We're home

Very nice flight, with good food and plenty of sleep. There were eleven people in the First class cabin this time, but the crew were excellent.

As usual, Heathrow slowed everything down. It took half an hour from landing to getting on the stand, and the luggage took ages to appear. But at least we both used the iris recognition system to avoid the queue at immigration.

Final day

Our last day of what seems to have been a very long holiday. San Francisco feels like ages ago! Having stored our luggage at the hotel, we headed for Stanley Park, a huge park close to downtown. There's a sea wall right round the edge, and we walked a fair chunk of it to see Vancouver's slightly less impressive version of the Golden Gate Bridge, Lions Head Bridge. Some people might prefer the green colour. For lighthouse fans (or maybe it's just me), there's an example you can walk right through.

In the afternoon, we went to the aquarium and saw among other things the beluga whales, and the sea otters. Then we went to the area of waterfront known as Coal Harbour, and watched the boats and sea planes until it was time to pick up our luggage and get a taxi to the airport.

There was a bit of a queue at the BA First class check in, but having access to fast-track security meant we were through very quickly. We're now sat in the lounge (although there's no dedicated First lounge in Vancouver), and the flight leaves in about two hours from now.

It's been a fantastic holiday. It was great re-visiting San Francisco, and finding that nothing seemed to have changed in the last few years. The Oregon coast was spectacular, with one amazing view following another; and Astoria was a really pleasant surprise, and certainly had the best hotel. The drive through Washington wasn't as interesting Oregon: lots of straight roads through trees, and often well away from the coast. But Seattle was good, even though it was the only place we got any real rain. Victoria was charming, a bit like an upmarket English seaside holiday, and the whale watching and sea plane rides were real highlights. I had no sense of what Vancouver would be like, but I can see why people enjoy living there. The city has a nice feel, and the mountains provide some dramatic scenery. We're looking forward to coming back here next February, when we ski in Whistler.

Vancouver, BC

It turns out that Vancouver's biggest attractions are outside the city. So this morning we took the Sea Bus across Burrard Inlet, and got on a bus. First stop was Capilano Suspension Bridge, which has apparently been 'naturally thrilling since 1889'. The bridge is 230 feet above the Capilano river, and is supported by two-inch steel cables; it wobbles a lot.

Next stop was Grouse Mountain, where we took the cable car to the top. The mountain is 4100 feet high, and has fantastic views back down to Vancouver. There are some rescued grizzly bears kept on the mountain, and we watched a very entertaining lumberjack show.

Back in Vancouver, we went up to the Harbour Centre observation deck, as it's very close to the Sea Bus terminal. The Harbour Centre is a weird looking building: an ordinary square tower block, with a round thing plonked on top. However, it does mean there are 360 degree views, including Grouse Mountain, where we'd just been.

The Harbour Centre is also great for watching sea planes coming and going. If we ever travel between Vancouver and Victoria in the future, the sea plane will definitely get our business. It's downtown to downtown, with no long taxi rides needed. The only slight problem is the low luggage allowance, but they do say any excess baggage will be sent free of charge on the next available flight, and as most passengers appeared to be business people with no luggage that shouldn't cause much of a delay.

Two flights in one day

Today's first flight was on a seaplane. It was a quick sightseeing trip round Victoria, although to be honest the main reason for going was the experience of taking off from and landing on water. Our plane was a De Haviland Beaver, operated by Harbour Air. Although there's a departure lounge in their building, they don't mind at all if you go and wait on the jetty in the sunshine.

There are two 'runways' in Victoria inner harbour, and we took off towards the south.

Once off the water, there were fantastic views of the Olympic mountains over in the USA, and of the coastline of Vancouver Island. But the best bit was undoubtedly the landing. It was steep, with a sharp turn, and finished with a splash. In fact, we had to go around the first time because the Victoria Clipper was in the way. When we came over the bridge on the left hand side of the picture below, we were at 500 feet. Then we turned right with the water, and landed roughly where the Clipper is. Then we had to wait while the big ferry to Port Angeles went past.

The second flight of the day was from Victoria Airport (the one on land), to Vancouver. This time, the plane was a Beechcraft 1900C, which looked reasonably sized on the outside, but very small on the inside. There were two seats across, and it was impossible to stand upright. The flying time was 12 minutes, so it was a pity that the taxi at each end took half an hour.

Victoria, BC

The day started with a visit to one of Victoria's biggest, and smallest, attractions: Miniature World. This is a series of model tableaux, many of which are very good indeed, including a model of the trans-Canadian railroad.

Victoria is a charming city, and the harbour is incredibly busy. There are dozens of whale watching boats; ferrys from Seattle, Port Angeles, and the San Juan islands; and as many as two-hundred sea-plane movements a day. We took a tour of the inner harbour on on of the comical little ferry boats which buzz about all day long.

