Independence Day

On the third, DH and I traded in his car for a Jeep Rubicon.  We've been wanting  to get one for a while.  We had one before, but traded it in because we couldn't justify having a third vehicle.  It was a toss up between a truck or jeep.  We have an RV and no vehicle to tow with it, so if we go anywhere, we have to drive an extra car or rent a car.  Such a hassle!!  This Jeep will be his commuter, tow vehicle, and off-roader.  So much more than what he can do with his Audi.  On top of that, it costs less.  We went to Chrysler Jeep Dodge in Bellevue.  Leo and Larry were our sales guys, Terry was our sales manager guy, and Ahme was our finance guy.  They all had excellent customer service and gave us a pleasant purchasing experience, even though we kept them there until 11:00 at night. :)  Sorry guys!!

Anyway, July 3rd was DH's 12 year anniversary at his company and July 8th will be our 16th wedding anniversary.  So we kind of looked at it as our Happy Anniversary Anniversary gift. :)

We wanted to take our "gift" out for a drive on the 4th, so we decided to check out Salmon La Sac Campground.  To get there from Seattle, you would go east on the I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass to Cle Elum and exit # 80.  I thought it was a full hook-up type of campground for our RV and wanted to check it out. It takes 2 hours or less.  "With a car, it's a drive; With a Jeep, it's an adventure."

Getting there was a beautiful drive, especially after we exit off the freeway.  Plus, we had a nice sunny day, even better.  DH just had to take the top off the Jeep.  We stopped in the town of Roslyn for lunch.  This is where the tv show "Northern Exposure" was filmed.  Have you seen that one?  It's supposed to be set in Alaska.  We didn't do any sight seeing in this town, but we stopped and had lunch at the diner that was supposed to be part of the show.  "Roslyn Cafe"  It's a small little cafe, looked nice, clean, their food was good, but a bit over priced.

I ordered the BLT ($8.50).  It was fine as BLT's go, you can't really make it wrong.

DD ordered Fish n Chips ($10)  She really liked hers and it came with 2 fish, extra crispy fries, and coleslaw.

DS ordered a burger with bacon and cheese ($11).  It came on a ciabatta bread, which was kind of different, but still tasted pretty good. I prefer a hamburger bun because the ciabatta is a bit chewy.

DH ordered a bowl of chili ($7)  It was way smaller than the bowl size from Hitching Post for the same price.  But it was one of the best chili's we've had.  He absolutely loved it!

All our dishes besides the chili came with extra crispy fries.  You could choose to get a soup or salad instead.  The fries are like shoestring fries and were tossed with parmesan cheese and parsley.  At first I thought it was a bit salty, but then decided they were good.

Salmon la Sac Campground is at the end of Salmon la Sac Road past Roslyn, so you can't miss it.  It was a really beautiful campground.  It's mostly for tents and there are some nice sites along the river.  You can bring an RV for some sites, but there are no hookups.  They also have a few double sites for larger families or groups.  Really beautiful place, I think I'd rather tent camp there than take the RV.  $19/night is the price I saw.  Comes with a picnic table and fire pit.  There are also a lot of "lots" for sale around that area, some with beautiful views of Cle Elum Lake and with several acres.  Perfect for building a cabin overlooking the lake.

For our firework entertainment, we went to Sammamish.  We thought we would go to the plateau to see if we can view the fireworks from Seattle.  Little did we know that in the spot we planned to go, Sammamish was putting on their own fireworks display. When we got there it was super crowded and police were directing traffic.  We took the top off the front half of the Jeep and left it at home, so we didn't want to park it and leave it.  We almost thought we'd have to go back home, but got lucky.  We went down a neighborhood street full of cars, except for a little corner of sidewalk.  The jeep was small enough for us to back into the corner and face the fireworks display.  With the front of the jeep's top off, the kids were able to sit on top of the back top and I was able to stand up in my seat.  This is a good thing because DH and the kids were already teasing me about not planning things out for holidays.

The Jeep has unlimited versatility.  We are very happy with it!