Craig's blog

On the 28th we drove from Squamish to West Vancouver and parked in the Capilano RV Park – which was a parking lot as we expected. We parked, had a quick lunch and then drove in to Stanley Park. We had intentionally planned on being in Vancouver on the 28th because that was one of 4 days when they held the world fireworks competition. Saturday was Canada’s turn to compete. We spent the afternoon at the park – going to the aquarium, having a portrait done of the three girls and then playing by the water. Then we setup our chairs on the seawall and watched the fireworks over English Bay. It was an awesome display. Unfortunately we didn’t have a radio to listen to the music that accompanied the pyrotechnics, but it was great all the same. I had carefully scouted out our exit route back over the Lion’s gate bridge to the RV park (because there are supposedly 1 million viewers) and it worked like a charm. It only took 15 minutes!

Sunday (Patty’s birthday) we packed up and headed to Anacortes in Washington to catch the ferry to Orcas Island. We spent 1 hour waiting to cross into the United States through a poorly designed border crossing.

We managed to catch our ferry and had a great ride to the island.

We had been forced to make a reservation at an RV Park because Moran State Park (which many people had said was the prettiest in Washington) had been completely booked. When we got to the island I called Moran just to make sure they didn’t have any space, but they said they did have a few, so after checking out the RV park (and then going to the grocery store to stock up), we decided to head over to Moran.

The man at the check-in booth was really helpful and told me the sites that were available. One of them was site 1, which he said was one of the very best, but wasn’t really designed for a trailer our size. We checked it out first, and we fit in just fine.

It’s an awesome park and an awesome site. It’s right on Cascade Lake, and it’s like we’re really camping. There’s plenty of room, it’s quiet, there are no hookups and we’re happy as clams.

The first evening we just relaxed and Jessica fished from the side of the lake.

Today Patty went for a long, hilly run while I made breakfast and helped the girls fish. Then I rode my bike up to the top of the Island – Mt. Constitution. It was not for the faint of heart – tougher than the rides up to Skyline at home. It’s 2,000 feet up in exactly 6 miles (and the last mile is pretty flat, so it’s actually 5 miles). It was great to be out and feeling alive. The ride down was great too. The weather was perfect.

Patty and I have been kicking ourselves for not taking the kids on more hikes on this trip. After I got back and had lunch we went for a decent hike. First we went up to Cascade falls – a relatively tough mile and a half. Then Jessie and I headed back down to get the car while the rest of the girls continued up to Mountain Lake, which I’d been to earlier in the day on my bike. It’s a gorgeous spot. Jessie and I got the car, filled it with laundry and then headed up the road to pick up the girls. We got there exactly when they did.

Then we headed into town, started the laundry and went to the kayak rental spot at Crescent Beach. Kelly and I rented a 2 person kayak and went out for a 90 minute paddle during which Kelly counted 483 sea stars. I love kayaking and had hoped to do a bunch of it on this trip. At least I got one paddle in.

We really love Moran State Park. It’s stunning and there are tons of hikes. Also, Orcas Island seems awesome. We really didn’t check out much of it.

We came back to camp and had the latest dinner we’ve probably ever had with the girls – 8:30. They’re now asleep. Tomorrow we pack up, take the ferry back to Anacortes and then go to Deception Pass State Park (which isn’t far from where the ferry lands).

We went back to Whistler today and had a great day by my standards. We went to Alta lake and while the girls played by the water, I went on a quick 12 mile bike ride around the series of lakes in the Whistler area. It was a beautiful ride, and I really haven’t had much chance to get any exercise – so I really enjoyed it.

After that we rented two canoes on Alta lake. There is a 2 hour trip across Alta lake and then down the “River of Golden Dreams” to Green lake. It’s a little bit technical, so we also hired a guide to go in Patty’s canoe. So Kelly, Kate and I went in one canoe, and Patty and Jessica went in the other canoe with a guide. It was a beautiful run and challenging enough to be interesting. The water is incredibly cold, having just melted from a glacier earlier in the day. It was a great trip.

We really enjoyed the Whistler area. It is a beautiful place and they’ve setup lots of fun activities. There are bike paths throughout the area so you can get around without a car. It’s wonderful.

Yesterday we caught the ferry from Nanaimo to Vancouver. There was no problem with our lack of reservations – we were one of the first in line. The boat was very impressive. Big, clean, fast and comfortable. It was about an hour and a half across to Vancouver.

When we got off the boat, we drove up Hwy 99 to Squamish (1/2 way to Whistler). As we had heard, the road is an incredible project. A few years ago it was a perfectly fine 2 lane highway all the way to Whistler. However, once they learned they were hosting the 2010 winter Olympics, they decided it had to be a 4 lane road. The construction has been going on for several years and it is going on in force the entire 60 miles to Whistler now. And it doesn’t look like they’re even ½ way done. What an unbelievably huge project.

