Beautiful British Columbia

Monday: Left our son’s house and drove to the Wal-Mart in Mt. Vernon, Washington: Had to load up on groceries before heading to expensive Canada.

Tuesday: Drove to Langley, British Columbia. It was a beautiful drive. We attended the temple then stayed in a nice campground. The bathrooms left something to be desired, but it was in a picturesque area.

Wednesday: Took the Tsawwassen – Swartz Bay ferry to Victoria Island. We owe a huge thank you to our daughter’s father-in-law because he invited us to stay at their family’s vacation home in Duncan, British Columbia. It’s too cold to be camping. The locals say it was unusually warm until a couple of weeks ago, and now it’s colder than normal. That’s okay we have a house to live in. (Sorry about the fuzzy picture of the deer in their driveway, but we had to take it quickly.)

 

Thursday: In the morning we went to the local Starbucks for hot chocolate so we could access the Internet and let everyone know we arrived safely. After that we visited the impressive Kinsol Trestle. It’s the largest trestle in Canada at 614 feet long, and 145 feet above the stream below with a 7-degree curve. It was used until 1979, and has recently been restored.  The hike in wasn’t very long, and it was easy; however, when we hiked trails down to the bottom, our heart started pumping a bit.

 

Friday: We walked through Downtown Duncan and saw the world’s largest hockey stick—205 feet long. The city is also the totem capitol of the world, so we followed the yellow footsteps and saw them all. We spend a quiet afternoon back at the house because it was rainy and cold. This evening we went to the Royal Dar, a yummy Indian cafe.

 

Saturday: Today I saw yet another thing I’ve heard about all my life—the Salmon Run. It was amazing to watch those fish swimming up-stream. They would “rest” in one spot before splashing yet another few feet up-stream. I’m sure what looked like resting was still a lot of work because they were facing up stream. The setting was also breath taking. What a fascinating earth Heavenly Father created for us.



Washington

Monday: Today we drove to the Tacoma area of Washington and visited Point Defiance. We planned a long hike along the water edge in spite of off and on drizzle, but rain interrupted us. We would have taken the 3 mile interior hike as well if the weather had cooperated.

 

 

 

Tuesday: We visited Seattle’s interesting Museum of Flight. They had lots of planes and flight history. We skimmed through their space exploration part, because we had already been to Houston and Cape Canaveral, not to mention Goddard’s workshop (he was the first to invent rockets) in Albuquerque. We made it to the campground before the rain started once again.

 

 

Wednesday: We went to Snomalie Falls, the tallest falls in North America. The good news: they were going full blast. The bad news, they created so much mist as they hit the bottom we couldn’t see them very well. What we could see was amazing. We then drove to town to see the train museum. From there we drove to our son’s house where we’ll be until Monday.

Thursday & Friday: Thursday we just hung out at our son’s house & did laundry. Friday we visited our grandchildren’s school. They are homeschooling their children, but here in Washington families can create home school cooperatives, so the parents can work together. Our daughter-in-law is in charge of the math lab.

 

Saturday: Fun and games with the grandchildren, and dessert out at Flirt. (The one in the black t-shirt is a friend.)

 

 



 

 



 

Leavenworth & Rainy Mt. Rainier

 

Monday: Traveled from Seattle to Moses Lake, WA. Took pictures of the family we spent the weekend with before leaving. She even gave us some Thai food to go. :)

 

 

 

The hike along Lake Moses had some pretty views. It sure felt good to get some exercise.

 

Tuesday: Drove to Leavenworth, WA where we hiked the Icicle Gorge River Trail loop, only 4 miles and easy hiking.

Wednesday: We walked around a town a little before driving to Cashmere and visiting the Aplet & Cotlet candy making factory. YUMMY!



Thursday: We started the day with a scrumptious brunch at the Enzian Inn. The owner stepped onto the balcony wall and played the alphorn, then came into the restaurant and played a couple more songs. We spent the rest of the day walking around town, and taking in the river walk. In the afternoon we drove to Yakama, WA where we spent the night at the local Wal-Mart. Love Wal-Mart. They have saved us tons of money with their hospitable parking lots. Nobody else allows people to stay overnight.

Friday: Drove to Mt. Rainier, but the campground where we planned to stay was closed. We found another one. It’s raining, so no hiking today. But there was beautiful scenery along the way.

 

Saturday: Still raining off and on, so we rode the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad instead of hiking. It had beautiful scenery with a stop at the lake. However, we couldn’t see Mt. Rainier because of the clouds and rain. We have been fortunate weather-wise this trip because these last two days are the only time the weather spoiled what we had planned except Albuquerque way back in March.