It has finally warmed up in Canada!

5/17/08 Honestly, we were getting a little sick of the gray sky and the low temperature. We haven’t ridden our bikes since Zion National Park. We left Abbotsford, BC, and the sky was blue and the temp got up to 75 degrees. It was beautiful. By the end of the day it had touched 90 degrees for a brief moment. This part of BC is absolutely spectacular. It is difficult to capture all the beauty on the camera, but the abundant waterfalls, the raging rivers, the tall mountains and the beautiful flowers are just great.
Hope. Larry and Renee had told us to see the wooden carvings in Hope. When we arrived at the town centre, a crew was installing a new town sign. We waited to get a picture when the workmen were finished. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the workman was Pete Ryan, the creator of all the wood sculptures! He gave us his card, and talked to us a bit. We took his picture. We headed around town after stopping at the Blue Moose Coffee House, and took in many more sculptures. They are on every corner. When we traveled on later in the day to Hells Gate, a tram that goes down into the canyon of the Fraser river, we saw another Pete Reeves sculpture in the restaurant there.

Vancouver, British Columbia

5/14/08 We got as far as Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. It was raining, 49 degrees and grey……… We decided it might not be worth it to drive the rest of the way up this island if the weather was going to be so nasty. We found that we could catch a BC Ferry across Georgia Strait to Vancouver, British Columbia. We were so amazed at the size of that ferry and how many large trucks, not to mention probably over 100 cars got on that ferry. We had a two hour ride on the ferry. The ferries are very comfortable and we enjoyed the ride. When we got to British Columbia (mainland) we set the GPS for Abbotsford, heading toward the western route of our trip to Prince George, and Prince Rupert. We hit the worst construction and traffic……. Thought we were back in the states! It really slowed us down, so we didn’t make it as far as we thought we would……… spending the night in a rest stop near Abbotsford. Tomorrow promises to be better weather.
When we stop in a rest stop, or WalMart parking lot, we usually can get a couple of TV channels. Funny, here in Abbotsford, we can get one channel, which seems to be a cartoon channel! We enjoy reading, doing crossword puzzles, and I usually can download my pictures from the camera to the computer. It is drizzly, and we are learning to tell the temperature in Celcius: currently 13.5 celcius. Also, we have had to use the calculator a few times with the conversion to metric. We learned while buying deli sliced turkey sliced that 450 grams is about a pound.

Mother's Day with Aunt Lilla

We had a wonderful time visiting with Aunt Lilla in Bremerton. We had visited Chuck and Lilla 15 years ago, and had a wonderful time taking in all the sites. Denny's dad had joined us as well, and we visited all the points of interest at that time.
Saturday night we went out for a fabulous fish dinner at Anthony's in Bremerton. We got to spend some great time with Denny's cousin Larry and his wife Renee. They gave us the Milepost book, which will help us navigate Canada and Alaska. I have been reading it ever since. We got so engrossed in talking about their visits to Canada and Alaska, I forgot to get a picture of them, but at least I got a picture of Lil's home, and a Mother's Day pic of her with Denny.

Washington State

We left Coeur d'Alene Idaho on Wednesday morning, May 7 after spending the night at Cabalas Outdoor Store. We headed toward Seattle, through Spokane and over the Columbia River. When we crossed the Columbia River, it was raging wind and bitterly cold. We made it as far as Cle Elum, and stayed the night in a rest area. The next morning we headed over the Snohomish Pass into Issaquah, where we stopped at Trader Joe's and loaded up on our favorite stuff. Of course we also stopped at Starbucks. We ended up going as far as Port Orchard, and spending the night there, Thursday. The next morning, Friday May 9, we pulled into the Elks Club in Bremerton, Washington.

Missoula, Montana

We hurried through the Bitteroot valley to Missoula, so we could spend a couple of days with my sister Jill, her husband Bruce, Nate and Melissa and Haven. They are in the process of moving, so our time was limited with them, but we had a very nice visit. We loved Missoula. We plan to go back through there on our return trip through Montana. Jill and Bruce might even meet us at Glacier Park when we go there. We headed to Coeur d'Alene on Tuesday, May 6. We walked around the City Center a bit, but decided to move on. It is a beautiful place, but it was 65 degrees and partly cloudy, so we didn't ride bikes. Today, May 7, we are headed toward Seattle, but will take a couple of days to get there. We plan to spend the night in Ellensburg, Washington.

Salmon, Idaho

We got to Salmon, Idaho today. The weather is beautiful: 58 degrees and sunny. You have to realize that we have been dealing with temps in the 30's and 40's. We are high up on a hill, at Elks Club #1620. This is the first time we have been able to stay at an Elks Club on our trip. We had wanted to fish for trout in the Salmon River, but the water is high and flowing fast, and it is not good fishing this early in the year, so we will pass on fishing. We are going to ride our bikes tomorrow if the weather stays nice. Then we will go to church here in Salmon, Sunday, leave in the afternoon and head for Missoula. My sister and her husband live in Missoula, as well as Nate, Melissa and Haven. We will stay there for a couple of days before heading to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Family Connections in Shelley, Idaho

Since we were staying in Idaho Falls to warm up, we decided to go to the library in Shelley to see if we could find the address where I had visited my grandfather when I was three. I talked to my mom and my brother and we pieced together some information. Steven, my nephew, had the date of Gustav Anderson's death, so the library gave me the microfilm for the Shelley Pioneer Newspaper June 3, 1954. I found two articles, but this library had no way to duplicate the microfilm. I tried taking a digital picture, but that didn't turn out that great. Denny suggested we go to the Shelley Pioneer, which we did. They easily made copies of the two articles we found. Then they realized they knew the family, and relatives of ours lived right down the road from the newspaper office. So she gave us the address of a second cousin (my father's first cousin, Mark Anderson). We went to his home, and we had a delightful visit. As it turns out, the home I had visited when I was three was only two doors down. Also, right across the street was the family homestead of my great grandparents who immigrated from Sweden, Gustav A and Maria Anderson. We made a great connection, as Mark is really interested in geneology, and is going to send me pictures, and his version of the family tree which he has worked on.