travel – Page 35 – ToadMama.com

February 22, 2014February 27, 2014

Pacific Northwest – Installment 13

After getting a bit of grief recently for never finishing the re-cap of our vacation in the Pacific Northwest in September 2013, I figured it was about time I did that.

My previous vacation post, Installment 12, described a very relaxing day and our wonderful rental home. If you scroll to the very bottom of this post, you’ll find links to Installments 1 through 12.

The day I’m about to describe was the highlight of our visit to the San Juan Islands, an archipelago in the northwest corner of the contiguous United States between the US mainland and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The San Juan Islands are part of the state of Washington.

While planning the trip, I told Annelies how much I LOVED going whale watching. In fact, I probably said it so much, she got tired of hearing it. She eould easily have agreed to plan a whale watch excursion, but it’s kind of expensive ($85/person). And flying to the US from Europe for a multi-week vacation is already expensive enough. So we didn’t book in advance. But as soon as she agreed that we should try to take one of the tours, I started searching on-line.

Happily, I found Captain Carli’s Whale Watching. I was delighted to discover that his boat, Soulmate, was small (six passengers is its maximum), but had a head (potty). It was docked in Friday Harbor, which was only a short drive from where we were staying.

When I told the others about this small boat, they asked “how small?” They were hesitant upon hearing that it was only 25 feet long, but I told them I’d seen pictures and thought it would be perfect for us.

It was.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Our tour wasn’t scheduled until about 3:00 PM, so we decided to visit the San Juan Island National Historical Park’s American Camp, which looked like it would be a good place for a picnic. It’s located at the southern tip of the island.

We really enjoy picnicking while traveling, and have enjoyed some pretty cool spots.

2_american_camp_picnic — American Camp Picnic

2a_american_camp_picnic — Picnic Rock at American Camp

3_american_camp_picnic — View from the other side of the hill.

After a lovely, relaxed meal, we headed back to Friday Harbor to meet up with Captain Carli.

1a_soulmate_competitor — Crowded competitor’s boat.

8_whale_watching — Crowded competitor’s boat.

The boat may look small, but it was the perfect size. And Captain Carli was fabulous. He pointed out other wildlife and chatted with us as we headed toward the spot where the whales had last been observed.

It wasn’t long at all before we started seeing Orcas. And more Orcas. At one point, you could see whales in practically every direction. Here are some of the images we managed to capture.

4_whale_watching — Annelies was very excited, especially after learning that lots of whales had been spotted that morning.

6_whale_watching — Yves enjoying the ride.

5_whale_watching — Mike opted to ride in the cabin, out of the sun and wind.

10_whale_watching — Orcas, with a snow-capped mountain in the background.

Do I look happy? I was thrilled. There’s something magical about whale watching. I will never, ever get tired of doing that.

On the way back to the harbor, the captain detoured to show us an Eagle’s nest. He also showed us some Sea Lions.

It was a magical day in a fabulous place. The San Juan Islands may not be in a tropical location, but they are magnificent islands to visit.

We left San Juan Island the next morning, headed to Whidbey Island. I’ll tell you all about that in my next post.

TRIP Re-cap

Installment 1: In the Beginning (Friday, August 30 – Monday, Sept 2)

Installment 2: Portland Morning (Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 3: Exploring the City of Portland (morning of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 4: Beyond Portland (afternoon of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 5: Olympic Peninsula, Here We Come!

Installment 6: First Rain Forest Hike & Another Gorgeous Beach

Installment 7: Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park

Installment 8: Madison Creek Falls & Lake Crescent

Installment 9: Hoh Rain Forest

Installment 10: Rialto Beach

Installment 11: Getting to San Juan Island

Installment 12: Enjoying San Juan Island

February 16, 2014February 16, 2014

Best Birthday Weekend Ever

This post, which is [finally!] being published a week after returning from our fabulous trip, is dedicated to my favorite son-in-law, TJ, who has undoubtedly been thinking, “Damn, she ignored us AGAIN!” Or something to that effect, but probably a bit more colorful… (I still haven’t shared the pics and report from our visit in September 2013.)

