It's Beary Nice to Meet You

Can I tell you HOW excited I was when I saw this guy stroll through the yard this morning...especially excited that I was INSIDE the house!! :)

I noticed him from my upstairs bedroom window, went running down the stairs w/ my camera in one hand and phone in the other (my co-worker got an excited earful from me).  He looked like he was just out for a leisurely walk, taking a shortcut through the hood...I wonder if I'll ever get tired of seeing this?  So far?  No way...

Catching Up From Last Week - Part One

To start, we made it to Anchorage this past Thursday afternoon, safe & sound.  It felt SO great to get here, and know we did not have more long days of driving ahead of us and no more hotels motels to stay in for the night.

Brief summary of the rest of the week's trip:
Monday ~ drove from Cache Creek BC to Smithers BC - beautiful backdrop of mountains surrounding the town; I took the dogs out around 10:00pm and this is what the sky looked like ~ so pretty!

 Smithers, BC

 Amy in front of our buggy hotel :)

I have a friend, we'll call him Matt.  Matt is an entomologist.  Matt does pest control when he is not teaching classes up at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.  Matt has shared many horror stories of things he finds in hotel rooms.  Matt has told me WHERE to look and WHAT to look for when staying in a hotel room.  One of the first things I always do now is pull back all of the covers, sheets and mattress pads to do an inspection of mattress I will be sleeping on ~ so far, I have been fortunate in finding nothing.  However, my friend Amy was not so lucky...and found two questionable moving objects (BUGS) on her mattress...The hotel manager was very nice and apologetic...we gave them the benefit of the doubt and opted to stay in the motel and switch to another room rather than try to find other lodging (our options were rather slim anyway).

We also saw our first wildlife on this day ~ a black bear that was debating whether or not it should cross the highway...he opted to stay put on his side of the road...we also saw our first moose, standing off the side of the road munching on some greens.   (No photos were taken as I'm not talented enough to snap photos of moving creatures and drive at the same time ~ Amy and I have to vouch for one another and what we saw) :)

Canada observations:

The average speed on the highways we are on is 90km ~ approximately 62mph.  This works out well with pulling the trailer, but makes our progress feel slow.

This was the first night we noticed the longer days with light ~ after taking the dogs out, I went back in to get Amy so she could see how pretty it was!

The 'towns' on the map are all pretty much so small that if you blink, you'll miss them ~ there seem to be just as many abandoned / empty buildings as there are active / open businesses. 

More trip updates to come...

Canada, eh?

Sunday was the start of part 2 of this road trip...Amy and I left Seattle and crossed over into the foreign lands of Canada...woo hoo!!

 no wait to get in to Canada

The scenery was very much like what we expected...

 The Canadian Rockies look a lot like the Colorado Rockies... :)

 It appears I have some Canadian predecessors... :)

We stopped in a small 'town' called Cache Creek...described as the Arizona of Canada ~ it was warmer, drier and more 'desert' like than any other part of Canada we saw (see the palm tree)?

We met some really nice people, including the group of bikers staying in the room next to us ~ thankfully they appeared to be 'middle-aged' bikers, so after a short time outside visiting and drinking beers, they turned in at a decent time, so we were ALL able to get some sleep! :)

Bainbridge Island & Poulsbo

Day #2 of our Seattle tour took us back downtown, long enough to catch a ferry ride over to Bainbridge Island, thanks to my Aunt Joan's suggestion.  It was a short 35 minute ride, long enough to get up on deck and enjoy the view of the Seattle skyline, Mt. Rainier and the many sailboats taking advantage of the great weather.

 looking toward Bainbridge island

 Mount Rainier

 

 Seattle skyline

Bainbridge Island has some cute shops, some BEAUTIFUL homes and some great views.  I got excited when I saw a doe and her 2 babies...

Amy was less impressed, but she was amused by my outburst and abrupt stop for a quick photo.

One place I HAVE visited in the past (again, thanks to my Aunt Joan) :) is a cute town called Poulsbo.  It was settled by Norwegians and still has a very Scandinavian feel to the town.  It's just a short drive from Bainbridge Island, so after a light lunch at a small cafe, we continued on to Poulsbo.

Amy and I have traveled together in Austria and Switzerland, and Poulsbo reminded both of us of that trip.  We spent time just wandering up and down the main streets, window shopping and enjoying the day.  We were told that we HAD to stop for ice cream at the Mora Iced Creamery shop...there is one on Bainbridge Island, and one in Poulsbo...all I can say is Oh. My. Goodness.  This was probably THE best ice cream I have ever eaten.

You have to visit their website to see about their ingredients and process.  We were able to sample as many flavors as we wanted ~ and every sample I tasted was so good!  I ended up choosing Mexican Chocolate and BA.  The Mexican Chocolate had cinnamon and nutmeg flavors added...and the BA was Dulce de Leche with extra caramel.  I think regular ice cream is ruined for me...there's nothing like homemade and that's what Mora does. 

Poulsbo also has a great bakery in town, and I couldn't resist buying some pastries to take back to share...

I have to say though, the hi-light of the day for me turned out to be a completely unexpected and unplanned surprise.  Amy is used to me oohing and aahing over cavaliers by now, but seriously, who could resist these two??

Twelve week old Cavalier King Charles puppies...brother and sister...say hello to Pilot and Siren...the little boy reminded me SO much of Duncan when he was a puppy.  I could have cuddled them all day long!