On to Pismo Beach

March 25 to April 10th:

With motorhome repairs complete we headed for Pismo Beach.  The North Beach State Park was closed for repairs so we stayed at the Elks Lodge in Oceano. We had several days before the Half Moon Bay family were to arrive giving us ample opportunity to visit our friend Edna who lives in nearby Nipomo.

Terri, Clint, Liliana, and Damien arrived on the 4th of April for 4 days.  As luck would have it the condo they rented was right across the street from the Elk's Lodge.  We visited every beach in the area so Terri could look for glass for her necklace creations.  She does really nice work.

The following photos were taken at the Avila Beach pools and hot springs:

Around Pismo Beach

Cruise blues and other news~~~

We took a 7 day Alaska cruise out of Seattle aboard the Norwegian  cruise line's ship Jewel.  Our accommodations were perfect;  a mini-suite with a full balcony.  Daughter Steph took care of all the booking and what a good job she did.  We had tons of space and beautiful views.

Photo from our balcony ~ Ship leaving Seattle

The first two days were spent at sea and by the end of the second day as we pull into Ketchikan Howard had full blown gout in his right foot, making walking long distances very painful.  There is a lot of walking on a gigantic cruise ship not to mention the shore excursions we planned to do, but alas, it was not meant to be.  By the time we got to our first destination, Ketchikan, we were resolved to the fact we wouldn't be doing much more that sitting on our balcony and watching the incredible scenery drift by.  Plus we had mostly nasty weather, rain and fog for 6 of our 7 days.  The sun came out in Victoria, BC on our last day. Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves immensely, eating delicious cruise ship cuisine, and enjoying a trip of a lifetime.  Here's the ship's itinerary:

1. Ketchikan, our first stop, has a population of just over 8,000 and is the fifth most populous city in the state of Alaska. Local economy is based on tourism and fishing, hence the title of salmon capital of the world.
2. Our next stop is Juneau, Alaska's 3rd largest city by population.  Anchorage is first with just over 300,00.  The Aurora Borealis or Northern lights can be seen on clear nights from August through April, usually over Mt. Juneau.  There are lots of shore excursions including whale watching and trips to the Mendenhall Glacier.
3. Skagway is home to the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park and to both the White Pass Scenic Railway and Chilkoot Trails, two famous paths in and out of town.  
4. After another day at sea we arrived in Victoria, BC.  We've been to Victoria many times and visited Bouchart Gardens, the Empress Hotel, and the beautiful Parliament Building. The downtown and marina areas make for a good walking tour..
5. Next stop Seattle.

Along the way we saw ice bergs and glaciers, quaint towns and seaports. There was a lot of fog and rain but our balcony was covered and there were large sliding glass doors to enjoy the views. Sure we missed out on some good shore excursions, but we made the most out of our days, depending on Howard's comfort level. 

   

Marina in Ketchikan

Cool, foggy days

Glaciers

Waterfalls

We returned to the Elk's lodge in Port Townsend for a few more days, then decided to take the ferry and spend some time in Anacortes.  More on that later.  We'll be returning to Port Townsend to our "happy place" at the marina where we have a waterfront view, August 18-30.

Pismo Beach getaway...

We spent two glorious weeks at the North Beach campground of Pismo Beach State Park.  What did we do?  Absolutely nothing but stroll the beach, walk into town, visit with our local friend, Edna. Read, shop, nap, and eat....some serious down time, and it felt wonderful!

We stopped in Half Moon Bay on our way back to Petaluma and spent two wonderful days with our family and youngest grands, Liliana and Damien.  Terri fixed her excellent prime rib roast and baked a lemon cake using the delicious Meyer lemons from the tree in their backyard.  Again, eating was high on the list.

A special visitor...Liliana

We have a cruise to Alaska planned for July (23-30) and we both really need to drop several pounds before we go since we know we'll be eating non-stop for 7 days aboard ship, Norwegian Cruise Lines. This will be our first "proper" cruise.  Our only other experience was aboard a tall sailing ship (2011) where we departed from Barbados, transited the Panama Canal, and disembarked in Costa Rica. Three weeks of wonderful food, drink, and shore tours. But first, we need to do some major shopping for appropriate cruise wear (whatever that is!).

