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Analpenhaushornwas blown by a man in lederho- sen on the balcony, while we were enjoying a hosted breakfast at Enzian Inn in Leavenworth, Washing- ton on our Mt. Lassen Mo- tor Transit Tour of National Parks in Washington. Bonnie Love and Linda Carpenter played 18 rounds of golf on the course, just across the street from the Inn after breakfast. Others spent the morning window shopping or buying gifts in the shops in the Bavarian accented village. Then it was time to travel to La Conner on the coast, west of Mt. Vernon. We traveled on Hwy. 2, a scenic route up the Wenatche River, with lots of white water and wild flow- ers. Stevens Pass, at an ele- vation of 4,061 ft. is a skiing area for people from Seat- tle. There were fields of cut foliage, in the area that is known for the tulip festivals in the spring. We are used to seeing freight trains with loads of lumber or the shipping con- tainers, but this time I saw a long train of covered rail- road cars headed for Chi- cago. Our guess it was new cars being protected. La Conner with a popu- lation of 891, was a pictur- esque village. It was a fish- ing port with a trading post in 1868. In the late 1800s dikes drained the boggy marshland of the nearby Skagit Flats into fertile farmland. Hops and oats were important early crops, and now it is flower bulbs. Although the Aug. 5 is- sue of CapitalPress.com had the headline "Washington breaches dike to convert farmland to fish habitat." Conway, Washington "Exca- vators breached a dike Aug. 1 that for more than a cen- tury had protected farm- land, furthering a state and federal plan to convert thousands of agricultural field into salmon habitat in the Skagit River Delta." "Excavators started dig- ging a gap in the 12-foot- high dike in the morning. By late afternoon, Puget Sound's high tide was spreading saltwater over 131 acres that previously grew crops such as broccoli, red potatoes and vegetable seeds." Unfortunately for us, the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum, the Skagit County Historical Museum, the Museum of Northwest Art, the art galleries, and shops didn't open until 10 or 11 a.m. They looked interest- ing, but we had a date for a Viking Star cruise just for our tour group. We cruised the Swin- omish Channel and passed under the Deception Pass Bridge. Most of us were on the deck, enjoying the view as we passed under Rainbow Bridge, Whidbey Island, other boats, and waved to people on the bridge above us. Occasionally we would see a harbor seal, or an ea- gle. A lovely day on the wa- ter. The highlight of dining, on this trip was the fresh cracked Dungeness Crab luncheon. The flavor was incredible. Everyone had a set of crab crackers, and we did enjoy the crab. With the crab was baked chicken, broccoli salad, roasted pota- toes, garlic bread and cake. When we disembarked the ship, we were back on the bus, en route to Port Angeles via Whibey Island, Oak Harbor, and a ferry ride for a half hour. It was fascinating to watch how they loaded the cars, our bus, truck and trailers to balance the load. The Red Lion Hotel in Port Angeles is next to the water, and every Wednes- day night is "Music at the Dock" with families enjoy- ing the music and picnics, kids playing near the bub- ble machine, the dogs, teen- agers and adults dancing to the music. Several of us walked out on the dock, and could see a large ship in the distance, while fish- ermen tried their luck off the dock. Next morning you could see pedestrians and cars go- ing to line up at the dock for the 8:15 a.m. sailing for Victoria. Passengers were $18, children 5-11 were $9. A vehicle and driver — 18 feet or less — was $63. Motor- cycle and rider was $36.50 and a bicycle or kayak was $6.50. Don't know how much a bus would be, but over 18 feet per linear foot was $5.25. Noticed a grocery store had a sign outside "Wash- ington grown fruit & vege- tables from Yakima." We were en route to Hur- ricane Ridge, at 5,242 feet, in Olympia National Park with Bob Step, a step-on guide. In the early morning we saw deer, not much traf- fic, and beautiful wild flow- ers along the road. There was a border of yellow dai- sies lining the road, but no one knew the name of the flowers. Also saw lupine, paint brush, white yarrow, hare bluebells, fireweed, golden rod and what we call rab- bit brush. At 5,242 feet this was the best location to see the gla- ciers on the mountains to the south, since it was a sunny day. Once again, it was before 10 a.m. and the gift shop was closed. They offer a one hour guided walk to discover wild life and wild flowers at 11:30 a.m, but we were long gone. Did you realize that Hwy. 101 circles the Olympic Na- tional Park coming up on the east side by Hood Ca- nal, Sequim, Port Ange- les and south by the Pacific Ocean. Lake Crescent Lodge and Log Cabin Resort is part of the National Park. People were enjoying the lake, or sunbathing, with their cabin nearby. Lake Crescent is a vivid blue lake, 624 foot deep, that is 12 miles long. Learned that a Western Hemlock has the tip bent over, while a Douglas fir has an erect tip. We were driving through the Hoh Rain Forest with Sitka spruce, red cedar, Alaskan fir, alder, beech and ma- ples. Lots and lots of ferns, of different shapes, but not certain of their names. Lots of people with back packs and walking sticks at Hoh Rain Forest, ei- ther coming in or leav- ing on hikes. Noticed they were filling their water bottles and jugs at the wa- ter fountains. The parking lots were filled with cars and the visitors center was crowded. We back tracked to Forks to drop off the step- on guide, and then on Hwy. 101, along the Hump- tulips River and Ocean Shores where we spent the night by the ocean. Ocean Shores is on a sandy pen- insula separating Grays Harbor from the Pacific Ocean, and with more than six miles of sandy beach it is a popular re- sort area. We walked to the ocean and were surprised to find that it was fine sand with no shells or rocks. The breeze kept shifting the sands into little dunes. People were flying kites, playing in the gentle ocean waves, and enjoying the late afternoon. The ocean