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Published: November 14th 2012
Pike Place Market, Seattle
Halloween, having a wander round the bustling Pike Place Market in Seattle. Ben putting a dollar in the brass piggy bank dressed in a halloween costume, the pig that is!!!Where to start?! It's been a good couple of weeks since the last blog and as usual we've packed loads in so here goes!
We're in the Las Vegas Clark County Library, my turn to write the blog and Ben's turn to put some pictures on. Best get typing!
After dropping the camper off in Vancouver on the 27th of October, we had three nights booked in the same hotel back in downtown Vancouver. We spent the day time exploring the city on foot and managed to see different areas such as Granville Island, Yaletown, Stanley Park and the Westend. In Stanley Park we went to the aquarium which was really interesting, especially as we watched the dolphin show and the beluga whale show! We also saw a sea otter doing somersaults whislt licking its bum! In the evenings we ate some lovely food, Vietnamese, Thai and Morroccan (Ben did a good job of the all you can eat for about $12) and we managed to see some live music and drink a few beers in the local bars. The highlight of the bars had to be one on Hastings Street, just around the corner from our hotel. As
Ben put it, it was like the Jailhouse times ten! A real locals local...it was hilarious! The beer was very cheap and the people watching was very entertaining.
On the Tuesday we got the Greyhound bus to Seattle which took about four hours as the traffic was bad. It was also chucking it down. My dad's cousin Pauline lives in Seattle and we'd arranged to meet her at a restaurant that night. We had some lovely food in an Italian with Pauline, her husband Brian, Ben her son and his girlfriend Reanna. We had a fun night and Brian wanted to treat us to lunch the next day. We met up with him, Reanna and Ben again for some nice grub at The Metropolitan Grill in Seattle and then me and Ben (my Ben!) went for a wander around Pike Place Market. It's a really lively market selling all kinds of interesting wares and Ben terated himself to seafood. (yuk!) We were still completely stuffed from our dinner courtesy of Brian so we had a steady walk back to our hotel to chill out for a bit and have a dip in the hot tub! We didn't get up
to much else in Seattle really over the next couple of days apart from go to the cinema to watch Loopers! It's a really lovely city, very pretty and the people are so friendly. It's just a shame that it rained so much! We were due to pick the hire car up on Friday morning but on Thursday I got an email from Pauline asking if we'd like to spend the weekend at their house. We were torn as we wanted to get going with our little road trip but also thought it would be nice to spend more time with Pauline and her amily. In the end, we picked the hire car up on Friday morning, went into another hotel to do a couple of loads of washing (I literally took my jeans off in the launderette to wash them and put Ben's swimming shorts on while we waited...I had to stay there til it was done cos I looked a right 'un!) We then drove to pauline's and after pizza, wine and salad (and a drop of Brian's Jamesons, all the way from Cork!) Brain and Pauline took us to see Snoqualmie Falls, followed by a bite to
eat and a drink in the hotel there. They then took us to watch a High School Football game as Pauline's daughter, Sarah was cheerleading there. As she's a Senior, there was also a presentation so we had to wait until Pauline had her picture taken! This all finished quite late so they then took us to a local bar for some food and a drink before going back to their house ready for a good kip! In the morning, we used Pauline's phone and computer to sort out some banking and photo stuff before heading off at about half eleven. It was really lovely to meet Pauline and her family. We had a good time with them so we'll hopefully get to see them again in the near future.
On the road, we headed for Portland. We checked into our first motel, The Palms, which we managed to find without too much trouble and after dropping our bags off we got the tram into downtown Portland. After a stroll around, it seemed like a nice city but with a lot of homeless people about. Maybe because it's a more compact city? We'd also heard there was some good
beer to be had as there were a few micro breweries about, so we sampled a few of these along the way. It didn't take much for me to feel the strength of them!
On Sunday we left Portland and headed for the coast on Highway 101, The Pacific Highway. Our first glimpse of the coast was amazing. It may sound silly to say but it just seemed so big! It looked so immense, vast and powerful...I wouldn't have lasted two minutes in there! It wasn't long before we saw pelicans and sea lions. The drive down the coast was lovely as the views were stunning. We stayed in a place called Florence that night in the Lighthouse Inn. We had a walk into the Old Town there and found a bar to have a few games of pool in whilst sampling some more local beer. We ate in a Mexican restaurant that had a decent live band on and watched an older crowd of people cutting some shapes on the dance floor!
