Author: bbpeck

Bob and I began our day by driving about 10 to 12 minutes out of the city center to Westwood Lake Park, which we had seen as a thing to do/see here, and we were pretty sure we hadn’t been there on our last trip. Westwood Lake Park is nestled in the foothills of Mt Benson and has a 6.1 km trail around the lake that is definitely popular with runners and walkers. It was a very scenic place for a hike.

After our hike at the lake, we came back to the hotel and then walked near the harbor and poked around the shops in the Old Quarter.

Bob and I had a leisurely morning before heading out of our hotel at 10:00 am to drive just over an hour to Port Angeles, Washington, to catch the Black Ball Ferry to Victoria, Vancouver Island. After arriving at the ferry embarkation point, we waited in the parking lot until about 12:45 when we were able to drive on for the 90 minute sailing.

Since the ferry left about 15 minutes late, we arrived in Victoria about 15 minutes late and had to do customs there. That went well, and we headed to Nanaimo at about 2:50 pm for the 1.5 hour drive from Victoria. We’ll be in Nanaimo for two nights before leaving Wednesday morning for our housesit in Sidney.

We had a fairly easy drive up to Nanaimo and have checked into our very roomy room at the Courtyard Marriott in downtown Nanaimo.

Nanaimo is a city of about 100,000 on the east coast of Vancouver Island. We were here for a few days after a housesit in Victoria in January 2017, so we’re looking forward to seeing it again and exploring some new areas tomorrow.

Today, we had a great tour of the Blue Origin headquarters in Kent from my cousin before driving to Port Townsend, Washington, for the night. Blue Origin is Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company, that makes rockets for ULA and their own company as well as lunar lander services for NASA’s Artemis program.

Port Townsend, Washington, (population of about 11,000) is the only incorporated city in Jefferson County, on the Olympic Peninsula. It is known for many Victorian buildings in its town center, numerous annual cultural events, and as a maritime center for independent boatbuilders and related industries and crafts.

Below are photos from our walk from our hotel to the town center along Water Street, the main thoroughfare through town.

Yesterday, Bob and I left Baker City, Oregon, to drive 6 hours to Kent, Washington, to spend the evening with my cousin Kris and his wife Jen. We had visited them last year, and they said the next time we visited Jen would show Bob how to make paella, as she had learned when Kris and the family were stationed in Spain. So, we were looking forward to seeing them again as well as having paella.

It’s been a busy couple of days, so playing catch-up on the blogs. On Friday, we left our friend’s house in Logan to drive to Baker City, Oregon. This would be our second stay, as we stopped for a night there last year on our way east after having left Vancouver Island. We didn’t see or do much last time, so we tried to explore a bit more this time since we arrived earlier in the day.

What to know about Baker City. It is the seat of Baker County, Oregon, and has a population of about 11,000. It was named after Edward Dickinson Baker, the only US Senator ever killed in military combat. He died in 1861 during the US Civil War.

Perhaps one of the most interesting finds downtown was an agri sculpture that our friends in Logan had found listed in their Atlas Obscura app. This is a scale model of a salt block licked into this shape by cattle, horses, and sheep. Since the region is deficient in trace minerals, blocks of salt are placed out to supplement livestock’s diet. In Baker County, these blocks are then collected annually and auctioned off to support research for Parkinson’s Disease.

Bob and I left Laramie, Wyoming, on Wednesday to head to Logan, Utah, on our trip west. It was a little shy of about a 6 hour trip.

On the way, we passed the beautiful Bear Lake. Bear Lake is a 109 square mile freshwater lake split almost evenly between the states of Utah and Idaho. We were able to stop at a rest stop to get photos and walk onto one of the beaches.

From Bear Lake, it was another 45 minute drive into Logan, where we are spending 2 nights with friends. We are happy to have a return trip, as we had to leave quickly last year when Bob’s dad unexpectedly passed away. They made us a lovely dinner Wednesday night, and then we had a walk on the path behind and above their house before we turned in.

This morning after coffee, we did a nice walk on the Logan River Trail, one of many paths in Logan.

