Imagine Our RV Dreams: Stanwood, Seattle, and Crescent Bar, Washington

After our giant ice cream cones, we were on our way to Wenberg County Park in Stanwood, Washington. Along the way we stopped off at Silver Reef 76 station for a fill up for $4.75/gallon diesel before heading further south.

When we arrived on a Thursday the park was pretty empty. We got parked and set up with less trouble since the site behind us was empty Al was able to pull through instead of backing in. A lot easier without worrying about all the trees to navigate around.

After we were all set up we went for a walk to check out the park. It is situated along the shore of Lake Goodwin and they installed a nice swim beach and boardwalk.

Boat Launch Ramp

On our down day we went to the post office and then Walmart to stock up on food.

Since Lake Goodwin was a busy lake with motor boats, we drove a short distance over to Lake Ki and went paddleboarding. We have inflatable paddleboards with us so that is convenient. It was a beautiful day and the lake was nice and calm. We paddled around the perimeter looking at the houses and hung out in the shade tied up to someone’s dock for a while.

It looks like we do more sitting/resting on our paddleboards than paddling but it's too risky to take photos while standing up. I never know when I'm going to fall in!

After we paddled the rest of the way around we just hung out on the paddleboards. The water was so nice and people were really enjoying the refreshing water on a hot day.

Well, the weekenders have arrived at the park!

These are our neighbors for the weekend. How can people have so much stuff?

When we're in an area or park that gets that busy we tend to hang low for the weekend and relax. So that's what we did at Wenberg County Park.

Once the weekend was over, we drove down to Seattle and went to the Washington State Arboretum which wasn’t too exciting because nothing was blooming at that time of year.

Then we drove over to the Chittenden Locks and Fish Ladder. That was cool watching the boats, kayaks, and a large barge go through the locks.

The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, or Ballard Locks, is a complex of locks at the west end of Salmon Bay in Seattle

This is the walkway down to see the fish ladder.

A fish ladder is a structure that allows migrating fish passage over or around an obstacle on a river. A the ladder contains a series of ascending pools that are reached by swimming against a stream of water. Fish leap through the cascade of rushing water, rest in a pool, and then repeat the process until they are out of the ladder.

This ladder is unique because it’s one of the few where fresh water meets salt water. The fish rest in the pools to acclimate to the change from salt to fresh water.

This looks like a fun tour to ride a kayak through the lock.

Is that a leak?

A barge of gravel going through the lock.

Lake Washington Canal
American Engineering Company
Philadelphia, PA

When the gate was closed it was possible to walk across.

Here, pleasure boats are entering the lock in a specific order per the tower.

Boats tie up to each other with the larger boats along the wall. They can't tie up too tight so that the lines fluctuate with the water level.

The gates are opened and water rushes in at a good pace.

That little boat needed to be ready for the rush of water.

Then one by one the boats untie and continue on their journey.

We went in to the museum on the way out after spending a good amount of time watching boats and kayakers in the locks. Some interesting facts we learned:

A Marine Power and Equipment dry-dock had to be taken through on its side because it was one foot wider than the locks.

A damaged B-29 becomes a "floating fortress" as she transit the large lock in 1944.

Military Submarine, Razorback

In 1968, the fishing boat Aleutian Lady got stuck sideways in the large lock and had to be pulled free by a Corps of Engineers work boat. Oops!

What goes where?

Sand and gravel dominate upstream loads, while forest products dominate loads going downstream. The sand and gravel barges are bound for businesses along Lake Washington, Lake Union, and Fisherman's Terminal. Downstream loads are typically bound for Alaska, the Olympic Peninsula and Port Madison.

Well that was a lot of fun!

Our 4 yr Nomad anniversary or Nomadiversary we went to an Everett AquaSox vs. Hillsboro Hops baseball game.

The Everett AquaSox are a Minor League Baseball team in Everett, Washington. The team is a member of the Northwest League and is affiliated with the Seattle Mariners. The AquaSox play their home games at Funko Field, which has a seating capacity of 3,682.

Starting Lineup for both teams

A player signing autographs.

Singing of the National Anthem

The AquaSox won 8-3!

On the way home from the game we saw this truck on the road and got a chuckle. This truck driver has a good sense of humor.

One day we met up with friends, Pat & Ellen, who we met in January 2019 in Quartzsite, Arizona. We've kept in touch since and meet up when our paths cross. It was great to see them again. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Snohomish.

When I made our reservation at Wenberg County Park, I didn't realize the Angels would be playing the Seattle Mariners so I added a couple of days to our stay to attend a game. Unfortunately we couldn't keep our same site so we had to move the RV to another section of the park.

On August 5, 2022 We drove to the Northgate transit center and drove around a while trying to find a place to park the truck. We couldn't fit in to any spaces in the parking lot so we had to find a place to park on the street. More on that later.....

We took the 1 Line to Chinatown in Seattle. We walked by T-Mobile Stadium to see the Seattle Mariner's Stadium to make sure we knew where we were going later. Then we went to an Asian market and bought a CA roll to snack on.

Then we walked to Pikes Market. It was so much more crowded than the last time we were there!!!

Of course we had to watch the flying fish.

We walked through a chewing gum alley which I don’t remember from before.

We went to a Yard House for happy hour where our server gave us simple syrup to add to our unsweetened iced teas. Then we walked along the water and on some wharfs.

It was time to walk over to T-Mobile stadium for the Mariners vs. Angels game. I had some pepper spray in my backpack which I didn’t realize was in an outside pocket so I had to surrender it. Shoot!

As usual we like to walk all the way around the outside of the stadiums if it is possible. There are usually interesting things to see.

Ken Griffey Jr.

Edgar Martinez
1987-2004

Baseball bat art

This stadium has a retractable roof and since it was a nice day the roof was open.

License plate art inside the stadium.

We had good seats until this HUGE guy and his family sat right in front of Al and me. I couldn’t see a thing! I was so mad!!! I paid a lot for these tickets and this was my view of the game. Ugh!

I moved back a row

and then those people arrived so I moved around a few times and each time moving closer and closer to the field until I found an empty seat. Al eventually came down to join me.

Ha! I got in front of these people so I could watch the game!

There was a tribute to LA Dodgers announcer, Vin Scully which was real nice.

The place was packed!

It was great to see the Angels

Shohei Ohtani at bat.

The Angels scored another run in the top of the ninth inning only to have Seattle score 3 runs in the bottom of ninth to tie the game. Oh to be an Angels fan.....

The place went nuts when Seattle scored in the bottom of the ninth. It felt like I was at a World Series game. Every pitch was cheered or booed. It was so exciting!

The game went in to extra innings!

With the new extra innings rule, a player starts out on second base and the Angels were able to bring that guy home and score a run. Luckily Seattle wasn't able to do the same and the Angels ended up winning the game in the 10th inning. So much fun!

After the game it was Sing-a-long Fireworks Night with the words of the songs on the scoreboard.

We took the train back to our truck and that's when we found a ticket on our windshield. Oops! We parked in a no parking zone near a traffic light so it cost us $47 for the ticket. That still did not dampen the fun we had at the Angels game and Seattle.

Here is the area covered by this blog entry.

The next day we left Wenberg County Park and drove on Hwy 2 over the Cascade Mountains to Crescent Bar Thousand Trails park. We went from beautiful weather to temps in the upper 90’s!