July 7 - North Cascades National Park

Tonight we’ll spend the night at another Harvest Host, Ovenell’s Heritage Inn in Concrete. 

Scenic Route 20 will get us there over Loup Loup Pass, steep climb up the mountain and then down into the valley. 

Beautiful drive BUT, very mountainous with lots of twists and turns. 

The mileage was only about 100 miles to where we are staying but it took us almost 4 hours. Ida doesn’t go fast on those kinds of roads!

Our Harvest Host site is on a 500 acre family farm. We have a huge space all to ourselves with access to the Skagit River and a woods trail. 

This is our view of Mt Ranier tonight. Wow. Look at all that snow. 


Linda and I drove into the little town of Concrete. Yep, you guessed it, several buildings are made of concrete and at one time was a concrete production. They have a bridge made entirely of concrete spanning the Skagit river. 

Interesting town but not much here. 

After dinner, Linda and I sat by the river for awhile reading. Another guest took our picture. 

Tomorrow we will drive to Sedro-Woolley near the Pugot  Sound. 

July 6 - West to Okanogan

We all decided that the next time I choose a farm from Harvest Hosts, make sure they don’t have a rooster. The old buggar started his crowing as it was getting light (around 4 am)!!

Otherwise, it was a great place for an overnight stay. A cute chicken I called Mar West. She sure did strut.  

Now we are on to Okanogan Fairgrounds for tonight’s stay. 

As we were driving towards Okanogan, we first saw fields of canola. 

 Then as we got closer to Okanogan, we saw this ahead of us and wondered what they were growing. 

Fruit trees all over the fields on both sides of the road. 

You’ve heard of Washington apples, this is where they are grown. Fruit plants in Okanogan provides lots of employment. 

Once we got set up at our campsite in the Fairgrounds, we drove into the small towns of Okanogan and Omak. Tiny towns but there was a yarn and quilt shop and a pub. Unfortunately the yarn and quilt shop was closed for the week. I’m not having good luck finding an open shop. We did visit the pub for good beers and food. So all was not lost. 

Lenny and Banjo liked staying at the fairgrounds because they could be off leash outside. The only downer was the temps were in the 90s!  Luckily we had hookups so we could have the air on. It didn’t cool down much at night either. 

July 5 - Linda arrives and Ranier Cherry Picking

Left our little haven on Riley Creek and picked up Linda at Spokane Airport and headed to our Harvest Host tonight. We are staying at Hidden Farm in Mead, WA. 

They have orchards of apples, peaches and cherries. Guess what, the cherries are ready so we picked 2 qts. There are so many on the trees that it only took us about 15 minutes. 

After our “strenuous” cherry picking, we took a walk around the farm. They have lots of different veggie’s growing. 

Tomorrow we continue west to Okanagan, WA one stop before the Northern Cascades National Park. 

July 4 - Riley Creek Parade and swimming

We were pleasantly surprised to see a small parade at the campground. 

These were residents of the small town of Laclede. They made our 4th special. 

Next on the agenda was swimming at the beach. It was packed and fun to watch everyone enjoying the day. 

Tomorrow we leave for Spokane to pick up Linda. 

July 2-3 - Riley Creek Campground

Since we are staying at the same campground for 5 days, we are just relaxing and hiking the trails within the campground. 

On Sunday, we drove to Coeur d’Alene. It’s about a 45 minute drive. Found a brewery that had some good beer and cider. On the way back, Shan and Arlo FaceTimed with us. Other than that, not much happening. 

Monday was time to do some laundry. Ended up at Laughing Dog Brewery where we had a delicious lunch of lobster and artichoke open faced sandwich. 

Back to Riley Creek for the sunset which isn’t much because it goes down behind the mountains. 

July 1 - Riley creek

A nice walk along the lake to get us started. 

Then into Sandpoint to visit the Laughing Dog Brewery. Good beer and a huckleberry cider. Both were good. 

Wanted to visit a quilt shop, first one was closed with no notice about her hours. Found another one but she didn’t have any different fabric than I can buy back home. Maybe when we visit Coeur d’ Lene tomorrow I’ll find something. 

Back to Ida to read and relax. Might even stick my toe in the creek at the beach area. 

June 30 - Riley Creek, Laclede, ID

Driving to our next destination was a scenic drive across the panhandle of Idaho. 

Arrived at our Core of Engineers Campground and set up. There are hiking trails within the park that takes us around the lake. 

Here’s my Arlo. Shan had an experience. Took the dogs and Arlo and went camping. She’s amazing. Love how she is willing to try new experiences, even with all the things Arlo needs. 

We’ll see what else the area has to offer tomorrow. Tonight it’s burgers, salad and bed.