Desert Flowers

We've been back home for over a week now and I've just now had a few minutes to work on my blog. I thought I'd share a few highlights of our vacation with you.

Palm Springs lies in a dry valley between two mountain ranges. Wherever there is water, the land is covered in green lawns, majestic palm trees and every type of shrub and flower.

However in its natural state the whole area is a desert and as soon as you leave the irrigated towns and head up into the mountains, dry, rocky landscapes and cacti are the norm. But even in the desert, there are many flowers that brighten the driest, most barren landscapes. Sometimes you have to look close to find the delicate beauties but others bloom boldly and they are hard to miss. Unfortunately I don't know the names of most of them but here are a few we saw on a hike near 49 Palms.

I'm always amazed at the way God has created these plants to bloom where they are. Despite the scorching sun during the day, the contrasting cold at night and their barren location, devoid of water or noticeable nourishment, they bloom where they are and bring delight to those of us who are lucky to come upon them.

Destination: Sun and Warm Temperatures

From this:



To this:

We've been on holiday in Palm Springs and the weather's been lovely. Such a change from the snowy conditions we left at home.

What do we do with our days? - reading and sitting by the pool, games, shopping, bicycling, motor bike riding, visiting with friends (there are about 20-30 of us from our hometown here), checking out a hot rod show, cruising the different areas of town, hiking in Joshua Tree Park and meeting friends for coffee or a meal out.

It's all good.

September in Seattle

After spending Friday afternoon and evening with our terrific grandkids Harv and I drove to the Hotel Vintage Park in downtown Seattle and spent 2 nights on our own. We had a fabulous day exploring Pike Street Market and Seattle Centre Saturday and then spent a bit of time shopping before heading home Sunday evening.

Here are some of the sights we saw!

The Seattle Central Public Library.

Another of Seattle's beautiful buildings.

This working man stands in front of the Seattle Art Museum.

Harv took a number of pictures at this fountain on the waterfront.

The first thing we saw when we got to Pike Street Market was this flower stall.

I love the combinations these talented ladies compose. I wish I could have taken several bouquets home with me. They were only $5 and $10. per bouquet!
More Dahlias!

Looking down the centre aisle of the indoor part of the market.

Outside, the beautiful sunshine drew buskers to entertain and crowds of shoppers.

We strolled streets that were dappled with sun and shade . Then we took the monorail to Seattle Centre where we sat for a long time watching the children (and adults) play "chicken" in the International Fountain. If you haven't been here, the fountain spouts water randomly - often in time to classical music from speakers located around the fountain. The trick is to run up and touch the sphere in the middle without getting wet!

We watched three little girls with blond ringlets - about 3 years old, I'd say, who were running in and out of the spray. They would have made a great ad for Fruit of The Loom in their pink flowered panties. They were so cute.

We had to take one picture to prove we'd been here.

Finally, the Space Needle against a brilliant blue sky. We always enjoy coming to the Seattle Centre park. There is so much to see and do. This time we did more seeing than doing and loved every minute of it.

Sister Time

My sister and I got away this weekend for some long overdue "sister time".

I only have one sister so I'm especially blessed that she and I are also good friends.

I turned 60 earlier this year so when we talked about taking a couple of days together she told me she would treat me to an overnight stay at the Village Inn in Fairhaven Washington.

Fairhaven was a town site established by "Dirty Dan Harris" in 1883. The town grew and prospered on the anticipation that the Great Northern Railway would establish a terminal there. However the railway decided to locate in Seattle and the town went into a period of depression. Many people moved away and buildings were left unfinished. In 1888 it amalgamated with the small mill community of Bellingham and slowly established itself as a thriving community.

Today it boasts many locally owned shops and restaurants and is very proud of its small town appeal.

The Fairhaven Village Inn is a lovely heritage building right across from the Village Green and central to all the shops and restaurants. When we arrived we had a great soup and sandwich at a local bakery and then the walking trail along Boulevard Park lured us and we spent several hours walking along the water.

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped to admire the yard art and I thought of Ellen from http://happywonderer.wordpress.com/ as I took this picture.

The flower beds in that yard were in full bloom with a variety of Dahlias in brilliant colour. The perfection of each petal and the amazing complexity of patterns fascinated us and I spent some time taking pictures.

Aren't they incredible?

Later we sat outside a cafe and enjoyed a lemonade, went back to our lovely room to read for awhile and then went out to browse a few of the shops. There were a couple of wonderful toy shops where we found some unique gifts for our grandkids, a kitchen shop (always my favourite) and several art galleries. It was so nice that we could walk everywhere we wanted to go.It was also wonderful to have no agenda or time schedule pushing us.

Dinner was at "Dirty Dan's" - I had some amazing Dungeness Crab stuffed Prawns and Janet had a lovely fettucini dish.
We then spent a very happy 2 hours among the "stacks" at the Village Book Store.

