Salish Sea

The Salish Sea has been officially recognized by both Canada and the United States as the bodies of water that straddle the border between British Columbia and Washington.  It's pronounced SAY-lish, and named for the Coastal Salish people that lived on the shores.

It includes Puget Sound (taken from the top of the Seattle Space Needle).

Strait of Juan de Fuca (looking back at the Olympic Mountains from the Coho ferry).

Saanich Inlet (taken from Mt. Malahat on Vancouver Island)

The Strait of Georgia (taken from Chemainus, BC, also on Vancouver Island).

These are some of my fave pics of the Salish Sea, taken at sunrise from Willows Beach in Victoria, BC on my last trip in 2010.

Orca Whales

I love, love, love orca whales.  PLEASE don't call them 'killer whales'.  Just don't.  My first experience with them was at Sea World in Florida and again at Marine World Africa USA in California.  While I found them to be extremely charming, adorable, smart and endearing, something just really bothered me about watching these beautiful creatures performing for humans.  Did you know that they are really part of the dolphin family?

I went on a whale watch in Victoria BC in 2007 and seeing the Resident L Pod in the wild brought me to tears.

This is L-41, named 'Mega'.  He was born in 1977.

Suffice to say I will never go to another performing whale show again.  It's just wrong.

I bought this original painting by Spray Bombs in Victoria's Inner Harbour to commemorate the experience.

I also love Pacific Northwest Native art depicting them.

 This is by Jody Bergsma Designs.  She is an artist in Washington State.

Isn't this adorable?!?!?!??!

Regrets, I've Had A Few.....

And so my time on the west coast comes to a close.  I've been kicking myself for not being more mindful about making sure that I got to do and see everything I could.  I admit, I got complacent.  I could "always" go anytime, it was "always" going to be there.  I wasn't going anywhere...or so I thought.  There was always one reason or another why I didn't go.  Most of it was financial because I'm so damn cheap.  Now I wish I'd just bitten the damn bullet and spent the extra money for the hotel & gas. In my defense, I had to save up my vacation to go to the Cape, have time off around the holidays and have one other short vacation, which always ended up being to Canada because, let's face it, I'm addicted to Super, Natural British Columbia, which province is my next door neighbour.

I can honestly say that I had, for the most part, conquered my California-themed bucket list.  I didn't spend as much time in the Sierras as I would have liked, but I did see an awful lot of Northern California (and parts of Central and SoCal as well) and I am glad that I did.  When I moved up here, I remember thinking that there was going to be very little need for me to vacation in CA again, since I'd already seen everything I wanted to see (although now that I shoot exclusively digital, I'd love a few do-over vacations to Mendocino & Humboldt Counties).  In the 12 years I've been here, I only went back to San Francisco once in 2008 for Donnie and Mike's wedding. 

Unfortunately, I did not take full advantage of all that Western Washington and the Pacific Northwest has to offer, and I deeply regret that.  I didn't get to Leavenworth.  I didn't do North Cascades/Cascade Loop or go to Cape Flattery or beachcomb the many remote & dramatic beaches on the Olympic Peninsula.  Didn't visit the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival or the San Juan Islands, although I did sail through the San Juans twice coming back from Vancouver Island.  I've only recently been to Mount St. Helens and at that I didn't go all the way to the end of the road and really spend time there.  I have never been terribly interested in vacationing in Eastern Washington at all.  But I figured that, at some point, I would finally force myself over the Cascades to see what the high desert, channeled scablands, Blue Mountains and The Palouse had to offer.  I've seen pictures of East/South Eastern Washington and it's a different and alien world over there.  I fantasized about finding arrowheads in Eastern Washington, along the Columbia River. The Grand Coulee Dam is over there too.  Then there is the beautiful and mountainous Okanogan region in North Eastern Washington that goes up into South Eastern British Columbia. 

