WAWeekend: Having a blast on Snoqualmie Pass

It was a blast on Snoqualmie Pass that led to this post.  Quite literally.




Snoqualmie Pass, about an hour east of Seattle, was once the hunting ground and homeland of the Native Americans tribe, the Snoqualmie (snow-qwal-me).

It now the highest point on  Interstate 90, Washington’s major east-west link.

Road improvements near the pass’s 3,022-foot high summit are prompting sporadic road closures of an hour or so and reduced speeds. 

Thursday evening’s blasting tossed and tumbled so many boulders onto the roadway that crews were still feverishly working hours later  to open the roadway by mid-Friday morning. 

That would be the same Friday as my scheduled one one-day road trip to Eastern Washington.

I was among the hundreds of travelers who were waiting for the road to open. The good news was that I’d reached the summit’s recreation/rest area just minutes before the backup stretched beyond its exit.

The summit at one time had little more than a Rest Stop.
  
Today,that same rest stop has been joined by ski areas and their lift stations, a vacation home development, a hotel and several coffee shops, one of which is located in the historic rest stop.

That café/store, Red Mountain Coffee, (pictured above) was doing a brisk business. 

Next door, in the entry hall to the public restrooms, the state has mounted a framed narrative of the history of Snoqualmie Pass. And quite a history it has:  

In June 1858: Seattle area men, believed to be miners, cleared a trail to Lake Keechelus,  ([pictured below) just east of the summit.

1865– 1867:The trail was widened and could then accommodate wagons, although weather destroyed it regularly requiring it to be rebuilt. It also required travelers to ferry across Lake Keechelus.  (Some on-line sources say portions of the old wagon road can be seen from the area’s Denny Campground.)

1884 – 1887:  An Ellensburg company improved the road further – but travelers had to pay a toll when using it.

1905:The first auto drove over the pass on what was then called, Sunset Highway.

1934: the roadway was paved.

Roadway improvements continued and in 1981 the roadway lanes were split with west bound opening west of the Snoqualmie River and Denny Creek on a bridge span 200-feet high.

2005 – 2017:  The state Legislature approved the  Transportation Partnership Account gas tax, which secured $551 million to improve the first five miles of the corridor to the east of the summit (notorious for snow slides that often close the road in winter).

The work involves adding a lane in each direction, replacing deteriorating concrete, adding and replacing bridges and culverts, extending chain up/off areas and replacing the snow shed (think open air tunnel over the freeway) just east of the Snoqualmie Pass Summit with another structure to reduce winter avalanche closures.

This portion of the project is scheduled to be complete in 2017.

If You Go:

Expect delays and reduced speed areas when traveling over Snoqualmie Pass.  Blasting continues and schedulesfor closures resulting from it  – as well as road conditions – can be found at the Washington State Department of Transportation, click WSDOT.

Have you ever hit a road block on a road trip?  What did you do while waiting to resume your travels?

That’s it for this weekend. Hope you are having a good one what ever road you are following. . .come back soon!

Heaven ‘Scent’: Our Greek Orange Odyssey

Sometimes it was soft;  a feather tickling our noses with a hint of sweetness. . .

illusive and fleeting. . .

Sometimes the air was thick with the heavenly scent of 

~ orange blossoms ~

When we planned our Greek travels we didn’t realize that both  our destinations - the Peloponnese and Crete -- are two of the country’s major orange producing areas.  Greece, in fact,  is the European Union’s third largest orange producer, just behind Spain and Italy, respectively, and just above Portugal and Cyprus.

Our Orange Odyssey began with the first whiff of the tiny, but pungent, blossoms on the island of Poros, a stone’s throw from the  Peloponnese. 

The Odyssey sent all our our senses into overdrive.  We saw, smelled, touched, and tasted oranges; from those tiny little white blossoms to the end product. (We drank orange juice by the gallons it seemed, sometimes each glass seemed gallon sized.)

Born and raised in Pacific Northwest agricultural areas, we are conditioned to think of fruit harvest as taking place in the fall.  In Greece, we learned, Valencia, the thin-skinned ‘summer orange’  is harvested between February and October with peak harvest falling in May – July. 