access to Chance -a-la-Mer State Park was right by our motel, and the people could drive out to the water. Next morning we were enroute to Tillamook and the cheese factory travel- ing over the bridges that we had cruised near last year when we docked in Asto- ria, Oregon. The Columbia River had small boats with fishermen everywhere you looked in the fog. It was a scenic drive along the ocean as we drove south, and a word of ad- vise. Don't visit Tillamook Cheese Factory at noontime during summer vacation. The crowds were unbeliev- able, but the management did a good job having lots of staff available in the two gift shops, the cheese store, ice cream counters with many flavors available, and the two lines for ordering food, as well as having seat- ing area that was clean. We could look down on the cheese production lines in the factory, as the large chunks of cheese were au- tomatically split into loaves, and then sealed in the plas- tic film. There was expla- nation about what we were seeing in many murals, if you took the time and weren't in someone's way. That night we were in Reedsport, and enjoyed a hosted dinner. Our final day of traveling was up the Umpqua River, seeing all the elk grazing at Elk Point, and catching I-5 at Suther- lin. A great trip, thanks to Mt Lassen Motor Transit, our driver Troy, and escorted by Clair and Janice Morey. JeanBartonhasbeen writing her column in the Daily News since the early 1990s. She can be reached by e-mail at jbarton2013@ gmail.com. JEANBARTON Cruising the waterways of the Northwest Bill Borror of Gerber has been elected as an alter- nate delegate to the 133rd Annual American Angus Association Convention of Delegates scheduled for Nov. 7 at the Indiana Con- vention Center in India- napolis, Indiana, accord- ing to Allen Moczygemba, CEO of the association. Borror, a member of the association with headquar- ters in Saint Joseph, Mo., is one of 260 Angus breed- ers who have been elected by fellow members to serve as an alternate state rep- resentative to the annual meeting. Representing 44 states and the District of Columbia, those serving as state delegates will partici- pate in the business meet- ing and elect new officers and five directors to the American Angus Associa- tion board. The annual meeting will take place in conjunction with the Angus Conven- tion, Nov. 5-7. The event is open to anyone in the cat- tle business and will fea- ture high-profile keynote speakers; educational ses- sions, including thought leaders from every indus- try sector; the Interna- tional Genomics Sympo- sium, sponsored by Neo- gen's GeneSeek operations; Angus University, spon- sored by Merck Animal Health; entertainment; evening galas; prize give- aways; and an expansive trade show. Visit www.anguscon- vention.com to learn more or to register. For more information about Angus cattle, visit www.angus.org. ANGUS ASSOCIATION Borror elected alternate delegate to annual meeting There are twice as many farmworkers as there are farm jobs in California, according to an analysis published online Aug. 23 in California Agriculture journal. Ledby Philip Martin,pro- fessor emeritus in the De- partment of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Davis, scientists an- alyzed all Social Security numbers reported by farm employers in 2014. The total number of farmworkers em- ployed in California in 2014 was 829,300. The number of full-timeequivalentjobswas 410,900. "We have lots of people who do farm work in Cali- fornia," Martin said. "If we could use more of them year round, we would not have to always be looking for immi- grants." Interest in farmworkers and farm employment is growing in California and in the nation. Comments about illegal immigration by presidential candidates and a new law under con- sideration in California to require overtime pay for farmworkers have made farm employment part of a national conversation. California's labor-intensive fruit and vegetable produc- tion systems, the tightening of border controls and pro- posals to give some unau- thorized workers a tempo- rary legal status have fueled interest. "Many farm employers argue that there are farm labor shortages, while worker advocates counter that there is only a short- age of wages to attract and retain farmworkers," Mar- tin said. "Our objective was to provide a clearer picture of California's agricultural workforce by determining the actual number of wage and salary workers in agri- culture." The research was based on information from the state's Employment Devel- opment Department, which collects data on farmwork- ers and wages paid when it collects unemployment in- surance taxes from employ- ers. The results of the 2014 analysis are compared with previous analyses of farm employment going back to 1990. The data reflect a shift over the last 30 years away from direct-hire employ- ment on crop farms and to- ward employment by farm labor contractors. "Crop support services, like farm labor contractors, surpassed on-farm hires for the first time in 2007," Mar- tin said. "Since 2010, aver- age employment reported by crop support establish- ments has been rising by 10,000 a year." In 2014, nonfarm crop supportfirmsbroughtanav- erage of 205,000 farmwork- ers to crop farms, while di- rect-hires on crop farms was 175,000. "Our data show that Cali- fornia has a remarkably sta- ble workforce," Martin said. "We found that most farm- workers are attached to one farm employer, often a labor contractor who moves them from farm to farm." Average earnings for all workers who held at least one farm job during the year was over $19,000 in 2014, while average earn- ings of those who had their maximum earnings in agri- culture was $16,500. Farm- workers who were employed by farm labor contractors had the lowest average earn- ings at $12,719. LABOR California has a stable farm workforce CONTRIBUTED The fresh Cracked Dungeness Crab luncheon was a highlight of the Mt. Lassen Motor Transit tour of Washington National Parks, as the group cruised on the Swinomish Channel and passed under the Deception Pass Bridge. Pictured are Janice and Clair Morey. 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