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Published: August 26th 2013
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August 25, 2013
Another beautiful morning and another beautiful location. I’m typing this sitting on a lovely little veranda in North Vancouver with a fabulous view down into Greater Vancouver with the mountains of Seymour in view to our left. We have a little visitor every now and again, a tiny, dainty little hummingbird and Steve has managed to capture him on camera.
Now I know this next subject may make me sound 'kinda sad' but it also shows I appreciate life’s simplicities! Up until now, despite fantastic weather, we’ve been forced to use a tumble drier, unable to find any form of a clothes horse or outside line. I remember feeling rather envious that our neighbours on Quadra Island not only had an outside line but one of those cable devices from their deck where the line slides out on a kind of pulley system. And I’m delighted to say we have one here in North Vancouver! I now have a colourful line of T-Shirts and undies gently swaying high above the garden, pegged out from the comfort of the deck! It’ll be dry in no time and air dried at that. Ah…. the simple pleasures
in life!
Five and a half hours of driving yesterday from Washington State to North Vancouver didn’t go too badly at all. After a last visit onto “our” beach we drove to Port Angeles (quick stop for muffin and coffee) and then onto historic Port Townsend for lunch. As we travelled from Port Angeles (where the Coho sails into from Victoria) through Sequim towards Port Townsend we notice more shops and, especially in Sequim, a larger variety of tourist attractions. It’s generally busier and feels a little like returning to civilisation, but not that that is a criticism on where we’ve come from. By turning west after disembarking the boat in Port Angeles we’ve enjoyed solitude and little bit of wilderness (although it’s true, a Safeway would have been nice) but now, this strikes us immediately as an area where people come to visit and holiday. The Americans (and going by car plates, residents of WA mainly) obviously see this little corner of the Olympic Peninsular as a holiday or day trip destination and presumably the vast majority don’t make it past Port Angeles. Well I’m just glad we did.
Port Townsend boasts some serious history – for
Port Townsend
The Old Theatre the West Coast of America that is. It was named Port Townshend by Captain George Vancouver (for his friend the Marquis of Townshend – once you’ve used your own name I guess it’s onto your friends next). It’s also called the “City of Dreams” because of the early speculation that the city would be the largest harbour on the west coast of the United States.
And by the late 19
th century, Port Townsend was a very active and well-known seaport. Many homes and buildings were built during that time, with most of the architecture ornate Victorian.
Many of these buildings still stand proudly and, to a certain extent, hugely out of place from the neighbouring towns but that just makes it more impressive. It’s enough to gain our attention and we live in a country where we take 15
th century (and earlier) architecture for granted.
We enjoy a very pleasant stroll up and down the main street before boarding our ferry over to Coupeville. It’s a short crossing but we’re glad we made the last minute reservation as it looks doubtful we’d have got on the 2.45 pm crossing otherwise.
The journey up through Whidbey Island
from Coupeville through to Deception Pass is beautiful and many of the rural houses we pass are fantastic. Lovely colourful, clapboard heritage, beautifully kept up with flowers adorning the wooden porches and gardens. We passed one such perfect cornflower blue house and I regret now we didn’t turn back and take a photo.
We stop for a bite to eat at a shopping mall around Bellingham before crossing the border at Peace Arch. This took a while – as expected – although the queue we were in was of course the wrong one. For every 3 cars that moved through on each side of us only one in our queue managed it. We decided the Customs Officer in our lane was way too conscientious for her (or our) own good but as we finally got our green light and started to move ahead she suddenly beckoned us to stop while she took a phone call. When we finally pulled up, expecting the Spanish Inquisition, we just got asked the basic questions and very quickly found ourselves officially in Canada. We thus concluded that Miss Brownie (as the boys were very amused to spot) had obviously received a phone call
Lynn Peak
Overlooking Greater Vancouver telling her to speed up a bit!
45 minutes later and we found our house for the next week. 1131 Kilmer Street, which pretty much backs on the wilderness at the top of North Vancouver. A lovely restored, detached, heritage house with plenty of room (the boys get their own bedroom with a double bed each!) and another fabulous view.
So today, once the washing had been hung, the Ashes is now officially over (a suspenseful last test which ends in a anticlimatic draw) and we head to Lynn Headwaters Regional Park and climb up Lynn Peak. It’s a challenging hike of 9 km with an elevation gain of 720m. It suggests a time of 4 hours but we complete it in just over 3. We’ve come to realize they’re pretty generous with their timings. We’ve even filled out the Hiker’s Log this time, which does involve remembering to return the bottom part of your slip so the Rangers don’t come looking for you! A nice idea though, giving you a feeling of being looked after! This walk takes you off the main trails and into “backcountry” and as no one else knows where we’re headed it makes
Hummingbird
In our back garden sense to fill out the form. However, despite being way less busy than the Grouse Grind, there are still plenty of Sunday afternoon hikers around so we’re not exactly on our own.
It’s a lovely hike, if not a hard one. It’s described as not dissimilar to the Grouse Grind and we can see why when we find ourselves climbing steeply through the dense forest. Views to our right to Seymour and left to Grouse break the hike up, as does stopping to eat our lunch and then finally we’re at the top looking out over Greater Vancouver all the way to the United States and the very familiar mountain peaks of Olympic Peninsular Park! We’re not officially at the top but this is Lynn Peak as it’s the part with the fabulous view. You can carry on for another 20 minutes but most people don’t bother and neither do we. The boys have done very well again and we’ve more than earned our Diary Queen Blizzard ice cream when we get back down!!
As I read through this blog before posting it we've just seen a deer out in our back garden! The boys and Steve (with
camera of course!) are out on the veranda and the deer isn't fazed at all by their presence. Wonderful! (Picture in the next blog!).
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