A month to roam....

And so it was that with a blank calendar for the next month we decided to take off for a road trip.  Our destination was St. George, Utah, more specifically Snow Canyon State Park, about 720 miles from Petaluma, an easy 2-3 day drive.  We discovered Snow Canyon SP a couple of years ago when Howard was running in the Senior Olympics held every October in St. George.   And as is always the case the journey proved to be as beautiful and interesting as the destination....Well almost!

Our first stop was a small RV park in Eureka, Nevada on Highway 50, the Loneliest road in America!  Lonely indeed, and barren for the most part, but it is a slice of Americana, sparsely populated with little towns, many boarded up, with light traffic.  This route also leads the way to Great Basin National Park, located in Eastern Nevada very near the border with Utah.  We had not visited Great Basin since our early days of RVing in our Dolphin MH, circa 1996!

Great Basin National Park:  A vast region of sage brush-covered valleys and narrow mountain ranges stretching from California's Sierra Nevada to Utah's Wasatch.  A must see, the Lehman Caves was our first experience in cave exploring with a ranger leading the way and explaining what we were seeing.  Though quite small it is beautifully decorated and well worth the tour.  Another plus is the drive to the base of Wheeler Peak which stretches to an altitude of over 13,000 feet.  There are many trails, some leading to Bristlecone Pine forests.  We were limited due to a much needed rain storm passing through.

Highway 50, The Loneliest Road in America

Eureka!!

The Great Basin from along the road to the base of Wheeler Peak

Cathedral Gorge State Park:  We backtracked a bit on Highway 50 to pickup Highway 93, a scenic byway taking us south in the general direction of St. George, UT.  Just as our day of driving was winding down, according to "The rule of 3s - 300 miles per day, 3 o'clock in the afternoon"....we see a welcome sign near Panaca, NV announcing Cathedral Gorge State Park.  Having never taken this route before and not being familiar with Cathedral Gorge, we rightfully decided to stop for a day or two of exploring, and what a bonanza of exploring we found.

As the park brochure so graphically put it, if you had been here 2.5 million years ago, you would have needed gills.  Volcanoes, earthquakes, water, and erosion created the "hoodoo-like" spires, and buff-colored mud cliffs. Narrow slot canyons are cut deep into the old mud formations.  Adventurous visitors can crawl through tunnels to discover hidden chambers through the network of canyons.  We did no crawling but did enjoy many tight squeezes!  With the temps in the high 80s, the coolness of the slot canyons made for a more pleasant walk, with many photo ops.

Snow Canyon State Park:  We pulled in to Snow Canyon SP not sure if we would be able to get a site.  Being on the reservation system and on the venue of several Senior Games, we lucked out by being amenable to moving around a bit.  They hold 2 sites as first come, first serve and we managed to snag one for 5 days thus giving us a full week.  

The park is spectacular...period!  Located in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve amid lava flows and soaring sandstone cliffs in a fragile desert environment, we marvel at the majestic views and subtle interplay of light and shadow across the canyon walls.  There is a great multi-trail system accessible right across the street from the park offering miles of red rock splendor!  

We spent a day visiting nearby Zion National Park amidst a crowd of like-minded people.  Both sides of the approach road, Highway 9, were jammed with parked cars vying for access to the splendor surrounding us. We did our sightseeing from the car windows!

The temps were still hot throughout the southwest as we were putting together an itinerary for our departure from St. George.  We had our sights on Marble Canyon, maybe a quick ride to the North Rim to say hi to Gaelyn, and on to Safford in eastern AZ and Roper Lake State Park.  But we soon scratched these plans as we didn't want to be dependent on staying inside running the generator and air conditioning.  So we headed to Barstow and turned right for the Pacific coast.

We're now winding down our road trip and heading back to Petaluma where I start the process of cataract surgery for both eyes.  I'm looking forward to the end result as I hear it greatly improves vision!  It's been a great month!

A whirlwind of socializing," freebies", and bear encounters!

We're not exactly isolationists, but in the almost two weeks after leaving Anacortes we've become the essence of sociability.  Whew...definitely a whirlwind!

