Our trip to Grayland State Park - Grayland, Washington - September 2007...
| Jackie and I decided it was time to get away for a while. We planned to spend a week on the west coast of Washington at Grayland State Park. This is how excited Pearl was when we told her of our RVing plans... |
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We got to leave a day earlier than planned. Our reservations for Grayland didn't start until the following day but we didn't want to wait. We found this pretty nice RV Park just a couple of miles south of Montesano, Washington and figured we'd spend the night there... |
| The park was very clean and nicely laid out. One side borders a lake and the other borders on the river. There's a great, wheelchair accessible path all the way around the lake. Our Winnebago looks right at home here. Power and water only but they do have a dump station... |
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We brought along our Honda Shadow Aero on the trailer. Looks like it's about to roll off the back of the trailer but the ground actually drops off a bit where the trailer is parked. It's really nice to be able to back into a site without having to unhook the toad. The Shadow tows nicely strapped securely on the trailer and I no longer have to stop every 5 miles to check the straps... |
| In the morning we took a walk around the lake. We stopped for a picture on this bridge about a quarter of the way around the lake. The bridge is a lot sturdier than it appears.... |
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Standing on the bridge we could look back over the lake to the RV Park. Not very crowded at all this time of year... |
| It's over three miles around the lake. We had to stop and admire this fellow as he crossed our path headed somewhere special. Salamanders have the right of way around here.. |
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Much of the path is paved but some of it is nicely constructed boardwalk. Somebody spent a lot of time and care constructing this walk through the woods for us to enjoy. We walk carefully, though. The boardwalk is slippery where wet.. |
| Someone has spent time on the landscaping at Friend's Landing, too. You can see the footbridge off in the distance to the left of this nice piece of driftwood.... |
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Hidden in the landscaping are little treats like this fellow in his not so shining armour... |
| I'm sure this fat frog has seen more than a few RVers come and go... |
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And this sultry eyed piggy seems to be giving us that "come hither" look. You can read more about Friend's Landing here. We enjoyed our stay and would certainly return if we came this way again but now it's time to move on.. |
| What kind of trip would it be if we didn't stop at a Wal*Mart? While at this one in Aberdeen, Washington, we saw this rig. Now's there's someone who is taking it all with them! I may have to look into this setup... |
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Yaaay! We made it!. Washington State is blessed with some very nice State Park campgrounds and Grayland Beach State Park certainly ranks somewhere near the top of the list. You can check it out or make reservations here. This place is extremely clean, the sites are well laid out and reasonably private and the park is well patrolled. It's also only a short walk to the ocean beach... |
| We're set up in site 81, the bike is unloaded, the fire is going and we're ready to relax. As soon as we get done going and doing.... |
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Since we're here we might as well go to the beach... |
| And there's one heckuva lot of beach to enjoy here... |
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Some people don't care if it's September in Washington; they're going surfing anyway! |
| Watching the kids play in the surf made us cold so we decided we'd better get back to a nice, warm fire! |
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Washington beaches are a great place for kite flying... |
| This kite is huge! |
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And they were having trouble keeping it from dragging the fellow flying it on down the beach... |
| The fog rolled in but that doesn't stop the kite flyers... |
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One more shot for perspective... |
| We really enjoyed this kite... |
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The ends on this one rotated in opposite directions as it flew... |
| The weather cooperated for most of our stay and we got some riding in, too. Here we stopped at the lighthouse just north of Grayland near Westport..... |
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We stopped at the Westport Maritime Museum. It was closed so we didn't get to see the "Destruction Island Lens"... |
| The museum is housed in this structure. We'll come back and take a look the next time we're in the area... |
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The whale skeleton displays were visible in another glass fronted building... |
| And, of course, we had to stop on the beach... |
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We rode out to Leadbetter Point State Park. This is a day use only park with what looked like some nice walking but as we were wearing full leathers we decided to pass on the hike, this time... |
| This private gate was very near the entrance to the park. Wonder what the place it guards is like... |
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Back at the RV Jade is doing guard duty and a fine job of keeping those pesky squirrels and hamsters away from the rig... |
| We decided to go out for dinner one evening. After driving by a whole lot of restaurants that were closed we were starting to get a bit desperate to find some grub. I spotted this patrol car parked alongside the road watching for speeders so thought I'd pull up and ask Officer Friendly for a friendly recommendation... |
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Jackie and I laughed so hard we darn near fell off the bike when we saw why Officer Friendly was so friendly and realized that we weren't going to get any fine dining suggestions! At least we didn't have to give him any damn doughnuts... |
| We rode down to Raymond, Washington for a visit. Raymond is about 20 miles south of Grayland and has a lot of these iron sculptures placed around the town. Very nicely done and this lady with her armload of squash is a fine example... |
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Here's a parent and child on a bicycle out for a ride around town... |
| Here's some birds with a racoon in the background. There were lots of elk and deer, buffalo and other western creatures, as well, placed around the town. Very nice! |
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There's a Carriage Musuem located here in Raymond and we figured we'd take a look and see what they had to see... |
| Parked out front was this old water delivery wagon with iron sculptured horses and driver... |
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Nearby was this covered wagon. More great sculptural work... |
| A couple of hands are unloading boxes from the back of the wagon... |
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Inside the museum were many fine examples of restored and replica buggies. This buggy, complete with fine horses, impeccable driver, and elegant passenger, is prominently displayed as you enter... |
| This Cut Under Wicker Phaeton made a fine ladies coach... |
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This Summer Coupe Brougham was one of my favorites. Nicely restored... |
| Here's a beautiful C-Spring Buggy... |
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Any vendor would have been proud to own this coach to peddle his wares around town... |
| This coach, with forward and rearward facing seats, would have provided for some friendly socializing while riding around the park... |
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Some of the engineering under these coaches was remarkable for its inventiveness... |
| Even the winter could be fun if you rode around in this horse drawn sleigh... |
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This fine Hearse sported some beautiful woodworking. Even has glass sides so that you could view the occupant (or, at least you could view his casket) taking his last ride in style... |
| Lots more beautiful coaches in the museum. Well worth visiting if you ever get around to Raymond, Washington. We spotted this Mercedes Roadster that I think would suit me much better than a horse drawn buggy, though. Unfortunately, Jackie said I had enough damn toys already so we passed it by... |
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We enjoy murals on the sides of buildings. This one was well done and nicely captured the spirit and history of the town of Raymond... |
| We also visited the Willapa Seaport Museum while we were in Raymond... |
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Tons of things to look at in here but not very well lit. This wall is just a tiny sample of what there is inside. We poked around a while before leaving... |
| Bubba was happy to see us get back so he could have his dinner... |
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We rode the bike down to Long Beach, Washington a distance of about 150 miles roundtrip. Long ride but we wanted to go visit the International Kite Museum and were glad we did. Tons of kites from a wide variety of countries and another excuse to put some fine weather miles on the bike.. |
| Here's just a few of the colorful, imaginative and artistic kites we saw there... |
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| It's the nature of good vacations to come to an end and so did ours. Ahhh, but next time... |
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