June 18, 2023
6/12- Got up this morning and got the RV ready to head out. Ran down to Safeway to get some groceries before heading into Canada. We didn’t get out of the RV park until 11:30 am and then stopped in the US to buy fuel by the gallon instead of having to buy fuel by the liter in Canada. It was only an hour and a half drive from Burlington, Washington to Tsawwassen, Canada but we got stuck in traffic at the border for over a half hour. We were glad to finally get to our campsite. Up to now we have done really well choosing campgrounds and this one had sounded really promising. It was right next to a waterpark and across the street from a huge mall but the campground was really run down with big potholes. We figured we are only here for a few nights and since we were already paid up and committed we would go ahead and stay here and pray that we can drive out of here without breaking anything.
After getting settled we decided to head across the street to the huge Tsawwassen Mills Mall. It had a few stores we recognized but the majority of the stores were ones we had never seen before. The mall had 3 food courts so after checking out all the stores but not finding anything we needed to buy, we picked places to eat. I went for Poutine and Frank had Japanese food. The funny thing about this huge mall was that they rented creatures for people to ride around the mall. Most where dinos and it was fun to watch adults racing around on their dinos.
We noticed when we first set up camp that the RV would shake a bit occasionally. The first time we didn’t think much of it but by the third time we were starting to worry there was something wrong with our RV. Finally, we looked online trying to figure out why it felt like the ground was moving under our RV and surprise, it was. Apparently Southwestern British Columbia is one of the most seismically active regions in Canada with about 400 earthquakes occurring each year in the area between Vancouver, Canada and Seattle, Washington. There were five small quakes (all under 2.0) from the time we arrived until we went to bed. We did notice all around the area there are tsunami warning signs so here’s hoping we don’t have a big one while we are here. https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes/british-columbia.html
6/13- Headed out to explore today. We had seen a couple parks along the coast that we were looking forward to hiking in. As we followed the directions on our GPS we noticed it suddenly said “entering the US in 1 ½ miles. We decided we better turn around and go back to the RV and get our passports. As we drove back to the RV I looked up why in the middle of a peninsula in Canada there was piece of the US. Apparently despite only being connected by land to Canada this small part of the Tsawwassen Peninsula is below the 48th parallel so is part of the United States. https://mynorthwest.com/2123115/all-over-the-map-point-roberts/
We headed through the small border station where the US border agent greeted us with “Hello fellow Texans”. Apparently she had been born and raised in San Antonio. Then it was off to explore some more of the US. The first park we went to was Lighthouse Marine Park. We walked along the coast and kept an eye out for Orca whales but did not see any. The park was beautiful and even had a campground attached that was so much nicer than the one we were staying at.
Then we drove over to the other end of the peninsula to Lily Point Marine Park. This park was quite a bit different with forest trails and overlooks of the ocean. We looked at the many stairs leading down to the beach and decided since we had already been right on the water at the Lighthouse Marine Park we would skip climbing down and then eventually back up all those steps. Then it was time to reenter Canada.
6/14—We got up early this morning as we had booked a 9 am ferry to Victoria. We were told to be at the ferry terminal no earlier than 8 am and no later than 8:30 am so of course we arrived just a few minutes after 8 am. We sat and read in our car until it was time to drive onto the ferry. The BC ferries are amazing https://www.bcferries.com/on-the-ferry . They have multiple restaurants and a gift shop on board. We did some exploring and found a lounge at the front of the ferry where for $14 Canadian ($10.50 US) you can enjoy a quiet, peaceful place to enjoy the views, have coffee, hot chocolate or juice and snacks.
The thing I was most looking forward to seeing in Victoria was Butchart Gardens so that is where we headed to right after driving off the ferry. https://www.butchartgardens.com/our-story/ . The gardens were started by Jennie Butchart over 100 years ago to beautify a worked out limestone quarry. It is 55 acres and includes a variety of different designed spaces. First we visited the Sunken Garden. It was covered with a variety of flowers, trees and shrubs. Through the trees you could see the remaining kiln stack of the cement plant that Jennie’s husband ran.
At the end of the Sunken Garden is a fountain that was installed in the 1960’s and the water from it rises up to 70 feet and moves in different directions. It was added by the Buchart’s grandson with the help his plumber and electrician.
Then we headed on to the Rose garden. Throughout the park there where moss creations such as deer, frogs and dragonflies. There were two totem poles both carved in Classic Coast Salish style to recognize the cultural heritage of the local Indigenous People. We saw the Butchart Boar statue. It is a copy of the original Porcellino (little pig) that sits in Florence, Italy. It is believe that rubbing it’s snout will be you good luck. We figured we needed all the luck we could get so the nose got rubbed. rubbed the nose of a nearby wild boar statue for good luck. We were also able to peak at Mrs Buchart’s private garden through the fence.
We passed through a hedge on the way to the Japanese Garden. There we admired the varieties of plants and water features that were chosen by the Japanese landscaper Isaburo Kishida. There was so much to see that we walked for almost two hours before pulling ourselves away to do some exploring in downtown Victoria.
We drove along the coast of the town of Victoria and through the town and saw several of the majestic buildings there. We saw Craigdarroch Castle built by coal baron Robert Dusmuir during the reign of Queen Victoria. We also drove by some of the Parliament buildings before seeing the beautiful Freemont Empress hotel and Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church. There was one building we were not able to identify which looked like a castle with bars on the windows. Then it was almost 4 pm and time to head back and line up to take the 5 pm ferry back to our RV.
