Made it home about 9 p.m. last nite. Had to get up Tuesday a.m. around 3 a.m to catch flight out of Seattle. Almost had a chance to get 2 free tickets as they were calling for volunteers to take a later flight which I agreed to. If you got selected,then they also gave you 2 free roundtrip tickets anywhere in the US. Since we were in no hurry to get home, that sounded like a good deal. Alas, that was not to be the case, as it turned out they didn't need any volunteers to give up their seats (this is all done, cause the airlines often overbooks their seats). But they did ask us if one of us wanted to fly first class. I offered Janet the chance, but she, in a moment of sheer lunacy, decided to let me have it. So I got to sit with the fat cats and eat my ham/cheese croisant with fruit cup and get free drinks, while the poor peons back in coach were eating packaged donut sticks. Other than this so-so breakfast and a few extra inches of leg room, I find it hard to understand why companies would spring for all this extra money for their employees. Just wasteful, if you ask me. I paid $215 for that roundtrip ticket and the guy sitting next to me in first class about fell out of his seat when I told him that. I'm sure he was paying close to a grand for that seat.

Switched planes in Denver and back to peon status - good while it lasted! Plane arrived ontime - only 1 bag lost. Filled out a claim form. This morning (Wed a.m.) United guy calls to say he is looking at our bag and wondering why we hadn't filled out a claim form. Gads - no wonder the airlines are in trouble. Now they will fly the bag to Tri-Cities airport in Johnson City,TN and some guy will have to drive 85 miles out here to deliver it. Not the way for an airline to make money.

Some stats about one of the planes we flew in - - built by Airbus 2 years ago in France. Gets .5m/gallon - with price of jet fuel around .97/gallon - cost something like $1700 in fuel to fly to Denver. That came out to about $14/person on the plane. United has youngest fleet in the industry - last year won ontime performance over all other airlines - 93%. Also lost more money last year than ever before. This year claims to be doing better.

One other note - when walking through downtown Seattle, happened to stop in at the public library. Noticed that they were closing all branches as well as the main library of Seattle for the entire last week of August due to budget cuts. Times are getting bad!

Returned home about 9 p.m. - cats were waiting in the driveway for us. Seemed to be in good spirits. Think leaving a window open in our cottage gave them access in and out and saved us the problems we had last time we went on vacation with them wrecking our house.

Healthwise - got a wicked sunburn during the trip - face is still peeling to bits. Forgot that I'm not supposed to be out in the sun while on methotrexate and forgot the suntan lotion while sitting on the ferry outside for 2 hours. Developed a hard lump on the bottom of my foot right behind my little toe - no idea what that is - but don't like it. Colon screwed up for a while while eating too many weird things I don't eat at home and not taking my calcium/magnesium caps - fortunately, that cleared up after watching what I ate for a few days and starting back up on that magnesium. Arthritis started to flare on trip - found a health food store and bought some high potency fish oil capsules and downed about 8/day and it calmed back down. Janet was of course fine during the whole trip. Guess I'm just another victim of the Holmes stress syndromes. Think future vacations are going to have to allow for more rest points during the day, instead of the all day - never stop moving trip. RV would be nice - just crawl in the back and pass out! (grin) .

Monday p.m.

Spent the day browsing around Seattle. Walked down to the famous Pike Street Market. It's a special place with great fruit,veggie and fish vendors. These guys make a big deal out of throwing huge salmon back and forth to each other - quite the spectacle. Clicking on the pics below will take you to an 800x600 view.





Walked across town to check out a huge Chinese grocery store in Chinatown and then caught the city bus back towards the car. A quick 20 minute drive took us to the airport LaQuinta where I'm typing madly away. LOL I'm adding a few more pics that I didn't have time to add before, so scroll down and you'll stumble across a few you haven't seen before. Hopefully, you've enjoyed the travel blog - it was an interesting experience - a bit more work than I figured especially with the uploading of pics , etc. Now if the world was set up for high speed connections, life would be easier, but.... I did manage to connect wirelessly at 11mb/sec which is smoking compared to dial-up, so that part was good. We both enjoyed the Streets and Trips software program - made it very easy to get where you were going. Someday, when we take a year off to travel the world, I'll give this another shot maybe. See ya later guys and gals!

Sunday - Spent most of the day driving down to Seattle. Crossed through the border in a blink of the eye, so that was nice. Staying downtown tonite at a very snazzy Marriott Suites hotel which normally runs $140/night, but got it for $40 and change through Priceline. King Bed, living room area with sleeper sofa, high speed internet (which I can't get to work), microwave, fridge, etc,etc. But very high scale - not used to this luxury level. Also right next door to the main REI store, which is incredible. I thought LL Bean was big up in Maine, but this tops that - it's incredible.

