British Columbia, first few days

Sunday, Aug 2:
My Uncle Raymond, Aunt Christine, second-cousin Trenton and I left the moorage at Lockhaven at 2:30pm departing drama-free through the ‘small’ locks that separate the freshwater of Lake Union from Puget Sound. We had smooth water the duration of our first day, heading north out of Seattle and through Admiralty Inlet. Three Alaska-bound cruiseships passed us in Puget Sound, one with a golf course on top and one of the others appeared to have an iceskating rink on the stern of the boat. We have neither. We anchored for the night just off the coast of Port Townsend, Washington and enjoyed tomato basil soup and pasta with calmatta olives, red onion, tomatoes and artichokes for dinner.



Monday, Aug 3:
After sleeping solidly through the night we woke up to heavy fog laying over the harbor, which delayed the early start we had planned. We relaxed and enjoyed a morning coffee and home-baked scones with jelly and devonshire cream. The NOAA weather radio report indicated the fog was only in the Port Townsend area so we pulled anchor and headed north in thick fog with less than 1/4 mile visibility. We used the boat’s radar to spot other boats and ferries and the GPS for guidance, along with the automated foghorn playing every five seconds to warn other boaters we were coming through. At one point we were closer to an inbound ferry than we would have liked but within a few miles of travel the fog lifted and we had warm sunny weather the remainder of the day. Aunt Christine made us chicken curry sandwiches with green onion, celery and grapes (sauce consisted of mayonnaise, lemon, curry and almonds) on croissant rolls with seasalt and vinegar chips and Izze sparkling orange clementine drinks. While we ate we watched Trenton, my 11-year old second cousin turn every dial, push every button and rotate every knob in the pilothouse. He loves to be involved in every aspect of boat travel and as a result, he knows more about the rules of navigation than I do.

We crossed the shipping lanes of Puget Sound and headed northwest up the outside of the shipping lane, skirting Partridge Bank and around the west side of San Juan Island. We rounded Turn Point at Stuart Island and into Bedwell Harbor on South Pender Island to declare customs. This year there was no customs agent at the dock, the entire procedure took ten minutes and was done via passport scanner and telephone at the customs dock. Because we’re up here every year at the same time with the same crew, their line of questioning was regarding pitted and seeded fruits and whether or not we had wine and firearms onboard. We reboarded the boat and headed for the northern end of Prevost Island and dropped anchor in Annette Bay in 30-feet of water. There were four other sailboats and six powerboats in the anchorage. We had leg of lamb marinated in garlic, mint and olive oil along with grilled mixed potatoes and some Italian wine with dinner. After sharing stories and pictures about my recent trip to Europe, we headed to bed.





We are now headed to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island for the night. Our goal for tomorrow is to make Comox/Campbell River and continue north toward the top end of Vancouver Island.

Canada-bound

I was invited to join my aunt and uncle on a boat trip in August--a trip I have done several times now and find it as exciting (and yet relaxing) as ever. We depart from the moorage in Seattle where the boat is kept and travel six or seven hundred miles up Canada's Inside Passage between Vancouver Island and the mainland. We are going pretty far north this year, at least as far as Telegraph Cove on the upper end of Vancouver Island. That area is known for some of the best kayaking and whalewatching in the world, and this location is also where we pick up our rental kayaks to use for roughly one week of the trip. (See map--red dot is Telegraph Cove; Seattle is at bottom of map.)

I am really excited about the kayaking; they are a great way to explore the thousands of broken island groups in the Inside Passage. Their boat also has a small sailing dinghy and a Zodiac-like motor dinghy, so technically with our three rental kayaks we will have five different methods of transportation besides the big boat. The power dingy is great for zooming across bays and circumnavigating larger islands that would take multiple days in a kayak. The sailboat is good for getting stuck in the middle of the Straits of Georgia with no wind and passing Alaska-bound cruiseships and tugboats pulling barges.

