Week 4, with Joe

As I've said before, Joe flew out to Seattle, joining up with us on Saturday, Oct. 5th, the same day Kitte and Jim flew back to Michigan.  I've already described Joe's first day with us, as we tried to explore the very congested Seattle.

On Sunday, Oct. 6, we drove from Seattle to Vancouver.  We had heard that the next day was going to be rainy, and we wanted to be sure to see as much of the city as we could while the sun was shining.  For that reason, as soon as we checked into our motel, we drove right to the downtown (that is, the Gastown area), where there is an office for the Big Bus Hop-On Hop-Off company.  Some of the tour was good, especially the separate drive through the very large and lovely Stanley Park.  But about half of the tour was very disappointing and ineffective. Our overall impression of Vancouver was that it is like many other big cities: it was crowded and busy and diverse; much of it was attractive; some of it was not.  We were just not wowed by it.  Vancouver is in a beautiful setting, and we did like the Gastown area, the oldest part of the city.   Honestly, we were kind of happy to go back to our motel room at the end of the day.

Totem poles in Stanley Park

Vancouver has water on almost all sides

  Monday, Oct. 7.  Because we weren't very interested in going back into the city, we decided to take a drive north of there, on what is called the Sea to Sky Highway.  That sounded like it might be interesting, and it definitely was.  We loved the beautiful water of Horseshoe Bay, and then the drive into the mountains to Whistler.  In Whistler, we drove around an area that was built for Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympics, to house the athletes.  This day of sightseeing suited us just fine.  Unfortunately, there was rain during much of the drive, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Tuesday, Oct. 8.  We left Vancouver today, driving 5 hours NNE to the town of Clearwater.  Because we were driving north and driving up into the mountains, we were happy to have the heavy morning rain stop before it could become a big snowfall.  The drive was so beautiful--hills, mountains, waterfalls, golden aspen trees, snowy evergreen trees.  Clearwater is near the very, very large Wells Gray Provincial Park, so when we got to town, we just kept on going for a drive through a small part of the park.  The park has 39 waterfalls in it; we saw 3 of them.  We also saw a big, black bear, which was very exciting.

Snow!

Beautiful aspens and evergreens, with a river running through it.  :)

I'm pouring a waterfall out of my hand.

Wed., 10/9.  Today, we had a beautiful drive NE from Clearwater, British Columbia, to Jasper, Alberta. Jasper is a cozy, little town, surrounded by beautiful mountains.  It's at the north end of the large stretch of land that is Jasper National Park.  We explored a nearby area called Maligne Lake.  It's described as being a turquoise lake, but the day was very cloudy, so the color of the water was not very remarkable.  Our room for the night was in a nice cottage just off the shore of Patricia Lake--which, of course, was bordered by mountains.  We saw a group of big-horn sheep today, and two female elk.  We keep looking for a moose.

This is the impressive Mt. Robson, at the north end of Jasper National Park

John and Joe, at Patricia Lake in Jasper, where we spent the night

Pyramid Lake, a perfect mirror

Thurs., 10/10.  There are many particular days I was looking forward to on this wonderful, 5-week road trip, and this was one of them.  I've wanted to see the Canadian Rockies for a long time, and today was the day.  Our drive through Jasper and Banff National Parks was all I hoped it would be, and more.  For our entire drive (180 miles), we were surrounded by amazing mountains--just non-stop beautiful peaks and chains of mountains.  Most of them were snow-covered, or had large snowy ice fields near them.  Some of them had blue-green glaciers on them  Because glacier water is turquoise, that means that all of the melted water--the rivers and waterfalls and lakes--are that same amazing color.  The 3-and-a-half-hour drive took us about 8 hours because of all the many times we stopped to enjoy the beautiful scenery.  We spent the night in Canmore, just east of Banff.

Just a river--an amazing, turquoise river

Joe and I, enjoying the sights

Peyto Lake

Lake Louise

These are definitely Rocky Mountains.

Friday, Oct. 11.  We had a short and beautiful drive today--just two hours-- from Canmore to Calgary.  We drove downtown, parked, and walked around for a little while.  Calgary is an attractive city.  Like all cities, it has many buildings that are big and modern, and many that show their history.  The central part of the downtown has a few blocks that are pedestrian only, which made walking around very easy and interesting. There were a couple of street performers, even though the temperature was only 40 degrees.  This is Joe's last full day on vacation with us.  Tomorrow morning, bright and early, he'll get on a plane in Calgary, and fly home to Detroit.  We will definitely miss him.  John and I will then begin our fifth and last week of this road trip.

This was the view out our motel window this morning in Canmore.

Along with mountains all around us, this was the pretty drive we had on our way to Calgary.

Downtown Calgary

Week 3

So, to re-cap: During Week 1, John and and drove out to California.  Week 2 was in San Clemente and San Diego, enjoying the company of the family who lives there and the family who traveled to be there.

Now, I'll recall Week 3.  Early, very early, on Sunday morning, Sept. 29, five of us (John and I, along with Jim, Kitte, and Mary) drove from San Diego to San Francisco.  All the Californians we asked said we were crazy to do that drive in one day, especially on a Sunday.  This was always said with great emotion.  However, I was sure we could do it, and we did, with no problem whatsoever.  The first fun thing we did in the city was to go to the Painted Ladies, the iconic Victorian homes that are on the edge of Alamo Square. The day was clear, with no fog to hinder the view of the city in the background.