In the afternoon, we swapped to a much more powerful boat, a scarab with three huge outboards, for a whale watching trip. We first went to Race Rock (where there's a lighthouse which was begging to be photographed), to see sealions and seals.

Then is was off to the San Juan islands, where killer whales had been spotted. There are three pods of killer whales resident in the area, and this was J-pod, a group of about 25 whales. They were fairly widely spread out as they were feeding, and there are strict rules on where the boats can go. They have to stay a quarter of a mile offshore, and can't go closer than a hundred metres to the whales while the engines are on. So the boats get in front of the whales, turn the engines off, and wait for them to pass. The boat was also equipped with a hydophonic system, so we could hear the whales clicking and whistling. We saw several whales, including a mother with a three week old calf and a number of groups of two and three.

Into Canada

After a bit more shopping in Seattle, we rode the monorail down to Seattle Centre, to see what else was there. The monorail dates from 1962, and they're still using the original cars. They've done nearly a million miles each.

After lunch, it was down to the waterfront, for the Victoria Clipper to Victoria. The boat is a high speed catamaran, and although it wasn't a rough crossing we'd both had enough of the bouncing motion by the time the two and a half hour journey was over! Great views of Seattle as we left though.

Canadian immigration was far friendlier than its US equivalent! Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, and has an elegant and genteel feel. It has some great buildings, including the legislative building.

But after dark, for reasons best known to themselves, they prefer to make it look like something out of the Blackpool illuminations.

Fortunately, Canada gets American television. So we were able to catch Seattle-born Apollo Anton Ohno winning this season of Dancing with the Stars!

Seattle, WA

Pike market was our first stop this morning, but there was no sign of any traders throwing fish to each other. Maybe they only do that when tv cameras are nearby.

After a bit of shopping, we went up Seattle's tallest building, the Columbia Centre. It's the big black building in the centre of the skyline. It's taller than the Space Needle, a third of the price, and about ninety per cent emptier. The staff (actually there's only one), are about four-hundred times ruder, but the views are great.

From there we went to the pioneer district, and went on the Underground Tour. A century ago, to even out the hills they raised the street level in this part of town, leaving the ground floor of the buildings as the basement, with underground pavements outside.

Boats, planes, and lifts

Our route from Port Townsend to Seattle was influenced by having booked to go on the Boeing factory tour, at Everett, north of the city. So we got a ferry from PT to Keystone on Whidbey Island, drove down to the south of the Island, and got another ferry from Clinton to Mukilteo. The Boeing factory is just a couple of miles from the ferry.

On the tour, we were taken to the assembly building (which is the biggest building in the world by volume), where they put together 747s, 767s, and 777s. The very first 787 Dreamliner was also there; they only started work on it this week. Cameras aren't allowed inside, so no photos.

In Seattle, it was raining but we decided to go up the Space Needle anyway. The observation deck is 520 feet up, and the lift (up the ouside) takes 41 seconds. There were great views of the city, Puget Sound, and Union Lake, but the visibility wasn't good enough to be able to see the mountains.

We have returned the car, having driven 1332 miles.

Port Townsend, WA

It was a big day in Port Townsend -- the Rhododendron Parade. There were more than a hundred entries in the parade, including school bands from all over Washington. What never ceases to amaze me is the willingness of the American youth to wear outrageous band costumes. I just can't imagine kids at home doing this.

Port Townsend is a beautifully preserved Victorian port, with many lovely buildings. The main street downtown is Water Street.



Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend is apparently where they filmed An Officer and a Gentleman. And just in case of lighthouse withdrawal symptoms, there's one at Point Wilson.

The Olympic Mountains

Our route today took us from Lake Quinault round the edge of the Olympic Mountains National Park, through Forks to Port Angeles. From there we took a drive up to Hurricane Ridge, more than five-thousand feet up above the town. There were spectacular views inland to the mountains.

Tonight's stop is in Port Townsend, on the north-eastern tip of the Olympic peninsular. Our hotel apparently used to be a brothel in the 1920s! We have a view of Admiralty Inlet, and the car ferry which crosses to the closest of the many islands.

There's some excitement here because the Governor of Washington is in town, presumably for the Rhododendron Parade which takes place tomorrow. The rhododendron is the state flower of Washington.

Into Washington

On Thursday, we started the day by visiting the Astoria Column, which stands on a hill above Astoria. It's decorated with depictions of the area's history, and there's a spiral staircase of 164 steps to the top from where there are great views of the river and the bridge to Washington.

The little gift shop sells balsa-wood gliders for 75c, to launch off the top. I bought one, threw it from the column, and watched it fly, and fly, and fly. It kept going for several minutes, and we lost sight of it before it came down! Undoubtedly the best 75c buy of the holiday.

Once over the bridge, we made a brief stop in Long Beach, which claims to have the longest beach in the world. As the tide was out (and it's apparently the thing to do) we drove out onto the beach. It's probably the most off-roading our Jeep Liberty will ever do.


