Cool,Clear Water

The nights are cool and I'm a fool.
Each star's a pool of water... cool, clear water.
And with the dawn I'll wake and yawn
and carry on
to water... cool, clear water.

     - Marty Robbins

When we first came to look at the mobile home park here in Clearview, the manager, Sharon., told us that they don't drink the tap water. We soon found out why. It smelled like iodine and we were reluctant to use it for much more than showers and washing the dishes. At first we bought gallon jugs of water at the store, then one day one of Larry's co-workers told him about the artesian well. This well, known alternatively as Well No. 5 or the 164th Street Artesian Well (the well) is in excess of 400 feet in depth and is cased to approximately 120 feet.  The well flows at a rate of about 10 gallons per minute.

The source of water at the well is an underground aquifer (water-bearing layer of permeable rock, sand or gravel).  The well taps the Intercity Aquifer at approximately 200 feet.

As a courtesy to residents, Alderwood Water & Wastewater District maintains this flowing artesian well as a community source of water for those who prefer untreated water.

I was a bit skeptical at first, but did some research online and found that the water bacteriological analysis was available to the public, and everything checked out A-OK. 

Larry and Duchess usually go to fetch the water very early on Sunday mornings - they try to get there no later than six a.m - but this past Sunday Larry wasn't feeling well, so he postponed the water-getting until today, and we both went.

I have gone with him occasionally on Sundays, and we typically stop for coffee, but this morning we brought our own from home.

We didn't get on the road until after 7:30. Larry predicted that there would be seven cars in the parking lot and I guessed five. Usually the place is packed, but luckily there were only three cars today. We weren't sure what the people in the cars were doing, since there was no one else in line. One woman was walking her dog, but we didn't care what they were up to, as long as they weren't standing in line in front of us!

 Cool, Clear Water!

  Larry has the routine down pat...

Switching the bottles...

We were out of there in no time with out water that has no taste at all, just as it should be!

Lynden - Another Twig on the Branch

Larry and I took a drive to Lynden today to visit the Pioneer Museum and the Cemetery, where my great-great-grandfather, Nicholas Vance Sheffer is buried. I had been wanting to make the journey there ever since we arrived in Washington, and today just seemed like a good time to do it.

We started off with coffee at High Mark Espresso - a vanilla latte for Larry and a peppermint mocha for me. Larry loves this place, especially since they always have treats for Duchess, but I'm sorry, the peppermint mocha was OK, but it just didn't measure up to Starbucks, which is closer and easier to get into what with the morning traffic being what it is on Hwy 9. To each his own!

Next stop - Angel of the Winds Casino...

 Larry hadn't been back to the casino since it had been our home-away-from-home before settling in here in Clearview. We had really missed those cheap, tasty breakfasts....

 and Duchess had a hankering for a nice piece of bacon!

You never know what flavor of jam will show up for the toast, but Larry got strawberry jam this time - 

his favorite! 

And we couldn't leave without spending a little time with the Piggies. 

 

I finally got a bonus!

They weren't very nice to us, though. I figure if I can leave the casino without hitting the ATM machine for more cash, it's been a good visit!

But all was not lost...gas was really cheap. In fact, with our membership card, it came to $2.96 a gallon. I never thought I'd see it get below $3.00. Will wonders never cease????

The trees with their changing colors were beautiful...

Our destination - the Lynden Museum.  We signed the guest book and as the lady behind the counter went off to locate someone who knew how to do a debit card transaction for the entrance fee, I noticed a basket of free CDs on the counter. Larry said, "Is that Nick on the cover?"

I picked one up, turned it over, and said, "No, but this is!" There he was on the back - I was pretty excited!
(The gentleman in the photo is Chief Yelkanum Seclamatan.)

I had seen the photo before. In fact, I had it stored on my computer...

 I've always liked this one of Nicholas with Ezra Meeker, as well as the one below. When I opened the CD case up later, I discovered that this photo, along with the one of the entire family, was reproduced on the page inside.

Nicholas Vance Sheffer's daughter was married to Robert Emmett Hawley, whose family arrived in Lynden in the early fall of 1872.  Robert and Lydia were married in 1884. 

 

The museum was interesting, although I didn't find any pictures of Nicholas displayed anywhere. There was this scary baby, though!

The museum was laid out as if the visitors were walking through the old town of Lynden.

In case you were wondering, Phoebe Judson, along with her husband, Holden Judson,  founded the city of Lynden,established in 1874, near the site of the Nooksack Indian village Squahalish (Nooksack: Sqwehálich). It was named by Phoebe Judson after the riverside town in Hohenlinden, a poem by Thomas Campbell, stating:

“

On Linden, when the sun was low, All bloodless lay the untrodden snow; And dark as winter was the flow Of Iser rolling rapidly.

”

According to her book, A Pioneer's Search for an Ideal Home, she changed the spelling of "Linden"  to Lynden to be more visually appealing.

