Wrapping up the trip

Well, I promised a wrap-up post, but haven't gotten around to it until now. So here are some statistics and interesting facts about our trip (these apply to me; Emily's will be a little different):

• Canadian provinces visited: 3 (Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia)
• U.S. states visited: 8 (Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington)
• Kilometers driven: 4911 (about 3045 miles)
• Gas guzzled (sipped is more like it): about $300 worth (at an average of $4/gallon, that works out to 75 gallons, or about 40 mi/gallon!)
• Modes of transportation: 2 trains, 3 cars, 5 boats, 2 planes
• License plates seen: 49 states (all but Hawaii) and 7 provinces (all but Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island)
• Photographs taken: Over 600 by me, over 1000 by Emily
• Wildlife seen: wild turkey, deer (several species), prairie dogs, moose, bison, antelope, pronghorn, black bear, coyote, jackrabbit, cottontail rabbits, chipmunks, golden eagle, bald eagle, various unidentified birds, plus some others only seen as road kill (opossums, raccoons, porcupine)
• National Parks visited: 2 (Badlands, Yellowstone)
• National Monuments visited: 1 (Mt. Rushmore)
• National Grasslands visited: 2 (Buffalo Gap, Thunder Basin)
• National Forests visited: 4 (Gallatin, Shoshone, Coeur d'Alene, Wenatchee)
• Restaurant meals eaten: 7
• Places we wanted to see but skipped for lack of time: Devils Tower National Monument, Grand Teton National Park, Seattle Space Needle
• Scariest drive: a tie between the Beartooth Highway, and the road from Canyon to Tower in Yellowstone (I drove 'em both - apparently my fear of heights is not as great as Emily's, something I thought impossible)
• Spectacular vistas seen: incalculable
• Patriotic songs sung: 2 (thanks for putting up with them, Emily!)

Thanks for reading along and sharing our trip with us!

Well, I'm back

Steve and Christine took me to Nanaimo airport this morning, where I snapped this picture of a palm tree beside a Canadian flag! Then I took the short hop (flying time - 9 minutes) over to Vancouver airport, getting a great aerial view of Gibsons along the way. Only 45 minutes to make my connection there, and by the time I got to my gate, they were making the last call for Montreal. An uneventful flight back home, and I'm back to hot, sticky Montreal.

I'll try to do a final wrap-up post some time tomorrow.

Cowichin Bay, Carcassonne, and Victoria

After I last posted yesterday, Steve and I went to the little village of Cowichin Bay where we walked around the shops, visited a wooden boat museum, and sampled some of the local fare at the bakery. It's a picturesque little fishing and resort town near where Steve and Christine live.

In the evening we had salmon cooked on cedar planks on the barbecue (yum!), and then Steve and Christine taught me how to play Carcassonne. Warning to game players: I'm going to buy it myself, and you will have to play it with me. (More Carcassonne is on the agenda for tonight.)

Then today, we went to visit Victoria. It's a lovely port city at the south end of Vancouver Island, and the capital of the province of British Columbia. On the way back we stopped at a scenic overlook where we could see Mt. Baker in northern Washington state.

I'd always thought of B.C. as very rainy, but apparently it's only rainy in the winter. The summers are warm and sunny, with low humidity. It's a great place to live.

Well, I can't believe it's over already, but it's back to Montreal tomorrow!

Duncan, B.C., Thursday, July 10

Yesterday I took the ferry from the Sunshine Coast back to the Lower Mainland, and then another ferry over to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. I shared the first ferry ride with some friends of Emily's who had also stayed at Paul's, Roma and her two children Tristan and Mathom.

Steve and Christine picked me up at the ferry terminal in Nanaimo, and took me to their place in Duncan. We had a nice barbecue in their beautiful back yard, and enjoyed catching up. I also got to meet Minnie. Minnie decided that she likes me (but I suspect she likes everybody, pretty much).

Today Steve is off and Christine has to work, but we met for lunch at the River Walk Café. It's part of the Quw'utsun' cultural and conference center, run by the Cowichin nation. We had a guided tour of the cultural center and saw lots of totems and had their meanings explained, watched them cooking salmon over a wood fire, and then had a delicious lunch of native fried bread, pan-fried oysters, buffalo, and venison. (My venison chile was particularly tasty.)

Duncan will be the host of the North American Native Games later on this month, and they are gearing up for a really big event. It's too bad I'm going to miss it!

More later. Tomorrow, Steve and Christine both have off, so we are planning on staying up late and playing games. Woo-hoo!

Update July 10, 2008

Good morning .. All is quiet here at Paul's .. next week we will be putting the boat up on the ways to paint it.. on Wednesday. I hope to take a lot of photos of the project, and will post them here, along with some more boat photos for Joe! Keep checking back. Who knows what else will show up. E.

Exploring the Sunshine Coast

Yesterday was a quiet day.

When I got up in the morning, there was a deer having his breakfast outside my bedroom window (see previous post). We had a leisurely breakfast, and then Emily and I got in the car for a drive as far up the coast as we could go without taking another ferry (not really very fat - about 86 km). The road is very windy and goes up and down a lot, with some beautiful scenery along the way, as well as some lovely secluded beaches and little harbors.

The Sunshine Coast used to be called the Rain Coast (because it rains here a lot, especially in the winter), but a tourism board made a marketing decision to change its name to attract more visitors! Well, it's lived up to its new name since I've been here. The weather has been sunny and delightful.

Today I'll be saying good-bye to Emily and Paul, and taking two ferries to get to Vancouver Island, where I'll be visiting my friends Steve and Christine. It's going to be hard telling Emily good-bye, because we've shared so many incredible experiences in the last week and a half. But I'm also looking forward to getting reacquainted with Steve and Christine, and with seeing Vancouver Island, because as many times as I've been out here, I've never been there yet.

I'm going to keep posting the Photo of the Day, and will keep posting here, too, as long as I'm on my trip. Emily still hasn't decided what she's going to do.

A Room with a View

I looked outside my bedroom window this morning, and this is what I saw.

Serendipity

Emily and I wanted to tell you about some of the little unexpected moments of delight that we had during our trip. Here are just a few:

- As we were driving into the sunset in southern Minnesota, we saw wind turbines silhouetted against the brilliant red sky.

- In Badlands National Park, Emily got out of the car to photograph some cactus flowers, and heard the chirping of prairie dogs warning each other of our presence. We had stumbled upon a prairie dog town.

- Near the highest point on the Bear Tooth Highway, Emily decided to take a drink. She opened her water bottle, and it sprayed water, like a can of soda that had been shaken before opening. The water bottle had been filled in the valley, and the difference in air pressure made the water explode from the bottle when opened at high altitude.

- When we finally got to Yellowstone, we got out of the car and took pictures of each other at the Yellowstone National Park sign. And I burst into tears of joy. Literally. I wasn't expecting that reaction, but I had wanted to go to Yellowstone for all my life, and the drive had been so long, and the buildup so intense, that my emotions spilled over.

- Upon entering the park, we hadn't gone a quarter mile when we saw our first wildlife, and it was a moose! No one else we talked to the entire time we were there saw a moose. The moose population has decreased since the fires of 20 years ago, and we were lucky to see one.

- As we were watching Old Faithful erupt, two other geysers in the same area started erupting at the same time - so we were seeing three geysers erupt in a line.

- We were unprepared for the awesome beauty of the sight of the Lower Falls and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. I was trying to express how gorgeous it was, and Emily just said, "No words. No words." And we just looked at it in silence. She was right. There are no words.

- Somewhere along the road in Montana (I think) we saw real cowboys in real cowboy hats riding horses and herding cattle.

- In eastern Washington, tumbleweed blew across the road, just like in old Western movies.

- We stopped at a Best Western in Ritzville, Washington to see if they had accommodations for us for the night. While I was inside inquiring, Emily was outside photographing the sunset behind a wheatfield and a farm (that became one of our Photos of the Day). It turned out to be the nicest place we stayed, and one of the least expensive.

- While stopped at the scenic overlook by the Columbia River, I saw a little red-bellied lizard among the sagebrush. It ran away before I could photograph it.

- We arrived at the ferry terminal in Vancouver with no idea of the ferry schedule. It turned out we were about five minutes before the cut-off. We couldn't have planned it better if we had known the schedule.

A lovely quiet day in Gibsons

We've had a lovely, quiet day here in Gibsons. We slept in and then we took the short drive from Paul's place up on the mountain down to the town of Gibsons. The town of Gibsons is famous across Canada as the place where The Beachcombers was filmed. The Beachcombers was the longest-running dramatic series ever filmed for Canadian television. Here are pictures of Molly's Reach and the Persephone for Beachcombers fans!



























We had some delicious fish and chips at a local eatery, and then we took a little hour and a half wildlife-viewing boat tour across to Keats Island.

The wildlife was all hiding, but we didn't care, because the scenery was so spectacular. (We did see a bald eagle soaring up above.)

My dad asked for some pictures of Paul's fishing operation, as well as of some of the local flora. Paul hasn't actually fished for a living since 2005, because it just isn't profitable any more for a small operation like his.
But here's a picture of his boat, the Octavia. (That's Paul and Emily standing in front of it.) And here are some pictures of the flora in his yard.


















There are wild larkspurs and berries
(these are salmon berries - first I photographed them, then I ate them), and some lovely cultivated roses.
















Paul also has some bears living on his property.
I haven't seen the bears yet, but here's a picture of the bear's calling card.














Tomorrow, Emily and I are going to take a drive up the coast, to see what's there.

We made it!

Well, we did it! It's hard to believe, but we have reached our destination of Gibsons, B.C. For those who aren't familiar with it, Gibsons is on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. It's on the mainland, but there are no roads here from the rest of the mainland. You have to get here by ferry. Canadians know Gibsons as the place where The Beachcombers was filmed.

We started off the morning in Ritzville, Washington, and headed west on I-90. Eastern Washington is very arid, full of sagebrush and tumbleweed, except in the areas that are irrigated. We stopped at a scenic overlook just before we crossed the Columbia River, and then headed toward the Cascades, crossing them into Seattle. I've never been to Seattle before, and have always wanted to go to the top of the Space Needle. But by the time we got there, we were both tired and just wanted to get to our journey's end. So the Space Needle will have to remain on my "bucket list" for now.

From Seattle it was due north, back into Canada, and to the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal. We were fortunate to arrive about 15 or 20 minutes before the ferry was due to depart, so we quickly drove on board and took the 40-minute ferry ride to Gibsons.

I'll let Emily post about Paul's place here, since she knows it better than I do. Suffice it to say that we are both tired and happy to be here. And we're still friends!

We're going to keep blogging for a while. I'm going to stay here in Gibsons until Wednesday, and then take the ferries over to Vancouver Island to visit my friends Steve and Christine. I'll continue blogging until I get back to Montreal. Emily's spending the summer here, and she hasn't decided if she'll continue blogging for that whole time, or if maybe she'll start a new blog for the rest of the summer. Anyway, I'll let her tell you about that!

This trip has been an amazing adventure of discovery, and of renewing an old and cherished friendship. I've learned things about Emily that I never knew before, and I'm sure she's learned things about me, too. I will always treasure this time we have spent together, and the beautiful and spectacular places we have seen.

Practicalities

Good morning!!

I know some of my readers have asked me to report on how I have managed to make this a budget trip, and how we shared the logistics of the day to day activities. We quite easily fell into a sort of routine/rhythm that works well. Here is a quick rundown:

David graciously made all reservations for the ferry at Lake Michigan and for our accomodations, before departure. We have had good rooms all along the way. They seem to get better the further west we get. All of them have wonderful comfy Queen size beds, and great showers. The first few nights we could have been in former smoking, now non-smoking rooms. Since then, they smell clean and fresh, too. Dave generously has paid for the ferry and accomodations. We planned our basic itinerary via email, during June, making a few modifications along the way.

Since the car is mine, I made sure that it was serviced and licensing updated, insurance all good, before we left. The car has purred along and served us well.I am very impressed with how easy all the steep inclines have been for the car. Sometimes Dave wishes he would have won the lottery (that he doesn't play) so he could have provided a larger car, but he's managing OK in my little Toyota Echo. I have paid for the gas, which will total a little over $200 by the time we get to Gibsons. I can report a more accurate amount then. Dave usually cleans the windows at gas stops while I handle the pump. We share the driving about equally. Dave drove the length of the Beartooth Highway. I have a bit of an issue with heights and am glad he drove that part!

Meals .. breakfast usually is provided at the hotels. Since I don't eat anything with cane sugar, sometimes the hotel breakfasts don't work for me as they are pastries, muffins etc. But I don't mind, as I have a supply of yogurt and meusli along and prefer that for breakfast any day! Lunches we usually eat at a picnic spot. I am the cook, and dishwasher. The first few days we ate leftovers from home, then sandwiches. Usually cheese. Along with some fresh veggies that we pick up. We've been to a grocery store twice, for bread (2 loaves altogether) fruit and fresh veggies. Last night I made us a wonderful salad with lettuce, chick peas, tomato slices, carrot slices, broccoli, and a creamy olive oil-garlic-tomato pesto-yogurt-Celtic sea salt dressing. It was yummy, even if I say so myself. The melted ice draining from the cooler chest washes hands, veggies, rinses dishes which I then wash in the hotel room sink. So far, we've gotten ice in the hotel, except for the first day we bought some in Kitchener. We have eaten a few meals at restaurants .. but very few, in fact. We are haphazardly sharing the cost of food.

Picture taking .. we're each taking pictures of things that interest us. At the end of the trip, we'll burn our photos on a CD to give to the other one. I take many many more pictures than David and so have 2.5 one gig chips filled already. I wish posting them wouldn't take so long, as I'd post many more.

Time to pack up, load, eat and get on the way. This was our last hotel night, and we get a wonderful, healthy breakfast, apparently! More later ........

Thousands of Words in the form of Pictures ....

Hello readers ... By now the days have run together, and things that we saw this morning or yesterday seem like weeks ago! My mind is super-saturated with images, information and memories. I am not sure I can take anything more in!! It looks like Dave has written the "essentials" so I will post some photos from the last few days.

A Group of Elk:

A Bubbling, Hot, Mud Volcano, Yellowstone Park:

Yellowstone Traffic Jam .... Bison leading a parade ???:

This little lake at the Continental Divide, empties into both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans ..

Can you find the coyote? :

Can you find the bear?

A sandhill crane looking upwards!

Leaving Yellowstone for the last time (this trip!):

Heading on west:

That's it for tonight. Its time to turn in for the rest of the night. I'll post more in a day or so.

I am eager to get to my destination .. Gibsons, BC

Saturday, July 5

Today was a driving day, but that doesn't mean we didn't see some spectacular sights!

We left Gardiner, Montana this morning and bid farewell to Yellowstone. It was a bittersweet moment, because we were leaving that beautiful park, but were heading toward our final destination. We headed north, through a beautiful valley, to Interstate 90. We traveled west on I-90 all day, except for a short 60-mile scenic diversion in Montana, and passed through Idaho and on into Washington. We stopped for the night at Ritzville. Tomorrow, we expect to finish our journey to Gibsons!

When we get to Gibsons, we will do a post about serendipity - little unexpected moments of joy we have had throughout the trip.

Here are some pictures of today for your enjoyment!