Journal Entry #8 - Back to Canada!
Las Vegas to the Border
12.05.2008
We celebrated our last day of leisure ‘on the road’ in Port Townsend, WA. We camped near the town harbour, right on the beach. We could watch the tide come and go and everyone sailing in and out of the harbour, from cruise ships from Seattle heading to Alaska, to morning paddlers.
The skies alternated between sun and rolling clouds, but it didn’t ever rain enough to stop us from walking the beach or into town. We spent our last day there looking through our photos, reading, sleeping and cuddling. And looking forward to our next adventures.
When we crossed the border at Peace Arch the Canadian Customs Agent, said “Welcome Home” and it felt great to see red mail boxes, Tim Horton’s and loonies again! We had a date with our great-niece Hailey (5) and nephew Fisher (7) in White Rock. While their parents, Christine and Grant, were on a little ‘get-away’ on the west coast of Vancouver Island, we got to ‘play house’. We had a blast – attended two school concerts, went swimming, balanced on the logs at Crescent Beach, had hot chocolate at Timmy’s and played Lego, coffee shop and lots and lots of card games! We also went to bed early and slept very well!
After Las Vegas
In our last entry, I was on my way to Vancouver, to meet Ryan for a few days, and deliver a workshop for the Lower Main Down Syndrome Society. I stayed with Christine and Grant, although it happened that Christine was working in Norway most of the time I was there. She lent me her car while she was away – a brave women, given that I have not driven anything, much less a standard, since November. I only left a little rubber on the road, a few times...
Ryan flew in after work on Saturday, and as soon as stores opened Monday morning, we went camera shopping. His successful savings program left him with a choice of digital cameras and he chose well. The rest of our time was spent putting the camera through its paces.
While I hung out in Vancouver, Brad stayed in the Pahrump, NV area. In spite of being busy, I was heartsick at times in Vancouver, missing Brad more than I ever did traveling for work, even a few weeks at a time. We are so used to being together! While I was gone, he read by the pool, and swam many laps, two of his loves. I think he missed me, too!
Our plans to head north to Reno and Sacramento were thwarted by a storm forecasted for the area – climbing to 7000 ‘ with snow and high winds did not appeal to us, so we turned left, and headed around the south end of the Sierra Madre mountains, and up California’s Central Valley. As we headed into CA, a beautiful scent wafted into the truck – like oranges and jasmine – it was heavenly. Suddenly everything was wonderfully GREEN!!
After these months on the desert, what a treat to see flowering fruit trees flowering, vegetable crops in long straight rows, and budding vineyards. It was a feast for our senses!
This was our longest driving day in a long time, and about 7:00 pm we began looking for a way off the freeway and a place to spend the night. I spotted a sign for Kingsburg, sporting a Swedish Dala horse! So of course, we had to stop there.
When I was about 5, my Westermark grandparents brought me a small Dala horse home from a trip to Sweden. Last year when I was looking for an image for my business cards, I decided to photograph my horse to celebrate my Swedish heritage and creativity (note the little beaded necklace). Dala horses are an important folk art in Sweden, and are a common symbol of all things Swedish.
Kingsburg was settled in the late 1880s, and 90% of the original settlement were Swedes, tired of the cold winters of Michigan. Dala horses, Swedish pancake houses and shops line a very quaint main street and some local teens told us RVs overnight at the local grocery store parking lot, so that is where we stayed. (We probably should have asked if there were railroad tracks nearby…).
While waiting for a tire repair the next day, we met a local retired school principal, who grew grapes for SunMaid, locate in Kingsburg. Check out the little red boxes and you will see that! He filled us on the’ must sees’ in the area, routes to Yosemite National Park (YNP)and which roads would still be closed by snow. He has emailed us since to see how our trip to the park went – I love meeting people like that along the road!
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK
Seeing El Capitan in for the first time stays with you, but living with the Rockies in our back yard, we are slightly jaded. The Yosemite Valley is very narrow and only 7 miles long, but spectacular, with high, raging waterfalls that you can see from great distances. The roar is awesome.
The Visitor Centre staff in nearby Oakhurst offered lots of suggestions that worked well for uThe best advise was to camp at the local fairground in Mariposa. (Overall, we were not impressed with CA state parks – they are small, old and scarce. On the other hand, fairgrounds are cheap, clean and green!
Imagine our delight to find that the California Mining and Mineral Museum was in the Fairgrounds and the Marisposa Rock and Gem show was running while we were in camped right there! We had a ring side seat, could talk with rock hounds, equipment suppliers and of course, beaders!
Another hint was to stop for lunch at the elegant old Ahwahnee Hotel in the park.
(That way we would not need reservations or dress clothes…) So we did. It is old, and elegant, and the service perfect. However, halfway through our soup, our waiter came up and interrupted us. I thought she was going to tell us an entrée was not available, but she said, “Excuse me, I am sorry to interrupt you, but there is a fire in the hotel, and you have to leave through this door right now.” As if it was the most common request they make! We grabbed our wine glasses, and headed out, and the whole evacuation was very impressive! We drank our wine in the grass of the Wedding Glade, and were given fresh soup as soon as we could return. (The fire was small and on the second floor). By the way, when I raved about my beer and cheese soup, she offered the recipe, so if anyone is interested, just let me know.
