Last day as a Tourist

Cant believe that over 40 days have gone by and we are close to being on our way home -- Seattle Airport tomorrow and catch a plane back to London.

However we are not one's for sitting around so we worked out that in our two days in Yakima , Washington State , we would endeavour to find out a bit about the area, and with that in mind we went for a drive over to another valley to the town called Ellensberg, as we heard that they had a vintage cars rally there today.

 

Firstly of course , we had to get there and it was over the hills above 2,500 feet with some amazing clouds and the views looking in to Ellensburg and into the distance was also pretty awesome.

 Then down into the city and the "Historic" part of town

 Love the "Craftsmans" style house -- see me on the porch -- but not a rocker yet ---

 No rodeos on this weekend, which is a shame but they did have these pretty looking vintage cars on show so spent some good time looking around------

Love the old art deco style -- this was the cinema but should be a Ruby's Diner---

Below is the Ellensburg version of an RV -- wonder if it will catch on

 

 One thing we were surprised at was the lack of people but maybe they come out to play later, very tidy though---

Next stop was to the site of -- Indian painted rocks, just outside Yakimu---- I must be honest and tell you that because of vandalism and damage done by stupid barsteward morons , the public are not allowed to get close to these so some are from telescopic camera and most are from the internet.

 

Such as shame as people who have seen the blogs from years back know that we love to see Petroglyphs -- it tells so much about the indigenous people and the things that were important enough for them to capture in pictures.

 

 

 The images are all the way along the bottom of the rockface in the image below

There has been no dating done -- it is definitely 100's of years but could be thousands and these cliffs turn out to be on and Indian Trail from the Mountains down to the Ahtanum river, and as this valley was submerged years ago they believe that these pictures were painted on from a canoe by the Indians.

 

Final bit of our nosing around today was to the Yakima Museum---

 

So Lynda and I have always loved museums-- Victoria & Albert, the Athens Museum so it was always going to be interesting to see how a place with history from around 1855 recorded and documented -- this was the year of the treaty with the Indian Nations - and of course in a place where until a few hundred years before , the Yakima Valley was flooded -- underwater and it was not until the land management started to produce lakes and irrigation that it subsided.

 

BTW -- The Americans abused the treaty for their gain at the expence of the indigenous natives-- sounds bluddy familiar.

 

Freemasons here in Yakima and built a very large Masonic Hall in the town centre -- all the select rich folk from town meeting to sort themselves out

 

2 ways to travel -- just that you can remember bits of the journey in one and not in the other

 

 Brilliant to be reminded of the women -- yes it was mostly women operating these switch boards with leads all over the place

 Apparently a formidable lady was Priscilla Lee who went to USA when she was 10 in the late 1800's

And no this is not Lyndas Luggage, but close .

Before they went to the Reservation

 And the Chiefs wife

 

Oh and then there was the little pleasure of an ice-cream soda in this place next to the museum , which is a museum piece itself , so had to be done

 

So that's it -- another road trip comes to an end -- I think this one has been just as amazing as most of the rest of them --- 6 weeks --- 5,500 miles - 18 different beds -- 10 States -- 2 cars ( well we only had one other for 2 hours so it doesn't count -- 1 ranch -- 2 friends houses - 1 family - and finally 9 places revisited.

 

Finished the day off with a shrimp and spaghetti dinner and in a place we are cool with called the Olive Tree.

 

 

So tomorrow we leave this place  and this great hotel The Oxford Inn , Yakima --

 

And head off down to Seattle International Airport for the long flight to Heathrow.

 

Oh and I managed to prove to myself yet again why I love my wife so much -- you are absolutely amazing Lynda.

 

As the wonderful Yanks would say --- what an awesome trip.

Happy Trails