Sunday, July 14, 2014 (Seattle, WA)

So even though we would have a shorter travel day of only 168 miles, we were on the road by 9:00 a.m.  We had two major passes we would have to travel over today and we wanted to get up and over them before the day got too warm.  Our truck has plenty of power to get up and over the passes, the engine just gets warm, so we have to keep an eye on the tempature and the speed we are traveling. 

The first pass was called Vantage Hill and the first part of the descent was just 2 miles of 5% grade down to the Columbia River which was beautiful.  I was thinking this wasn't so bad, but then we started the climb up - 11 miles of 4-5% grade.  We just take it slow and steady and up we go and eventually we reach the top.  Whew - first pass done.

Vantage Hill - Columbia River

Soon we were passing through Ellensburg, this is familiar scenery because when we were living in Bend and went to visit the kids in Maple Valley/Marysville/Camano Island we always went up 97 to Ellensburg and then over Snoqualmie Pass.  Snoqualmie Pass was the next pass we traveled over and it was around 9 miles of between 6% grade down to 2-3%.  Again, slow and steady and up and over we went.  Whew, that was good to get those over with. 

We had reservations at Lake Sawyer in Black Diamond, WA which is near Maple Valley where Jeff and Sabrina live.  We got to the RV park and got set up.  We have no pictures of our site at Black Diamond because it wasn't picture worthy.  To date, this was probably the least desirable park we've stayed in, the plus for us was that it was close to Maple Valley.  So after getting set up, we called Jeff and headed for the hospital in Seattle to see Jessie.

Unfortunately, I-405 was closed for construction work and we had to take I-5 along with all the other travelers on this Sunday afternoon.  Yep, we are in the big city - just a couple of days ago, we were in the small towns of Montana - I think we are in for a bit of a culture shock.

I-5 - Seattle area



We got to the Children's Hospital in Seattle and found a parking spot for the dually and found our way to the check in desk.  At this hospital, visitors have to get a guest visitor badge with their picture and date and who they are visiting.  As we were getting our badges, who came walking by but our little grand daughter Elsie.  She was out taking a walk with her aunt because they were getting Jessie out of bed to sit in a chair in the sunshine for a few minutes.  Elsie gave us the grand tour of the hospital (at first we thought she was taking us to see Jessie first and were thinking, we'll never be able to find our way to her room again without a guide- it was a very big hospital).  After our tour, Elsie took us to the family waiting room, where Jessie's other grand parents (Kevin & Claudia) were waiting.  So we got an update on Jessie and all the goings on since the call Friday evening.  Wow, we knew she was a sick little girl, but I guess we didn't realize how sick she really was but she is improving bit by bit.  Today was the first time they were getting her out of bed since she arrived.  It was still hard for her to talk much because she was still on oxygen.  Wow it is hard to see your beautiful little grand daughter with all those tubes connected to her body and to see her little body in that hospital bed and feeling so badly.  We got to sit with Jessie for a little bit while her mom and dad took a quick break for a bite to eat. 

Claudia is staying over one more day before she heads home, so she will stay at the kids house with Elsie on Monday, so we won't be needed until Tuesday.  That works well for us because we need to figure out what to do with the 5er.  So after 8:00 p.m. we headed back home to the 5er.

Now we had been on the road since 9:00 a.m. and expected that by 8:00 p.m. the traffic would be thinning out - wrong......because of the closure of I-405, it was even more crowded than when we came into Seattle this afternoon.  It was stop and go for miles and miles - you can't really tell from the picture the scope of all the cars on the road.....where are all these people going at this time of night? 

We finally did make it back to the 5er that night, after a grueling battle through the traffic and having to take a detour because our exit off I-5 was also closed for construction that evening.  Boy, we are glad we don't have to deal with this kind of traffic much, it's exhausting.  I will leave you with a parting shot of Mt. Rainer which was pretty spectacular with the setting sun reflecting off the snow.