Day 17 July 27

Today we drove from Coeur d'Alene to Glacier National Park. As soon as we arrived we checked into our room on McDonald Lake, changed our clothes, and headed for our rafting adventure.
When we got there, they wanted us to change into wet suits because it had been raining for a few days and they expected the rain to continue. It was a little frustrating trying to get the wet suits on. Patty was getting really frustrated and I ran from the bathroom stall I was in to help her. When I got back to the stall where I was changing, my t-shirt had somehow fallen into the toilet. That one went into the double wash batch with our pants from our garnet digging. I forgot to mention what a mess we were after that excursion.
We took a bus to the launch and got into the raft with six other passengers. We were given paddles. I have never had to use paddles on a white water trip before or helmets either for that matter.
Our group appeared to be a little deaf to the guide's instructions so Patty took over repeating everything she said so everyone could hear and even told us when to paddle by yelling "stroke" so we would all be simultaneous as we should be.
It was a great ride that lasted about 2 1/2 hours. We had a lot of white water and some class 3 rapids. It was a little more scary than previous raft trips I had taken as I had to worry about paddling through the rapids and not just holding on.
At the end we walked through the forest and had a nice meal of steak, bake potato etc. It tasted really good after a hard day's work. We were with a family for our raft ride and dinner. They were so kind and helpful with Patty. All and all it was a great experience except for the shaky start. We took some pictures with a water camera and they took one of us going through the rapids which I will post pictures later.

Day 18 & 19 July 28&29

Today we woke up overlooking Lake McDonald. We open the door to our room and there it is. It seemed to be a nice day compared to the day before. I, of course, had pancakes for breakfast with Huckleberry syrup. The night before we had our huckleberry ice-cream cones. Then we started up to Highway to the Sun. (This is a fifty mile drive the takes you up high to most of the beauties of the park.
As we started driving it started getting cloudier and cloudier. We were told there was a lot of road construction, but we didn't mind as there was not a lot of traffic and we just enjoyed the scenery as we stopped and took lots of pictures. As the day progressed, it turned into a beautiful sunny day. Patty went crazy with the camera and took lots of pictures. It was a gorgeous day. We had been told that the park did not open until about six weeks later than normal. It had not opened until July 14th because of all of the snow. When we got to the summit of Logan Pass there was a lot of snow still there.
Instead of driving back down the Highway to the Sun again we drove around other places in the park that we had not seen before. We made the whole loop and even went into East Glacier which is traveled much less frequently.
At the end of our drive we went to the restaurant in West Glacier near where we were staying and had trout and huckleberry clobber which I love. We then waded in the lake in front of our room.
When we left to come home the next morning it was a cool 46 degrees. I figured we would have a 50 degree change in the temperature before we got home. We were on the road for about eleven hours. When we drove into South Jordan the temperature was 100 degrees. So that was a 54 degree difference. So now I know why I like going up North to vacation. We were tired after our trip, but had a lot of great memories to bring home.

Day 16 July 26

Today we did the rock-hounding thing again. This is Patty's big addiction. We drove several hours outside of the city to dig for garnets. There is a whole operation set up to do this. We first dig the sediment and rocks out of the mountain, carry it to the sieving area and separate dirt from stones and rocks, take what is left to the sluice and let the water carry all the dirt away to see what is left. We pulled out about a half of a pound of garnets in our work of several hours. There were quite a few people there. Most of them were families. The drive to and from there was gorgeous as we drove by various lakes.

Day 15 July 25

Today we drove around historic Grand Forks. It was established by the Russians. We then in turned in the remainder of our Canadian money in exchange for gas and headed to the border. We drove into Washington, past Spokane, and in to Coeur d’Alene.
We checked into our motel and headed for the gold mine tour. It was very interesting. We walked through the mine that had been abandoned, bought and sold, then discovered again as it had been buried to hide it. Afterwards we did some panning and found some pyrite nuggets, nice rocks, and gold flakes. The owner was helping us pan. Patty wanted to collect some of the sand with gold in it. When we were going to leave, I told him that Patty liked the sand to show to her students under a microscope. At that point he insisted on us coming up to the store so he could give each of us a gold panning pan that they sell in the store. He was very nice.
We then drove a little bit around the lake and went to dinner.