February is a melancholy month for my mother-in-law. So this year, to give her something to look forward to and create some fun February memories, we decided to take her out to Washington to visit with Amy and family.

Since my birthday happens to be in February, I planned the trip to coincide with that date. That was a fabulous idea, if I do say so myself, because it ended up being the best birthday weekend ever.

While winter can be an iffy time of year to travel to or from the East Coast, winters in the Seattle area are typically pretty mild. February temps in Seattle average between lows in the mid-30s and highs around 50. Snow is pretty rare. They might get a trace of snow a few times a year. Every four years or so, they might get a big three-inch snowfall. And it doesn’t usually stay around very long.

When we were there, the low was 21 and the high was 31. It was windy, too, which meant it was COLD. As you’ll see soon enough. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Back to my birthday (February 6)…

We flew to Seattle on Wednesday. The grand kids all had dentist appointments on Thursday morning. TJ, who ferried the kids to the dentist, stopped at Legendary Doughnuts on the way home to grab my birthday breakfast.

The place is aptly named. Those things were OMG delicious.

After sampling pieces of several of them — they were HUGE — we all loaded into Amy’s friend’s Expedition, which seated all eight of us, for a drive into the city.

I’d been to Seattle twice previously, but had never made it to the world famous Pike Place Market. That’s the only touristy thing I really wanted to do. So my birthday seemed like a logical day to do it. I didn’t realize it’s an indoor/outdoor kind of place. With temperatures in the mid-20s, it made for a chilly excursion.

Chocolate-covered Washington Cherries (yes, we brought some home)

From the restaurant... a Washington State Ferry — From the restaurant… a Washington State Ferry

Sadly, it was too cold for the Ferris Wheel. But I was tickled to get such a lovely peek at the Olympic Range, the mountains on the Olympic Peninsula we’d visited back in September.

After a delicious lunch,we paused for a photo op…

…and then headed to another Seattle landmark.

Actually going up into the Space Needle is TERRIBLY over-priced — $19 per adult! — but we figured the kids and my mother-in-law would enjoy it, so up we went.

They took this cool group photo for us.

The view from the top was nice. There’s an outdoor viewing platform as well as a fully enclosed space, which is good, because it was REALLY cold up there.

When we left the Space Needle, Amy asked if there was anything else I’d like to do. She did a good job of not acting too disappointed when I said, “No. We’re here to visit with you guys. And since it’s so cold, let’s just go back and hang out at the house.”

Little did I know what surprise waited for me there.

Our oldest daughter, Shannon, had flown in from San Diego to spend the weekend with us, too. Hubby, MIL, and I were all completely surprised. And even more delighted.

But wait, there’s more. Shannon promptly got to work preparing one of my favorite dinners.

I love hot dogs and I love soft pretzels. So you can probably imagine how much I love pretzel dogs.

But wait, there’s still more. It was my birthday, right? So there was cake and ice cream, too!

Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing.

Man oh man. It really was the best birthday ever. And we still had a couple days of visiting ahead of us.

I was hoping to get down to Portland on Friday, but that city was frozen, literally, by an epic snowstorm. Instead, after the kids went off to school, the adults headed to the Sun Break Cafe for a light breakfast.

Half-order size of a chicken fajita omelet.

After breakfast, we went back to the house to relax. That afternoon, Amy and I drove to Sumner, Washington to visit Kristi’s Country Store, Amy’s closest Annie Sloan Chalk Paint retailer.

The mountain (Mount Rainier) was “out” (visible). Amy found a spot on the way back to her place where I could snag a picture.

BBWE_24a — Me taking pictures of Mount Rainier (as captured by Amy)

It’s a really big mountain. We weren’t close to it at all, despite what you may think from the pictures.

