We took the ferry from Seattle to explore both Victoria and the Butchart Gardens.
The bay area in VictoriaIn order to see the most of Victoria in our short stay we took the double decker bus tour.
Some of the “interesting” residents!These hanging flower baskets were all over downtown.Hotel Zed is a local hotel with a 60’s theme, thus their hotel transportation are these VW buses!China town district.
Mile 0 of the Trans Canada Highway that stretches across all of Canada East to West; it connects via ferry to here in Victoria.
The entrance to Butchart Gardens.Butchart Gardens entrance.See the Leopard?
Its hard to imagine this was just an old quarry when they started!
Very pet friendly; they even had these doggy drinking fountains !The dancing waters fountain; mesmerizing!An interesting (and maybe a bit gross for some tastes) water statue.
An interesting water fountain! Probably a bit gross to some!They even had this beautiful hand carved carrousel.
They even had this beautiful antique hand carved and painted carrousel there!
Our campground was in Port Angeles.The day we arrived it rained constantly all day. Surprise, surprise!We took a day trip to the Hoh Rain ForrestVery dense forrest and very green; moss grows on anything that doesn’t move!Thats a boy, a little bigger than Reeve, standing by that huge tree! So big I couldn’t get back far enough to get it all in even with my wide angle lens!This is the best I could do to get an entire redwood tree in the shot! They’re enormous !
Ferns growing out of the root ball of a blown over tree.
We went on a short hike on this trail; there was word of an Elk sighted close by.And lo and behold, there he was, just grazing! He could care less that people were within 20 feet of him!
On another day trip we went to Hurricane Ridge.Beautiful drive up there.We spotted this Marmot near the Visitor’s Center.
While exploring one day we discovered this: an old WWII bunker, part of Camp Hayden!The gun here had a 45′ barrel and shot 16″ projectiles. The one on the left is almost as tall as me and weighs over a ton and the gun could shoot them over 28 miles!Camp Hayden was part of the joint American/Canadian Defense System to protect these harbors.
We found this cute lodge up there too; The Log Cabin Lodge.It was a bit overcast and drizzly but it adds to the picture I think.Their lobby greeter!Off the side of the road was this small rapids. At the right time of year Salmon are going up stream to spawn.Through the VERY clear water you can see a few Salmon here.
We took the harbor tour boat while in Seattle area. We stayed with our friends Doug and Cindy Lundvall in Bellevue just outside Seattle.
The iconic needle of Seattle.While in this area we stayed with our friends Doug and Cindy Lundvall. This is the view of Lake Sammamish from the deck of their home in BellevueFour generations; Jan, Polly’s sister and the grandma; Elise, grand daughter; Meribelle, great grand daughter; and Cindy, daughterDoug and Cindy let us tag along for a 60th Birthday party for one of their good friends, DonnaThe Birthday girl, DonnaHer husband Peter Blake and his son entertained us with some great musicHer stepson, Robert Blake was our host at his home and a great musician in his own right.The evening sunset from Robert’s back yard.We were also invited to tag along on an excursion to Doug and Cindy’s friends and colleagues from their teaching careers; hosted by Ron and Valerie, for a fine Wine/Dinner Party; what fun!
An interesting metal sculpture of Ron’s; it’s 6 feet tall! It was made by one of his students.We also went on a day trip with Doug and Cindy to see Snoqualmie Falls just outside of Bellevue
A group shot; Doug, Cindy, Jan and me (I get in a picture once in awhile!
We stopped at Taylor Shellfish Farms for some really fresh oysters for lunch. YUMMY!!We didn’t have any plates or utensils but that didn’t stop us from enjoying them!
The farm
Their little lighthouse covered in, you guessed it, oyster shells!On another day trip with Doug and Cindy we visited the town of La Conner on the bayfront.They had John Waynes old yacht the Norwester there as a museum.Interesting project undertaken by the Army Corps of Engineering and the town of La Conner
While in Bellevue, we took a day trip to Tacoma to visit the Museum of Glass.Artists working on a piece in the Cone workshopThe finished design drawn in colored chalk for their reference
The painstaking process to produce the glass swirls, simply amazing!
Other exhibits were equally beautiful and interesting
The National Park Inn where we stayed for the night. Very “quaint”!Very large trees; compared to Big Blue even!View of Mount Rainier from the lodge.Yet another beautiful water fall!
We took a day trip through the park. Actually very little access by car.Aptly named Reflection Lake.Another view of Mount Rainier (we had the bikes with us while our RV was at the dealer for warranty work)
It’s the tallest mountain around; even visible from our friends Jim & Kathy’s back yard in Enumclaw, about 50 miles away!
