My trip to Washington.

In August of 2005, I had an urge to go to Washington. I had been hearing about Dean Schwartzmiller on America’s Most Wanted. I was thinking about the twins, mostly, and I wanted to see them again.

It was only by co-incidence that my ex-wife’s fortieth High School Re-union had taken place, the weekend before I arrived.

I have many memories from Washington, and I wanted to contact as many old friends as possible.

I loaded up my dog, Scooper, and we took off for Washington. It is a long drive, and I stopped at my cousin, Wayne Matthews’, to rest, and spend the night. I did take some photographs while I was there. I will show them later.

My favorite place to clear my head and think, is Camano Island, where I have spent several vacations, and fished many times. I always go there, first.

First stop, Camano Island.

Scooper having dinner at Hub’s.

The organ, and a pair of speakers.

Hub’s back yard. We had a nice barbecue, and Squeak came and joined us.

A couple of keyboards and an amplifier. When Hub played this for me, it brought back a lot of memories.

Brent Schwartzmiller, AKA Squeek, was an awesome saxophone player. He now suffers from Epstein-Barr syndrome, and says he has difficulty playing his horns. He lives with his son, Jay.

The front yard.

The twins. Brad and Brent. I felt some tension between them. Never did figure out what that was.

My little man, Todd. One month old.

Todds grandmother came to visit us at Almar Apts. When Todd was born.

Sittin’ on the couch at Almar Apts.

My little man growing up.

My first real job. Stacking lumber for the dry kiln.

Dave Cash’s parents owned Almar Apartments, and lived here.

Almar Apartments. My friend Dave Cash’s parents owned this, and I lived here when Todd was born.

The turnoff into Everett. I made this drive at a hundred miles an hour, when my kids were born.

Bickford Motors. They repossessed my blue ’68 Mustang when I was in Iran.

Barry Bartholomew’s girlfriend.

Jeff Gilpin and his music studio.

Snohomish High

The “Spudnut”, hangout for the high school kids.

Tim Stobb, big brother to Debbie, Dick’s new girlfriend.

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Looking down at the bridge that crosses the Snohomish River. Across the river is the airport where I learned how to fly.

The red car is westbound on highway two. The truck is going up the hill the high school is on. Downhill is First Street.

Tom wrote this on a cigarette carton so I could get in touch with Dick Foss.

Tom Baker

Baker’s Mini-mart. I stopped by to see Tom. While I was talking to him, Ted Ream had just filled his tank, and was leaving town. He had been in town for his father’s funeral. Talk about coincidences!

The leftovers from Pam’ fortieth reunion. I never the folks in the middle, before.

Dick Foss and new wife Jan.

Dick Christopherson, and Debbie Stobb, a classmate.

Tom Baker, owner of the Quick Stop.

The streets of Snohomish

The “TRIANGLE Store”

First Street Snohomish, right on the river. The river is behind me, and to the left.

First Street, Snohomish.

This is a composite of the first farm you see, coming off of Westwick Road, onto Highway 2, into Snohomish. It looks exactly the same as it did forty years ago.

Chinese people own this store now. They didn’t understand enough English for me to explain why I came back to this store.

I think that this was Charlie Walster’s place. He gave me 500 pounds of National Geographic, which I carried around for over forty years. I finally got rid of them in 2011.

Storm Lake turnoff from Spada Road.

The driveway

The back of the house. That is a pond, just the other side of the well pumphouse.

North end Spada Road.

The barn, and the closest neighbor. A small creek runs between the two places. I have taken spawning salmon from that creek.

Looking through the trees at the house. A silver maple used to stand here. It was cut down in the early sixties, and I took a piece to woodshop at school, and made a large wooden bowl, which I still have, today. I also made this game board/drawer in wood shop.

Looking across what used to be five acres of raspberries. This ranch was 15 acres. There was an upper field of ten acres, which was turned into pasture.

Bob Vannoy’s Nursery. Pam babysat for these people in the 50s and 60s.

Near Pam’s old house

The horse ranch, next to Pam’s old house.

Pam’s house was back in here, somewhere. It’s changed so much, and my memory has faded.

French Creek Grange Hall

Power substation at Three Lakes Hill Road.

Three Lakes Hill Road

The cannery. I worked here several years.

City of Ballard, the birthplace of Pam.

Leaving Ballard, and entering Seattle

Space Needle

Parking lot next to Space Needle.

Seattle on the water. You can see the Seattle Superdome roof, just to the right of that S.U.V.

Leaving Seattle.

The driveway to Wayne’s house. To the left is the shop. Ahead is the barn full of “TOYS”.

Cousin Wayne and his “TOYS”

This was to remind me that all of these photos were taken on a disposable camera.

Tools to work on the “TOYS”

Nice “TOYS”

The Shop

Looking back out the shop door.

Looking back at Wayne’s toys from the shop.

Wayne with granddaughter

Wayne in Yuma, 1956

Looking down on a fogbank covering the coast on 101 in Oregon.

Underneath the fogbank.

The Redwood Forest

Welcome to the Redwoods

The Redwood Forest.

A turnout on Highway 101. When I get a little farther south, I’ll turn west, and head for Shelter Cove. There were properties there that I was interested in.

Runway and taxiway at Shelter Cove Airport.

Shelter Cove Airport

Light House at Shelter Cove Airport.

Clear Lake

A view of Clear Lake through the trees at the turnout.

Clear Lake

A beautiful sunset, just coming out of the foothills east of Clear Lake.

END