We drove past Sunset Park on the way back to the house. So later, near sunset, Gaige and I walked to the park. I told him I’d be REALLY disappointed if I didn’t see a cool sunset from the park.

I wasn’t disappointed.

That shot of Gaige is one of my all-time favorite captures.

Later that evening, it was more chillaxin…

There’s more, but it’ll have to wait until the next post.

Amy, I promise not to make you wait too long!

January 14, 2014January 13, 2014

The Horn of the Cow

Something I completely forgot to mention in my post about the motorcycle show is the presence of tourism folks. Whether it’s local(ish) public entities or private tour companies, anyone who has ideas on cool rides and/or destinations is welcome.

There was one group there with several interesting maps that made their way home with me. It may have been more than one group. I’m pretty sure the booth was shared by several entities. I don’t remember the NAME of the booth, but do have a couple of brochures from them that I can tell you about.

The Wytheville [Virginia] Convention & Visitor’s Bureau has put together a Motorcycle Trails guide, which features five “trails” (defined road routes) for folks to enjoy. I’ll bet you can guess which of the five piques my interest most. LOL.

Click here to order your free guide. — VA Motorcycle Trails

The Wytheville-area trails are:

The Claw of the Dragon
Possum Run
The Wooly Mammoth
Turkey Strut
Horn of the Cow

If you click on the image of the brochure shown on the right, you’ll be taken to the order form. The guide is free. And inside of the guide you’ll find a map and short description of each ride as well as a larger overview map, which includes all five trails, so you can string two or more together.

Hubby and I are fortunate in that we both ride. If you’re not part of a riding couple and don’t want to go alone, I’ll bet you can find a friend that would accompany you. The area covered in the brochure is in Southwest Virginia, so it wouldn’t exactly be a day trip from here. But Hubby and I are determined to have some riding weekends this year. You know, where we actually have consecutive days of riding and stay overnight. We both miss that.

Folks from Back of the Dragon were also present (or at least their info was being shared) at the booth. As their website states, BackoftheDragon.com is…

“A website dedicated to promoting the unmatched beauty and riding enjoyment provided by VA Route 16, the two lane ribbon over the three mountains between Tazewell and Marion, Virginia.”

Most riders have heard of “The Dragon,” which has officially been dubbed the Tail of the Dragon, an 11-mile stretch of US-129 crossing Deals Gap at the Tennessee/North Carolina state line.

There are 318 curves within those 11 miles. Some are easy, many are not.

It’s one of those must-ride roads. But it isn’t without its dangers. The Travel Channel actually has an awesome Dragon video you should watch, if you haven’t already.

Back of the Dragon is a take on that. It’s closer to us than the Wytheville trails, but we still haven’t ridden it. Yet. But we’re really hoping to make it down that way in 2014.

Have you ridden the Back of the Dragon? Is it as good as they claim it to be?

I’d love to know what you think.

January 7, 2014January 7, 2014

Reconnecting with Old Friends

It pains me to admit that I was a bully as a kid. Really. I was terrible. I often wonder about the kids I terrorized — mostly boys — and how I impacted their lives. It’s the sort of thing one wonders about, but doesn’t really want to know for fear of what they might learn.

I didn’t just pick on boys. I was mean to some girls, too. There is one, whose name at the time was Diana Kunkoski, I am actually still friends with, believe it or not. We met in second grade. I used to take her into the girls bathroom to torment away from adult eyes. I vividly remember cornering her in the bathroom at one point, literally, telling her if she wouldn’t be my friend, I would keep “beating her up.”

I don’t remember ever hitting her, by the way. Just making her think I was going to hit her.

She and I have had very different paths in life. Her mother married multiple times, so they’d move away for a while and then come back. We spent second and third grade together. Then she moved. She came back during fourth or fifth grade, so we were together again for a while, but then she moved to the state of Washington.

