We are on our way, Comox Valley!!

Firstly, a big thank you to the Grade 6/7 students and classes that gave Miss W a pen and notepad before she went on holidays. She has been using it to make notes ready to write these posts each day or couple of days.

Well, we left Newport, Oregon in fog. Not just a little fog, but thick ”can’t cut it with a knife” fog. This continued all the way up to a town called Seaside. It was here we chatted with a very friendly lady in the visitor’s centre. She agreed with Miss W about how the coast of Oregon and the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia were very similar in scenery. She had been there and really enjoyed her stay. She gave us directions for the quickest route to Seattle and the suburb of Kirkland, which is on the eastern side of Lake Washington.

As we were driving up the coast , we often came across reference to Lewis and Clark. I wonder who they are? I also noticed that most houses along the coast were wooden, and often looked like shingles rather than long boards.

When we got to Astoria (near the border with Washington state), the map didn’t show very clearly that there were two bridges, so of course, Miss W thought we had gone over the one we needed to, and we ended up driving for about 10 minutes when she realised we were heading to Portland rather than Seattle. So we backtracked, went over the correct bridge and followed behind a very slow car to Olympia. One very impatient driver overtook eight cars in one go – luckily there was no traffic coming the other direction.

Olympia was time to fuel up the car, not knowing how long we would have to drive to find the motel in Kirkland. So off the freeway ramp, got petrol, followed a sign that said I5 which was the freeway. About 10 minutes later we were on a nice little road called Johnson Drive and it certainly wasn’t getting us near the freeway. Ask for help again, finally we hit the freeway.

Poor Miss W is not having good luck getting back on the freeway after fuelling up, but she is prepared to ask for help. In Kirkland, got to motel, wrote some emails to organize visit to Mrs Hembree and a couple of classes on Vancouver Island, which is in British Columbia province of Canada.

A day of rest required so no travelling in freeway traffic today. Instead we went into the suburb of Redmond and visited a chat room friend of Miss W. You can see her in the picture. Had a lovely lunch time cuppa with her and then back to check email and write some more blogging challenges and comments.

Miss W has still not heard from Alamo car rentals about having the car serviced. She sent them an email a few days ago mentioning she would be leaving USA for a few weeks and it was supposed to be serviced in about 1000 miles time.

So finally today. We headed off to the Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School to visit with Mrs Hembree in her library. Two classes came in and she read them a story about a Tasmanian Devil then the students asked Miss W some questions about Tasmania and other parts of Australia. After a quick tour of the school, which is under renovation at the moment, Miss W showed Mrs Hembree how to subscribe to RSS feeds. This makes it easier for teachers to read the posts on lots of blogs instead of going to each blog separately.

Mrs Hembree has contact with another Australian blogger named BB and her mum. If you want to check out BB’s blog, go to this link and Mrs Hembree has a blog for her readers at the school.

Our next stop was the USA / Canadian border at Blaine. There were police and customs officers who stopped my car and searched it fully, including the suitcase and backpack we had. They were amazed at someone driving all the way from California. Maybe they thought I was bringing drugs into the country. Lots of questions again about how much money I had with me and where I was going to stay.

Finally allowed to move on and head to the ferry terminal at Tsawwassen to catch the 3pm ferry. About 10 minutes out of the terminal, there was a sign saying the 3pm ferry was full and the next ferry 50% full. Luckily though, I paid for my ticket, got in the queue and drove onto the 3pm ferry.

It was a very pleasant trip, no large waves and Miss W and I stood outside looking for Orcas and dolphins, but no luck. It then started to rain so back into the car for the last half hour of the two hour trip.

Feel free to leave a comment or write a post about something highlighted, but we also want to know who Lewis and Clark are and why there is a trail you can follow of where they have been.