I've got to get out of this place....

if it's the last thing I ever do!

We made it to Alcatraz, definitely the highlight of the trip so far.  There was a great audio tour of the cell block, with narration by former guards and prisoners, as well as former residents of the island.  We ended up picking up a couple of books.  One of them is about the history of the island, from its days as a military fort and prison, to its short life as a maximum security prison.  The other one is about Alcatraz's most wanted, the most notorious criminals that were housed there.  Imagine being in prison, and the view outside your window is the San Francisco skyline - kind of like an extra slap in the face....

We actually took a bus tour of the downtown yesterday, and traveled by Chinatown and Union Square, and through Little Saigon.  We saw the crookedest street in the world, Lombard Street, and I can tell you there is NO WAY you would catch me driving down that street, I don't care how good my brakes are!  We saw many of the highlights on the trip, including O. J. Simpson's high school (or would that be considered a lowlight?)  Other than that, we have walked so much in the last few days, we haven't even moved Jeremiah since we pulled into the parking lot on Friday.  It is handy being so close to everything, and it is much easier to see the sights when you are walking.  And what sights there are, indeed.  As we approached an intersection, we all did a double-take to see the back of what appeared to be an entirely naked man.  Well, he wasn't entirely naked, he did have a hat - well, actually, two hats, one of them MUCH smaller than the other.  All I can say is - only in San Francisco!

The Streets of San Francisco

For those of you who remember the show with Karl Malden and Michael Douglas, today we hit the streets of San Francisco (and if you are too young to remember, Google it!).  For a very small area, there certainly is lots to see here.  We didn't even have to move Jeremiah, he will probably just stay parked until we head for San Jose on Monday.  We missed the continental breakfast at the hotel, so we headed for Ghirardelli Square, where we were delighted to learn about the history of the Ghirardelli chocolate company  http://ghirardelli.com/about/.

From there, we walked the wharf - a long walk, for sure.  We checked out the historic ships located on Hyde St Pier, from a tugboat to an old cargo ship to an old ferry.  We also toured the USS Pampanito, an actual World War II submarine, and the USS Jeremiah O'Brien, a "Victory Ship".  This particular ship still does the occasional sailing, and there were sailors working and eating in the mess when we toured.

We checked out the popular eating establishments at Pier 39, where I managed to get my clam chowder in a sourdough bowl.  I must admit, the street performers here have elevated their art to a whole different level!

A Day in the Clouds

 Well, we left Seattle on Thursday morning after stopping for coffee at - what else - Starbucks.  They do it up with lots of class in their hometown, they write your first name on the cup &  when it is ready they call you by your name and the item you ordered.  We drove through the lovely state of Washington which has, rather shortsightedly, cancelled its tourism advertising budget this year.  There are loads of things to draw people to the state, bringing them in to spend their apparently much-needed cash, but hey, why advertise it?

We did stop at Mount St. Helens  http://www.mountsthelens.com/, where the 1980 volcanic eruption reduced hundreds of square miles to wasteland.  Much of the vegetation in the blast zone is recovering, though.  The drive up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory was a bit challenging, with some pretty steep climbs as you move from below 1000 ft elevation up to more than 4000 ft.  We were actually driving in the clouds, we went so high!  Then, when we got to the Observatory, part of the mountaintop was obscured by the clouds, so that was a bit disappointing.

We made it to Roseburg, Oregon that night.  We followed part of the Applegate Trail (apparently a diversion from the main Oregon Trail followed by the early settlers.)  We made an unscheduled stop at the Applegate Trail Interpretive Centre and Museum http://www.rogueweb.com/interpretive/ at Grave Creek.  The creek was so named because a young settler who died of typhoid fever was buried beside it.  So, it made us wonder - if Oregon names its creeks in honour of something that happens nearby, what do you think made them name the next creek Jumpoff Joe Creek?

We made our way from there to San Francisco, where we will be staying for the next 3 nights.

 As we drove across the Oakland-Bay bridge, we were surprised to see how the clouds hung so heavily over the peninsula.  Ironically, I hear that back home there are scorching temperatures and outrageously high humidity.  Well, here in San Francisco it is much cooler, and windy, with forecast highs of only 20 Celsius for the time we are here! Our hotel is within walking distance of Fisherman's Wharf, so we will start our exploring tomorrow.

Cats and Raccoons and Family Things

After 2 days of driving through B.C., I am totally bored...all those mountains, ho hum - NOT!!  The drive through the Rockies, the Okanagan and the Cascade Mountains was, in a word, breathtaking.    On Monday, we went to Lake Osoyoos, a beautiful resort town on Lake Osoyoos.  The road down into the town itself was a challenge to my down-shifting skills, and was for us more fun than the town itself.  We then made our way down to Point Roberts, Washington - a little spit of America in the midst of Vancouver (okay, maybe not in the midst, but it sounds better that way)! When we crossed the border, the U.S, border guard was friendly and welcoming, and knew exactly who we were visiting (right down to what kind of cars they drove).  Both my aunt and uncle work in Vancouver, and commute most days from Point Roberts, so it is no surprise that they are familiar with the people who work at the crossing.  They have the most incredibly idyllic place, and I could have stayed there forever.  They have "adopted" a family of raccoons, and have been feeding them in their back yard for quite a few generations.  In the front yard, they feed cats, lots of them!  Apparently, Point Roberts has a large feral cat population, and they are working hard to end that problem.  They trap the cats & take them to a vet (a friend of theirs), and have the cats spayed or neutered before returning them to the wild. They also feed any cats that come around.  Just a few days before we got there, they rescued a kitten from the jaws of death - actually, a large German Shepherd, but close enough!  The poor little thing was barely 3 weeks old & had a horrible eye infection.  His eyes were swollen so badly that they nicknamed him Yoda.  His eyes hadn't even opened yet.  They have been feeding him, and giving him antibiotics, and he is thriving now.

