Day 17 - Aberdeen to Newport - Southbound on Hwy 101

 I had a bunch of work to get caught up on so we stayed until 11:00am at last night’s hotel. It was a good morning. I got lots done.

We headed on out to Highway 101 and followed the Pacific Ocean all the way down through Washington State and into Oregon. What a difference Oregon is from Washington. Maybe it was just the towns that we went through and, we didn’t pass through Seattle, but Washington seemed very poor and run down. We didn’t see anywhere that looked prosperous. Oregon, so far, is totally different. The towns for the most part look like folks are doing OK. Maybe it’s being beside the ocean. Maybe it was having the sun shine almost all day, but today’s drive was a pleasure from what we had just passed through.

I guess we’d make better time a bit further inland, but driving down 101 is great. We love the small towns, amazing ocean views, lush forests, roads twisting and turning everywhere. We’re not making great time or big distances along this route, but the views are breathtaking.

We thought we’d make it to Coos Bay when we headed out, but traffic was much slower than it had been. We readjusted out destination to Newport. We passed through some beautiful towns just before we got here. We wondered if we should stop a bit early at one of these towns but we’re glad we kept going. We found a hotel right on the waters edge. All we see out our window is the ocean. The tide is going out, so the beach keeps getting wider. We’re hoping it will still be out in the morning so we can go walk that beach before we head out.

Day 13 -16 Victoria Weekend and into the US

We arrived at Ron and Bev’s house in Victoria about 3:00 pm on Friday. Ron and I have been friends since back when we were both married to our first wives! I think that’s getting close to 30 years ago!

R&B moved back out to Vancouver Island about 15 years ago and we haven’t seen a much of each other over the years. Lynne and I both commented when we left them this morning (Monday) that it a sign of a great friendship when, after not seeing each other for so long, that we all felt like we’d seen each other just last week and carried on from where we left off. Comfortable, easy, and having fun!

We hung out all weekend long. Bev made a great dinner for us Friday night. Wonderful to taste a really good home cooked meal again. It’s only been a couple of weeks, but it feels like forever! Saturday Bev and I went for a 6k run together. Bev is nursing shin splints and I’m carrying around an extra few inches around the waste. We took it easy but it felt good to get back out there a bit again. Saturday afternoon we went and looked at condos. R & B are considering downsizing and there were a few open houses in Victoria. The live in Sydney now, about 25 minutes away, but they both work in Victoria. We stopped for a late lunch near the yacht club. It’s always good to be looking at sailboats! Saturday night they introduced us to Dominos. I’d never played before and had not even seen them since I was a kid. What a blast we had!

Lynne and I are on the prowl now for a set for ourselves.

Bev went to church Sunday morning. I went out and did that 6k run again. I thought of the gang back home either running the half or the full or the 5k of the Toronto Marathon. I blasted through my 6k. Looking back, and still feeling these burning quads, I would have been better to take it easy again. Oh well! One day I’ll pay attention to what I’ve learned! Ron, Lynne and I walked all over town after I got back. We walked around downtown Sydney; through the wood carver’s shop, around the yacht club and round the main streets until we got to Ron’s favourite weekend breakfast place. Eggs Benny was GREAT!

Bev was home when we got back. They drove us out to Suke (pronounced souk) We drove a couple of Bev’s Tri bike courses (pretty hilly!) and went to a spot at waters edge that was simply amazing. Huge cliffs but with paths that allowed us to walk down to the water. Ron and I both took some amazing photographs. I’ll try to process them tonight or tomorrow morning. We walked and talked for a couple of hours out there before we came back for Pizza and Dominos again!

Lynne and I left shortly after Ron and Bev left for work this morning. We too the Ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles. Port Angeles is a bit west of Seattle). We were both worried about the customs guys ripping our car apart. The back seats are down that the SUV is totally stuffed with clothes, books, guitars and god knows what. The agent at the far end looked surprised when he looked in the back, but I guess he wanted to go for lunch rather than tear the car apart so he waived us through.

We headed immediately to Hwy 101. That will take us right down the west coast along the Pacific Ocean. The “Pacific Coast Highway” is one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever been on. I drove from ‘Frisco to San Diego once and I LOVED it. I’ve never driven it from top to bottom before. We headed west until we got to the ocean; played at an amazing beach as we turned south. The beach (see picture soon) was fog bound but beautiful We crawled around through the huge pieces of driftwood for a long time before we headed out again. I’d past a sing that read “Big Cedar” earlier and didn’t turn. I saw it again, but this time we turned. 500 meter into the forest we found the biggest tree I’ve ever seen. We got tons of great shots of it with Lynne standing in front, or in it. I walked in and took a couple of shots straight up through the inside. Absolutely amazing!

