On the road

Sunset at Porteau Cove - our first campsite on the trip

We have ducked into the United States for a couple of weeks. After crossing the border, giving our fingerprints and paying US$12 for the privilege, we travelled to a town called Anacortes and took a large ferry across to the island called Friday Harbour. To give non-locals some perspective it is a few hours up the coast from Seattle.
We are staying with a friend of ours, Nickie, and her partner and child. It is a beautiful island, well forested and extremely scenic. David was playing volleyball on the bay last night when a huge bald eagle flew majestically overhead. We have seen huge undersea kelp forests where Orcas come to feed, and done a little bit of work on an organic farm in the area. The freshest snow peas ever!




Nickie and Louise ready to go!




So far our campervan is going great. We walked into a Walmart in Vancouver, and came out with a trolley-load of gear to kit it out. You can get anything in these obscenely-large stores - from a gallon of mayonnaise to pots and pans, pillows, foodstuffs, RV tank deodeoderiser solution, camping gear, American flags, you name it. The campervan is fantastic inside - roomy and comfy. Our new GPS system makes getting around cities and towns a breeze. We only need our larger book of maps to decide which towns and regions to head for and this little gadget does the rest. It is fairly easy to drive as it ended up being an automatic vehicle. So much for all that manual practice before we left. The previous couple named the RV 'Leader of the Pack' (geddit - so slow that it's always leading a line of other cars) and we like that name so much we are tempted to adopt it if we have no inspiration of our own.

Vrooom

The scenery around this part of the world is spectacular. We drove along the 'Sea to Sky' road north of Vancouver the first day we had the campervan. It winds snugly along the coast, with snow capped mountains and forested hills complementing the ocean view. David was so awestruck he kept forgetting he was driving the vehicle!
Everything is big around here. The roads, the supermakets, the sights. We are keen to do some typical American things while we still find it new and interesting - like going through a drive through, visiting all the crappy fast food places and diners, seeing live baseball games and eating lots of coolwhip (whatever that is) and donuts. In fact the first meal we had upon crossing the border was a pizza and a jelly filled donut for Dave. Yum - we're 7 kilos heavier already :) David found 12 huge donuts for sale for $5 - no wonder there is that obesity problem in North America 0 they have to resist temptation every time they even go near a supermarket!