Today was a make do breakfast in the room. We had some porridge sachets and attempted to heat them with milk in a barely functioning microwave. Surprisingly it kind of worked. Trying to boil water in the same microwave for a cup of tea was less successful as we were getting a burning smell so the water was only just hot enough.
It didn’t help that by now Karen was definitely not happy with the room or the hotel. It will not go down as one of my best bookings. The whole place needs a considerable investment put into it to bring it up to today’s standards.
Anyhow at 9am we were all in the car and heading to Snoqualmie Falls. It was about 20 minutes’ drive away just outside of North Bend and pleasingly had a free car park and free admission.
Karen was already for another hike today with her knee strapping on and using the hiking pole. It turned out though that the falls were just about 20 yards from the car park with a lovely path for the very short walk.
The falls were impressive as such but we couldn’t see the whole vista properly from the top viewing point. A tad disappointed we had a hot drink from the nice café part of Salish Lodge and decided to drive to the viewing point for the lower falls which was a couple of miles away.
We were walking from the car park to the lower viewing point when I received a message from Kevin with news about Karen’s Mum. She seemed to have taken a turn for the worse over the last 24 hours and the attending paramedics were now suggesting she may be at a stage where only palliative care should be given. They were waiting for a GP to visit to get their opinion.
Understandably Karen was very upset at the news. I tried to comfort her whilst also trying to get some more information and let the boys know. With the Alaskan cruise starting tomorrow it made a decision of whether we should immediately return home even more desperate than it would have been.
Whilst trying to process all the information we finished the short walk to the lower falls which did look more special from this position. We then headed back to the car to enable Karen to speak to Kevin at home, whilst T&G went down another trail to the water’s edge.
The Care Home it seemed were still waiting for the on call GP to visit which could take place anytime overnight and until then we would not know anything further. Kevin was planning to be back in the Care Home at 10am UK time on Saturday to get an update and would inform us. On that basis we decided to postpone any decision about the cruise and carry on with the rest of the day for now as best we could.
We decided to drive 10 miles on to the Hiking trail at Twin Falls. The 0.9 mile walk to the falls did justified Karen’s knee strapping and the walking pole. Whilst not as bad as yesterday it involved some steep climbs up rocky paths. It was a beautiful walk through the trees with the dappled shade along the bubbling clear river. The vantage point to the Twin Falls was decent but still a good distance from the actual falls themselves.
At that point Karen & I decided to turn back to try and protect her knee and ankle and so we could make it along the path in our own time. T&G carried out to see how much closer they could get to the falls (as it turned out not much further before they turned around). We took our time and got back safely but very warm with the heat from the afternoon sun.
We were all gasping for a drink and headed to a very close by Starbucks for a drink. I tried to catch up with all the deadline day football transfers. Whilst having her coffee, Karen declared she was all waterfalled out for the time being.
After this we decided to drive to the North Bend Outlets for some retail therapy. We introduced T&G to the delights of a Columbia outlet where a few items were purchased. The sun was now very hot as we walked around the outside of the outlets.
Then we thought we would head towards the Target store to get some milk etc for tomorrows Hotel Room breakfast along with some other snacks.
For our evening meal we headed back into North Bend to an old-fashioned American café called Twede’s. Now I had never heard of it but we went there at the insistence of Barry. Apparently, this featured heavily in ‘Twin Peaks’ a series none of us had watched. It seemed their Cherry Pie had a significant role in the storyline and that was more than a good enough excuse for Karen to want to sample one.
The inside of the ordinary looking café could not have looked more vintage American if it tried. We sat in a booth and were served by a Giant of a man who had an interesting comical line whilst waiting upon us. I had a Burger served with bottomless chips. It was very acceptable. Karen had a smaller ‘Seniors’ meal to leave room for the Cherry Pie which she deemed to have made the effort of coming here very worthwhile. Barry had asked us t0 look at any available merchandise for sale but it was very disappointingly spartan.
Then it was time to head back to our room almost 11 hours after we had left it.
We started our packing to either go on the cruise or come home. Karen had suggested we should try and get to sleep as early as possible as she was planning to call Kevin around 3am our time to get some update on her Mum. However, as she busied herself in the room, she was getting herself more upset again with the whole situation.
I suggested instead that as it was now 6am UK time that we try and call the Care Home direct to try and get an update. The news now was much more positive. The GP had seen her and prescribed anti biotics. She was now stable, had stopped vomiting and her temperature was down. The relief was enormous and so we felt we were able to get some much needed sleep for now.
