Birch Bay and Vancouver

Birch Bay

Sally and Tom are on the move again. With our time up at Deception Pass State Park, we are now traveling for the month of July. Our trip is planned around some personal activities. The first of those activities is to go north to Vancouver British Columbia. This is an old haunt, as Sally worked there for a year once. We moved the RV to a small town called Birch Bay (which is on Birch Bay.) It is quaint. The residences remind us of Florida in the sixties and seventies, before the big condo boom. As we toured closer to the border with Canada, we did notice that development has begun to replace the quaintness.

Not replaced yet - bakery and ice cream at the heart of Birch Bay

Speaking of the border, just north of Birch Bay is a town called Blaine Washington. T is a major highway crossing for Canada and the U. S. It is also the home of the Peace Arch, a monument celebrating the joint friendship of the two countries. It was dedicated just after World War Two. The park there is beautiful, with flowers, statues and the Arch itself.

Peace Arch Park - in both both Washington and BC

The Arch - right on the border

We took the train up to Vancouver on the 3rd of July. The first day of the month is Canada Day, so we were trying to avoid the crowds moving on that day, and came back on the 4th. We thought by the time we got back things would be settled. The train moves along the ocean front. Luckily we made our reservations in time to get the ocean side on the trip, both ways. The arms of the Pacific are filled with glorious views.

All aboard!

Vancouver is a beautiful city. It is in the midst of an upgrade for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It serves as Canada’s West Coast hub for financial centers, utilities, shipping and tourism. It is a major cruise ship embarkation center. Whale watching, glaciers and other interesting nature scenes can be observed on an “inside passage” cruise. The inside passage refers to deep waterways protected from the wave action of the Pacific Ocean. Islands and reefs block the turbulence caused by weather on the ocean. We did not anticipate so many people taking the train up to Vancouver for their cruises, but it created an interesting mix of people with which to travel. The hotel where we stayed the night was also full of cruise line folks. (You can tell them by the amount of baggage they carry.) Friday is a transition day for the cruises, so we had people coming and going.

House boats in the harbor in Vancouver

Under construction

Two of our planned stops were for eating (of course). Rodney’s Oyster House was (and is) a favorite of ours. They have fresh seafood and a wait staff that has a lot of personality. Sally had scallops prepared in a potato crust and Tom had raw oysters from different areas. Some of his oysters were from Prince Edward Island, Vancouver Island and Washington State. We made an event of afternoon/evening, staying there for over and hour and half chatting with locals (one said Tom has a great American accent) and the wait staff.

At the bar in Rodney's

We came back to the hotel and used the amenities there, the whirlpool, steam room, sauna and pool. We relaxed right on into a comfortable evening. The next morning we walked around the waterfront and enjoyed looking at the boats. We have entertained the thought of a house boat (notice the pictures) as a place to move into if we hit the lottery. It is ok to dream.

The other restaurant we planned to stop at is a Japanese spot close to the hotel. It is here that Sally discovered she could order her own sushi. It is a lunch favorite in town. After the meal, we still had a few hours to wait on the train, so we decided to take in a movie. We haven’t been to a cinema theater since Maine, two years ago. We saw Get Smart. Having seen the TV show and read the reviews, our expectations we pretty low, but it was the only movie that fit into our time table. We were pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the movie, but we recommend waiting for the DVD. It should translate well to the TV screen.

The trip home on the train was enjoyable. It takes about two hours to travel from Vancouver to Bellingham, our destination. We like the train over air flight because you can spread out. The seats are wider and the leg room is tremendous. We had some small children on the ride home. There was ample room for them to play without interfering with anyone else. There is a dining/snack car with food and drink and tables. You can walk the aisles to loosen up. We are for high speed trains.

We returned to the motor home about eight thirty. We saw along our route many people preparing for fire works displays. The area here is dry, so the only fire works allowed are on the water or on the beach. Birch Bay does not have a community fire works show, but they allow individuals to produce their own. And produce they do. We think that several individuals are contesting with each other for the better display. The fire works started about nine and ran until mid-night. Some people spent huge amounts of money. We are about a half a mile from the beach, yet we could see the “rockets” glare over the tree tops. It was quite a spectacle.

A very low tide in Birch Bay

This post was long, but we seemed to have really filled our few days here. Tomorrow we move, maybe we can rest, who knows. Let us hear from you. Remember to look up and behind you occasionally, you never know what you’ll see.