First stop Bellingham, WA, an easy day's drive from our Marina location.  Our goal was to visit our aging friend, Hazel (a mere 89 and going strong) whom we met traveling in Mexico approx. 18 years ago.  Hazel and her daughter, Jennie, were soon leaving on an Alaskan cruise.  Jennie and husband Scott had graciously invited us to share there 5 acres for parking the motorhome. Hazel planned to be staying at their house during our visit. "Freebie parking"!

Though we'd never met before we became fast friends with Jennie and Scott.  Dinners were shared experiences for our 3-day visit, with daytime outings with Hazel, one of which included a drive into Vancouver, Canada for lunch at The Bistro restaurant in White Rock...excellent food.  One day we headed up toward Mt. Baker to do some hiking with Jenny and dog Bogie, while Hazel rested in the car.

Our yearly stay in the Anza Borrego Desert has provided a long list of friends with whom we keep in close touch. Last winter we were lucky enough to be parked near Dan and Heather from BC, a terrific young couple who immediately became friends.  We shared many meals and happy hours.  They invited us to visit them this summer and we decided to take them up on it.  Their place on the Shuswap Lake was an easy drive from Bellingham and, once again, we had "freebie" parking with full hookups on an RV lot in their development.

The drive to their place was magnificent, taking us through the Thompson & Fraser River canyons.

Dan & Heather in Anza Borrego last winter..

Heather is a cook extraordinaire, or maybe I should say chef!  Neighbors and friends were invited over and everyone brought appies to share for Happy Hour.  We had home-made pizzas, 3 kinds to choose from, Thai, Hawaiian, and whatever is left over.  The following night neighbors invited us all over for barbecued steaks with all the trimmings.  The 3rd night we fixed rack of lamb for Heather and Dan.  A fine time we had indeed!

Dan, Heather and all their friends and neighbors...

You'll notice in the above photo that Heather has her right leg in a brace due to damaged meniscus, and ACL which occurred while participating in her first triathlon, and crashing on her bike at 40 MPH.  These folks take their exercise and diet regime very seriously!

Heather gives Howard & I a lesson in bread baking with lots of good grains.

Yummy kale smoothie!

Howard's signature rack of lamb

And now for the bear encounters.  We had decided to divide our travel time in BC to two short days instead of one long one.  Therefore, our first night was spent in Cache Creek at a nice RV park, Brookside Resort.  Our dollar goes a long way in Canada as the exchange rate is $.75 Canadian to $l.00 US, so the $35 RV site cost us $27!

Once we had registered and parked at Brookside I went outside to see if Howard needed any help and just happened to look up to see a good sized black bear crouched in the tree overhead.  I grabbed my camera for a quick pic, but ran inside when he started coming down.

Bear butt, use your imagination!

Our next encounter happened the following day just as we're approaching Dan & Heather's.  We heard 2 quick "thunks" and Howard looked in the rear view mirror and saw a large black bear running into the woods.  We pulled over and sure enough he had run into the MH which damaged the exhaust pipe, then bounced into the car for a bit of a dent.  We're now in the process of getting quotes from our insurance.

Come Monday we headed back to the border crossing at Sumas and on into WA.  The border crossing was unpleasant to say the least and this was the US customs.  Took about an hour for them to go through the MH and take most of our produce.

In Washington we decided to take the coast route 101 instead of I-5.  We stopped at Milepost 75 to visit one of our very favorites, the Artic RV Park.  The parking conditions resemble a beautiful rainforest and Annie's garden was bountiful and beautiful.  We picked tomatoes, kale, dahlias, green beans and cabbage.

We decide to stay 2 days at Artic ($25 dollars for full hookups) and take the loop drive down to Raymond and around to Grayland and Westport, returning through Aberdeen.  We stopped in Westport for lunch, a walk thru town, and a stop for fresh oysters on our way back.

Gray Harbor Light and along the Westport waterfront

With Labor Day weekend fast approaching we need to pick a location to carry us through the holidays as RV and state parks are filling up fast. We decide on Lincoln City and the Chinook Winds Casino.  RV parking is now restricted to a section on the lower level and we're all crammed in like sardines with generators.  Yes it is another "freebie" so we'll persevere.  We never once went into the casino!

Crowded casino parking