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Published: December 9th 2013
Nov 14- The hour long flight was a wonderful opportunity to finish my book and take some time to read up on some of Seattle sights. It was easy to spot Elaine in the airport although I had only ever seen her in photos! Her big smile was very welcoming 😊 we headed through Seattle to towards downtown to catch the ferry. Seattle is a major city and reminds me of a nicer Toronto. The weather is also very different. Rain rain and more rain, which brings lots of beautiful plants. It was quite a change in scenery from snowy Calgary, and to be honest I'm really not hating it! We boarded the ferry which took us from Seattle to Bainbridge Island where Paul and Elaine live (I've never been on a ferry that is used to transport vehicles like this before). Paul and Elaine have a wonderful house that is very artistic and modern looking. Paul actually pretty much reconstructed the entire house and it now has special editions I have never seen in any other house. I love how open and cheerful the house is and I already feel at home in this country so far from home. We
had a nice pasta dinner with homemade sauce made with tomatoes from Elaine's spectacular garden, and then read for the rest of the night.
Nov 15- Paul and Elaine have been going to Pegasus cafe for the past few years everyday around 8 o'clock to meet a diverse group for conversation and joyful company. The group is truly a wonderful bunch, all different in their own ways, all having some sort of story to tell. After coffee Paul gave me a little driving tour of Bainbridge island, first going to a park where it explained the old Japanese history and why they were forced to leave the west coast for a number of years. We drove by houses Paul had built and where he and Elaine raised their children, Anne and Mark. We stopped in at the bainbridge art museum and took a look at the new art exhibits. I explored some of the shops downtown and then walked back to the house in time to go meet Elaine and her work friends for some yummy Thai food! Bainbridge island is a sweet little city!
Nov 16- Today Elaine has been wonderful enough to show me around Seattle!
The coffee group!
Missing a few characters though! We went for the regular coffee group meetup and then hoped on a ferry! We walked along the busy streets and Elaine pointed out good places to eat/shop. A really neat spot to go to is the Pikes Farmers Market. It's huge! There are tons of little shops set up selling crafts, produce, and pictures. We took a quick look around and had some nice fish sandwiches at a stall with very enthusiastic chefs! I saw the very first star bucks ever made, along with a neat cheese shop that made there own cheese right there! Since Seattle has a lot of glass art work I bought a little charm to go with the idea of getting a different charm every city! We also went into the rack and other major stores, as well as take a peak into pioneer square! That night I got some good reading in and finished my book, "everyday".
Nov 17- Fremont is a part of Seattle that is known as "the centre of the universe" for an unknown reason. It's a very hipster, vintage area, and given that the Sunday market was going on I decided to go check it out for the
Seattle
A view from bainbridge day! The market was a street long, full of beads, rugs, soaps, nicknacks, and other people junk. It was almost like a huge garage sale, still a very cool place to check out though. I looked through a bunch of vintage clothing stores and saw tons of stuff I know my sister Bianca would have just loved. I found a place that gave full body massages for an hour for only 30 bucks so I treated myself to that! Very relaxing. I also exchanged a book that I wasn't too interested in for "the witch of portobello" by Paulo Coelho, a much more suitable read! When I got back to bainbridge island, I joined Paul and Elaine at their friend Nancy's potluck for Irene from coffees retirement party! The food was awesome and I knew most of the people there so it was quite a pleasant evening!
Nov 18- To get a really good feel of what Seattle is all about, Paul took me on a driving tour! We went all over Seattle! Before the tour we stopped in at REI which is a major store for anything to do with the outdoors, and guess what, I found a
Paul on the lookout
We walked up and looked at old forts backpack! First we went to volunteer park and climbed the water tower for a better view. Madison road is a very nice part of town, as is the area where the lead singer of nirvana shot himself! Oh the irony. We drove through the lovely university of Washington campus, and across china town. Seattle has a huge troll that is crushing a real VW under a bridge in Fremont. It was a teenagers art project from years ago that is now famous in Seattle! The smith building which is surrounded by skyscrapers was once the tallest building on the west coast! Seattle has two stadiums, baseball and football field right beside each other. Paul and I met Elaine at their friend Mary's house for some great pizza and comfortable conversation!
Nov 19- This morning Paul and I loaded up our packs and headed off to La Push for a few days. The few hour drive was very pleasant since you go through the Olympic park and rainforest! We stopped in Forks, which is surprisingly famous since it's kind of a dumpy rundown town. The book/movie Twilight took place in this little town and brought tourists upon tourists to this
I love how green everything is on the island because of all the rainlittle town of nothing. The vampire story was very popular and I bet there are some major twilight fans who are so jealous that I got to step foot on the scene! The first spot we got to test our backpacks out was Rialto Beach, what am amazing spot. I think of this beach as a tree cemetery since thousands of trees have drifted down a nearby river and gotten washed up on shore when they didn't make it far enough out to the sea. These trees are hundreds of years old and almost too enormous to comprehend. It would take my whole family to hold hands in order to wrap around one of the trees circumference. This made a great playground, place to hike, and fantastic photo opportunities! We hiked down the beach to a place called hole in the wall which was literally just that! We could crawl through once the tide went down, so we waited it out. We climbed over the huge rock and were going to come back through the hole, but failed when it seemed to be too difficult to get by without getting everything wet. I captured some wonderful sights on camera, and
A view from the art museum
Paul and I explored the roof garden of the art museum got to climb along the rock and poke at sea anemones! It rains almost everyday out here so to have two days of sunshine and perfect weather was a blessing!