Mt Baker and Friends

Our RV at Deception Pass

Greetings from North Washington State. Deception Pass State Park is about 75 north of Seattle. As we have said before, it is on two islands. It is part of the San Juan Island system. Most of the islands are small mountains that happen to be in the water. Part of the ruggedness of the coast line here is the pressure of tectonic plates (large floating land masses) running into each other. This area is a part of the “ring of fire” surrounding the Pacific Ocean from Australia through southeast and eastern Asia into Alaska, Canada, the U. S. all the way to Chile. The ring of fire describes the volcanic activity with the collision of these plates.

A lighthouse near Ft Casey on

Whidbey Island south of Deception Pass

We traveled slightly north and east of the park to try to get a view of Mt. Baker. This mountain is an active volcano (like Mt St Helens) in the ring of fire. Our hopes were to sneak into a sunny window predicted by local weatherpersons. The drive was not long, but our luck on seeing the mountain was not to be good. We did see some beautiful country. We took a short hike along a river with a tremendous flow from the snow runoff. We also saw some exotic birds (at least to us). We had a terrific meal at a little out of the way place. We are pretty sure the big clientele is cross country skiers.

Mt Baker has to be up here somewhere

Snow melt in the Cascades

Delicious Italian lunch in Glacier, WA

We found the mountain later -

a sunset view from Mt Erie near Anacortes

We also had a visit from Tom’s cousin Darlene and her husband Tony. They too have a motor home and they came up to the park for three days of fun and frolic. We ate very well (why do we keep doing that). We toured on the jet boat through Deception Pass, relaxed by fires every evening and just had a wonderful time. We ate at the best little seafood restaurant (Seaboldt’s) and a funky little place (Frank’s Place). Seafood to Spam, life just doesn’t get better than that.

Darlene & Tony with Elvis

See if you can spot the 2 fledging

peregrine falcons we saw from the jet boat

Speaking of food, the host’s from the different aspects of Deception Pass got together for a first rate meal at a Greek restaurant. Our time at Deception is almost up. We have had the pleasure of meeting fine folks; Tim and Jeanine, Tom and Ginny, Lou and Alyss and Paul and Ruth. We even discovered that Tom and Ginny’s nephew was in the Tulane Law School graduation class with Stephen. Small world is it not.

Fireside chat with fellow camp hosts

Ready to kayak - one of the "perks" at Deception Pass

We thank Ryan and all the other rangers of Deception Pass. It is beautiful place. If you’re in the area, take a day or two to see it.

Peace and love go out to you all.

Mt Baker - one last view

Whale Watching

In our previous post, we mentioned we are on Fildago Island. It is the eastern most island in the San Juan Island chain. The second week we were here, we took a ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor on the Island of San Juan. It is the western most island in the chain. This small island almost started the third war between the U. S. and Great Britain.

The U. S. and the English had established the border between the Oregon Territory and British Columbia. Somehow, in the negotiations the San Juan Islands were not accounted for. Both countries laid claim. The Hudson Bay Company established a sheep farm on the island. Many American pioneers had also settled on the Island. One American squatted on a piece of land said to be owned by Hudson Bay. He complained about pigs getting into his garden to the Hudson Bay manager, but since the manager considered that part of his domain, he did not make any effort to stop the animals. The farmer shot one of the pigs, and then approached the manager to make a financial arrangement. The manager made a ridiculous price for the dead animal. The farmer refused to pay, thus started a series of events that brought the governments to send soldiers to the island. After a lot of arguing, the sides each made an encampment on opposite sides of the island. To learn more, look up the “Pig War”.

The Pig War

Alpaca Farm

Red Fox

SJI has a state park, Lime Kiln that is a good view point of the Olympic Peninsula and mountains. The island is surrounded by two oceanic straits. With this natural water flow, the island is in a very good position to view water wild life. Lime Kiln is a prime area to watch sea life. It is also a good spot for watching whales travel up and down the strait in the west side of the island. We ventured over the island on Wednesday, stopping at the English Camp. The hosts there told us the route to Lime Kiln and said the host there would know if and when the whales would be there that day. We had missed them on Wednesday. They had come by about 6 am. So we decided we would get up early on Thursday. So, troopers that we are, we hit the road before 6 am, parked on a high overlook and watched. We had been there about an hour when we spotted dark animals swimming. They had dorsal fins and were spouting. We quickly headed down to Lime Kiln, only to learn we had seen harbor dolphins. We waited and watched patiently until the host came down to the lighthouse at the park. It was now about 8 am. He said others would be in a while who would await word about any whale pod sightings. About 9:30 the first Orca was spotted. After that, there was a steady stream of sightings lasting until about 10:30. The whales got closer to the low cliffs as the pod moved. We were probably within 40 or 50 feet Killer Whales. It was incredible. If you get a chance to go whale watching, our advice is to take it.

