Tracey Week was a blast! We did a lot in six short days and took lots of pictures.So guess what?! You get to tag along vicariously right now!
Tracey arrived on Wednesday afternoon. Since we hadn’t met before in real life (she has read most of my books, but I knew very little about her), I asked her to fill me in on her life and times and we pulled out all my DeForest Kelley archives so she could go through them and see what I had that she didn’t (she’s a De fan and collector, too). That little adventure took her hours and hours to get through for the next several days betwixt and between our other scheduled and non-scheduled adventures.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8
On Thursday, we drove to Northwest Trek to take our pre-scheduled Wild Drive Tour. But since Tracey had inadvertently bought two Wild Drive Tours (when we only needed one, since we’d be in the same vehicle), she stopped at the entrance to inquire if there was ANY chance we could swap them out for the Keeper Jeep Adventure Tour instead of the Wild Drive, and — this was a miracle, in my opinion — there was still plenty of room on the Keeper Jeep Adventure, which was leaving in just 20 minutes. (We arrived an hour early, so we lucked into that, timing-wise. We just had time enough to use the restroom before the 90-plus minute outing. There was just one other couple on the jeep (the jeep holds nine paying passengers!) So we had this humungous vehicle pretty much all to ourselves.
The Keeper Adventure is definitely the way to go if you want to get up close and personal with the wildlife in the park. It can go off-road when the critters are in a field or near a lake. We were able to see all six species of ungulates in the park : bison, moose, elk, caribou, mountain goats and bighorn sheep, many of them quite close up.
River otters
Photo by Tracey
Our tour guide Sunny in driver’s seat
Off-road encounter with female bison (aka buffalo)
Happy Tracey
Sunny showing us ungulate manna/feed while waiting for
tour bus to get by us…
Bull elk in mud wallow
Black tail deer
Sunny educating us on elk antlers (which shed annually)
Tracey (and me, next image) with same elk antler
Tracey off-road with bison in background in front of Horseshoe Lake
Me in same location…
One of Tracey’s favorite pix of me
(or it wouldn’t be here — LOL!)
My sunhat messed up my hair!
View from the paved road in the park (before we went off-road to see the bison closer)
Close up of black tail deer hunkered down beside road
(my smartphone doesn’t take great photos CU)
Same deer as in CU above next to road behind log
Callie or Luna (yearling hand-raised, bottle-fed moose)
Another black tail deer
Bull bison VERY up close and personal!
Caribou stretching after getting up…
My best shot of a mountain goat taken with my smartphone camera on zoom
Resting badger
River otters tussling
Sunny and me after tour
Grizzly bear photos by Tracey
Caribou in park area
Bald eagle eating
Friday
Friday was a scheduled “free day” to do whatever we decided to do. We visited with my two goats and enjoyed sitting in my back yard, met up with Jim and Heidi Smith at a Starbuck’s to enjoy a rousing and lengthy two-hour visit, and played Mexican Train with Jackie that evening. And of course Tracey went through more Kelley archives photographing or reading stuff.
Saturday
Saturday Tracey and I drove to downtown Tacoma to take in the Free/No-Cost Entry IN THE SPIRIT FESTIVAL (an annual event I highly recommend!) taking place at the Washington State History Museum and adjacent Art and Glass Museums. We saw native dancers and singers in their traditional regalia. I was in tears some of the time as I heard stories of some of the Native trials and travails that inspired some of the songs they sang. We also visited the Tacoma Art Museum and the Glass Museum. All three museums are free to enter and enjoy during this IN THE SPIRIT event.
At the glass museum, we sat and watched some glass pieces being made in the glass firing auditorium. I guess we were there a good 45 minutes before we decided to take off again and look over the vendor tables that lined all three museum lots.
Rona Yellow Robe and accompanist
(google her! harrowing life story)
I bought two of her CD’s afterward and she personalized them to me.
They’re wonderful!
Chief Elder and story/song explainer
Outside the Tacoma Art Museum
Tracey in wagon pulled by Ezra Meeker’s actual oxen (taxidermed, of course!)
My newest Critter Corral residents, bought in the WA State Museum store
Hoary Marmot, Striped Skunk. Crow finger puppet
SUNDAY
Sunday was our second and last designated “free day” and the weather moderated a LOT, so we rode bikes from Orting to South Prairie and back that day, played Mexican Train again with Jackie, and looked at more De archives.
Taking a meal/drink break at South Prairie roadside coffee shop
MONDAY
On Monday at O dark Thirty (actual time 5:15 a.m.) we picked up Lisa at her apartment and I drove us all to the Hoh Rainforest and to Ruby Beach. I discovered that my low-beam headlight on the driver side was kaput, so I had to use high beams all the way until daybreak. I also recognized that my cataracts are a lot worse/larger than they were last time my eyes were checked, because seeing in the dark, or seeing my dashboard when looking from lighted skies to dashboard was difficult, so I have scheduled an eye appointment and will be getting cataract surgery very soon!
It took about four hours to get to Hoh from Tacoma. We arrived about 9:15 but there was a two-hour wait to get in to the parking lot, so we waited patiently as we crept forward every few minutes for our chance to park. See the fun “waiting pictures” at the end of the pretty ones below.
See the howling wolf in this log image?
We had to wait two hours to get into the parking lot at Hoh Rainforest
We spent the time waiting “patiently,”as you can see! LOL!
But the experience was well worth the wait!
RUBY BEACH
After Hoh, I drove us to Ruby Beach.The tide table said the ocean was at low tide, but that wasn’t the case….
TUESDAY
Tuesday was Flight Home day, so Tracey packed her bags (what was left to pack) and we drove to Sea-Tac Airport. Got there an hour early so we sat in the cellphone lot and visited some more until it was time to drop her off at the curb.
We are both sad that we didn’t connect in LA while I lived there for 15 years. We lived less than five miles from each other. We’re two peas in a pod and had a wonderful time.
It won’t be the last one, I’m sure. For starters, we have plans to recommend DeForest Kelley’s induction into the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma. If that happens, we will fly there to be in attendance during the induction.
All in all, we made great use of every waking moment!
