Randy and Robin's Roving Retirement

Planet 13 is the largest marijuana dispensary in the world. Pretty crazy place. To get in, you must provide all types of personal information, including drivers license, address and other personal info. All this before you walk in the door, even if you don’t plan on buying anything.

In Washington State, the majority of the cannabis industry is cash only. In Vegas, they take debit cards. The workaround is that they process the transaction as an ATM withdrawal. For example a $16 purchase is processed as a $20 cash withdrawal and then they would give you $4 cash back. Fascinating place to visit even if you don’t want to make a purchase. They even have a sit down restaurant with non cannabis fare.

October has been a great month for outdoor activities with the perfect weather to enjoy it. We went to several of the areas multiple times, as they were free or very low cost.

Red Rock Canyon National Preservation Area

You can either pay $15 for a day pass or get the annual America the Beautiful National Park Pass to enter the area. The scenic 13 mile drive has many pull off areas to hike and explore. The best areas seem to be during the first half of the one way drive. The hikes vary in length and difficulty with some being quite strenuous which we avoided with ease. There was a group on scooters from Red Rock Scooter Tours which would be a fun way to go through the park.

Boulder City

This is a lovely peaceful town with some decent restaurants and tourist activities. The town was started to house the workers building the Hoover Dam. The dam and its tours were closed so we just explored Boulder City.

Springs Preserve

The Springs Preserve is a delightful 180 acre outdoor area that you can enter for $5 and even comes with a free train ride. Amazingly, it is the center of Vegas, yet remains untouched. You can also access the museums, but they were closed for us.

7 Magic Mountains

Roadside art attraction south of Vegas on I-15. Not much there, but fun to walk around and great photo op.

Clark County Wetlands

Another great find on the east side of Vegas, almost Henderson. A free entry to a very delightful wetlands. Great walking trails, ponds, viewing areas, even a small theater with educational short films.

Henderson bird Viewing Preserve

Another free activity that we discovered just before we left Vegas. There are 9 ponds together that you can walk around.

That is it for now. A few more Vegas posts, then we will catch up on California.

The strip has been awesome. Monday thru Wednesday it is very quiet. It picks up for the weekend, especially Columbus Day weekend. We love the empty Las Vegas strip for morning walks. We self park at a casino and walk 1-2 miles one way, alternating outside in the sun and then inside thru the empty air conditioned casinos. Then turn around and go back. We can get 10,000 steps before lunch this way, sometimes getting 20,000 + by the end of the day.

We love the area just north of New York New York, known as the Park. It is an open air, peaceful retreat with water walls and tables to sit and relax or eat. We needed a break from our retirement, so we cashed in some MyVegas points to get 2 free nights at the Park MGM and stay on the strip. We did have to pay the resort fees, but still a great deal and allowed us more access to the strip and the Bellagio fountains in the evening.

Fremont Area

So much to describe here in Vegas, we have decided to post by category vs. chronology. Today’s post is about our new home base, the Mark 1.

We are staying in an Airbnb on the 12th floor of the Mark 1 Apartments. Our view is amazing and we can actually watch the sunrise from bed. We have a small gym and a very chilly outdoor pool. It has been in the 80’s and 90’s most of the month, so we use the pool area as our personal space to read and play cards as very few residents use it.

Sunrise from living room window

Our building is secure with locked entry doors as well as underground gated parking. It is an older building yet fairly well maintained. We are a little over a mile from the Wynn Hotel and the Vegas strip. Neighborhood is a bit sketchy, so we enjoy driving to local walking areas.

1st stop Roseburg, Oregon

Full day drive from Lynden, WA to Roseburg, OR. Stopped at the Vancouver, WA waterfront so Robin could have her favorite French onion soup for lunch at Wildfin. Our river house in Roseburg is quite isolated and peaceful. Extremely well equipped with a Keurig, rainfall shower, and USB plugins on the bed. Spent 2 nights there. Next door has a few llamas and pigs.

The funniest experience was when we spotted some wild turkeys on our morning walk. There were 6 of them and 3 had fallen behind and got stuck behind a fence. All they had to do was walk 2 feet to the right to rejoin their pals, but they couldn’t figure it out. So I walked closer and spooked them over where they went running like crazy wild turkeys on Wild Turkey. Merge the pics below to get the idea.

Spent 2 nights in Sunnyvale with Robin’s cousin, Don. Long drive from Roseburg. Don made us a great breakfast on Sunday morning. We took him out for dinner to the Duke of Edinburgh. We really enjoyed Don, his 2 cats, Leo and Miller and relaxing on his patio. We had an enjoyable walk to the Sunnyvale Community Center. We saw a Turkey vulture on a lamppost along the way.

Next stop, Vegas baby!

