Road trip - West Coast version

[Generic]

One of the first stops we're planning... http://www.grandcanyonwest.com/skywalktour.php
Open year round! Yippee!.

Looks cool.... read the Zelp reviews, though.
The Grand Canyon is absolutely beautiful though. Bryce and Zion are something to see as well.

 

[Madeleine]

One of the first stops we're planning... http://www.grandcanyonwest.com/skywalktour.php
Open year round! Yippee!.

Looks cool.... read the Zelp reviews, though.
The Grand Canyon is absolutely beautiful though. Bryce and Zion are something to see as well.
.

Didn't know the part about the AZ ranchers with armed guards charging a fee to drive your car on their right of way but the rest of it (price to get in, no cameras on the walkway) was covered on the website. Maybe we should do a tour bus.

 

[Innkeep]

One of the first stops we're planning... http://www.grandcanyonwest.com/skywalktour.php
Open year round! Yippee!.

Looks cool.... read the Zelp reviews, though.
The Grand Canyon is absolutely beautiful though. Bryce and Zion are something to see as well.
.

Didn't know the part about the AZ ranchers with armed guards charging a fee to drive your car on their right of way but the rest of it (price to get in, no cameras on the walkway) was covered on the website. Maybe we should do a tour bus.
.

However you get there, just be sure to DO IT.
I must admit us flatlanders are impressed by the Grand Canyon seen from any overlook.
North Rim is a totally different ecosystem, much less traveled, but doesn't open til mid May. Bryce and Zion are easy to do from North Rim, Maybe save that for another trip based around a visit to Las Vegas.

 

[Willowpondgj]

If you end up in Western Colorado, you better at least come by and say hi!!! Let me know if you need a room!

 

[Sunshine]

Gig Harbor is a cute little town on the sound, just across the bridge from Tacoma. Lots of shops and wonderful art galleries, antique's. There is a great place, the Tides Tavern, for brews and local fare, great fish and chips. Also a terrific Italian place, Il Lucano, the owners are from Italy and Japan, the night we went the wife was there and chatted up my brother (who is fluent in Japanese) for hours, like old friends, it was great and so was the food! You can cross the Fox Island Bridge and visit the Fox Island Museum. My cousin is the historian there, my family is from there. Go on a ferry excursion around the sound. Beautiful country, I would love to retire up there someday...Oregon coast is spectacular too..

Gig Harbor is a cute little town on the sound, just across the bridge from Tacoma. Lots of shops and wonderful art galleries, antique's. There is a great place, the Tides Tavern, for brews and local fare, great fish and chips. Also a terrific Italian place, Il Lucano, the owners are from Italy and Japan, the night we went the wife was there and chatted up my brother (who is fluent in Japanese) for hours, like old friends, it was great and so was the food! You can cross the Fox Island Bridge and visit the Fox Island Museum. My cousin is the historian there, my family is from there. Go on a ferry excursion around the sound. Beautiful country, I would love to retire up there someday...Oregon coast is spectacular too.

YOU!
The owner of the Tides is an heir to the Stanley Tools fortune. The first place I ever had a bleu cheese burger, now they are everywhere. That in itself makes it a great place.
My old stomping grounds, lived in Gig Harbor, worked in Gig Harbor, and my aunt is the Town Clerk there. My grandmother turns 90 in Sept in Gig Harbor.
I thought we only had San Diego in common WP! Sunshine is from Bremerton, fyi. The very same "Sunshine the Breakfast Queen" on this forum. We used to scuba dive off Fox Island. Paddled all around in a canoe as well. We built our home in Port Orchard and from there moved to Virginia.
FYI Maddie, Gig Harbor will remind you of The Cape.
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Half of my family is buried on Fox Island, including my dad and grandparents. I have another cousin who lives on the island and runs a physical therapy practice in Gig Harbor. My grandmother had a cabin on the island and stayed there half the year, every year until she got too old... My grandpa used to swim in the sound every day! I went up there several times as a kid, for the summer. My grandma used to send us out with a Folgers coffee can and have us fill it up with blackberries. When we brought them back, she would make cobbler in the old wood stove....HEAVEN. Buried my dad up there last summer...He is mentioned in this book, one summer he helped the author tear down the Miller homestead, when they were teens:
http://www.amazon.com/An-Island-In-Time-II/dp/1434314170
My great-grandfather, Thomas Torgesen, was captain of the Rhonda and several other tugs and ferries. When my grandma was a kid he ran the prison ferry from Tacoma to McNeil Island at the turn of the century. He is mentioned here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hale_Passage_and_Wollochet_Bay_Navigation_Company and here: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2013/feb/27/mosquito-fleet-dedication-remembered-through-ships/#axzz2b1lhBFSk

