Chelan Adventures: Day 1

Trish has a time share and decided to take her vacation mid May.  Last year they went to the ocean this year they chose Lake Chelan.  I thought it would be fun to go visit and to get away from the area for a few days.  Trish was excited.  We had to work around our schedules.  I spent most of my day cleaning out my car.  I took all the stuff I didn't need out and put it into bins.  I vacuumed, which I haven't done since I got the Escape in September, and wiped down all the flat surfaces and inside all the crevasses.  I washed clothes, cleaned the house, took a shower and packed up all the stuff I might need, I got gas and made it to the store for a few things.  I made Ben a lunchbox dinner and around 7 that night I headed out towards the fire station in Rochester to pick him up.

He got there around 8 and he had nothing packed.  I was upset, but mostly jokingly.  I really wanted to leave as soon as we could because it was going to take at least 4 hours to get there.  We would be arriving after midnight as it was.  He spent some time throwing stuff into his bag, he changed out of his work clothes, made sure he had his computer, camera and the stuff he kept out in his car.  I helped him pack it up and we left around 8:30.

I drove while I gave him a chance to eat his dinner and relax a bit.  We listened to music and talked about a bunch of things while we put I-5 behind us.  It got a little slow around the Tacoma S-curves near the Tacoma Dome.  We had hassle free traffic through Fife and all the way to our turn onto Hwy 18.  We flew down Hwy 18 and got onto I-90.  It was already dark so there really wasn't that much to look at.

There were a lot of semi trucks up and down I-90 and it started raining as we started up the pass.  We didn't realize we could have taken the 970, which would link us to US 97 instead of driving clear into the west side of Ellensburg.   We stopped at Indian John Hill Rest area to use the bathroom and to get out and walk around.  It had finally stopped raining.  I am glad we missed our short cut so we could stop for a while.  We followed I-90 to the US 97 exit.

As we climbed Blewett Pass, we busted out the Doritos as Ben worked on his human resource report and I battled the rain.  Yes, it rained the entire length of Blewett Pass.  It stopped when we got into Wenatchee.  We followed the road north towards Chelan.  I drove right through a roundabout...mostly because no one was around at midnight and it was flat enough you really didn't need to drive around it.  Ben laughed his face off.  He pointed up towards the hill to Ohme Gardens and told me that's where Josh's wedding was going to be in June.  We drove pass Entiat, a small town along US 97 known as the Gateway to Recreation, with its location so close to the Columbia River and the mountains to the west.

Twenty minutes later we arrived in Chelan with the lake welcoming us as we drove down the hill.  Ben guided me to The Lake House near downtown Chelan.  We really didn't know where to park so we parked inside the parking garage under the building.  We grabbed one of the carts to put our stuff on and wheeled on to the elevator and onto the 3rd floor.

We had finally arrived around 1:15 and Trish was barely up and Amy was on the computer.  I know they struggled to stay awake for us to get there.  We talked for a bit and unloaded our cart into the room we would be staying in.  We all got ready for bed and finally passed out.

Next Adventure:  Chelan Adventures:  Day 2