A bonus was the beautiful weather we enjoyed. The forecast had been for heavy rain both days and we were fortunate that it was wrong! In fact we had no rain at all and it was warm enough on the way home to put the top down on Janet's Toyota Solare.
We stopped at Bellis Fair on the way home to do some clothes shopping, and then had a jolt at the Border because we'd bought more than the allowed amount (my fault - I should have checked) Fortunately we had a compassionate customs clerk who mitigated the damage and we were home in time for supper.
We both promised to treat ourselves this way again - soom.

Thank you Janet for an awesome couple of days.

Motorcycle trip - Tofino and home

(Continuing from the previous post)
We got into Port Hardy at 11:30 pm and headed straight to the Bed and Breakfast we'd reserved. The next morning after breakfast and a visit with our hosts, we headed down Island. Our drive was timed so that we could stop for lunch at the popular Cable Cookhouse in Seward. The food is terrific and it's a busy place in the summer.

The restaurant's exterior is completely wound with steel cable and the interior is decorated with photos and memorabilia from the Island's logging history. From there we continued on to Mount Washington Ski Resort where we had booked a 3-bedroom house in the village.

The last time we were at Mt Washington we took the chair lift to the top. The view is spectaular - we didn't take the time to do it this year but I'd highly recommend it as a destination to those who travel the Island. We had a lovely view of the sunset from our balcony.

As we drove down the mountain in the morning, I snapped this picture of the sun rising through the trees.

Breakfast was at Coombs although we were too early to have it at the building with the goats on the roof.

Driving through Cathedral Grove is always a pleasure. The old growth cedar trees reach for the heavens.

Driving West from Port Alberni, the skies were crystal clear...

but as we approached the west coast of the Island, we could see the Marine Fog forming ahead of us. I believe they call this an inversion - when the weather is sunny inland, the coast is foggy and visa versa. We remembered this from earlier trips down the California coast.

Arriving in Tofino there were a few pockets of clear skies.

This shot was taken from our hotel "The Inn at Tough City". What an interesting building - it was completely constructed from used building materials brought over from Vancouver's Gastown and was filled with fascinating collections of antiques. I'd never seen a collection of retail screen door handles - the kind that spanned the width of the door and advertised
various products. I regret not taking a picture of them.

Tofino in the sunshine is gorgeous. The town is bursting with tourists - young people who come for the surfing and lots of Europeans who come for the kayaking, whale watching and hiking.

I loved the little church on the main street and the Stargazer Lilies growing in the church gardens made me stop to take a photo.

Of course you can't go to Tofino without heading out to one of the many beaches. We chose Chesterman beach where we looked a little out of place in our leathers. It took some peer pressure from the rest of us before Don would take his shoes off and join the fun...

after which we entertained anyone who cared to watch with a performance of the barefoot follies

We found this wonderful pile of driftwood which made for a great group photo.

This little sandpiper took little notice of us.

More Sandpipers - this time providing us with entertainment as they flew in close formation across the sand.

Supper was at "Sobo", another of Vancouver Island's top restaurants,
where I had a fabulous seared Halibut in a carrot, citrus sauce.

Harv shows us his "mussels" from the Shellfish dish he ordered.

The next day it was time to head for the ferry....

and home to the Valley where Mt Baker dominated the landscape and jetplanes performed overhead at the Abbotsford Air Show.

We had our final supper together on the patio at "Harv and Bev's Bed and Breakfast" and the next morning we said our goodbyes as Don and Bev and Dave and Marg headed home to the Okanagan.

So ended our 2010 motorcycle trip.

North to Alaska

We're back home now from our recent motorcycle trip.

Starting here at the coast, Harv and I drove to Vernon where we spent the night with our riding friends, Don and Bev. The next day the four of us on two motorcycles, headed to McBride where Dave and Marg joined us.
We rode several hours that day and spent the next night in Smithers. We then headed to our most northern destination - Stewart, BC and it's nearest neighbour, Hyder, Alaska.

A stop to watch the Native Salmon fishing at Moricetown.

At Kitwanga, we headed:

Some of the glaciers on the road to Stewart.

In the mining town of Stewart we strolled the streets to see the sights.
Stewart has a rich history of mining although today it is mostly a tourist town.After dinner we headed to Hyder, Alaska - no US Border crossing going from BC into Alaska but we had to stop for the Canadian Border on the way back - go figure!

We were able to watch the bears fishing in Hyder Alaska -

The salmon were spawning and we had a fabulous view from a walkway constructed above the creek for all the bear watching tourists.

On the main street of Stewart, parked in front of our hotel. We ate at one of BC's best restaurants in this little town. Fabulous Halibut!

The next morning we drove the kilometer or 2 back to Hyder where we feasted on enormous sticky Cinnamon buns in a room entirely papered in 1, 2 and 5 dollar bills,

each signed by its donor.

More on our trip later.