...to BC

When we last left off, we'd boarded a car ferry for a sunny but chilly sail from Washington state to Victoria, British Columbia! Finally, we land on that titular latter half of our "BC to BC" trip. None of us Rhynes had ever been to Canada before, so we were eager to explore both the touristy sights as well as our new campground.
But first stop: the Farmers Market! As we drove through town away from the Ferry terminal (following one of those cheesy freebie maps that you get from attraction racks in hotel lobbies--it's practically a cartoon), we brainstormed dinner ideas for the next few nights and noted which essentials (eggs) we needed as well. The market was a great find--I'd looked up ahead of time where there would be a convenient market when we got into town--and we loaded our bags with delicious farm-fresh eggs, smoky pork sausage, cheese, greens, foccacia, and cookies. While I was doing one final sweep, Alton led Andy over to the nearby park/playground, where a rambling field was built alongside huge boulders perfect for three-year-old climbing.

And on to our campsite! Although it took a little while to chug our way through city-type traffic, our campground was only a few miles out of town and practically suburban. It was very convenient in an unfamiliar area to have a mini-mart and such only a short drive away. We set up camp, anxiously scanning the cloud-filled skies for signs of raindrops. We got just a few as we were setting up the tent, but none for the rest of our stay--hooray! Alton loooved all of the downed trees and wood around our temporary home, and appropriated one hefty stick/log that he buzzed around with and called his "lawnmower." I love that he gets excited about household tools we don't even own.

 Note from Andy: This is Alton's lawnmower. It's not the same without the sound effects.

Before we left on our camping trip, we'd done a lot of gear assessment to make sure that we'd be prepared: for weather swings, for comfort, and for decent on-site food preparation for a family of three. In our hometown, we are only a few miles away from REI, the well-equipped outdoorsman's paradise, but the list-making helped us to worry less about being stuck in the middle of nowhere with a broken tent pole, or broken bone. One item we'd shelled out only a few dollars for was a water carrier--a little 2.5 gallon plastic container with a handle and a spout (like the little teapot, hee) that folded up when not in use, that use being intended for when potable water is too far away to just fill up a small amount every time. So far, all the campsites we'd stayed at had fresh water very close by, and although the water carrier was practically weightless and sorta flat when it was empty, I would glare grumpily at it, taking up a big side pocket of our tote cooler when we hadn't even used it; every spare inch counts for something when you're spending 7 weeks in a Mini Cooper! But finally, at our very last campground, we tore open the cellophane on our water carrier: the faucet for drinking water was about a two-minute walk from our campsite, so not the kind of distance across which you'd like to carefully carry a brimming pot for cooking pasta. We happily filled our be-handled, convenient little water carrier and set it upon a stump for all our rinsing, drinking, and washing needs.
(Below, Alton gets a kick out of seeing me rinse lettuce through a colander.)

But the rinsing and draining paid off; this bag of farmers market mixed greens was the best salad we ate on the trip!

We tossed our smoky sausages onto the grill above the smoky fire to cook for dinner, and threw the foccacia on there to toast as well. Alton explored the fern-y forest around us while his parents bustled around. Enveloped by green trees that gently sloped to a quiet gorge down below, this campground probably afforded us the most privacy we'd experienced in all of our outdoor living, both from the way the campsites were set quite far apart, and from the lack of busy-ness this early in the summer camping season.

Our food was ready and I was looking forward to opening one of our wine-tasting purchases: Cline's Carignane. Going back to that list of gear, another kitchen piece we'd added to our collection was a set of collapsible silicone cups, in which we poured everything from juice to coffee to oatmeal. They were great for space-saving and heat-resistance, but to me their downfall was as a wine receptacle: I could always smell the silicone as I raised it to my lips, and wine seemed to absorb this scent rather than overpower it, the way my morning coffee did. Tired of weird rubbery-smelling wine, I decided to employ my stainless-steel water bottle as a vino vessel, which had heretofore only been used to hold water. Andy cracked up at my water bottle "spiking" and insisted on taking a picture. It was only after we got home that I noticed the water bottle manufacturers were already way ahead of me.