Day 14 7/24

Today we attended the Kamloops 1st Ward for Sacrament Meeting. It was mainly a driving day. Along the way we came across a lot of lakes. One was deep blue and took 2 ½ hours of driving before we got all the way past it. Since it was Sunday, we saw a lot of people playing in the water long the way. They were boating and sea-doing and skiing and going down rivers in innertubes. We passed the warmest lake in Canada. It is at the northern tip of the Sonora Desert that goes all the way to Mexico.
I had quite the mishap, but was lucky things didn’t turn out worse. I jumped out of the car to go to the cooler to get the lunch. My foot had the GPS chord wrapped around it and I fell out of the car head first. I landed on my hands and elbow and scraped my back on the door. The scrape is quite graphic. It is the kind of injury that people take pictures of and put on Facebook. But I will spare you the view.
We are spending the night in Grand Forks. We have a cute little room on the river. Tomorrow we head back into the U.S.A.

Day 13 7/23

Today we had a breakfast in the “Garden Room” of the inn where we are staying. It was just a continental breakfast, but she brought us a menu and waited on us and called us by name. It was really nice especially the homemade warm blueberry scones. They are in season right now and we had blueberries in everything we ate.
We drove to Kamloops and attended the Saturday market. They had lots of produce that looked wonderful. We bought some cherries and sour dough multi-grain bread.
We then traveled to the culture center of the Secwepemc Indian. They covered over 56,000 miles at one point. They had displays inside and out and it was very interesting.
We drove up into the hills to see a view of the river and to look for some minerals. We couldn’t find where to look so we came back into town and went to dinner at Spot One. I ordered a salad with lettuce, red onions, goat cheese, hazel nuts, blueberries and vinaigrette dressing. It was so good.

Day 12 7/22

Today we did the drive-thru at Tim Horton’s. We got sausage breakfast sandwiches which were delicious and headed toward our next destination.
We drove through rush hour traffic and construction going into Vancouver so it took us a little longer than expected. We did get to the B.C Mining Museum at Britannia Beach just as it was opening. They took us through the mine in a little car on the tracks and then we got out as they demonstrated the different drills they used over time. They were incredibly loud. We also saw a demonstration of how lighting progressed starting with a single candle. They also showed us an old honey pot or porta-potty. We went inside the mill where it was all processed. They were filming a movie there so we had to be escorted around.
We then went into the museum which was also excellent. I have been into two other mines but in this one I got a real education. It was fascinating. Of course we had to go here because of Patty and her love of rocks.
We then continued along our destination passing through Whistler which had a lot of the venues for the last Winter Olympics. It is actually a couple of hours from Vancouver. We ate at a restaurant that came highly recommended and it was highly good.
We drove through multiple mountain passes for about 100 kilometers. It was a gorgeous view that could not be captured with a camera.
It was a long day. We ended up in Savona. We are staying at an inn on a lake. It is so nice. It is more like staying at a B&B. The lady takes such pride in the place that she took us to our room to hear our reaction. It is all quite lovely and relaxing.

Day 11 7/21/2011

Last night we took advantage of the warm cookies in the lodge at 8:00. We decided to take a few extras for our breakfast as we would be leaving too early to eat there.
Today was mainly a travel day. We took one last look at our wonderful ocean view and left about 6:00 a.m. Just as we were leaving the park we were excited to see a mama bear with her cub on the side of the road.
We drove to Nanaimo to catch our ferry. We made our trip in that direction much more quickly than the other and were able to get on an earlier ferry than we had planned.
That was our last ferry as we landed on tierra firma. We drove to our room in Langley just outside of Vancouver. We checked into our room and ventured out to see Fort Langley which is the birthplace of British Columbia.
We came back to our room and changed for our trip to the temple. The temple is only open in the evening for sessions on Thursdays. We were very excited to be able to do a session. We were also happy to get out of the 72 degree heat.

Day 10 7/20/2011

This morning the lodge served us a wonderful breakfast. It was continental but had wonderful granola and great croissants and a boiled egg. We have to leave too early tomorrow, so we will miss it.
Today we walked to McKenzie Beach (10 minutes away from our lodge). This was the beach that we camped on two years ago. It brought back fond memories of sleeping to the sound of the waves. We then walked to “our private beach” and found a lots of sea shells. It was low tide so many had washed up on the beach. We also waded in the ocean. We spent a couple of hours on the beach walking and relaxing.
We then drove to Wikinnish to see the exhibit at the museum. They had a film about the area that was very informative and interesting. We ate dinner at the restaurant there. Patty had her last seafood chowder and I had a crab salad that was wonderful. While we drove back to the lodge we stopped at a few other sites in the park along the way.

