Skip to main content

Farewell US of A, Back to Canada

Wednesday, June 22nd – Millersylvania State Park to Port Angeles, Washington to Victoria, British Columbia - Day 131 

Our last day in the United States after 130 days travelling through 22 States, we will finally be returning to Canada. We are taking the ferry out of Port Angeles in north-western Washington. The drive to Port Angeles was two and a half hours along the shore of Puget Sound. The drive was beautiful with scenic views of the sound at low tide with fishermen plying their trade. We wanted to get to the ferry to ensure we could buy a ticket. We finished our drive and arrived to find the ferry terminal almost empty. We were assured that if we showed up an hour before the ferry we would get on. 

Stretching across Washington’s north-west peninsula was Olympic National Park. The visitor centre was 20 minutes away. We showed up and explored the centre; John completed a floor puzzle about animal diversity while the girls took in a display on fantastic fungi. 


We crossed the parking lot to take a hike through a beautiful river valley beside the centre. There were ferns covering the ground and moss living on trees. The hike went down into a dense, lush valley, across the river and up the other side. It was a wonderful hike. 


 There was plenty of things that we wanted to see in the park. The Hoh rainforest was high on my list, it was four hours away. We could have driven to Hurricane ridge, it would have taken an hour to get there. There was a beautiful lake nearby, it was 45 minutes. Our only option was a short hike to Madison falls twenty minutes away. 

The parking lot was beside a shallow river that we let the kids play in for a few minutes before taking the short hike to the waterfall. They played in the water there as well before we needed to get back in the car to make it back to the ferry terminal. At least we got to experience some of the park. 


Once back at the ferry terminal, Gen, Mary and the kids went to shop in some of the nearby stores while I found a restaurant to grab a bite to eat. We rendezvoused in the line for the ferry. 

This will be our third ferry ride of the trip, we had a back-and-forth ferry ride near Galveston, Texas. This was much longer. We found some seats and explored the deck briefly, but the wind was so strong we didn’t bother bringing the kids out. The boat was rocking back and forth as we headed for Victoria. 


 When we landed, we saw the beautiful Victoria harbour before heading to our dear Uncle Pat and Aunt Leila’s house. The groom himself met us at his side gate and we carefully backed the trailer into the backyard. Pat and Leila were so unbelievably accommodating to allow us to set-up in their backyard, use a washroom and welcome everyone into their wedding preparations. I had met Pat and Leila three or four times, I had only seen their children Paolina and James once, and I had not met Matthew, the groom, but they felt like family immediately. Initially everyone except the bride and groom was at James’ baseball game so we got an opportunity to chat with Matt and Leah. They were fantastic and the kids fell in love with Matt. Soon they were decorating a box and doing performances.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Desert Forest

Saturday, May 28th – Joshua Tree National Park - North to Joshua Tree National Park - South, California– Day 107 Our campsite was a large open dirt area with some scrub around the outside. In the dark we had managed to park beside the pile of horse poo and shaving. Horses were allowed in this site. Gen stepped in the middle of a pile.   The Joshua Tree National Park visitor centre was a five-minute drive away. The town of Joshua Tree was packed with college age millennials communing with nature. There was a market with kombucha, organic greens and a few small tortoises. It was all very pleasant but very busy. The laundromat was at the edge of the market, I charged the devices and did the laundry. Gen bought some produce from a guy loading a truck. I even snuck in to buy some watermelon kombucha.   The drive into the park was ten minutes followed by a ten-minute line to show our pass. A quick stop to fill up our water bottles and we were into the park. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meow Wolf and O

Wednesday, May 25th –Lake Mead National Recreation Area to Las Vegas, Nevada – Day 104  We woke up in our roadside turn out and got ready for the day. Our plan was to go for a swim at Lake Mead, see the Hoover Dam and head back into Vegas. The morning was stifling hot, we were looking forward to the swim.   We drove to the visitor centre at Lake Mead Recreation Centre. We could see Lake Mead on the way. The water was well below the high-water line on the rocks. At the visitor centre we got our passport stamped, filled our water bottles, and received junior ranger booklets. The air conditioning was so nice we set up the kids to work on their booklets and hung around. The kids finished up enough activities that they were sworn in by a very nice ranger before we left.   We decided to go see the Hoover Dam first. We dropped the trailer in the parking lot. We heard it might need to be opened at the security checkpoint and we couldn’t be bothered. The H...
Post a Comment
Read more

Canyonlands is Another Planet - Pt 1

Thursday, May 12th – Moab, Utah – Day 91  Utah is another planet. I cannot do justice to the sights that I have seen in Canyonlands National Park. They are beyond compare. I would encourage everyone to visit. The pictures we have taken do not convey the beauty of the scenery we witnessed.   We woke up in the morning after a late night. The kids did some schoolwork. We ate our oatmeal. We tried to clean up the dust that was all over the trailer. The wind had subsided in the night and the morning was pleasant and warm. Aisling had made us promise that we would climb the rock that they had all been climbing on. We strapped on our hiking boots and started towards the rock. A quick climb later we were at the top; on the way down, we were looking for pretty rocks.  The road to Canyonlands sits between two buttes with their cliffs rising on either side. The drive was thirty minutes to the entrance. The visitor centre had displays that detailed what each layer of the canyo...
Post a Comment
Read more