August 15, 2012

Well well well.  Lookit here.  Laura hasn't been updating! It's as we all suspected, she's just no good at it.  But at least she's making up for it today!

Where were we?  Oh yes.

August 09, 2012
Diana and I are looking to get married.  That is often what happens after an engagement.  I did not know this until last week when Diana started contacting locations for venue information.  So we headed down to Mt. Rainier to check things out.  Who doesn't want to go down to Mt. Rainier on a beautiful day anyway? Not me! (See the double negative?) We dragged Rachel and Amy along with us and made an entire day of it.  It couldn't've been a better day for it: clear skies, nice temperature, perfect views.  

What a good looking volcano.

August 10, 2012
Not very much happened to me on August 10th, but my brother did fly in from California and get to meet our niece for the first time.  I didn't need an excuse to go visit her! We played a number of card games as a family, including a new version of Golf that I learned in the last week or so. It's pretty fun.  No big deal.

If it were cribbage, I wouldn't even be able to count the score.

August 11, 2012
This being the second to last day at home, Diana and I decided to add a little bit of construction to our packing.  In order to fit more things into the cab of the truck, we built a small shelf that can hold our clothes bags and the tent, along with a few other items.  It later ended up being very good that we did that, since our stuff barely fits now, even with the extra storage. 

Using power tools.  Always fun.

 That night was the main night of the Perseid meteor shower. So we sat out in the back yard watching the stars shoot across the sky. Amy and I were the last ones standing... or really sitting, as it were. We saw a number of really cool streaks, though I'm not as young as I used to be and can not stay up until 2am watching the skies like I used to. But it was neat anyway.

ooOOoo stars!

August 12, 2012
This was the last day at home before taking off to Canada and Alaska.  Diana and I went on a date.  We still try to do that, even though we are getting married (like I learned earlier in the week).  I like dates.  I like Diana's company.  She's a pretty cool friend and is fun to hang out with.  On our last date in 4 months, we rode the ferry across to Kingston where we got food and played cribbage before returning back to Edmonds.  It's hard not to be sad at the thought of it being the last time we really get to hang out for so long, and you can see the sadness in our smiles as we took the ferry back.

Gawd I love her.

August 13, 2012
Take off! We started off with a late start.  Well, we planned a late start, so perhaps that's not the perfect wording.  But it's the wording I'm using.  After packing the rest of the things into the truck- perhaps cramming is the better word- we headed north towards Bellingham, the border, and the great North.  First stop was an oil change in Bellingham, before going through the border at Sumas, and starting our journey for real.  Although many things happen and we see some great views, I will probably not be able to mention it all, so you should go here for a supplemental: northern-journeys.blogspot.com. 

Before we left, I got a photo with everyone at home.  Again, you can see the sadness in some of our expressions.  I'm excited to go to Alaska, I'm just going to miss the heck out of her.

The first day of the drive was essentially like driving up the eastern border of the Cascades.  The arid landscape was covered in sage brush and distinctly lacked trees.  There were beautiful veins and dikes cutting through the rock faces. Canada has many turn outs along the highways, so there are plenty of opportunities to get out, look at the view, stretch the legs, toss the trash.  There are garbage cans everywhere.  And, who would have thought, I've seen nearly no litter anywhere along the drive! 

Monday had a haze along most of the drive, and when I pulled into the Lakeside Inn at Williams Lake, BC in the evening, she said that they had some smoke from Russia that had been coming in. I thought it was odd, but Amy said that western Washington had some of that too, and it was creating beautiful sunsets. 

A lot of our stops were just at the pull offs along the road, especially on the first day. 

August 14, 2012
Yesterday we drove from Williams Lake to Hudson's Hope.  Despite some rain and clouds for a good portion of the day, it was still really nice. We stopped off at a couple of Provincial parks- both for lunch and dinner- as well as some rest areas. At the first one, we not only ate, but also played frisbee on the grass, went down the slide at the playground, and got our toes in the sand at the beach.  

Jumping around at Bear Lake

Even cooler than that is Bijoux Falls. This one is for Diana.  

1-800-OKFACE

As we continued on, the landscape changed and we headed toward the Canadian Rockies.  There were beautiful upright layers, increased forests, and (as suggested) a ton of lakes and ponds. We were originally planning on staying the night in Chetwynd, but as we arrived there at 4ish, we decided that's too early to stop. Instead, we did some errands: grocery shopping, gas, stopped by the bank.  And we used the free WiFi by the visitors center to check in with our family. From there we headed north on 29 to Hudson's Hope.  Pretty soon we stopped to eat the food that we bought- delicious cucumber sandwiches on kaiser rolls.

A beautiful dinner spot

Because the first lodge was full (and despite doing a sweep of town, we missed the second hotel) we turned around and stayed at a nearby campground.  Alwin Holland Memorial Park was small and cute, with a peaceful river directly next to it (Peaceful River, I believe). We were more than willing to pay the $15 to stay there, but we didn't see any depository and nobody came by to collect our money.  So it was a free night! 

August 15, 2012
With an early start (it was light by 5, and we were up by 615) we unpacked camped and continued north.  Today we spent our time mostly by the Rockies, driving through full and lush forests.  Well, full forests.  A pine beetle has been in the BC area and our whole trip has seen large swatches of brown trees that have been victim of the beetle. Most of the trees are alive, but a lot are not. The weather was best today, a nice warm and sunny day, but there were many fewer lakes and view points so we ended up doing fewer stops. 

Just our normal driving faces

The morning drive started off with a decent fog that slowed us down for about a half hour, but as we ascended the mountain and raised above the clouds, they gave us a great view.

The only real stop we did was just before noon when we pulled off to another Provincial Park to snack and check out the map. It was a pretty lame park though... just lines of picnic tables, one after another.  And those were the 'campsites'.  Worked for our quick stop, though.

Checking out where we could stay tonight

Again we went farther than originally planned and have landed ourselves a decent room at a lodge in Toad River. The river (or is it a small lake?) on one side and some jutting Rockies on the other, and here we are in our cute little room with wood walls and nice drawers. We walked around a bit when we first got here, ate dinner at their little 'restaurant', and sat by the water and did some crosswords.

Doing crosswords by the lake.  What a nice evening!

 And as it's 930p now and it's still twilight- I could easily walk around outside with no need to have any light source (other than the blue sky) and as I talk to Diana it is dark in Spokane.  Tomorrow we head farther north, and start making some real progress back west.  According to Amy there should be some really nice things to see.  I'm looking forward to it!

*I took so long to write this that I don't want to go back and proof read.  I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors.  Or any stupid sentences that don't sound good.