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This is another innkeeper here who is in rural Kitsap County on the Key Peninsula. Not sure how often she is here.
Thanks for those links, very interesting! I had a guest here this week whose brother lives in that area as well. He retired Navy there.
Speaking of that, DH's Royal Australian Navy FFG HMAS Adelaide was built in the Todd Shipyards in Seattle. We met of course many years later, and ended up living in the PacNorthWet.
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This is another innkeeper here who is in rural Kitsap County on the Key Peninsula. Not sure how often she is here.
Thanks for those links, very interesting! I had a guest here this week whose brother lives in that area as well. He retired Navy there.
Speaking of that, DH's Royal Australian Navy FFG HMAS Adelaide was built in the Todd Shipyards in Seattle. We met of course many years later, and ended up living in the PacNorthWet.

And if the sale goes through on this place and you can't come here... then you all can come see me on the Olympic Penn!!!

 

[Sunshine]

Madeleine on a zipline? I just can't picture that!
So Maddie, if you do it, be sure to post a picture!.

Madeleine on a zipline? I just can't picture that!
So Maddie, if you do it, be sure to post a picture!

I LOVE zip lines! Done it a couple of times!

 

[Arks]

Madeleine on a zipline? I just can't picture that!
So Maddie, if you do it, be sure to post a picture!.

Madeleine on a zipline? I just can't picture that!
So Maddie, if you do it, be sure to post a picture!

I LOVE zip lines! Done it a couple of times!
.

I LOVE zip lines! Done it a couple of times!

The longest zipline in Arkansas is just a few miles from here, and a group of us are headed over there Saturday morning to do it. Actually, it's SIX ziplines. Apparently they daisy chain from point to point to get you from the top to the bottom. Then we're all going out for brunch. Sounds like a great day. The marketing people keep telling us modern folks don't want to just see stuff, they want to DO stuff. I think they're right!

 

[gillumhouse]

Madeleine on a zipline? I just can't picture that!
So Maddie, if you do it, be sure to post a picture!.

Madeleine on a zipline? I just can't picture that!
So Maddie, if you do it, be sure to post a picture!

I LOVE zip lines! Done it a couple of times!
.

I LOVE zip lines! Done it a couple of times!

The longest zipline in Arkansas is just a few miles from here, and a group of us are headed over there Saturday morning to do it. Actually, it's SIX ziplines. Apparently they daisy chain from point to point to get you from the top to the bottom. Then we're all going out for brunch. Sounds like a great day. The marketing people keep telling us modern folks don't want to just see stuff, they want to DO stuff. I think they're right!
.

An Outdoorsman radio personality/newsman in WV cannot do the zip line. They will not allow him to do it because he is TOO BIG. He is 6'5" I think abd about 330 lbs. They said the momentum he would pick up would kill someone at the bottom of the line.

 

[Breakfast Diva]

Madeleine on a zipline? I just can't picture that!
So Maddie, if you do it, be sure to post a picture!.

Madeleine on a zipline? I just can't picture that!
So Maddie, if you do it, be sure to post a picture!

I LOVE zip lines! Done it a couple of times!
.

I LOVE zip lines! Done it a couple of times!

The longest zipline in Arkansas is just a few miles from here, and a group of us are headed over there Saturday morning to do it. Actually, it's SIX ziplines. Apparently they daisy chain from point to point to get you from the top to the bottom. Then we're all going out for brunch. Sounds like a great day. The marketing people keep telling us modern folks don't want to just see stuff, they want to DO stuff. I think they're right!
.

Have a great time Arkie! I haven't done one yet but I really want to!

 

[Arks]

If you never hear from me after Friday night, you'll know the line snapped under my immense weight!

 

[gillumhouse]

Madeleine on a zipline? I just can't picture that!
So Maddie, if you do it, be sure to post a picture!.

Madeleine on a zipline? I just can't picture that!
So Maddie, if you do it, be sure to post a picture!

I LOVE zip lines! Done it a couple of times!
.

I LOVE zip lines! Done it a couple of times!

The longest zipline in Arkansas is just a few miles from here, and a group of us are headed over there Saturday morning to do it. Actually, it's SIX ziplines. Apparently they daisy chain from point to point to get you from the top to the bottom. Then we're all going out for brunch. Sounds like a great day. The marketing people keep telling us modern folks don't want to just see stuff, they want to DO stuff. I think they're right!
.

I hope you totally enjoy yourself. Just pointing out that not everyone can do the zip - I figure you are trim enough. However, my fat butt will be grounded.