Day 31 – Drive to Minneapolis

We had a couple of “Fargo” moments today which gave us a little insight into the city. First you need to realize that Fargo is a small city and only has a little more than 111,000 residents, but it is also the biggest city in North Dakota and has a full collection of fast food restaurants and other stores. We were therefore surprised to read an article on the front page of the Sunday paper with a picture showing about 20 cars in line waiting to get into their first Sonic Drive-In. Apparently the grand opening was such an event it caused a traffic jam and the Rotary had to volunteer to direct traffic there for a month. I guess they got a little tired of McDonalds. The second moment was hearing them pronounce the word “Bison” on TV. They pronounce it like “bye-zin” instead of “bye-son” as we do. I think that maybe that is maybe part of the famous Fargo (Fair-go) accent. Accent? You betcha.

World's Largest Prairie Chicken

The drive to Minneapolis was 4 hours long and not too interesting except for a stop at the World’s Largest Prairie Chicken. We decided to pass on seeing the World’s Largest Pelican at Pelican Falls or the World’s Largest Catfish as they were too far off of I-94. So what is a Prairie Chicken? In the 1800’s when the buffalo still were plentiful on the plains, this area of Minnesota and actually several other states was tall prairie grass and prairie chickens were also plentiful. However when the land was cleared for farming, the tall prairie grass was removed and the prairie chicken was driven to near extinction without their natural habitat. Another case of Americans running roughshod over the environment. Seems to be a constant theme in the west.

In Minneapolis we did a quick visit to their Institute of Art to see their impressionist paintings (good but not great) and also did a driving tour of the downtown area and the University of Minnesota.

Day 30 – World’s Biggest…

Enchanted Highway Sculpture

We spent last night in Dickinson, ND, which is in the North Dakota oil fields which have recently been booming due to all the fracking they are doing. As a result, North Dakota has the highest rate of new jobs created in the US and also a housing shortage, hence leading to the high price for a motel room in Dickinson. Not a problem for us as we used Hilton Points.

We drove to Fargo today, but made a detour to drive the “Enchanted Highway.” The Enchanted Highway is a 30-mile stretch of road which features numerous scrap metal sculptures at various points along the highway. Photo is of the “Tin Family.” Dad is 45-feet tall and the family was constructed of farm tanks, telephone poles, barb wire, and augers. We also saw deer, prairie pheasants, grasshoppers and Teddy Roosevelt sculptures among others.

Triceratops at North Dakota Heritage Center

Made a quick stop in Bismarck to see another State Capitol and take a tour of the North Dakota Heritage Center. It was free, of course. I was afraid it would be lame, but it turned out to have a great collection of dinosaur bones which were mostly found in North Dakota. It probably was the best collection of dinosaur bones in a single site that we have seen. Outside the museum was a statue of a local girl made good – Sacagawea (guide and interpreter for Lewis and Clark). Yes, we came across their trail again as the Missouri River, one of Lewis and Clark's main routes of travel, passes through Bismarck.

World's Largest Holstein Cow

World's Largest Bison

North Dakota seems to like to claim the “World’s Biggest” of about anything you can think of. We saw in order the World’s Largest 1) Holstein Cow, 2) Sandhill Crane and 3) Bison.  I stood beside them to give you an idea of their size. The cow was "udderly" gigantic.

One humorous thing we came across was a billboard in Fargo which simply said “Be Polite.” We think that a sign like that would be full of bullet holes and covered with impolite graffiti back in Philadelphia.

Day 29 – Big Sky, Badlands and Bison

Big Sky in Montana

We said goodbye to Havre, MT, and drove across the state to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park which is just across the border in North Dakota. The drive across Montana took 6 hours and was really pretty boring as the landscape was the same almost the whole way. The land was flat, basically treeless, and brown fields with occasional small towns that were spaced far apart. The one thing that was interesting was the sky. We could see why they call Montana the “Big Sky” country as you can see forever and there is really nothing to see but sky. The clouds were the big, puffy kind with flat, dark bottoms. I swear that they seemed only about a hundred feet above us but it had to be an optical illusion.