We had hoped to stay at Alice Lake Provincial Park, but had been unable to get reservations even several months in advance because it was full. We did have reservations at an RV park nearby as a backup plan. We ended up driving to Alice Lake, putting our name on a waiting list and parking in their overflow lot. We had lunch and then spent the afternoon at the lake’s beach. It is a gorgeous spot and we had a great time. I swam the length of the lake and back – probably ½ a mile each way. I was pretty cool by the time I got out (I really don’t like cold water), but other than that it was nice to get a little exercise. At one point all 5 of us were lying on the beach reading our own books. That’s a first – Jessie can now read chapter books so we were all able to entertain ourselves!

We had dinner at the same picnic tables next to the parking lot and then went to learn our fate from the waiting list at 7:00. It turned out we had misunderstood – it w as a waiting list for the following night. We were told we could get a site, but Patty didn’t want for us to move twice (understandably) and declined the spot and we drove to the RV park we had reserved. As soon as we setup camp here we were kicking ourselves for not having taken the spot at the Provincial park. The Alice Lake campground is gorgeous and is next to the lake. The RV park we’re at is near Hwy 99 and we constantly hear the trucks roaring by. In addition, our neighbors set off fireworks last night at about 10:30 and woke up Kelly! We’ve got to remember how much we prefer State Parks to private campgrounds!

The only real benefit is that there is wi-fi here and I can get my trip diary up to my blog so I don’t have to do it all when we get home.

Today after a lazy morning, we drove up to Whistler (we’re camped about ½ way between Vancouver and Whistler) and spent the day up there. Most of the time was spent at a kids park which was awesome. The girls bungee jumped on a trampoline (doing flips and jumping about 30 feet up), rode a little toboggan, and climbed a climbing wall (I climbed one too – which was great fun).

Whistler is a beautiful place which is growing like crazy in preparation for the winter Olympics. We’ll go back up tomorrow and do what I’ve been waiting to do (I hope) – get some kayaking and maybe even some biking in.

Yesterday we continued north on Vancouver Island from Goldstream Park to our campground just south of Nanaimo (Living Forest Oceanside Campground) (only a 60 mile day). It’s quite nice for an RV park, and our site has a wonderful view of the ocean through some trees. It’s no match for Goldstream, but it’s been nice, and it hasn’t rained in the two days we’ve been here (and it doesn’t look like it will rain for quite a while ).

After we got settled and had lunch yesterday we decided to go to “Wild Play Park” which is basically a large ropes course with courses for kids and adults. Since Patty has asked to go on a ropes course for her birthday for the past 10 years (and I haven’t delivered), I figured this was a good way to get a birthday present for her 6 days early. It was a really neat place. Patty did the entire adult course and I watched and coached the girls on the kids course. The minimum age was 7, but they were willing to look the other way for Jessie even though she just turned 6. It was a challenge for her, but she did great. Not surprisingly, Patty had a blast flying through the course.

Since before we left, Kelly has had her heart set on going Salmon fishing here in Nanaimo. Last night after dinner I called a guy who does Salmon charters. He’s based on the west coast of Vancouver Island, because that’s where the good salmon fishing is. It would have been an incredible day if we had tried it: 1.5 hours drive each way, 1 hour boat ride out to the good fishing spot each way and then 5-6 hours of fishing. I decided that wouldn’t work for us, so he recommended a guy who’s local here (well actually he’s out of Gabriola Island which is nearby). After talking to him on the phone and much consternation, we decided that Kelly, Kate, Jessie and I would leave at 7:30, drive to the local ferry, take it to the island, drive to the other side of the island and then go fishing for 3 hours. So we did. It worked out surprisingly well. Bob, the owner of the boat, was originally from Los Altos(!) but moved up here 34 years ago when he was 20 to become a fisherman. He’s never left. Gabriola Island is beautiful. We went out on his 24 foot boat and he started by having us “jig” on the bottom to catch some bottom fish because he knew it would be more entertaining for the girls than trolling for an unlikely salmon. Although the conditions were far from ideal (it was quite windy which posed some challenges), we caught about 8 fish, 7 of which we threw back. The ling cod we kept was about 10 pounds and fed us all a great meal tonight. We trolled for salmon for the last 45 minutes but came up empty.

We made it back to Nanaimo at 2:00, picked up Patty from the campground and went out to checkout the town. We came back, cooked our fish, rice and green beans for dinner and then walked to the campground office and got ice cream cones.

