Abbotsford 2009 (68)

As I have for the past few years, I took a long weekend and went to Abbotsford to visit my long time friend, Pam. This year I went during the Victoria Day long weekend in May for five days. It's always a nice break. The weather there is always relatively nicer that time of year - warmer, flowers starting, etc. Calgary is still trying to get rid of winter.

These first few pix are of the little park area near Pam's townhouse. There is a pond covered in lily pads, ducks, geese and some nice vegetation.

A goose, gander and goslings (Canada Goose).

We went out to Hope BC, about an hour or so from Abbotsford. Pam's folks have a recreational property there and conscripted us to assist with a garage sale. This park is at Hope (below).

Pam and her pup, Missy at the park by Hope.

Recreational properties across the lake from the park.

This guy was keen to go wake-boarding - I think it might have been a bit early in the season, but he's at least got a wet suit on so maybe it wasn't so bad.

Some pretty wild flowers....

This is the garage sale underway. We were entertained by the clientele. We noticed several varieties of garage sale goers: 1) the neighbours curious to see what kind of stuff you have; 2) the neighbours that want to come out and visit with all the other neighbours; 3) neighbours from 1 and 2 but who also actually buy stuff; and 4) actual serious garage sale people who are notable because if there is an item priced for 10 cents, they want it for 5.

Pam's mom (Alice), Pam and her dad (Hugh).

Some of the "stuff." I remember the painting with the orange/green being in their living room in Ottawa! Times change!

Pam and Alice.

Alice, Hugh, Pam and Missy.

Missy, Pam and Mary.

Facebook is an interesting phenomenon. I had a surprise note from Bruce - a good friend from high school days. We have not been in contact for probably at least 35 years, but he saw me on FB and sent a note! He's now in Chilliwack, BC, so we stopped on our way back from Hope for a coffee. Talk about time warp! The last time we saw each other we were mid-teens - now we're middle aged. Sort of depressing on the one hand, but it was really fun to see him and get the Reader's Digest version of his adult life. Maybe we'll be able to keep in better touch in the future.

Mary and Bruce.

We also stopped in at Amy's for lunch on our over-nighter to Port Townsend.

Mary and Amy.

Our little road trip to Port Townsend took us to this bridge over Deception Bay. This is a really neat bridge - I guess you can tell I like it because I took a lot of pix of it!

Pam.

Vegetation on the rocks.

We took the ferry to Port Townsend. Our original idea was to do a loop, but as you can see, the road/bridge we needed to complete the loop was closed, so we ended up coming back the same way we went.

From the ferry.

The next day: this was taken from our motel room. The water was smooth and the reflection of the boat was very clear. You can see the weather deteriorated quite a bit from the previous day. It remained rather gloomy for the rest of the day.

Port Townsend is on the Olympic Pennisula west of Seattle (click here to see a map). Much of downtown Port Townsend is comprised of restored buildings. They are very elegant.

There are only a few ferry times so to be sure we got the ferry we wanted, we went pretty well directly to the terminal when we were organized in the morning, got our ticket, parked in the ferry line up, then went for our walking tour for about 90 minutes.

Many of the older homes have been converted to B&B's, like the one above.

There is a cliff along the harbour - much of the townsite is perched above the harbor.

We went for a walk in the old part of town - it is easily accessed from the ferry terminal where we parked.

The tower is perched on the cliff, the main street buildings are on the flat part below the cliff.

Looking back from the ferry.

This last pix is a street in Abbotsford. The street is quite charming - the buildings have all been restored.

Then it was home time.

Pam and I always have fun goofing around. One of these times we'll be a bit more organized - we really could easily have spent more time in PT. Another "next time." I guess that's a good thing! It's better to leave wanting to do more than chomping at the bit to go home!