North Dakota Badlands (TR National Park)

Theodore Roosevelt National Park was the last of the 7 parks we plan to visit on this trip and the newest on our list, established only in 1978. The park honors Teddy Roosevelt who owned a ranch and lived here when he was in his 20s. He also was a big supporter of National Parks when he was president. The original log cabin where he lived is now located behind the visitor center. The park is a mixture of badlands and grasslands, so it is a natural habitat for wildlife including elk, bison and deer. 

American Bison (TR National Park)

We saw several prairie dog towns in the park and also saw bison 5 or 6 times, including a herd of about 30 in the distance. We saw this big one guy sitting near the road and taking in some sun and then also came across another who was blocking the road as we were leaving. He just casually strolled by our car and joined a female bison and her calf up on the hill above the road. He could have cared less about the cars.

Day 28 – Glacier National Park (Day 2)

Bird Woman Falls

Today was our last day at Glacier and we drove the Going-to-the-Sun Road through the park and exited on the eastern side of the park. It is a 53-mile drive through some of the best mountain scenery going. It is also an old road (finished in 1932) and therefore is very narrow, has a lot of switchbacks and almost no guardrails to speak of. I read that it gets so much snowfall, over 80 feet at the summit at Logan Pass, that avalanches keep destroying the guardrails, especially on the eastern side of the park. Needless to say the driver (me) didn’t do much sightseeing until he could pull over. Logan Pass at the summit marks the continental divide.

Going-To-The-Sun Road

We started in the valley that you can see in the second picture, climbed to 6,646 feet at Logan Pass and then all the way back down the eastern side of the park.

Home-made Razzleberry Pie

The weather was good again today, sunny but with a few more clouds. After spotting a bear and some deer yesterday and not having our camera handy, today we were super ready and of course saw no animals (except for some cows wandering free on the road outside the park). Isn’t that how it always is? After exiting the park, we stopped at the Park Café to have a piece of home-made pie based on Bill’s recommendations. Yum. It was enough to tide us over until dinner. Jeanne had peach and I had Razzleberry (a combination of raspberries and blackberries). And speaking of berries, I should give a shout out to the Huckleberry. It is apparently a Glacier National Park local favorite and we had it a couple of times. Last night we split a Huckleberry milk shake and for breakfast the hotel had Huckleberry scones (one of Jeanne’s favorites) and also fresh huckleberries. They look similar to blueberries but smaller in size and more tart.

Harvested Wheat Fields (Somewhere West of Havre, MT)

After the park, we drove east through upper Montana for about 180 miles to Havre. This part of Montana is extremely flat with vast wheat fields, some of which were being harvested as we passed. We could see mountains to the distant north across the plains but we think they were in Canada as the border is only about 25 miles away. Havre is definitely a railroad town as we can hear trains running almost constantly outside our window. Might be a long night.

Day 27 – Glacier National Park (Day 1)

Avalanche Creek

We spent the night in Kalispell, MT, and then drove into Glacier National Park this morning for our planned hike up to Avalanche Lake. It was a fairly difficult hike, at least for us, and it took us 1.5 hours to climb the 2.3 miles to the lake. The hike goes along Avalanche Creek and then up to the lake.

John and Jeanne at Avalanche Lake

Avalanche Lake is a mountain lake surrounded by high glacial mountain walls and the lake can only be reached by backpacking. The lake is formed by glacial run-off and snow melt. All along the hike and in the lake you could see trees felled by avalanches in the area, hence the name. This past winter was worse than normal and the road we took today was only opened on July 4. The scenery around the lake and on the hike in general was fantastic.

McDonald Lake

The weather today, by the way, was perfect. It was full sun and around 60 when we started the hike. We were told it had been raining for the past two weeks, so we really came at the right time.

Bear Crossing!!!

On the drive back, we came across a black bear just ambling across the road and ignoring traffic. We pulled up along side and it calmly rose up and grabbed a paw full of berries from a nearby tree, no more than 10 feet from our car. It was pretty cool and definitely the highlight of animal sightings so far. Photos aren’t the best as we weren’t prepared and the bear didn’t stick around too long. The funny thing is that it was no more than maybe two miles from where we ended the trail. We are really glad we came across the bear in our car and not on the hike!