With three nights of cool weather camping ahead of us, we decided it was time for another first of this trip: first toasted marshmallows! We had not yet purchased any marshmallows, mainly because we'd have to lug a bag of leftovers around with us to every post hither and yon, and sometimes we didn't know if it would even be cool enough (or dry enough) for a campfire. But we finally sprung for the puffy white pillows, got one perfectly toasted and cooled for Alton, and after his inaugural bite (see below), he decided he'd prefer to have some chocolate as his dessert. Good on ya, little guy!

So as we'd been setting up our gear on the day of our arrival, a minivan pulled up to the campsite next to ours, and a man got out with his five-year-old daughter. As you might recall from previous posts, Alton had had some false starts and premature endings to his campground friendships in the past, usually because we had to depart for our next destination before he really had a chance to bond with the someone his own age. So when this dad next door started setting up his tent (the big tan one you see behind Alton's head in the picture below), we shot a couple glances over in their direction, wondering whether we should go over and say hi. But partway through his project, the man actually came over to our campsite to borrow a hammer, explaining that his wife was arriving later in their other car with their other daughter, and that's where the hammer was packed. Our friendly opening! He set to work hammering in his tent stakes, and on our next pass-by on the way to the bathroom, Alton and I shyly stepped closer to them to introduce ourselves to the little girl. Preoccupied with examining her cool tent as it was being set up, she gave us a smile and then continued on with buzzing busily around her daddy.
The next morning, however, Alton was happily playing on his new favorite spot with his daddy (the downed tree stump with exposed roots, below) when our neighbors came over to chat! Besides the father & daughter we'd already met, his wife and their other (nearly three-year-old) daughter, another friend of theirs had come along on the trip with her four-year-old girl, too. Eureka! After some conversation about where we were all from, we learned that these folks would be camping right next door the same three nights that we were. Double Eureka! Close neighbors, friendly people, with kids Alton's age. We finally found someone for him to play with!!

And play he did. In that wonderfully invasive way that only kids have the guts to be, Alton was soon exploring all of the toys and fun things that these other little girls had brought along to play with on their trip. They were so generous in sharing all they had with Alton, who had been doing a great job using his imagination on our trip to invent playthings out of his surroundings (hence his "lawnmower," in a picture near the beginning of this post), but his books 'n things were starting to get a little old. He explored a Leapster computer for the first time, blew bubbles...

...marveled at some of their camping equipment, and had to be reminded along with all the other kids to take shoes off when meandering into their tents!

So our first full day in camp, after a fun morning of getting acquainted with our new friends, we three Rhynes decided to explore one of the many trails that Goldstream Provincial Park had to offer. The place was supposed to be full of waterfalls, so we picked a trail that was likely to be an hour or so of hiking, then set off a-layered in clothing (and allergy-medicated) with our little backpack full of snacks and water for our adventure. The sun slanted beautifully through the trees as we followed trails up 'n down through the forest.

Some of the time Alton got piggyback rides.

We made the occasional stop for a slug sighting.

Or bridge observation: that's Alton crouching down and peering into the stream.

Is this the waterfall we were searching for all the time? We'll never know; the maps were unfortunately pretty poorly marked (or so we were assured by a veteran Goldstream hiker we encountered on the trail...he said that it was only his experience with the routes that let him find his way around because the maps were inaccurate), so we meandered back and forth around where we thought the falls would be before we gave up the ghost and examined our route back. Alton was done in by this point, so Andy kindly hiked the way back to our campsite and got the car to pick up me and the little man. My knees were killing me from the steep trails, so I sure didn't mind!

Back at the campsite and after nap, it was time for some more fun playtime with the cute kiddos next door. The moms came over and offered to share dinner with us because they'd brought so much food, so while I hovered around their picnic table trying to figure out how to be helpful, Andy and Alton joined the kids and their daddy for a round of "Sports Mixup," a made-up game that involved bikes, a frisbee, several balls, and lots of running.

Alton's a blur of motion!

Getting some cycling in on the trip.

