The grand finale

       We had a good time staying at Browns Bay resort.  Unfortunately, they had poor wifi so we didn't post much.  We hope that you took a look at the web cam and maybe saw us on the web ( Brown bay resort RV cam ).  I had hoped to take the Kayak out into the little bay in front of the RVs.  But the day after we got there high winds came up and gale force wind warnings went out for the channel. Here's a picture of the marina.  The cluster of  buildings in the left center is the marina, a restroom and a restaurant that serves all you can eat warm Dungeness crab on certain nights.

Browns Bay Marina.  Notice the floating seawall.

The current here is wicked.  The middle channel flows fast but creates huge eddies and causes white caps.  With the high winds, the currents were flowing strongly in the bay in front of the RVs.  We watched one evening, as a tug pulling a barge of lumber was forced to turn around as it fought the winds.  Also, cruise ships went by on a regular basis.  They looked really cool at night. 

We met some fellow RVers, Jeff and Lois from Canada.  Jeff recommended a water park and aviation museum on McMinnville, Oregon.  Lois also gave us a bunch of fresh veggies she had grown.

The first morning there, we say a humpback whale feeding in front of the rv.   Pictures didn't turn out well.  There were several eagles in the area and a group of seals that floated around the marina. 

The beach in front of our RV

We had dinner at the restaurant.  Devon, Alex and I all had the all you can eat crab.  It was great of course.  I planned on coming back and trying their Salmon burger which according to other RVers was supposed to be great.

Devon with one of the many carvings in the area

One night of especially high winds, a cruise ship came by around 3:30am.   The next day we found out the sea wall had broken.  They managed to tie one end off at the marina and the other end off against the rocks.  The next day, a tug boat was supposed to drag the ends out.  The tug captain, I was told, decided to pull from the middle of the marina line, so the end would get caught in the current and float out.  Unfortunately, he forgot to untie the end tied to the marina!  When he couldn't get the sea wall to float out, he went to full power.  He pulled the marina away from the bathroom which pulled away from the restaurant.  Water and propane lines broke and a pontoon gave in under the bathroom.  The workers managed to keep the bathroom from sinking.   But the marina and restaurant had to close.  

A few days later they tried again.  We watched them weld the sea wall back together.

Sea wall being welded back into place.

The Browns bay packing company is on the north side of the Marina.  They clean and package farm raised salmon and send it as far south as Sacramento, California. We heard they gave tours of the plant and walked over.  We met the owner of the company, Dave.  He told us we were supposed to schedule an appointment with the RV office.  Dave then gave us a tour himself!  It was a fun tour.  The kids got salmon blood on them as Dave explained and pointed out the various machines.  The fish were pulled from the boat, cleaned, weighed and put on ice in eight minutes or less.

Browns Bay Packing Company

No one seems happy with me taking their picture...except Devon!

Salmon Cleaning machine

That's Dave on the right!

The RV park also had a nice clubhouse with a pool table and a Foosball table. We played lots of Foosball.  Near our last day there we tripped the 30 amp fuse and lost our shore power.  We could not get it to work again. So  we had to run our generator a lot because in spite of the wind and being on the water, it was still warm. Between our generator and the kids we drove one of our neighbors a little batty.  He testily asked me when I was going to shut down the generator and that he had "not got any peace and quiet all day!"  I sympathized with him because with our kids, I did not have any peace or quiet all day!!

Anyway, we left the next day and went to Campbell to have the RV looked at.   The tech plugged in our shore power and of course it worked right off the bat. So we headed to the ferry to catch a ride to Vancouver.

Lucy thought since we drove the kids crazy with lakes and ocean and mountains we should try something more kid oriented.  We drove to Bothell, Washington and stayed at an RV park there.  Me, Alexander and Devon went to the space needle and the Sci-Fi museum in Seattle. 

The Shadow machine at the Sci-Fi museum made us into monsters!

Devon got into an argument with Daffy!

Alexander and Devon weren't that impressed with the Space Needle.  I could have spent much more time but they got bored pretty quickly.

Going up!

Spiders on the roof below

Free photo!

After the Space Needle, we caught the monorail and went to the fish market.  We had a nice dinner and headed back.

