Tofino, Victoria, Seattle and driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road

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So, I started my new job last Thursday. All good so far although it is a little strange not working in law (speaking of which happy June 30 to Margaret, that makes it two EOFYs I’ve missed now!) so it’s a steep learning curve and the number of systems we use is just crazy: upwards of 11 packages depending on the hospital!

All is well with my house mates as well. We had a little house party the other night which was heaps of fun, my house mates can all cook so might have to lift my game in that regard.

As my job didn’t start until mid week, I made the most of my last few days of freedom by going on a Contiki like tour to Vancouver.

The 1 ½ hour ferry ride there through the Georgia Straight was pretty sweet but the bus ride through the rainforest from Nanaimo to Tofino was even better.

Tofino is a small fishing village that is pretty popular with tourists without being overtly touristy. Our hostel was basically on the water and offered million dollar views of Clayoquot Sound from our living room - not bad for 20 $ something a night.

First night in Tofino was a relaxed bbq and prerequisite drinking (told you it was like Contiki!). A bit of a spin out when I ran into some friends from previous tours: Marc, Jodie, Andy, a random girl I gave directions to in the street and others I recognised from Vancouver were all travelling on their own but happened to all be staying at the hostel - I suppose not that strange given that Tofino is a logical backpacker stop after Vancouver.

The next day we all did our own thing, I couldn’t resist a whale watching tour. Most of you know that I’m not much of a water person but I had such a rad time on the little zodiac boat on the way out. Spectacular views of all the little islands around the sound and I couldn’t stop grinning as the boat slammed down on the water as we went up and over the waves (it was pretty choppy, 2m high waves I’d guess).

Along the way we saw a wolf, sea otters, seal lions and a grey whale. I would have been happy with just the boat ride although it would have been nice to see a few more whales and maybe get to see the one whale a little closer up but then I also agree with the need to not disturb the whales so was happy to settle with my fairly grainy whale photos (honest there is a whale there somewhere, look closely!).

The sea lions were also fun, the big fast men sat lazing on the rocks but the girls were happy to come pretty close to the boat.

Back on dry land I met up with the rest of the gang and we headed out to nearby Long Beach (?) for lunch and a relax. We all managed to fall asleep and although it wasn’t that sunny or hot, the next day we all regretted it as we were a little sunburnt.

The local pub was doing karaoke that night and so we all headed there after a dirty take away dinner. Jen can really sing and she managed to get tour driver Ryan and a friend Steve up with her to do two duets. Marc, my travel buddy from Germany, also got up for a couple of songs and impressed everyone with his great voice (kinda cheating as he is in a band! Even if they are a tad emo …). Naturally there was no way I was going to sing but I did dance a little.

The next day we left Tofino to head for Victoria, it was a long drive but there were some nice stops along the way including a walk among 75m+ / 800 year old Douglas firs and a shop with a grass sloped roof with goats on it!

Dinner in Victoria was on a cool roof top restaurant with a beach theme to it and it even had a volleyball court! A late night tonight as a group of us made it to a pub with a great live covers band and cheap beers and then the remaining few of us to a bar that has hundreds of bras hanging from the ceiling (yes very strange!).

On the last day of our four day tour a few of us took a stroll around town, walked to the park, relaxed, ate a delicious vege pizza and before we knew it was time to head back to Vancouver and sadly farewell the great friends I’d made over the past few days.

No time to rest and the next day I started my new job (and woke so so late I had to sprint to work) and then over the weekend I headed off to Seattle for a festival - my first live music outing since leaving the UK four weeks ago (amazing to think I’ve only been here for a month).

Interesting times indeed as I decided to hire a car for the 2 ½ hour journey (that actually took over four hours …). Not having driven in over 14 months and never on the ‘wrong’ side of the road (let along outside of Perth!), I was pretty scared but I was amazed how immediately natural driving a left hand car was - maybe the fact it was a funky zoom zoom zoom Mazda3 helped too.

Crossing the border into the states was a nightmare - over an hour wait but at least I met two groups of fellow festival goers in the line and we later ran into each other at the hostel and then caught up at the festival as well so it was nice to have some friends.

Sadly I didn’t have much time to do touristy stuff in Seattle (this I will save when I return in a fortnight) only managing a quick walk through the markets, grab a coffee at the first ever Starbucks (cue photo), spin out at seeing a humble Holden Commodore (rebadged and sold to the yanks as a Pontiac G8) and take a pic outside of the Space Needle (which flew the Sub Pop flag the previous day - cool or what).

Seattle is well known as the home of grunge music (Pearl Jam, Nirvana etc) and Sub Pop, one of the pivotal record labels (Nirvana and Sound Garden signed to Sub Pop before going mainstream), celebrated its 20th anniversary with a festival in Marymoor Park just outside of Seattle.

The festival was near perfect, fantastic sunny and warm weather, great location surrounded by woodlands, friendly people and great bands.

On the line up were some old school bands like Mudhoney, The Vaselines, Green River and others as well as newer bands that I love such as UK coolsters Foals, Low, Iron & Wine and The Helio Sequence.

The highlight for many and the main reason hundreds were at the festival was, rather strangely, NZ act Flight of the Conchords who I first saw on the ABC back in 2003 and then live at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2004. Not sure if they are on Oz TV yet but they’ve become a huge underground hit in the States, they’ve won a Grammy award and their album went top 3 in the charts. Not to gloat but sometimes I am ahead of the game …

In an unusual sign of maturity, I left the festival a little early on the Sunday night to avoid the hour plus chaos leaving the festival so that I could be back in Vancouver before midnight fresh and ready for my first full week at work. I must be growing up …

I was pretty impressed that I easily managed to get to Seattle and back plus get to and from the festival grounds (and at night) armed only with a few google map print outs!

Well that’s all for now, a busy few weeks planned with a possible trip to Whistler this weekend, return to Seattle the weekend after that and then a planned trip to the Rockies over the long weekend.

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