We were glad we did not try to take the rig up to Yosemite and try to camp. The park is decidedly not vehicle friendly, but has great shuttle service, even from hotels outside the park.
For our bird watching friends, here is a lovely bird I followed while walking at Yosemite. I don’t know what it is – when its wings were out, the colours resembled my two favorite minerals – malachite and lazurite.
From Mariposa, we headed up and down, up and down, toward the Interstate and ended up in a Safeway lot at the west end of Lodi. And as we drove into town, the Creedence song, “Lodi” came on!
It was a quick jaunt to Napa the next day. The vines were beginning to leaf out, and again we stayed in the fairgrounds, within walking distance of the town centre. Napa is a delightful little town, and I loved the ‘eating garden’ at Copia, a wine and food exhibition centre. Lemon trees, herbs, vegetables, bay trees, surrounding the ourdoor café. We had an afternoon of wine tasting – it could be overwhelming but we concentrated on a few of the more architecturally interesting tasting houses! The wine was good, too.
We cut over to the CA coast near Mendocino and it is on our ‘must return to’ list – it is a delightful artsy community perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Many movies have been filmed there (www.mendocinocoast.com/filmoffice/films.htm) . Brad found a hooded rain jacket he liked, and bought it just in time. As we continued up the coast, he got lots of chances to wear it....
In 1977, we honeymooned in San Francisco, and so enjoyed visiting the city again. We took a high speed catamaran ferry from Vallejo to the city, and hopped a bus to Chinatown for lunch, then another bus to Fisherman’s Wharf. We walked, and walked, and revisited many memories along the way. Brad had a ‘walk-away cocktail’ of shrimp and crab, and I bought some Boudin sourdough bread. Then we caught the last ferry back. Was a great day.
We have a very similar photo from 1977, but these people are much older!
We were on a mission to settle into South Beach State Park near Newport, OR in time to meet my parents there for a few days.
They made a detour after celebrating my uncle Tory Westermark’s 80th birthday in Vancouver to visit with us a few days. Unfortunately, it rained pretty much to whole time we had together, but being good sports, they didn't let the rain keep us from touring the area together. The highlight for us was seeing the Oregon Aquarium with them (check it out www.aquarium.org; their photos are much better than mine. And watch the commercial – it’s very cute!)
We had a good seafood feed, checked out the coast, the Sea Lion Caves and the visit with them went by way too fast. After Dad and Sheila headed home, we moved up the coast to Nehalem State Park. It was so well situated for day trips to the hot spots along the Oregon coast - Haystacks at Cannon Beach, Seaside, Hug State Park and Astoria.
We love Oregon state parks - well staffed with volunteer hosts, only $16 with electricity, and all the ones we saw also had yurts that you could rent. They come equipped with beds, tables, a deck, heater and lights. We are already making plans for a motorcycle trip down with our sleeping bags. That's all we will need to bring. And those rent for about $30 a night.
Brad was still searching for a campground right on the water, and vaguely remembered one from a solo bike trip up the WA coast, so we headed up, looking for the elusive, perfect campground. And found it at Pacifc Beach. He parked the rig right at the edge of our site, about 3 feet from the beach. This is when we really appreciated all the windows in our rig! It was a million dollar view - and there were only a handful of sites occuppied. Finally Brad had the site he was craving. The tide went way out, and we could walk forever on the sand, searching for agates and beach glass.
Our last stop was Port Townsend, a spot we visited almost a year ago, when we were wondering if we could ever get our plans together to take this year off. It is a magical little town, with lots of bookstores, coffee shops and places to walk. A real treat is a theatre built in 1923, still showing two movies every day. You buy your tickets outside and then walk into the lobby. There is even a live introduction to the movie.
On our last visit to Port Townsend, I bought some notecards in a coffee shop that was hosting a one man show of a local artist from a community arts program for adults with developmental disabilities. This trip I got to visit the studio. I got a tour of the arts centre, visited with some of the artists, and hope to connect with the director on a project promoting the art of adults with developmental disabilities. If only Port Townsend was in Canada - I think I could have easily applied to work there!
We had a leisurely drive back to Canada on May 6th, just in time to settle in before Christine and Grant headed off for Tofino. And that is when we put our first blemish on the rig - we were trying to parallel park 55 feet of truck and rig along side their garage, and put a little scratch on the side, and a little dent in a roof shingle. So knock on wood -I hope that is the worst of those sort of adventures.
We are heading to Vancouver Island tomorrow and in a few weeks will slowly work our way home to Calgary. This leg of our adventure has been everything we hoped and more. And although it will be wonderful to back, we can't return to our house until October, and the east coast beckons .... We will keep you posted.
Thanks for reading and following our travels.
Cheers,
Lin and Brad
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