Nov 20- Paul and I woke up early to a frosty car and instant coffee. Not my favourite combination but what can you do! Our hotel room was right on the beach and gave us a wonderful view of the ocean. We packed up and headed off to third beach. It took about an hour and a half to hike to the beach. It was really quite amazing since you hike through dense forest and then all of a sudden, seemingly out of nowhere this magnificent beach appears. We had to climb over some damned up logs that were quite slippery, but all in all a very good hike. There is moss on everything out here, giving me the illusion we were somewhere extremely hot. The area reminds me of New Zealand (what I picture New Zealand to be like since I've never been). After that hike we stopped at Grandmas Kitchen for some lunch and were served by the grumpiest waitress in the state. With a full tummy,
we headed down to the Elwah River and took on a pretty steep climb to see the what was left from the river after the damn was taken down. It's really neat to see how nature is constantly reshaping itself! The drive back was quite easy and we only had one stop at a real shingle and shake making place to pick up a package for pauls friend.
For the next four days I got to enjoy life through Paul and Elaine's eyes, doing things they would normally do, meeting their son, and city friends. One particularly sunny day we took advantage of the weather and hiked "Hill top" trail on the island. At the end of the hike there was a little bird house looking structure full of books. I think this is the coolest idea and I'm going to build one and place it around apps mill when I get home. The idea is to take a book if you please and replace it with another. When you are done reading a book at home, instead of just leaving it in a bookshelf for no one to read for the rest of its life, why not donate
it! We went to a little coffee shop where I tried a cool little mango tea. I really like the idea of tea and am forsure going to be investing in a good tea pot when I get home. We went to the library after to listen in on Paul and Elaine's friends new book being published. It's all about Bainbridge island walking trails and hiking paths. The island is full of wonderful greenery and pleasant walking places.
I took the ferry into Seattle one day to further explore on foot. The farmers market had caught my eye so I ventured further, looking closer at the stalls. I made my way through pioneer square as well, checking out the shops, cafés, and even found my way underground! I was curious about a set of stairs descending into nothing so I followed it and found an underground city where some people had apartments, pottery was being made to sell in shops, and artists galore. This was a private little place for people to build their items that they would sell later that week. It was neat to see it first hand, but I have to admit the windowless, barely lit,
brick wall hallways were creepy enough to make sure I only stayed down there for ten or so minutes. I went into a hidden waterfall garden which is oddly placed in the city. There were a lot of homeless people hanging around, but I still really enjoyed the area. I found a little cafe that was indoors but inbetween two stores so it had two brick walls and a massive fireplace in the wall. It had a really rustic feel to it, and I especially enjoyed the early Christmas decorations. I sat at a table for quite a while, skyping old friends and writing.
Nov 23- I have been waiting for this day for so long (actually yesterday nov 22). The opening of Catching Fire, the second book in the hunger games series. I've read the books and am completely hooked on the exciting story even though I know exactly what's going to happen. Paul and I took the ferry into Seattle and walked up to the Cinerama, an old style theatre that can fit 700 people. We sat at he very back of the theatre, on the top balcony! Not old was the theatre huge and packed full,
but they serve chocolate popcorn which is surprisingly good! The movie was awesome, as expected. I'm pretty sure Paul enjoyed it as well. "And may the odds be ever in your favour" "ahhh ah ahh ah" ( Rue's mocking jay tune). Elaine picked us up after and we went to one of her friends houses for a "early thanksgiving party". I have now been introduced to so many different people and put into positions where I know absolutely no one, so being a complete stranger to everyone was okay with me. The potluck style dinner was scrumptious! I met abunch of interesting people, one older man from Iran with a particularity funny story. When he moved here he had gone to a party with a friend and saw a girl he liked so got her number through friends. Without ever talking to her he gave the number to his mother so she would be able to talk to the girls mother and set up a date. The American woman was shocked and didn't understand what was going on, thought it was kind of odd, but still went out for coffee with him. Although it didn't work out, this man from
Iran was quickly told that parents organizing dates for their children was not the normal thing to do, and if he is interested in someone to just ask them himself. I thought that was quite funny, imagine getting a phone call from a random guys mom!? It's really interesting to think of the different cultures, traditions, and normals for different people all over the world.
Paul, Elaine, and I went to seattle to help install something in their son, Marks house. Mark is 6'7 and looks a lot like Paul. He bought an old run down grocery store and he and Paul completely redid it. The before and after photos are just incredible! Mark is an artist and has a studio full of all his ideas and drawings. He also incorporates math into his art work, constructing massive wall art done through a computer based on shadows, and movement. He also codes for certain websites and does a lot of computer work as a side job. Mark has done vipassana, a mediation retreat that I am really interested in and will be doing when I'm in sydney. It was awesome to be able to ask him questions and get
a better feel of what it's all about. Mark lives right down the road from the U of Washinton, so Elaine and I went down and explored the campus. The old buildings are absolutely beautiful and the lay out of the buildings shows off the mountains wonderfully. We went to the Burke museum which is in campus that had a huge display on native art! I love looking in different museums and reading about other ways of life. Oh ya, and before all that we had stopped in a little place called "morsel" for the known biscuits and gravy. Wow, probably not the healthiest thing but definitely very filling and tasty! We went out for dinner later for "happy hour" which I haven't seen anywhere in Brantford. It's where you order abunch of little sized dishes and share between everyone. It's a really good idea actually, especially for people like me who love to try all kinds of foods!
Make sure to scroll all the way to the bottom to see all the photos, there are alot! 4 pages to scroll through
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Elaine and Paul
non-member comment
Char, we loved having you visit us. Your photos are wonderful memories for us too. We look forward to reading about your next adventures. Bon Voyage!