Road Trip 2008

We’re off in the little red car again, heading north – farther north than either of us have even been. On our way to Prince Rupert, British Columbia - four days worth of north. We should get there by tomorrow evening and then we'll be taking a 15-hour ferry ride to Vancouver Island. I don't feel up to a frequent and detailed trip blog as I had done with our road trip last year (huge sighs of relief from the hoards of readers). But, I'll post an assortment of pictures and comments for the family. Then it should be easy to scroll through.

The first day and a half was urban:
Seattle - dinner with Barb Williams and a stay at the Chez Rinehart/Young, relaxing in the front yard looking out over the sunset on Greenlake.
Vancouver - lunch with Chris (friend of our Kris), Ashley (his wife) and Riley (friend from Montreal who had just ridden his bike from Portland to Vancouver); transported "gifts" and wine for Chris and Ashley

The Alex Fraser bridge heading into the part of town nearest to where Chris and Ashley live. Very cool looking.

Saturday - drove along the "sea to sky highway", up through Whistler and on to Pemberton. We were curious about the amount of road construction until we saw the signs reminding us that the 2010 Winter Olympics will be in that area. Pemberton was a lovely little town, particularly the restaurant where we had dinner and the farm at which we had breakfast the next morning. (more on the food in both places in the last post about local eating)

Grady relaxing and enjoying the view from the patio of the Pemberton Valley Vineyard Inn and Restaurant.

And this is the view he was appreciating.

The North Arm Farm has been farmed by the Sturdy's since the mid 1990's. They grow a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, including the strawberries and cherries we tasted, without herbicides, pesticides or fungicides. They are open for visitors and have a bakery where they sell pastries and pies made on site using the fruit that is in season. In addition to enjoying our breakfast, we walked around the farm and said hello to some of the animals.

But, when I headed even a little close to mama and baby (behind a fence, mind you),

these three members of the family (or close friends, I'm sure) immediately headed my way making loud remarks that did not sound very much like "hi, come on over, you're welcome here any time."


Here is another version of what the folks who work on this farm get to look at while they're working (the other being in that post about the local eating in Pemberton).

Our next stop after Pemberton was in Quesnel after a very dramatic and scenic drive along the Cariboo highway. We stayed in the lovely "Garden Gallery B&B".

Grady relaxing on the deck with our hosts, Don and Darleen (and their dog, Dudley). With a bit of wine and lemonade, we learned about their careers as teachers and how they turned their home into a B&B after they retired. We had the whole second floor to ourselves. In the morning, they fixed us a full breakfast of potato pancakes with herbs and scapes from their garden, sliced tomatoes and fruit, and some locally made sausages they picked up that morning at the farmer's market.

A fairly uneventful drive today. Lunch in a nice park in Frasier Lake (next to a large grouping of those red hat ladies). I'd have to say that the highlight of the day was a walk on the trail around a wetlands area here in Houston called the "Duck Pond Trail". It was good to get outside a bit more and we got to see several ducks, geese and other birds in the pond.

So, there's a recap of the trip so far. On to Prince Rupert tomorrow after spending some time in one of the three Hazeltons.