Orca Tail Slap

Family of 3

Mom & Calf

Close-up view

We know this is a lot of detail, but we had a great time on our short visit to San Juan Island. (What? You can’t tell by our blubbering.) We even saw the top of Mt. Baker from the ferry on our return trip. It was a wonderful “weekend”.

Deception Pass State Park

Hello to all from Fildago Island. The island is the bridge connection to Whidbey Island. Both islands are major ferry connections to other destinations. Fildago and its largest city, Anacortes, serve as the ferry point to the San Juan Island chain and to Victoria British Columbia. Whidbey Island and its largest town, Oak Harbor, serve as a ferry point to Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula.


View from Bowman Bay

The major separation point for the two islands is a narrow gap called Deception Pass. The pass has a major water flow during tidal movement - up to 8-10 feet difference between low and high tides. There is a bridge spanning the pass where you can see the water make very distinct motions during tidal flow. Boats are very interesting to watch in this water flow. Swimming is not allowed for obvious reasons.

View of the Bridge over Deception Pass

Deception Pass State Park surrounds the bridge. Most of the park is located on Whidbey, the southern island. We are on the northern island, Fildago. It is a small campground with a large day use area on Bowman Bay; hence the name of the campground is Bowman Bay Campground. It is a beautiful area. Sharp hills surround us, with great color in mixed forestation. The campground was developed in the mid-thirties by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Many buildings still stand from those days. The structures are very solid; they may last another 70 or 80 years (or longer).

View of Bowman Bay

There are two military bases near us. One on Whidbey Island is a Naval Air Station and we are definitely in the flight path for their training. The other is a small Air Force base. We are in its flight path when the wind is right. It is good to see the protection the federal government (by way of our tax dollars) provides us. Some times we think they need quieter jets though.

Pileated Woodpecker in the campground

We are in another natural wonderland of birds, mammals and sea creatures. Tide pools show the intense variety of life, with crabs smaller than your fingernail, fish no longer than a finger and other sea life too numerous to mention. We went out for a sunset view and saw sea otters feeding. There are whales and dolphins in the area (we haven’t seen them yet, but we will).

A Madrona tree

The weather has been rainy and cool. Highs have been in the 50’s (lows in the 50’s, not much change in the temps here.) The water is also cool, probably in the 50’s, but we just won’t stand in the water long enough to get the current temperature.

With the weather being cool and rainy, we have not explored much, but we see a break in the rain this week. So hopefully the next post will be filled with exciting wonders from the San Juan’s and/or Mt. Baker.

Mt Baker from the bridge

We spend our time playing on our instruments and computers. There is no cell reception here, so we have to go a couple of miles to get internet and to call folks. So if you call us, understand that we may not get the message for a day, but leave one so we can call you back. We will call you. We love you all.

Our "Front Yard" - view from the RV window

No man is an island, but man; there are some beautiful islands in the pacific northwestern U. S.

Fun at home - Penrose Point

Many individuals fantasize about being so rich they can have people for menial tasks. We do not dream of that, we dream of having a little more than enough to get by and we’ll keep on doing our own little jobs. This has been a week of doing those things everyone has to do: laundry, house keeping, shopping. We also engaged in local activities: clamming, Memorial Day camping, open mike night.

Shelton is the largest town west of Tacoma. It is a lumber town supporting logging, saw milling and shipping for that industry. It is also the shopping haven for a lot of people. It is a place where you can find large box stores, but also little book stores. Sally is very pleased with this, for she had many books to trade, so she set out on this adventure while Tom watched the clothes wash. We filled our simple needs while in the town. It is about 40 miles from the campground, but had easy access to the services we needed.

We have kept a low profile for the most part of this period. We did venture into Tacoma for other supplies not found in Shelton. We had a nice lunch with Tom’s cousin Darlene. They where preparing a long holiday weekend at Cape Disappointment, a beautiful place we had passed on our way to Penrose Point. We hope they had a good weekend.

We certainly had a good weekend. The weather cooperated (as well as the Pacific Northwest can) with only small patches of rain, but a lot of sunshine. The campground was full; all sites had been sold through reservations. Large extended family units gathered in small spaces. We each enjoyed working with the Junior Ranger program for kids. The whole weekend reminded Tom of the days his family would gather at South Salty on the Tennessee River over the 4th of July week (when the willow flies were hatching) and go fishing for days. It was a nice experience to remember and it was good seeing families gather here, most on an annual trip. Tom’s family spent time fishing, and some of this crew did also. But the big event here is clamming.

