Dry Side and Cloud Cover

PONY PILGRIMAGE: Saturday, we were on the road at 8 a.m., destination Wenatchee. Why would we drive 2.5 plus hours to see a movie? Because our kids are Pony CrAzY and the new My Little Ponies' movie "Equestria Girls" had a ridiculously limited release, and that was our closest/best option.

Our morning started off fine, but about 20 minutes east of Issaquah it took a terrible turn for the worse. A portable sign along the freeway let us know that I-90, our route to Wenatchee, was closed due to frickin' ROCK BLASTING. Really?! Thank you, WSDOT, for letting us know that when we got ON I-90 in Seattle (she says sarcastically). EGAD.

Pony panic set in immediately. What to do, what to do? We checked a map on our Nook and decided to head up to Highway 2 at Snoqualmie. It would add an hour to our trip, but at least they (hopefully) weren't blowing the freeway up further north.

So we got to see waaaay more countryside than we cared to, and the stress meter was spiked, but the bottom line was we made it to Wenatchee in plenty of time. Phew.

Frankly, being forced to go up to 2 meant for a prettier drive. ... While the Leavenworth area still had lots of evergreens, the hills started getting steeper and craggier (is that a word?).

Soon, green started giving way to yellow and brown. And rocks. :)

 
Of course, once inside the theater, our world was awash in pony colors. I'm happy to report the movie wasn't awful. The kids LOVED it, as did the theater full of bronies. We spoke with a number of them, including a family behind us. They were a man and woman my age and their 17-ish year old son, from Woodinville, WA, who made a weekend out of traveling to see the movie. "It's the first vacation we've had in years," the dad, in a Derpy t-shirt, shared with me.

There was a large group of 20-somethings, men, women, white, black and tan, also in attendance. They, too, had made the trek from Seattle. Bronies are hardcore, man. That's how we roll. ;)

CJ and Annabelle were in fully pony regalia. Bee wore her Pinkie Pie costume from Halloween, and CJ had on his Brony outfit (Rainbow Dash shirt, socks and MLP hat). Before they got out of the car at the theater, I warned them, "You're not in Seattle any more." In the Emerald City, you can dress like that and either a) not get a second glance or b) have admiring folks want to know where they can get your outfit. The other movie goers and the theater workers loved the kids get ups, though. Photos were taken and no doubt they're all over Facebook by now.

After the movie, we went to Confluence Park, which is where the Wenatchee and Columbia Rivers converge. It's what's pictured atop this post, and here are the kids dipping their hooves into the waters. It was c-c-c-old, per their report.

We came home via I-90. That afforded us a nice view of the Pinnacles.

However, in the windy mountains, the kids were begging for a rest stop. There were none to be found. However, after awhile, we saw a sign for a state campground named Swauk and figured there'd be at least an outhouse there. And there was. ...

However, the joy was short lived. Oh, how I wish I had a photo of the kids' faces as they emerged from said outhouse. Priceless! To add to the ambiance, the place was surrounded by biting ants (Christian got some blood sucked), and roaring highway noise. I had to laugh when I read the campground's description on its Web site as "A beautiful campground nestled in a grove of large Ponderosa Pine and western Larch trees."

I'll give them their trees, but perhaps the Web site noting the campground's usage is "light" is a giveaway. It's really primarily a rest stop without flush toilets. Enuf said.

SUPER MOON: Saturday, after the movie and a quick linner (combo of lunch and dinner), we didn't dally on the east side because we wanted to make sure we were back to Seattle in time for the "Super Moon," or the moon reaching its perigree - the closest it gets to Earth during the course of its orbit.

This year's Super Moon  is up to 13.5 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than a typical full moon. During perigree in the early morning hours of June 23, the moon was about 221,824 miles away. That's 30,757 miles closer than when it's at its furthest distance from Earth (its apogee). No wonder the moon looks so big this weekend!

Around 8 p.m., we headed up to the hilltop park in our 'hood. There were a number of photographers already there, their big-lensed cameras on tripods, ready to shoot.

Unfortunately, right where the moon would be rising at 8:24, there was a big-and-growing bank of clouds. Bummer.

But we waited for a 'good' 45 minutes, hoping they'd break up. Meanwhile, we enjoyed Seattle's picturesque nature.

The Mariners were playing and I could actually see the images moving around on the big screen inside Safeco Field! In the photo below, you can barely see the screen - a whiteish box below the gray roofline, just to the left of the orange crane.

This is about the clearest shot we got of the moon Saturday night. Oh well. There's always next year's perigree.

Here's a photo of the Super Moon in another Washington - D.C., that is. Looks like they had some cloud cover, too.

                                                  Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls