September 17, 2015

We decided to try another Whale Watching tour out of Anacortes, WA.

This is Burrows Point Light and keepers house. I would love to take a tour of the house, it's much bigger than most keepers houses

 We saw a pod of Orcas playing in the water, but that's about all we saw is the dorsal fins, no breaches today

We did see another eagle, watching for his next meal.

 This is the Mariners Monument in Anacortes Harbor, honoring all of those who didn't come home.

The Lady of the Sea Monument for all those Ladies who patiently waited for their men to come home.

Back in the U.S.A.

September 12, 2015

We crossed back into the Good Ole U.S.A. this morning. Didn't have far to travel as our RV park for the last couple of days was only 1 block to the west of the border. We stood in line for about 30 minutes to get through customs, so it took us longer for that than to get there.

We spent the 12th & 13th at Cedars RV in Ferndale, OR so that Phil could research the Smiley family at the cemetery there.

Then we moved on to NAS Whidbey Island, WA and stayed at the campground there, called Cliffside RV Park. This is a newly revamped park, done in two sections. We had a back in non water view lot the first night, then moved the next day to a water view lot and stayed there the remainder of our one week stay.

Our campsite, with water view

The beach

Lots of driftwood on this beach, and they don't want us using it for fires.

Driftwood art

Got sea junk??? All of this has been cleaned up off of the beach, floats from boats and on the left is a whole display of flip flops, mostly just one of each pair.

The RV park has it's own sign forest, we didn't know about it before hand, so we didn't contribute.

More driftwood art

The flowers around the campground are all planted and maintained by the camp host.

Kind of hard to see through the haze, but Mount Baker is there.

The story behind Deception Pass

The bridge over Deception Pass

A sunset in process from our site at Cliffside

Vancouver Aquarium, Vancouver, BC

 September 11, 2015

We arrived at Pacific Border RV Park yesterday afternoon,  Pat and Terri went on to their motel. After four days of pretty steady driving, we took some down time last night, then Pat and Terri picked us up this morning. Our destination is the Vancouver Aquarium...way on the west side of town.

 We are always fascinated with the engineering of bridges, you might have noticed a few pictures. This one goes over the Fraser River.

 The sky scrappers of Vancouver are mostly condos. Unlike most big cities, the business core of Vancouver still seems to be located downtown, so I'm guessing a large portion of these condos are owned by people who work there.

 Finally, we arrive at the Vancouver Aquarium, another attraction we never seem to tire of.

 The aquarium is also a learning and research center, and it houses many beautiful sea critters, as well as some strange.

 A very large eel

 This blue eyed frog was one of many on display, and even though the frogs were all behind glass, we could hear some of them croaking.

 These colorful members of the Jelly Fish family are always fascinating to watch

 This is Chuck, one of the newer rescues they have at the aquarium. He is very social, loves having his belly rubbed and doesn't even mind having his teeth cleaned by one of his attendants.

 This little sea otter is strapped into some sort of  float and his right paw seems to be strapped to keep it immobile, so he must have injured it in some way.

 Junk of the sea, most of which comes off of fishing boats

 A Jelly Fish of a different breed. Watching these little guys float around in this display kind of reminded me of a lava lamp.

 Fish from the tropics are always pretty and colorful

 I found Nemo!!!!








The creature below is another member of the Jelly Fish family (I think), but whatever it is, it is very strange looking!!

On the way to Vancouver, via stops in Prince George, and Cache Creek

September 7, 2015

We finally left Smithers today, heading to Vancouver, BC, with stops in Prince George for two nights, then Cache Creek for one night

On the way to Prince George, we passed through Houston, BC, whose claim to fame is this giant fishing pole, for fly fishing. We were going to go through the visitor's center, but it was closed, it's a Labor Day Holiday up here too.

As we travel south, we find fewer hints of fall, there are still pretty flowers in bloom here.

 The giant fishing pole

On the way to Cache Creek, we came upon this really pretty Visitor's center where we spent a couple of hours going through the building and eating lunch

 Terri and Pat lay out lunch, complete with table cloth

 The inside of the center

 This might be most everything you would need for a fun get away week end in BC, might need a bigger vehicle though!!

 Back on the road, notice the difference in the landscape...no trees

This split in the mountain we caused when the glacier that was here many thousands of years pulled back as it receded.

Look closely and you will see what look like windows in the mountain. These are actually the beginning and ending of a tunnel going through the rocks. There is an extension of the tunnel, then the windows, This is here to prevent the debris from the many rock slides from covering the tracks

 Trees on the mountain again, on one side anyway. Fast flowing river...anyone for floating over some rapids???

 This is one of several tunnels we went through

And we find trees again on the other side of the tunnel!!

Solid rock!!

 The tram ride down this little section of the mountain is called Hell's Gate. I was game for riding down, but everyone else said no, they wanted to go on.