Day 26 – Scenic Drive

Flathead Lake, MT

Today was mostly a driving day. We drove almost 400 miles, about half of that on 2-lane roads so it took a while. We entered back into Mountain Time and with all the stops we made, we didn’t get to the hotel until almost 8, which is a couple hours past what we normally try to do. Fortunately the drive went through some of the most varied and scenic roads we have seen so far - from forested mountains, to rolling grasslands with no one in sight, to fast flowing rivers, to mountain lakes, etc. For scenery, we liked Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho and the St. Regis river and Flathead Lake, both in Montana.

Grand Coulee Dam

We only made a couple of stops today, the first at the Grand Coulee Dam. This was a last minute addition to our itinerary but well worth it. The security on the tour seemed a little like overkill, but I suppose they know what they are doing. Grand Coulee Dam is the largest dam in the US and was built in the 30s and 40s, but had a significant addition in the 60s. One surprising thing we learned was that the hydroelectric power it generates is not the main purpose of the dam. They claim that the main purpose is really to provide irrigation to central Washington. The region it serves is high desert and gets less than 10 inches of rain a year, but the irrigation water allows them to grow a wide variety of crops. They specifically mentioned potatoes and mint as crops you might not think of as coming from Washington.

Jeanne in her "Little Red Wagon"

To continue in our “Americana” theme, we stopped in Spokane to see the world’s largest Little Red Wagon and the world’s largest milk bottle, which used to be part of a dairy but now is a restaurant.

Day 25 – Turnaround Day

Diablo Lake (above the Diablo Dam)

After 24 days on the road, we have finally turned around and are now headed back for home. We left Vancouver and drove to the North Cascades National Park. One big complaint about the trip: it took 45 minutes to get through the border crossing into the US!

Each one of the new parks we visit has a different surprise for us. North Cascades is kind of out of the way and doesn’t get as many visitors as some of the other parks but it is quite beautiful in its own way. There is only one main road, Hwy 20, through the park and it takes you through a valley surrounded by mountains on both sides, frequent waterfalls and occasional glaciers. The park isn’t quite as unspoiled as some others. There were a series of dams and power plants built on the Skagit River in the 20's and 30's to provide power to Seattle, but they aren’t all that obtrusive and the lakes created by the dams are spectacular.

Ladder Creek Falls

We stopped at the park visitor center to watch the obligatory film and learned that the park has more glaciers than any other park in the lower 48 states. We went further down the road, stopped for a short hike up to Ladder Creek Falls and then cruised through the rest of the park in a couple of hours before reaching central Washington. As soon as we left the Cascade Mountains, we came back into the high desert region again, but with the one difference. We started seeing fruit orchards. They weren’t everywhere but we spotted apples and pears, but also passed some trees which had already been picked, maybe peaches. It was kind of surprising to see orchards in such an arid climate, but they were using irrigation. We also drove through about 30 miles of countryside damaged by the recent fires here before we reached our hotel in Omak, WA.

Day 24 – Sunny But Crowded Vancouver

BC Place Stadium

We had a beautiful, sunny Sunday in Vancouver today, which brought everyone outside to enjoy themselves. Good for them but difficult on us tourists. It made the roads really crowded and parking impossible at the popular spots.

Our first stop with at the Olympic Village from the 2010 Winter Olympics. The housing built for the Olympics is now a very nice residential section of town along the waterfront. The first shot posted is an Olympic Village statue with BC Place Stadium (home of the BC Lions of the Canadian Football) in the background across the water. The water is called False Creek, which is as the name advertises. Not a creek, but actually an extension of English Bay.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

We took a short walk along False Creek and saw the Canadian sense of humor in action. We saw an ALS Ice Bucket challenge where the water was dumped off a bridge about 40 feet above the two guys taking the challenge. Apparently they didn’t realize until that moment that ice dumped from that far is going to hurt! They quickly tossed the big pieces in the water. Speaking of their sense of humor, another thing we found funny was that everything in the dollar store here is $1.25, due to the exchange rate. Apparently no one sees the irony in that.

