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Published: January 26th 2009
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This is obviously an old update, but I need to catch up at some stage!
This slots in in September, just after Toronto Virgin Festival (which I haven't written about yet) and just before I moved to Calgary!
It's a pretty dodgy entry, cos I travelled with my parents so long ago, but it's an entry all the same!
So I arrived in Vancouver after a long effing day.
I hadn’t slept since the night before, after V Fest Erin, Nikki, Raine & I had a few drinks at the hostel, til about 4am. The other girls went to their respective hostels/houses and I decided that a shower was in order. So I did that, repacked a few things then caught the shuttle bus to the airport. I was getting so tired by this stage, but had to soldier on. I checked into the airline and all seemed fine. I set myself up in the lounge, laptop, ipod, bagel, coffee & pillow. All ready for the 4 hour wait I had til my flight. I might have even dozed off.
Then I was certain that I heard my name on the loud speaker. Maybe not. Back
to what I was doing. Nope, definitely my name being called. The hell could they want? I left all my weapons at the hostel, and my bomb wasn’t due to go off for another hour! (OK, maybe terrorism jokes are in bad taste.. sorry!). I went up to the desk and was told that something in my bag had broken and was leaking everywhere. Awesome. Turns out it was a bottle of wine I had bought for dad from the winery in Toronto. Now all my clothes smelled of wine. Double awesome! So I finally got all that sorted, with minimal help from the Westjet staff, and I had to recheck my bags and go through screening again. Honestly, so annoying! When I was screened this time, the security officer confiscated a few of my items. Getting super tired and shitty by this point, I got a little snappy with him and asked why he was taking these items off me, when I got through with them last time. He had no real answer for me, but wasn’t too impressed with my attitude. I guess I was a little rude!
Finally got on the flight, there were only
two of us in our row of three seats, so I could stretch my legs out in an attempt to get more comfy. Wonderful. I think I slept for maybe an hour, it was awesome. I got so excited when I saw Vancouver, it was like I was home again! I got the shuttle bus to mum and dad’s hotel, the Sheraton. God, it was so nice to be in a hotel again. Before I came to Canada, I’d never stayed in a hostel because I always got such good rates at hotels. So nice to be back in a five star! So I slept and slept and slept, til the parentals came home.
They had just gotten off the Rocky Mountaineer, a train that takes you through the Rocky Mountains. It was really nice to see them again after so long. We had a lot to talk about, but I was so tired and we had to leave early in the morning, so it was an early night!
The next morning we were off to Seattle. Well not actually Seattle, we were staying in some other place called Mukilteo. We went to Seattle one day though, did
a Hop On Hop Off tour which I can honestly say was the worst tour I’ve ever been on. The tour guides had no idea.. One was umming and ahhing all over the place, telling us about meaningless things, like her favourite carpark that had since been knocked down? Honestly! Another ws equally as dull, and spent half the tour talking to some couple about something, not telling the rest of us what anything was. Worst ever. We did do a tour of the underground city though, which was pretty cool. Basically the city of Seattle used to be lower, and they built above it for some reason that escapes my mind right now. Everything is still down there, and it’s kinda spooky. My dad made me scream a few times, cos he’s nice like that. We didn’t do the Space Needle or anything unfortunately, because we were running out of time and a city becomes a city after a while!
We spent a couple of nights in Mukilteo and then went to a place called Walla Walla that someone had recommended to my parents. Holy goodness. Most boring town I’ve ever stayed in. Lucky we only had one
night there. We walked around and there was nothing and noone around. We went into Safeway, just for something to do. Honestly! Then we drank. I get my fish-like drinking talent from both my parents.
Next on the list of cities to tackle in Washington State was a place called Couer D’Lane. After Walla Walla I was a little scared to go here, as this was another area that had been recommended to my parents. It actually wasn’t too bad, there was a pretty lake and a creepy-ish church there. The hotel had the greatest coffee machine too.. That’s about all I have to say about that place. Haha
Then it was time to drive back to Canada, back to Vancouver. Yay! Dad had hurt his back pretty bad when he pulled a suitcase out of the boot of the car wrong, so had been finding it hard to do a lot of things. One of those things was driving, so mum and I drove most of the way to Vancouver. Awesome! My first time driving on the wrong side of the road. It went well, thanks for asking, I didn’t crash or anything! It was a little
easier to handle because I drove on the highway mostly, so didn’t have to deal with traffic lights and turning into the left lane, etc etc. What I found most weird was changing gears and looking into mirrors. I found I was looking into my drivers side mirror instead of the rear-vision mirror, because I’m used to glancing to my left.
Once again it was awesome to be back in Vancouver, and I had a list of things I wanted to show the parentals in what I consider my Canadian home town! Dad’s back was still pretty bad though, so he rested for the first few days. I showed mum Metrotown and some of Burnaby, and we went shopping at the Real Canadian Superstore and Walmart! Woo! All the homeless people that we all got to know and love had moved on, even Molly wasn’t on her corner! She was replaced by one of the most horrific people I have ever seen. Well, he wasn’t horrific so much as what he had done to himself was horrific. I didn’t read his sign, which was no doubt asking for money, but the guy was sitting on the sidewalk with his head bowed, exposing a hole the size of a 50c piece in the top of his skull. I’m pretty sure I saw brains. Oh my goodness I wanted to cry, scream and vomit all at once, but instead just stared in silent shock. I couldn’t believe someone would do that to themselves. So yeah, homelessness in Vancouver doesn’t seem to have improved since I’ve been gone!
We had so many nice days weather-wise in Vancouver.. Until my dad’s back was better. Once he was ready to go out and explore the weather went to shit. Can’t win them all I guess! We went on a trolley tour of the city, the Aquarium, Gastown, English Bay, Stanley Park & Canada Place. Mum and Dad also did the tower, but I couldn’t be bothered for one reason or another.
The week after Vancouver was Vancouver Island, so we hired another car and got on the ferry over. Because we had the car we were able to explore much more of Vancouver Island than just Victoria, which is all I saw last time I was there. We went on a whale watching tour (and saw killer whales! Yay!), went to the Sooke potholes, saw the biggest hockey stick in the world at Duncan, and a few other cute places. Vancouver Island is really pretty, and I’m pretty sure the parents liked it. Dad even said it was somewhere he could see himself retiring!
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Kat
non-member comment
Been there..
Done that. Just needed to post an obligatory comment. HIIIIII!