Playing Catch-Up

Sunday, July 13th

The Astoria (WA) column was first on our to-do list of the day. It is a big lighthouse-type thing without the light on the top of it. It is high up on a hill so you overlook the mouth of the Columbia River entering the Pacific. We saw fog - and lots of it. You couldn't even see the top of the column from the ground. So we didn't get exactly what we were hoping for from that spot. We have been following Jeanette and Jason's, friends from Grove City, vacation as they travel around west (they live outside of Cleveland - we hadn't seen them since we moved to FL) . Lucky for us, our paths crossed in Astoria. We met them at Fort Clatsop (the end of the Lewis and Clark expedition). It was great to see them again. Our families have both grown in the last 13 years. After bidding our friends farewell, we toured the sites of Astoria - basically location sites for the movie, Kindergarten Cop. Goonies was filmed there as well. From Astoria we continued north into Olympic National Park.  There are no parking lots with small dune beaches in the northwest. All seem to be rocky cliffs. In Olympic, we decided to stop at the beach. That consisted of walking down a steep cliff through dense foilage, then scaling down rocks. It was worth it, everyone even tossed the football around. The biggest accomplishment of the day was me making it back up the trail. Our day ended in Forks, WA - the setting for the Twilight movies. We didn't set out on the trip to scout movie locations - it just so happened that alot of movies take place in towns we visit. We stayed in a nice suite in a motel nestled in the woods.

Monday, July 14th

One of my favorite days of the trip - Crescent Lake (still in Olympic National Park). We have seen such amazing scenery on this trip it is hard to continue to come up with words to describe it, the lake surrounded by the mountains and the pine forests - breathtaking. We stopped at the Lake Crescent Lodge where there was a large lawn, a beach and a dock. It started with John and Alexa and I enjoying taking in the scenery on comfortable lawn furniture and the boys skipping rocks into the lake. Then someone jumped off the dock and the boys were set on swimming in the lake. Peter, Jimmy and John enjoyed jumping off the dock into the mountain lake while Alexa and I went shopping at the lodge. Continuing on in Olympic National Park, we went to Hurricane Ridge. Now, we have been using our GPS, we call her nuvi, on and off during this trip. She might be on her last hurrah and has not always been accurate. We still keep following her. Driving up to Hurricane Ridge, we wound up on a very narrow, gravel road through dense forest up the side of the mountain. Alot of people visit Hurricane Ridge every day, and we didn't see a single car on our gravel road. Hmm. Well, we decided to just go with it and sure enough, we eventually joined a nice paved road with other cars on it. So I guess nuvi gets us there, she just keeps it interesting along the way. When we finally arrived it was amazing. You looked out at many snow capped mountains - awesome scenery, pictures don't do it justice. On our way back down, we stuck to the paved roads. Continuing on, we were actually early for the 6:45 car ferry to Whidbey Island and our lodging for the night. We actually got to the Coachman Inn before the pool closed! I though it was a little chilly to swim, but the pool was heated and the boys enjoyed jumping into water where they couldn't touch the bottom (it went to 10 ft).

Tuesday, July 15th

The main event of the day was whale watching. On our way there, we went over Deception Pass bridge. It is really high and it is over water with a strong current. It was a $10 charge to walk down a path and look up at the bridge so we didn't do it, but got a good view from the other side. It was also pretty foggy. OK, so we met our whale watch captain at 12:30 and headed out to the San Juan islands where the orcas were known to be swimming.  The boat was fairly small, there were only 14 passengers which was nice, some of the other whale watch boats we saw had a hundred people all crammed at a railing. The watch started slow, but turned awesome. Our captain was very knowledgeable. You could hear him talking on the radio with other boat captains about where the pods (groups) of orcas were. We had an orca swim right up next to the boat! Jimmy was excited that it was so close he could see it underwater. There were several in that area - Alexa captured probably the only great shot of 4 swimming together. They surface fast and you want to watch, you don't think about the camera until they are under again. We also saw a group of humpback whales, one of them came up out of the water and slammed down like the insurance commercial. It was pretty cool. We got back to the dock about 5:30, so we were hungry. Our trusty nuvi gave us the name of a restaurant that sounded good for dinner but then took us to the middle of a neighborhood. I guess we were supposed to invite ourselves over for dinner. After a couple of wild good chases, we settled for Arby's because it was time to head north into Canada.  The border crossing was uneventful. The agent was not mean, but not pleasant either. Not even a, "Welcome to Canada" from her.  We drove for about an hour and then had to wind through Vancouver - a beautiful city, we are going to spend more time there on Friday on our way back to Seattle.  To get to Whistler, you take the Sea to Sky highway.  We were treated to another amazing sunset over the mountains as we drove. Then we kept driving for awhile longer, until finally arriving (pretty late) at our time share. Not too late though to be so excited to see a washer and dryer in the unit that we threw a load in.

Today, Wednesday, July 16th

I'll start by first saying this is the nicest lodging I have ever stayed in - wow! Props to the Club Intrawest. The whole town of Whistler is full of chalet looking lodges that are right out of the movies and ours is no exception. It has a grand entrance full of dark wood and sits among the Fairmont and the 4 Seasons (pretty nice hotels, huh) There is a little of the Wilderness Lodge feel to it, but this seems more authentic. The suite is gorgeous and cozy (yet large) and we lost no time exploding into it. The pool is surrounded by woods and nature paths around the hotel and the pool chairs have big comfy cushions - a really nice environment to spend a good part of the afternoon in. The kids especially loved the slide, built into the side of a hill so it didn't ruin the picturesque setting. The other favorite that has emerged so far is the game room. It is full of arcade games and air hockey and it is all free. There was definitely some time logged in there today. Jimmy is reigning air hockey champ, but no one can touch me at Frogger. There aren't very many roads in Whistler. The restaurants and shops are all on pedestrian promenades. The parking lots are on the outer edge of the village. After lunch today, we walked to Whistler Olympic Park, where the medals for the mountain sports were awarded. We walked to dinner tonight, which was in the base village (we are in the upper). It was so pleasant, you walked through the pedestrian mall across from the hotel, then on a paved trail through the woods to get to the lower village, where there was another promenade. It was so scenic and such a nice walk. After dinner, more pool and arcade.. Tomorrow is another day in Whistler - among the fun things we have planned - the match to end all matches in mini golf - the deciding game. We'll keep you posted!