“The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places”. (Psalm 16:6)

We are in Birch Bay WA, which is just about as far as you can go and still be in the contiguous USA.  We plan to cross into British Columbia tomorrow and head to the Yukon Territories. It has been an amazing week. We have truly “happened” upon some marvelous places and experiences. I posted on FB about our accidental meeting with John and Paula that resulted in a canoe trip on the Rogue River. They took a chance on a couple of geezers in an ugly canoe and we had a terrific day. In the manner of paddlers everywhere, they urged us to stay longer and they would take us further upriver. It was very tempting.

After leaving Rogue River we stopped for the night at Sequest State Park near Silver Lake WA. The setting for the park is lovely; the facilities were not so good. They may be experiencing budget problems or just poor management.  We did have time to drive up to Johnstone Ridge to get a good view of Mt. St. Helens. I saw it in August of 1979, just nine months before it blew. It is very humbling to look at what used to be a peak and see a flat place. The drive up there is pretty spectacular too.

Yesterday (6/3) we arrived at Birch Bay which is one of the most beautiful parks ever. We are parked in a grove of sequoias overlooking the bay. To the north is Vancouver BC, along the western horizon is Vancouver Island, and behind us is Mt. Baker. We had an early dinner last night so we could get down to the beach before sunset. After beachcombing for a while, we settled down on two huge driftwood trees to wait. We were seated on one log and leaning back against the other as the sun slowly set. It would have been romantic except that Percy was intrigued by the opportunity to walk along the back log and lick our ears. Since she had just been sniffing dead crabs and wet seaweed it sort of spoiled the mood.

Since this is our last day in the US for a while and we are unsure of future internet connections, we had lots of business to tend to. Best of all, we had dinner tonight in Birch Beach with my wonderful friend, Helen. She drove over from Ferndale. We had years of news to catch up on and lots of photos to share. Magnificent places and fabulous scenery are great but dear friends are the real treasure.