We left early and headed towards the west.  Our destination today is Bellingham, WA, home of my brother Jim and his wife, Pam.  There is no nice direct way to get from Grand Coulee to Bellingham, so we are taking the scenic route through the “Washington Alps”.

The first several miles of our travels the landscape was very similar to what we saw in Eastern Washington yesterday.  One exception were the “haystack rocks” scattered about the landscape. These rocks were carried along with the glaciers as they receded and were dropped randomly across the countryside.

2017-09-24 Washington 01 Haystack Rock

Soon the landscape was taken over by apple trees; it appears to be time for harvest:

2017-09-24 Washington 02 Apples

2017-09-24 Washington 03 Apples

We passed by beautiful Lake Pateros…

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At about 10:00 am we rolled into the western-looking town of Winthrop.  It has old west storefronts, wood plank sidewalks, and lots of trinket shops.  After a stroll up and down the street we decided to have a late breakfast/early lunch at Three Fingered Jacks Saloon and Cafe:

2017-09-24 Washington 07 Winthrop 08

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We had surprisingly good food!

2017-09-24 Washington 07 Winthrop 01

We walked around the town and found this bridge over a nice little river:

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2017-09-24 Washington 05 River

And some beautiful fall colors:

2017-09-24 Washington 07 Winthrop 04

We continued into the “Washington Alps”, beautiful, tall, snow-capped mountains, through the towns of Twisp and Mazama. We went through Washington Pass at 5,453′ and Rainy Pass at 4,862′.  It was all quite scenic!

2017-09-24 Washington 08 Alps 01

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2017-09-24 Washington 08 Alps 10

We soon arrived at an overlook at Diablo Lake:

2017-09-24 Washington 08 Diablo Lake 03

2017-09-24 Washington 08 Diablo Lake 02

2017-09-24 Washington 08 Diablo Lake 01

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We finally came out of the mountains and drove through Rockport, Concrete, and Sedro Woolley, eventually reaching the 5 and arriving at Larrabee State Park.

We maneuvered through the trees and into a nice, long, but very sloping and non-level site.  However, we were able to get set up quickly.

2017-09-24 Washington 10 Larrabee State Park

We then left the Villa and drove to Bellingham, more particularly its southern neighborhood of Fairhaven.

We met up with my brother and his wife.  Happy hours ensued on their deck overlooking  Bellingham Bay, Lummi Island, and beyond to Victoria, BC…

2017-09-24 Washington 10 Bellingham 01

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An enjoyable time was had by all…