Another Trip to Lake Wenatchee and Tumwater Canyon

My sister Anita and her husband Ken were in town today, so we took them up to Lake Wenatchee and through Tumwater Canyon. Here are some pictures from our trip. The river was really high. There were a couple of rapids that were pretty big.

We also stopped at Tumwater Dam. The sign talks about how the dam was used to power a tram that took steam-powered trains through the tunnel. The coal smoke from the engine was doing something to the tunnel or the people in the train. I can't remember what the sign said.

Lake Wenatchee Follow Up

In yesterday's Wenatchee World, there was an article about the State Park Jen and I visited last weekend. In the print version of the paper, there was a graphic that showed the route you have to drive to get back to Wenatchee. Unfortunately, the graphic isn't included in the online version.

Tumwater Canyon and the Wenatchee River in that area are stunningly beautiful, though.

I don't know about you, but I like my picture of Fish Lake a little better than the World's... :) I took mine with the camera on my cell phone, so the color and resolution of their picture is much nicer. But I think I like the way I framed my picture a little more, and I think I caught the lake on a better picture day. Lucky me.

A Tank Trashes a Car

The dog's name is Tank, and after watching him get hit by a car, I can certainly see why, since the car was the one that came off the worse for wear. After the collision, during which there was a loud thump and glinting shards of plastic flew into the air, all Tank did was sidle across the street to his owner and stand next to her waiting to get petted.


Tank, a 150-pound Chocolate Lab apparently lives down the street from me. He's one of those dogs that you pet once and he follows you around. Literally. Like at your heels. So I checked his tags and called his owner. After waiting about 15 minutes, I saw someone I thought might be the owner pull up across the street and so I called out, asking if she was looking for her dog. When she answered, Tank took off toward her. It's amazing how you can judge vectors and speeds in an instant, because as soon as I saw the car, I knew there was going to be trouble. But it was one of those things you couldn't do anything to prevent; you just have to watch and hope for the best.

Well, I guess it was the best that could be hoped for.

Despite smashing the car's turn signal cover or whatever it was, Tank seemed just fine--playful and happy, even. His owner kept calling, "he's okay," but I don't know how much of that was to convince herself that he was okay. I hope she took him to the vet.

Pics from Jim and Liz's Wedding

Had a crazy coincidence occur today. By some totally random act of Google/Web surfing magic too complex to explain, I happened across pictures from the wedding of two of my best friends from high school. Somehow, I found my way into a defunct blog authored by "The Cline," a person I've never met nor have even heard of, and his second-to-last post from 3 years ago is a description of attending their wedding in Barbados. Attached to the blog entry was a bunch of pictures from the wedding. Here are some of my favorites:

I'm sure whatever Jim is saying here is beautiful, but can it really compare with that diamond?

Love this Pic

Jim, Liz, Marc, and Ang

This one's just too pretty

Liz, Marc, and Ang

Liz's little bro, Jeff, who is one of Jen's best friends

Jim and Liz started dating on the same day that Jen and I did--my (and their) senior prom. Jen and I were invited to the wedding, but we had just moved to Wenatchee and were unable to attend, which ranks up there on my all-time regrets list.

A Grump goes House Shopping

Recently, Jen and I have been checking into moving out of our apartment. It's a long story that involves our cats, some shoddy record-keeping, and our new apartment managers. So we've been looking at renting or maybe buying a place here in town, but everything we've seen so far has been pretty discouraging. Our search did take us to a new area, a place we hadn't visited before: Lake Wenatchee State Park. The rental property was about 10 miles from the state park, but it was pretty crummy, and really far from Wenatchee--about 50 miles or so. We didn't realize it would be that far. After visiting the lake, we began to think that maybe the long drive wouldn't be that bad, because of how gorgeous it is up there. Of course, the drive would be particularly nasty come winter--back along a mountain canyon on snowy, two-lane roads--and so we nixed it in the long run.

Yesterday, we decided to look into buying houses. It was really depressing, though. In order to get anything half-way decent (as in over 1,000 sq. ft., 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, in move-in condition, in a decent part of town) we're looking at prices in the $180,000 range. To give you an idea, $100,000 buys you little more than a single-wide. Even houses that were around $175,000 were absolute dumps with serious code violations, needing major remodeling projects or had postage-stamp rooms. We're talking closets turned into second bathrooms. We're talking light switches on ceilings. Floors that physically bow when you walk across them. Basement stairways with steps that are 5 inches wide. Ceilings so low I bump my head on light fixtures, ceiling fans that would slap me in the face. Capital "P" problems.

In all, we learned that you can buy nicer houses in Naperville or Waukegan than you can in Wenatchee for $150,000. Who would've guessed that Wenatchee was one of the highest-priced real estate markets in the nation?

I suppose things will work out eventually, but right now it seems that the light at the end of the tunnel is pretty faint.