Seattle to Winthrop Part 2
Consider what kind of entrance you want to make in the town of Winthrop, Washington.
While the building code guarantees that all the structures are within the theme of Wild West-theme town, unfortunately you are not likely to see any cowboy cosplayers. But if you happen to wear bright red lipstick with Thelma and Louise vibes, your vintage cowboy boots, and blast one of the many remixes of “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “Old Town Road” with the windows down as you turn onto the main street, I promise it will be a good time.
My travel companions had to do a little work when we arrived and set up shop at one of the cafes in town. The river was calling to me so I walked across this footbridge on my way to find the Homestream Park.
While I walked, I took this artsy shot of the walking bridge in Winthrop:
The riverside park has a family-friendly interpretation center with a little observation area to spot local osprey families. Did not spot any, but I was impressed by the set up.
On my way back to the Main Street, I caught the tail end of a parade of cars celebrating the 2024 senior graduating class. I joined the neighbors on the roadside to cheer on the next generation. I commented on how big the parade was. A blonde woman defensively replied, “Well, Winthrop is a big town.” She thinks I am a city person, I tell myself. She thinks I am looking down on them and shocked by their significance. Not prepared to engage in urban/rural diplomacy just then, I smiled back and said, “That’s what it looks like!”
I considered stopping in at the library on my way back, but instead I just looked at the de-iced ice rink for a long time and pictured how charming it must be in the winter time.
We stayed at the Abbeycreek Inn which is convenient located next to the big grocery store. The best part of the accommodation is not the room (fine, but basic) nor the pool (a little TOO family-friendly), but the area by the river where you could fish and relax. Or, as two Canadian bikers did, pitch a tent for the night.
I really love the Methow Valley and it is a perfect place to go and just play around. I know some love it for the winter sports, but I know nothing of that. Although perhaps I am about to add skating in the Winthrop Ice Rink to my bucket list. Speaking of buckets, let me end the recounting of my little adventure on this provocatively labeled bucket:
Me and my river-sitting buddy Leroy hope you get to drink in late summer nights in good company. Take good care!
Seattle to Winthrop
I like to tell anyone who will listen that hamburgers are not the national food of the USA, but on a recent trip to Seattle, I couldn’t turn down a Dick’s burger. So, okay. They are a kind of national pride, but I contend it’s these small chain, but still fast food, burgers that are the ones you want if you are looking for the Authentic American Burger Experience TM.
After many years of living in Washington State and bearing witness to the confusion created by the state having the same name as the U.S. capital, Washington, D.C., I want to emphasize for those not familiar that I was close to Canada in the north by the Pacific Ocean, not the national capital near the Atlantic Coast.
As I am accustomed, I spent some nice time in the city of Seattle, but found joy and adventure on a drive into the wilder reaches to the east of the Cascade Mountains. This time, my trusty travel buddy Madeline, her husband Adam, and giant doggie Leroy, and I all set out to travel one of the most beautiful drives in the world, Highway 20 through the North Cascades.
The first time that Madeline and I drove this road, we were actually driving to Canada for the Fourth of July. Everything was booked up on the US side of the border because we hadn’t planned ahead so we figured we would head across the border. At the border the office asked, “So, are you coming for the Fourth of July?”
Me, disappointed, “ Oh, you celebrate it too?”
Canadian officer, more disappointed, “No, we don’t.”
The night before that unfortunate exchange, we camped overnight near Falls Creek in the Methow Valley on our way to the border and that campsite was our loose destination for this trip.
If you ever do the HWY 20 drive through the North Cascades, you must stop on the HWY 20 drive overlook and parking lot. It is after you enter the national park, but before you get to Diablo Lake. There is also a small walking trail and some pit toilets for the sturdy of constitution. Appreciate what you get. You are stopping for the view, not the amenities.
I have personally never camped in the North Cascade National Park, only on the eastern side of the mountains in the summer months. I am just cold avoidant, ya know?
On the eastern side of the North Cascades, you are going to find three towns, all very cool in their own right. Mazama, Winthrop, and Twisp constitute the towns of the Methow Valley where the river runs through. Each has a flavor, but the communities are very connected too.
Winthrop probably has the most distinct flavor for tourism appeal, as in it is a campy Western-theme town. That is where we were staying at a hotel. The ultimate glamorous camping is simply day camping, right?
The river was running clear and true despite some damaging wildfires in recent years. There were warnings to take care for flash floods and erosion in the river. Lucky for us, we happened upon a perfect sunny weekend with a fast, but steady river.
More in Part 2.
River Rambles in Colombia
When I am old and tired, I will look back on moments like these with the most joy and wonder.
One thing I have loved about living close to Cancún? The whole world flies to Cancún which means, Cancún flies to the whole world! (Sí, estoy disponible para tu próxima campaña de publicidad, Secretaria de Turismo de Quintana Roo.)
One such place is Colombia and while the flights to Bogotá and Medellin were comparable, we chose to fly to Medellin and take buses from there.
I asked my friend Kate from Wild World Women, who spent a month visiting Colombia with her wife Sarah, for recommendations in the area around Medellin. And I actually completely intended to follow her guidance until the story below happened. She recommended the Guatape area which did indeed look and sound beautiful. Next visit!
My agenda was purely this: I wanted to spend more time outside the city than inside the city and I wanted to drink coffee where they grow coffee.
Coffee plant after a downpour
After two days in Medellin of riding on cable cars and watching the hustle and bustle, we headed to the bus station to get ourselves to a smaller town.
On the hilly walk to take the metro to the bus terminal, my fiancé accidentally bumped a Colombiana as he managed his backpack and my suitcase. His apology turned into a conversation about where we could meet our criteria for a sleepy town in the coffee region where we could relax for a few days. She was a professor at one of the local universities and very generously recommended three towns between 2 and 4 hours away by bus.
Like anyone who does traveling like it is an adventure video game, we accepted this quest and caught a bus to Jardín, Antioquia.
And it was incredible. All the towns were so lovely. You could have coffee in the square by day and then by night sip aguardiente and watch the big shots in town riding their fancy prancing horses. The best big shots of all were these incredibly hot women in Jardín, the adult daughters of the horse owners, who would stop briefly at the front of the bar without dismounting their horses while the bartender brought them a shot. Ultimate baddies.
But the highlight was finding that my fiancé and I have the exact same idea of a perfect afternoon: playing around in a river (preferably with a town dog that has decided to adopt you for the day).
We had actually originally set off to find the Taparto waterfall, but I am glad we decided that was going to be too hard and instead enjoyed an easy day of getting rained on and then sun-dried in the Andes Mountains.
I have more pictures and stories from being in Colombia almost two weeks in May. I am going to try to organize and share here. You know how if you don’t do it soon after it almost never happens? Yeah, me too.
But the river rambling was the highlight and I loved the pictures we took that day so just putting this here.
Valladolid to Isla Arena
Come with me to ultimately not find what I was looking for in Isla Arena.
You know how I am all like, “I am done with social media! Forever!”? Well, you could argue that YouTube is, in fact, a very time-intensive social media platform to post content on. But I will give up the long-form video essay when I give up my library card (NEVER!)
The reason Youtube has won favor with me is twofold: 1) They let me turn the option to see “Shorts” (those pesky time stealing short videos) show up in my news feed off and 2) they generally have a better pay structure for content creators than other platforms. Not that I am monetized, but it is way more fair.
Anyway, I posted this little video awhile back and since I am consolidating things here on this blog, I wanted to post a link.