Caspar 17 August 2015

2 Days Before Launch

Excitement is building. Most all the client fires are out, the homestead is looking tucked, and we're putting our traveling tools together. 

This trip covers a lot of familiar and beloved territory. Quickly up the coast all the way as far as you can go, until the road is swallowed by the swamps of the Olympic Peninsula's upper left corner. 

A couple of days for the Olympics in Port Angeles, then across the Strait to Victoria, where we'll stay at the Fairmont Empress, the Grand Old Hotel right on the harbor, and Rochelle and I will indulge in High Tea for her 70th birthday.

Two days in Victoria, then Butchart Gardens on our way to a little cottage on Salt Spring Island. We hope to have enough time to find out what's up with Salt Spring's local money.

Then a huge travel day, three ferries, north along the Inner Passage, then across it, then back south to the only major new thing, the West Coast Wilderness Lodge, where we expect to explore a fjord and hope to watch Orcas.

One last ferry ride and then back to familiar territory in Vancouver for three days -- Yum! -- and two more days in Seattle -- Yum! again. And then to Portland for a day (more Yum!) before Silverton with family. 

Finally, four days, five plays, in Ashland, a couple of days with Chad's family in Chico, and home, 26 days and 2,500 miles later. Getting real! I'm nearly ready ...and, in some ways, I am beyond ready.