Oh Canada!

We took the long drive up to the Canadian border and with a few cursory questions; we crossed the border into Canada. When we arrived at Tim’s parents house Papa and Mimi had parked their cars next to the park by their house to give us a place to station War Eagle. When Georgia saw Mimi, she nearly exploded, screaming Mimi, Mimi, Mimi! I guess she missed her grandmother. Within a few minutes of arrival, Nigel (Tim’s Brother) his wife Alex and their two boys Nicholas and Kyle arrived to welcome us to the Great White North. Deirdre (Tim’s sister), her husband Andrew and her three boys Max, Mason and Owen also arrived. All her cousins fawned over Georgia and she was in heaven.

We spent the next day making repairs and doing laundry then spent the evening at Leanne’s (Tim’s other sister) house with her husband Gary and her daughters Olivia and Sarah. We’ve been trying for ages to get G to wear something in her hair to keep it out of her eyes with no success but Sarah and Olivia managed in just 2 minutes!

The next day Tim went out for Sushi with his old friend Cam (a Vancouver tradition) and spent the wee hours hanging out with Cam and a mutual friend Adam. Karen spent a lovely evening at Trish and Eric’s house and had a fun reunion with their son Aspen, who is just a few months younger.

Mimi and Papa are just great with all their grandchildren and Mimi and Georgia are especially close.

So we took advantage of that and had our first date out without Georgia since… I don’t know when. We went to a lovely high-end Belgian place called Chambar and then walked off that wonderful food down by English Bay. Vancouver IS a beautiful city. Makes you want to live here.

Being very close to Canada Day, Mimi had all the Beckmann’s over to her house for a BBQ. It went past 90 degrees, which is very hot for Vancouver and we sat outside, drank beer and chatted as Georgia’s cousins chased her around the house. It was a special treat to see Tim’s cousin, Joel who Tim and Karen haven’t seen since their wedding and who Georgia’s never met.

The next morning, having realized that we had spent 5 nights in Vancouver and ticked most things off our list, we reluctantly decided it was time to take our next adventure around British Columbia. So we started packing up, doing some grocery shopping and loading up on firewood in preparation. We took time out of our very hot day to go to the Vancouver Lawn Tennis Club for a swim with Mimi, Papa and Nigel’s family.

We had dinner at Nigel and Alex’s that evening and Georgia cuddled up to her cousins to watch Madagascar 3 for the 20^th time.

Vancouver was great. We saw lots of Tim’s family, had lots of babysitters, accomplished a lot and enjoyed our time thoroughly. We can’t wait to see the all of the family again in a few weeks in Saltspring or Vancouver.

Vancouver before Vancouver

Still evading the rain, we decided to expedite the Oregon coast and head for a friend’s home.   We drove up the coast highway for another 100 miles to get another taste of Oregon coastal beauty before heading inland to I-5 for a boring but efficient journey across the state.  We passed through the beautiful city of Portland, OR much too fast for Karen’s taste and crossed the border to Washington. 

We were planning to stay with Susan and Hale in their home in Vancouver, WA.  We pulled War Eagle in front of their house where Susan had set out buckets to hold our place.  It is a beautiful and typical Pacific, northwest home with a stunning garden.  We enjoyed comparing stories with Susan and Hale as they took a much longer sabbatical sailing around the Caribbean. 

After a lovely surf and turf dinner, we all went to bed too late for our long push to Vancouver, Canada the next day.  We hope to see them again soon!

Cape Blanco...more rain?

Once we were on the road and back on internet, we realised Oregon state parks are much better value than California.  CA was $35 per night with no electricity or water hook-ups and Oregon was $20 per night with electricity and water.  We were pleased we moved out of our last site.

Along our drive in Oregon, we stopped at pull-offs in Samuel H. Boardman Scenic Corridor to enjoy the rugged and rocky coast of Oregon.  

Tim and I agreed it looked a lot like Scotland!

At Susan’s recommendation, we stayed at a beautiful state park on the coast called Cape Blanco.  With gorgeous wild flowers, a wild ocean and wild rain and wind, it wasn’t ideal, but you could imagine going back in nice weather and really enjoying it.  It was too blowy and raining for a trail hike, so we decided to take war down to the beach.  

Tim was up for an adventure and put the truck into 4x4 and we drove along the beach.  It was fun, but Karen was concerned about getting stuck.  Tim had faith in War and she got us out just fine.  Georgia enjoyed looking for the light from the lighthouse.