I couldn't go for the entire month this time-around...I have afterall only been back to work for two weeks following my last vacation, but because I have to leave the boat mid-trip I do get to take a floatplane from Canada back to Seattle. As far as I am concerned, this is one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life and am excited to do it again. The pilot lands in the water near the boat to pick me up...since it is technically an international flight the pilot serves double-duty as a custom's agent, checks your paperwork and then flies you back to Lake Washington and lands on the water. From there I will take a shuttle back to Seatac airport to fly home. Once again I will overwhelm you with photos as I get the chance. Sometimes there will be no internet and other times the owners of megayachts have onboard satellite internet and they unlock their wireless connections with names such as "free Internet from [boatname]", which is always a nice surprise. Now we scowl at the megayachts when we can see they have the internet dome on the mast and their internet connection is locked--so uncool!

The analog blog now stays home

For the past couple of years I have been carrying a bound journal with me for the sole purpose of writing down the fun things occurring in my life. This journal is pretty haggard by now, having picked up a half pound of dirt traveling all over the backroads of the west coast in the map pocket of the 4Runner, it has been smashed in the elevator doors of a Washington State ferry (had to make happy hour!), shat on by what must have been a terradactyl in Tahoe, it has been to Canada and parts of Europe, and sadly its pages are still blank. I can type 80 words per minute and yet it takes me forever to write a check with all of a dozen words on it, so apparently hand-writing is not my thing. The blog doesn't have the pleasant aroma of leather, but it sure is a more efficient vehicle for getting thoughts out of my mind and onto paper, or screens anyway.

My life isn't all that exciting but it doesn't stop you from checking in anyway. The blog averages 33 page loads a day (16 of which are from unique visitors, so those aren't page refreshs) and it is not searchable by search engines. Despite your lack of comments letting me know who's following along, the page loads give me incentive to keep posting. I often wonder who's reading, but regardless it makes me happy that people care enough to at least load the page.

As much as I enjoy the readership, I have to admit the focus of the blog is more for me than you. My sister Jennifer started a journal for me, which consists of a leather-bound book wherein she placed every newspaper article and every email I received from friends from that aweful 50-foot fall last year. It was to serve as a reminder what caring people I have around me. She also printed sections of the blog along with the reader comments. I plan to keep adding to this book, printing pages from the blog as I add them. Ideally it would be stuffed with photos, trip logs and outings with friends, but realistically it will only memorialize what a strange personality I have with random photos of things that make me laugh on my way to work, more photos and descriptions of the foods I eat (you all know how much I like food), boring home improvement stuff--probably amounting to a log of all of the nursery plants I kill in the coming years, and yet more mediocre photographs. Exciting stuff...yawn, yawn.

I will be setting aside some time in the coming weeks to re-post sections of the blog starting with the trip to Europe. I want a written record of the trip with detail that I would certainly forget in a few month's time. I will post links as I rewrite previous posts. I will try and keep my life exciting enough for you to keep reading...but not exciting enough to involve helicopter rescues.

Switzerland

Consistent with our good fortune the previous two weeks of our trip, the remaining week was a great one as well. We rented a chalet in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland that allowed us separate bedrooms but a common living area to socialize and a kitchen to save on eating-out costs. Speaking of which, Switzerland is ridiculously expensive. $3.50 to $4.00 (converted to U.S. dollars) for a 12oz Coke, $22 for a personal pizza that barely feeds one person is the absolute cheapest dinner you will find--$50 minimum for a typical dinner before drinks, $180 USD to ride the train up the mountain and $280 swiss francs or $308 USD per night for a room in a hotel at the airport in Zurich. We never expected Europe to be cheap, but luckily the trip exceeded our expectations in every way.

Here is the stunning view from the balcony and bedrooms of our chalet:


Staubbach Falls (the one you see from our chalet window) and shown in my previous blog post has a 900 foot drop to the valley floor. We hiked the trail to the end, which is probably 30% the way up the fall and the trail consists of a set of switchbacks initially, followed by a concrete tunnel, then a set of staircases and tunnels that lead to a viewing point behind the falls.

The following day we rode a cog train to the top of Jungfrau Peak at 11,700 feet. The cog trains are fun, they go up impossibly steep slopes and offer amazing views and a fun way to get there. Here is a view of Lauterbrunnen Valley from the cog:


The cog that gears the train to the track can be seen here...oh, and the view doesn't suck either:


On our way up. Our seat said in three different languages "no leaning out the window." Clearly I followed all the rules.