We finished off the day at a crappy little hotel in Aberdeen Washington. We went out for diner and found “Duffy’s Bar and Grill” I HAD to eat there seeing as that’s how I answer my phone most of the time. The food sucked, but it was fun to be there!

I’ve got work to do for a couple of clients so, I may stay here later tomorrow morning to get some work done before we hit the road. If I don’t get caught up, we may opt for a short travel day. I should have worked on the weekend but, we really enjoyed catching up with our buds! I’m going to post this, get caught up on my work, then process the pictures. I’m thinking those pictures may mot make it up until tomorrow (Tues) night.

Day 12 - Penticton to Vancouver

I got up at 7:00 and went out and drove the Penticton Ironman bike course. I started at the waters edge. I thought of sticking my toe in the water, just so I could know that I’d been in that water but, it was still pretty cool outside. I decided to just take a picture. I’d read the course description on the website, but it missed some things that struck me as important as I drove.  Yes, the first 35 – 40k seem fairly level. Yes the climb into Richter Pass is high, as is the climb into Yellow Lake, but there were two things I didn’t see explained. Firstly, of no real importance, but of great interest is how amazingly beautiful the course is.

The first that stood out for me was the huge mountains, incredible vistas through the Okanogan Valley, rows and rows of grape vines through the vineyards and peach tree orchards along the way. The scenery in the Adirondacks around Lake Placid are paled compared to the scenery along this course.

The second thing that stood out for me was, unlike Lake Placid, were the number of great downhill runs along the course. There were a lot of spots that I thought were a bit close to the downhill into Keene. The road surface was in good condition all the way. I’m not sure I got the out and back picked properly. If I did, the roads were a tiny bit rough, but still very good. I suspect this course is going to be a faster one for all the LP gang when they get out here next year.

Lynne stayed back at the hotel while I went for the ride, but we went out along part of the course on our way out of town. I was pointing stuff out as we went. She asked if I wanted to come back and do this course one day. I’d love to be in town when the gang were here to do a training ride with them. That would be a blast. I don’t have a sense of wanting to do another Ironman. Not yet anyway.  I have nothing but great memories of every aspect of the training and the races I’ve done, but I found it impossible to keep any sort of social balance in my life for those four years. So far, I’m enjoying this new life without all the training. My expanding waistline is proof of that! I plan to start running a bit every day starting next week.

The drive thought the mountains was breathtaking. That’s the only word for it. Valley after valley and mountain after mountain just kept popping up with every turn in the road. We took Hwy 3 rather than going back up to the Trans Canada. It took longer, but it was far more picturesque.  We took lots of pictures. I’ll process them over the weekend.

We got to Vancouver about 4:30. We had reserved our hotel online from Penticton the night before. We got a good deal on the price but what we didn’t know until we got here was that it appears to be in the middle of hooker heaven! Life teaches us every day. Today we learned to not book ahead! Hopefully the car will still be hear when we wake up in the morning.

Day 11 - Banff to Lake Louise to Penticton

We looked out the window from the hotel this morning and saw the most amazing sight. 20 feet from our window was a small enclave of trees. There stood a doe and two fawns, eating the leaves off the tree. We took a lot of pictures from our window, but they didn’t come out. I’m glad I walked out and was able to get a couple of shots from a few feet away.

We left Banff and headed to Lake Louise. There were a couple of inches of snow in Banff and all the way to Lake Louise. Lake Louise was beautiful. I found it unbelievable how clear the water was. I could see the bottom a good 40 meters out.  The Asian tour group were loud. We were a bit sorry that we weren’t alone. The chatter took away for the majestic serenity of it all. It was still amazing though.

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. We drove on to British Columbia, down through the Okanogan Valley and into Penticton.  We’re in Pacific Time for the next while. The time changes coming across the county every few days messed up our internal clocks a bit. I imagine we’ll be in Pacific time now for the next two to three weeks until we enter Arizona.

I’m going to head out tomorrow morning and drive the Penticton Ironman bike course. We’ll drive thought to Vancouver when I finish that drive.

Day 10 - Computer Repairs in Banff

On one hand, I like having a few projects to work on while we’re on our trip. At the same time, particularly when I’ve got software problems, it would be nice to have nothing to do!