Our ferry ride over to Victoria had been cloudy and grey but coming back the sun was out and we enjoyed the beautiful of our hour and a half crossing.
6/15- Today we drove on through some of the most beautiful Canadian landscape. We started out on Highway 1 and on our route we passed through Chilliwack, Canada where my former boss grew-up. It was a beautiful place and we stopped and had lunch there and explored a bit before heading on. We spent most of the day driving on Highway 3 also known as the Crowsnest highway which crosses through Manning Provincial Park. The high mountains and the mostly 2 lane winding road made it difficult to stop and take pictures of the beauty that surrounded us. We were both couldn’t stop staring as we drove through. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia_Highway_3
We finally reach our campground in the small town of Hedley on the Similkameen River. Our campsite was in the midst of trees and just a short hike from the river where we continued to be amazed by the beauty surrounding us.
We hadn’t done wash since we had gotten to Canada and were running out of clothes so it was time to catch up on that chore. We had to exchange our American dollars for Canadian coins to run the washers and dryers. The owner told the machine took Loonies which were a large gold coin. We were curious about the name of the coin and they were quick to point out the loon (duck) on the back on the coin which it took its name from.
6/16- Another long day of driving as we left Canada and crossed back into the United States near the town of Osooyoos. We watched the high mountains covered with beautiful trees change to hills covered with rocks and a few trees. We arrived in Coulee, Washington early afternoon and checked into our campground that is on the shore of Lake Banks a popular boating destination. We were one of a few RV’s that arrived without a boat attached.
Then we were off to explore the area. We checked out Grand Coulee Dam which was started in the 1930’s and finished in the early 1940’s https://www.usbr.gov/pn/grandcoulee/visit/. We toured the visitor’s center were we learned that Grand Coulee Dam was considered the eighth wonder of the world when it was built. We also got to see the jugs that held water from all 48 states and 2 territories. These were poured into the lake as it began to fill behind the dam. We also got to “try out a jackhammer” but since we had both used one years ago to break up our driveway in Georgia we knew it was not even close to the the jackhammers they used to build the dam. Then we and drove around the area.
On our way back to our campsite we stopped at an unusual site we had spotted heading into town. It was a fenced in area of eclectic windmills called Gehrke Windmill Park. Finding oddities is one of our favorite things and this was definitely an oddity and we had to know more. https://spacesarchives.org/explore/search-the-online-collection/gehrke-whirligigs/ . In the 1960’s Mr. Gehrke would collect items people had thrown away to build his windmills. He displayed this windmills in his yard and people came from far and way to see them. Once both Mr. Gehrke and his wife had past away, about 120 of the 780 plus windmills he had crafted where collected and displayed in this park for all to see.
We headed back to the RV for dinner and to wait until 10 pm so we could go to the Grand Coulee Dam and watch their nightly laser show. Throughout the day we had only seen a small amount of water coming over the dam but right before the show started we heard water start to pour over the dam and soon the face of the dam was covered with water and ready for the lasers to be displayed. It was about an hour long and told the story of the area and the dam. Then it was time to head back to the RV for bed.
6/17- This morning we headed off for a guided tour of the Grand Coulee Dam. We had to arrive early enough to go through a screening and watch the vehicle we would be touring in being checked out to make sure that no one would be able to do any damage to the dam. The tour is limited to a small group of people. We had 8 people in our group. https://www.usbr.gov/pn/grandcoulee/visit/tour.html . Our tour guide was entertaining and fun. One of the questions we asked her was what was the significant of the big numbers painted on rocks in the hills above. She smiled and told us it was top secret but she would tell us. Then she explained how each year members of the graduating high school class would climb up with their friends and paint their graduation year on a rock. We had to laugh at that “secret.” She drove us over to the dam generator building where we able to take an elevator down below water level to view the turbines that generate the electricity from the water. She also drove us over the top of the dam and were able to stop and get out and walk around and take pictures there.
After that we stopped and visited the nearby Colville Confederate Tribes Museum. https://www.scenicwa.com/poi/colville-confederated-tribes-museum . It was interesting to see the view of those tribes whose land was covered by the waters trapped by the Grand Coulee Dam.
While we were on the Grand Coulee Dam tour we were shown where there was an overlook up in the hills above the dam so we decided to head up and see the view from there. It was okay but what was really okay was we found a dirt road on the way to the viewpoint that we circled back around and headed up. The views up there were even better, plus we had fun exploring.
6/18- Hung around the campground this morning until about 11 am since we had a short drive today. Then we headed out toward Spokane, WA. We stopped along the way to buy some groceries at Wal-Mart and ended up at our Harvest Host location around 2 pm. We are staying at another horse farm and have enjoyed visiting with the host and one other family also staying here. We got to watch the children of the other host family help with the evening chores, feeding and carrying for the horses.
A couple weeks ago when my daughter was here my glasses disappeared. Our guess was that they had been knocked into the garbage and the garbage had been picked up and hauled away before I noticed they were gone. I do not wear my glasses inside the RV, but outside for distance, so by the time I realized they were gone we could not get them back. Since then I have been relying on my sunglasses for distance, but inside a museum where I want to see things in more detail my sunglasses are just too dark. So this evening we ran over to the nearby mall and found a LensCrafter store which said they could make me a new pair of glasses overnight. I am looking forward to picking them up tomorrow before we head out.
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