Week 43 - Oregon City - October 21 - October 27, 2024

Jessica and Bev went to Palm Springs (along with three of Bev's friends) to get away from it all.  The stay at one of the friends' parents home which is located on the edge of a gold course.  They relax - eat, sleep, read, watch movies, do puzzles, go out and eat, talk, and whatever makes them happy.  Of course, in their absence, Ryan and Paul take over the homemaking, and Dad and I do a lot of driving here and there to get the kids to their activities.  Kept us really busy.  Here's a photo of our to-do list.

I'm practicing the guitar a lot...I'm doing a guitar ensemble at CCC and then still have mu lesson at Guitar Center.  I wish I could practice for an hour and have the music...but it takes me longer. that that.

I've started taking all the metal that Malcolm has accumulated over the years/months.  I took a load to the metal recycler and also took the soft serve ice cream maker...that never worked because it had the wrong sort of electricity needs that we don't have here at home.  We bought it to have at Warren's reception but never used it.  The photo is of the big "grabber" that plucked it out of the pick up and then "tossed" up on to the big pile of scrap metal.

I go to the woods every day and use the shovel to dig out ivy and blackberries, thistles, nettles.  I planted a sword fern that Dad's been saving for me.

 I try to go into the woods everyday and use the small narrow shover to dig up blackberries and ivy and lichens and dock and thistles and anything else I don't want.  The cats go with me.

Here is Zelensky at the top of the cat tree.  He barely fits into the basket.

We've set up a mini goal of trying out new restaurants rather than going back to "old favorites".  On Saturday we went to Howell' Lounge which has been on the corner of 7th and Washington for forever.  We were pleasantly surprised.  Dad got a breakfast which is served all day long.

 

Week 42 - Oregon City, October 14 - October 20, 2024

Celebrated Whitney' birthday.

W & W put together an event that had all the participants taste test the different kinds of Oreo cookie flavors.  The mint Oreos were the winners.

 Week 41 - Oregon City, October 7 - October 13, 2024

Ray went to Boston this week along with Jessica and Beverly.  Clay had some sort of weekend event with his classmates, and so...Natalie was "free".

I don't have any photos.  I must not have done anything that was interesting.

I'll just add a photo of Jack!

 Week 40- Oregon City - September 30- October 6, 2024

We're back from our Canadian vacation...and everything seems hum--drum.

We went to a Beaver Football game and we won!  Beat Colorado State!

An old snag fell down in Sector 4 and just missed one of the little Doug Firs I had planted.  That snag was turned into firewood, and the seedlings habitat was restored.

Cat photos

 Week 39 - Canada - September 23 - September 29, 2024

MONDAY the 23rd

We explored Port Clements and discovered this little grocery store - another movie set.  We met locals and had good conversations.

We'd never heard about the Golden Spruce.  It was a big spruce tree with a genetic mutation that caused the needled to be golden rather than green in color.  For whatever reason, a disgruntled government employee took a chain saw to it and cut it down.

Some rooted a cutting of the tree and it is growing in Port Clement inside of a chain link fence.   We visited it.

But wait - there's more.  There is a trail to the site of the original tree...which we took.

The trail came to this river and three was no bridge....Dad was unwilling to slosh through the river, so we never saw the remaining stump -or whatever there might be.

There was a museum in Port Clement but it was really just a bunch of old stuff.

We headed north to the coast of Graham Island - the goal was to eat dinner in Masset and then camp at a campground along the cost at Toe Hill

Yummy fish and chips

We parked on the breach

It was beautiful and peaceful

TUESDAY the 24th

We headed back south to Skidegate where were took the Spirit Lake Trail up to Spirit Lake.  The sign warned of bears. And.....at one point on the trail I heard a loud sound of something the the brush and lo.....it was a bear climbing a tree.

WEDNESDAY the 25th

The ferry to Prince Rupert left late in the evening and was an overnighter.  We parked in the ferry parking lot and waited.

Since it was an overnight ferry we reserved a cabin so we didn't have to sleep in a chair.  We were so anxious to get under the covers and sleep as much as possible, that I didn't get a photo of the inside of the cabin.  Imagine a small  cabin with two bunkbeds.

THURSDAY the 26th

We arrived in Prince Rupert at about 5:00 am - pitch dark outside. After finding a gas station we headed back home to Oregon.  It took us two days and the scenery was magnificent.

Friday the 27th
The highway followed the Fraser River, and so did the railroad tracks.

There is rafting on the river.

In a little town called Boston Bay we found JB's Diner.  We had to stop!

We ordered - it's worth driving back for another meal.

At this point we fust wanted to get home.  And finally we got to the border.

We're back.   It was a great trip.  Saw new things, learned lots about Haida Gwaii.  

 Week 38 - CANADA - September 16 - September 22, 2024

MONDAY the 16th - we went to the Maritime Museum in Campbell river.

This was the boat that was restored.  I kept thinking it was like the boat Ivan was on when he was in Alaska.  We were the only people on the "tour", and the docent really told us a lot of stuff.

I was really excited to see this boat because I imagined that it was like the boat that Ivan worked on one

summer when he worked in Alaska.