Mary and Kitte, in front of the Painted Ladies

Our second fun activity was driving down Lombard Street--the crookedest street in the world.  It is such an attraction!  Driving down the twisty street is fun, and standing at the top or bottom of the block, and watching the cars drive down, is just as fun.  John drove down it a couple of times.  :-)

That's John, in the white Explorer.  

We rented a house in San Rafael, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, for our two days in SF.  The home was so lovely and welcoming, we didn't want to leave when we finally arrived there that evening.

Mon., Sept. 30.  The five of us played in San Francisco all day.  What fun that was!  John is fearless about driving in big city traffic, so we drove up and down (and I do mean up and down!) every street and neighborhood that looked interesting.  Our first stop was at the Palace of Fine Arts, which is the only building left from the very opulent 1915 World's Fair.  It's now a park, and is so beautiful.
The next activity was a ride on a cable car!  That was so fun!  We've done it before, but I had forgotten how fun and how long the ride was.

 

Chinatown was eye-popping--not just the many colorful shops, but also the very, very narrow streets that we managed to drive on.

We spent a few minutes in the Fisherman's Wharf area, and then went to Ghirardelli Square for some chocolate shopping.
The city looked beautiful as we were leaving it.  The early evening sun was lighting it up and the fog was rolling in.

 

Tues., Oct. 1.  This was our Redwoods day!  We were all very excited about this.  :)  A picture speaks a thousand words, so here are some photos to describe our day of perfect amazement.

 

Wed., Oct. 2.  On this day, we drove up the coast of northern California and southern Oregon.  "Wow" was a word we all said several times.  There's really nothing else quite like those views of blue water, enormous rocks, and sandy beaches.  Again, the photos describe the scenes far better than I could.

Thurs., Oct. 3.  We continued driving up the coast of Oregon for awhile, seeing many more beautiful scenes, and then drove inland.  In Eugene, we stopped at Voodoo Donuts, which had been put on our must-do list by Chris and Barb.  The donuts were amazingly diverse--and so were the people we saw in this eclectic and free-spirited city.  From there, we drove to just south of Portland to spend the night.

Elk!  Lots of elk!

Fri., Oct. 4.  We drove from Portland to Seattle today, and spent the day playing in Seattle.  I had read that the best place to see the city is from Kerry Park, so we went there first.  We liked that perfect spot so much, we went back several more times that day and the next.  We also went to Pike Place Market, another must-do activity.  It's a really big market, several blocks long and two or three floors high, in the middle of the downtown.  There are shops that sell fish, flowers, produce, t-shirts, and many other things.  The Rachs went up to the top of the Space Needle, but John and I opted out of that.  They also took a ferry to Bainbridge Island.  Mary was meeting a friend of hers there; in fact, that's where they said goodbye to Mary on this trip.

Mary and Kitte shopping in Pike Place Market

The Rachs are in the ferry on the left, heading to Bainbridge Island

Beautiful sunset in Seattle, with Mt. Rainier in the background

Sat., Oct. 5.  On the last day of this 3rd week, Kitte and Jim flew home to Michigan, and Joe flew to Seattle!  In fact, we picked Joe up and dropped Kitte and Jim off at exactly the same time.  We took Joe to Kerry Park and to Pike Place Market.  All of our other attempts to tour the city were not very successful. The traffic was unbelievable, with construction all over the place, blocking our routes and causing backups for blocks.  We finally gave up, and decided to take a ferry to Bainbridge Island.  That was very nice and peaceful.  We had dinner at a marina, and then took the ferry back to the city.

Kitte and I, saying goodbye after a wonderful, fun week

John and Joe and Pike Place Market

Joe and I in Kerry Park, enjoying a Seattle sunset

Week Two, continued

Well, the last time I posted a note here, the date was Sept. 23.  Today is October 6th!  Although I have posted some photos to Facebook, I really want to keep some record of this long trip.  This is going to be tricky to catch up.  Here goes...

On Tues., 9/24, John and I just played in San Clemente with Chris and Barb, Mom, and Aunt KeeKee.  It was Morgan's birthday, so we created a little birthday party to welcome her home from work.  That evening, we took a sunset walk along the San Clemente beach.

Wed., 9/25, we drove to San Diego.  "We" means Mom and John and I in our car, and Chris and Barb in theirs.  Chad was home when we arrived, and welcomed us with his usual smiles and hugs.  We went to beautiful Balboa park in the afternoon.  That evening, we all went to a popular, busy outdoor market/street fair in Ocean Beach.






On Thurs., 9/26, Susie arrived in San Diego from Michigan, and on Fri., 9/27, Kitte and Jim arrived from Michigan, and Mary flew in from Tampa.  The whole family has gathered to celebrate Chad's birthday.  :-) 
Chad made lasagna for the whole clan, and we all enjoyed cake from his favorite bakery.

Sat., 9/28, we took the Rachs on a tour of Coronado Island and Hotel del Coronado.  The beach was so beautiful and inviting.  That evening was the BBH concert in Chad and Kevin's backyard.  About 50 people came to be entertained and charmed by Barbara's music.  The party was a great success.

Mary, Kitte, and Jim at Coronado Beach

That picture, below, is pretty amazing.  In it are Mom and all five of her children (Chris, Cindy, Susie, Kitte, Chad), along with Barbara, John, Jim, Mary, and Kevin; and, Mom's sister, Annice, her son, Bill, and his wife, Diana.  We all gathered from Florida, Tennessee, Michigan, and California for this one special day.  :-)