Our stop for the night was Lake Quinault, on the edge of the Olympic National Park. We were the only people staying in the resort, and our cabin not only had a great view of the lake, but also tiny humming birds which continually visited a sugar-water feeder hanging outside. In the evening, the owner took us for a boat ride round the lake.

Northern Oregon

More lighthouses on Wednesday. We stopped at Yaquina Head, just north of Newport, principally to see the lighthouse but ended up spending much more time on the beach in a little cove watching the harbour seals playing in the water. We also saw a group of front-heavy-looking pelicans flying past.

At Cape Mears, where there's another lighthouse, we finally saw the distincive uff of spray made by a whale. No sight of the actul whale, though, as it was too far out.

We're now in Astoria, on the northern edge of Oregon. A four mile long bridge across the Columbia River will take us into the state of Washington.

Jeep Liberty

This is our hire car, a Jeep Liberty. It claims to have a 3.7 litre engine, but at least two of those litres seems to go awol whenever it comes to an uphill gradient. And it also seldom has any idea which gear it should be in!

Oregon Lighthouses

We've seen three lighthouses today, and there are another two at Newport, where we're staying tonight. This is the one at Bandon.

It's been foggy today, which we're told is more typical than the sunshine we had the past few days.

Tonight we're staying in a studio apartment overlooking the harbour at Newport. We can see the impressive bridge across the bay from our window.

Rogue River

Up early this morning, ready for an 8am trip up the Rogue River on a jet boat. We went with Jerry's www.roguejets.com/index.html and got good deal when we went to buy the tickets last night. We'd planned to do the 64 mile round trip, but they weren't running one today, so they offered us the 104 mile round trip for the price of the shorter one.



The scenery up the river was spectacular, and we saw oprey, eagles, deer, turtles, and a black bear. But the trip was far more than just a sightseeing one. We had to shoot the rapids, and our driver, Tom, was vey keen on spinning the boat and generally getting us as wet as possible!




We're spending a second night in our cabin by the ocean at Gold Beach. We again went down to the beach to watch the sun go down and the tide come in. It was much warmer than last night, as there was no cold wind, and we saw two seals playing in the waves.

Into Oregon

Today we crossed from California into Oregon, stopping on the way to have a look at the Californian towns of Eureka, Trinidad, and Crescent City. Trinidad has a replica lighthouse, as a memorial to those lost or buried at sea.

The coastline of Oregon seems much more rugged. The rocks and the sand are darker, and the trees go right to the edge of the cliffs.

We're staying in a wooden cabin at Gold Beach, OR. It looks out at the Pacific, and the beach is only a minute away.

Skunk Train

On Saturday, we rode the Skunk Train from Fort Bragg up the old logging route through the redwood forests to Northspur. The round trip takes four hours, which includes a half hour stop at Northspur while they turn the loco around. We were lucky because they were using the steam engine; often they use one of their diesel locos to pull the train.

We then headed north, first along the spectacular coast, then inland a bit where we stopped to see the original drive-through tree, and through more amazing redwoods along the Avenue of the Giants.

The US Postal Service

If I ever hear anyone complaining about the Post Office and Royal Mail at home, I'll suggest they try the US Postal Service. By comparison, ours looks like the model of efficiency.



This morning I wanted to buy stamps for post cards, some to be sent today with some spare stamps for cards going over the rest of the trip. It turned out to be much more complicated than I'd thought possible.

One problem was that prices go up on Monday. So the cards being sent to Europe today needed 75c stamps; those for next week needed 90c stamps. The 75c stamps were no problem at all. But there aren't any 90c stamps. Instead, I had to get some 84c stamps, and twice as many 3c ones to make up the difference.

Then I complicated matters by asking for two stamps for postcards to be sent within the USA, today. They'd be 24c, I was told, but there were no 24c stamps at the post office. I must have looked a little surprised, and after a while the assistant came up with a solution: two 10c and one 4c stamps for each card.

All this had been just too much for her. "After you I'll have to close" she said wearily (it being at least 9.30 already). And sure enough, as soon as I went to move away, the closed sign went up.

Of course the next thing will be to see whether the cards actually get to their destinations. I fully expect the ones to the UK to arrive before the ones to New York and Indiana!

Fort Bragg, CA

Picked up a hire car in San Francisco this morning, and headed north, first on Highway 101, then on 128 towards the coast.

Stopped for a look around Mendocino, which was used as the location for Murder She Wrote.

Staying in Fort Bragg tonight, home to Glass Beach. Years ago, the area was used as a tip, and the sea has ground down the glass and dumped it back on the beach.

At first sight, it looks like a normal pebble beach, but a closer look shows that at least half the pebbles are actually glass. Apparently it looks even better when the sun is shining.