We kept in touch through the years. She returned to Baltimore briefly during our teenage years and, for better or worse, attended the same high school as me during tenth grade. After that, it was back to Washington. She ended up attending and graduating from Brigham Young University with a degree in broadcast journalism. She worked down south for a while then returned to Baltimore for good.

She dated off and on for a while, but always seemed to hook up with some of the oddest guys. In all honesty, we never thought she’d get married. But she ended up marrying a wonderful man — Brian — and having two kids. She’s the first person I knew to have a Match.com success. And Brian is a great guy. Mike and I actually attended their wedding in Charleston, South Carolina.

I tried photographing her kids back in 2008, when they were about 3 and 6, but they were feeling very cooperative and would NOT sit for a pose. So we let them do goofy stuff. That’s when I captured this shot of them, which is my favorite from that day.

Since we’re at different stages in our lives, we don’t see much of each other. But we do still keep in touch.

Early last year, she told me she and Brian had bought an investment property in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. She asked if I’d like to join her there for a visit. Of course, I agreed. She said it would have to be in the off season, as the house would be rented out during the summer months. So, back in October, we finally managed to get away for a weekend together.

It was fun catching up. Just like old times. Except we’re much older.

And that pitcher of delicious margaritas we drank during the Friday happy hour at Dos Locos, had us both feeling a bit, um, sluggish, for most of the day on Saturday. So NOT like old times.

We did eventually get moving and had a fun, laid back, relaxing sort of weekend.

But I’ve gotten ahead of myself…

I drove from my house in Virginia to Diana’s home in Crownsville, Maryland, just outside of Annapolis. She drove from there to Rehoboth. On the way, when we passed this yard art mecca. I was THRILLED when she turned to me and said, “Wanna stop? It’s not like we’re on a schedule.”

en_route_2 — Me, Browsing (didn’t buy anything)

en_route_5 — Widest selection of jockeys ever.

From there, we moseyed on to the beach.

Their house is located just off of Rehoboth Avenue, about six blocks from the waterfront. It has a great sitting porch, above the garage, which we used quite a bit.

At my urging (begging!), we stopped at Dolle’s upon arrival. I HAD to have some fresh, hot, caramel popcorn. YUM. Diana, who led a sheltered life, apparently, had never eaten Dolle’s caramel popcorn. How much you want to bet it becomes a regular stop for the family?

It really was a nice, slow-paced, relaxing weekend. Aside from the aforementioned happy hour, that is. We just meanderered about, chatting and catching up on each other’s lives. And enjoying the scenery, which I captured on camera to share later.

rehoboth_beach_1 — Red Moon, Moon Rising

rehoboth_beach_4 — Glimpses of Fall Color

rehoboth_beach_7 — Ancient Indian Cliff Dwellings (Not really, but that’s what I thought it looked like!)

I love, love, love Fall. The light is amazing.

I couldn’t end this post without a selfie, could I?

Sunday came far too fast. Diana and I decided we should make the Rehoboth trip an annual thing. Looking forward to doing it again in 2014.

But wait, there’s more…

On the way home, we stopped in Milton(?) to visit Peggy & Jim, who adopted Maddie, a former foster dog of mine.

Maddie, formerly known as Lizzie, won the forever home lottery when Peggy and Jim adopted her. They are absolutely delightful people, and perfect dog parents.

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend.

grateful — On a drink purchased en route to Diana’s house.

I am so glad we were able to reconnect. And I really am looking forward to seeing her again soon.

November 18, 2013February 27, 2014

Pacific Northwest – Installment 12

There are many reasons why vacationing with friends is different than vacationing as a couple. I could go on and on with reasons, pros and cons, if you will. But I won’t. I will say I mentioned that because it plays a big role in the type of accommodations we choose.

If it’s just Hubby and me, if we’ll only be in a place for a night or two, we tend to choose cheap and clean chain hotels. But, when traveling as two couples, hotels can be a pain. Where do you hang out? What if your rooms are far apart and/or in completely different wings of the facility? What if one of you has the corkscrew and the other has the wine?

