Pacific Ocean

   When we got to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho it was late and too dark to see any of the lake scenery, so we took a quick tour of the area before we left. We then continued on Rt 90 into Washington State and drove over the Columbia River and through the Cascade Mountains. When we got close to Seattle we connected to Rt 5 and took it north to the Canadian border.

   I'd gotten spoiled driving over interstates with no one else on the road but us, and when we got close to Seattle, it started to feel like work again. The traffic was heavy, drivers agressive and the roads bad, so it took an extra couple of hours to get to Vancouver for the R & R we had planned. It's one of my favorite cities, it'll be great to stretch our legs and I'm glad Mary will get to see it finally.

   We have a room downtown with a 12th floor view of the main harbor. Saturday we went out for breakfast and took a tour bus for an overview of the city, including Stanley Park. After having lunch in the Gastown district we did a bit of exploring along the harbor looking at all the dogs being walked. We saw a seal swimming among the boat moorings looking for treats as fishermen cleaned their catches of the day.  The harbor is clean, busy and interesting with float planes taking off and landing all the time; and the port overall is filled with ships.

   We're now half way through our trip and will start heading south along the Pacific coast on Monday. I'm not sure how far down we'll get before we have to turn east for home. Since we'll be taking scenic roads again it'll be hard to estimate how much ground we'll cover in a day.

   So far we've driven 4,465 miles and used 144 gallons of gas with all the zig zagging we've been doing to see the sights.  The car has done really well, but is in serious need of a carwash. It's hard to believe we've just driven toVancouver and we're both hoping the second part of the trip is as much fun as the first.