Yesterday was the first and only day of our trip where there is very little to report. We left our Hotel in Lincoln City, Oregon in rain and continued our path up Highway 101 towards Astoria as it continued to pour, at times very heavily. This would be a pretty drive in good weather but there was not much to see this time. At Astoria we headed east along the Columbia River on route 30 and then picked up Interstate 5 which is a soulless highway with little to commend it, and crossed the Columbia into Washington State, the ninth that we have seen in the last two weeks.
I had hoped that as we headed towards Olympia, the State Capital, that we might see some wineries but alas this area is almost devoid of wine interest, it seems. In retrospect we should have continued up highway 101 and headed east later, across the Olympia Peninsula where there are some vineyards, but with the weather and the slow road, that would have taken us too long and we wanted to get to Vancouver by Sunday afternoon to meet up with Ginnie's son, Joel and his girlfriend, Saxon.
So we ended up staying at a brand new Best Western in Lacey, WA, just north of Olympia on I5.
This was the third Best Western Plus that we have frequented and we are impressed with the quality and value. This one only opened in March and so still smelled new, however everything was great and was tremendous value. The full breakfast buffet was the best we have had all trip and the only negative was the inability to connect the WiFi to my MacBook or iPhone. Ginnie connected right away on her modest little Windows Netbook but no luck with the Apple products. Irritating to say the least and I don't know if it is a hotel or Mac issue but it meant I couldn't blog.
We did watch the Vancouver Canucks play game 5 of the series against Nashville and our Canucks lost by a goal, putting them at 3 games to 2. Now they will have to win on Monday. I only became interested in hockey during the Olympics and went to my first and only NHL game in Vancouver last February, but now I am hooked and cheering the Canucks all the way to the Stanley Cup!
Today we left our BW hotel and got right on I5. I was careening down the highway along with all the other traffic and asked Ginnie if she knew what the speed limit was. There is no uniformity across states and it gets confusing at times. I am very careful after my ticket in Nebraska, but was driving at 70 when I saw a state patrol car in my mirror. Just then his red lights started to flash. Not again! I pulled over and a very friendly officer who, according to Ginnie had very nice white teeth(!) came to the passenger side. He asked if I knew what the speed limit was and I said I thought it was 70 (as it had been leading up to Lacey). He told me it was only 60 and that it is 60 all the way north. I told him we had just got on the highway after our overnight stop and hadn't seen any signs (which is actually the truth) and my smile or accent or wife or puppy's eyes must have worked in some way as he let me off with a 'have a great day!'
We arrived in Vancouver at about 4:00pm and are staying at the Pan Pacific hotel where Joel got us a good rate. We just got back from dinner with them at an interesting Japanese/Fusion restaurant called The Eatery, celebrating Mother's Day. A quick walk along Kitsilano beach closed the day and we have good Internet access, albeit that we can't both be on at the same time!
Tomorrow we head for the Okanagan valley which we are looking forward to exploring, and the weather forecast is good!
I had hoped that as we headed towards Olympia, the State Capital, that we might see some wineries but alas this area is almost devoid of wine interest, it seems. In retrospect we should have continued up highway 101 and headed east later, across the Olympia Peninsula where there are some vineyards, but with the weather and the slow road, that would have taken us too long and we wanted to get to Vancouver by Sunday afternoon to meet up with Ginnie's son, Joel and his girlfriend, Saxon.
So we ended up staying at a brand new Best Western in Lacey, WA, just north of Olympia on I5.
This was the third Best Western Plus that we have frequented and we are impressed with the quality and value. This one only opened in March and so still smelled new, however everything was great and was tremendous value. The full breakfast buffet was the best we have had all trip and the only negative was the inability to connect the WiFi to my MacBook or iPhone. Ginnie connected right away on her modest little Windows Netbook but no luck with the Apple products. Irritating to say the least and I don't know if it is a hotel or Mac issue but it meant I couldn't blog.
We did watch the Vancouver Canucks play game 5 of the series against Nashville and our Canucks lost by a goal, putting them at 3 games to 2. Now they will have to win on Monday. I only became interested in hockey during the Olympics and went to my first and only NHL game in Vancouver last February, but now I am hooked and cheering the Canucks all the way to the Stanley Cup!
Today we left our BW hotel and got right on I5. I was careening down the highway along with all the other traffic and asked Ginnie if she knew what the speed limit was. There is no uniformity across states and it gets confusing at times. I am very careful after my ticket in Nebraska, but was driving at 70 when I saw a state patrol car in my mirror. Just then his red lights started to flash. Not again! I pulled over and a very friendly officer who, according to Ginnie had very nice white teeth(!) came to the passenger side. He asked if I knew what the speed limit was and I said I thought it was 70 (as it had been leading up to Lacey). He told me it was only 60 and that it is 60 all the way north. I told him we had just got on the highway after our overnight stop and hadn't seen any signs (which is actually the truth) and my smile or accent or wife or puppy's eyes must have worked in some way as he let me off with a 'have a great day!'
We arrived in Vancouver at about 4:00pm and are staying at the Pan Pacific hotel where Joel got us a good rate. We just got back from dinner with them at an interesting Japanese/Fusion restaurant called The Eatery, celebrating Mother's Day. A quick walk along Kitsilano beach closed the day and we have good Internet access, albeit that we can't both be on at the same time!
Tomorrow we head for the Okanagan valley which we are looking forward to exploring, and the weather forecast is good!
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