On Monday, we were in two minds as to whether to carry on along the coastal road or take a detour inland to visit Crater
Lake. We were erring towards the former option but just before we checked out of the motel we got chatting to an old American guy who reckoned Crater Lake was a must as it would be the highlight of our trip. We decided to go with this and we were certainly not disappointed. The drive to the lake was goregeous. We followed the Umpqua River, seeing lots of trees that were beautiful golden colours. We also saw lots of elk and did a short trail to Toketee Falls which were very pretty. As we climbed the mountain (in the car!) we saw the rim of the crater but nothing else. Out of the car, we saw that it was absolutely stunning. It is what it says-a crater left behind fromn a volcano erupting and then filled with water to create a lake. The water is glacial so is crystal clear and apparently usually a very vivid blue. I thnk because of the time of day we went, the sun was coming down and so we didn't see the vivid blue but what we did see was spectacular. The water looked like a mirror, the reflection was that perfect. It looked
Pauline and Brian
Pauline, Shelly's second cousin with her husband Brian who so generously put us up for the night in their lovely house in Bellvue, Seattle. as thought the mountains were just sitting on a mirror! It was a really beautiful, calm and serene place that we couldn't get enough! We kept walking round the rim to get a different view and it still didn't cease to amaze us! There was also an island in the middle of the lake. As the sun was close to setting we needed to get moving and managed to make it to Shady Cove before it got too late. We checked into a motel then quickly walked across the road to the Eagles Nest Saloon where the beer was cheap and they'd put free pizza on from the local restaurant...result! We had a game of pool and chatted to a few locals (some right characters!) before getting our heads down.
Tuesday the 6th November, we crossed the border into California. It was really strange because as soon as we crossd the border...instant sunshine and blue skies! We drove through the Redwood National Park and stopped off at a place called the Trees of Mystery. Someone in the bar in Shady Cove said that this place was amazing...trees that were thousands of feet tall and thousands of years old...what a
load of rubbish! It was crap! Nowhere near on the scale of the trees we'd seen in Canada...but that's what you get for listening to a peed up drunk in a dodgy bar! Anyway, we managed to avoid paying the $15 fee...! We drove onto a place called Fortuna and went to the library there to use the internet to book accommodation in San Francisco and tickets for Alcatraz. Back in the car, we drove on until we came to a place called Willets and easily found a motel for the night as well as an all you can eat chinese buffet at Yum Yum Chinese Restaurant for $10.50! Absolutely stuffed, it was time for a bit of telly and bed!
Wednesday morning we drove to Oakland, a district just outside the centre of San Francisco where we had a room booked for three nights at the Civic Centre Lodge. After checking in, we got the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) train into San Francisco proper! We walked through Union Square, through Chinatown, into North Beach and onto Fishermans Wharf. What a lovely city! It isn't too built up and didn't feel too overcrowded. We manage to find a
great bar where everyone ws really friendly and the barman was up for a bit of banter. We'd only called in for one but ended up having a few more. A few of the locals had recommended an Italian restaurant called Capps so we went there for a good priced set menu-$15.50 for soup, bread, salad and a pasta dish!
On Thursday we got the 10am ferry to Alcatraz. We ended up staying on 'the rock' for a good few hours as it was really interesting and there was a lot to see. We started off by watching a short video about the history of the island followed by a short guided tour about life on the island for the families that lived there, then we got the audio tour in the cell house. Ben was in charge of the camera on this trip so he managed to get lots of good prison pictures! We also saw a lot of hummingbirds on the island which was a bonus! Back on the mainland we found a cheap chinese restaurant where the locals ate called Man Kee!!! Brilliant. The food wasn't that great but it filled us up ready to hit
a few more bars before going back to our room.
We felt a bit groggy on Friday so had a lazy morning watching telly and having noodles and coffee for breakfast! We managed to get out and about before midday though and got the BART to a district called Mission. The district is predominantly Hispanic and had lots of murals painted about the place. We then walked onto a district called Castro which is renowned for being the gay area. We had a few beers around here and a stroll. Both districts are really nice to wander around, very clean and well kept with lots of appealing cafes, bars and restaurants. We sampled a burrito (Ben went for the Super and even then had room for some tacos?!) and had a steay walk back to the BART station for our last night in Oakland (Which by the way was really rough!)
Right, I've got one minute left so best sign off! Ben will have to write about Yosemite, Death Valley and Las Vegas next time!
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Trevor
non-member comment
Hi Shelly & Ben sounds like you are having a great time, I expect Ben will be getting fat eating to many of those all you can eat chinese meals. Crater Lake sounds like it was well worth the detour, bet you got some pretty amazing photos. Have you posted any on your blog this time, perhaps I am not looking in the right place. I hope Ben he did not get his head turned in the the gay bars lol. bet your really looking forward to Yosemite, Death Valley and Vegas. look forward to your next blog, have a great time folks x