Initially we would have been in Portugal starting in September, but Covid 19 restricted us to the US for now and we don’t expect to get overseas until January or even April 2021. This has been beneficial as we get our travel procedures honed and find what works for us. We have primarily been staying in Airbnb’s and found that 28 days or longer gives us a 5-65% discount as well as only a single cleaning fee. Although we may stay in a city for longer than 28 days, we only commit to the initial 28 until we spend 7-10 days to acclimate and determine if the location is right for us and if so, we can extend our stay.

We choose stays with a kitchen, so we can eat most meals at home. One simple home meal favorite consists of Ceasar salads with tuna or chicken. We love chili and find deli chili and beans with an added can of spiced beans goes a long way. Broccoli either steamed or roasted is one of our favorites. Robin loves making protein shakes many mornings and sliced melon, muffins and cereal are frequent choices. Randy will whip up scrambled eggs with mushrooms and cheese sometimes even for dinner. Generally we eat 2 meals a day. We loved Fred Meyer stores in Washington and found that being a Kroger store there are many affiliates in other states with the added plus of getting fuel discounts. Safeway/Albertsons also are very reasonable and well equipped for our needs. We have some inexpensive fast food favorites, Taco Bell, Subway and enjoy trying the local haunts such as In N Out Burger, Carl’s Jr and Cafe Rio. We love Dollar Tree to stock up on small items to make our stay more comfortable as well as pick up snacks. You never know what will be supplied at your next stay, aluminum foil, saran wrap, muffin tin, bath mat, so the dollar store comes in handy and we can always leave items for the next guest. Super Supplements (Vitamin Shoppe) has stores all over to pick up our nutritional supplements. AAA, AARP, Groupon and senior disounts have all been helpful for admissions to museums and meals.

Since we still have a car for our US travel, we bring along a few extras that we would not bring on a flight. Robin prefers bringing our own towels and washcloths as most stays provide very few and the quality is uncertain. Many stays have a washer/dryer included, but we have had to frequent several laundromats with great success. The commercial machines are fast, high tech, high capacity and take debit cards. We usually sit there and play Uno while getting our laundry done in under an hour. Some locations have a transfer service where you put clothes in the washer and they will put in the dryer and remove when done and send you a text message. Our wardrobes and belongings have been greatly reduced as we find it best to travel light and we can always pick up additional clothing or items. For example, our current bed is almost 40″ off the ground. Five foot tall Robin was challenged to get into bed. Using Facebook Marketplace, we bought a small stepstool for $5 and life is good. Each move, we discard a few more items to better prepare for the future day when a backpack and carryon will be all we take.

To get online purchases, Amazon has boxes everywhere. We share a UPS box with Katy and she can send what little snail mail we get to our local UPS store. We have our own Amazon Prime account for streaming TV shows and movies, yet most stays have access to Netflix. Amazon also provides Prime reading and the local King county library provides access to plenty of E-books. Pluto TV provides free TV and movies. For news we use the NewsOn app to get news from different regions including Seattle. The local channel news apps actually work better if available.

We have enjoyed our extra time here in the states and it has helped immensely with regard to our future travel endeavors.

We look forward to hearing from you and hope we see you in one of our future destinations.

Thanks to our great friend, Elaine Essensa, for the use of her condo on the Homestead Golf Course in Lynden, Washington. This has been the perfect spot for us for the month of September. We have a beautiful view, visiting duck buddies, a jetted tub, electric grille, extremely comfortable king bed and peaceful solitude.

Lynden is a quaint Dutch town, 5 miles from the Canadian border, which has been closed our entire visit. It is a short 1 mile walk into town, mostly on a trail. On the way into town, there is a cute Hobbit House and a park.

Bellewood farms was a few miles down the road. Homemade pies, jams, apple turnovers and incredible fritter bites. We road the train, a tractor with carts behind to take you to the apple orchards.

The Pioneer Museum was quite huge and very interesting to attend. Displays of storefronts as well as antique carriages.

Rikka and Joseph came to visit. Robin made a delicious lunch, teriyaki meatballs, BBQ chicken wings, and Caesar salad. We all played Five Crowns card game and then drove to Fairhaven for ice cream.

We walked the Sehome Arboretum by Western Washington University. Beautiful area to walk. A strange woman kept appearing from paths in different directions. We think she was an apparition.

Lots of fun activities, Appel Farms known for cheese (and goats), Boxx Berry farm, Twin Sisters Creamery. Marionberry Habonero jam, bleu cheese and other delightful cheeses. Hovander Homestead Park in Ferndale is scenic and has bunnies and geese.

Along with most of the western US, we had hazy skies and poor air quality mid month. Fortunately, our air quality did not get above 200 and only lasted about a week.

Whatcom Falls is a beautiful waterfall, better than several we saw last month. Great walking trails. Larry came to visit us one day and walked the trails and neighboring cemetery. Then we went to Boomers for burgers. Robin and I loved their mushroom swiss burger and waffle fries.