Vancouver From Stanley Park

We then tried to visit Glanville Island, which is a popular shopping area with a bunch of boutique shops. Cute but no parking spots. Honestly the stores didn't look that interesting so not a problem for us. So then we moved on to Stanley Park. I probably should say "crawled through traffic" as "moved on" isn't quite the right description. Stanley Park is another popular spot for outdoor activities for the citizens of Vancouver and once again it was too crowded for us tourists. We could see the sights from the car but it was very difficult to pull over and enjoy them. So we settled for some quick photos from the car. I think our general opinion of Vancouver is that it has overgrown its infrastructure to the point where living here would be a hassle that we don’t need.

Day 23 – Boeing to Vancouver

Vancouver Harbor at sunset

We checked out of our hotel on the south side of Seattle and headed 30 miles north of Seattle to tour the Boeing factory. We had a few minutes to kill so we took a detour through the University of Washington campus. Very pretty and right on the lake. In fact it’s supposed to be one of 4 or 5 schools where you can take a boat the football game. I think Tennessee is another.

Canada Place (cruise ship terminal)

As an engineer, I found the Boeing tour interesting. Jeanne, maybe not so much. The factory itself is the largest building in the world, measured by volume. They are currently making 767s, 747-8s, 777s and their newest 787 Dreamliners on 4 different assembly lines. No photos are allowed on the tour so you will have to take my word that the factory was enormous. In business terms, I think they said they make about $1B of product each week from that plant and they still have a huge backlog of orders. It takes over a year to get one of their latest planes built from the time you order it to delivery.

Steam Clock in Gas Town

We crossed the 5,000 mile mark on the trip and also hit our furthest point when we arrived in Vancouver. Traffic was some of the worst we have seen on the trip and the border crossing took about 20 minutes, so not that quick either. At the advice of the person who checked us in, we took the metro into downtown Vancouver. That actually worked well and only cost $2.75 CAD (about $2.50 USD). Much better than in Philly. We saw the Olympic cauldron from the winter Olympics held here in 2010 and walked along the waterfront. We stopped for dinner overlooking the water and did a quick walk through Gas Town to see the steam clock before heading back to our room.

Couple of things that we quickly noticed about Vancouver. Its population, at least where we were, was about 90% Asian. Also the downtown section is very clean for the most part but on the flip side, they have a very large population of homeless and beggars as well.

Day 22 – Seattle Tour

Fish Market at Pike Place

Today we opted for the easy way out and took a packaged tour of Seattle instead of trying to drive to all the sights. Seattle is a large city with significant traffic jams as we found out leaving town after the tour at the same time as a Seahawks preseason game. Not much fun. Also Seattle seems to be some kind of GPS vortex as our Garmin GPS can’t seem to get its act together. I swear that in one block it told me to turn left, turn right, make a legal u-turn and also mixed in a couple of "recalculatings." Of course traffic was so busy I couldn’t even change a lane.

Snoqualmie Falls

We stated the tour at Pike Place Market, famous for the flying fish (actually tossed from one worker to another). The original Starbucks is located near there and we spent quite a bit of time wandering among the stalls at the market. The tour took us to Snoqualmie Falls (30 minutes outside of Seattle), then through neighborhoods to see where Jimi Hendrix grew up, the Kurt Cobain and Bill Gates homes, and to see the Freemont Troll (a piece of local artwork).

Coho Salmon

We then stopped to see a fish ladder. When the Chittenden lock was built between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, they also built a fish ladder to allow salmon to go from the saltwater of Puget Sound to the fresh water lake, thus letting them travel upstream to the various rivers and steams in the area. The King salmon (also called Coho) were running now and it was just at the end of Sockeye season so there were also a few of them as well. You could view the King Salmon from an underground viewing area (see photo). The King are the biggest of the salmon varieties, typically weighing between 10 and 20 pounds . They looked so good I had one for dinner!

Overview of Seattle

Our last stop was at an overview of the city for a great photo opportunity. The tour was called a Shutter Tour and we also got some photography tips along the way. Hope I learned something, at least about composition.

A couple of impressions of Seattle. One, Seattle is much more hilly that you would expect. The area near the wharf has hills that are a lot like those in San Francisco. Second, the city is really set in an idyllic environment between mountains and the sound. Very beautiful. Third, it has some of the best fresh seafood you can find. Not sure that this balances out all the overcast weather, sometimes up to 90 days in a row, but it's a start.

