Snowy Sunday here, enjoying our house not thinking of all the work that needs to be done before we move. Gary and I spent the last week going crazy getting the house ready to put on the market; so many trips to Goodwill and the storage unit plus numerous contributions to our local landfill. The house was staged beautifully and we left one minute before the first showing. Saturday at 1:00 we get an offer from a buyer who viewed the house on Friday. All the extra attention to details made a difference. Thank goodness I don’t have to keep my house so clean, neat and overly organized for people to view any longer, now I can just enjoy for the next 32 days!
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, hopefully this will be the first of many ongoing posts of our upcoming adventures. We are getting the house ready to put on the market in about a month. Within the next two weeks the whole house will have been updated and all we need to do is declutter and pack our belongings. Updating the master bathroom is the final project and, of course, it is beautiful and so hard to leave. Going to move out of our 3000 sq. ft (pictured above) house to a 260 sq. ft 5th wheel(pictured below)! The house should sell quickly, we will have about 30 days to get out of the house. Not sure if we will begin our adventure by staying in the mountains skiing for a while or just head south. So many possibilities …..
Had a great time with my family in Seattle, my brother Charles and his wife, Linda and my sister, Pamela!
We made our way on a rainy afternoon to Canada.
Passing through Vancouver on a rainy afternoon.
A lot of catching up since Vancouver – the distances up here are huge and the roads are good but certainly not interstates, with the frost heaves and the road work we average about 40 mph. I don’t think I’m going to catch up so I’ll be continuing and adding as I travel.
All packed up, ready to leave one of our favorite campsites outside of Haines, Alaska on Chilkoot Lake!Haines, Alaska The town is much more spectacular than this picture! Towering mountains all around, located on Portage Cove, Chilkoot Inlet.15 miles via water from Skagway but 359 road miles.
I was really hoping I could add more pictures of the trip as we travel but it is much harder to find wifi with the band width to upload and download the pictures. Right now we are sitting on the coast of Valdez, Alaska, a beautiful ‘city’ with a population of 4,000 and I think that is in the summertime! It is the Northeast section of Prince William Sound, surrounded by the Chugach Mountains, the tallest coastal mountains in North America, rising from sea level to 7,000feet. Also the most heavily glaciated mountains in the Northwest.
Great fun to stroll along the docks and check out all the boats, smell the fishiness and feel the sea spray! Fishing is great here – a halibut derby takes place the month of June and so far the champion is a 259 pound halibut. A bit pricy to fish for halibut, a day trip would end up costing us about $1,000. We are going to wait to do a combination halibut, salmon day when the kids come to join us in Homer.
The harbor in Valdez, AK
Today the plan is to kayak the Valdez Glacier, its a bit overcast but the locals say it only gets windy when it is cloudy. We are still getting used to the long days, the sunsets around midnight and rises around 3:30. Nothing really happens until late morning around here and to sleep we have to cover all our windows with foil. It is an adventure, strolling the docks at 11:00pm – loving life!
Wonderfull landscape of Utah and the Capitol Building in Salty Lake City!
Great Falls Idaho and Shoshone Falls – South Central IdahoMy sister, Pamela, came down from Seattle to join us in the wine country of Washington- so many vineyards in the Yakima Valley of Washington – what a treat. It was extremely hot to be tasting wine… but we managed to taste and buy quite a few great wines! What fun its was and I love spending time with my wonderful sister!
We are going to be in Seattle enjoying my sister and brothers family and heading to British Columbia on Wednesday. We have a great signal here but not sure what it will be in the next couple of weeks. It is so hot here in Seattle, I brought clothes for Alaska and cool weather not the heat experiencing here…but it is still so much fun. The wine tasting was spectacular – crazy, I can drink so much wine and still feel so “chipper” the next day! I definitely feel like I am on vacation…
Leaving hime always seems to take the most effort! Finally left Parker,
Colorado around 1:00 pm after completing my final task with Cherry Creek School District of turning in my computer, iPad, key card and keys! Felt a bit strange but onto opportunities that are ahead. The truck is loaded:
plenty of fuel – auxiliary tank added this year with the range of over 800 miles
2 German Ghost hybrid bikes (combo road and mountain)
2 sea kayaks and roof gearbox full of kayaking miscellaneous(platform for our dog, Jake, to be part of our water journeys) and fishing gear for 5 of us to catch plenty of salmon
tools, hopefully for any emergency that we may encounter
3000 watt Honda generator
Plus our cabin on wheels – a 32 foot Blackstone Travel Trailer. With the slide out we have about 280 square feet to live in for the next 12 weeks. Yes, we are ready for an adventure.
