The map below half overlaps with the last blog that we did as this trip started where the adventures with my parents finished.
We We left home with the parents on Saturday morning and worked our way to Vancouver ready for them to catch their plane out on Sunday and as a final goodbye dinner we visited out favorite Vegan Pizza place in Vancouver.
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I'm sure that I have mentioned it before but if you're ever passing through Vancouver it is worth a stop to support the small business vegan community.
The food is fantastic and the people are real and happy to share their stories with you.
Once the goodbyes were said and the tears choked back, the folks headed to the airport and home, and we headed on to the "Excited States of America".
We crossed the boarder at the "peace arch" crossing, which for those of you who have never been is a large crossing point were the highway crosses the country.
(sorry bad photo but you get the idea)
Once we finally got across the border (you'd think the Mexicans were getting in from Canada!) we set off to check out the shopping at some of the famous factory outlets on the way down to Seattle.
The original idea was to cross the border, buy some boots at the fancy shops for winter, head to Seattle and the head back to the border. As you will soon find out those plans changed on the way and we crossed to the next state down and went to Portland in Oregon State as well!
<<<< This is a Bit Coin machine, for those of you who don't know what Bit Coins are, to put it really simply it is online money that you can earn online and that is actually a recognized currency and here at this machine you can cash your Bit Coins for US dollars. You make your computer "mine" for the coin by doing a certain algorithm that basically generates money out of nothing. (we had never seen one of these before)
We
finally arrived in Seattle and we stayed at the Maxwell "Pineapple" Hotel which
was nice and clean and the price was mid-range. However everything
from when you arrive cost money, and about 2 times more then is
reasonable to charge.
We arrived in Seattle around 4pm in the afternoon so we decided to set out and see what we could see before it got too dark.
From this point on I could not stop smiling, I loved Seattle!! There was art and culture and children playing the city was alive. Lets work through the following photos, sorry they are mostly selfies.
Above: A giant water feature the moved around and the children were running around dodging the water jets. In the background the Space Needle (we had intended to go here but the lines were long and we were out of time and had to keep moving)
Below: a video around the water feature.
This is the major area that we walked around, to see all the cool artworks and people having a good time.
These giant "flowers" are in a solar-powered "sonic garden", where the flowers move with sunlight energy, and make interesting sounds as you walk past them.
Some residents of Seattle were probably trying to provide a moral uplift for their fellow citizens, at the thought that Trump would be elected (the entire western coast voted for Clinton, but Trump got in!)
After a long night of walking around exploring, we went back to the hotel and there was a vegetarian/vegan chinese restaurant 100 metres away, so we went there. Below are some pictures of the food we had!
On the following day, we managed to get out and go biking around Seattle's bay/harbour area, and got to see some industrial areas and a pretty clear view of the massive mountain in the distance. We think it's Mount Baker, which supposedly can also be seen on clear days all the way from Vancouver, Canada.
We saw plenty of interesting architecture in Seattle, strange shaped towers and bubble-shaped buildings everywhere.
After we finished our ride we scrambled back to the hotel, which was slow going in traffic and the mess of Seattle's streets.. We jumped in the car and drove down to Vancouver, Washington. Yes that's right, Washington State has a small town called Vancouver in it! How silly.
The reason why we went down here, was because we knew an old friend of ours from Highschool was now living in Oregon with his wife. George and Erin had agreed to meet us halfway for a chat and general get-together. They have lots of lovely kids, so we chose to meet at a park so they could get out and play a bit.
The park we met at was the Esther Short park, supposedly one of the first public (government run) parks on the west coast, established in 1853. It was basically a town-square, and was pretty nice in general. George and co arrived and we had a great chat, first time seeing him for 8-9 years (since grade 12). We got to meet his lovely wife and children, and later that afternoon we went across the border into the north part of the city of Portland, Oregon.
George runs his own IT business, called McKenzie River Tech (website http://www.mckenzierivertech.com/ ), and he says "It's an IT business, working with clients on anything tech related. We fix computers, design websites, and programs if needed. Whatever it takes to keep a business running!". So if any of our readers are in the Oregon State and need help with anything related to IT for the smooth running of your business, visit his website and give him a call!
We had dinner and said our farewells, and travelled from Portland all the way home to Salmon Arm - 10 hours of driving. We got to the Canadian border crossing at about 11pm, and got our work permits renewed which was a relief.
By the time we got home (4am) we were sleep-walking zombies, lucky, we had the day off to recover!
That's it for now, thanks for reading another installment of the Findlater's Travels.
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