While in Nafplion, that Venetian-style city in the Peloponnese, we bought a bag – filled with a dozen oranges for one euro ($1.30US) – from the display pictured below – one of many at the city’s  street market.

As we wound our way up and down, over and under the Peloponnese hillsides, we  traveled through the Laconia prefecture’s Evrotas River valley – one of the largest citrus growing regions in Greece.  Here we rolled down the car windows so we could enjoy the area’s aromatherapy.

We continued our Orange Odyssey in Crete, where we restocked our citrus supply from this selection at Elounda’s street market.

Elounda, on Crete’s northeastern shore, is where we spent several days revisiting favorite places. We ‘deck dined’  at our studio apartment feasting on breakfasts of Greek honey, fresh strawberries, home-canned cherries and, of course, oranges.

In Hora Sfakia, on Crete’s southwestern coast, we watched the orange vendor as he parked his truck, announcing his arrival and product for sale using the horn mounted  on the cab.

His oranges were likely the ones that the owners of nearby Delfini’s Restaurant used in their display to lure tourists and visiting hikers – it worked on us each day of our stay.

That is our contribution to Travel Photo Thursday, an armchair travel event hosted by Budget Traveler’s Sandbox each week.  Head over there and take a few more trips  today.  

Nancie McKinnon, a Canadian, who created both the BTS blog and the weekly photo event, lives and works in South Korea. . .she’s heading home to Halifax next week for a visit.

And guess what? 

She and I will meet for the first time ‘out of the blogosphere’ on Monday and you’ll never guess where. . .come back next week and I'll tell you!

Summer in Scottsdale? Say, Spa-aahh!

The  air was thick – a 111-degree blanket enveloped us – as we made our way across the expansive grounds of the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess to the resort’s Well & Being at Willow Stream Spa, an air-conditioned 44,000 square-foot oasis of health and beauty. A place so large, there’s a greeter who escorts you to your destination within its spacious confines. It’s like a resort within a resort.

 

The Well & Being concept -- introduced just last January -- combines health, wellness, nutrition, integrative medicine, skin care and fitness. Folks here say they are the first luxury resort in the United States to implement such a comprehensive approach.

So health-serious are they, there’s a full-time doctor (a real M.D.) on staff at the spa. 

We toured the facility that offers a demonstration kitchen and workout areas as well as some 30 treatment and consultation rooms, (some of which open  to the patio pictured above). We watched a class doing exercises on surf board machines while a video of waves was projected on a large screen behind them.

 

One feature neither of us were inclined to try was the Aerial Yoga where yoga poses are done (think upside down yoga) with the support of these suspended cloth slings (which, they say, allow for greater stretching).

Say Spa-ahhh. . .

Following the tour I headed to the large and luxurious dressing/locker room and, while sipping some Prickly Pear lemonade, suited up in a fluffy robe and slippers. I was about to have my first-ever facial. Rose Marie, an aesthetician who’s worked here for 11 years, introduced me to its wonders.

Because I’d never had a facial before  I chose it over a list of seemingly endless spa treatments.  Mine, a 90-minute treatment, began with an up-close and personal face photo (Brace yourselves! The images on that computer below are me and quite frightening). The two images, Rose Marie said, show sun damage and capillaries – I think they showed age as well!

The ‘reality show’ was followed by applications of  the ‘lotions and potions’. It was a botanical bonanza that included, but not limited to, an aloe cleansing, mists of lavender honey and rose geranium, a sweet cherry enzyme peel and a carrot seed soothing serum.  . .you get the idea. . .

 

One thing to keep in mind about spa treatments in resort settings like this one, is the cost of the treatment gives you access to all the other spa amenities and features on the day of your treatment (come early, stay late; a resort within a resort). 

Here those amenities include: steam rooms, saunas, a eucalyptus inhalation rooms, a private rooftop pool, and a three-story therapeutic waterfall, inspired by the real thing in the Grand Canyon, Havasupai Falls.

If you are like The Scout and not ‘in to’ spa treatments,  you can purchase a day pass here to use the non-treatment facilities.  (Free access is included with those booking the Fairmont Gold option).

TravelnWrite regulars will recall we nabbed a good deal on November’s Black Friday for our stay here last December. The new spa concept was introduced about a month after our visit. Now that we’ve tried it, we can’t imagine a stay that  didn’t include significant time at their Well and Being Willow Stream.

