Last month, most of the Cascadian Nomads spent some time thousands of miles from Cascadia. While vacationing, we took a break from blogging but we still wanted to share our awesome adventures with you.

Typist: Bethany
We started our visit to the American side of Niagara Falls where we had left off the night before, at the rapids, of course. It had been so rainy, the Niagara River was very swollen and some rapids were larger than our house. I could have sat and watched the rapids all day, but the dogs wanted to keep moving (Okay, I'll admit that I did too. The mist was just over the bridge!)

We walked along the rapids to the Western most bridge across the river to Goat Island. Unfortunately, there was restoration being done to the bridge so there wasn't much of a view of the rapids or the American Falls. We were also not able to go onto Luna Island. The newly restored paths to and on Luna Island, between the Bridal Veil and American Falls, opened a few days after we visited. What I did love was the relatively cool and breezy, partly cloudy day we had and all the dogs! Niagara Falls is a New York State Park and is leashed dog friendly. I do hope at some point New York State Parks install waste bag dispensers at a few places in the park since it seemed many visitors were, sadly, not prepared for clean up. There was a lot of waste around. I hate to see things like that spoil a wonderful, dog friendly place. And Niagara Falls State Park is definitely one of the country's most iconic, dog friendly offerings.

We headed back across Goat Island to the State Park mainland. Jason I took turns visiting one of the few "No Dogs" parts of the park, the Observation Deck. (We only went up because it was free; the view wasn't that exciting.) Jason said while he waited for me, about 75 people stopped to take pictures of the dogs (and I wasn't gone that long!) While I waited for him, I also had a lot of people ask questions about the dogs and take pictures. I especially enjoyed talking with a woman who's 14-year-old collie had recently passed away. I could tell petting Huxley made her very happy.

A lot of the people I spoke with on both days of our Niagara visits, were happy to see and pet our dogs because they had left their dogs at home. Why? This trip was so pet friendly! I am so glad I got to share a visit to this gorgeous part of the world with Wilhelm, Brychwyn and Huxley. Hopefully seeing 'R' Blood on the Tracks Boys enjoying a vacation and learning about how pet friendly a visit to Niagara Falls can be, next time, people who left their dogs behind will bring their them along (and waste bags too.)

Last month, most of the Cascadian Nomads spent some time thousands of miles from Cascadia. While vacationing, we took a break from blogging but we still wanted to share our awesome adventures with you.

Typist: Bethany
Niagara Falls has has charmed me since I was a little kid. I still get butterflies in my stomach as soon as I can see the cloud of mist from the car. As an adult, I have grown to love the entire Niagara region and all of the wonderful adventures it has to offer. So, of course, Jason and I wanted to be in some of these beautiful places and share some fun adventures around Niagara with our three dogs. We started with a trip to Niagara-On-The-Lake. This historic town is located in Ontario, Canada, where the Niagara River empties into Lake Ontario. I was a bit nervous traveling into Canada for the first time with the dogs so far from home. I had their signed rabies certificates and only an unopened package of dog treats (which the customs officer laughed about and said "oh, we don't care about that. Most people's dog food comes from Canada.") In all of my preparations to make sure all went smoothly with taking the dogs back and forth across the border, I forgot about my own items and I had to surrender my key chain pepper spray. 

The drive along the Niagara River gorge to Niagara-On-The-Lake is picturesque. And as we drove, the clouds, which had dampened the majority of our stay so far in Western New York, broke up and more and more sun shone through. When we arrived at Lake Ontario, it was clear enough to see Toronto across the lake and the water was littered in sail boats. Perfect!

We thoroughly enjoyed our pet friendly afternoon in Niagara-On-The-Lake but the day was fading and we had a hike planned through the Niagara Glen Nature Reserve. This Niagara region stop was quite a shift from the crowded main streets of Niagara-On-The-Lake. We saw five other people our entire hike!

To get into the gorge, where the hiking trails are, we had to descend a tall stacked set of open metal stairs. Jason carried Wilhelm and I coaxed Brychwyn and Huxley down with treats (mostly Brychwyn.) They were very good and extremely brave (I was a bit frightened of the stairs too.) After the first two landings, I thought we might not make it, but after some extra treats and a few breaths, we continued down and we were all very glad we did. While quite humid for us Cascadians, the winding trails of the Niagara Glen took us along the roaring Niagara River, through lush green forest and humongous scattered boulders. It was truly a feast for human eyes and canine noses.

By the time we got to Niagara Falls themselves, the dogs were very tired and it was almost dark. Jason and I spent a few moments enjoying the lights on the falls before heading back to the U.S. I love the lights on the rapids on the American side of the falls, so we made a quick stop there too before heading back to my aunt's house for a good nights sleep.

Thanks for joining us! Part 2 of our Niagara Falls adventure will be posted tomorrow.

Typist: Bethany
Ah, the joys of camping! At 5:30AM, I woke to the sound of rain drops and scrambled out of the tent to put the dog beds and toys back in the van. By 7AM the sun was out and it was too hot to be in the tent one minute longer. Then at around 8:30AM there were dark clouds rolling in again and I had to pick up the pace in order to get the tent down and the van packed before the rain came back. The campground was almost empty by 10AM and although I also hurried to take camp down I also relished being welcomed back to Washington by this typical bipolar weather.

I have never stayed at the Maryhill State Park campground before and I had mixed feelings about it. I reserved our spot because it had a view of the Columbia River but in retrospect I think I should have looked for a spot with shade and a bit more privacy. The campground is basically a field with scattered trees and lined with campsites. The parks department has put small fence sections in at some sites to improve privacy but our site was still the least private we had our entire journey. What the campground loses in privacy, though, it makes up for in friendliness. Everyone, the staff and fellow campers, were very sociable and the campground was full of people camping with their pets. If there was anyone there without a dog, they had at least one cat in their RV and we even met a traveling Meyers parrot (which made us miss Leo very much!)

We had a very short drive ahead today, the shortest of our entire cross-country trip. We probably could have pushed on and gone home instead of spending the night on the Columbia River but I wanted a celebratory welcome back to our home state (which we got with the moon rise over the river) and a leisurely last leg home. Unfortunately, rain and heavy weekend traffic our entire route made our journey quite a bit less leisurely than desired. Fortunately, the first mountain I ever loved, Mount Saint Helen's, welcomed us home from below the clouds as we left Maryhill State Park and the all rest of the scenery on our drive was epically Cascadian- soggy and foggy in all shades of gray, green, red and brown. Just gorgeous!

A little West of Ellensburg, Washington is a small town called Thorp and we followed the signs from I-90 to their historic grist mill. This was the last pleasant surprise on our cross-country journey. I tend to be the kind of person who greatly appreciates natural wonders when I travel but since 'R' Blood on the Tracks Boys and I have explored many historic places on our trip, I have discovered a new fondness for historic points of interest. In particular, the Thorp Grist Mill was a lovely, pet-friendly stroll through an important little piece of Washington State history.

After spending over three hours to cross Snoqualmie Pass, we were all ready to be done traveling. Still, I could not resist just one more stop to celebrate our return. (No one can resist Seattle's world famous skyline!) The dogs enjoyed a little rainy stroll around our familiar neighborhood park but were a bit in shock when they were set loose in their very own yard. I think they forgot we lived here! I let them sniff around the yard a bit but I could hardly wait to get them all inside for a bath. We had 15 states and almost 7,000 miles worth of yuck to wash off. Needless to say we all slept well and, despite the baths, and we were all glad to be HOME.