Friday, June 03, 2011

Go Canucks!!

We made it safely over Snoqumie Pass Tuesday morning. there was a slight drizzle in Seattle as we were unloading the trailer and vehicles onto the Matson ship. We were too loaded down to consider walking 2 or 3 miles to catch a bus to get to downtown Seattle to ride the Quick Shuttle from Seattle to Vancouver, so we said "YES!" when the kind woman at Matson offered to call us a taxi.
When the Taxi arrived it JUST happened to be a bright orange Chevy Astronomer, just like our beloved Orange Crush! The driver was extremely nice (from Ethiopia), and he and Tom exchanged awesome Astronomer stories. The driver was clearly a fan. He dropped us off at the Quick Shuttle stop and it was only 10:50a.m. Our bus didn't depart until 4:05p.m.! I called Quick Shuttle and asked if we could take an earlier bus, and we got on the one that left at 11:05a.m. Not too shabby for timing,eh?
We had a lovely, relaxing ride up to Vancouver. Our driver was funny. It has been my experience that all Canadians are funny. I think it is because the beer here is stronger.
Well we arrived about 4 hours ahead of schedule, so I called my favorite cousin to come pick us up. We ended up all cramming into an efficient Toyota Prius (it seems all the taxis in Vancouver are Priuses) and traveled West to Horseshoe Bay.
BTW My Pa is letting me borrow his iPod to type this,and I'm getting tired of pecking the letters out.
Good tomes in Vancouver! Good place to be when the Canucks DEFEATED the Bruins! My folks arrived safely last night and my Auntie and Unc are coming this evening. Then Sunday more fun with lots more cousins! Can't believe we'll be in our new home next week! Does not seem real. If it doesn't work out in HI then my cuz said we could live with him for a sweet deal :). I love Vancouver! I could handle it! Now I can't see what I'm typing... Dangerous! Thanks Dad for letting me borrow this!

Monday, May 30, 2011

Traveler's Adventure, Part Deux

The other day I asked what time it was, and then I had to qualify is that Mountain or Pacific Time? The guy looked at me like I was from outerspace and said PACIFIC real slowly. He smiled and then said, with eyebrows raised and head tilted down, *you must be travelers.* Made me feel like the Muray family from *A Wrinkle in Time* (THANKS VERDE FAMILY!!)...like we had time traveled to a parallel universe. Fun.
We're moving on from our transition from driving, driving, driving to resting and downsizing in Ellensburg. Yesterday we were able to think about the second leg of our trip and how we'd like it to look like.
Here's the plan...we wake up real early tomorrow and breakdown the campsite, load everything but our backpacks and a few bags into the trailer or donate it to a thrift shop in town. Then we carefully travel west up and slowly over the Snoqualmie Pass to Seattle.
We need to get the Orange Crush, Silver Saint, and Super Subaru loaded at the shipper...hopefully early to mid-morning. Then we need to walk about 2.1 miles to a Seattle Metro bus stop that departs at 1:51pm going to downtown Seattle. How long do you think it will take us to walk 2.1 miles? I'm thinking about an hour. We'll ride one bus that gets us pretty close to where we need to go, and then walk about 0.3 miles to the Shuttle bus stop. We'll take the Quick Shuttle from downtown Seattle to downtown Vancouver where my rocking cool cousin will pick us up and take us for our second adventure in his awesome West Vancouver Tree house over looking Horseshoe Bay.
I'll write more on June 1st...if we make it! Wish us luck!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Enjoying Ellensburg, WA

Yesterday was a day of rest. We had long naps...(we = me and Tom) while Stella hopped around the inside of the tent like it was a bounce house. Reeve and Kyle played at the playground...ALL DAY LONG. While we weren't napping we ventured into downtown Ellensburg and strolled the Kittitas County Farmer's Market. It was delightful! There were organic vendors there and lots of fresh food.

In Wisconsin we've been buying un-local Washington apples, now we could buy the local real deal. The Gala apples we bought were from an organic farm from Royal City, WA (about 40 miles away). We bought asparagus, spinach, salad mix (that was divine), some freshly baked tortilla chips and green salsa, about 2lbs of heirloom tomatoes grown in a local greenhouse, and a couple of loaves of locally baked bread. We went back to our campsite and chowed down the good fresh eats. Reeve hung around the electric cars they had on display. Drooling over one that he said was $110,000! He said it could go from 0 to 60 in under 5 minutes...not my cup of tea, but Reeve was really impressed. He said he'd like to buy the Leaf because that was more economically priced at around $20K. I was really impressed by 3 vendors there who were selling stinging nettles! Very progressive folks :)

When we got back to the campsite Stella really wanted to go in the pool. Tom braved the chilly Washington spring winds and took her and the boys to the pool while I organized the tent. We have too much stuff and we need to downsize to just backpacks by Tuesday morning! One thing I did not anticipate when I was planning for this trip was the chilly temperatures, especially at night. We started out thinking we would camp along the way, but when it got to dusk we just both wanted to keep driving. It was too cold to camp those first 3 nights. At about 11pm each night we pulled over to a rest area and everyone went to the bathroom, brushed their teeth. We took out the center seat in the van and laid out the air mattresses and sleeping bags. Reeve slept on the back couch seat, Kyle slept in the passenger seat, and Tom, me and Stella slept on the air mattresses. It was cramped, but cozy and definitely warmer than a tent. It also saved us a lot of time! Neither of us enjoys staying in hotels, so we were really quite happy with the way things worked out.

By the 4th night we were looking for a good place to camp...no matter the chilly night temps. We had contemplated going over the Cascades and staying in Seattle, but we know how WET Seattle can be. So we were thrilled to see the KOA sign in Ellensburg. KOA is not rustic camping by any means, and the kids really needed a safe place to roam and relax after our hard, long, push over the rockies. They've been wonderful to us here and let us park the Orange Crush (so perfectly coined by my favorite cousin!) and Silver Saint by their compost piles.

Tuesday is the day we wake early and head over the Cascades to Seattle and Harbor Island where we drop off our vehicles and trailer to Matson. Matson is the same shipping company that my Mom sailed when she was 19. She had just graduated nursing college and 2 of her friends packed up all their worldly possessions and got on a bus from Winnipeg, Manitoba to San Francisco, CA. In San Fran they bordered the "Lauralee" (is that the right spelling Mom?) and sailed from San Fran to Honolulu. I need to hear more about her adventure. Like how long did she live in Honolulu before she met my Dad there? My Dad was in the Navy and they met and fell in love in Honolulu. Mom and Dad, we need to write this down :).

So my time away from the family is nearing an indulgent end. I did find an outlet in the laundry room of the KOA, so that is what I'm using to recharge the laptop while I do a load of laundry. Suprisingly, this whole trip Stella has only had one wet diaper! She's been such a good sport and is quite good at going when we stopped for gas (about every 150 miles for the Orange Crush). Right now she is loading the laundry for me into the dryer...keeping her occupied while I type away.