Planes, trains, and automobiles...

... and ferries. After a week long tour of the northwest, we made it home to the Bay Area. Since our last posting, we logged an overnight kayak trip (camped on a beach on Vargas Island), a visit to Whistler (future home of the 2010 Winter Olympics) and an evening in Seattle. We had a full week of sun and hardly a cloud in the sky. I think we were due for a good week of weather after enduring heavy rain during our entire honeymoon. I was nervous about planning a vacation to the northwest in the case that it would rain, but did some research and figured out that we were traveling at the best possible time. I am happy to report that the weather was beautiful (not exactly sure of the temp b/c everything was in Celsius in Canada, but we'll just say that it felt really nice).

Here are a few pictures from our kayaking adventure, and a map of the course we took. We had the beach on Vargas Island all to ourselves. We were able to watch the sunset, catch some cool photos, and enjoy an evening of freeze dried food and instant hot chocolate. The view from the inside of our tent was hard to beat (see pic). Trever also busted out the sardines - something I think is absolutely disgusting but he seemed to enjoy them.

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We found a great deal on a hotel in Whistler and enjoyed an evening in the mountains. We took the gondola all the way to the top and enjoyed an all you can eat BBQ dinner. The food was pretty good (although cafeteria style) and the view was gorgeous. They even had live music (to be honest it was a guy and his guitar playing cover songs, but it was great). We even saw a bear on the slopes below the tram as we descended. Here are a few pics from Whistler...

After waiting two hours in line to cross the border, we finally made it to Seattle. We searched the web for a great place to eat and found a delicious sushi place in Seattle. The restaurant is Ototo http://www.ototosushi.com/ and is located in the Queen Anne area. We had no idea where we were going and were excited to stumble upon this place, located in such a charming area. We loved it and were able to tour the neighborhood after dinner. To our surprise we also drove through an area that gave a us a great view of the city and a perfect shot of the Space Needle. We wish we had a picture to share, but we just couldn't capture the view at night.

So now it's back to reality. We had a fabulous time and would recommend this vacation to anyone (in fact our friends, Pete and Kristin, took a similar vacation last year and shared their tips with us). We have plenty of stories to share, but will leave it at this for now.