first view of this was in Redwoods National Forest on the Klamath Beach Trail. I kept seeing brilliant colored petals on the ground and I finally found one flower on the plant intact. This one was in pretty good shape. The petals seems to be very ephemeral on the flower.
Colt’s Foot (Petasites frigidus) – I’ve found this two other times. Once in Redwoods National Forest on the Klamath Beach Road and in North Cascades National Park on the Agnes Gorge Trail. I assume the common name comes from the very large leaves.
Along the Twin Falls Trail. A lot of western Washington, like western Oregon, can be classified as a rain forest. The requirement is 200 cm of rain a year. All but one in the U.S. is classified as temperate rainforests. I think this trail could qualify as a rainforest trail. Love the mosses!

The rainforests in the U.S. are Tongass National Forest in Alaska, Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park, Chugach National Forest in Alaska, Redwoods National Park, Mount Hood Wilderness, Appalachian Temperate Rainforest in the southern Appalachians (north Georgia and western N.C.) Quinault Rain Forest in Olympic National Park, and the only tropical rainforest in the U.S., El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico. Of these, I’ve been in Hoh, Redwoods, and Appalachian Temperate.

Embarrassingly, this was an extra segment I did of the Twin Falls trail. I should have know better when I saw steps. I hate steps!
I’ve photographed roots before. There’s something about the pattern they make that is interesting.
This is one of the five waterfalls from Twin Falls. I think it more like a cascade than a waterfall but it apparently meets the definition for a fall in someone’s book..
Star flowered Lily-of-the-Valley (Maianthemum stellata) – two previous sightings: Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Redwoods National Park
The view coming back down from my extra trek on Twin Falls Trail. At least the scenery was excellent!
Getting ready to hit another switchback. Actually, the switchbacks were well done. I’ve been on some you want to kill the person who designed the trail.
Western Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum aleuticum) – this is a new species for me. I’ve probably seen it numerous times out west but just didn’t photograph it. Maidenhair ferns are really beautiful to me and I always enjoy when I run across them.
The Public Market in Seattle. It was pretty jam-packed with people. Note the woman with her mask almost on. I kept mine own the entire time.
The “eye” of Seattle. The whole dock area seemed to be undergoing some kind of transformation. I don’t know the comparison with the London eye but the carriages on the wheel were pretty good size.
Downtown Seattle is certainly very walkable – with a lot of hills. I had no intention of walking to the space needle from my hotel until I looked up and saw this view. I decided it was a nice day for an additional walk from the market.
When you get right up on the needle, it’s hard to get it all into view. I decided I better get this shot just in case.
The glass floors of the Space Needle. Some people had a hard time looking down. Many didn’t notice it because they were looking out and until someone pointed down, they didn’t know. Then they panicked.
Native American blankets on exhibit at the Chihuly museum.
The “Glass House” at the Chihuly museum.

I plant to blog updates to my cancer treatment so if that bothers you, this will be the last Salish Lodge/Snoqualmie Falls update.

Salish Lodge and Snoqualmie Falls – Day 5

20 May 2023

I just haven’t had any luck with food this trip. I had reservations for 6 pm at The Dining Room and I checked in with the hostess at 5:57 pm. She said my table would ready in a moment. Four other couples checked in after I did and they were all seated first. The restaurant was busy but when I was eventually seated at 6:20, there were plenty of empty tables that could have sat me. Maybe they were paying me back for not meeting my reservation on Wednesday night.

When I looked at the menu, absolutely nothing attracted me, particularly not the dishes I already sampled. The prices were ridiculous. I got up and left and headed into historic Snoqualmie.

I ended up at Buckshot Honey, a BBQ place. I ordered pulled pork sandwich with collard greens and baked beans with the day’s lager. All for only $44 + tip. It was pretty tasteless and I ended up eating the pork and a few sips of the beer.

Hopefully, Seattle will offer better fare.

The lodge has certainly picked up in traffic and guests. The valet parking was backed up and it looks like there are a lot of people spending the weekend. The lodge is nice but I probably would not stay here again if the opportunity arose. The staff are helpful for the most part, The Dining Room experience tonight notwithstanding, but it’s not worth the money.

I checked out of the lodge around 8 am and headed west to Seattle. Amazingly, traffic was light and I zipped into the city without any traffic snarls. I valet parked at the Paramount and left my luggage (too early for the room) and sat out to explore Seattle.

The hotel was built in 1996 so it’s 27 years old and even though it was renovated in 2008, it’s showing its age 15 years later. However, it’s clean and the staff are nice and it’s a place to rest before my red eye.

The desk clerk pointed me in the direction of the public market, often called Pikes Market even though Pikes is just one of many, many shops in the market. The place was packed.

Pikes Place Fish

I did eventually find Pikes and I had just walked away to buy some donuts for breakfast when someone, from the roar of the crowd, must have thrown a fish.

From the market, I headed down to the pier area and saw saw Seattle’s version of the “eye” and saw the Norwegian Bliss, a massive cruise ship.

From there I walked up Bell Street to 4th Ave and headed to the Space Needle. On the way there I saw the reflection of the needle in the windows of a building.

It didn’t look too busy so I walked up to the ticket window and asked if I could go in even though I had 2 pm reservations. She changed the ticket and into line I went. It was longer than I anticipated but they moved you through very efficiently. They certainly have learned how to do this over the years.

The needle was completed in April 21, 1962, 6 months after breaking ground. It’s 605 feet high and was renovated in 2018.
A view of Elliott Bay from the needle.

One up on the observation deck, I took a few photos and then went down one level and had lunch. You could order “bites” and a cocktail and sit while the revolving part of the needle changed the scenes for you.

This is a Lunar Calendar: smoked pineapple, jalapeño infused tequila, lime, with agave. Only $22!

What was neat was sitting at the table and watching the “restaurant” turn.

At first, you think you are sitting still and the glass wall is turning to the left.

In reality, when you look through the glass floor below you, you see the needle is turning to the right.

From the needle, I headed down to the Chihuly museum. I’ve seen his exhibits at Fairchild (twice) and his museum in St. Pete (once) and now the museum in his home base of Seattle. These were some of his most impressive pieces I’ve seen. All the better since I got $10 off my ticket with my Space Needle ticket.

I left Chihuly and looked for the entrance to the monorail.

I remember when the monorail was built and it was one of the first of its kind in the states. It opened on March 24, 1962, one month before the Seattle Worlds. Fair. Disney was first with their monorail in July 14, 1959 and it was the first in the U.S. Senior tickets in Seattle are $1.75 and it has only one – stop in downtown Seattle.

Monorail arriving at the station.

Seattle reminds me a lot of San Francisco in both temperature and walkability. I did over 3 miles today and it seemed much less.

Certain neighborhoods around the needle remind me of some of the broad boulevards of Paris.

Look at the width of this sidewalk!

One year in Paris I somehow found myself on Rue Lauriston, southwest of the Arc de Triomphe. They had unbelievably wide sidewalks along each side of the street with very cute apartments lining the street.

Once I got back to the hotel, a little after noon, I checked to see if my room was ready and it was. I will shower, rest, read, and then around 9 or 10 head to SeaTac for my red eye home.

Other than poor, expensive food, it’s been a great trip. I loved the hiking and the waterfalls. I can see myself coming back to this area for more hikes and more waterfalls.

Stay tuned!