Seattle Sojurns

Hello & Greetings from Philadelphia Airport !



We're in the city of Brotherly Love waiting for our flight back to Seattle. We've been here for 2 weeks visiting with the girls and grandkids and catching up with some old friends. More about all that next time.


We spent most of the month of September in the northwest and Seattle area. After visiting with friends in the San Juan Islands we moved the coach down the road to just outside Seattle in a small suburb called Burien. Another Elks Lodge and fantastic rate and 10 minutes to Seatac airport. All in all, very convenient.




Downtown Seattle & The Space Needle

Very active harbor area

Pike's Market

Asian flower market

Under the sidewalks of Seattle
Riding the ducks and seeing the bay side
Our Duck driver loved hats
$5.00 in the flower market
I-5 in downtown Seattle

We were literally 20 minutes to downtown Seattle and got to do all the tourist "things" plus I got in 2 rounds of golf and we took a side trip to Mt. Rainier.

Seattle is a fun city with lot's to do and even though it leans very "left" we enjoyed our time here. Pikes Market is a neat adventure and watching the fish mongers is an experience. The Asian community has a huge fresh flower market and the prices are not to be believed. A very active waterfront with some neat shops and major container activity defines much of the skyline with the space needle as a center point.

Seattle has a great arts museum and a neat "underground" tour. The city was originally built on mud flats and after several floods and a fire the rebuilt it: one story up. An enterprising entrepreneur has set up tours of the lower level and some neat history abounds below.

A "duck" tour of the city explained the highlights and it's an adventure going from land to water in the same vehicle ! A day trip to Mt. Rainier completed our tourist activities.

Mt. Rainier

With the mountain in the background

When we return from New Jersey we'll set about heading south after a days rest and laundry catch-up.

We need new tires on our towed vehicle (yep the 2008 Honda needs tires already) and since Oregon has no sales tax we ordered 4 new ones from Costco in Portland before going east. There's Elks Lodge near by and so we're headed south but will make a quick stop at Mt. St. Helen's to view what was left of a once huge mountain and active volcano.

Enjoy the pics, I'll get them uploaded when we get back to Seattle and will also write about the 2 weeks in Ocean City.

Gene & Laurie

Back in the Lower 48

Hello and greetings from Washington State and the Lower 48 !


We crossed back on 8/27 and have been hanging out in northwest Washington. I should apologize for not getting an update out sooner but I got into a good book and my nights have been filled with reading.


We started out in a small town near the San Juan Islands. It's been a lazy time and we've caught up on some little chores, including giving the coach a good bath. We stayed at a local Elks Lodge and it was really convenient to stores, etc. We moved south a few miles, got the coach serviced at Cummins and we're now at the Burien Elks Lodge in the shadow of SEATAC airport and have been touring Seattle. More about that later.


When we last talked the rigs were in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory and we left there on 8/17 and headed south. Much of the road we traveled had been done already but we soon turned off to the Cassier Highway and returned to British Columbia. The Cassier is a narrow, 2 lane road that is 95% paved with only 2 bad sections of about 10-15 miles of dirt, mud, calcium chloride rocks and some extremely beautiful scenery. It's slow going but the mountain views and woodland are spectacular.


We stopped in Jade City which is nothing more that large store that sells local jade. No services, no electric, no phone, just free coffee and place to park overnite and an opportunity to buy some jade. Over 90% of the world's jade supply comes from this area and they have plenty. We made a small purchase.


We also met another couple, Roger & Mary Buss from Nappanee, Indiana. Yep, hometown to Newmar and they even know the owner. They drive "Big Rig", race tractors and are a fun couple. Big Rig is a full size Freightliner cab with a 35' Newmar coach mounted to the chassis. The coach was a front end gas model that was wrecked. They cut the nose off and mounted it on the cab. Great rig, but big.


Roger and Mary joined us and we traveled together down the Cassier headed for Stewart/Hyder. We found a great little Provincial park on Burns Lake, toured Stewart & Hyder, enjoyed a few happy hours and a pot-luck dinner. They were headed for Jasper & Banff and 2 days later we parted company. Someday we hope to share a road with them again.

The view from our coach at Burns Lake Provincial Park, on the Cassier Hwy. near Stewart / Hyder.

Taking Pics of the Glacier, enroute to Stewart

The Glacier

Entering Hyder, Alaska

A 'halibut" dinner at Burns Lake. Roger & Mary on the left.

We spent 4 fun-filled days in Vancouver and got to bike Stanley Park and the Lionsgate Bridge. Vancouver is a great city and we will return again someday. We enjoyed a superb meal at our favorite restaurant, Bishops and had a "See Ya" dinner with Gene & Lynn. We've shared the road with them for 88 days and 6,000 miles and enjoyed the experience but it was time to part ways and each of us had things to do and places to go that didn't match up.

Vancouver Harbor

The "view" under the Lionsgate Bridge

Point Atkinson Lighthouse in Vancouver.

