Hornby Island Eagle Cam

Hornby Island is one of the Gulf Islands that are off  the east coast of Vancouver Island. Hornby  Island is reached by taking a ferry to Denman Island then another ferry to Hornby. For years there has been an eagle cam on Hornby and this year the female has laid two two eggs.   http://www.hornbyeagles.com/images/googlemap_1.jpg

We have been home two weeks now, we have been really lucky with the weather, today the temp was a warm 62F, not bad for the last day of March. Today I was outside in the garden for five or six hours, it's kind of an never ending project but I love this time of year, every thing is growing like crazy including the weeds.  

The hyacinths are blooming

Jake likes to lay where he can  see the whole yard.

That's an evergreen azalea behind him, it is the first one to bloom each year.

Forsythia

This little guy was right outside the gate, this time of year it is not uncommon to see a dozen or more deer
on  the  two mile drive to the main road.

  

I think things are blooming later this year ,the winter was pretty cold for this area , it will make for a beautiful April.


Jean     

We are at home

We arrived home on Vancouver Island about 1:30 yesterday (Wed), we spent Tuesday night at the  Northern Lights Casino at Anacortes Washington. The casino has an RV campground with full hookups.
Skips sister Pam lives in Anacortes  and she arrived just after 5pm with dinner, and cold medication.

Casino Campground

We were up early and on the road by seven the next morning, we were both dreading the border crossing, hoping we wouldn't get pulled over for inspection.  There were no lineups when we arrived at the Peace Arch crossing, we pulled up gave the young lady our passports, answered the usual questions and were waved through. What a relief and how happy we were to be back  in Canada, then it was off to the ferry terminal at Tswassen, and the two hour ferry ride to Vancouver Island

We passed the ferry coming from Duke Point on the island

And finally saw Vancouver Island

It was wonderful to finally be home, the dogs spoke with their feet, the Bostons chased each other, and Jake did his patrol of the fence line.

We didn't do a lot yesterday, today was a different story, the yard is a real mess, so I spent the morning raking the paths and Skip  helped me clean the decks off .
There was lots of leaves both front and back.





The Red Current is native to Vancouver Island, once it blooms we are not supposed to get any more hard frosts.

the crocus and the primroses are blooming.

I could hear the boats out in the bay, but I didn't realize that herring season had started, I saw a fishing boat towing a skiff but by the time I got the camera out it was almost out of sight. The house with the palm trees is across the street from us.

I spent the afternoon unloading the motor home and doing laundry, it is good to be home but I do have a ton of work to do.

Jean

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...and Day

Between  wind blowing and the rain pounding on the roof of the motor home, no one got a very restful sleep last night. Add in losing an hours sleep because of the time change, packing up in the rain, me with a sore throat / cold and Skip with a tooth aching.  We were not happy campers.

The rain had stopped as we left Harris Beach,

By the time we reached Coos Bay things had changed again, the wind was blowing the rain sideways. Most of the time you couldn't see the ocean but when you could it was wild. The wind was the worst part
it was blowing so hard it was moving us around, there isn't many places to pull off the road through that part of the highway. The road was littered with tree branches, finally we came to this, a couple of trees down on the road. We had to stop and it wasn't long before the fire department came, took out the chain saws and started clearing the roadway.

We drove as far as Lincoln City and the Chinook Winds Casino, where we will spend the night in their RV lot. After we settled in, and took the dogs for a walk, we went to the casino to look around. It is really
big with four restaurants and a convention center. We had supper in their deli cafe, I had  clam strips and chips and Skip had a bacon cheese burger, both were really good.

It has stopped raining, but the wind is blowing really hard again. In the morning we will head for Washington State. It looks like we will be home Wednesday sometime.


Jean

Raining in Oregon

We left  Rio Vista early Friday morning, this is the second time we have stayed at the county park, it is fine for an over night stop, the sites are big, and it has been quiet both times we were there.

We drove down highway12 ( which had been repaved  yea! ) and got on highway 101 at Novato
and drove to Garborville where we knew there was some BLM land, highway 101 was in good shape for the most part, it is a pretty drive through rolling hills and vineyards.

When we got to Garborville we couldn't find the BLM land, so we headed to a casino near Fortuna where we had stayed on our way down,The Bear River Casino has a lot just for RVs and trucks, there were three other
RVs there when we pulled in. The lot is paved and patrolled through the night. We didn't go to the casino, we intended to go the restaurant for supper, but after driving 300 miles we were just to tired to do anything.

This morning we got up early and headed for the coast. We were excited to see the ocean again and to smell the salty air. The California Coast didn't disappoint.

The third picture is at Crescent City, where the young man lost his life trying to photograph the Tsunami wave.

We only drove 125 miles today to Harris Beach SP just outside of Brookings Oregon, we stayed here on the way down in Nov. and  enjoyed the beach so much we wanted to stop again, it has been raining since we got here so I haven't taken any pictures this time.

We hope to be home Wednesday or Thursday, as we get closer we are getting anxious to be back on our island,
and  our little house. I am sure it will seem huge after  19 weeks in the motor home.


Jean

Titus Canyon

We are at Sandy Beach County Park, in Rio Vista, after the trip from hell up I-5, from Bakersfield. the road is so bad we  left it and drove up hwy 30 for a 100 miles or so. I -5 was pretty just outside Bakersfileld.

Miles of Orchards

Every line on the road is change of level.

One of the highlights of our time in Death Valley was a trip through Red Pass and Titus Canyon. The pictures don't do it justice, Red Pass was miles of switchbacks and hair pin turns.

Titus Canyon was sheer walls and tight corners, at times the road way was only 20 ft wide, the road is one way.
It was a breath taking trip.

We are heading north tomorrow to highway 101 don't know how far we will travel.

We are in Bakerfield with a Signal

We left  Death Valley this morning we had hoped to meet up with Al and Kelly but it didn't work out. . I am still having trouble with the blog so I will just show a  few of the things we have seen  the last  few days. We didn't see enough of Joshua Tree Park, next year hopefully. We loved Death Valley, there is so much to see and do, we will go back.




Joshua Tree





A  Little Bit of



Shoshone has about a half dozen busineses

Only Restaurant

    

The sign way up the cliff reads sea level



Salt  Flats





Artist Drive is amazing, all the different colours.

The salt flats from Artist Drive.

Tomorrow we continues our journey west, not sure where we will end up.


Jean




                                                                                                                                  

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