Thunderbird, Monroe WA 8/19/10 - 9/2/10

We left Leavenworth and headed west to Monroe, WA. It was really a pretty drive. We thought Idaho had a lot of rivers and lakes, but I think Washington has more. There were rivers and lakes everywhere.

Thunderbird Resort is a Leisure Time Resort, which is one of the three parts of the Thousand Trail family--Thousand Trails, NACO, and Leisure time.

Thunderbird has a nice entrance at the Ranger station. There is a wood carving of two eagles on a nest with a large fish hanging from one of the eagle's claws.

The park is split on two sides of the highway. One side is right on the Skykomish River. But the sites along the river don't have sewer so we chose a site on the other side. It was one of very few sites left. The park was filled with soccer players and their families.

Needless to say, these great playgrounds, miniature golf and pools were filled with families. It kind of thinned out after the weekend, but lots of families came again the next weekend. There were quite a few activities for the kids, so it was great. They had water balloon tosses, pool volleyball, cupcake frosting, coloring contests, candybar bingo, and movies.

We caught a little time in the big swing set when there were no kids. The swing sets in most of the parks we have been in were not quite as heavy duty as these. They were great for adults too--if you didn't get sick to your stomach swinging like we do in our old age!

A stream came down through the park (from which they got all of the water for the park) so we had to cross a little bridge to get to the clubhouse, pools, and country store.

The clubhouse is a big red barn. I think that at one time it had been a real barn.

It was quite nice inside. They had activities and served meals in here on the weekend, but not much went on during the week. They allowed me to set up my Scentsy products both weekends we were there and we did pretty good.

The pools are beautiful. There is a family pool that was almost always busy, a wading pool for the little ones, an adult pool, and a hot tub.

There is also a little country store. They rented small little outside fireplaces--the only way you could have a fire outside. We didn't rent one, but it looked like a fun thing to do.

This is a picture of the clubhouse from across the road where the rest of the resort spaces are located.

That is also where the laundromat, office, and adult clubhouse are.

The Skykomish River is really pretty. You could tell there has been quite a bit of flooding because of the large trees left out in the middle in some areas. The river was quite low while we were there. This is a view from one of the sites on the river. Maybe it would have been worth it to stay on this side and not have sewer hook-ups!

Terry found some fishermen who told so many "fish stories" that he stayed and visited for about an hour while I went to do some laundry. One of the guys caught a big fish and was excited until Terry told him it was just an old sucker! The guy was disappointed and said he was going to take it home anyway and tell his wife it was a salmon. Later, we walked by their rig and they were sitting outside eating. Terry asked them how the salmon was! Everyone had a good laugh.

There was a nice laundry room. It only had three washers and three dryers, but I didn't have to wait too long for my turn.

Terry even got back from talking to the fishermen in time to help!

My brother, David, gave Terry this black powder pistol. He has been working several months on refinishing it and finally got it done while we were at Thunderbird. He did a good job!