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We've left the big city for the Washington coast. We're in a place called Copalis Beach, which is no more than a wide spot in the road. The beach is beautiful and stretches as far as you can see in both directions. It is virtually empty of people, of course it's only about 65 degrees.
Our campground is about 300 yards from the beach and has an easy walkway access. We'll be here for a few days and then we will head south to the Oregon coast before we head into Portland next week.
Today we took the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge island. Bainbridge is about a 30 minute ferry ride from the mainland. The ferry is a commuter "cattle car" that runs very frequently. The island is a residential community of about 25,000, including our friends from the video business, Cher and Mark Vrieling.
We had a wonderful visit in Cher and Mark's lovely home and then we all went out for a very nice dinner before we had to head for the ferry back to Seattle. Mark is still working (sorry Mark) and owns his own video production company. If you've ever been to a Blockbuster and seen the movie previews they play in the store, that's one of many products Mark's company produces.
A trip to Seattle wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Space Needle and we made ours. Not much to say. The base of the SN and the entire downtown area is very touristy. We walked around for a while and left.
Chateau St. Michelle Winery is located in a suburb of Seattle but their grapes are grown in eastern Washington, in the Columbia valley. This is one of our favorite wines. Their Chardonnay is especially good for a value priced wine. We were able to view the bottling process and do a tasting. Naturally, we had to buy a few bottles! It was fun because we like their wine so much.
Today we took a drive out into the Wenatchee Valley, which is billed as the apple capital of the world. In particular, we were heading for a town called Levenworth that is a very pretty Bavarian style town. As it turned out, we did a lot of driving for very little site seeing. We wish we hadn't gone but how were we to know without taking the chance. We did have a wonderful lunch and the town was pretty.
The 787 is, according to Boeing, the future of commercial aviation. They call it the Dreamliner. It will be able to fly over 9,000 miles without refilling. It is smaller than the 777 but will be more comfortable for the passenger. It will sell for $145M, instead of $195M for the 777. They have over 900 orders and the 1st plane will not be off the production line until next year. They haven't even tested it yet but will be able to make 3 a week, compared to 7 a month for the 777. This Dream-Lifter is used to bring pieces (not parts) of the plane from all over the world for assembly here.
The largest planes in the world are built in the largest building in the world. It may not look like it but this building is over 9 stories high and has 75 acres UNDER ROOF! You could fit all of Disneyland (California) in it and have 17 acres left for parking. They manufacture 747's, 767's, 777's and the all new 787's here.
If you've never been here and toured Boeing, you're really missing something. To see how they build the large planes we all fly on is really something. Sadly, they do not allow cameras of any kind on the tour so I cannot share any indoor pictures with you. Be assured what you see on the tour is really fantastic!
Today we also took a drive to Bellingham, Wa. and south to Samish Bay where we visited the Taylor Shellfish Farms. They specialize in farming oysters and are one of the largest on the west coast.. Did you know that it takes 3 to 5 years to grow an oyster for harvest? Really surprising, considering that you can get them for $.25 each in any bar in the US.
The Lynden area (just south of the border in Washington) is the nations major supplier of rasberrys. Janie and I took a drive through the growing area and had to stop and pick our own. They sell for $1.50 a pound, if you pick them yourself, and (Janie tells me) that's extremely cheap based on the normal supermarket price. What are we going to do with 10 pounds of rasberrys, when I don't care for them at all?
From Blaine we took a cruise on the shortest ferry in America. The Plover crosses the Semiahmoe bay in Blaine in just 11 minutes. It takes 23 minutes to return but only because it takes a detour to view the seals and birds that live in the area. This ferry only holds 17 passengers and used to be used to ferry workers to the cannery on the other side of the bay back in 1946. Now it's just for us tourist but it's still fun.
We've made it through western Canada and are now back in the US. Today we left Canada and entered Washington. We're staying in Blaine (I've never heard of it either but it's right on the border just south of Vancouver).
While walking along the water in Vancouver we came on these boats sitting in the marina. The one on the left has to be called a houseboat. What else could you call it? We just thought they were funny looking boats and wanted to share them with you.
Stanley Park is a 1000 acre park in downtown Vancouver. It's considered one of the finest natural parks on the continent. Janie liked this picture of me with the totems and wanted to share it. As you can see, our weather has been absolutely wonderful for the whole trip so far. I think we had one partial day of rain and that's it.
We spent the day seeing Vancouver. We walked all over the downtown area after riding the SkyTrain to get down there from Surrey (the suburb where we are staying). We visited Stanley Park, Gastown, Chinatown and just walked all over. If you've never been to Vancouver, you're missing a very beautiful city. There are about 1.8 million living here.
Kelowna is a beautiful area. The city of about 75,000 is on a huge lake surrounded by hills. The area is famous for it's many wine vineyards. We had a wonderful lunch at one of the local vineyards called Quails' Gate and then toured the vineyard and the bottling plant. It was fun to actually see how they bottle the wine. Unfortunately, this vineyard and most of the vineyards in the area don't export to the US because they are small and don't have enough production. Their wine is excellent.
Today we stopped in a city called Vernon. This area is well known for their apple orchards. We went to the Davidson orchards and went on a tour of the orchard in the pictured train, pulled by a old classic tractor. Only Janie and I were on our particular tour and the driver was the owner of the orchard. Of course, this is not the season for apples but it was very interesting and fun. We also stopped at a store that specialized in honey and had an actual live bee hive on display. Also very interesting.
Nothing special today. We left Cochrane and started our drive to Vancouver. We drove through Banff Provincial Park, Yoho Provincial Park and Glacier National Park (The Canadian one). Some really beautiful scenery. We're now in British Columbia.
Today we went to the rodeo. We enjoyed it but, to me, if you've seen one rodeo you've seen them all. I guess we're just not cowboys. Don't misunderstand...the rodeo was excellent. In any case, this was our last day at the Stampede. Tomorrow we head west toward Vancouver, British Columbia. I liked this picture of the Stampede midway with the city skyline in the background. Notice how busy the midway is?
Today we drove north into the Olympic National Park. This is Quinault lake and is extremely beautiful. We drove along the lake and had a nice picnic.
This is Ruby Beach. It's very rugged and the beach is totally made of rocks the size of baseballs. It's absolutely beautiful with the large rocks just off shore.
This beach is south of Ruby and is totally different. Instead of rocks, the beach is fine sand but is full of more driftwood than I've ever seen anywhere and it's all large (tree size). I have no idea where it all came from.