With the rain continuing and forecast for the next 3 days, we decided to skip Oregon Dunes and head straight for Susan and Hale’s house in Washington.

Del Norte - someone did a rain dance...

We have been so lucky so as to not have rain, really at all since May 2 in Orlando, Fl.  It’s June 23 and rain has caught up with us.  Or maybe it’s because we’re in Northern California.  As we woke up at 6am in Humboldt State Park, the rain started.  We laid in bed snoozing and listening to it.  Later we decided to get on our way, Tim got drenched and a few outdoor items of ours did too.  This was proper drenching rain on top of the typical foggy mist of the region.

We headed to Redwoods National Park hoping that it would clear up.  Unfortunately, it hadn’t.

As we pulled into the national park, we had already been considering cancelling or shortening our stay there because we’d had a lot of Redwoods already.  With it raining outside, no electricity or water, we decided to give ourselves a break.  We headed out for a rare lunch out.  We headed into the coastal town and to a seafood restaurant on the wharf.  We had clam chowder and fish and chips and it was a welcome break.  Afterwards, we walked outside to brave the wind and rain and see the sea lions snoozing on the docks.

When we got back to our campsite, Tim had gotten a full-blown cold and was not up for any outdoor adventures in the rain.  So, we all jumped into Karen and Tim’s bed, snuggled under covers and watched 102 Dalmations on the laptop (thanks for the DVD, Leslie).  Then we decided to push out the next day aiming for electricity (heat) and water (showers).

We also realised that we had sent out 6 post cards without postage and had to re-write our thank yous.  Sorry if you received a post card with postage due!  Georgia had fun writing post cards with us.

Humboldt Redwoods State Park

We entered through the Avenue of the Giants.  Pulling a 31 foot trailer behind a 21 foot truck with 300 foot trees touching the edge of the road is slightly stressful, especially when you can see impact marks 10 feet up the trees from previous trailers.  We stopped at the visitor center to help find our campsite and have a breather. 

We decided to enter the theatre room where they were showing a National Geographic show on the Redwoods as Georgia was keen for a ‘movie’.  Georgia was being quite particular about where each of us should sit and a little noisy.  We took her out at one point and told her she had to be quiet or we would leave.  We went back in and she was asking Tim to move seats.  Then it happened, and took us aback.  A woman turned to Karen and said, “you should leave”.  We couldn’t believe it.  It was a free 30-minute movie with 7 people in it, where the woman and her husband walked in late for the start.    It wasn’t like premier opera at $100 a ticket.  Can you tell that this bugged us?  For the rest of the day, it did really, maybe still does.  We decided either she never had children and needed to teach them to sit in a theatre or was a bitter person or just liked being self-righteous.  It is just so shocking after all the people who have loved having Georgia around.  Rant over.

When we got into our campsite, we were blown away by the redwood forest it was within.  Trees everywhere, and big ones.  Karen was driving and needed Tim to get out with the walkie-talkie even before we got to our site.  Luckily we didn’t hit anything.  The site was beautiful…and dark.  It reminded Karen of the Twilight book series where vampires could walk freely in the northwest US, because there was never sunlight.

We headed out for a hike amongst the huge trees and to the river.  There were clovers and ferns and poison oak, luckily we escaped any impact, but now we know what it looks like.

The next day we went for a hike in the old growth area of the park and it was even more beautiful with carpets of clover and ferns that traversed felled, humongous redwood trunks.  With Tim feeling a little under the weather (we all got a little cold/sick, we decided to take it easy and go to a swimming hole along the river}. 

In the evenings, Karen and Tim were thrilled, because Georgia was playing her first active game of ball, chasing, kicking, throwing and stealing with her mum and dad.

Clear Lake

We needed a place between Lodi and the coast to stop for the night, so we headed for another state park, this time on a lake, Clear Lake.   However, when we got there, we went for a swim to have some fun and the lake wasn’t very clear at all.  There were particulate green algae throughout the water.  There was no one swimming and the ranger didn’t warn us against swimming when we arrived, so we went in and splashed around.  After we got out, we notice a small hidden sign that said that when there were algae present it could create toxins.  So, Karen panicked and had to talk to drive to the ranger station to allay her worries about Georgia putting the water in her mouth, which she did, no worries.

Karen and Georgia went for a hike and got a little lost.  However, they make it back alive.  The walk over the lake was lovely in a different way.