A Delightful Day

Yesterday was a delightful day, we had a visit from Barry and Patti Daniel, who were down from Oak Harbor to celebrate Barry's birthday. Barry and Patti are members of our C-Dory boating community and Barry had graciously offered to build a motorwell table for us, so he came by to take some measurements.

After Barry had taken the measurements, we went to lunch at our brewpub. I am founder and Da Prez of Snoqualmie Falls Brewing Company in hysteric downtown Snoqualmie, WA. After a great lunch and a tour of the brewing operation, we set out on tour of Snoqualmie Valley, as Barry and Patti had never been more than a few miles east of I-5 except on the I-90 freeway. I was born and raised in Snoqualmie Valley, and really enjoy showing off its natural beauty.

We went first to Snoqualmie Point Park, which is the jewel of the Mountains to Sound Greenway project. In my day job, I had a significant role in making Snoqualmie Point Park a reality, and working with Jim Ellis was one of the highlights of my career.

After Snoqualmie Point Park, we headed for the Cedar River Education Center, at Cedar Falls. This is a wonderful facility, with a water drum garden outside and lots of information inside. The Chester Morse Reservoir at Cedar Falls provides about 2/3s of Seattle's water supply. The most interesting part to us was how Rattlesnake Lake came to be - it was "accidentally man-made"! It seems the soils below the masonry dam creating the Chester Morse Reservoir are very gravelly and wouldn't hold water. The water from the reservoir worked its way down thorugh the soils to the nearby depression where the former town of Moncton was located, slowly innundating the town. There is a great photographic record of the town going underwater, people sitting on the roofs of their homes. It took many years to settle all the claims!

Finally, although Barry and Patti had gone to the Snoqualmie Falls observation platform before coming to our house, I thought they would find a trip to Plant 2 interesting. Well, not actually the power plant, because you can't tour it. But there is a wooden boardwalk that goes along the Snoqualmie River to the base of the falls - around the last turn, you are treated to an absolutely stunning view of the falls up from the base.

Back at our house, we wished Barry a happy birthday with a little card that read "Let's all get older...you go first!" and sent them on their way to their hotel in Issaquah and we trust a fun birthday dinner out.

What a great way to spend a Saturday in Snoqualmie Valley!