We left Skagway around noon on Thursday, taking the high-speed Alaska Marine Highway ferry M/V Fairweather to Haines, 15 miles down the Lynn Canal. I had been looking forward to the ferry ride, but not to boarding the ferry at Skagway. We have had our motorhome on ferries before, without incident, but never at a … Continue reading
I’ve mentioned that gold was found near Dawson City at the confluence of the Yukon and Klondike Rivers in August 1896. But the world remained unaware of that discovery until a year later when groups of miners from the Klondike arrived in San Francisco and Seattle with over 2 tons of gold in the summer … Continue reading
We left Whitehorse late Monday morning and drove south for 10 miles on the Alcan to where the Klondike Highway (Yukon Hwy 2) veers off to Skagway, Alaska, 98 miles distant. The Klondike Highway’s northern terminus is Dawson City and its route and name are a result of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898, gold … Continue reading
The drive north from Hyder runs along the easternmost edge of the Tongass National Forest. The Tongass, established in 1907, is the largest National Forest in the United States with 16.7 million designated acres, most of it temperate rain forest. The Tongass encompasses most of the Southeast Alaska “Panhandle,” an archipelago that includes, in addition … Continue reading
The town of Stewart, British Columbia, is located at the head of the 90 mile long Portland Canal, named, like so much of the Pacific Northwest, by the English explorer, George Vancouver, this time for the Duke of Portland. The word “Canal” is a holdover from the earlier Spanish, meaning “channel.” In fact, the Portland … Continue reading
We’re about to begin our Scandanavian/Baltic adventure. As I write this, we are sitting in the airport in Las Vegas, having left our home in Bellingham, Washington, 7 1/2 hours ago, yet being no closer to Stockholm, Sweden, than when we left this morning. Why, you might ask, have we traveled so long to merely … Continue reading
Well, we finished. But, in our rush to winterize the house, pack and leave Bellingham, I neglected to take photos of the completed house yesterday and last night a storm rolled through, spraying the yard and driveway with leaves and needles from the firs. However, I did get a chance to walk around the property … Continue reading
With the house now on its foundation, it was time to get to work finishing the 1/3 of the basement that will house Dale’s ceramic studio and my workshop; the other 2/3 of the basement will remain unfinished storage space, technically a “crawl-space,” although it could easily be finished living space someday. Here’s a photo … Continue reading
After learning that the two big modules had been transported to Mount Vernon for the final move and set the following day, we decided to drive down to visit. It was a little odd seeing the house in pieces on trailers in a field: We had scheduled everything to start at 9:00 a.m., July 30, … Continue reading
With all the concrete work now finished and the road side of the property back-filled to the retaining walls, it was time for Rob’s crew to start framing the rest of the basement and foundation. While Rob’s carpenters were busy getting their saws and work areas set up, Jesse placed the big stones on our … Continue reading
Anxious to get to work on the house, we stopped at what has to be one of the world’s premier hardware stores (appropriately named “Hardware Sales”) to look for tools. Now, that’s a wrench! But we didn’t need a wrench to put in the drainage system around the foundation – it’s all PVC. All of … Continue reading
While the foundation was being built, there wasn’t much for us to do so we took time to go to the Bellingham Roller Betties Roller Derby Championship Match at Whatcom Community College: …and then the Bellingham Scottish Highland Games in nearby Ferndale: …then down to Seattle as guests of our friends Rich and Susan (they’re … Continue reading
With the excavation complete, it was time to get started building. We had originally intended to put the house on a low stem-wall foundation with a 2 foot crawl space underneath the house and a separate garage/studio/workshop building, but the land didn’t lend itself to that configuration. So, we decided to put the house on … Continue reading
The first step in building our foundation was to survey the property. This was more of a challenge than I had anticipated because the plat our land was in had never been properly monumented, so I joined the survey crew looking for the government corners to start the process. The surveyors had to run bearings … Continue reading
We flew back to Miami from Seattle the beginning of March and were welcomed home to the Keys by a visit from Kelly and Casey. We gave them both big, congratulatory hugs on their engagement, then spent a couple days together in the Keys before going bike riding in the Everglades. Before flying out to … Continue reading
The day before our real estate closing, I stopped by the city building department to take a look at the plans and permits for the house and to find out what the permitting requirements might be to raise part of the carport roof to accommodate our motorhome. In response to my request for the permit … Continue reading
I mentioned that we’ve been looking for a Summer home on this trip. Well, we found one and we’re under contract, hoping to close next week! The house is a 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath, beauty, nestled in the woods and feeling more like a treehouse than a regular house. Here’s Dale on the boardwalk that … Continue reading
The weather while we’ve been in Seattle has been pretty much what we expected, although it was unseasonably cold when we first arrived a little over a week ago, hitting the 20s for a few days. And we’ve adapted pretty well, staying inside when it rains and enjoying the outdoors when it doesn’t. So, Thursday … Continue reading
Over the course of the last week, we’ve been in Bellingham three times, looking at houses and getting the feel of the place. And we have discovered where they keep the oysters. Yesterday, we had a fantastic boatload of them – on the half shell, fried, and in a stew – at a great restaurant … Continue reading
I always associated Boeing with Seattle, so I was a little surprised to learn that the company – the largest manufacturer of commercial aircraft in the world – had moved its headquarters to Chicago. Nevertheless, Boeing’s biggest factory is still in the Seattle metropolitan area near Everett, next to Paine Field Airport in Mukilteo which … Continue reading
Like ancient Rome and Constantinople, Seattle is a romantic city of seven hills. Here in Ballard, we’re on the western slope of one of them: Crown Hill. And the house we’re staying in is worthy of any Roman or Byzantine emperor. Simply magnificent. I mentioned that we’re house-hunting on this trip, but we also hope … Continue reading
Bellingham is a college town about 1.5 hours north of Seattle, just 17 miles south of the Canadian border. Interstate 5 makes it an easy drive, but we had heard from Susan that Chuckanut Drive – the Pacific Coast road in this area – was very scenic, so we exited I-5 at Burlington and made … Continue reading
Wednesday, our first full day in Seattle, was the parade and celebration for the Seattle Seahawks’ Super Bowl XLVIII victory. It was reported that over 700,000 people attended, but not us. We’re not really fans of football or crowds, so we opted to stay out of downtown and drove north, instead, to see the communities … Continue reading
One of the first things we always do on a home exchange is go to the grocery store. I never write about it, although I always find it interesting since it’s an insight into the local culture and you get to rub elbows with the natives (you rarely find tourists in grocery stores). But, I … Continue reading
We’re off on another home exchange, this time to the Pacific Northwest, specifically, Seattle in Washington State. And though we’ve just flown the furthest distance possible between two major continental United States airports, Miami International and Seattle-Tacoma, the flight wasn’t bad, stopping midway at Dallas-Fort Worth for a plane and airline change. Our home exchange … Continue reading
The Road Less Traveled 