I only wanted to show you all some other beautiful places we went, but first just want to let you know the previous post had Canada’s national anthem worked into it.  After years of listening to it at hockey games, at last! A use.  These are totem poles made by the Japanese sister city to Vancouver.  The park is high above the city and overlooks parts of the bay and downtown Vancouver.  We also walked about  500 yards of the Trans-Canada Trail.  Check!  One more off the bucket list!  This is the Athabasca Glacier.  We visited here in 1977 and rode out to the glacier in the yellow snow machine seen below.  This time we went in this fancy new bus of which there are only 14 in the world.  Thirteen are here in Canada and the 14th is at McMurdo Base in Antarctica!  Ok, so about the glacier. When we were there before, both Mark and I remember it being much bigger.  According to the guides it is receding at the rate of about 16 ft. a year.  What are we doing to our Earth. This is the new Skywalk which tells of the geological, animal, and flora stories of the Icefields Highway.      The old yellow bus. These are two of the beautiful waterfalls we visited.  Johnson Canyon is on the left and Athabasca Falls on the right.        Driving from Jasper to Banff in the rain gave us a chance to watch Mother Nature doing a strip tease.  The rain would come and go, the clouds would raise and lower, and we would be treated to snippets of mountain grandeur.  Every corner would give us a new and more beautiful vista  than the last and we would pass lakes which were like the turquoise beads in Mother Nature’s necklace  Mt.  Rundle, near Banff  looks like someone picked up a piece of the Earth and just left the jagged edge on the other side.  Incredible!  This is a marmot growling at everyone looking down at him.  We were on top of Sulpher Mountain and saw him lurking under the balcony of the lodge. Another view from the top of Mt.

Sulpher.

Discovered this station at the top.  Gives one a pause when thinking about cosmic rays.  Are these space alien cosmic rays?  Are they from a ray gun somewhere in the universe?  Nope!  Cosmic rays are  from deep outer space and are remnants of powerful radiation.  Some protons and neutrons still make it through our atmosphere and apparently  it is important to keep track of  them and their impact on the Earth.

Although you’re not our home and native land, we surely understand that true patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts  like in the Olympic Cauldron, we see thee rise

with new snow in July!

 The true north strong and free, like incredible Mt. Rundle.

From far and wide  we spotted many animals such as these, plus moose, marmots, and many squirrels.  Oh, Canada, we stand on guard for thee!

God keep this land like this fantastic panorama of Banff,

Glorious and free!  Oh, Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Oh, Canada, we stand on guard for thee!!

Next stop, Anacortes, Washington.  We are located right on Fidalgo Bay.  While Mark was hooking up the bus, I was enjoying the beautiful clearness of the sky and what did I behold?  An eagle going fishing right in front of us!  It then flew into a tree where is spent the rest of the day.  The same thing happened on subsequent days with the bonus of another eagle joining the first!  I was in heaven.

Look closely and you can see their white heads in the top of the tall tree and on the bottom on the branch sticking out to the left.

One day we went whale watching.  Now I have to tell you about a time when we took the girls to do this on a windy day off Newport News, VA.  Everyone was sick and we saw nothing but the horizon.  This time we started out in a thick fog hoping for not much but after a couple hours we happened into three pods of orcas doing amazing orca acrobatics.  Have to say, our camera sucks so instead here is a picture of the Lego orca in Vancouver, BC.

Looks just like all the orcas we saw, only more lumpy.

So, in Anacortes there is this trail around the town that is called “The Tommy Thompson.”  One day I was bored while Mark was washing the motorhome and went walking the leg nearest where we were camped.  It crossed the Bay and was full of informative signs and sights.  On the way back I was reading a sign about an arch over the walkway and saw movement below me in the water.  There were two river otters like those we had at the aquarium in NC.  What a treat to see these reclusive critters in their native habitat.  Also saw a harbor seal out for a swim, arctic terns on vacation, cormorants going fishing, and glaucous-winged gulls.   It was worth it!

But, lest I forget to tell you about the trip from Port Angeles to Anacortes, let me digress for a moment.  We made most of our reservations in January and the one which worried us all was the one on which we would load the motorhomes on a ferry and sail across the Straits of Juan de Fuca.  Our rigs are not small nor light.  So we set out early and got to the ferry terminal in Port Townsend so early that the lady quickly took our $96 each, told us we had two minutes to get on board and waved us through.  After all our terrible premonitions, this turned out to be a walk in the park, or on water, maybe. Straight in, straight out, a bit tightly fit in the ferry bay.  Even the cats had fun looking out the windows.

Next up, Vancouver,  BC.

Worst welcome sign ever, but what a state!  We camped in a classic KOA nestled between the freeway and a train track.  The whistles blew day and night but, oh well!

Thirty four years ago we were in Portland for a surprise baby shower friends had for us.  On Sunday, May 18th we got up and looked out the window of our friend’s house and saw an incredible mushroom cloud over Mt. t. Helens.  We saw first hand here the power and scariness of Mother Nature.  The mountain was shortened by about a third and the ash river which ran down the Toutle River from the summit destroyed everything in it’s path.  This was BIG news on TV and radio for weeks, especially the next weekend when she erupted again and they shoveled the ash off the streets with snow plows.  Way on the left side you can see Mt. Adams which is only about 35 miles from St. Helens.

Next up was Mt. Rainier.  Here is another perfect jewel in the infamous Ring of Fire which surrounds the Pacific Rim.  From the talks and movies we have watched in all these parks any of these volcanoes has the potential to erupt any time and soon.  But til they do we will enjoy seeing them in all their splendor and rugged beauty.

As in all these parks, Mr. Rainier has an old lodge which has been preserved from the time it was built.  Here at the Mt. Rainier Lodge we find the first purpose built building to turn the tourist eye toward scenes of beauty.  All the inside is done with local logs and is hand crafted.  There are dozens of lampshades in the rafter each having a different native flower found on the park.  Here is The Piano Man entertaining us at lunchtime.

Back to fantasy land.  Mark loves flying and has always wanted to be a pilot.  Here he got a sort of chance at the Forest Learning Center back at Mt. St. Helens!

Maybe because they have so much native material near to hand, the people of the Northwest are avid woodcarvers.  We were walking through our campground on the Cowlitz River and discovered this fox hiding in a hollow tree!  We have seen bears, eagles, and other animals hiding here and there where we’ve gone.

The new picture at the side of the blog is of  us in the middle of the Cowlitz River.  The empty bed shows how huge the river gets during runoff in the spring.  Stay tuned!  All the poor wifi will not keep me from continuing to post our adventures!