The train station and Sphinx Observation tower:


They need more signs like this in California. Just sayin'


As much as it freaked me out, I had 'deer in the headlights syndrome' and could not stop looking about 500' down through the grate:


The cog train took us inside this mountain and to the top (you can see the Sphinx in the photo) to get the previous view.


We hiked around inside the ice caves and enjoyed the ice sculptures on display.




We then packed up our stuff and headed for Murren. Murren a small town located on the plateau above Staubbach Falls. To get there you take a large gondola then a cog train into town. Getting there was half the fun.


We rented a chalet in Murren and simply had the most stunning view I could ever imagine. The photo just doesn't give the proper perspective of how enourmous and amazing the mountain is.


We did a bunch of hikes and spent one evening enjoying some swiss cuisine. Or rather should I say we simply ate a bucket of cheese fondue for dinner. You put bread on your extended fork, an onion, a pickle, douse it in pure brandy, then go to town with the cheese. Best consumed with large adult beverages.


More later...

Last leg of the trip

We left the island of Corsica on the 27th via ferry and arrived back in northern Italy the morning of the 28th. The ferry ride is 10 hours long so we opted to get a cabin on the ferry and sleep the night there, saving both the cost of another hotel in the extremely expensive Bonifacio, France area and we could sleep rather than wasting daylight hours on the ferry ride. We spent the following few days in Vinadio, Italy staying at my sister's friend's (Stacey and Loris) cabin. The house was amazing...custom-built of stone with beautiful woodwork everywhere and a view of the valley and river.

Stacey and Loris' parents were amazing, they took us hiking two different days and each night made us amazing dinners. One night they made hand-made potato and pork raviolis, fried porchini mushrooms, salad, bread, amazing wine and cheese from their own cellar--which, by the way, is built into the walls of a historic fortress. The second night they made pesto spaghetti, roast beef, salad and more wine. The third night they prepared polenta with sausage, a salad and some wonderful gelato.

Fortess walls of Vinadio, Italy:


View from the cabin:


The group:




Yesterday we spent most of the day traveling. We drove our Fiat rental car from Vinadio, Italy into the nutty traffic of Milan. From Milan we took three different trains to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. The last train was a cog train to get up the steep mountain. We spend the next two nights in Lauterbrunnen. Tomorrow we are taking the cog train to the Jungfrau "Top of Europe," a cogtrain station at over 11,000 feet in elevation.

Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland:




After tomorrow we take a gondola and a cog train to spend the following three nights in Murren, Switzerland. One more week to go, then back to reality.

France

Paradise found. This trip keeps getting better and better. I'll post a few pics for now and follow up with the stories later.

View from our room in Porto:

View from our room in Bonifacio.

Tuscany

Day 6...on our last day here in Siena, Italy. Rome was thoroughly exciting, we walked an average of 8+ miles per day taking in the sites and it seems every corner we turned an exciting piece of history presented itself to us. Apparently Italy contains 60% of the world's historic artifacts and of those 40% are in Rome. Each day we would head out to see three or four specific sites and would pass a dozen others in the process. Siena is less touristy than Rome and way more relaxed. We've been walking around town for three days now enjoying the historic sites like the Piazza del Campo where they hold the famous il Palio horse races, and of course enjoying some really amazing food...pizza, focaccia, pasta, ravioli, canoloni, etc. You all know, I am all about the food.

Yesterday we took a wine tour with a native to the area--went to a region of Tuscany between Florence and Siena in the Chianti Classico region (pink and black rooster on the label if you are familiar with it). We toured some castles, drove to Mona Lisa's garden, had an amazing lunch looking over the Tuscan countryside, and sampled wine, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The balsamic surprised me the most, it was like nothing I have ever tasted.


Oh, our room with french doors, a balcony and a view doesn't suck either (as Bill would say).


Off to Florence tomorrow. Oh, and Happy 1 year anniversary to this blog...my little fall off the cliff was exactly one year ago on June 19...so happy I am up and running around after that fiasco. :)