Tomorrow we’ll pack up reasonably early and drive to Nanaimo to catch the ferry to Vancouver. Unfortunately we didn’t make reservations for this ferry ride, so we’ll have to see how that works out.

Yesterday we got up very early (5:30), took showers, finished packing up (we had done most the night before) and drove to the ferry in Port Angeles. We got there 10 minutes late (arriving at 7:30 for our 8:20 ferry), but had no problems. The ferry was late and the weather was very foggy, but the ride was quite uneventful.

When we arrived in Vancouver, we drove directly to our campground in Goldstream Provincial Park (which is about 15 miles NW of town). The Cowards hung around Victoria and eventually checked in to their motel a few blocks away from the Empress.

Goldstream Park is spectacular. It reminds us how much we prefer State (or Provincial) parks to private RV campgrounds. It’s a huge park and the campground is fantastic. The sites are very large and there is significant forest between sites so you can rarely see you neighbors. Everything is green and lush. Patty and I both think it awesome. There are no hookups. The only problem we’ve had is the non-stop rain. It started raining around 4:00 PM on Saturday (the day we arrived) and rained absolutely non-stop until passed when we went to bed (I assume ‘till morning). We had a break between 6:00 AM and about 3:00 PM and now it’s been raining non-stop for the past 6 hours. The rain has been steady – not pouring, but not drizzling either – a steady, solid rain. I’m sure we’ve gotten 2” in the past 2 days.

The Antigua has done great. The rain is loud in here, but there are no significant leaks, and the rain sounds especially nice on the tents over the beds.

Yesterday we went to Butchart Gardens with the Cowards. We arrived around 4:30. They were handing out clear umbrellas to everyone. We had made our plans around being here on a Saturday so we could enjoy their weekly fireworks display. It meant we had to keep the girls up until very late – the show didn’t start until 9:45. They were incredibly well behaved considering all the disturbances to our normal schedule (including walking in the rain, eating junk at weird hours and staying up late), but it turned out the fireworks weren’t very good, particularly in the rain. So we left in the middle of the show (it was pouring) and beat the traffic out of the place.

Today we had a leisurely morning and were able to eat and cook outside because it wasn’t raining. I’ll say again, this park is gorgeous. What a pleasure to be outside eating.

The girls showered and got on their nice clothes and we drove to Victoria where we met Jim & Diane at their hotel. All the girls went to high tea at the Empress hotel while Jim and I stayed in the room and worked on our computers and I kept moving the laundry.

After tea, Jim & I took the little girls to “Miniature World” in the back of the Empress and Patty & Diane went to the wax museum.

After resting at the Coward’s hotel room for awhile, we walked to dinner (in the rain of course) to Chandler’s seafood restaurant on the water. It was fine, but didn’t quite live up to our expectations.

After walking back, we said goodbye to Jim & Diane (they'll be heading home tomorrow, and we'll continue north on Vancouver Island) and then went back to our campsite where it was still raining.

I really like this campground, although it would have been more fun if two things had been different. We could have done with a lot less rain – it was probably raining ½ of our waking hours. It also would have been better if there had been a low, low tide, but all the low tides were pretty high. Everyone says this place is amazing when the tide gets really low. Still, the girls had fun walking among the tide pools.

We went into town (Port Angeles) for lunch and groceries today. We went to a seafood place in the ferry building (which means we’ll know where to go tomorrow) and had a yummy lunch. Then we went to Safeway and replenished our groceries.

When we got back we played and hiked until the Cowards came – around 5:30. Then we cooked dinner and sat by the fire. Luckily it only rained the first hour they were here. Then we were able to sit out by the fire.

I’m happy we all spent so much time outside here even though it was raining. We had the picnic table under the awning and the girls played in the tubular slide at the playstructure for hours.

Tomorrow it’s an early morning. We have to be at the fairy building at 7:20. The girls are excited to be going into Canada.

This morning we slept in until 7:30 (except Patty went running at 6:30). I made the girls' favorite breakfast: bacon, hashbrowns and eggs. Then I went for a swim in Crescent Lake. It’s a beautiful lake and crystal clear, but it was awfully cold – probably ~55. I only swam about 1/2 a mile. After I got out, we packed up and left and headed to Salt Creek Park.

As it turns out, we definitely should have come here in the first place as Catherine recommended (and skipped Log Cabin Resort). Log Cabin is in a stunning setting, but other than that it was a bummer with lots and lots of people and a late night crowd.

