Campbell River with Steve and Dianne June 10 - 12

Wednesday morning we must have been excited to get going ... we were on the road at 8 am. First stop the Coop in town to fuel up the motorhome and hook up the car. Once we go there I realized we were missing a very important item ... the front hitch for the car! Oh well first trip out after 18 months. While Ray was fueling up I drove back the 5 minutes to the house and picked up the hitch and met him back at the gas station. By 8:30 am we were on the road. Yeah.

Traffic was terrible all the way up the island until we got past Nanoose where it opened up. Glad we don't have to drive this every day for work. It took Freya a while to settle in for the long haul ... the first hour she kept bugging us to be let out, but settled down finally when she realized we were not stopping. An uneventful run and we arrived at Thunderbird RV Park at 11:15 am.

Dianne and Steve gave us big hugs and after we were all set up we sat outside in front of the motorhome enjoying the view. It was breezy out, but quite warm. We had a lovely happy hour and met Ray and Ann of "Love Your RV" who spend their summer's here at Thunderbird RV Resort. Steve and Dianne know them as they all travel south for the winters.

Freya so happy to see Auntie Dianne and Uncle Steve

From Left to Right, Ray and Ann of Love Your RV, Steve, Ray and Dianne

There were lots of eagles flying around as there was some fish carcass's on the beach across the road from us. Here is one of Steve's pictures.



It certainly was a warm afternoon so Ray took Freya for a swim a couple of times.





After a nice visit it was time to go to Dianne and Steve's for dinner for ribs, garlic mashed potatoes and salad. Great dinner ... we ate all of the ribs except for one very small piece! A great day.

Thursday morning Ray took some pictures of the estuary behind us while walking Freya.

Later after a few chores we were out the door at 9:30 to take Dianne and Steve with us up to Mount Washington for a look see. They've not been there for years and Ray and I have never been. It was a much smaller ski village than we anticipated. Unexpectedly, nothing was open until this weekend. Only one small bar and grill. Rather disappointing.  Apparently they are contractually obligated to start later so the endangered Whistling Marmots are finished their mating season.

Tube slides

The saving grace was the lovely boardwalk through the marsh at Strathcona Park just down the road from the ski village. We thought the walk was only 1km but it turned out longer which was unfortunate for Dianne's knee and Ray's back. A lovely walk though. There were lots of wildflowers, green meadows and pools of water.

Here we go!

And they are off!

Dianne and Steve ... aren't they cute!

There were fish rising in this pond hence the little trail around it, I suspect.

Here is a picture of the view going back down the mountain.

On the way back home we took a drive to the Black Creek Diner for lunch. What an unexpected jewel. This diner is attached to the gas station and corner grocery store. Who would have thought they would have fabulous food for a very reasonable price.

After lunch we took a drive to the Salmon Point RV Park to see the burnt pub.  What a mess. The park is a pretty as it always is with flowers etc. A very well-maintained RV Park.

Back home Steve and Dianne went back to their home to get a few things done, I went to Save on Foods to pick up the last things I need and Ray laid down for a "toes up". At 4 pm we had happy hour. We must have moved the chairs back and forth between Steves and us 3 times to find a spot out of the wind ... ended up beside our coach. Everyone was full from lunch that no one was in a hurry to get going out for dinner at the Riptide Pub. We finally did go at 6:30.

You can see it was a little breezy and cool on their patio ... we have coats on. lol

We took a short walk along the waterfront after going into the pub. The marina is quite full of boats.

One million $$, two two million $$ .......

After a great meal we finished off the night with frozen yogurt over at Steve and Dianne's. Thanks Dave and Leslie for introducing them to Black Cherry. A lovely two-day visit. I had yet to see the cruise ships go by so I stayed up by myself from 10 pm until 11:30 running down to the beach in my PJ's to take some pictures of the three that came past. Unfortunately, using Ray's fancy camera I only had one good picture out of 50. lol There was not another soul out and about, the whole RV Park was dark. Very peaceful sitting on a log on the beach across the road from our unit in my PJ's all by myself.

The last ship to go through was the huge "Radiance of the Seas" but of course none of the pictures I took at 11:15 pm at night showed up. lol Here is a google picture of this huge ship. It looked amazing all lit up and so close to me.

Friday morning Steve and Dianne headed out early for a quad ride with friends and we moved kinda slow packing up and did not leave the park until 9:30 am We only have a short 2 1/2 hour drive today to Port McNeill to attend our first annual Father's Day Campout with Kristi and Jason and Jason's parents, Dale and Nadine. Stay tuned for more fun.