We decided to work on the house for the first couple of weeks of summer! We (Gary) applied another coat a stain to the outside of the house and I painted the trim work…..got the garden all planted, flower beds filled and finally hit the road yesterday.
On our property in Fairplay relaxing and planning!
Forgot to add much to the last group of Photos….will add notes and have to include pictures of our last 3 days in Colorado and the spectacular wildflowers. It has been a great trip, hope you enjoyed the pictures!
One of the primary sources of fresh water in North AmericaEarly morning drive between Lake Louise and the Columbia IcefieldsEarly morning drive between Lake Louise and the Columbia IcefieldsEarly morning drive between Lake Louise and the Columbia IcefieldsEarly morning drive between Lake Louise and the Columbia Icefields
This pic was taken as we were hiking the ridge across from the glacierA casual seat to view Athabasca GlacierColumbia Icefield Parkway. Between Banff and Jasper, Alberta, CanadaBeauty along the trek to make you forget about the miles you are walkingThis is above Lake LouiseCute but Mom is very close and a bit larger!One of my favorite pics- hike to Lake Agnes Tea House above Lake Louise.Lake Agnes hikeThis is the view of a couple of canoes on Lake Louise as we approached the Teahouse on Lake AgnesEarly morning drive between Lake Louise and the Columbia IcefieldsDriving the Bow Valley parkwayEarly explorers thought this rock to be marble but was really dolomite.This is how the animals cross the highway – pretty fancy!Hike above Lake Louise where you view 6 glaciers: Aberdeen, Upper Lefroy, Lower Lefroy, Upper Victoria, Lower Victoria and Pope’s.Sitting across from the 6 glaciers and above Lake LouiseHike above Lake Louise where you view 6 glaciers: Aberdeen, Upper Lefroy, Lower Lefroy, Upper Victoria, Lower Victoria and Pope’s.While we were taking in the stunning views a loud boom and we got to witness an ice fall.Hike above Lake Louise where you view 6 glaciers: Aberdeen, Upper Lefroy, Lower Lefroy, Upper Victoria, Lower Victoria and Pope’s.Early morning paddleHike above Lake Louise where you view 6 glaciers: Aberdeen, Upper Lefroy, Lower Lefroy, Upper Victoria, Lower Victoria and Pope’s.Just another day in ParadiseAnother day in paradiseMountain tops as we drive through BanffJake and I on Hungry Horse, outside of Glacier National Park. .Hiking across from the glacierThe breaking down of ice sheets, ice is below the snow and it shifts.
We have the RV parked and head out with all the gear to car camp. We spent 3 days in Yoho National Park…roughing it!
Moose caught strolling through forest at campsite in Montana
This is the same train tressel as above picture, just further away. You just keep pedalling and don’t look down as we ride along.
This is the bike trail we went on Montana-Idaho NE border. Tressel used by RR now a bike trail we traveled over.
Hiking through a forest in Glacier National Park, BC, Canada
A 2 mile hike with an elevation gain/loss of 1500 feet. We are definitely getting in good physical shape.
Just a few pictures of our camping and just day to day events! Have spent way too much time on this today but next week we won’t have access to internet. Hopefully Gary will give me some of his pictures so I can post some pictures of me….
Like I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of fires in BC so we may not stay in Banff as long as we planned originally. We’ll just have ot come back…
It has been quite the adventure – Gary and I get along very well – easy to travel together. It is crazy that the sun doesn’t set until 10:30 or so. We usually are walking Jake around 10:30 and unless we are going on a long hike we manage to sleep until 9 or so…yes, we are on vacation and definitely enjoying it!
This is the same glacier that I took a picture of from our campsite in Yoho National Park but now we are much closer as we hiked the Ice Line Trail in Glacier National Park, BC, Canada
We stood sp close to this glacier and it was such a hot day!
Gary on the Iceline Trail oho National Park BC, Canada
Jake enjoying a roll in the snow as we hiked the glacier
I love traveling up here so much but there are so many fires right now that we may have to not see many more glaciers. The ones we did have been outstanding!
Wandering Judy 