It makes much more sense to rent houses when we are traveling with friends. It’s usually about the same amount of money, if not cheaper, and you can find some really cool places to stay.

We don’t always rent houses. Since we move around a lot, sometimes roadside hotels just make sense. During this trip, we did both. I figured it was about time to talk about the houses we rented, especially since I’m about to show you pics of our favorite.

The Portland Victorian, our base for our stay in Portland, Oregon. And then there was Home Sweet Home, the hub for our Olympic Peninsula visit. Both were lovely homes that served our purposes perfectly. But the Log House on San Juan Island was our favorite.

I never did get a good shot of the outside, so I’ll just borrow this one from their VRBO listing.

Front of the Log House (facing the water)

All of our house were spacious, but this one felt IMMENSE. This hand-made cabin is nestled in the woods overlooking the San Juan Channel of the Salish Sea. It was only a few miles — about a 10-minute drive — from downtown Friday Harbor, so it was quite convenient. We were all happy with the location, size, and comfort of this place.

The Log House is the only rental unit where I actually took interior photos to share.

4_IMG_7124 — View into the Dining Room (note the piano in the corner)

6_IMG_7109 — Looking Out Toward the Deck

2_IMG_7141 — Kitchen Side of the Fireplace

3_IMG_7117 — Looking Down from the Stairs Leading to the 2nd Floor Loft

After a very leisurely morning, which went a long way toward making up for the unGODly hour we had to hit the road the day before, we headed into town.

Friday Harbor is a picturesque town full of touristy shops and restaurants. The shops we visited were all nice, tasteful places. So “touristy” isn’t a bad thing. Many of the shops leaned toward artsy, too. Which I loved.

11_IMG_7171 — Horrible Restaurant with Great View

The food at Friday’s Crabhouse was sub-par. So was the service. But it’s a great place to rest your feet while watching the ferry come and go. It was quite interesting to see tractor-trailers and a school bus driving off of the thing. Some of the ferries are HUGE.

Our plan was to head out to Lime Kiln Point Point after lunch to look for whales and watch the sunset.

15_IMG_7181 — Best Place to Whale-watch from Land

17_IMG_7196 — Lighthouse at Lime Kiln Point

We saw lots of porpoise, but no whale action. And we were too early for the sunset. So instead of staring into the sun for an hour, waiting, we decided to drive up to the other town on the island, Roche Harbor.

Roche Harbor is more of a resort than a town. It was cute, and very quiet, but I’m glad we stayed closer to Friday Harbor.

After a brief visit, we headed back to Lime Kiln Point to catch that sunset.

25_IMG_7263 — Sunset from Lime Kiln Point State Park

Fun end to a very peaceful, relaxing day.

We didn’t see any whales that day, but were hoping to see some the next day from a boat.

Find out whether we did or not in my next post…

TRIP Re-cap

Installment 1: In the Beginning (Friday, August 30 – Monday, Sept 2)

Installment 2: Portland Morning (Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 3: Exploring the City of Portland (morning of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 4: Beyond Portland (afternoon of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 5: Olympic Peninsula, Here We Come!

Installment 6: First Rain Forest Hike & Another Gorgeous Beach

Installment 7: Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park

Installment 8: Madison Creek Falls & Lake Crescent

Installment 9: Hoh Rain Forest

Installment 10: Rialto Beach

Installment 11: Getting to San Juan Island

November 14, 2013February 27, 2014

Pacific Northwest – Installment 11

Just when I thought I’d get away with a few shared pics on what was essentially only a transitional day, I realized we saw LOTS of cool stuff that day, too.

View Larger Map

Sunday, September 8 was the day we left the fabulous Olympic Peninsula. Our ultimate destination that day was San Juan Island, Washington, where we’d rented a house for several days. To get there required taking a ferry to Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, then transferring to a different ferry to get to San Juan Island, WA, USA.