We've had the opportunity to visit friends, Bill & Joanne Johnston at their lovely home on Orcas Island (just across the bay from Bill & Melinda) and we headed over to Victoria Island, BC for a few days.

Bil & Joanne Johnston on Orcas Island

Their home on the Island

Their "view" at sunset.

Some sights from our visit to Vancouver Island and the Provincial capital of Victoria. A side trip to the world famous Butchard Gardens as well.

Floral display at Butchard Gardens on Vancouver Island, BC enroute to Victoria.

More of the Gardens

Flower

Some more floral display & Laurie

Legislative Bldg at nite.

Fairmont Empress Hotel.

Inner Harbor, Victoria, BC
Our hotel for 2 nights in Victoria.

At the end of the month we'll fly back east for a little quality time with our daughters, son-in-law and grandchildren and friends in Ocean City, NJ.

Enjoy the pics.

We'll talk again soon,

Gene & Laurie

Anchorage, Valdez & Farewell to Alaska

Hello Again and greetings from the Yukon Territory.

Well, we've made the loop from Whitehorse, YT around through Alaska and back to Whitehorse. It took 51 days and 2,675 miles (coach only) and boy did we see a lot. So now an update on our latest adventures.

We attempted to spend a few days in Anchorage after leaving the Kenai Peninsula but the campground we picked was noisy. Our site backed up to a railroad grade crossing and the trains ran 16 hours a day. Now, I know what you think, hell he retired from a railroad that shouldn't bother him, but try sleeping 25' from an active crossing ! Not fun. Also, the local power plant turbines produced a whistle that would keep even the devil himself awake and drive a sane person crazy. Plus, they wanted $38 a night. Sorry.

We headed north and found a small c/g in Palmer that charged $25 and was only about 40 minutes from downtown Anchorage. We've been in Anchorage before (2004) and there was not much we didn't see. So we got the Honda serviced, visited Costco and toured one downtown museum; enjoyed a few relaxing days and headed on for Valdez.

Valdez, the city that Joesph Hazelwood made famous is a small, non-descript town that was completely destroyed by the 1964 earthquake and rebuilt 4 miles from it's original location. There are more campgrounds than stores; the city buildings are all the same style and the harbor is the center of life. The USCG station in Valdez has the USCG Cutter "Long Island" berthed in the harbor.
USGC Cutter, Long Island

The view from our coach @ C/G in Valdez.

The marine ferry has a new terminal building and across the bay is the terminus for the Pipeline and the tankers load daily. The area is off limits to everyone except employees.
Looking across the bay to the pipeline terminus.

The city of Valdez

Valdez harbor

The site of "old" Valdez

The fish hatchery in Valdez and the salmon returning to spawn.

The route through Thompson Pass approaching Valdez and the mountains surrounding it are spectacular but the town is unimpressive. We saw the sites, watched the boats and the tankers and marvelled at the amount of salmon that had returned to spawn at the hatchery and moved on for the trek out of Alaska.
Thompson Pass

Wellington Glacier, enroute to Valdez

Wellington Glacier

We traveled north out of Valdez and turned east on the Tok Cut-off. Our last night in Alaska was spent at MP 72.5 on the highway and it really turned cold and in the morning we woke up to several inches of snow on the mountain tops. A sign that winter is not far away.
Fresh snow on the mountain tops, near Tok.

A beautiful sight.........but cold.

Our rest area campsite.

We crossed the border back into Canada on August 12th and headed for Whitehorse, YT. We're spending a weekend here while we celebrate our 40th anniversary and visit some places we skipped on the way up, then on Monday head south.

We're 1600 miles to Vancouver and there are some interesting sights along the way in British Columbia but I don't expect it to be as exciting as Alaska.

We'll talk again soon,

Gene & Laurie

Caribou Golf

Hmmm, funny name for a title but we had a extremely interesting experience at the Kenai Golf Course.


The city of Kenai has a fabulous golf course located just outside of town and is a jewel. Besides being long, 6,194 yds from the white tee's and 5,894 yds from the senior or gold tees the course is in great shape and winds it way around the Kenai River and woods surrounding it. The fairways are wide, the greens in good shape and the rough manageable. The price was a bargain at $25 + $13 for cart.


The following pictures really tell the story, but as we were approaching 16 green on the back 9 we had a visitor come out of the woods...........a full grown, bull caribou that would probably tip the scales at over 350 lbs. and a rack that had to span 6 feet from tip to tip.


He wanted to play ! He scared the heck out of us, just by his shear size plus he got so close to us that it was amazing. He stayed with us for 17 and only after we tee'd off on 18 (and he held us up for that) did he finally wander off into the woods.


A unique experience. Enjoy the pics and the video.


Gene








Our visitor approaches from the woods at 16.




17 tee box

Keeping an "eye" on us !

Having a snack on 17 fairway

Coming back to see us on 18 t-box

Finally getting out of the way

But still keeping an "eye" on us.