Day 21 – Puget Sound

Chihuly Glass Sculptures

This was our second long day in a row, hence a late posting of the blog. We started the morning in Port Angeles with a quick visit to the Olympic National Park visitor center, which was closed last night by the time we made it to Port Angeles. Then another quick stop at Sequim, WA, which is known for their lavender fields, so we did some lavender shopping there. This was followed by a 2-hour drive to Tacoma which took us over a pontoon bridge, one of 5 in the area. Finally we made it to Tacoma for a visit to their Museum of Glass. You might think Tacoma is a strange place for a glass museum, but it is the birthplace of Dale Chihuly who is probably the world’s foremost artist working in the medium of glass. Tacoma looked like a pretty cool town but we just didn’t have enough time for a longer visit.

Salmon on Open Fire on Cedar Planks

We arrived in Seattle, checked in at the hotel and headed straight downtown for our dinner cruise. We had advanced booked a cruise to Tillicum Village, which is 45 minutes travel by boat. The cruise gave us a great view of the city of Seattle from Puget Sound but also a chance to learn about the First People in the area. First People, by the way, seems to be the new PC way to refer to Native Americans, at least in the Northwest. At other places the word Indian was used so I have no idea what the correct term to use is. In any case, we had a nice salmon (Steelhead) dinner cooked on cedar planks in the native way. This was followed by a “First People” show that talked about their legends and beliefs. Normally we find these shows a little boring, but this one was good.

Space Needle in Seattle

Then after dinner we had the opportunity to sit on the beach and contemplate the amazing view. We could see the Space Needle and Seattle to our left and Mt. Rainier to our right. Mt. Rainier is on view only about 20% of the time, so we were very fortunate to be here at the right time again. We saw a beautiful sunset on the way back to Seattle and you can easily understand why Seattle is such an attractive city to many people. Here are a couple of photos from the trip. First is the Space Needle (built in 1962 for the World's Fair).

View of Mt. Rainier from Tillicum Village

Second is Mt. Rainier from Tillicum Village with a deer in the foreground and a Washington State Ferry in the background.

Sunset over the Olympic Mountains as seen from Puget Sound

Finally is the sunset over the Olympic Mountains, which are to the west of Seattle.

Day 20 – Victoria, British Columbia

Our car tucked inside the ferry

Long day today so this is going to be a short blog. We caught the ferry to British Columbia today with our ultimate destination being Butchart Gardens, which is just outside of Vitoria. The ferry ride is 90 minutes each way plus you have to line up between 60 and 90 minutes early (mainly for customs), so it takes a long time to do both crossings. We were in line at 7 am for the crossing to BC and got back to Port Angeles at 9:30 pm. The ferry holds 110 cars and 1000 passengers.

Sunken Gardens

Butchart Gardens was fantastic and I think we set a record for most photographs taken in a single day by a wide margin. Our favorite part was probably the Sunken Gardens but the whole place was magnificently decorated with flowers and other plants. They also have a Rose Garden, Japanese Garden and Italian Garden sections. We had a nice lunch on the patio overlooking the gardens. I won’t bore you with all the flower pictures.

Parliament Building in Victoria

Finally, the last picture follows in one of the inadvertent themes of our trip. It is a picture of the Parliament Building in Victoria. Not a state capitol, but Victoria is the capitol of the province of British Columbia

Day 19 – Feeling Small

World's Largest Stika Spruce

Today left us feeling a little small and insignificant. I suppose it started with seeing Mt. Rainier yesterday, but standing next to the world’s largest Sitka Spruce (see photo with me standing at the base of the tree) really puts things into perspective. That tree is 1000 years old and rivals the redwoods and sequoias for size.

We left Olympia this morning and headed for Highway 101 and the Washington coast. The weather here is definitely different from what we are used to. We started with a clear blue sky but when we reached the coast we hit kind of a fog bank. What we found amazing was there was a distinct line in the sky where it turned from all blue to all gray with no transition. We went back and forth from blue to gray as we traveled up the coast. It also went from warm to cool so we kept putting on and taking off our fleece.