Day 9 7/19/2011

Rathevor Beach has the warmest ocean water in Canada. I was surprised when I felt how warm it was. It has a low tide of a third of a mile. We had great beds and slept late. We drove to Cathedral Grove with 500 year old trees. Then we went to Port Alberni to buy donuts. When we were here two years ago we happened upon a donut shop with the best donuts ever.
Today we drove to the Pacific Rim National Park on the west side of Vancouver Island. It is a rain forest with miles and miles of coastline. We are staying in a lodge on the beach. The lodge is small, maybe thirty rooms, and we have our own private beach. We visited some of the beaches in the area. I usually don’t like beaches that much, but when it is cool and not a lot of people it is quite pleasant and peaceful. We especially enjoyed walking around our private beach with no one around.
We cooked our dinner on the deck overlooking the ocean. It has been overcast, but not raining. We went inside to a roaring fire and played a couple of games of chess. It is so relaxing and peaceful here.

Day 8

Today we left a very overcast Victoria and drove to Duncan. We drove through some gorgeous scenery, but it was pretty cloudy. In Duncan we had a nice breakfast and drove around to see some of the totem poles in town. There are around eighty of them.
From there we drove to Parksville where we went to the Rathtrevor Beach. It was still overcast, but sunny. Patty walked to the water which was quite a ways away as it was low tide. I napped and read in the lawn chair we brought. She picked up quite a few shells. It got really warm, so we were glad it was overcast. We then drove into Qualicum Beach and did our laundry and had fish and chips for on the dock overlooking the beach. It was a perfect day—sunny and a cool breeze. Our room tonight is in Parksville. We have a very nice room.

Day 7

Today we attended Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School in the Victoria 1st Ward. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing. We walked along Island View Beach and picked up shells. Then we went to Beacon Hill Park. It was very spacious with lots of paved walks so I was able to push Patty around the ponds, flowers and such. We ended up at Goldstream Provincial Park where we cooked our dinner. This is where we had camped when we were here about twenty-five years ago. It is very peaceful and dark because of the large trees. All in all it was a very quiet day.

Day 6

Today we woke up to a hard rain. It looked like it had been raining most of the night. We changed our plans a little and headed to the city to see the Royal B.C. Museum. We are really glad that we went. It was a very well-done and interesting museum. We spent a couple of hours there and headed to our other destinations as it had stopped raining.
We went to Sooke Pot-holes Provincial Park, Whiffin Spit Park, and French Beach. We especially enjoyed the later even though I got a little wet from an unexpected wave.
On the way back to Victoria, we stopped off at a grocery store. We then drove to the wharf to have a dinner of seafood chowder and fresh steamed crab. It was delicious.

Day 5

Today we took the ferry to Vancouver Island in Canada. We landed at Sydney and drove around there a little bit. Then we headed for Victoria. We found a parking place and got out the chair and headed for an underwater aquarium. We then walked around the harbor and bought a few cool souvenirs.

We ate the sandwiches we had made and headed to check into our motel. Not the best, but the cheapest, place to stay. We rested for a few minutes and headed for Butchart Gardens. It looked like rain so we took our jackets and an umbrella. We also took the chair, but were hoping they would have motorized wheel chairs to rent as there are lots of major hills. We didn’t see anywhere to rent them so we ventured out. It was gorgeous. It was originally a hole left from digging out limestone so you begin by looking down into a massive garden. We spent hours there and really enjoyed the beauty. It started raining lightly, but we had our rain jackets so we were fine. We ate some more chowder and a salmon salad and went back to view the gardens some more. We did some shopping. I was dead tired by the time we got out of there. We had been there four hours. We headed back to our room and immediately to bed.

Day 4

Today we packed up and headed to Mitchell Bay for our kayaking excursion. There were six of us in three kayaks. We saw eagles and seals as we headed out into the ocean. We had taken our rain gear, but it stayed dry while we were out on the water. It was a three hour excursion and quite the workout. When we returned, it was no easy task getting out of the kayaks.

We then headed for Roche Harbor. We walked around and found a place to have lunch overlooking the boats and harbor. We had a fresh shrimp and Northwest clam chowder. It was wonderful.

We returned to Friday Harbor and went to a whale museum. Patty got an ice-cream cone, but I was too tired to eat. We returned to our camp and had another wonderful night’s sleep in the cool air of our canvas cabin.

Day 3

Today we took the ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. We drove around the island and viewed various beaches. We went to Lime Kiln where there is a lighthouse. We got out the transport chair to go down to see the ocean. It was a dirt path with lots of rocks. We sat there and watched the water for awhile. Everyone was looking for orcas. After awhile we ventured back up --which was no easy task. When we got to the top the park ranger told us we needed to go back down as the whales had been spotted. She showed us an easier way down. I took Patty down and ran back up to get the camera. Then they started coming. We were all excited to see them. We made it back up with a little help. People are so nice and always offering to help with the transport chair.

We spent the night in our canvas cabin. We built a fire and roasted hotdogs for chili dogs and marshmallows. It rained all night, but we were cozy and warm in our tent.