May 26, Westport, Day 20

This is a picture of the North Jetty here. The blue sky was a very temporary thing as it has been cloudy and rainy all day. The tide was just coming in and there were some really big waves. It amazes me how calming the ocean is when the waves coming in are so violent.

This is the South Jetty which is in Wesport and is directly across the bay from the North Jetty. The waves here crashed against this rock wall and sounded like a train coming through. We had lunch at a restaurant that looked out on the water and watched a seal have lunch while we were having lunch. The seal needs to work on his manners!

Just about 10 miles from the South Jetty are the cranberry bogs. This portion of the coast is called by some the Cranberry Coast. There are fields and fields of bogs and a big Ocean Spray facility close by. The cranberries are just growing now and are harvested in the fall. That would be something to see although I don't think we will be back this fall.

This is some driftwood that has been turned into a guitar with very little work. It was at a winery that we stopped at on our way back to the trailer and I just thought it was neat. Also, just a note for all you Twilight fans we are less than 100 miles from Forks. I can certainly understand why vampires would like this area - very little sun and lots of dreary rainy days. Forks is actually in the opposite direction that we will be going but we are heading that way a bit tomorrow - maybe we will get a little closer.

When they give the weather here they talk about rain with sun breaks! I could sure go for more of those sun breaks!!

We are now in Ocean Shores, WA which is beautiful, however, it is still cold and rainy. Our rv park in Seattle was like a parking lot and everyone was really close. Here we are in the wilderness and from where I am sitting looking out the window I can see no other rv's although there are a few others in this park. We do have high speed internet, telephone and cable (we got the only spot in the park with cable) and are loving our home for 5 days. It is nice to be a little isolated after being so close to people for the last few days.

The beach here is really nice. There are really large beaches and you can drive your vehicle on most of them. We got out and walked a little today. Wayne found a few sea shells and I found a cool piece of driftwood that Wayne is going to fix up for me. Of course, there was no one on the beach today because of the weather; hopefully, it will clear up soon. It is a little funny here as you go from tall cedar trees to the ocean.

This is just across the road from our RV park. We didn't expect to see a deer this close to the ocean but who knew. He didn't seem to be afraid of us as he just stood there and looked at us, guess he is used to people. We're not sure what we are going to do this week. There is an area called the "Cranberry Coast" not to far from us that we thought we would check out but I'm not sure when we will do that. Anyway, we are here safe and sound and will be here until Friday.

May 23, Day 18

Today was a quiet day for us. We did laundry this morning and then took a tour of the Boeing Everett Factory Tour where they build the 747, 767, 777 and 787. The tour was really interesting and we enjoyed it a lot, however, they do not let you take any kind of electronic items on the tour so we have no pictures. My cousin used to work at Boeing and by a weird chance our guide actually knew him and his wife. The pictures above are of Mukilteo which is one of the places here where you can take a ferry across to the islands.

We leave here tomorrow and head to Ocean Shores, WA which is a little further South and (we think) on the ocean. Hopefully, we will see some sun for a change although we do have a little sun this afternoon.

Vancouver, BC Day 16 and 17

We saw so many beautiful sights in Vancouver that it is hard to pick out a few pictures. The above is a picture of Lionsgate Bridge which is the bridge that takes you to Grouse Mountain (where NBC's headquarters were during the Olympics) among other places. There is a skytrain at Grouse Mountain but it was so cloudy that we decided not to ride it because we figured we would only see clouds. There was also an expansion bridge that spans a 250 ft gorge that you walk across but since niether one of us enjoy heights, we passed on that.

This is a trolly car going through Stanley Park. Stanley Park is a huge park by Vanouver that looks like a rain forest. There are walking and biking trails through the entire park and lots of people were using them. We stayed at a place called Blue Horizon Hotel which was right in the middle of Robson street which is the main shopping/dining street in Vancouver. Our room was on the 10th floor right over the street and was great. We were a little richer in BC as the American dollar was worth about 5 cents more than the Canadian dollar while we were there. Vancouver is one of those places where you can walk everywhere. We walked through Gastown out to Chinatown (not in Chinatown because it looked like a scary place) and then back to our hotel. It took us about 2 hours but was well worth it. We saw a guy eating stuff out of the garbage can, a man pick up a cigarette butt off the street and smoke it and lots of panhandlers. On the other hand we also saw a lady just walking down the street who stopped to pick up some trash.

This is, of course, the torch from the Olympics which they are in the process of tearing down. At least we got to see it before it was gone.

When we got to the border to come back into the USA it took us 2 hours to get through the line. Apparently, this weekend is Victoria Day in Canada and is a long weekend so everyone goes out of the country. We loved Canada but were also really glad to get back into the good old USA!

Pike Market, Seattle, Day 15

Today we decided to go to Pike Market which is close to the waterfront in Seattle. The market was a pretty crazy place. If you have ever seen the people throwing big fish to each other this was where they do that. There are several seafood markets and a guy stands outside the shop and when you pick out the fish you want he throws it to people in the back to wrap it up. There were stores of every kind here. We brought home a pastry from a Russian bakery but haven't tried it yet.

We also took the Underground Tour of Seattle today. We learned a lot about the history of Seattle and were able to walk under some of the sidewalks, etc. These two pictures are of a skylight (from underneath the sidewalk and above the sidewalk). We did see some neat stuff today but most of the tour (hence the name) was underground in dusty, damp tunnels that used to be the sidewalks for Seattle.

It was sunny today but cold and the weather is suppose to stay about the same tomorrow. I'm not sure what we are doing tomorrow. Can't think that far ahead until we try out the Russian pastry!!

Washington, Day 14

Today we drove from Coeur d'Alene, ID to Seattle, WA and went through lots of different country. We saw lots of agriculture in the eastern part of Washington and then went through mountains the further west we went. The river is the Columbia River. They had posted signs on the fences in the agricultural areas telling us what was growing in the fields. There were potatoes, peas, corn, alfalfa, timothy and painted horses! We stopped at a produce stand and got some fresh asparagus that we plan to have for dinner. Apparently, they grow a lot of produce in the Yakima valley. Cherries should be ripe in about 2 weeks so hopefully we will be able to get some.

It is raining here and apparently there is a pretty good storm in the area. We are in a valley surrounded by other rv's and buildings so we should not have any problems with the wind, etc. Good night to stay in.

Day 13

Today it was cold and rainy so we decided we would drive to some of the surrounding areas to see what we could find. First, we found the Coeur d'Alene Old Mission. It is the oldest standing building in Idaho. It was built in the 1880's by the Coeur d"Alene Indian tribe and the Jesuits. We listened to a presentation by a ranger who filled us in on the building. The walls were made with river grass and mud! The Jesuit who was in charge of the building carved the altar and a couple statues also out of pine. It was pretty amazing.

This is one of the statues that he carved out of pine.

This is a restaurant called the Snakepit which is on the north Coeur d'Alene River. It was really neat on the inside and the bar was made in Europe and brought to the US in the late 1880's. Pierce Brosnan sat at this bar in the movie "Dante's Peak". It was full of all kinds of stuff and one of the appetizers was Rocky Mountain Oysters. We chose to stay away from that and just had sandwiches but we did get free Huckleberry Ice Cream which was great.

We are off to the Seattle area tomorrow.