Friday, December 31, 2010

Road Trips - Summer 2010

Summer 2010 was fun with parents visiting and well planned trips. We did couple of road trips this summer within Washington, which has made me appreciate WA's varied landscape more.

1. Cascade loop with stay in Lake Chelan


We did the cascade loop, a scenic highway loop in WA in June. We took I-5 north, then drove east through I-20, stopped at Diablo Lake for lunch. Passed through Mazama and stopped at a quintessential small town, Winthrop for some coffee and icecream. After another hour and a half drive we reached Lake Chelan. It was a clear, sunny day and the scenery on the drive there was stunning. The landscape in western Washington has tall coniferous trees but once you cross the North Cascade mountain range and get to the eastern side, it is all rolling hills, a completely different panorama.



Diablo Lake
Driving through the North Cascades
Lake Chelan
We stopped by a very beautiful vineyard which had a great view of the lake and the hills. 



Visited a local farm and did some strawberry picking. 


Strawberry Picking at a local farm
Strawberry Picking at a local farm
The plan was not to do much, just kick back and relax and we managed to do that. I was still training for the half-marathon and hence went for a run along the lake in the morning. We just wanted to lounge in our room and take in the view and that is what we did.




2. Cherry picking in Yakima and Palouse Falls





Cherry picking in Yakima
Cherry picking in Yakima
Palouse scenic byway on the way to Pullman, WA
Palouse Falls
Palouse fields from Kamiak Butte County Park
Palouse Hills