The food they made was campfire foil packets filled with chicken, veggies, and yummy sauce, which definitely beat out the sad little packet of pasta we'd purchased earlier in the day for our dinner. They also introduced us to the world of semi-savory fire iron pies--campfire irons are square, long-handled molds made from cast iron to withstand the heat of the campfire. Typically, you butter two pieces of white sandwich bread for each side of the mold, then fill the center with some kind of pie filling (like cherry pie...mmm) before smooshing the two sides of the mold together and rotating it over the campfire to toast and seal your bread pie together and heat the filling inside. These genius neighbor campers of ours used the bread, but filled it with brie cheese and raspberry preserves. Oh. My. My.
Our new friends being Victoria residents, they also helpfully pointed us in the direction of tourist attractions for the next day, which was going to be our day in "town." We headed to Beacon Hill Park, a large city sprawl that boasted all manner of sports fields, a petting zoo, playgrounds, and a sea view. Another thing this park is famous for is roaming peacocks--they simply strut around the park the way you normally see scavenging ducks or pigeons, and occasionally hold up traffic with their swaggering feather displays.

We were driving around looking for a parking place when we saw some peacocks doing an awesome mating dance, so we pulled in to a spot and noticed a cool yellow fire truck right nearby!

The peacocks' colors were just incredible to see up close--you really have to click to enlarge the picture to admire the brilliance of their plumage!

A male peacock, mid-mating dance. It involved spreading his feathers out in the traditional stand-up fan shape, then getting RIGHT up in the peahen's face and shoving his feathers in her grill as he slowly rotated in place and vigorously vibrated his splayed feathers as fast as a hula dancer's hips. In the picture below, you can see his feathers bowing back from part of his crazy vibra-dancing.

Alton passes by a pond to give the ducks some love; it's not their fault they aren't as cool as peacocks.

The poor peahens: no pretty feathers, and constantly pestered by annoying male peacock feathers in their faces.

Andy captured a shot of a goose landing in the pond--so cool!

We were strolling around a croquet green when poor Alton took a nasty little tumble. He was distraught and crying, then we found a ladybug friend to cheer him up. Nothing like a bright spot of color to distract you from your bumps 'n scratches!

He was so enthralled with his new friend, but we had to remind him to set the ladybug free to go find a new home and some food.

Bye-bye, Buggy!


Back at our last night at camp, Alton had some more fun with his three neighbor ladyfriends before dinner. We sat down to eat and Alton was taking his sweet time with finishing his meal, so long that the girls concocted a marching band/parade to encourage him to finish up sooner. They donned leis and used little sticks to beat together as they sang and marched all around his chair while he gobbled down his last few bites, then joined in the parade fun.

It was so cute and sweet that it almost brought tears to my eyes. So perfect that our very last camping experience of the trip was alongside such kind, fun, thoughtful people with happy, welcoming kids for Alton to play with. We had great times laughing and talking with our new friends, exchanged electronic contact information to keep in touch from far away, and already insisted that a similar camping trip is in order next year!

The next morning, after many goodbyes with our camping neighbor friends, we boarded another car ferry, this time to take us over to Vancouver, BC. Unlike the somewhat rinky-dink Coho Ferry we'd sailed on previously, this ship was a huge white impressive beast, with multiple shops, snack bars, and even a huge dinner buffet!

Alton perched out on deck for a little while with Daddy. At one point a pod of killer whales went by!

This trip passed by many small islands, some with very expensive-looking real estate on it.

Wake is wake, I guess. Adios, Victoria! We'll see you again someday.

