May 30-June 2, Vancouver BC

MONDAY
We worried about the Canadian border crossing after our friends had to completely unpack their SUV about a month ago. No delay, even after driving into the wrong lane. Pacific Border RV Park sits ON the Canadian side of the border. Our view is of the border station offices. We keep hoping we don't miss our turn, since that will mean crossing into the US and back again. Maybe we should carry our passports! We parked the RV and went to Lynn Canyon Park to walk across a suspension bridge that is more than 150 feet over the stream and has been there since 1912. We don't think the perforated steel panels were part of the original bridge! It's amazing that we can be in the rainforest or surrounded by farm fields and only be 10 miles from a major city, but that's how close things are here. So, we continued to Vancouver. We circled Stanley Park, stopping at several vantage points to gawk or walk. The views of the city were jaw dropping. We watched yachts, cargo ships and float planes. Hockey fever is here with the Canucks in the Stanley Cup. Someone dressed an off-shore statue in a Canucks jersey. Following a hot tip from Mom and Sunset magazine, we continued south to Richmond for Chinese food. Our chosen restaurant is known for roasted pork, but they ran out of it 3 customers before us! We had spare ribs instead, which were good. We'll be back in that area on Wednesday, but that's the one day a week the restaurant closes. Not to worry, Sunset had several suggestions and we won't go hungry.
TUESDAY
We took the ferry to Vancouver Island, arriving with minutes to spare. Our main goal was to see Butchart Gardens. We aren't big "garden people" but they were beautiful and we really enjoyed wandering around for a couple hours. The sunken garden was the most impressive. Mrs. Butchart had the idea to put it in the former limestone quarry owned by Mr. Butchart's company. The Japanese garden was also really well done. Hope you enjoy the pictures - remember to click if you want to see larger versions. Courtesy of the gift shop, here's an idea of what to do with old golf clubs. We then drove to Victoria for lunch at the waterfront. It was supposed to rain from 1 PM on, but that never happened and it was sunny as could be after a few sprinkles at 2:30. Our driving tour of the sights included the legislature building and two castles. It was a wonderful day, but it came to a shocking end at Safeway. We started in produce where all the prices were about 50% higher than home, which we expected. Then cereal ($6-8) & cheese ($18/lb). Yikes! Barb was thinking she could easily live in Vancouver but is now re-thinking that plan. Dennis is relieved.
WEDNESDAY
We must apologize for an inadvertent lie told a couple days ago. We thought we would not see anymore people we already knew til Mom arrived - wrong, wrong, wrong! Today we picked up friends Carmen & Jack at the Vancouver cruise terminal. (We will also be seeing Corte Bella neighbors in Denali, but more on that later.) We have already seen daughters Lori & Janice, but missed Carmen & Jack in the Bay Area because they were on an Alaskan cruise. It worked out wonderfully that they'd be here at the same time as us. We were again blanked on our attempt to visit a Sunset recommended restaurant (too early) but found a great bakery across the way and visited over pastries & coffee. It was fun to catch up and compare travel plans. On the way back to the RV, traffic on our 4 lane highway came to a standstill. Turns out mama duck decided to walk her babies across the highway. Bad mama! A good samaritan stopped traffic and was ushering them all across. We're not quite sure how he planned to get back to his car after that, but we applaud his kindness. Trucks were lined up for a mile to cross the border into the US when we left this morning. When we came back, the line had increased to about 2.5 miles. The website shows a 2 hour delay for commercial vehicles, but we think it must be longer. We have only seen a few trucks lined up the rest of the time we've been here, so something unusual must be happening. Dennis is dying to walk over and ask, but figures no one would be too excited to see a nosy tourist. We're doing chores this afternoon & getting ready to head north in the morning. Updates again when we have wi-fi or cell access.

May 27-30, Oregon & Washington

We are moving pretty quickly since we want to be in Fairbanks for the Summer Solstice. We hadn't been able to see Mt Shasta from the south, but the clouds cleared on the north side and the view was amazing. Who knew we'd have to go to Oregon and Washington for clear skies! We may have limited time in the Pacific Northwest, but it has been quality time. We stopped over night in Albany, OR to visit Barb's childhood friend Lori and her family-Mike, Kayla and Blake. Kayla joined the adults for Mexican food and then we all went back to the house for more visiting and brownies. Blake literally ran in to say hi & then was off again with his friends. Lori and Barb last saw each other at the mother-daughter Dublin reunion in Vegas. Before that, it had been about 25 years! The bonds of the Dublinites run deep and it's so much fun to catch up after all these years. Dennis enjoyed meeting everyone and being able to finally put faces to the names. We really enjoyed spending time with the Guerrero family! We then moved up to the gorgeous Tall Chief RV park in Fall City, WA. We are not only NOT near the highway or train tracks, we are actually in a neighborhood of beautiful custom homes. Steve is now sailing to Alaska with Holland America and is in Seattle every Sunday so this was a great chance to catch up with him. We had the added bonus of his friend Ally flying in, so we picked up Steve at the ship and then Ally at the airport. Lucky her, she'll be spending the week on the ship! We only had a few hours, but had lunch at a pub, wandered around Pike Place Market and the park near the Space Needle. We saw many interesting people, including the guy in the mirror suit. This will be the last we will see of people we already know until Mom flies to Anchorage in July to spend a couple weeks with us. We can't wait! We just found out we'll have limited internet access through Verizon while we're in Canada, so there may not be blog updates for awhile.