The Scottsdale Spa Experience

Whether a long-time spa enthusiast or a newbie to the spa world, summer in Scottsdale is the time you’ll find both great hotel rates and good deals on spa packages and treatments.

To see a few of this summer’s deals: click on Experience Scottdale’s link:  Summer Spa Series

For information about the Well & Being at Willow Stream Spa, www.scottsdaleprincess.com or call 480-585-2732.

An example of their Seasonal Offerings is this, one of  their June specials:

• 45-Minute Treatments Monday - Thursday
  Need a quick mid-week spa fix? Choose from these 45-minute energizing spa treatments designed for the person on the go. Available Monday – Thursday all day long. 45-minute Energizer Massage or Customized Facial. $129 each

That’s it for this week’s Travel Tip Tuesday!
If you have a tip about spa treatments or where to find deals that you’d like to share with other readers, please write a comment in the section below or send us an email to travelnwrite@msn.com   Small print: We want to thank the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess for hosting our spa visit and treatment.

If you’ve not yet signed up to receive TravelnWrite posts, please do so on the blog’s home page, top right hand corner.  If you want to follow us on Facebook, click this link!  And, as always, thanks for stopping by today!

WAWeekend: Walla Walla’s Original Wine Road

Washington State is crisscrossed with ‘wine roads'. Fanning out from Woodinville in the Seattle suburbs to all points north, south, east and west; they even lace the San Juan Islands in the Puget Sound.

The original wine route, as we call it, takes you directly to Walla Walla (wah-lah wah-lah) in south central Washington. It remains the ‘granddaddy of wine growing areas’ and that fact alone is reason enough to add it to your travel bucket list.

If wine isn’t your thing, here are a few other reasons to add this vibrant college town near the Oregon/Washington border to your travel destinations:

1.  Walking through History. Founded in 1862, the town celebrated its first 150 years in 2012. History is so treasured here, that you’ll notice it the minute you stroll along its tree-lined downtown sidewalks. Walla Walla has been named one of 12 Distinctive Destinations by the National Trust For Historic Preservation. Speaking of trees, it’s also been honored many times as a “Tree  City U.S.A.”

Take a tour using the free Walla Walla Heritage maps.  They include a Downtown Historic Trail Guide, Fort Walla Walla and other sites in the area including Boyer and Pioneer Park historic homes (some of which are pictured below).

(The photo in the lower left corner is of a mid-century art-deco service station that’s been turned into a nifty restaurant.)

Those of you who’ve read about  the U.S. explorers, Lewis and Clark,  might already know that their expedition first passed through Walla Walla County in 1805. Marcus and Narcissa Whitman were missionaries who came to the area to minister to the Indians.  To learn more, make it a point to visit the Fort Walla Walla Museum.

2.  Celebrate Agriculture. You can get a taste of the area at Walla Walla’ Farmer’s Market, held downtown on Saturdays and Sundays from May to October, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.  While most of the area’s acreage is wheat fields and vineyards, there’s plenty of truck garden and fruit to be found. . .don’t forget to buy a few pounds of those famous 'Walla Walla Sweets' (onions). 

3. Stay a few days.  There are many hotels, motels and Bed and Breakfasts from which to choose in Walla Walla but our favorite stay is at the grand old Marcus Whitman Hotel, right in the heart of the downtown.  Simply park your car in the hotel’s lot and set out on foot – you’ll find dozens of retail shops and restaurants nearby.

We were in Walla Walla celebrating our anniversary last year so we upgraded ourselves to a suite in the old tower, (pictured above). It really didn’t cost that much more than the standard room. The rooms in the old tower have been modernized with all the comforts of the new wing, but the old mid century ambiance remains:

From our suite, we had a magnificent view of the fields that carpet the nearby hillsides.

If You Go:

It is just over a four hour drive from the Seattle; over Snoqualmie Pass and then through some of Central Washington’s  wine country.  Alaska/Horizon airlines has flights from SeaTac Airport.
For more information:  Click on Tourism Walla Walla.

