michaels bike is gone

I woke up at 9:30 and I was going to do my school work. And then I looked out the window and I saw that my bike was gone. So we went out side and we couldn't find it. My dad thought a kid just borrowed my bike so we looked around the campground and we couldn't find it so we bought a new 1.

La Push, Washington

La Push was incredible, even if you're not a Twilight Fan.  The pictures we took don't really give you feel for the place though.  It was very foggy and cool, kinda mysterious in a peaceful way.  Our campground was located right on the Quileute Tribe reservation.  Of course this was an area that was all about "Team Jacob" (Twilight).  The Quileute Tribe is only 2nd to the Makah Tribe for whaling, and the top tribe for seal hunting.  The ocean-faring canoes are like no other because of their ocean sea-worthiness.  The Quileute Tribe has been recorded to exist since the Ice Age.  Their language is the only known language to be unrelated to any root language.  As the legend goes, they believe that their people came from wolves and this legend is still passed on today at the Quileute Tribal School.

Quileute Tribal School

Our campsite right on the Pacific Ocean

The size of the drift wood was unlike anything I've ever seen.

They played for about six hours straight on the beach (air temp was 62 degrees).

BACK IN THE USA!!!! Port Angeles, Washington

God bless America!  It sure is great to be in our Land :)  We took a ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles which is where we stayed for one night at the KOA.  We are currently at Shadow Mountain RV Park which is just outside of Port Angeles.  Since I am still trying to recover, we had a down day of just hangin around.  Tomorrow we are headed to La Push (does that town name sounds familiar Twilight Fans!).  Big Red is too big to stay in the Olympic National Park so we have to stay on the outside and travel in.  We hope to make it to the Hoh River Rainforest.

Vancouver Island

I'm back from the dead!  At least for the moment to update the blog as best I can.  I will start will my diagnosis of pneumonia!  My last posting I mentioned having a cough and cold...well things got worse from there.  We took a city bus into Victoria so I could go to a doc in the box.  After sitting for two hours with some local heroin addicts, it was my turn.  Interesting medical system (socialized medicine); no nurses, you fee is based on your age, no medical history asked, and type of triage.  Oh one other difference, they don't call them by their surname, its Dr. John or just John.  Got my meds and have been trying to recover, but its taking too long :(  So, on our way back to Fort Victoria (our campground that was actually mobile home park) we took the wrong bus.  Wandered around Victoria until we found the right bus (which was a double decker!). 

We then made our way to the Living Forest Campground which was fabulous.  Chloe went swimming with the snake infested river!

Water temp is about 65 degrees!

This is our site/view at Living Forest Campground

Whale watching

Harbor seals

Victoria wharf

Squamish, British Columbia

Sorry, no pictures from here!  This campground stinks!  We unforunately have to stay here for two nights :(  I think it has made us all homesick and a little depressed.  To add to the missery, we all have a cough/cold.  Looking forward to taking the ferry tomorrow morning to Vancouver Island.  The ferry will be about a two hour ride.  YIKES! 

Whistler, Part 2

Biking, biking, biking!!!  Keith took some great photos of some of the trail rides. 

Michael....King of the Hill

Really enjoying the mountain biking.  Sarah Rose doesn't hit the because she is sick with a fever :(  We had dinner last night at The Keg which was good.  The Village of Whistler is a lot bigger than I originally thought.  Its layout is nice because it doesn't feel crowded even though it is peak of summer season.  We are headed to Squamish, British Columbia tomorrow morning.

Whistler, British Columbia

We found a great campground called Riverside RV Resort.  This campground is just a 15 minute bike ride to the village.  The main attraction here is the bear!  The bears are everywhere, including on our site!  Our favorite activity here is mountain biking.  Michael is king of the mountain and Joe wishes he was, but he is just too tiny.  We were going to spend a ton of money to go ziplining, but everyone would rather mountain bike....and its free!  The village is a typical ski resort village, nothing spectacular.  I actually liked the Banff townsite better.

Clearwater, British Columbia

We spent two nights at the KOA.  The most important amenity now is WI-FI !  It use to be the playground or swimming pool, now its WI-FI.  Met a man, Bob, from Ontario that helped us plan our Vancouver Island trip.  His son lives and works there so that was a great help to us.  We didn't do much here except "compute" :)  All of sudden two computers were not enough.  Making our way to Whistler today and then on to Vancouver Island.

Hores Back Riding

  My horse that I rode was named Smoky. We got to trot and lope.  He is a boy all of the horses were boys.

Lake Louise

Lake Louise of course was beautiful.  We went canoeing which Sarah Rose found very strenuous.  Not much else to tell about Lake Louise other than it is pretty.

Jasper, Part 2

On our second day to Jasper, Keith and I got up early and to head towards a hike.  It truly is like being at Disney.  You have to get up early to beat the crowds and to find parking.  You must reach the trailhead by 8:30am or you won't find parking.  So, off we went, but the waterfalls were a little disappointing (compared to Uncle Tom's Falls at Yellowstone).  From there we did a hike at the gorge (Maligne Canyon) with Sarah Rose.  The boys don't enjoy hiking the way girlie does!  We hiked 2 1/2 miles along a gorge which was great.  Our drive to Maligne Lake was beautiful and there were lots of goats.  This lake is the 2nd largest glacier fed lake in the world.

