After leaving Tina and John in Vernon, we traveled west again along the beautiful road through Kelowna to Hope to Langley. A very mountainous road: sometimes the outside temperature was almost  20 degrees lower depending on our altitude. We drove through the communities of Chilliwack and Abbotsford and Aldergrove, which up to now had been only names to me. From now on  will be able to visualize them! We got to Langley, where we had a great time visiting with the Van Beelens. They live in  a beautiful area of Langley, surrounded by trees. While Emily and Marieke live near them, the boys live far away; one in Mexico, one in New Zealand, one in Kelowna. It had been been 27 years since they had left Hamilton: wow time goes fast! We spend the night parked in their driveway, which worked fine. We would love to come back to the west coast of BC and and travel to Vancouver and Vancouver Island etc. It is worth a trip all of its own to properly experience everything. Would love to see Whistler as well. Perhaps some day.......
Wednesday we were on our way again, crossed over the border and drove through Seattle. Huge city. Lots of traffic, which we got caught in. Camped south of the city in a nice KOA. Thursday we took a guided tour of Seattle which was great. Got picked up right from the camp grounds. Seattle is a vigorous, vibrant city. We met a couple from Kelowna who had been traveling across Canada since May. They were going the opposite way to us , heading west again  while we are heading east today. They gave us some valuable tips about traveling in Yellowstone park. Told us to avoid a certain road since it was so mountainous and treacherous. We will be sure to do so!

not bad hair cut eh!

with Henk and Marya; has it really been 27 years !

welcome to USA: border crossing near Langley only took us a half hour

"fish ladders" in Seattle. The salmon come in from the Pacific ocean into Lake Washington to spawn and then to die. Since the lake is higher than the river they are swimming in, they need to jump from one height to the other, and so swimming upstream they make their way through these man made ladders to the higher level. Most fascinating to see them jump out of the water as they moved from one level to the other, all against the water flow. Their instinct within them is so strong that they have to return there to the place where they were originally hatched.

view of Seattle from surrounding hill. Many years ago part of the city was destroyed by fire. So rather than tearing it all down they just built on top of it. Parts of the old city can still be seen underneath, and it is possible to take an underground tour to view this. Too bad we didn't get the chance to do this.