There Are Almost Vampires Here

After departing from Astoria, we headed north on a beautiful, tree-filled drive alongside the coast, lakes and rivers to Port Angeles, WA. As you might remember from our change in plans in Astoria, we had switched from a tent campsite to a cool yurt and handily avoided downpours and mosquito hordes, but since the yurt was only available two nights out of our three, we headed to our hotel in Port Angeles a day early. We'd opted for an inexpensive, no-frills place, because our short stopover in Port Angeles was planned to give us close proximity to the Victoria, B.C. car ferry, which only departs from Washington three times daily.
Upon arrival, we'd been camping for more than a week, so we were definitely in need of laundry facilities (although the Oregon campgrounds had nice hot, free showers, so we were feeling somewhat clean!), and the extra night in the hotel meant that we could use the washers and dryers there, one or two loads at a time close to our room, rather than decamp for hours at a laundromat, waiting for our multiple loads to be done at once (these are the things we strategize about these days). We did some more assessing and arranging of what garments needed immediate washing and what could be worn out somewhere, and procured our needed quarters before heading to downtown Port Angeles for an Italian dinner.
And now to explain the title of this post: simply, the Twilight books. In case you've somehow missed out on hearing about this popular young adult franchise, I'll synopsize. A few years back, Arizona author Stephenie Meyer writes a novel about teen vampires that's set in the town of Forks, WA, a real city about an hour away from Port Angeles, with the claim to fame of being one of the most rainy, sunless places in the U.S. and possibly the whole planet. The book became a huge hit, spawned three sequels and (soon-to-be) four movies based on the books. We didn't get a chance to visit Forks, unfortunately (I was so curious about this odd place!), but the town of Port Angeles is definitely Twilight-crazy. The hotel, the downtown, every knickknack shop and bookstore...all have advertisements for Twilight "tours," Twilight paraphernalia for sale (mostly movie posters and postcards), Twilight references or puns in business names, etc. Driven by a craving for pasta, we stopped in for dinner at "Bella Italia," a place that we think was listed on the Twilight Highlights simply because Bella is a character name from the book.

Twilight connection aside, the meal was delicious, and our travels a way up north kept the sky so lit up at night that we had no idea whether it was bedtime or midafternoon. We meandered over to a little fountain square to let Alton run around after a day of driving and a dinner of good-boy restaurant behavior.

The next day, with more laundry tossed into the machines, we came back to the same little square to wander around before heading into a local (Twilight-bedecked) bookshop. Don't forget to notice the little peeper at the bottom right of the photo!

Despite the recent surge in vampire-focused tourist trade, Port Angeles is a really cute little town with a long history (more than 100 years old!) and industry that centered around fishing, logging, and the ferry to Victoria. We bundled up against the cool, rainy sprinkles and walked around the neatly square little blocks, admiring some of the many murals painted on buildings' rear walls that faced the street. This one touched us in particular; click to enlarge and notice the sweet black pooch at the bottom of the painting, just left of center. Miss you, Minerva!

After one more night in our hotel with the nice towels, cable, and free wi-fi, we rose early-early to prepare for our ferry ride over to British Columbia. The day was Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, which was obviously not a holiday for Canada, but we knew would mean high traffic in travelers as Americans took advantage of the long weekend. The ferry desk employee had urged us to arrive at least an hour in advance of the earliest ferry in the morning, and when we drove up to park our car in the already-forming line of vehicles, we saw two big rig-sized RVs that had been waiting in line all night long. Yeesh. Once in place, with an hour to kill we walked around the corner to a cute little gourmet doughnut shop we'd spotted the day before. Alton was only too happy to sink his fangs into rainbow sprinkles.

Our passports examined and tickets paid, we followed instructions to drive slowly onto the car ferry, packed together so tightly with everyone else that we could barely open the doors of our li'l bitty Mini!

All passengers had to exit their cars for the trip, so we headed abovedeck and Andy began scoping and snapping all the pictures he wanted to take. With a blast of the horn, we chugged off, leaving patchy-skied Washington vampire country in our wake.

Happy Memorial Day!

Our vessel was called the Coho. This bell was out on deck, and all the kids nearby took turns ringing it.

Huge section of bike racks for our 90-minute ride--awesome! It made us long for our own two-wheeled transport back at home and wish we could use a little pedal power rather than sitting in the car all the time.

This pipe near a rail was labeled "Bosun's Locker." Alton decided that the little grate covering the opening was a perfect microphone, and started crooning eerily into it. Occasionally, Andy and I will use nicknames with Alton like "Altonius Maximus," or "Altonius Rhyne." Out of nowhere on this morning, Alton decided to announce his presence to the Bosun in this way, intoning in a low voice down the pipe, "Al-TONT-ius Rhyyyyyyyne! Al-tontius Rhyne!" We giggled uncontrollably, wondering whether anyone was on the receiving end of this puzzling pipe message.

Jackets on, we took advantage of the lack of rain and strolled the deck round 'n round.

I don't know about you, Alton, but my ears are freezing!!

Our first glimpse of Canada--we've never been to this country before!

Time to hustle down to our car and pull out the freebie advertisement map of Victoria City Center that I picked up on the ferry. We need to find some LUNCH!

Onward and northward....