Picture hint

You should be able to click on any picture to see a larger version.

May 25-27, Lake Shasta CA

Our first day at Antlers RV Resort was spent doing laundry & watching the light rain. (Togo's #24 for lunch, yum) Then it was time for sightseeing on our second day! We went to the sundial bridge in Redding, where we walked all around the park. The light clouds kept the sundial itself from working, but it was an impressive sight anyway. The footbridge is made of glass panels that can reach 150 degrees in the summer. We were glad to be crossing on a cool day! We traveled back to Lake Shasta and took nearly every side road we could find. Barb would have like to seen Lakeview Resort, where she spent many summers, but the road was gated and it is apparently closed. We still saw many beautiful sights and a couple nice vacation homes for sale. Hmmmm. The lake is full to the brim and the water is almost glacial looking. We weren't sure if it was because they've received so much precipitation this year, or if it was a reflection of the overcast skies. No matter the cause, it was gorgeous. CDF was doing a couple prescribed burns and we were lucky enough to find them cutting down a large, dead tree. There was a large group of firefighters & Dennis actually asked them "How many firefighters does it take to cut down a tree?" Funny - especially since they thought it was funny and didn't beat him up. We considered going to the Basshole (haha) for dinner, but opted for soup & cobbler in the RV instead. If we were staying an extra day, however, we would have been compelled to go there to see the professional hula hooper who will be performing. Really. Oh well, Oregon beckons.

May 22-25, Livermore CA

We love our campsite at Del Valle. The weather is perfect, the creek is right below us and the frogs serenade us to sleep each night. Our campsites usually seem to be near a highway and/or train track. It is utter peace here - unless you count the incredible noise from the creek and frogs! We considered asking if they'd sell us space 65 so we could build a house, but it's a little small. We have almost no neighbors but the rangers sure are busy today getting ready for the Memorial Day weekend crowds. We met up with friends Sherry, Janet, Dave, Wes & Melissa at Fenestra Winery on Sunday. The wind was cold at the end of the day so we went back to the motorhome for some wine, snacks & visiting. We again met up with Sherry, Janet & Dave and added Janice to the mix last night at Amber Bistro in Danville for happy hour dinner. Delicious! We would love to show you pictures of our good looking friends, but the camera remained in Barb's purse all night. We are relaxing by the lake today, and driving to the top of the hill for phone/internet service. A deer wandered into the campsite while Barb was enjoying her wine and crossword puzzles at the picnic table - heaven! We continue north tomorrow.

Alaska bound!

Barb has caved to the pressure and resurrected the travel blog. We are back on the road and headed for Alaska. We left on May 18, with a quick stop at Alfateers. A post jumped BEHIND the RV and did a little damage. Thanks to Richard and his crew, there is no more evidence of this unfortunate event. We were treated far too well by cousins Lori & Conrad and got to meet their new granddaughter Brenna and spend time with Reagan, Faith, Tracey & Matt. Now we're in Bakersfield for a day. We have already stopped in at The Boss to see cousins Bob & Christy and will get together with them for dinner tonight.

Factoids

Days we were gone - 200

Miles traveled in the motorhome - 10,700

Additional miles traveled in the Jeep - 10,200

States visited - 28
Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri

Canadian provinces visited - 5
Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island

Photographs taken - 1,477

Bugs who hit the windshield & survived - 1
Bugs who did not survive - many, many more

Number of times Barb ran out of Tab - 0
(not only is it still made, it is also surprisingly available across the country)

October 17-24 - heading home!