Going to spend the day tomorrow browsing around and then get a hotel near the airport since we have a 6 am flight out on Tuesday. Hate to see the time end, although it will be good to get home and rest! LOL

Friday

Making another attempt to catch up here. (early Sunday a.m. as I write this) This has not been a particularly easy task, cause Janet is one of those folks who is like an Energizer bunny – wants to see every possible thing till the clock strikes midnight. She doesn’t understand the demands of geekdom.

Left the Super 8 in Campbell River this morning and headed towards Strathcona Provincial Park to do some hiking.


Didn’t realize we were going to be in such a beautiful area - A huge lake surrounded by awe inspiring mountains. There were lots of easy short hikes to take ,


so we went on about 6 of those, which gave us a good sampling – saw some very nice waterfalls and some interesting Karst formations (another geology term for you to Google on). A few areas had been burned and so there was a lot of new growth alongside the big massive Douglas Firs which seem to withstand all, due to their incredibly thick bark.


Picnicked at a nice spot in the shade near the lake – made me want to do a camping trip. Would be nice to have one of those VW Westfalia campers – gotta see if I can find a used one somewhere.



After our hikes in the park, we headed back towards Nainomo, where we were going to catch a late ferry to travel back over to the mainland towards Vancouver. Before that though, we headed to a special section of Old Growth Forest set aside by the lumber companies (a nod of the head to the environmentalists, I guess). Gorgeous , humongous Douglas firs, cedar and cypress. The largest tree there was some 250’ high and had been there 300 years prior to Columbus landing. Now that boggles the mind. That tree alone had enough lumber to build two 4 bedroom homes.

Heading now towards Nainomo where we have a 10:45 ferry to catch (2 hour ferry ride). We had figured on booking an earlier ferry but when we went online this morning, discovered all of the earlier ones were booked solid. Taking the last one got us a $20 discount on cost of transporting car, so not all bad. Unfortunately, ferry was an hour late getting in, so we didn’t leave till close to midnight. Had a pizza delivery guy bring us a pizza to the ferry dock – it wasn’t that great , but better than no dinner at all. Made it to a downtown Holiday Inn ($30- thank you very much Priceline!) by 3 a.m. Once again the laptop and Streets and Trips software by MS, made it a breeze. Took us without a hitch to the front door of the hotel – much easier than a map – assuming you have a willing navigator. Zonked immediately.

Saturday - Woke up about 10 a.m. Still exhausted. Decided to book room for another night. No luck – hotel full. Went on Priceline – couldn’t turn up a thing in Vancouver. Finally found a place about 60 miles out of town for about $45 – old hotel converted into a sort of B&B. Ate around 1 p.m. at the Tomahawk restaurant, an old North Vancouver shore landmark. The guy who started this restaurant used to trade food for Indian relics and has an incredibly valuable collection of old masks and regalia adorning his restaurant. I’d be worried about someone breaking and entering, but guess that has not been a problem – that’s probably a bit of USA paranoia.

Decided after breakfast, we would head up into the mountains for a drive to Whistler,



home to the upcoming 2010 winter Olympics – beautiful scenery. You can already see the beginnings of road construction and hotel construction. Typical touristy, fat cat city tourist villages at the base of the ski runs (won’t be catching me on those slopes! – I’d faint just looking down!). Strolled around, looking at all the wealth and high prices, then headed back down the mountain, only to be held up by someone who had crashed their van in front of us while having a heart attack. Not good. Stopped in Horseshoe Bay for more tummy fillings.




Some clam chowder soup and a collection of scallops,mussels, prawns,etc went down the hatch, while Janet consumed Halibut Fish and Chips. (she must have English ancestry?). Left there and headed towards hotel/B&B. Arriving about midnight across from an old downtown hotel, I held the door for 2 skid row looking characters who appeared to be entering the hotel to spend the night – a most encouraging note. Lady at the desk was nice though and we climbed the stairs in what looked like some hotel out of an Old West movie. Room turned out to be nice though – obviously remodeled recently. They must have spent a ton of money here.

Hopefully these pictures are coming out ok. Hard to tell the exact screen brightness on a laptop because as you swivel the screen , it goes from lighter to darker and you're not really sure what it will look like on a standard desktop monitor. Will hope for the best.