I never got to drive the Sea-To-Sky Highway to Whistler, BC to do a zipline and take the new Peak-To-Peak Gondola between Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains.  There was the helicopter tour I wanted to take from the summit of Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver, that I didn't have time to do the only time I ventured up to mainland BC.  Didn't get to Hope, BC either.  I wanted to spend more time on Vancouver Island but only made it as far north as Chemainus.  I wanted so much to travel farther north and west and see Ucluelet and Tofino.  I had hoped to get back to Victoria one more time to take the float plane tour that never happened for me in the past and see Fisgard Lighthouse and Esquimalt Lagoon.  I wanted to take the Ghostly Walks Tour again, and beachcomb some more at Willows Beach.  

I would also like to have gotten back down to Oregon and visited the super hippie, college town Eugene, home of the University of Oregon Ducks.   I could have even based out of Eugene and taken a side trip to Crater Lake.  It would have been fun to get back to Cannon Beach & Seaside again too.  I love Portland and I wish I had seen more of it, especially the rest of the Bridges and another trip to the Saturday Market wouldn't have been amiss either.    But alas and alack, I rarely ventured out of Bonney Lake on the weekends and now I wish I had.

Less realistic Northwest Bucket List items included the Queen Charlotte Islands of Canada (above Van Isle), Banff & Lake Louise in Alberta and the Kootenay Rockies region of Eastern BC.

On the other hand, I am now returning to a place that I never fully appreciated during the first 24 years of my life, before I fled to the west coast.  Over the years I have kicked myself for not traveling more in New England and the Canadian Maritimes, and I am very much looking forward to the opportunity to see these places. 

I'm going to miss the west coast so much, but my squeeze and I can always travel back up here in the future, and visit the places I didn't get to see yet.  It's going to be a lot of fun (and a novel concept) to have someone who actually likes to travel and spend time seeing things on vacation with me, instead of holing up in the hotel room, reading and not wanting to sightsee, and complaining because I take too long to line up a photo or ask to stop at every scenic overlook.  This is why I have traveled alone the last 6 years.

It's been a blast but it's time to move on and start the next chapter.

O Canada!

Taking a short break till the weekend!

VICTORIA OR BUST!

OK. I am SO Going

After reading comment on my last post and comments on Facebook, I decided to throw caution to the wind and just GO. By the time I got done applying the special Facebook discount and my AAA Membership on top of their massive fall sale, round trip transportation and one night at the magnificent Hotel Grand Pacific (check it out!) came to a whopping $140. At first I was hesitant because in the late fall and the Clipper doesn't leave Victoria till 6 pm, and it arrives in Seattle at 8:45. It's a bit later than I wanted, because it'll be dark and I have to walk a few blocks to get to the parking garage. On the other hand, it's never once been in the news that the ferry terminals have a crime problem. The garage where I always park is the one advertised on the Clipper website as the best place to leave your car, and it's open till 11:30 pm. But on the up side, leaving at 6 pm gives me a whole, full day in the City. I don't even have to check in at the ferry terminal till 4.

By the way, do check out The Victoria Clipper website. Watch the slideshow on the home page and the slide after the "Big Colourful Fall Sale" one is a photo of the Gates of Harmonious Interest, by fellow blogger Ben Madison, who is a magnificent photographer and runs the Victoria Daily Photo Blog. It's a unique angle of the Chinatown gates and the text says, "VICTORIA. How long has it been since you've been?" I took that as another sign that I had to go since that particular question was posed on a photograph by someone I know.

Anywho, I have a fairly jam packed and extremely ambitious, itinerary and we'll see what I can actually accomplish. In a perfect world, I'll be taking a Harbour Air float plane tour which is on my bucket list, shooting pics of everything I've already taken pictures of till I drop, doing the Ghostly Walks Tour of Old Town & Bastion Square, hopefully with my friend Moriah who is going to try to meet up w/ me for dinner and the tour. The day I leave, I'll get up wicked early and see what I can do and see. If I rent a car, which I'm seriously considering, I will be free to go to Craigdarroch Castle, the Fisgard Lighthouse and other places. Not sure if I can squeeze in Butchart Gardens or the Butterfly Gardens.