After Seattle, we drove to Gaston, Oregon to zip line at Tree to Tree adventure park.  Lucy kept her feet on the ground but the rest of us had a great time in the trees.

After that, we drove to McMinnville, Oregon to the Evergreen Aviation Museum and the Wings and Waves waterpark. They actually flew a 747 to McMinnville and used a crane to put it on the roof.  Now, waterslides come out of the sides.  The kids spent all day there until it closed.  I went to the museum which has the Spruce Goose, a SR-71 black bird and a full size ICBM missile, all inside.  

We drove south and did one more zip line tour at Rogue Valley Zipline tour.  The longest zipline was 1/4 mile long.  Devon wore the Go-pro.  We haven't looked at the video yet.

Finally, we made it home.  We put around 7500 miles on the RV.  We had some electrical problems but we never broke down. One time in Fairbanks, Lucy counted and found that 3 out of 4 cars had cracked windshields.  I fully expected to get a cracked windshield on the road but Gulliver never took a bad hit to the windshield.  

It is nice to be home again and sleeping in our beds.  We had a great trip.  We hope you have enjoyed our blog.  We will start up again on our next big trip!

Good Travels all, 

Gordon.

Tofino sunshine

Hi all,

After 3 days of rain, we finally got some beautiful sunshine. Yesterday, the kids spent all day on the beach and then we caught the shuttle to Tofino.

View from the beach as the fog cleared

Of course, there was a lot of playing in the sand. And the obligatory being buried.

Lucy and Leia rescuing Nancy

Today, we are off to the east side of the island where we will have an RV spot on the coast.  We will watch the cruise ships go by on the Inside Passage. 

Good travels,

Gordon

Matanuska mishaps

Hi all,

We are on Vancouver Island now but we had an interesting time getting here.  We took the Tok cut off north from anchorage.  We stopped at Matanuska and walked on the glacier which is even more fun than it sounds! However, on the way to the glacier  we hit a pothole that really shook us up.

On the road afterwards we stopped and watched a moose feeding in a pond.  Then we hit some unmarked frost heaves that sent us flying! We later stopped to eat and found the generator would not start.  Eventually, we found the battery terminal connector had snapped at the generator post.   A short time later, we found the coach 12 volt system had gone out which also included the fridge and freezer!

We drove into Tok around 9 PM and learned the mechanic wouldo be in around 0830.  We drove to the shop, thinking we would boondocked in the lot.  We met another couple already there in their 2005 ford Winnie.   They had blown their transmission and the new one was still two days out. We saw a nice RV park just down the road and went there.  We were happy to find out that our shore power still worked.  I checked all the 12 out fuses and pulled and replaced the coach fuse.  In the morning, the 12 volt system came right on when we disconnected from the shore power.

We still went to the mechanic to see if the could fix the generator and give us some advice on the 12 volt system. However, they were replacing an RV radiator and working on another diesel pusher that lost power to all of it's dashboard gages.   We realized it was going to be a while so we were on our way. I eventually was able to put a new connector on the cable and the generator works again.

We drove for five days, 6 to 8 hours per day. We stopped at on park that had a swimming pool, what a treat!

Now we are in Tofino,  Vancouver Island. It has not rained here since March and fire restrictions and water rationing are in effect. So, of course, it rains the first day we get here and is supposed to rain for the next 3 days!

Still, it is beautiful  here with rain forest and ocean all around.  Will up-load some pictures soon...wifi is iffy.

Good travels all,

Gordon

Kenai Lake

Hi all,

Well, we spent a week at Kenai lake. The lower kenai night has rainbow trout hitting. Unfortunately, Kenai lake doesn't.  But the scenery here is beautiful.  We have mountains all around us.  We have watched bears walking on the mountain (with binoculars).


We all took a six hour cruise out of Seward.  We saw humpback whales, lots of birds, porpoises,and a Calving glacier.

Becky and Wayne met us after the cruise and treated us to pizza!  The next day, Lucy and I went on a four hour kayaking trip without the kids! It was great. Becky  and Wayne took the kids to the wild life center.

Tomorrow, begin our one week trip,  heading to Vancouver Island.  We to drive 2310 miles in 6 days.

Good travels all,
Gordon