                     
We left Point Roberts well-fed and happy, and hopped the ferry to Vancouver Island, landing in Nanaimo.  We stopped in Parksville for ice cream (a quasi-birthday celebration for Jordan), and headed across the island.  Cathedral Grove is part of an old-growth forest in Macmillan Provincial Park, and was much like I remembered.  It is like walking into a different world there.  But I was surprised by how many trees had fallen down, & many of them in recent years.

We made our way down the road to Ucluelet and Tofino, just to say that we have been to the westernmost point of the TransCanada highway.  But it took much longer than I thought it would - it is unusual for a trip of approximately 120 kilometers to take more than 2 hours, but when you are travelling mountain roads, you spend much more time going up and down than moving in a forward direction, it seems!  We spent the night in Port Alberni, which is still a bit of a rough logging town.

We had originally planned on taking the ferry from Victoria to Anacortes, Washington, but it only runs twice a day (at noon and then not until 6:00 pm), so rather than get up early early early for the 3 hour drive down to Victoria, we decided just to head back to Tsawassen and drive across the border.  So, here we are in Seattle for the night.  I thought about heading downtown to Pike Place Market to catch the fish-throwing fishmongers in action, but I think I'll save my seafood cravings for Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.  We are off to visit Jessica's friend for supper tonight, and then tomorrow we are headed south!

Majestic Mountains

Today we got to see the mountains in all their beauty, and all their ugliness.  We stopped in Frank, Alberta at the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre  http://www.frankslide.com/interpret.html.  This would be the "all their ugliness" part.  On April 29th, 1903, at 4:10 am, the  side of Turtle Mountain collapsed, burying a part of the town of Frank and trapping 17 miners alive inside the mountain - miraculously, all the miners survived.  Actually, the Crowsnest Pass, which includes the communities of Blairmore, Bellevue and Coleman, was a dangerous place to be just after the turn of the last century.  On the heels of the Frank Slide, where between 70 and 90 people died, 30 miners and 1 rescuer perished in an explosion in the Bellevue mine.  Then, in 1914, the Hillcrest Mine Disaster occurred.  With 189 dead, it remains the worst mine disaster in Canadian history.

From there, we traveled through the mountains to Grand Forks, B. C.  This would be the "all their beauty" part.  Around every curve there was another photo opportunity, and the kids were snapping away like mad photographers.  I am going to have to get an external hard drive to store all these photos!

Oh, I almost forgot - amongst the world's most beautiful mountains is nestled the world's largest truck, the Titan, in Sparwood, B.C.  http://www.sparwood.bc.ca/visitors/terex-titan

Rocks and other things

As I logged on this morning, I decided to check my horoscope.  Lo and behold, here it is for today - "A hotel is designed to offer you a bed, but can rarely be a home. However, there are times when it feels more comfortable to live out of a suitcase than to be in familiar surroundings. You enter a time of adventure. Honor it with a new experience"......We are in a hotel in Claresholm, where the wireless connection is spotty at best, but they do have a hard-wired connection available.  Needless to say, while wired priority went to Jordan and Jessica's newer laptop was able to stay connected, my poor old laptop.....well, since I am posting this early in the morning while the kids sleep, I am sure you can figure it out.

And now, back to our regular programming.  WOW!  What a great day – we started off for Drumheller in the rain, but the day just got better and better.  The Royal Tyrrell Museum has definitely changed, but it still had some of our favourite exhibits – the Burgess Shale, the Underwater World and, of course, the giant skeletal T-Rex that we woke up one morning years ago, to see lurking overhead.  We were all totally fascinated as we walked through, and lost complete track of time while we were there. 

Then, we were on our way down to High River, to our old stomping grounds.  As the Stampede is going on, we decided to just bypass Calgary & headed south on Highway 2.  As we got closer, we started reminiscing about Okotoks, and we decided to take a bit of a detour.  As my son puts it, it sounds a lot less impressive to say we went a few miles out of our way to see a rock – but what a rock!

The Big Rock near Okotoks (which actually means “big rock”) is one of the largest erratics from the string of erratics stretching from Jasper National Park along the foothills to northern Montana.  Then...High River, and the Right Honourable Joe Clark Elementary School, the Superman house (check out where young Clark Kent lived in Superman II - or at least, where it was filmed), a nostalgic drive around the town and, for old time’s sake, takeout from Picasso’s Pizza.   It was as good as we remembered!

Day One - on the road again!

Well, that was a long day's driving.  We managed to get up bright and early this morning, all 3 of us, and were on our way (after a quick stop at Tim's to fuel us up for the trip).  After 10 1/2 hours of driving - which equates to roughly 1 1/2 books read aloud, we made it to Brooks, about an hour from our first destination - Drumheller and the Royal Tyrrell Museum.  Much of the time was spent in the gap between Manitoba and Alberta.  In fact, following is the only interesting thing that we saw in the province of Saskatchewan:

It did give me an idea, though - I can always send the kids to work in the salt mines to pay for my retirement! Oddly enough, they don't find this very amusing....  The pace starts to pick up tomorrow, as the plan is to make it from Drumheller to the Crowsnest Pass, or thereabouts.  We'll see how far we get!