Thursday, August 6th, Daytripping from Forks

Greetings!

We visited the Hoh Rain Forest on the slopes of Mt Olympus, and had lunch at a small resort on a southwestern beach. Pat and I both took a lot of photos, and we hope you're not overwhelmed by the moss-covered trees and gnarly-limbs. It's really beautiful here.

To see the rest of the many photos taken today, click on:
August 6th

Wednesday, August 5th, Forks

Greetings!

We've landed in the Twilight Zone. The town of Forks has big signs all over town proclaiming it. There are stores with Twilight sales on everything, and parents and children are wearing strange apparel and searching out specific locations to have their pictures taken in front of.

If you've not guessed by now, A book series has been turned into two movies which has caught the passions of today's teenagers. It's a love story featuring vampires, a high school girl who doesn't fit in, and werewolves. What more could young heart-throbs want? If the frenzy overtaking this town is any sign, it'll be a series of box office hits.

We're staying in Forks tonight and tomorrow night as a base camp for day trips to the coast and rain forests in this area.

To see the remaining photos from today, click on:

August 5th

Tuesday, Aug 5th, Sequim

Greetings!

The circuit breaker was easier to fix than we thought. After re-reading the instructions on the panel cover, we flipped the troublesome switch off - then on. It stayed up, the power flowed. No new fuses, no limited electricity for the rest of the trip.

We'd been to Hurricane Ridge a mile high in the Olympic National Park long ago in the winter. It's pretty spectacular in the clear cold winds. But it's not bad in the warm smokey summertime either. We also drove west along the north coast of Washington to Pillar Point. On the way, we found a perfect dry camp spot for RVs at the Salt Point County Park. We'll stay there next time we visit this area.


To view the rest of the photos taken today (on Pat's Lumix), click on:

August 5th

Monday, August 3, Sequim

Greetings!

So you're probably wondering, what happened to Sunday? It was sort of a logistics day. Arranging which ferry to take on Monday from Victoria to Washington took a while. We drove over to the ferry on the waterfront in Victoria, and found out that the 3pm Monday ferry was right for us . And it took a lot longer than expected to locate somewhere on the Washington northern coast to park on Monday night. Neither of those is really ripe for photos, so the camera stayed in the car.

As it turned out, we failed at getting a place to stay. We boarded the ferry this afternoon with no idea where we'd be tonight, and were very lucky to find a spot before the sun went down. But the Rainbows End RV Park, in Sequim, had two spots left. Sequim is about 15 miles east of Port Angeles, Washington - About in the middle of the state's north coast.

And a few other things have gone wrong. We've blown something electrical in Matilda, and only one outlet works. Currently the computer and the television wires are stretched across the cabin to plug into it. And our sonicare dental device is waiting in line to recharge its batteries, with Pat's cell phone and my camera's battery charger right behind. We read the Airstream's manual, the section on electrics in and Airstream book we bought, and checked out all of the circuit breakers. Unfortunately, one of them has a little reset button on it that Pat pushed. Now, we can't get it to flip back into the on position. This next two weeks are going to be interesting.

To see the remaining photos taken today, click on:
August 3rd Photos

Saturday, August 1st, Victoria

Greetings!

An amazingly beautiful 3-mile walkway has been developed around the northwestern end of Victoria Harbor, and it runs from our little houseboat community all the way to downtown. It winds under huge Madrone trees, past one of the last Gary Oak stands in Canada, and on to die-for homes looking across to the Victorian waterfront.

We walked it today to the Royal BC Museum, where we visited the temporary treasures of the British Museum and a fabulous exhibit of First Nations Northwest history.

To see the remaining photos taken today, click on:

August 1st

Friday, July 31st, Cowichan to Victoria

Greetings!

A guidebook we have said that it could take from a couple of hours to a whole day to drive from Parksville to Victoria - depending on how much you wanted to see. Well, we took the day.

The murals in the small town of Duncan are well worth seeing. Produced in part by Canadian lottery funds, the town's artists were inspired to create scenes which capture the characters and events in the town's history. Very few of the town's buildings escaped the brush, and they can be seen easily on a walking tour. Follow the yellow feet through the town.

Cowichan Cultural Center has a couple of added program components since we visited it last. Their totems and longhouse were terrific, as usual. But one of the finest native dance troupes we've encountered is now performing three times each day, and kudos to the young dancers for bringing much more than tourist-level dancing. The other new addition is the River Cafe, which has a lunch menu that will knock your socks off. We have rarely seen such a variety of native food, done at such a professional quality, for so cheap. We settled on a shared combination of salmon, crab cakes, breaded clam, and several breads and fruit. And I passed up venison, buffalo, salmon, and halibut, prepared each in about three different ways.

After finding and settling into the West Bay Marina Village, we drove up to Sydney on the tip of the Saanich Peninsula for dinner. We found a great greek place called Maria's, and let the cooling breezes refresh us in the late evening sunset.


To see the remaining photos taken today, click on:

July 31st