Rialto Beach near Forks

Our travels took us in and out of Olympic National Park where we saw acres of old growth forest with many huge trees 500 years old or older. We took a hike on the Moss Trail in the rain forest area. It is strange to think of a rain forest this far north but they get 142 inches of rain on the west side of the Olympic Mountains. This compares to only 34 inches in Seattle on the east side of the same mountains. The picture to the left is the Washington coastline with Sea Stacks sticking up in the water. Sea Stacks are essentially huge rocks. Way too cold for anyone to swim here, even in August.

One other point of interest was when we passed through Forks, WA. Forks is the setting for the Twilight series of books by Stephenie Meyer. The town is very drab but at least they have a sense of humor. As we were driving to the coast line, we passed through the area controlled by the werewolves in the books and they have a sign that says “No vampires past this point” and also a weathervane which instead of showing the chance for forest fires, shows the chance of vampires as low. You probably have to read the books to understand the humor. Oh well.

Day 18 – Mt. Rainier National Park

Mt. Rainier

Today was the first of two back-to-back days at national parks. We were extremely lucky that when we got to Mt. Rainier it was a bright and sunny day. Many visitors come to the park and never get to see the mountain, but not us. There was even a chance of showers in the afternoon but that never materialized so we had beautiful weather for the whole time we were at the park. The parking lot was totally full at the visitor center but after circling a bit we even lucked into a decent parking spot. We took a short hike up to Myrtle Falls and the alpine scenery was magnificent.

Alpine trails at Mt. Ranier

Mt. Rainier, in case you didn’t know, is the tallest mountain in Washington and tallest in the entire Cascade Mountain range. We also learned that Mt. Rainier is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. This is because it is still an active volcano (last eruption was 1894) and with the amount of glacial ice it has on top, a new eruption could potentially produce massive lahars (basically a mixture of mud, water and debris) that would threaten about 200,000 people. Odds are that it is just a matter of time before it happens again.

Washington State Capitol (Olympia)

After our time at Mt. Rainier, we drove to Lacey, WA, and had dinner in nearby Olympia, which, of course, is another state capital. 

Cioppino

The guy at our hotel recommended the Oyster House in Olympia for dinner and it was fantastic. It was our first real shot at Pacific Northwest seafood and it didn’t disappoint. Yum.

Day 17 – Columbia River Gorge and Mt. Hood

Mt. Hood Railroad

Today was the day for our ride on the Mt. Hood Railroad and for a close-up view of Mt. Hood. We had seen Mt. Hood yesterday from Portland but it was a bit hazy in the distance. The conditions were much better today and we got a great view of the mountain. 

The ride today was also Wild West themed and included a singing sheriff and outlaws who robbed us of play money. Also a bit hokey, but the brunch was pretty good.

Hood River Valley Pears

The train runs along the Hood River and through a valley filled from one side to the other with pear orchards. We discovered that the Hood River Valley is the number one producer of Anjou pears in the US (80% of the crop) plus a large percentage of Bartlett and Starkrimson pears. The trees were loaded with pears and we learned from a farmer in the town where we stopped that picking was beginning tomorrow on the west side of the valley and we saw that they already had containers in fields to hold the picked crop. The guy said the same man shows up with a crew every year and they have picked the valley for the past 30 years. I wonder how long it takes them as the valley is huge. Pretty amazing to see that much fruit all at one time.

Columbia River Gorge

To get to the train, we drove up the Columbia River Gorge for about 50 miles. The gorge is some of the most amazing scenery we have seen anywhere.  The river is wide and surrounded by rock cliffs on both sides. Because of all the dams on the Columbia, it is supposedly much tamer than in its distant past but it still seems pretty powerful today. It is fed from most of the rivers west of the Rockies in both the US and Canada. The picture doesn't really do justice to the vastness and beauty of the river.

Multnomah Falls

We stopped at a couple of points along the Columbia, including at Multnomah Falls. Multnomah Falls is the tallest waterfall in the state of Oregon and one of the largest in the US. It is very beautiful but was a little hard to get to today. It was 85 degrees and also on the weekend, so it seemed that everyone from Portland was out sightseeing and enjoying the river area and the several falls that are in this area. We persisted and finally found a parking spot and got our view.