I made a mistake a couple of days before leaving Toronto. I had Jordan install some game on this laptop and then I installed some new printer drivers. I’m not sure what screwed up my computer, but Photoshop, a tool I use every day, was running slower and slower, to the point that it was virtually unusable.   I tried rolling back with a system restore, but it failed. I tried removing the software and re-installing, but that filed too.

We decided to spend and extra day here in Banff so that I could deal with all of that.  It took most of the day to get things running properly again, but, they are!

This morning, Lynne and I went our for a walk around town. There is ice and snow everywhere. Not a lot of it, but just enough to make it touch to walk around without slipping. We love this town. The scenery is to die for. I’d love to see it one day in the summer though. We both felt like the tops of our ears were frozen when we got back to the hotel about an hour later.

We went to the movies tonight. Couples Resort is a funny movie. Great to go and see something light and fun. Great to go to a movie where it cost $10.00 to get it, and they give you a drink and popcorn along with your admission.

Thanksgiving Weekend in Calgary

It was great to stay in one place for a little while. We checked into a hotel at the south east corner of Calgary. Christine, Evan, Emily and Aidan came Friday night for dinner. We had a good chat in the restaurant and then had tons of fun at the pool until way after Aidan’s bedtime!

Saturday we slept in, had a nice leisurely breakfast and then went and met Ron and Patty for a late lunch. Saturday night the kids all came back over and we did the pool thing again.

Emily slept over with us Saturday night and Sunday we drove to the Langley Golf and Country Club for brunch. It was when we woke up in the morning that I realized we had to unpack most of the car to get one of the back seats down from Emily. We decided to drive slowly. Lynne and Emily shared the front seat. Sure glad they are both thin!

Jane and Tom and Ryan met us for brunch as well. Lynne and I came back to our hotel after brunch. Lynne caught a bit more sleep. I worked for a few hours until it was time to head out to Jane’s house. Jane was my first wife. We get along fine now that it’s been years since we were married! They live in a beautiful, huge house out in Langley. Langley is about 25k out from Calgary. Jane and Tom cooked an amazing meal. Ryan’s girlfriend Danika was there also. Danika and Ryan helped get us a deal on the room that we are in now in Banff.

We visited with our friend McKinley for a couple of hours this morning before heading out to Banff this afternoon. The drive from Calgary to Banff has to be the most beautiful drive in the world. I love watching the mountains appearing on the horizon and then driving into them.

We took picture, but I can’t post them for a bit. I’ve got software problems on this computer. I think I loaded too many games and odd printer drivers the day before we left Toronto. I’ve been trying to fix it over the weekend but, it’s getting worse and worse. Photoshop has totally stopped working now, as has Dreamweaver. It’s pretty hard for me to get work done without those tools so, I’m formatting the hard drive tonight and staring over! I'm glad I can still nhand code to write this anyway! Not really what I want to be doing out here in the ice and snow covered mountains, but, oh well, we don’t have the clothes here to get outside for long anyway!

There’s a nice view out of our hotel window anyway!

Day 6 - Regina to Calgary through the snow!

We drove down the road.  We drove down the road.  We drove down the road.  We drove down the road.  Then there was a hill and then, we drove down the road and drove down the road some more.

Thank God we ended up in Calgary tonight. We can see the mountains on the horizon. That means the end of these straight boring drives!

It snowed last night in Regina. This is what it looked like from our window this morning. The temperature was -7. Unbelievable weather for early October!

We drove to Medicine Hat for lunch and then on to Calgary after that. It was a very uneventful day today.  Christine, Evan, Emily and Aidan came and met us at the hotel for dinner. We went and hung out at the pool afterwards.

It was great being able to just hang out and talk to Christine and Evan. The kids had tons of fun in the pool. Emily and another boy her age spent the night throwing a ball at us. Aidan, with his little life jacket on, never went deeper than his waist. Well, except for the time he fell in and floated like a stick man on his back until even jumped in and pulled him back to the edge. He was a little freaked, but fine. He went back in the water straight away!

We’re going to try to meet up with Steve and Patty and McKinley tomorrow mid day, and then spend tomorrow night and Sunday with the kids before we leave on Monday. It feels good knowing I don’t have a bunch of driving to do in the morning again!

We took a couple of pictures today, mostly weather shots.  We couldn’t believe the snow storms we went through.. I’m not going to bother processing them tonight. I’ll take lots with the kids over the weekend and post them again Sunday night or Monday.