Vancouver

We are at Vancouver for 4 days. Staying at a campsite (Capiliano RV) which is just a bridge away from Vancouver downtown (one long bus stop).

On Sunday I have taken Nadav to a Baseball game. 

First time for both of us at a Baseball game. It was a Saturday afternoon game, Canada Vancouver vs Eugen. (Have no idea who are they, but seems they are from the US as the US national anthem has been played before the game). As it was a Family kind of thing there has been lots of kids and the whole atmosphere was of a fair. After 3 hours which went quite fast the score was 16-4 to the local Canadians. Nadav got some player signature on the team lunch box he got and also managed to run the bases. Starting to understand why Americans love baseball, it can be a nice Family day out watching a game, food, fun. After the game on our way back to our campsite (which is a great one, located just on the boarder of downtown and Stanley Park and has close by bus lines to town) we spent some time in the downtown. There has been an oriental festival and on the streets there were shows of Indian dances, martial arts, cricket and other Indian culture items. 

Today (20/07) we celebrated Nadav's 11 birthday and took him to the kids Market at Garnville Island. After couple of hours in the Granville Island, between the nice and clean market and the kid's market we went to Gastown. Late afternoon on the way back home we stopped at a Dollar shop and bough lots of small 2$ things that hopefully will be used. For the kids this type of shops are like an amusement park so we mark these under the Entertainment budget article.

For the following day I have set to myself a whale watching tour, just for 1 as the sea does not do good for all.

Whale watching:

Well, surly my pictures are not good enough to express the beauty and excitement of whale watching. Apart from the fast both ride which for me was fun, there was the excitement of seeing Orcas (killer whales), expecting them to emerge from the deep waters and hopefully make a huge jump. This is an expensive yet recommended attraction. There are many companies who do the attraction, I just took one which offered a shuttle service from downtown. There is no real guarantee for seeing whales, but summer time is the best time to see them here, and it has been the 102 straight day that whales have been see on these tours, so ……

BTW, if you can avoid going on the tour with a Chinese family and their little girl you would avoid a 3 years old high vice scream every time that a whale emerges.

Our Vancouver Campsite:

On the day of my whale watching tour we had to move our RV for one site spot to another, but as I had to leave the early morning I could not move the RV in time so I had to find someone to do that for me. Denis, who is generally working at the campsite but was out that day came the night before and introduced me to the life and some residents of the campsite. Apart from tourists like ourselves that comes and goes, there are some regular visitors and kind of permanent residents. There was George, who comes from Calgary every summer with his dogs (all day he is just calling them “hey mitzy mitzy….”), but he could not move the RV as his sister just had an heart attack, to Denis and I this looked surly like a lame excuse, but…There was Ray, who “works” at the gym every Tuesday & Wednesday and comes home for lunch every day, he was kind enough to move our RV during his lunch time. I learned about Ray lunch from the wife of a Marine biologist researcher who also lives in the RV Park, though they were not available to move the RV they warn me from their crazy neighbor raised the option of Ray and his lunch.

It was funny ans fun to spend the evening getting to know some of the residence of an RV Park. 

Washington

Washington:

After Oregon we have entered Washington but not before taking the advantage of the zero Tax in Oregon state and did some shopping in couple of the Outlets at Lincoln and Woodburn.

Aafter couple days of shopping we decided to treat the kids and surprise then with a fun day (compare to the rest of the “non” fun day we had so far) and took them to the Wild Waves theme park which features many water slides and other rides. It was a great day and we all had fun, it is a classic American water park as seen in the movies.

The following day we went to Mount Rainier which is the highest mountain of the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, and the highest mountain in the state of Washington. It is a large active stratovolcano located 87 km southeast of Seattle and it is the most photographical prominent mountain in the United States. The summit elevates to 4,392 m. We did a short 5 km loop trail which feature great view of the mountain.

At night we arrived to Seattle and stayed in a campsite about 30 min away from Seattle downtown. We thought of renting a car for going into town, but as it was weekend the rental near our campsite was fully booked and had no available cars. The following day we took our home the and parked it in the Zoo parking lot and took from their the bus to downtown to the Market.

Have to say that we were disappointed with Seattle which was not as beautiful as we expected. Many homeless roam the streets.

The next day which was Sunday we went to the Seattle center where the famous Needle tower can be found together with the Children museum and other point of interest. Though the kids enjoyed the Children museum, for us it was more of an upgraded Gymboree. The main attraction was the happening that was all around the area. Food stalls, live music, street show and more. So that was fun. 

As we arrived there with our 31ft house and parked on the narrow uphill streets of Seattle, we had some interesting driving to do following the Waze in the streets of Seattle. Waze does not care that our Minnie Winnie is not really mini. I guess this is for the more advance RV drivers, I'm getting there.

Oregon Coastal & Dunes

After the Redwoods we continued North on the beautiful coastal road of North California and Oregon. Not sure if it was the weather or what, but I found the Oregon coastal ride much more beautiful than the one on California famous route #1. Oregon Coastal has sharp cliffs with bid rocks and white sand. 

