When we woke up on our second morning in Tahoe city the golf course behind our motel was covered in a fresh layer of snow on top of the considerable amount that was already there! It then began to snow really hard as soon as we stepped outside for a walk up the road to the "Bagelry" for some breakfast! It was almost a blizzard! In the few minutes it took us to walk the short distance we were looking like two abominable snowmen! We holed up for a couple of hours,...

Today, 29th March we headed South from where we're staying in Tahoe City. We drove along Hwy89, then 50, which take you alongside the lake. Amazing! Such beautiful views whichever way you look! Either side of the road snow was piled high where the snow ploughs had pushed it. In some places it was over 10 feet high! There were some lovely buildings, mostly wooden lodges hiding amongst the trees overlooking the lake. Many of them were obviously empty for the seaso...

On our second morning in Portland we looked out of the windows & it was pouring with rain - again! Undeterred we donned our waterproof jackets & went across the road to buy tickets for the public transit. As we are "honoured citizens" (I think I prefer that to OAP!) we were able to buy two all-day passes for all transport throughout the city for $5! Not bad! We caught the Orange line downtown & headed for Powells, "The biggest book store in the world...

We have now experienced a whole range of temperatures & weather systems! When we got to Olympia we decided to see how near to Mount Rainier we could get, bearing in mind that some roads had been completely closed & others required the use of tyre chains! We set off for Mount Rainier National Park with our Park pass & resolved to take advice from a Ranger before venturing too far, especially as it was quite a cold, wet day. At the entrance the Ranger t...

We really were sleepless in Seattle mainly because I was allergic to the feather pillows on our bed! Our 'complimentary' breakfast was ok but we didn't eat much as we were going to have brunch in the Space Needle restaurant. We walked the short distance from our Travelodge to Seattle Centre & discovered that our Brunch reservation, courtesy of the girls, allowed us entry to the observation deck so we didn't need to book that separately. As our booking wasn'...