Our View From The Road

Sharing where we've been and what we've seen

Tag: WA

  • Day 31: Nothing to declare

    Day 31: Nothing to declare

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    Oooof…. 5:30am. We’re up & heading for a shower (which gets 4/10 because of very small size & clingy shower curtain). Why so early you ask? We have an early reservation for the Port Angeles, WA to Victoria, BC ferry. Yep, we are leaving the U.S. after almost a month of travel, it’s time to head back into Canada.

    Showered we get the van ready for the day and are driving off site by 6:45am. Traffic is fairly light and this makes our drive back into town to the wharf easy and quick. Black Ball Ferries require us to check-in a minimum of one hour before the ferry “Coho” departs at 8:20am, we make it with a few minutes to spare.

    A cup of coffee and a banana are enjoyed while we wait to board which begins shortly before 8:00am. We make our way up to the top deck in order to have the best views back across town to the Olympic mountains.

    “Coho” ferry
    Departing the U.S.
    & away we go
    View aft
    Another view aft
    Olympic mountains
    Container ship
    Calm waters of Salish Sea

    The ferry is relatively full with most passengers having walked-on. The Salish Sea is mill pond calm and we see a few seabirds fishing for breakfast but no whales or seals today while crossing. Arriving in the Victoria inner harbour, our departure and clearance through Canada Customs takes about 30min. We head towards Langford, BC where we enjoy breakfast at a White Spot restaurant before getting groceries for the week.

    Arriving in Victoria harbour
    Departing the “Coho” ferry
    Canada customs
    Flowering trees in Victoria
    Totem
    Horses and carriages
    BC Parliament
    Empress Hotel

    The weather for today is predicted to go from sunny this morning to rain later in the afternoon. As such we have changed our plans to try to avoid the heaviest rains and are now heading to my parents home a day ahead of schedule for a few days of rest and relaxation.

    Arriving – Galiano, BC

    We’ll catch-up with you again when we resume our journey next week. All the best and thanks for following our adventures.

  • Day 30: To the state of Washington

    Day 30: To the state of Washington

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    Oregon was wet, it rained a lot. Of course if you’ve been reading along you will have already observed this, but it does feel like I need to say it again, Oregon was wet.

    Fort Stevens State Park has the best showers of the Oregon state parks we stayed at. 8/10. They only lose points for being push-button (timed) showers and bare concrete floors. All other requirements of a shower were easily met, especially privacy & cleanliness.

    Today is a driving day, we leave Oregon and head across Washington to Port Angeles. Astoria, OR is the last town that we pass through on our way to Washington. Today there is a cruise ship docked in port, visitors are likely on a ‘Goonies’ sightseeing tour.

    Bridge to Washington with cruise ship
    Cruise ship
    Bridge
    Driving from bridge towards Washington

    Washington state has a lot of trees, it’s about all you see as drive through it. We took pictures as you will see below, but didn’t stop at any touristy places. The drive was about the destination as it was 4 hours plus a break for lunch.

    Arriving in Port Angeles we went down to the wharf and ate an early dinner at the Downriggers on the Water restaurant and enjoyed a clam chowder and a sandwich.

    On our way to our campsite we topped off with fuel and then arrived at the KOA campground just East of town. Tonight we get everything in order to re-enter Canada.

    Campsite
    View from our campsite

    Tomorrow will be an early morning as we are booked into the 8:20am ferry heading for Victoria, BC.

  • Day 23: June 11 – Lynden, WA to Abbotsford, BC

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    Knowing we only have about 20km to drive for our stay tonight, we got to sleep-in and take our time getting ready today. The campground here is very picturesque; however, the neighbors didn’t seem to have volume control of their voices and so that spoiled the site a little. We spent last evening at in the van (it was raining) watching Netflix and therefore didn’t have to listen to their entire conversation.

    We left at about 11:30 and went into town to get our last fill-up of fuel in the US before heading to the border crossing. A quick stop at the duty-free shop and onto Canada customs. 3 minutes later and we were wished well on the remainder of our trip. This was by far the quietest and easiest border crossing we’ve ever experienced.

    We drive into Abbotsford looking for a place to have lunch and settled on the Field House Brewing Co. on West Railway St. We each enjoyed one of their beers as well as a plate of bruschetta and an order of chicken tacos. Yummy, we highly recommend.

    Acre upon acre of raspberry bushes growing adjacent to the Abbotsford airport.

    That night we were staying at Campbell’s Gold Honey Farm and Meadery just outside of Aldergrove. They have a wonderful shop where they sell their wares and also locally made crafts. A quiet and secure location where we slept exceedingly well.

  • Day 22: June 10 – Port Angeles, WA to Lynden, WA

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    Today we awoke early as we were heading around Puget Sound to our last overnight stop in the USA, Lynden, WA which is just South of Abbotsford, BC our destination for the next day.

    These is a way from Port Angeles to Bellingham using ferries; however, we found that these were already fully booked and so we would have to drive to Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle and then onto Bellingham before turning toward Lynden. This would take about 2 hours longer but as we had the time we enjoyed the scenery and didn’t dwell on it as an inconvenience.

    Approaching Olympia we’re down at sea level
    However, our borrowed GPS thinks we’re a little lower than that! (BTW, notice the name of the road we’re approaching) 😜
    Arriving in Seattle. The Space Needle can be seen near the left side of the skyline
    The I-5 takes you right under the downtown core of the city

    Arriving at the KOA in Lynden, we quickly setup camp and set about relaxing after a day of traffic jams and busy roads. Tomorrow we go home to Canada!

  • Day 21: June 9 – Fort Stevens State Park, OR to Port Angeles, WA

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    Today we packed up our campsite and headed toward the Northern shore of the state of Washington. We would drive around Olympic National forest in which is Mount Olympia; however, the weather would not give us a chance to see the mountain as it started raining shortly after we left the campground and rained all day.

    Leaving Warrenton and heading towards Astoria, OR
    Colorful Astoria, OR

    About an hour North of Astoria, Barb finds that South Bend, WA has a statue of the worlds largest oyster. We stopped and in the rain located the statue. Voila!

    South Bend, WA
    Olympic National Park / Forest

    We stopped in Forks, WA at the Timber Museum and ate lunch in the van before touring the museum. Although small they had some fascinating relics from the BIG timber days of 100 years or so ago.

    Forks, WA
    Treehouse

    At the other end of the town of Forks, another museum displayed thousands of items that the owner, John, had collected over the past 47 years from the beaches in the area along the Washington coast. Although a high percentage of his collection is fishing floats, he also has a large collection of items from the 2011 Japanese tsunami that washes across the Pacific.

    John’s Beachcombing Museum, Forks, WA