The Barber Shop

 

"Let me out!"

 

Looking down from above into the "Methodist Church", complete with a coffin. 

Larry peeked inside, but it was empty! 

This was kind of creepy. I'm not sure if it's a woman sleeping in a "regular" hotel room, or if she's waiting for a customer in a brothel, but in any case, it was quite bizarre. But the door was open, so I just had to go inside...

She was quite welcoming!

Larry relaxing on the balcony.

The sign on this little organ  reads, "This portable organ was used each week for a service at the local jail led by Egbert Maas." Larry wondered if he could be related, even though Egbert had one less "S" in his last name.

There was a large buggy and wagon display in the basement of the museum. This buggy belonged to the Berthusen family - Lida Hawley Berthusen was Robert Emmett Hawley's sister.

I found a photo of Robert Emmett Hawley and his second wife hanging in one of the bedrooms,

 but no Nicholas!

The rain had let up just a bit, so we headed down the road to the cemetery. There was an office with a car in front, so Larry went inside and found a very helpful young woman who found Nicholas in the computerized records. Larry called me in to see the description written about him - basically that he had roamed around from Canada to California before settling in Lynden. So true! As we spoke to the young woman, she told us that her husband is the curator of the museum and is fascinated by the Hawley family. I wish I had known that when we were there - he might have been star-struck by meeting me, an actual shirt-tail member of their family! We headed out to the "A" section and found Nicholas right alongside the road - It's a little hard to read his name, but here he lies!

  I found my great-aunt Lydia just a few feet away...

with Emmett right beside her.

The Hawleys had quite a large marker over the whole clan!

If the day hadn't been so damp, we would have done some more cemetery exploring. We often do that even when we don't know anyone buried there!

 

We stopped at BevMo in Bellingham for some wine and beer, made a quick visit to the Everett Public Library for more books for Larry, and were back home by 3:00.

 Altogether a very pleasant day of  new discoveries of things long past.

Changing Leaves, Zeke's Drive Inn, and Raindrops Falling on Our Heads!

Larry had a photo assignment today in Skykomish. Usually he rides his motorcycle to the location, but since it was raining pretty hard this morning, he decided to drive the car, and I went along for the ride.

These through-the-windshield photos don't usually turn out very well, but I wanted to get the clouds over the mountains and the colors of the changing leaves...

 Nice shot of the crack in my window!

Crossing over the bridge to Skykomish...

  I could live in this little town. They have a library, after all...and a cute one, at that!

SKYKOMISH HOTEL

 Built in 1905 to accommodate the men working on the Great Northern Railroad, with the depot and roundhouse it helped make Skykomish a railroad center for over sixty years.

This is a view of 1905 Skykomish, including the hotel. It would be fun to have enough money to purchase the building and turn it into a restaurant/bookstore/antique shop. 

Heading  back towards home, we passed through this tunnel. I love the trees growing out of the ledge over the entrance.

The light at the end.

 I have told Larry the stories of stopping at Zeke's on our way to the cabin years ago when Matt and Rachel were little. Phil and I and the kids would often ride with Willa and Delmer, and I doubt that there was a trip over the pass that didn't include a stop at Zeke's for deep-fried mushrooms. I'm sure some of the others had burgers, but I always order the mushrooms and munch on them between Gold Bar and Leavenworth. Well, I'm sure they were gone long before we reached Leavenworth, as delicious as they were. I've often wondered if they are still on the menu, so today we stopped to find out. 

They were indeed still on the menu, but it was a little early for a snack, so we drove on to the Big Eddy River Access and stretched our legs a bit.

Duchess enjoyed walking along the river bank, but she didn't want to get her feet wet today.

We walked back up the hill to the car and stopped to admire the gorgeous leaves on the ground.

We even got to see a train go over the bridge!

We headed back down the road and Larry decided that it was not to early for a snack after all, so went back to Zeke's!

I'm not supposed to eat these breaded things, what with my wheat allergy, but I decided that the consequences are worth it. I can pass up a doughnut or piece of pie, but a deep-fried mushroom? No way! I had to have one....okay, I had at least half the basket! I can deal with a little itchiness.

Larry ordering the mushrooms...large, please! 

They came with both ranch and tarter sauce, along with ketchup, which we didn't even open. We began with the tarter sauce...

Larry's first taste of a Zeke's mushroom!

and switched to ranch, which was actually better! Yummy! 

So many things have changed since I moved away from Washington ten years ago. Half the time I don't know where I am when we're driving around, because so many of the old landmarks are gone, and there are so many new buildings that have appeared where trees were before. But it's nice to know that some things, like the mushrooms, haven't changed. They taste exactly the same! I love it!

Duchess even liked them.  She is so used to sharing our fish and chips with us, she most likely thought she was eating a piece of fish. Or maybe she just loves mushrooms like I do!

The receipt... memories.

We'll be coming up with excuses in the future to drive through Gold Bar just so we can stop at Zeke's again!