Canada!

We drove up Routes 20 and 97 to the Osoyoos area of British Columbia to Okanagan Falls.  There are hundreds of cherry, apple and pear orchards all the way up to the border.  Luckily we didn’t buy any fruit there, as they confiscate fruit at the border.  The border is another story, but suffice it to say, we were singled out by the computer and we spent quite awhile there while they searched for fruit and made us put our firewood in the freezer there, because they don’t want our firewood bugs in their country.  We had known this beforehand but were pretty cavalier about the whole thing, thinking Canada was our friend!  Not entirely!  These people do not joke around.  I guess we can’t blame them considering some of the 9/11 terrorists came over the border from Canada.

The border

After that delay, we decided to stay a little farther south than we had planned.  We entered into a beautiful valley of vineyards and orchards.  This is truly the Napa-Sonoma of British Columbia.  There are vineyards everywhere, the tastings are usually free and this section of the Okanagan Valley is just the beginning of the BC wine country.  We decided to stop at one on our way, Gold Hill Winery where we indulged in a bottle of Viognier and Cabernet Franc.  We are saving them for a special occasion. 

We stopped at Okanagan Falls Provincial Park and got the last possible spot.  We were planning to leave the next day as the park didn’t thrill us (we are so used to being thrilled!), but learned that Canada Day is coming up on Monday and the weekend is jammed.  All the parks we searched north of here are booked and we are a little unprepared planning-wise to go for a boondocking spot.  So, we stayed.  Actually, it turned out to be a godsend as we needed down time.  We took showers, cleaned up Maxine a bit, took walks along the river and the lake nearby and explored the very meager downtown.  Actually, the park is quite nice.  It is very simple:  we have a fire pit and a really nice table and are relatively private.  There are no hookups but the bathroom (which we seldom use) is decent and we love the married couple who are the hosts here-I believe they are rangers.  They have been very helpful.  The park is known for its bats and night hawks that come out at twilight.  They also have the most delightful California Quails which are a little too fast for me to catch on camera.  Not a whole lot to take pictures of except a lovely walk along the river here.

That's a deer over there.  Boo was dying to
go after him but he did get a chance to
chase a couple of ducks earlier.

We are actually at our first Internet Cafe, The Dogtown Cafe, today.  I'm working on the blog and doing emails and Jim is doing his thing.  It's kind of strange to all of a sudden find ourselves in rolling hills and lush valleys after being in so much "wild" country these past weeks.  We are going to meet up with some friends from San Carlos up north a bit for a few days before heading into Jasper.  

The North Cascades

After much studying of maps, we decided to stay in Washington to go through the North Cascades instead of right up into BC to Hope.  We are so glad we did.  One of the most remarkable mountain areas we’ve ever seen.  You drive up following the Skagit River, which is by far the prettiest river I’ve seen yet.  It beats the Hoh, which had the pale light blue color from Glacial “Flour”. 

Our first glimpse of the mountains here.
This range was one of the last places to be
mapped in the United States (in the 60's).

This was just one of many waterfalls along the
road.  The water wants to get to the Pacific! 

There are several dams up here that were
built in the 1920's to bring electricity to the
Seattle area.

Can you believe this color?!!!

We wanted to stay at Colonial Creek Campground which is another one of the 10 best Washington campgrounds.  It was lovely but we had a hard time finding a site that was large enough and level enough.  We finally found one on the river, even though it wasn’t very level.  Even with our chock blocks under the tires, we were probably at an 8 or 9 degree slope.  We turned the mattress around, which helped a lot considering that otherwise, Jim would have ended up on the floor in the middle of the night.  We managed and it was worth it to be so close to this gorgeous river/lake:  the Skagit empties into Diablo Lake.

Maxine just barely made it in.

We watched families of geese swim on by.

We set up our chairs here and had a ringside seat.

We took a wonderful hike along the Thunder Basin Creek which was every bit as beautiful as the rain forests in the Peninsula.  Mosses and ferns were everywhere.  I just finished reading The Signature of all Things, which is a novel about a female moss expert who lived in the 1700’s so the mosses just screamed out at me to pay attention.

We eventually found a sweet little nook by the river where we enjoyed a bottle of wine and a little down time.

After a few days at Colonial Creek, we were anxious to see the rest of the Cascades (though, of course, that could take a lifetime!)  The North Cascades are really three different parklands:  The North Cascades National Park, the Ross Lake National Recreation Area and the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area.  We couldn’t believe that there are actually 300 glaciers here!  They call it the Alps of America and it well deserves that name.  It would be wonderful to spend a whole summer here, exploring trails, mountain lakes and streams.  Sorry to say, we only had a few days.

Port Townsend and Whidbey Island

Port Townsend is a sleepy little Victorian seaport with a few boutiques and restaurants.  It apparently bills itself as a cultural center of sorts, though we didn't see evidence of that, but then we didn't really investigate either.  It is one of only three designated National Historic Victorian seaports in the country.  Its primary business is the ferry traffic, carrying people, trucks, cars and "Maxines" to Whidbey Island which has a road, Deception Pass, to the mainland.  We had originally thought we'd have to go down the other side of the Peninsula and then back up through Washington to Canada.  This was a much more direct route, though I am sure we missed some great stuff on the east side of the Peninsula.

Port Townsend downtown

Coffee, salmon chowder and quiche for
breakfast

A great view

The ferry terminal

Here she comes

1st in line

Happily ensconsed on the upper deck

View of the town from the ferry

This guy was allowed on and off first.  Scary to
think of the weight this boat is carrying!

We picked a campground near the ferry, Ft. Casey State Park, which is one of the Washington State old battery forts.

The lighthouse at Ft. Casey

One of the remaining gun batteries

Is this a funny campsite, or what!?!

But, look how close we are to the ferry!

We also saw lots of big cargo ships and little fishing boats.  We were totally amused!  The most amazing of all was seeing one after another high performance jets (F-16s?) take to the skies and rock Maxine's boat with the incredible shock waves they produced behind them.  We took a billion pictures, but none that got the idea across.  It turns out that there is a naval air training station right across the way.

We took a road trip to the southern part of Whidbey and visited a lovely farm at Greenbank where we indulged in their wine tastings and snacked on their famous pies:  we tried marionberry and sea salt caramel apple.  We vote for the apple!  The wines were interesting:  especially the blackberry and loganberry which would be great on ice cream but, we passed this time.

They grow lots and lots of lavender here.

My favorite in the sculpture garden

Hi, there

Beautiful lady

Our friend, Lynne Mc Dougal, suggested a great restaurant
in Langley, where we dined on the famous local Penn Cove
mussels and had a martini!

We couldn't linger as we could hear Boo barking in Maxine down the street from our perch.  He is not a happy pup when we leave him alone.  He was hyperventilating by the time I got him and took him for a walk.  But we did find a great place for a walk.

Imitating the sculpture - But, how did I forget the rule?  Never
stick your butt out in public!

And a different but interesting rainbow at sunset.

We are now in Mt. Vernon, WA catching up on laundry and bills, shopping at a Camping World and awaiting a Monday appointment to buy new tires.  Chores are no darned fun!  City life is not agreeing with us at all and we are looking forward to heading to the Northern Cascades and Canada asap!    Ah, Wilderness!

In the meantime, guess what Boo got at
Camping World?  A new outdoor bed!

But he still loves his indoor one best of all!