Salt Creek County Park is a big campground up on a bluff with a great view of the ocean. The first ½ of the sites have electric and water hookups as well as great views with each site on an asphalt pad. They’re lined up next to each other – sort of like Half Moon Bay state park. In a different section (tongue point) each site is set in a separate piece of forest so neighbors are completely out of sight. Some of them are in their own forest and have stunning views. They were awesome, but they didn’t have hookups (certainly not a deal breaker for us) and they were far from the play structure (a deal breaker – especially since it was a good one). So we went back to the first section and took site 3. It’s awesome. It’s right near the play structure, is in the front row so it has an awesome view, and it’s on the end so our door side faces the forest. And we have hookups.

The weather today has been interesting. We probably had a total of 3 hours of rain, and it was raining pretty hard at times. The trailer and the campsite were perfect for that – we put up our awning and extended it over the picnic table. We ate our meals outside and spent almost the whole day outside. When it was raining we were either under the awning or carrying umbrellas.

There are 2 trails down to the tide pools. We went down them both. It was fun, but it was pretty slippery (mostly from the rain) and Kate and Jessica both took some falls.

The sunset was great.

Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty wet. We’re hoping it’s not too bad so we can spend the day outside. Diane & Jim are driving up to spend some time with us and will come by in the afternoon and have dinner with us. Hopefully we won’t get soaked.

We got up and made blueberry pancakes at Diane & Jim’s and then headed out.

We drove to Port Angeles and then decided to check out the Log Cabin Resort (rated a 10 for beauty by our favorite campground reviewer) before going to Salt Creek County Park. Log Cabin had sounded good to us before we left, but we had been unable to make a reservation because they were full. We thought that since it was raining maybe they would have some space. They had a space for tonight, so we decided to take it. It’s a spectacular setting – just amazing. The campground is unfortunately like an RV park (ok, it is an RV park) – the spaces are right next to each other. The few on the ends that have unencumbered views of the lake are extraordinary, but the others are much less desirable because how close together they are. Still it’s a spectacular space. We were told we could move to a different space tomorrow, but I think we’ll just drive to Salt Creek (and hope it’s not full since they don’t take reservations).

Today we drove to our good friends, the Coward’s, house in Portland. It was another long day after another later than desired departure. We arrived at 5:20. We visited Diane’s café (Fuel Cafe - which is great) and then went to dinner at a BBQ place with Jim. Diane came home at 8:00 from a board meeting.

We stayed up chatting until after midnight, which was great, but will be rough tomorrow during another long drive.

We managed to get ourselves fed and packed up by 8:00 this morning, but after an extended Lombardo good-bye it was 8:45 before we were finally off. It was planned to be a long day, and it was. We made it to the Mt. Shasta KOA at 5:15 PM. It was nothing special, but fine. The girls went swimming, had root beer floats and watched a movie outside before going to bed.

I did some work using the wi-fi connection and while I did, my friend, Gerald, skype'd me and we chatted. This world sure is getting small and connected.

Today I rode my bike ½ mile NE on Hwy 4 and then turned right on Boards Crossing Rd. It ended up going over a rise and then 6 miles and 1,000 ft down to the Stanislaus River. I thought it was a spectacular spot, so I rode back to camp and suggested we all go down there. And we did!

It was a great afternoon. We brought lunch and then went down by the river. I played lifeguard and ferried folks around the river, which was just fast enough to be interesting. It was cold and after awhile I was really shivering. Laying out on the hot rocks took care of that. What a great spot. Playing in the sun by a fast river is my idea of a great time.

There was a campground across the river – I’ll have to look up what it was – it would be a great place to camp sometime.

Everybody loved this place (although Patty just said it’s dusty and the campsites are too close together).

Tonight we mostly packed up and tomorrow morning we’re off on our northwest adventure.

Today (Saturday) we left home at 8:45 AM and drove up to Golden Pines RV Park next to Calaveras Big Trees State Park. It was a nice drive and the campground is fine. The sites are close together, but we’re in a big cluster with the Lombardo family for the annual trip, so it’s fine.

This is the beginning of our first big trip with the new Antigua. So far it’s been great. I really like how open, airy and bright the trailer is.

Sadly, the pictures from the trip will have to go up when we get back since my home computer where I'm putting the pictures doesn't have a working wi-fi car.

It’s been a good first day…

We're about to embark on our annual big camping trip. This year it's a quick run to Calaveras Big Trees with Patty's family and then up I-5 to Portland to visit our friends, Jim & Diane, and then up to the northwest tip of Washington. We'll stay there a few days and then ferry to British Columbia. We'll spend about 10 days in BC, a few days in the San Juan Islands (WA) and then zip back home with some long days.

Here's hoping the travel part is less interesting than last year (check out last June and July's entries for that story) and the camping and sightseeing is just as great.