Oak Harbor, WA

Beautiful day, both in what we did and in the temps.
First off, it's our 42nd anniversary!  Woke up to clear skies and sunshine!  What a great start to the day.
Drove 86 miles from Abottsford, BC, to Oak Harbor, WA.  The GPS guided through all the roundabouts and curves to get to Jim & Ton Kotschwar's house.  We arrived at 11:00 and had a nice visit, lunch, then a drive through the area.  What an awesome place to live!  Mountains can be seen from both the Coast and the Cascade mountain ranges.  We went to the Admiralty Lighthouse and Fort Casey.  Then we had a great meal in the quaint Coupeville.  Neat little town.
I will post pictures in a day or two.
Talk to you later.

Welcome sign as we entered Washington.

This is the Admirality Lighthouse.  Not sure I have it spelled correctly, but my lighthouse map is out in the car, so it will have to do.  

Abottsford, BC

Left this morning at 7:40 and arrived at Abottsford at 5:00.  We drove 451 miles and again it was mountain roads.  The road was in good repair, just lots of curves and 6-8% grades.  Barry does a great job of driving and I spend time knitting to keep myself calm.  Good thing I brought a good supply of yarn :-)
The mountains today were under a haze and the river we were following wasn't anything new than what we've seen before.  No animals displayed themselves although we did see a new sign to watch for badger or raccoon crossing.  The sign went by fast enough I couldn't tell which it was.  Because of the makeup of the road, it was impossible to go back and take a picture of anything, so I didn't get any pictures today.  Just a boring day!
Spent the last of our Canadian money at a WalMart here.  Picked up some things we were running out of.  That's about it for today.
Talk to you later.

Prince George, BC

Well, those of you following this will see that I missed Saturday, July 12.  I did actually type something and posted the pictures, only to run out of my data allotment at the motel we were staying at.  That's right - they only allow 100mb of data per 24 hours per room.  Plus there wasn't any TV. air conditioning, microwave or refrigerator.  To top it off it was $220 for the night.  What a rip off!  'Course it's the only place to stay, get gas, or eat within 300 miles.  We drove from Watson Lake, Yukon, to the resort - Bell 2 Lodge.  It doesn't have an address, just latitude/longitude numbers.  I tell you, we were out in nowhere with the mosquitos.  No kidding, there was a mosquito net over the bed.  Frustration aside, it was a lovely room and the bed slept well.  The mosquitos stayed outside, thankfully.
During the day on Saturday, I took lots of pictures of the landscape and a bear we saw along the road.  I will post them.
Today, Sunday, July 13, we drove 9 1/2 hours for 454 miles.  We did see another bear and a deer.  Got pictures of both and will post them as well.  You will notice that in both pictures the bear is walking away from us.  Guess that's good, but it makes a lousy picture.  There are also pictures of the different "flowers" growing along the edges of the road - or are they flowering weeds?  Either way, I thought they were pretty.
We are staying at Grama's Inn tonight and it has all the amenities we want and it's $120 cheaper - 'course we are down out to the mountains.  We began seeing farms again!  Mainly hay fields and cattle.
We have had two good days of sunshine and warmth.  It's good after all the rain.

Enjoy and talk to you later.

Watson Lake, Again

After breakfast at the Westmark Motel, we traveled back to Watson Lake, Yukon.  Leaving Skagway at 7:40 am Alaska time, we traveled 284 miles up, over, and through the mountains, arriving at Watson Lake at 3:10 pm Pacific time.
We are staying again at the Stampeder's B&B - a little cabin in the woods.
There wasn't anything eventful on the drive - no wildlife nor new scenery.
I finished another hat and started on the matching scarf.
Sorry there aren't any pictures.
I did find out that the lighthouse from yesterday is called Eldred Rock.
Catch you later.

Skagway, Again

Got on the ferry at Juneau at 8:00 a.m. after checking in at 6:00 a.m., so actually got up at 4:30 a.m. to make connection.
Left the camera in the van when we got parked, so only took one picture with my phone of another lighthouse.  Haven't looked up to see what it's name is, but will when I get a chance.  Here at Sakgway we don't have internet in the room, but only on the lobby area.  I don't always have what I need,.   The light house book is back in the room.  Hopefully I can figure it out for tomorrow.
The ferry ride was pretty uneventful, just 6.5 hours of water and mountains.  Did finish another hat and started to read a book, The Thornbirds.  Barry read a magazine.  The scenery is beautiful with the forested mountains and the snow cap mountains in the background.  No rain today.
Enjoy the lighthouse.  Talk to you later.

Juneau, Again

Back in Juneau for the night, then we catch the ferry to Skagway.
We did get to the Russian Orthodox church this morning.  It was a "cruise" day so everything was open and busy.  The church is very ornate.  I took just one picture of the altar.  Too many people to take any more.  Then got the second dome of the church.
On the ferry I took some more pictures of the beautiful scenery (after we got out of the rain.)  The pictures don't do the beauty justice.
I did get another scarf completed today.  Started on the hat to go with it.
Enjoy and talk to you later.

Sitka Day 2

Woke up to more rain.  Temps in the 60s.  We decided to go ahead with the tour of the rain forest.  We weren't sure what to expect.  Kayla picked us up at the motel and drove us to a dock where we met Thorton.  He took us in a small boat to an island which took about 45 minutes.  When he put the boat on the beach, we met Casey.  These are all young people in their 20s.  Casey was the one that would lead us into the forest.  We were surprised that we would be doing our own driving of the ATV 4X4.  Barry took that task as I wanted no part of it.  At least it had a roof, so we weren't drenched with the rain.
As we drove through the forest, we were impressed with the amount of ground cover and moss.  That's picture number 1.  Then we stopped in an area where Casey explained the types of trees and the logging that took place in the 1970s and '80s.  The second picture shows the new growth from the logging and how it's covered with moss.
The third picture is of trees that grow only about 15 feet, but are about 300 years old.  I can't remember the name, but they were left because they weren't the kind of wood they wanted to log.  The growth cut down was hemlock, spruce, and cedar.
Next is a small, small pond in the muskeg (that's like a bog in a temperate rain forest).  The pond can actually be as deep as 20-25 feet.
Then we came to a meadow and had hoped to see wildlife.  We did get a picture of a young bald eagle - his head isn't white yet.
We then reached the North Beach which is a black sand beach.  Some people do actually swim the 55 degree water and surf in it as well.  We did neither :-)
Got a picture of Barry sitting in the driver's seat of the ATV and Casey took a picture of us both in the vehicle.
On the way back we again scanned the meadow and were happy to see a couple of bears laying in the grass, so snapped a couple of pictures.
On the way out of the forest we did see some deer, but they don't stand still for photos.
All in all it was an awesome time.  We were wet & cold, but it was an amazing site.  And we were able to get acquainted with Thorton & Casey on the way back to the dock.  We were their only customers today.  Tomorrow the cruise ships come in and they have five groups of six to take out.  We assume the company has more employees to handle the load.  We were glad we had the extra time to get to know this neat, young couple.  Oh, and their dog, Jenkins, who joined us on our journey.  He is a German Shepherd/Rotweiler mix.
After the tour, we came back to the motel to shower and do laundry.  The next few days we are back tracking our steps to get out of Alaska and back on the road.
Sorry the pictures didn't come out in order.  Hope you can figure them out.
Enjoy & talk to you later!