Last days in Seattle

Final sunset in WA
Awesome boat docking at Edmonds Pier

Tiff checking out drum sounds at the Music Project

Tiff learning a few keyboard notes at the Music Project

Sculpture project at the Music Project

Throwing fish at the Pike Street Market

Sails on Lake Union with the Olympic range in the background taken from the top of the Space Needle

I want this house on the lake with this boat :-)

Seattle skyline from Lake Union

The Duck (amphibious vehicle) entering Lake Union

Mt. Rainier

Space Needle

Duck Tour boats ready to rock the city

Wyland mural in Seattle

The last two days we spent traveling to and in Seattle. Friday night we had a wonderful Seafeast at the Crab Pot, lots of yummy crab topped off by a Strawberry Rhubarb cake. Saturday we went on a Duck Tour around the city, up to the top of the Space Needle and then to the Pike Street Market. Tiffany and I went to the Music Project. We then met John Davis and Rick Wangen for dinner at Anthony's Beach Cafe in Edmonds. It was a beautiful and fun filled day. Sunday was travel home. We already miss vacation. It was a great two weeks.

Welcome to San Juan Island

Tiff with her moped

Tiff taking in the views at South Beach

A friendly little fox

Enjoying a glass of wine on the veranda after a long day

Lower deck of Lakedale Resort Lodge (view from our veranda)

View off of our Veranda at the Resort

I think the sign says it all



Having a ball!!!

San Juan Island

Orca "Spy Hopping"
Orcas swimming by

Another Orca

Beautiful View from Turn Point

Rebecca & Tiff enjoy another great view

Our camp site

Susan taking a picture at Lime Kiln Park

Tiff paddling near Turn Point Light House

Rebecca & Jason and Kim & Andrew Paddling Away

Kim & Andrew paddling in sync

Our time on San Juan Island has been a blast. First of all, Tiffany is feeling much much better. We started out Sunday with arriving on our island from the Ferry on a rainy Sunday. Earlier we had decided to upgrade our camping spot to the Lodge at Lakedale Resort. What an amazing resort, with three lakes it is amazingly beautiful here. Our room was awesome with a great veranda overlooking the lake. We headed down to Friday Harbor for some seafood at Downriggers. We had a great meal and found out the couple sitting next to us picked up the tab. They were here from Florida and for some reason found us fun.

Monday was a beautiful day out and we rented mopeds and toured the island. We hit the whale watching park, the American and British camps from the pig war days, Roche Harbor, a Lavendar farm, Alpaca farm, Mona the camel, and the wine vineyard. Another great dinner topped off the night, followed by packing for our upcoming kayaking trip, plus a glass of wine on our bautiful veranda.

Tuesday we met our group at Sea Quest Adventures at 8:00am, we arrived at our put in and before we even had the boats off the trailer a group of Orcas passed by the park, so we rushed up to an overlook to check them out. Afterwards we loaded the boats, did all our lessons and checks and headed out on the water. Two hours on the water we encountered 4 large male orcas. We "rafted up" (grouped our boats together) and watched them come by our boats (about 20 ft or so away). They were amazing. A large barge had just gone by so we were in big swells and so pictures were difficult to take on this encounter. After about 6 hours and 12 miles of paddling we found our camp. We had some wonderful spaghetti for dinner and crashed out from a wonderful day. It started raining when we went to bed and rained all night and became lighter and lighter as day broke.

Wednesday we woke up early, enjoyed some banana and walnut pancakes, packed up the boats and headed out to paddle around Spatan Island. We enjoyed seeing harbor seals, sea stars, bald eagles, and several other sea creatures and many deer. We started to see some whale watching boats south of us, and after listening in to some whale watcher chatter on our guide's (Andrew) walkie talkie about an active group of Orcas headed our way. We waited off of a bay for quite some time and finally got tired of sitting so we docked on a shore, grabbed our lunches and hiked up to some rocks and headed back out to the rocky shore and waited for them to come. When they arrived they were right off the shore and entertained us with breaching (jumping out of the water), spy hopping (popping there heads up out of the water), and jumping. It was a grand time. After the greatest picnic on earth we headed back into camp. Another amazing 6 hours on the water we enjoyed chips and salsa, guacamole and burritos. After dinner we took a six mile (round trip) hike through dense forests to the overlook at turn point and enjoyed an amazing view and sunset (ok, so maybe not as good as New Mexicos). It was the end to the perfect day.