Crete: Sunday Morning at - not 'in' - Church

On a Sunday morning in Elounda, on Crete’s northeastern shore we were reminded that sometimes the message can be as powerful outside the church as inside . . .

 

The small Church of Agios Loukas (Saint Luke)  hadn’t changed since we last visited three years ago. From Elounda, we’d crossed a narrow causeway to Kolokytha Peninsula, where it sits on a knoll overlooking the turquoise waters of Mirabella Bay. 

On this morning, as had been the case on our previous visit, we were alone – our arrival announced only by the birds whom we’d disturbed.



The bell rested in its tower, ready to call the faithful.






The intricately carved and polished wooden doors were locked, but it really didn’t matter . . .

. . .because sometimes you don’t need to be in a church . . .

Thanks for spending a moment or two with us in Greece. Hope to see you back here soon! It's Travel Photo Thursday. Head over to Budget Travelers Sandbox and do a bit more armchair traveling.

Travel Tuesday: Scottsdale’s “Club Grub”

Whew! We just crossed the finish line after a nine day eat-a-thon in Scottsdale, Arizona. Let me tell you. . .

There is just something about the food in Arizona's 'Valley of the Sun' that makes us throw our Diet2Go out the window. And this trip,contributing to the culinary temptations that snugged up our clothes, is what we’ve dubbed, “Club Grub”.

Not “Pub Grub” –  “Club Grub.”  I am talking a whole new food source:  eateries tucked away in golf courses; some in clubhouses and others in freestanding restaurants.


We don’t even play golf – but we spent a lot of time ‘at the course’ this trip!  Note: these aren’t the members-only places -  all three of our recommendations below are open to the public!

The Grill at the TPC Scottsdale

While munching lunch at The Grill, we had this view over the 18th hole of the Stadium Course at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Hotel. 

Tucked away in a corner of the clubhouse, this place has more than 50 craft beers, cocktails, a gastro-pub style menu, patio (with fire pits – not needed this time of year) and a Happy Hour.

The Grill is located at 17020 N. Hayden Road.




Troon North

Our Seattle/Scottsdale friends, Mike and Joanne, told us to try Happy Hour at the Troon North Golf Club and for that we owe them big time!

We had some of the best- tasting and best-priced margaritas in this restaurant (also tucked away in a beautiful clubhouse), that we’ve had anywhere in Scottsdale. The HH price $4.50 (as compared to the Happy Hour $10 margarita at the nearby Four Seasons).

Troon North also offers full menu options but there were so many temptations on the Happy Hour list we never got beyond it. 


The photo below is of Dynamite Flatbread, $6, a mouthwatering chicken, cheese combo on  focaccia bread, just one of the HH offerings.




Troon North is located at 10320 E. Dynamite Blvd., Scottsdale.

Tonto Bar and Grill at Rancho Manana

The interior of this restaurant has such a wonderful Spanish/Old West feel to it, that it is difficult to choose between sitting inside or on the patio. Both provide beautiful views of this Cave Creek golf course. 

The menu also has so many choices that it should be difficult to choose between them but I have become so enamored with their Southwestern Cobb Salad that I always order it.  (Going there for lunch means I will take enough home  for dinner as well. As you can see from the photo below. . .it is rather large).

This place, like we've noticed at other restaurants, offer a choice of protein toppings for the salad. Mine was chicken and The Scout chose roast pork from the half dozen choices; price depends on the protein chosen.

Tonto Bar and Grill is located at the golf course at 5736 E. Rancho Manana Blvd., Cave Creek.

If you go:  A good source of Arizona golf course information is: www.arizonagolf.com

Your turn!  Do you have any “Club Grub” recommendations for the Phoenix/Scottsdale area?  How about any for golf clubs near where you live or in places you’ve visited?  Tell us about them!

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WAWeekend: Heavenly!

While airplanes aren’t my favorite mode of transportation, I have to admit that they provide a ‘heavenly’ view of the world. . .especially when flying over Washington State. 

Just last week en route to Arizona we passed one of our state's ‘purple mountain majesties’ as the song says. . .this one, Mt. Rainier:

 

And within minutes of passing that state icon we were reminded of the size and beauty of the winding Columbia River and the song we sang as children, “roll on Columbia, roll on. . . “:

Do you have a favorite 'heavenly' view?