Apart from the forest which drop to the beach and the scenic way Oregon is also known for it's unique coastal Dunes. A must adventure is to sand ride the dune, this can be done in numerous ways, buggy car, motorbike, ATV (טרקטורון), and other. it can be a self drive or a guided ride. As I'm not expert in this and following some suggestions I have decided to take the sand rail extreme buggy where an expert driver take you on a 30-60 min ride on the sands and feeds you sand. 

It was a nice experience, though not extreme as I though it would. 

The beautiful white see sand of the Dunes if breath taking (together with the cold of the ride). 

After this ride we all took the family/old people Big Buggy ride. This is a 1 hour scenic ride where you drive slow (some what very slow) and see the Dunes. This as well is a nice ride and it is recommended for the weak heart people.  

While waiting for our Buggy rides we spent the time playing Mini Golf, Carting and doing both bumping (all done in the Sandland adventures site). 

The night we spent on the same nice campsite in Florence playing Bingo and having Family Fun. 

Something we notice on these campsite we are stopping in, though we are driving a 31 ft RV we are feeling like midgets when driving near all these huge trailers and camp buses. The funny thing is that the model of our camper is called Minnie Winnie, and it somehow fits the name. 

The next day (July 12th) we continued north stopping at the Sea lion Caves, where you can see many sea lions. As we have not manage to see till then any sea lion we stopped. It is a nice stop. 

Lake Tahoe and Redwoods national Park

Actually we kind of arrived to lake Tahoe not in a good weather and as it was raining almost all day so we kind of packed all and just continued. On the way out we just went to see the lake, just to see what we missed. 

From lake Tahoe we decided to drive back to the coast and started the drive to the Redwoods national parks area, which is on the coast on the border of California and Oregon. 

In this coastal line you can find some of the last remaining Redwoods trees which are one of the 3 sequoia species (The first one, found in the Sierra Nevada, Yosemite area and another very rear Sequoia which has been found in China). The Redwoods are the tallest trees on the planets and can reach up to 120 meter and has a diameter of 6.6 meters. They are taller than their Sierra Nevada brother which can reach only to 90 meters but has a wider diameter which can reach to 12 meters. 

In the Redwoods apart from watching Elks, which we did not see, the main attraction of course is walking in the woods and seeing these big Giants. So we did. Walking in theses rain forest among these old big trees is kind of magical and gives the feeling of walking in Little Red Riding Hood forest, like in a Fairy Tales. The light non stopping rain just added to that atmosphere.  

The next day we went to a place called The Mystery tree, where you ride a cable car between the Redwoods tree.
Though this is a commercial touristic place it is a nice and fun attraction.

Yosemite to Lake Tahoe

It has been a while since last post, we have been traveling in a non wifi no reception friendly areas. 

Although all RV sites claim to have wifi it is always too slow to really connect. 

So after Yosemite and 4th of July celebrations which was lots of fun, we finished our Yosemite visit with a short hike to see some big Sequoia trees at Tuolumne Grove. After we drove through Tiago pass while passing other Yosemite point of interest like lake Tenaya & Lambart dome. Right after the exit from Yosemite there lake Mono, which is a salty lake (like the dead sea). We spent the night at a KOA along the way towards lake Tahoe.

The kids walking inside a fallen sequoia tree. 

  

Walking on sequoia tree

Only in America, an old Volkswagen from 73 where the owner has rebuild it and is traveling and living in the car for the past 17 years. As you can imagine the owner of the car is roughly 73 as well.   

Lake Mono (in the back) - it is a salty lake, just like the dead see. A result of over pumping the water from the lake.

Yosemite

After having surprisingly great time in San Francisco, we had no expectation, we started our last morning hour in S.F., before going starting our drive to Yosemite, with some whale watching. As our campsite was just along the beach, some whales decided to visit our campsite and swam near us. That was a nice ending to S.F. The next day was dedicated for driving to Yosemite. 

At Yosemite, as we missed the campsites reservations day, we found a site only outside of the Yosemite Valley about an hour drive from the Valley. The next day we woke up early, 7:15 am, we were driving already to the Yosemite Valley. At the Valley we did the famous Vernal Falls trail, which is about 4 km and 370 meter height clime. The kids ran all the way up with great joy and energy. Up there we spent some time in the river until everything changed. Suddenly a big thunder storm came from no where and big drops of rain started to rapidly fall on us. Quickly the temperature dropped and as our clothes were soaked we decided to rapidly find our way down. Going down the hill with heavy rain and slippery boulders was an experience. The kids make it with great courage and I'm sure this hike would be to remember. Sadly as we have rushed down I did not manage to take photos of the down hill way.

The next day was much more quite one where we just have short hikes in the wonderful Yosemite Valley.

We are now on the 4th of July celebrations,  we found the other day a nice campground need Yosemite and moved there for couple of days. So today we are just resting and celebrating with the Americans, BBQ, Parade, Carnival, Games, and more..... and the kids just love this.