Hi Everyone,

    Here we are in Sequim, Washington near Port Angeles and the ferry to Victoria, BC.  Sequim is the self proclaimed North American capital of lavender.  They have lots of lavender farms here.  Just started about six years ago.

    Since arriving here we have been able to visit with the Gerry & Joan Egan, my Naval Academy roommate, and Ed & Darlene Sharick, friends from caravans to Baja and Mexico.  The weather has been cool, but no rain here in Sequim.  Sequim is located in the shadow of some big mountains and gets very little rain, 16 inches annually, in contrast to Seattle which is very wet.

   Yesterday was our big adventure.  We went to Victoria to tour the Butchart Gardens.  We left the RV park at 7:20 am to catch the big ferry leaving from Port Angeles at 8:20 am.  We parked our car in Port Angeles and boarded the ferry to Victoria.  It was a beautiful day and the sea was calm for the 22 miles trip Canada.  At a speed of 15 knots it took us over and hour and a half to reach Victoria.  We rushed to catch the 10:00 am Gray Line Bus tour to the Gardens, but were 5 minutes late. The young lady running the Gray Line Kiosk advised us there was a Butchard Gardens express shuttle leaving at 10:30 from the bus station, two blocks away.  So that worked out just fine.  We toured the Gardens for three hours including lunch.  These are the most beautiful gardens we have ever visited. It seemed everything was in bloom and the sun was shinning.

 

So we had a wonderful day in the gardens.

  We had to leave the Gardens on the 2:00 PM shuttle bus to catch the ferry at 3:00 PM.  The shuttle bus was 10 minutes late and the driver took an extra 5 minutes break, so we were starting to cut it close, 35 minutes to the station and 5 minute walk to the ferry.  And would you believe it, the bus driver was very cautious and not at all interested in making up lost time.  He drove slowly and I was getting worried.  I said so out loud and the driver heard me because we were in the front seat.  He speeded up after that and we boarded the ferry with 10 minutes to spare.

  

Victoria harbor.

     Tomorrow we enter Canada.  I have turned off our cell phone service while in Canada.  We should be able to be reached by email.  Hope there is lots of Wi-Fi in Canada.  We plan to be in Canada for about a month.

                                           Jim, Marie and Bonnie

    We are on the Oregon coast at Tillamook, home of Tillamook cheese.  We stayed two days at Bullard State Park in Bandon, Oregon.  The state park had full hookups and 50 amps for $20.  Hard to get a place on the weekend, but no problem during the week.  The park we stayed at had over 250 RV sites.  They even had special facilities for horses and lots of horse trails. Some of the paved trails had a layer of wood chips on top for the horses.

    In Bandon, we visited a Myrtle Wood factory, actually just a one man shop.  His name was Zumwalt and he was a Japanese America.  He told us all about the Myrtle tree, which according to him only grows in Oregon and Jerusalem.  The leaves are very similar to bay leaves and have the same fragrance and can be used as a spice like real bay leaves.  He had the standard bowls and stuff, all well done.  We bought a cutting board to give to our neighbor Helen as a gift for watching our house.

    The small town of Bandon was very quaint, with lots of gift shops and little places serving chowder and fish & chips with outside eating only.  Although Oregon does not have a sales tax, the restaurants are on the pricey side.  Fish and Chips from these little places was $12-15.

    We are in a private park at Tillamook for the weekend.  Today we visited the Tillamook cheese factory and had some very good ice cream.  We also took a tour of the sea coast and Cape Mears Lighthouse.  There was a very interesting tree called the Octopus Tree.  It is a Sitka Spruce, 250-300 years old.  No explanation on why the tree grew like it did. Maybe the Indians did it.

Also got a nice shot of the sea coast.

 

    There is also an air plane Museum here, but I did not go.  It is housed in the largest wood hangar in the world.  A let over WWII blimp hanger.  They flew blimps out of Tillamook on anti submarine warfare missions during WWII.

 

   The weather continues to be on the cool side. It has been in the 60's since we have been in Oregon.  The sun hides most of the time.  Had some rain yesterday, all day. Just a heavy drizzle, but cold.  Everyone says it has been a cool summer.

                                                                            Jim, Marie and Bonnie 

Hi Everyone,

    You will be pleased to know they have not cut down the giant redwoods trees. They are still here near Crescent City in all their splendor.  Today the sun came out and we took the short drive to Stout Grove in Jedidiah Smith State Park to visit with the trees for a short time.  The drive from Crescent City takes you on a narrow dirt road for 4 miles through the heart of a virgin redwood forest.  It is quiet, serene and beautiful.  Almost no cars, maximum safe speed is 10-15 mph, which makes the drive very nice.

Marie can be seen holding up a tree in Stout Grove, which is probably close to 340 feet tall.  The ferns are about 3 feet tall.  Nothing else grows in most of this grove.  Other less dense forests are full of rhododendrons which are in full bloom now.

    We are camped in a very friendly campgound, Village Camper Inn, here in Crescent City.  We are one mile from our favorite breakfast restaurant, the Good Harvest which fortunately is still open and even expanding and still outstanding.  We have been there three times for breakfast.

  Our neighbors in the campground are all fisherman. They leave at 6:30 AM to go fishing and are back in the campground cleaning their catch by 9:00 AM having caught their limit.  And they have been generous with their catch.  I think we have been given about 10 lbs of fillets.  Cooked some and are freezing the rest.  Mostly cod, and very good.

    Also in the campground is Flamingo Corner.

 

The owner of the motorhome loves flamingos.  Some of you may remember a photo I took in 2002 of the flamingos in front of their motorhome.  I talked with the lady and she said the campgound owners allowed her to put her display on the corner this year.  I asked is she wanted a  photo, so I ended up printing the 2002 photo and three photos of this year's display.  I also gave her a CD with all the photos I took this year and 2002.  She was very happy.  Apparently she did not have any photos of her beloved flamingos. The day I talked with her, she said had just added 9 more flamingos. The display is illuminated.

    While here we have visited the Roosevelt Elk herd and more redwood forests.  We also went to Brookings, Oregon to pick up some  bay shrimp, a little shopping and viewing the Easter Lily fields. This area produces 90% of the Easter Lily bulbs in the United States.  We used to get smoked salmon, but the season has been canceled for the past four years.

    We have been her a week, so time to move on.  We leave tomorrow for Oregon.  Hope to stay in a few state parks before getting to Port Angles, Washington on June 21.  

                                                                                                         Jim, Marie and Bonnie,  All doing well, Thank you very much.