Western Maryland & Pennsylvania showed us a last burst of Fall colors as we left Washington DC. We have seen so many amazing places but it's time to get home & we are now moving pretty quickly across country. We stopped in St. Louis to tour the Gateway Arch & the Budweiser brewery. Our RV park was directly across the Mississippi River & we had a fantastic view. The "pods" that take you to the top of the arch & the viewing area could definitely use updating, but they did the job. We leaned across a carpeted ledge to look out the tiny windows, but the views from 630 feet up were amazing. We got some great pictures & were even able to see our RV in the park across the Mississippi River. Pretty cool! The brewery was beautiful & much more ornate than we expected. We have heard the "how beer is made" story many times so it was more of a treat to see the Clydesdales & marvel at the sheer size of this factory. We even saw one of the dalmations! Our final "vacation stop" was a visit to Gayle's new home in Tulsa. We enjoyed seeing her huge apartment & the school she loves attending. We celebrated the day before her birthday with dinner where our waitress was one of her classmates & a very nice girl. Dennis was happy to see for himself how well his little sis is doing! After that, it was just a run for home with quick overnight stays. Everything was in great shape when we arrived. Thank you to Mom & our wonderful neighbors Elaine & Tom, who all kept an eye on things while we were gone. We never worried once about the house & that made our dream trip even more enjoyable. It was so much fun to be gone & it's so nice to be home. Can't ask for more than that!

October 12-16 - Washington DC

Greenbelt National Park in Maryland was a great base for exploring Washington DC. The park was beautiful & filled with deer, grey squirrels & black squirrels. They were an interesting sight. Walnut trees surrounded our RV & kept our adrenaline pumping each time walnuts dropped onto our roof. We hardly felt like we were just 10 miles away from our nation's capitol. The Metro station was a couple miles from us & we became quite adept at navigating the train system. We took a double decker bus tour the first 2 days in town. This allowed us an overview of the city & the opportunity to hop on & off as we pleased. DC was much more spread out than we expected, so we were glad to be able to see all the major sights for one low fare & not having to drive or park. The monuments & buildings were awe-inspiring & beautiful. It really made us even more proud of our country to be standing in the middle of so much history & importance. We even saw a motorcade on day one! Also saw a diplomatic license plate but didn't take a picture since we thought we'd see more. We didn't, but we did see a "Member of Congress" plate & quickly snapped away. Lesson learned! Once we knew where we wanted to go, we again took the Metro & then walked to the museums we wanted to explore further. We stood in line at the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence & the Constitution & are very glad we did, but we were surprised that they were more faded than we thought they would be. The main guard on duty cracked us up - he was power mad & very thorough in giving everyone very detailed instructions about where they should stand & how they should move through the line. Oh well, it was pretty good unintended comic relief. We had a great Maryland crab cake dinner near the park with friends Darcy & Bobbie. Well, Darcy had the salmon but we let him sit with us anyway. They were kind enough to drive about an hour from their home to meet up with us. As always, we had lots of fun & laughs with them.

October 6-11 - Pennsylvania & New Jersey

We stopped near Easton, PA to visit Barb's friend Sandra & her husband Curt. Barb & Sandra worked together years ago & it's always fun to catch up. Curt & Sandra moved to Pennsylvania in February & seem very happy in their beautiful home. We went to dinner at a Portugese restaurant, which we'd never had but it was really good. After our nice visit, we moved to a park in New Jersey that is just 10 miles from Philadelphia. We took a double decker bus tour to get an overview & re-learn some history. Philadelphia is a beautiful old city but we were told most of the skyscrapers were built during a 1980's boom & they are quite bland. After the bus tour, we walked around our favorite neighborhoods. We loved seeing the townhouses in Society Hill & Elfreth's Alley. Elfreth's Alley has been a residential neighborhood for over 300 years & has just a carriage road running through it. Very beautiful & peaceful. We had Philly cheesesteaks for lunch in the building where Larry of the Three Stooges was born. Don't fear; it has since been converted to a restaurant. Philadelphia sightseeing highlights included Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin's grave, an open air market & the Rocky statue. We didn't run up the steps of the art museum, nor do we feel guilty after learning that Sylvester Stallone only ran up 3 steps while his stunt double ran the other 69! Oh...Barb got the senior rate on her bus tour ticket. Hopefully the ticket seller was just being a nice guy & passing along the $2 savings. Alas, that was not the only irritation of the day. Barb remembers seeing Pod restaurant on TV years & years ago. She thought at the time she'd definitely go there if she was ever in Philadelphia & was thrilled to learn it is still in business. It has all-white round booth-rooms with colored lighting that the occupants can change. Seems like a must-see, right? Well, we were there early in the evening & the bratty hostess would not allow us to even have a quick drink in a pod since you "must" have a party of 6. The place was nearly empty! Guess we should have either recruited everyone there to sit with us or bribed her. Despite all this trauma, we still had a fun day. Our trip to Atlantic City let us know that we don't need to return to Atlantic City. It was fun to see & Dennis enjoyed reminiscing about his family trip to the Democratic National Convention there when he was 14 years old. We donated a little to Mr. Trump, had a corn dog on the boardwalk & Dennis dropped Barb off at the outlet mall while he circled the block. Luckily, Barb was only interested in running into H&M where she scored a very cute top. If you've been reading the blog, you may remember the H&M obsession from the Chicago leg of the trip. We're sure she'll lose interest once they finally come to Phoenix.