We had the opportunity to visit with Brad’s mother Joyce both prior and after his passing. She is a very strong woman of faith. Also, met up with Rob, Brad’s cousin. Brad was our friend for 20+ years and dealt with many tragedies and challenges for the last 10 years.

Katy came to visit twice. Both times we went to Fairhaven to shop and then to The Loft on the Bellingham waterfront. The best chicken avocado melt with bacon on sourdough ever.

Overall, the Lynden area was a very pleasant place, full of beautiful day trips, temperate warm days, slow pace of life and a delightful homestead.

Next, off to Vegas!

Yes, Portland has been awesome. I know the news about riots every night and violent protests have been concerning, but we have been in a peaceful enclave and have not had any issues. Most of the demonstrations and riots have been in the Downtown corridor, while we are in SE Portland. The riots seem to happen after 10pm and we are usually home by 9. So for us it has been a wonderful adventure with excellent weather, a walkable neighborhood, beautiful parks and connecting with old friends.

Here’s what we have been up to. We explored the beautiful Oregon Zoo which was a fun adventure and with all the new exhibits under construction will be amazing by Fall 2021. We went to Oregon Museum of Science and Industry to see the Body Worlds exhibit. Unfortunately, the rest of the museum was closed.

We are on a mission to find the best ribs in Portland. So far, we have savored Podnah’s Pit BBQ, Holy Trinity BBQ , Bark City BBQ and Matt’s BBQ. We give first prize to Holy Trinity. One day we drove the Columbia River Gorge so I could show Robin my old rock climbing spots, Rooster Rock and Beacon Rock.

We spent another day driving to Seaside and Cannon Beach, Oregon to walk the beaches. Another day we drove to Moulton Falls, Washington. Gorgeous scenery everywhere here. Beautiful parks around this city. Laurelhurst Park is our local walking park filled with old trees and eclectic visitors from aerial acrobats, to juggling classes, tai chi groups, tree climbers, bocce ball gamers etc. Mount Tabor Park and Summerlake City Park are also scenic.

We connected with some old friends of mine from the South Pacific trip at Lewis and Clark College. Kathy hosted and Lisa, Gini, Wendy joined Robin and I for a pot luck on Kathy’s patio. A few days later we had lunch with Dick Hartung another South Pacific participant.

We are getting along amazingly well as new retirees, suddenly together 24/7 and in 300 sq feet of living space in a new city. Yes, life is really good. We miss our daughters and hopefully they will come visit in the next leg, Lynden, WA, 5 miles from the Canadian border.

Portland Art Museum is a full day experience

We spent one day we called Bike and Bites. We rented a deuce coupe bike for an hour and rode the waterfront trail. Tried to take the Steel Bridge to the other side, but it was up. Fun ride though. We then stopped at our favorite, Portland Sports Bar and Grille for steak bites, garlic fries and a hefeweizen. Scrumptious!!

We finally made it to Pittock Mansion. We had walked the grounds previously, but this time we went inside. Self guided historical tour was educational and entertaining.

Goodbye to Portland. Next stop, Lynden, WA.

Drove to Portland August 1st. Our initial Airbnb canceled on us, so we found a new place in SE Portland. Our tiny place is about 300 square feet, but after a few days we have adapted. Very walkable neighborhood. We use the neighboring Latin restaurant picnic tables for breakfast and relaxation. Washington Park is amazing. Walked the Hoyt Arboretum and the International Rose Test Garden. The Vietnam Memorial and Holocaust Memorial are quite moving.

Portland has been a blast. Although we read about protests, we have not experienced any issues. Lots of homeless issues, similar to Seattle. Many enjoyable walking opportunities abound from Washington Park to the waterfront to various parks. And as always, we stay safe and wash our hands!

Major plumbing issues at our Bothell Airbnb had us put up in the Holiday Inn Express for the night. Next day we were refunded for the rest of July and told to find a new place as major work was needed. Fortunately, Katy was able to put us up for 3 nights until our next place was available. We said farewell to our duck friends and junco baby. Katy made us an incredible salmon dinner one night. We took her out to Poquitos for Mexican food another night. We walked the Sammamish River Trail and went to the Woodland Park Zoo again and made the best of it. We had our dream reservation for an 8th floor condo on the Portland waterfront. Then we got the cancelation from our Portland Airbnb that he had water damage from the unit above. Happily all is good now. We have moved into a beautiful penthouse in Ballard just off 15th Ave NW. We have a deck and a sun room! We also have new reservations in Portland for August and in Vegas for October. For concerned friends and family, we do a good job of distancing when out and about. The majority of our excursions are outdoor walks. Being retired now we can avoid the crowds and do things midweek. When we go out to eat, we try to eat outside or go eat at 4pm when the restaurants are empty. And we are getting a collection of stylish masks.

We just love our new place in Ballard. Only here 9 days, but the penthouse is a dream. The only issue is the 4 flights of stairs 😜