There’s too much irony in the soil…

A dwarf euonymus bush in fall. Courtesy of All Things Plants.

So, that is, in fact, a dwarf euonymus bush in fall.  228th Street in Sammamish is, or maybe was, lined with these (I say “was” because we never go down that road any longer, so things may have changed), and back when the city redid our rock wall, I asked Chris if we could put some in, because I love that blaze of red.  It’s very intense.  (Most of the year, when it has leaves (spring to fall), they’re a deep evergreen color.)  Well, Chris is always amenable to garden changes, so we put some in.

Here is a picture of one of our dwarf euonymus bushes in fall.  Oh, well.

Panorama from the Room

Taken by Chris with his phone and stitched by me.

On the first day we arrived. All the photos from after this were too blurry (from snow) to stitch correctly.

Redemption!

Wow, this morning started off so dully but after my blog post it really picked up.  We went to the swim center – which actually has 2 big, curly water slides (the kind in a tube) – and there were so few people there that the Young Master got to go on the water slide 40 times!  Yes, forty!  Chris and I floated around in the regular pool, chatting about this and that, and watching an increasingly-exhausted Alex first run, then walk, then plod up the steps to the top of the water slides.  He had a ball, and I’m hoping it tired him out to get a good night’s sleep.  Then the three of us went outside into the hot tub – while it was snowing! – and splashed around by ourselves for a while.  After that, some appetizers at the same restaurant as yesterday (no wine, no entrees), and now we’re bunked down for the night.  Snow has continued to fall, and the Snoqualmie Pass is closed:  we seriously hope it’ll be plowed and open by the time we leave tomorrow.  But we have put Suncadia back on the “possible short vacations” list, if only for the near-unlimited water slide enjoyment that Alex got.

The Suncadia Report

So we’ll start off with a little history.  We decided that 2014 was going to be another “explore local areas on short vacations” years.  In January we sat around and looked at a map, and picked out quite a few drivable places.  The first place we went to – Harrison Hot Springs in Canada – was a memorable vacation for a lot of bad reasons (in a nutshell:  “things to do” closed because we went in the off season).

The second one was our trip to Bend over Valentine’s Day.  This was a mistake trip, made because we were discussing a couple of places (Brasada Ranch, Suncadia Resort, and Skamania resort) and I accidentally booked Brasada, in Bend (which was the furthest of the 3 options) for a 2-day weekend!  This was pretty successful, except that (a) Brasada itself is quite a ways from any of the civilization in that area, and (b), it was a 6+-hour drive one way!  Not so good for a 2-day trip, and tempers were hot when we got back.

So, remaining on the list, Skamania and Suncadia.  We decided on Skamania for the ‘big vacation’ (1 week) and it was so enjoyable that we’ve got the Columbia River gorge on our short list of retirement places.

That left Suncadia.  We weren’t really planning any more vacations this year, but when Ant and Clare had to back out of their Thanksgiving trip, we chose to book 2 nights at Suncadia, which is the closest one of all these places to home (78 miles).  Unfortunately, being the idiot that I am, booked it for the nights of the 20th and 21st of November instead of the 27th and 28th. So, here we are, a week before Thanksgiving.

On the positive side of things:  the lodge is beautiful and the hotel room (a suite) is stunning.  We all agree that we could probably live in a home this size (though it wouldn’t really be our first choice, of course).  We have a view of some river (small, like the Schuylkill) and mountains opposite.  The other positive thing is that it’s snowing, although that cuts down on the visibility of the nice view.

Otherwise?  A big fat MEH in most cases, and active disgruntlement in the rest.  This resort appeared to be right off I-90, and it was, but we had to meander all around the local small towns to find the entrance (our in-dash nav didn’t even know how to get us there).  Finally we found the entrance, and it was about a 3-mile drive through bare, wooded areas, just to get from the entrance gates to the lodge!  Why?  Very meandering, could have been nice, but by now we were feeling put-upon and cranky.  Seriously, as the crow flies, this lodge is about 1 mile from 90, but driving, we had to drive ten or more miles of meandering just to get here.

The one hotel restaurant is insanely expensive.  Well, we ordered steak and wine and appetizers and dessert, so that’s partially our fault, but still.  These places really ought to offer a lower-key place with a lower price tag.  Tumbling out of the Jeep after this crazy drive, we just wanted to grab a bite to eat, but nobody wanted to get back in the car and meander back to the town to find a place!

Ah, yes.  The town.  The resort is actually situated between 2 towns, Cle Elum and Roslyn.  Both of these towns have that ‘derelict PA mining town’ feel to them.  Cle Elum’s main drag is about a mile long, and Roslyn’s about 2 blocks.  Roslyn is all restaurants/pubs, a general store, a gift shop, post office, and hardware store.  Cle Elum has a couple more things (including a Safeway and McDonald’s, hah), but that’s about it.  We did find the Cle Elum railroad museum, but it’s an outdoor walking loop, and since it is 32 degrees out, nobody wanted to hike it.  So we came back to the hotel and will be swimming this afternoon.  I hope the pool is good.

We should have done more research before coming here.  There’s really nothing in the area to do in the off season.  During the summer, guests can kayak, ride horses, whitewater raft, zip line…all that stuff we did at Skamania…but in November, nada.  I guess that’s good.  If we’d been horseback riding when this snow started…hah!

So, here we are, another failed experiment, but at least we know it’s not worth repeating.  If you were loaded and just wanted a luxurious hotel room, then this would do, but otherwise…nope.