View of Mt. Baker

Look very carefully & you can see Mt. Baker on the horizon from the view of our condo.

The first several days we were there - we didn't even know that we could see Mt. Baker because of the cloud cover!

Thursday - Ferry ride to Victoria (Vancouver Island)

On Thursday we thought it would be a great idea to take the British Columbia ferry over to Vancouver Island (most American's incorrectly call it Victoria Island.....us included!)
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First we drove across the border to the Tsawassen Port.

Once there, we boarded the largest ferry we'd ever ever seen! As we were waiting to load - we saw the 14 semis, at least two buses & numerous RV's, cars, trucks and vans coming off of the same ferry we were getting ready to load onto!!

Here's a picture as we were loading onto the ferry. Those are full size semi's!

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There were three lanes on each side of the mid-section. They parked us right in the middle there - in front of the elevators (lucky! - because it is a 7 floor high ferry!!!

Once inside the ferry - we found that there were two play rooms for kids (Amie had a ball!), they also had a gift shop, a cafeteria, a coffee shop, and a couple of other eating places. They also had a business class area & a VIP area. We stayed by the two play areas (one on the 5th level and one on the 6th level). Amie met a little boy & played pretty much exclusively with him!

We went out on the 7th floor sun decks for a while too.

We weaved in and around numerous little islands to get to Victoria.

Time to unload at the Swartz Bay port. Mind you there was at least one other level that had nothing but cars on it!

Let me introduce you to the worlds youngest & pushiest back seat driver!! We heard numerous times, "Go Daddy" - "Green light Daddy" - "Go Daddy"

The thing that looks like a "roof" or overhang in this picture is actually the ramp that takes the cars from the next level off of the ferry!

The ferry ride was fun - the trip around the island not so much! In fact it was pretty much a bust! We drove down to Victoria - and it was a zoo! It was almost as bad as Chicago driving! We purposely went over to Victoria to visit the Victoria Harley store & when we got there it had closed down!! We ate lunch & high tailed it back to the ferry dock, as everyone's nerves were about shot!

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I know there were areas of the Island that would have been enjoyable...but it will have to wait for another time!

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While waiting for our ferry - Amie got a little more playing in!

This is a fairly good view of us being unloaded off of the ferry.

The other thing we did manage to get done was to get some Canadian money & to mail a postcard to Kylee for her stamp collection!

Sunsets & Moutain Flowers

Is it just me - or do these flowers seem to be more vibrant and spectacular then the flowers in Illinois? My thinking is it's all the rain they receive!

See the little visitor that I caught visiting this flower?

A couple of sun set images that we caught on the bay - missed the most gorgeous one because we were still eating as the sky turned a beautiful redish glow! But these are still very nice & better then we see around our neck of the woods!

There is something about a beautiful sunset over water!

Wednesday - Orcas Island

Wednesday, July 8th - we decided to take a ferry over to the San Juan Islands - just to drive around and shop. We drove south from Blaine to Anacotes (the red star). Then we boarded a ferry to Orcas Island (see next image). We chose Orcas because it has a few shopping areas that looked easy to navigate & some scenic drives. Last time we were up here, we went to Friday Harbor on San Juan.

Orcas Island is shaped like a horse shoe. You arrive on the south-west portion of the Island. We drove up to the East Sound Village & had lunch on the bay - it was spectacular!

Here's what the ferry dock looked like at Anacortes. We were just waiting for the next ferry to arrive.

The ferry has arrived & we are beginning to make our way down to the ferry.

They are getting ready to board everyone.

Once we got parked on the ferry, we walked around the inside and outside to see what we could see. Grandma and Amie were on one of the outside decks. It was a cold, misty over-cast day (what's unusual about that....)

Grandma and Amie sitting at one of the inside tables now.

Daddy and Amie went outside - but I sneaked a few pictures through a window at them.

Amie thought that was funny!

She decided to tell me all about taking pictures through the window at her!

Somethings got her attention!

Here was our view of the bay from the window table of the restaurant we ate at! It was absolutely gorgeous - would have been even better if it hadn't been so cloudy....but we'll take what we can get!

By the time we were finishing lunch - Amie was more then ready for a nap....here she is pretending to sleep!

And this is just precious!

We had about an hour wait to catch the ferry back to the main land. So, we snapped some pictures of the ferry lining up with the dock to unload it's passengers that were just getting here.

The passengers are dis-embarking from the ferry that we are getting ready to get on.

There was a cute little tree very close to where we were waiting that I wanted to get Amie to pose for pictures in - she was not very coorperative, but this one isn't too bad.

The San Juan Islands of Washington State are absolutely without a doubt beautiful & mesmerizing! The tranquility can be felt through out the area. We saw some gorgeous scenery & shopped at some cute stores. I still love the San Juan Islands & can not wait to go back some day!