 

Kitchen

Bunk Room

We left Campbell River and headed north toward Port Hardy which was the northernmost place we went on Vancouver Island.  We stayed at the Quatse Regional Park.  The whole campground was like camping on a wet sponge inside of a carwash...very moist.

I think of lot of the campers here were also waiting to get on to the ferry.

We left Campbell River and headed north toward Port Hardy which was the northernmost place we went on Vancouver Island.  We stayed at the Quatse Regional Park.  The whole campground was like camping on a wet sponge inside of a carwash...very moist.

TUESDAY the 17th
Our goal today was to get information about the ferry to Prince Rupert.  That involved going to Ft McNeill which is the departure point.  Yep  -- departure point...we could have skipped this bit.  

Port Hardy is a cute little town.  We walked all over the town.  It was raining.  Went to a museum that, luckily, was free because it wasn't all that good.  

Had lunch at A&W - really good Teen Burgers.

Did a worth pass-by of the World's Biggest Burl.  I think it looks like a fat guinea pig.

The only free place to park for the night was at a campground by Lake Georgie.  It was out of town, on a long (very long) windy road, with dense forest on either side.  We weren't sure we were going the right way.

Finally!!

A quiet, isolated place to park.

And the lake.....too bad we didn't have our canoe.

WEDNESDAY the 18th
For excitement, today, we decided to go to Port Alice which was reached by driving a long way through a deep forest.

Fort Alice was really a  cute place.  If we ever have to move to Canada, I vote for going to Port Alice.  I was originally a lumber town run by brothers whose mother's name was Alice.  There were nice houses, a cute apartment complex, and one grocery store were we bought chicken for lunch.

Leaving Port Alice and on our way back to Port Hardy we decided to explore to Coal Harbor, which used to b a port from which a lot of coal was shipped.  In contrast to Port Alice this was a dismal place......except for this museum which received rave reviews.  WE had a difficult fining the place because there were NO SIGNS anywhere.  

The museum was in this huge old warehouse that appeared to be falling apart.  Check out the wall near the floor.

There were three old guys in the office....just talking.  But over the years they must have collected a bazillion things.

Jaw bones of a whale.

All manner of old cars....like this 1928 Model A Ford

Or a red truck which works, but moves very slowly.

Maybe you want to learn about chain saws.

Wrenches?

Telephones?

There were so many other things...but we were numb.  We'd heard about the Hornsby Historical Site and.....who knew about this?

Big day - it was time to head back to the ferry terminal.  Our ferry left at 5:30 am on Thursday....so we parked, in line, on Wednesday and spent the night!

THURSDAY - the 19th - We were on the ferry the whole day...from before the sunrise and after the sunset.

We were given seat assignments, luckily, ours were in the front row where we could easily see out over the bow of the ship.

We went up the "Inland Passage".

The scenery was beautiful, but the shore was far away and we didn't see flocks of whales or birds of prey grabbing fish out of the water.  It was cold outside and there was a lot of rain.

We had lunch

This is 7pm

We finally got to Prince Rupert, drove out of the ferry and onto the highway where we parked and spent the night waiting for the ferry to Haiida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands).

Friday the 20th

Up early and boarder the ferry at 9:45 am.

Simpler accommodations on this ferry

  

At Last!!! We were on Haida Gwaii

We arrived at Skidegate on Graham Island about 5 pm and following our maps, made it to the Haydn Turner Campsite.

SATURDAY the 21st

You can see on the map that the campsite is on a peninsula.  We took the trail and went out to the water.

There is a municipal cemetery at the end of the campground which was interesting.

Getting ready to head out for the  day, Dad determined that the truck battery was d....e....a....d!  GULP.  Yep - should have gotten a new one in Oregon.  A campground neighbor came and helped get the truck started.  We found an auto parts store which, miraculously, had the correct battery.....but no mechanic.....and Dad didn't have the right tools (or the know how) to do the truck's battery.  The auto parts guy said to go down the road a ways to big red warehouse where there'd be a guy who could help.  Did that.  Dad wandered around this heavy duty machine shop and found a man who said he could do it - he spoke French.  Thirty minutes and $30.00 later, we were good to go.

Our first stop was the Haida Gwaii museum in Skidegate.

It is a huge museum - numerous buildings and hundreds of displays.  Beautifully done.  We looked at everything until we became saturated with native Canadian history.   It appears that the Canadians treated the natives as Americans did Americans did.

After the museum we decided to find a beach campground on Moresby island - the second biggest island.  We drove east to Sandspit - then south - then west for a long time through the thick forests. 

And finally came to the Gray Bay Campground - a series of about ten campsites right along the beach.

We picked the best one!  Backed up almost to the sand and parked for the night.

It was a magical place.

SUNDAY the 22nd

It was time to go---more sites to see on the big island -Graham Island.  We headed back to the ferry terminal and drove north to Port Clements - like a movie set for a Canadian movie.  We stayed ag a local campground but couldn't see anything because there  were too many tall trees.

Climbed a animal viewing tower but didn't see any birds.

Thought about a little stroll in the woods - but no room for humans.