Catchup Post No. 2, Tuesday and Wednesday

I gave up my shorts on Sunday in Bellingham for jeans, more that I was tired of them than it was too cool to wear them.  Maybe it was the constant A\C in the car that was getting to me:  we want to keep it cool for the dogs.  Today I’m giving up my flipflops for shoes, as we are heading into rainy and low 50’s weather, so shoes seem in order.  It was inevitable, of course,  but I'd rather be in shorts and flipflops any day.  J 

Got the house, yippee!  We heard that the 'dream house' is ours!  Hallelujah!  It's been an iffy thing from the beginning, and we still feel a little anxious, won't be positive until we are actually there and see it and sign the lease.   

We got into Prince Rupert at about 4 o’clock on Wednesday,  The trip from Smithers BC had amazing scenery.  Much of it was along lakes or the Skeena River, with very little traffic on the road.  The weather turned a little worse, low clouds and some drizzle; there was still a lot of snow in the mountains, and the clouds hung low and covered their peaks. 

We stopped at a small parking lot at Exchamsiks Provincial Park and were immediately surrounded by mosquitoes!  Luckily we were wearing long sleeves.  It’s a lonely park in the coastal Sitka Spruce rainforest, where the Skeema and Exchamsiks Rivers meet.

What is 60 feet long, weighs 800 pounds, and hovers over the community of Houston?
No, not a new strain of mosquito (at least not yet).  It is the World's Largest Fly Rod. Since its permanent placement between the Chamber of Commerce building and Steelhead Park, it has become Houston's highest, not to mention greatest and most interesting, tourist attraction.  My Dad had told me about seeing this on his trip to Alaska, but couldn't remember where it was. 

Wednesday we visited Cow Bay, or at least the souvenir/gift shop.  We bought a few gifts.  Kathy’s phone rang, and it was Brady, he and Faithanne having arrived in Berlin after an all-day train ride, hadn’t gotten much sleep.  It was good to hear his voice, from half way around the world. 

Next we visited the Museum of Northern British Columbia.  This was a first class museum, with many artifacts and good interpretive displays.  It also had a ‘sun room’ with two story windows, looking out on the bay, always a very good thing to have.

I bought our first postcard, and then found a 7/11 with a small postal corner, and wrote a postcard to Henry.  We haven’t even thought of this until now, spending so much of our time in the car, pushing to get from one place to another.  We have a day layover here, so had some time.  In this day and age of electronic communication, Skype and Facebook, etc., we stay in touch so I just wasn’t thinking about postcards.  He won’t get much out of it, but I know Kelli will keep it for him to appreciate later, and it will be fun for them to get in the mail.

Last night we got food at Tim Horton’s Restaurant, a Canadian institution, and were not impressed. 

Kathy found trails through the forest behind our motel yesterday, soon after we arrived.  The crude sign warning of wolves in the area was a new one for us!  She took me out there this afternoon.  There is a bog back there, too.  It was sprinkling as we walked along the trail, which we had nearly to ourselves.  I tried identifying the trees:  western hemlock, Alaska Yellow-cedar, alder, maybe some elderberry.  It’s a whole new world up here, different even from around Bothell and Seattle. 

KTLA Channel 5 out of Los Angeles is part of our television selection here in Prince Rupert, for some reason; nice to get some news from home. 

Our dollar is worth 93 cents up here, not a big deal, until you hand the clerk at Costco $600 cash and the computer says you gave her $558 Canadian! 

We’ve really appreciated this layover day, just relaxing in our room for the most part.  Tomorrow, we have to get up at 2:30 AM, to get in line for the ferry to Ketchikan, ugh.