Junior Rangers (and their parents!) on a scavenger hunt

The sport requires a license. The daily limit for an individual is 40 clams or 10 pounds (in shell). We pointed out in earlier blogs that we had acquired licenses. We went the Thursday before Memorial Day and each got our limit. Tom goes for Horse Clams, they hide in deeper water when the tide is in, while Sally goes for the smaller Little Necks found closer to the shore. They have a saying around here, “if the tide is out, the table is set.” We believe this to be true, for most people got their limit each day. Clams and Oysters are in season here through the end of May. Then crabbing season starts in June. Everyone here seems to like fresh seafood.

Tom Digging Clams

Tom has been practicing his guitar and Sally has been hammering on her dulcimer. Neither has spent enough time playing, but it helps, along with reading and traveling, fill our days and make our time here seem too short. (Sally’s dad, Whit, told us during our working lives how he did not know how we did all the things that needed to be done. He was retired and still did not have time. We know this to be true ourselves now!) Tom played at an open mike night at a local pub. The host said he ran a blog and to look for Tom’s picture. We'll post their blog address if it is there.

Sally on the Dulcimer outside the RV

Tom practicing for Open Mic Night

Sally has participated in three Bird Walks at the park during the month. She can now recognize several bird songs and has sighted several new birds, including this beautiful Wilson's Warbler. On our last day, a camper reported that there was a bird nest in a cedar tree right in their campsite. We joined the ranger and park aide to take a couple of pictures and identify the bird as a brown creeper. We could even see the little nestlings' open mouths as both mom and dad took turns feeding them. The ranger said they were almost grown and might even leave the nest this week.

Singing Wilson's Warbler

Brown Creeper Nest with Babies - see their mouths!

We are sad to have to start preparing to move to our next host position. We have had a wonderful time at Penrose Point. We have enjoyed meeting Rangers Janet and Dan, Park Aides Valerie, Aaron and Demoree and Intern Shannon. We met several folks from Harbor Wild Watch, a Pileated Woodpecker and many many campers, most all who say our next stop, Deception Pass State Park, is the loveliest park in the system. This gives us great anticipation as we prepare to move. The only thing we will not miss is the little brown bird that sees his reflection in our truck window. He keeps trying to drive the other bird away, but he is leaving his “mark” all over our mirrors and windows.

One very determined Song Sparrow

One chapter closes and another opens. Life is like that. Keep the faith.

Penrose Staff

Often, time appears to pass slowly as we move in the present. If you take the context of activities in reflection, you will notice how quickly it escapes us.

Over the last two weeks, we have good weather (for the northwest U.S. in the spring). It has been a little on the cool side, with highs in the low sixties. That came to an abrupt halt with the air temperature getting into the mid-eighties. This and other “supernatural” occurrences have affected our travels.

We had a small gathering at the campground the first weekend, the weekend with the touch tanks as described in the previous posting. But reflecting on the tricks we learned from the naturalists, we have been able to spot small sea creatures we would have missed before. We really notice these animals as we dig for clams while the tide is out.

Clam Mouths in their natural state...Clams ready to eat
We have also had time for family. Tom’s cousin Darlene and her husband Tony and son Will had us over to enjoy a wonderful meal with lamb roast, cooked to perfection, as the entrée. Our thanks to Darlene and Tony, who prepared the feast so skillfully. It was enjoyable to relax and discuss the issues of the day and memories of the past.

Happy Mother’s Day! to all the moms who find their eyes reading this blog. The weekend brought quite a few campers out to Penrose Point. The weather is a high factor in a park so close to a large metropolis area (Seattle and Tacoma). It was cool, but with only a small chance of rain, so the crowds move in.

Mother’s Day was also the occasion for a gift from son Stephen and wife Katie. They sent a vase filled with beautiful flowers. Sally is a proud mother (with much to be proud of).

For our “weekend”, we took our little truck and ferried over to Vancouver Island. The island is the home of Victoria, the capital of British Columbia Canada. We had heard the weather was to be clear and warm, so we thought a driving tour was in order. The nice weather was a little slow coming in, so we had clouds. But we still were able to see rugged coastline and mountains. We also stopped at a little town famous for its murals. We also stopped at a First Nations exhibit. We stayed one night in Victoria, a charming city, but we did not have time to tour as much as we wanted. Maybe next time.

Totem at First Nations Visitor Center

Victoria Harbour. . . . . . . . . . .Waiting to load . . . . . . . . . . . . . On board the Coho

The weather prediction did come true for this past weekend. As Seattle, and rest of the northwest, prepared for record temperatures, the campground filled up. On Saturday night, there were only two sites (of 83) empty. Lots of children, tents and RV’s. We think most people had a nice time, those who were prepared for heat and sunshine. We certainly enjoyed it.

Always remember to cherish the moment and be thankful for what you have. The moments pass quickly to become memories and those things you have can disappear.

Until next time …

Mt Rainier at sunrise