We decided to cross the national border to Vancouver to say hello to Markku’s mother’s class mate Leena and her sons and to see if Canada is different from USA.












Leena showed us much of the city. The owners of this house use all space to produce food. Without kids needing a lawn to play this is clever and ecological land use.

Katja and boys having the first glimpse of Vancouver Island from a ferry. They were still unaware of the terrible hassle that waited for us there.

Wet maritime forest in Central Vancouver Island.

Staff in the tourist information office in Port Alberni recommended us to go to see bears trying to catch salmon swimming and jumping to breed up the river. Unfortunately there was too much water for bears but just seeing so much salmon close to the edges of the rapids was like watching a nature documentary.

We took some unpaved roads to cross the island. We had worse luck than probably anybody has had on that road and had in total four flat tires and had to camp in the middle of large clear cuts less than one km from where we saw a black bear on the road side. There was no mobile phone coverage in that area, but the following morning a forest worker passed by and later drove us to the closest village.The closest tow truck that was big enough came from a town three hours away. This adventure increased our travel budged by over a thousand dollars.

Elk in the morning mist close to Olympic NP.

Markku testing how the rangefinder that has been used to measure the heights of the tropical trees works for really tall conifers in Olympic NP.

Boys looking down to a stream from a perfect natural bridge.

Katja and boys eating bread and fruits for lunch in coastal parts of Olympic NP.

Katja was wisely a bit further away from the surf. Few minutes after Markku took this photo Aaro and Markku got wet feet.

Coastal Oregon.

Redwood NP.

Katja with other Eurasian tourists just after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge to San Francisco. She is enjoying being in a city after quite a few NPs and is looking forward to spending the rest of the day without Markku and boys.

Markku and boys went first to the harbour to watch sea lions.

Then Markku and boys went to the California Academy of Sciences which had all kinds of exhibits. In the evening Markku’s sister Suvi and her husband Tuomas joined us to travel all the way back to Denver.

Boys under water in Monterrey aquarium.

Otso climbing on a southern redwood in Big Basin Redwoods State Park.