After our walk, we headed downtown to Le Croissant for breakfast. Highly recommend if you’re in the area, everything from croissants and other baked goods to breakfast sandwiches and lunch salads and sandwiches as well. We left full and happy and ready for a stroll around downtown.

Logan is the county seat of Cache County, Utah. It has a population of about 53,000 and is home to Utah State University. It’s about 82 miles north of Salt Lake City.

Bob and I arrived back into the US on Tuesday, July 30th. We were supposed to get to Des Moines, Iowa, on that day, but because our flight out of London Heathrow was delayed 2 hours, we ended up having to spend the night in Chicago on British Airways’ dime. It was a quick sleepover, as we didn’t get to our room until almost 9 pm and then we had to be on the 5 am shuttle back to the airport.

We arrived in Des Moines at about 9:30 am the next day to pick up a rental car to drive 2.5 hours to pick up our personal car, which we had stored at Bob’s mom’s house. It made for a long day, but we were able to visit with Bob’s mom before heading back to Des Moines to drop off our rental car and have dinner with Bob’s sister and brother-in-law. We then checked into a downtown hotel near where our nephew would be getting married on Saturday.

The next morning, Thursday, Bob got sick, and by that evening, I was sick as well. I guess we both had a bad case of international flight-itis, or something like that. It wasn’t Covid, as we were tested, but it knocked us both out of commission until early Saturday afternoon when we determined we’d be able to make the wedding after all.

From the wedding on Saturday night through Monday, we were able to enjoy time with family. It was definitely not the time that we thought we’d have, but we’re thankful we had the time that we did.

Tonight, we’re spending the night in Laramie, Wyoming, after a 7.5 hour drive. We are working our way to Vancouver Island for 2 repeat housesits that we did last year. Tomorrow, we’ll head to Logan, Utah, for a visit with friends.

Bob and I are spending a quiet night at the Clarion Hotel at the Copenhagen Airport after leaving our housesit at 3:00 this afternoon. We arrived at the hotel at about 4:40 after walking to the train station and then taking a train and then transferring to a second train at the Nørreport station. (We were meant to switch to a metro but somehow managed to botch that.)

It was hard leaving the very sweet Kobe, who kept us busy with ball throwing, tug of war, and keep away games. She was also a good sleeper and loved to come give thank you kisses to the person who put her food out for her. We are glad to have gotten to know her a bit but know that she’ll be so happy tonight when her real humans come home.

We’re hoping to get a good night of sleep tonight, as we fly out tomorrow at 11 am Denmark time to London before flying onto Chicago after a 3-hour layover and then onto Des Moines after a 2-hour layover, for an arrival of 9:53pm local time (or 4:53am Wednesday, Denmark time).

What a lovely trip it has been! It began April 3 in Northern Ireland and has had us spending time with friends in Scotland and Cambridge, walking over 130 miles on the South Downs Way, and completing two great housesits in two different countries, all while the UK government changed hands and the US struggled to figure out who is even running for president. (Fingers crossed there’s been a step in the right direction with regard to that.)

‘The Girls from Paris’ statue by Hanne Varming in Terminal 2, where we’ll be flying out of tomorrow morning

As we have ridden on the S train north to Copenhagen, we have passed a number of other stops and wondered about those communities. Bob did some research and discovered an art museum, a park, and a somewhat familiar sculpture for us to explore in Ishoj, four S train stops north of Solrød, but south of Copenhagen proper.

Ishoj is a town of about 22,000, located on the coast. It has the largest population (37.5%) of immigrants in Denmark, many of whom came to work in the country during the 1960s to 1980s and then chose to remain.

Today, was our second big excursion of our housesit. Today, we caught the S train and then the regional train to go to Helsingor (Elsinore in English), home of the castle which Shakespeare used in the play “Hamlet.” (*A play on a quote from “Hamlet.”). While Hamlet did a lot of pondering in the play, it was an easy decision for us to do a quick trip to this lovely port city of approximately 64,000 on the Oresund Strait. It plays up its association with “Hamlet” and also allows for views across the strait to Sweden.

Bob and I didn’t go in the castle due to time constraints but did walk around it and then through the Old Town portion of the city. We think we hit a market day, as it was hopping.

I’d add more, but “brevity is the soul of wit.”