Icefields Parkway

The Icefields Parkway is the drive from Banff to Jasper.  That was the most beautiful drive with one of the most amazing experiences yet...the Columbia Icefield (an actual glacier).  We stopped along the way for a hike; however, there was a bear on the trail with her cubs.  The hikers at the trailhead told us this just as we were getting on the trail.  What does Keith and the kids want to do, go on the trail.  I didn't want to do it but off we went.  After about one  mile, I became too panick stricken and we turned around. 

Sarah Rose loves hiking with Mama and Daddy

We are actually standing on a glacier!

Michael drinking right from the glacier!  Sorry Silver Springs, it was the best water he ever tasted!

We all loved visiting the glacier.

Glacier National Park/St. Mary's Falls

Richmonds and the Riggs!

Sarah Rose and Carter were hiking buddies

St. Mary's Falls

Photos from Glacier National Park/Logan's Pass

Logan's Pass had an amazing five mile hike up a snow covered mountain!  Hard to believe it is August!

Gumby made his first snowman

There was so much snow!

Joe saving Michael

mountain goats everywhere

Very tough hike...almost to the top!

We made it!

Taking the easy way down!

Thank you John and Stacy Riggs for suggesting this hike.  The gloves you loaned us really came in handy.  It felt like hiking Mount Everest (just a little easier). 

Jasper, Part 1

Wow, this is really difficult, living without internet!  Since I can't write on the blog after we experience somewhere or something...I can't remember things!  When we left Banff we didn't have reservations anywhere.  So, we "boon-docked" along 93 at an "over-flow" called Silver Horn.  No services, but fantastic.  It was just us and the Rockies!

We arrived into Jasper a few days early and our campground (Whistlers) was not available.  So, we took a site with electric only at Wapiti Campground.  We were parked next to fellow Floridians (Jared and Katheryn).  We made some great people here:  Judy who is a full-timer and does it ALONE!  She drives a 34ft Journey and towes a jeep.  Don and Jackie are also full-timers.

Katherine, Judy, Jackie, Erin

  Our campround didn't have full-hookups, but it was great.  Lots of wildlife...including a grizzly walking right in front of us, on the trail the kids were just riding their bikes!!  I took a picture but it didn't come out very good :(  The elk were all over the campground.

The bike trails were very exciting.  As we bike along a cliff that drops 50ft into the raging rapids....Joe hits a tree root and flies off his bike and he slides off the edge...OMG!  The bike was caught in a tree and I jumped off my bike just in time to pull Joe up!  That was the end of the bike trail!  Michael met a friend, Albert, who is from Australia.  They biked together a lot.

Michael and Albert

Banff, Part 2

The kids wanted a "lay around" day so that is what we did...sort of.  Michael baked a cake, Sarah Rose played with her animal toys, and Joe climbed a tree.  The kids did a national park program and received dog tags for completing more than six of the exercises.  Great way to get a jump start on our school portfolios.  Keith and I went for a small hike to find wi-fi and found it at a great little hostel near the campground (it was us and several college students!)  We eventually made our way back into downtown Banff for shopping and dinner.  Dinner was excellent at Melissa's (the pork was outstanding).  By the way, it is soooo crowded in Banff!  Very cute town, but very crowded.  We are on our way to Lake Louise tomorrow.

Banff, Part 1

Things have settled down a bit.  We have enjoyed lots of hiking and the on-going search for Wi-Fi :)  It is a part of our daily life, trying to get on a computer!  We did a 4 1/2 mile hike today to see the HooDoos and also enjoyed the Hot Springs.  Our campground, Tunnel Mountain/Trailer Ct, is wonderful.  We have full hook-ups which means I am doing laundry until my hearts content. 

About five minutes later; we were asked to leave Canada!

The deer just roam all over the downtown Banff area.

Where is Gumby?....hiking Banff National Park

Canada

Very quick blog because we do not have internet services.  We have to carry our computer around until we find free wi-fi.  Lots of stories to tell but for now I will just tell you about the hassle trying to cross the border.  We were denied at one point of entry because of our rifles (even though we had all proper paperwork).  We had to make a decision of whether to skip going into Canada or ship the guns to Fort Myers or Seattle.  We spent the entire day driving (over 100 miles) to find a licensed gun dealer who could legally ship the guns.  Finally, we made it to another border crossing and we were "stripped searched", well...actually Big Red was stripped search while we sat there feeling violated.  There were four border patrol officicers going through ever crack and crevice.  I began to think they were going to do a cavity search on poor Chloe!  Finally made it through, but it was so late that we ended up at a Walmart for the night.  We had such a nice time at the Lethbridge, Canada Walmart.  We are now in Banff with more stories to tell, but I am out of time!