To say I'm wicked stoked would be an understatement. I don't even care if it rains. Thanks for shoving me in this direction!

Had a Dream

That I took the last Clipper of the day out of Seattle.
Because I was dying to get to Victoria.

It was an impulsive trip, so it was late afternoon when I left. The light looked like this when I got there.

It was a surrealistic landscape in the Victoria of my dream, so the BC Legislative Bldgs wasn't located anywhere near the Clipper dock (in reality the Clipper docks right in front of it). I was rushing as fast as possible, and customs/immigration waved me through with only a cursory glance of my passport. I was so happy!!

I remember running with my stuff, trying to get to Parliament, which was many, many blocks away from me, but I could just see the top of the dome. They were waiting till I got there to turn on the lights (no idea why that was the case, but it was a pretty weird dream) and I started snapping pics of it.

After I was done shooting pics, I realized it was well after midnight, but there were still people out on the street walking around. Not much traffic though. The city itself didn't quite look like it does in real life...it was sort of a mixture of Victoria, SF and Boston, with a lot of tall brick bldgs and narrow streets. I also realized that I didn't have any reservations for a hotel room, so I wandered around all night and ended up pretty far from downtown in a very green, quiet, stately neighbourhood w/ lots of flowers. I think I saw Rick Mercer and Peter Keleghan during my travels. That's where the dream ended. It was pleasant, I was happy and excited in the dream. The first decent dream I've had in ages as most of my dreams are very 'dark' for lack of a better word. I woke up today with the hugest longing in my heart. I can't shake it.

It's killing me that I haven't been to Vancouver Island since 2007. The only other city I have ever felt this way about is San Francisco. I can't stop thinking about my dream. And, as I write this, I stumbled on "Dateline NBC" and the story takes place in Victoria. I mean seriously. What are the odds? It's like every sign in the universe is pointing me in that direction.

Brian's so sick of hearing me whine, almost on a daily basis, "I miss Canada! I need a Victoria fix!!! I'm jonesing for Vancouver Island!" that he finally said, "JUST GO ALREADY! SHEESH!!" I have thought about booking a quick overnighter because I really want to see the holiday lights at Butchart Gardens. It's almost too late to make the reservations for winter. The thing that's holding me back is the weather. Traveling anywhere in the Northwest is a crap shoot between September and May. But December can be a vicious month. With my luck, we'll either have snow or a horrible wind storm on the day I'm supposed to leave. Then I won't be able to get to Seattle to take the Clipper. The weather isn't an issue once I get to Victoria. Everything can be done on foot and I will have a prepaid tour to see the lights. Plus my friend Moriah lives in Victoria and I'd love to see her, Bruce and the kids; it'd be fun to go to Butchart to see the holiday display with them. But at this point, I wouldn't mind just going next month for a couple of days. My boss even told me I should go somewhere.

We'll see what happens. Watch this space.....

Vancouver Welcomes the World!

I love the winter games, and this year, they are taking place in our backyard, Vancouver, BC. Unfortunately, due to our warm & dry El Nino winter, there is no snow at Cypress Mountain where the snowboarding & free style events are taking place. The City of Vancouver has been trucking in snow in order to coat the mountain! There seems to be enough snow at Whistler Blackcomb for the major ski events. The good folks at Mt. Baker, near the Canadian border, are standing by, ready to import additional snow, in case it's needed!!

The symbol of the Vancouver Olympics is an Inuit 'inukshuk'. Technically, it's really an 'innunguaq', which is the stone cairn in the shape of a person. An inukshuk is just a stone cairn. The symbol means friendship and goodwill.

In a very generous gesture by BC Premier Gordon Campbell, he directed the Olympic Torch to swing into Washington at the Peace Arch in Blaine, which straddles the border between our countries, and then back up to Vancouver.

As a tribute to our neighbors to the north, I present a slide show of the photos I shot on my trip to Vancouver in 2006.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!