Thursday it was drizzly out and we were all very tired. We paddled another 4 hours or so and enjoyed many of the marine sightings. The Orcas seemed to be hiding from us today but the day was still very enjoyable. After returning from our trip, Kim, Tiff and I grabbed some pizza and headed out to the Whale Watch Park in hopes of seeing a few more Orcas. No luck. So we headed back to the Lakedale Resort and took a much needed shower and enjoyed a bottle of wine from the local vineyard out on the Veranda.

Friday we will head out to Seattle. San Juan Islands have once again brought me great joy and met every expectation of Tiffany and Kim.

Vancouver, BC

Today it was sunny and beautiful out. Tiff was feeling better so we headed out to see the sights and met a few friends along the way. Ended the day with some great seafood.

Day 4- Bears, Bungee & Vancouver

Waterway between Vancouver and Squamish
The "Chief", a VERY large granite rock

Shannon Falls

Bungee jumping in Whistler

Bear #1

The shy bear

Bear #2

The brave bear

Today we had a few surprises. After packing up the car we did some last minute shopping and sight seeing in Whistler and then headed out of town. We had some time to kill before the scheduled bungee jump and so headed up toward the Olympic Park to check it out, only to find it closed. However on our way back down we ran into two bears and watched them for some time. We had been on the look out for bears ever since we arrived and were glad to find some before we left.

We headed over to the bungee jumping, but as the morning had progressed, so had Tiff's sickness. So after much debate it was decided that bungee jumping was not going to be the best event for her that day. We did however stay and watch several others jump and checked out the area which was again gorgeous.

On our way down to Vancouver we stopped at several view points and took in the views. Kim and I hiked up to Shannon Falls, an amazing waterfall. We finally arrived in Vancouver, found our hotel and chilled out, giving Tiff some time to really rest.

Saturday we will spend the day checking out Vancouver - Stanley Park in particular and taking it easy before we head out to San Juan Island.

Day 3 - Peak 2 Peak and Horseback Riding

Top of Willards head and Kim up in front

Heading down the trail

Susan/Willard Kim/Dandy Tiff/Angel

From the top of Blackcomb Mountain looking over Whistler



Two beauties on the Gondola

Check out this snowpack

The Peak 2 Peak Gondola

Whistler Mountain

Day 3 actually was clear and sunny, which was perfect since we wanted to spend the day outside. We headed up the first Gondola to the top of the Whistler Peak to check out the scenery. A guide showed up where the Via Ferrata would have taken us, and it then became clear why it was cancelled. The snowpack was so deep that the holds were covered in several places and there had already been many avalanche slides. In looking at one of the switchback roads, the snowpack was at least 8 feet. The Peak 2 Peak went from Whistler Mountain to Blackomb Mountain and gave us some stunning views with some spitting snow. We got a chance to play in the snow, which of course made us really happy.

Later that afternoon we took a shuttle to Pemberton which is about 20 min North of Whistler. A beautiful town at the base of Mount Currie. Up until about 3 weeks ago they were still heli skiing in the peaks. We had a great time on the horses. Tiff's horse was Angel (nickname Devil), which she was soon to learn why, when she decided at the steepest downhill point that she had no interest in coming on down the trail. My horse Willard, behaved like a drunken old man, and kept trying to brush me off by wandering into the trees. Kim's horse was dandy, and he was just perfect (of course). But the ride was fun, the scenery was beautiful, and it took us places we would not have gone otherwise. There had been sightings of two bears with a total of 5 cubs but we didn't see them. Bummer!

We ended our day with the scrumptous fondue at the Bavarian as we had hoped.

NOTE: Tiff still is coughing up a storm but still planning on doing her Bungee jump today (Friday) and then we will head to Vancouver.