Salish Lodge by Kathy Northcutt

Our teenage puppy, Yogi, was the last to hop aboard as we departed for our first visit to the Salish Lodge.  Hues of watermelon, pomegranate, Chianti, orange marmalade and papaya poured down tree tips and did so with more gusto as we increased elevation. 

Cody met us at the threshold of the Salish Lodge.  He loaded our baggage cart with aplomb.  We settled in and headed out to see the falls. On the way out we met two   staff members were headed for our room with treats for Yogi in hand.  :  )   Thank-you, Lucita!

Yogi knows the command, “Go to your mat”, and he likes having a space of his own.

I photographed him in front of the fire on his newly claimed mat, and he was the picture of bliss.  He deeply enjoyed exploring the courtyard outside.  There were more scents to be absorbed than a human could imagine in the sweet space out back.

Two wonderful managers at the desk helped me with a spontaneous question.

Would it be possible to upload photos to a local drugstore and get them printed while we’re here?   A sweet young lady who likes dogs got on the phone to Bartell’s while the gentleman at the front desk and I chatted.  Yogi, I shared, looked so comfy on his Salish Lodge blanket, lounging by the fire that I had to take a picture of it.  It sounded like a fun memory to share with the lodge.

Two of the quotes really touched me.  I printed extra copies of these to send them as postcards. One was an excerpt from a poem by Thomas Hardy entitled “Under The Waterfall”  (1914):

The other was a quote from a distant relative,  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. :

The spray from the falls was more lively and far reaching than I’d remembered, but it was summer when we first came here with Stephen’s parents. This was the first time I’d seen how spectacular the colors of fall are up here, and the party’s just getting started. I wonder when it peaks.  It was soon after our arrival that I took a photo of Stephen and Yogi in bright sunlight.  I wondered why Stephen wasn’t smiling until I developed the photo:  Stephen and Yogi were getting drenched by the spray from the falls.

Here was my first glimpse of the Snoqualmie Falls in fall colors:

We explored Snoqualamie’s old town, took a photo of the giant tree trunk by the train station, and ate outdoors in the sunshine at the Mexican place, Rio Bravo, with Yogi at our feet.  The proprietor takes great pride in his food, and it was delicious. 

After another round of photographing the falls, we settled in for the night around a roaring fire, compliments of the Salish Lodge.  They use real firewood!  We hadn’t enjoyed a wood fire in a fireplace since our days in Fredericksburg.

Stephen sampled the Salish Lodge’s breakfast offering with a sumptuous meal and said it was quite the feast.

We headed out to Issaquah for our next adventure, and had a delicious lunch, outdoors, in the sunshine, at Finn.  Stephen had the Halibut cheeks and I had wild caught mountain trout.  Yogi had a taste of trout skin over rice when we were all finished.

Our waiter also works in the kitchen, so he was extremely knowledgeable and helpful when it came to navigating the menu, and safely steered me to the gluten free options, including offering to modify menu items to make the selection gluten free.  He also understood big dogs; Yogi met a new friend.

Old Towne Issaquah was a delightful blend of modern and quaint.  The Chopin school of Music, a beautifully preserved Shell gas station with pumps from a bygone era, lovely parks, music, art, curio shops, all in one downtown strip that we took in while walking.  We took photos along the way to share with our neighbor, Mandy, who grew up there.

There are words inscribed on the steps to and from Snoqualmie Falls, one word per step at the bottom of each set of stairs.  They read:

Rolling, plunging, pouring, roaring, streaming, meandering, cascading, rumbling, tumbling, sparkling, rushing, gushing, whirling, swirling, twirling, breathtaking, from top to bottom.

Stephen took my camera bag while I ventured back into the country store, where I picked up  Snoqualmie Strange: A Most Peculiar Hiking Guide: Volume I : Mist Gate, by Jim St. James, "warden and protector of the Snoqualmie Territory.  The Country Store has great greeting cards with vintage photos for a reasonable price, 2.99.  My favorite was a quote from Reba McEntire:  “ To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone.” The store manager put the charge on our room bill; she was most helpful.  

Back at the lodge we had another quiet evening by the fire.  We’d planned on going to dinner together, but Yogi wasn’t having it.  One parent gone for a bit?  That alone elicited a harrumph from him, but both of us gone?  We said “Wait”, then left and listened in the hallway. We tried that twice and gave up.  In the end, we ordered room service.  Stephen ordered a spicy Italian pizza from the Attic's wood fired hearth oven, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the Taylor Shellfish Kusshi oysters.  

What a glorious vacation this has been with sparkling Autumn weather!