I'm so ridiculously behind posting these, I'm just going to get on with it. Film pics from my family vacation in Victoria-Vancouver-Tacoma, starting with the island.
While the Northwest in general is easily one of my favorite place the world, Victoria in particular holds a special place in my heart as always being an exceptionally wonderful area.
Last day for the 2015 family trip, we stopped at a lake in Idaho, Coeur D'alene before heading to the airport to fly home. A great town, albeit a lot larger and more contemporary than any of the other places we've been visiting on the trip. While we were there, they were setting up for an Ironman even happening that weekend. With temperatures predicted into the 90s, it was looking to be an extremely difficult event for the athletes. Around town, we spotted a huge folding chair that even made my brother and I look like little kids, a 4 person paddle board, and an old vintage sign that had something very familiar on it. All in all, a great fun trip and one that put yet another positive impression for the NorthWest. Montana is definitely a place I look forward to going back to, hopefully with more hiking and camping.
Today we went back to Idaho and stayed at Sandpoint, a small town along the lakeside. The town itself was, while quaint and peasant, not really much to write home about. On the way there, on the other hand, we randomly stopped at Kootenai Falls and that was pretty fun. The rocks themselves were interesting enough, with prehistoric seabed preserved so you can still see the ripples from the seabed sand. We also checked out the nearby "Swinging Bridge" and fortunately, the bridge definitely lived up to its name! Three planks wide and suspended by a few steel cables, it wasn't exactly the most confidence-building bridge I've ever been on. The occasional loose & flexible planks were especially entertaining! Tomorrow is the last day as I head home, there won't likely be much to blog about for that day.
We start the day from Missoula and head further east to reach our final destination, Glacier National Park. Leaving Missoula, we first went to Whitefish, a small town just west of GNP which during the winter serves as Montana's premiere ski resort. Along the way we stopped at Flat Head Lake, probably the largest lake in Montana. After Whitefish, we continued to drive to our lodging at East Glacier, being attacked by some serious bugs during a quick photo stop along a river. After arriving at the lodge and dropping off our stuff, we headed over to Two Medicine Lake (the upper, not the lower). Hiked around a bit and went on a boat cruise which we lucked out on since that's the moment the weather decided to give us a quick shower. After the skies cleared up and we got back to shore, we headed back to the lodge where we turned in early for a busy upcoming Wednesday.
Today we left Spokane Washington and headed east to Montana, passing through Idaho along the way. Idaho was really stunning with dramatic mountains, lakes and seas of pine trees. Unfortunately though I was driving so no pictures for now. When we finally made it into Montana (only 2-2.5 hours in) we pulled into a rest stop and I grabbed some shots, including some fuzzy caterpillars that were climbing around on the rocks. After we made it to Missoula, our destination for today, we walked around downtown which while not quite as wonderful as Spokane, had a really great small-town vibe to it. Calm, open and laid back but without ever giving off that "ghost town"/"trapped-in-the-past" feeling. Definitely wouldn't mind revisiting, especially with a bike since cycling seems to be pretty popular here.
Last year in 2014 my family went to Maine for our family vacation. So for 2015, we needed to go someplace different, why not Montana? Yup! The final destination is Glacier National Park but we begin our trip in beautiful Spokane Washington. Seriously, when the plane was approaching the airport, I was having serious doubts about how Spokane would be like since all I saw was flat, empty cropland. But the city itself is a wonderful blend of valleys, trees, streams, waterfalls, and an AWESOME architecture vibe. Think traditional industrial brick factories (already a favorite of mine) peppered with some geographical 70's lines and curves. It makes for some great building shooting.
So we headed out away from Bar Harbor and out of Maine, towards New Hampshire.
I've been lucky enough to have traveled through some amazing places, and Maine (at least during the summertime) has definitely placed a positive impression on me. The land was so surreal, it was like being in a Miyazaki film.
And while it has nothing near the kind of cultural support California or even other states like Washington may have, there's still little surprises here and there of what you may encounter in this tiny state.
Briefly went through Augusta but rather would forget about it as it was a pretty depressing, empty town despite being the state capital. Next stop, New Hampshire!
2nd Day in Maine and of course, we had to swing by LL Bean. Ever since I was a kid I can remember my dad ordering from these catalogues. Needless to say, he was as excited as I would be if I were going to Porsche or Nissan's headquarters
Our hotel room for our stay in Bar Harbor. Pretty quaint, very 50's vibe to it.
Maine in general was pretty awe inspiring at how beautiful everything was. Reminded me a lot of my trips to Washington/British Columbia.
A lot of honest, good working trucks...
...and only a few imitations.
Some very naturally pretty front lawns.
Totally didn't notice the moose on the roof until we were leaving.
And sadly that's it for Bar Harbor. We were hitting a town each day and after traveling from one to the other, didn't have too much time to explore around. More coming tomorrow