Yes, it was the scenic route. We could have gone a different way, but it would have meant a LOT of driving and still at least one ferry ride. Besides, we wanted to see Victoria and say we’d been in Canada. Even if it was only half a day.

I wish we’d had more time and could have stayed longer on the island. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Maybe we were just lucky with the weather, who knows? But I think you’ll agree, once you see these pics, that it was a lovely place to visit.

This was not Yves’ favorite day. He is NOT a morning person. We had to get up at about 5:30 so we could get out of the house and on the road. Our ferry left pretty early. And the ferry terminal was at least 30 minutes away.

Really, I thought Yves was going to cry when, upon seeing me unplug the coffee-maker, he asked whether we were going to have coffee and I said, “No. No time.”

It was a quiet ride to the ferry terminal…

Lucky for us, Smuggler’s Landing was open and serving breakfast. The meal was good, but rushed. And immediately afterward, we had to hustle over to the ferry. Which means I didn’t have time to pose with this guy…

It’s a shame that I missed that photo op. But I was really looking forward to getting some cool pics of the Olympic Peninsula from the water.

2_IMG_6960 — Bye, bye, Miss American Pie…

It looked promising at first. But if you look at the lower right-hand corner of the previous image, sort of behind the flag, you’ll see a bit of fog.

Shortly, there was lot’s more fog to see.

3_IMG_6963 — Olympic Peninsula, shrouded in fog.

I was disappointed. But the fog actually made for some cool captures.

The ferry ride was actually quite pleasant, if a little eerie what with the fog horn blowing because the Captain couldn’t see A THING…

We were all glad to reach Victoria.

In no time at all, we drove off of the ferry, found a place to park, and discovered the Float Home Village at Fisherman’s Wharf.

We knew Fisherman’s Wharf was there, but neither of us had read about the float home village. It was fun to see.

Most of the restaurants hadn’t opened yet, so we just moseyed around, taking in the sights.

9_IMG_6997 — Float Home Village at Fisherman’s Wharf

11_IMG_7003 — Float Home Village at Fisherman’s Wharf

11a_IMG_7006 — Float Home Village at Fisherman’s Wharf

12_IMG_7000 — Float Home Village at Fisherman’s Wharf

12a_IMG_7009 — Seals at the Float Home Village

13_IMG_7005 — Float Home Village at Fisherman’s Wharf

15_IMG_7024 — Coolest Kilt-wearing Bear Ever

17_IMG_7026 — British Columbia Parliament Building

16_IMG_7025 — Victoria Harbor from the Parliament Lawn

21_IMG_7047 — Vintage/Retro Motorcycle Dude

22_IMG_7057 — Rainbow Cloud Behind Parliament

I love it when I capture clouds like that. Thery’re actually called iridescent clouds. (Read more about them HERE if you like.)

25_IMG_7074 — Boats Seen from Dallas Road

I really like that shots of the boats. I’m pretty sure that’s the Olympic Peninsula in the background.

It was yet another lovely ferry ride. I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I usually day. I think that was just because the day had already been so visually overwhelming.

I am always telling people that the light in the Pacific Northwest is special. Hopefully I was able to capture enough images so you can see what I mean.

34_IMG_7102 — Friday Harbor, Washington (on San Juan Island)

It was just before dark when we reached Friday Harbor. We didn’t have any time to waste before heading off to find our rental house, which we managed to do with little effort.

It was spectacular.

But I’ll save that for the next post…

TRIP Re-cap

Installment 1: In the Beginning (Friday, August 30 – Monday, Sept 2)

Installment 2: Portland Morning (Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 3: Exploring the City of Portland (morning of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 4: Beyond Portland (afternoon of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 5: Olympic Peninsula, Here We Come!

Installment 6: First Rain Forest Hike & Another Gorgeous Beach

Installment 7: Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park

Installment 8: Madison Creek Falls & Lake Crescent

Installment 9: Hoh Rain Forest

Installment 10: Rialto Beach