Lake Chelan (Washington)
Saturday morning was beautiful at Lakeshore RV Park and it was fun to spend a relaxing morning at the campsite.
We like campsites with lots of trees and green grass – and Lakeshore RV park delivered both! The sites were all paved and quite long – we are 25 feet long and we saw at least one 45 foot Class A diesel pusher that had plenty of room in their site. As we think about doing more longer term RV trips in the future – I always check out what size rigs fit in the various campgrounds we go to.
Aurora enjoyed camping and spent the day looking around at all of the activity. She was a puppy last time we took her camping in May/June/July of 2024 and was in her “biting” phase. This time she was relaxed and enjoyed the camping experience. She would of course bark at other dogs and always got excited when children and young adults were around. In the campsite next to us – there was a young girl who was probably around 10 or 12 – who petted Aurora and told me proudly that she had a teacher also named Aurora!
Downtown Chelan
We decided to eat lunch in downtown Chelan, so we packed up the camper and headed about a mile away for some lunch and some browsing in the small but quaint downtown area. We found parking by a city park in downtown Chelan – with magnificent views of the water and the mountains. We are visiting during the “shoulder” season – so we had no problem finding parking downtown – which will certainly change after Memorial Day.
Since it was my birthday – we went to Local Myth Pizza and split a delicious calzone and sampled the local beers/ciders. Interestingly, we last went to Lake Chelan about 4 years ago – and we ate at the same place! After a relaxing lunch, we walked about 2 blocks and browsed the downtown area shops. The have a nice little local bookstore where Kirk bought a travel guide to wineries outside of Vancouver, B.C. Noel found some nice local jewelry at one of the other shops. One of the big benefits of shoulder season is that staffing was up – but there were not hoards of people around.
Wine Tasting and Live Music at Tsillan Cellars
After a leisurely 90 minutes downtown, we then headed for what we thought would be our first winery for wine tasting (Tsillan Cellars). They had a local crafts fair at the winery (it was small) and Noel found some locally crafted jewelry. We happened to come when they had live music – so we enjoyed Alvin Little (aka BigSaxDaddy) playing the saxophone while doing some wine tasting. He played for around an hour or so – and we really enjoyed both his playing and his commentary about the different songs he was playing. He is a professional musician – and plays the trombone, violin and saxophone. After wine and music – we headed back to the campground for some R&R before dinner and decided that we did not need to hit another winery that day!
Back at the campsite, it was time for Noel to break out her paints and do some painting, and for Kirk to finish reading “Cold Eternity” by S.A. Barnes (combo SciFi and Horror genre). Of course – we did this with a G&T in hand and Aurora enjoying watching cars driving by, campers going into the bathhouse, and ducks walking by the campsite (she did NOT have a G&T).
Dinner was a new recipe – and I shocked everyone by serving grilled baby bok choy with flank steak and ginger/soy compound butter. It was excellent!
Travel Back to Richland
The next day we packed up and headed out around noon to drive back to Richland. For breakfast we talked with Tim and Andrew via Zoom for an hour (thank-you to STARLINK!) and enjoyed some Tex-Mex Scrambled Eggs with Tortilla chips and left over scones.
On the drive back through Rural Washington, we enjoyed the lack of traffic and varied scenery. At a rest stop along US-17, we saw an Osprey sitting on top of a light pole just watching the water. While we have seen many Osprey on our travels in Washington, I had never entered it officially into my Merlin Life List of identified birds (I am up to 69 distinct species now). Noel and I both got lots of great pictures before Aurora barked and the Osprey flew off. One of the great joys of RVing is seeing wildlife along the way – on the road and in the campground.
Trip Highlights –
Noel and I both really enjoyed our trip. The drive was only about 3.5 hours and the campground certainly ranked on our Top 10 list in terms of amenities, trees, and lots of grass. We enjoyed the lake views, the wineries and a few less people around camping in the shoulder season. We would love to go back for a week with a bit of a slower pace to the days (we did a lot on Saturday).
Kirk’s Travelogue 