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Published: October 21st 2010
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We had ten days between flying into Vancouver from and Cancun, and flying out to Calgary to head to Banff for the winter.
We left Cancun on our way to Toronto, once again Air Canada let us down and we had no TV's, then we were delayed on the tarmac in Toronto for over an hour because of a fuel spill!! So we eventually made it to Vancouver close to midnite, checked into hostela and first stop was straight to McDonalds for some good old comfort food before bed!
Spent our first day, after enjoying best breakfast! cereal, peanut butter, juice.... wandering Vancouver and enjoying being back in the Western world. As we wandered past a music venue a casual glance at the gig guide showed Angus and Julia Stone playing that night!! No tickets left on internet, so lata before the doors opened went and lined up and were stoked to get in for 20 bucks each. Had a fantastic night, they really are a sensational aussie act!!
Next morning we picked up a hire car, a very cool Kia Rondo, ha. Gretchen driving and me navigating, a little issue with me being a youngster and under
25, so G banger was the designated driver!! We headed north out of Van, towards Whistler. It really was a sensational day, blue skies and sun shining. We stopped at a waterfall, had lunch in Squamish ( a little mountain town half way up) then continued onto Whistler. We wandered the village, checked out the shops, and went on a picture perfect walk through the woods, to the 'Lost Lake'. Had dinner back in the village. Deciding it wasnt worth a room for the night, we went for a little drive and found a nice little spot tucked away off the highway next to another lake, put the seats back, got our sleeping bags out and slept the night! Excellent views of the stars through the sunroof, cheap, electric blanket (leather seats were heated), just had to open the door for the private bathroom.
Next morning we stopped at Macca's for a wash and a muffin, drove back down through Van and towards the USA. Close to 2 hours getting across the border, had to leave car unlocked and keys on the windscreen, go inside and line up, finger prints and retinas scanned we were finally allowed into the
States... those border control lads sure take things seriously, me snapping off picture as we pulled up was followed by me getting told to delete it straight away!
We drove onto Seattle, taking a few minutes to figure out why everyone was passing us on the freeway, the speed limit was 70 miles not 70 kilometres!
We got lucky and found a best western, cheaper than the hostels. Even better was the breakfast!! A full buffet of make your own waffles, muffins, cereals, toast, whipped cream and on it goes, the americans sure love thier food!!
We made use of the strong aussie dollar and did some shopping for some fresh clothes to take to banff! Oh and a new pair of shoes to give the hiking boots a rest!
As luck would have it, Gretchen's sister Hannah was in Seattle too, so it was good to see each other and catch up a few times over several days.
We checked out Seattle's superb market, fresh flowers, fish mongers, and indulged in some local oysters, different to home, creamier. Home's are better!! ha
We did an underground tour, and was fascinated to learn a piece of Seattle's
history and how it burnt to the ground in the 1880's and how the city was rebuilt on top of it, and higher to avoid the tidal waters. Very cool to walk through old buildings and city blocks under the current footpaths and buildings.
The highlight of Seattle though was undoubtedly being able to go the College Football. The University of Washington Huskies against Oregon State Beavers. The day before some college kids working at a sports store decked us out in purple Huskies hoodies ready for the big game.
We caught the bus to the stadium, free with our match tix, we wandered through the car park, people bbqing and having beers (tailgating), in college sport you cannot drink inside the stadium. We watched the team busses arrive and the players rock the busses and the crowd go beserk as they came off the bus, the players patting a real husky dog a fan had brought to the game!
We had hotdogs and beers in 'the zone', a section behind the end zone where you can drink, watch other live sports on tv's and listen as a dj does his thing.
Husky Stadium sits next to a lake,
people sitting next to us came to the game on thier boat and little taxi boats come out and pick them up and bring them to the stadium.
On our other side a local family helped us out on the intricacies of the game, shared their popcorn and blankets as it was freezing cold. We were lucky to get brilliant seats in the season ticket holders section, nice little husky cuchions on the seats!
The cheerleaders and marching bands do their thing, never stopping for the entire match, 65,200 people stand still as the Star Spangled Banner is performed, enough to give anyone the chills! The players run out in a haze of smoke and roar of the crowd!
The actual game was just as brilliant, Huskies in a must win, raced to a big lead, the Beavers levelling up, it went into double overtime, after 3 hours and 32 minutes of game time, the Huskies won 35 - 34! The Seattle Times wrote the next day, it was the greatest victory in a generation!!! A sea of purple erupted!
Alot of people knock Americans, especially other travellers, but every local we spoke to in Seattle or in Washington
State were absolutley fabulous, they were intrigued as to why Aussies were in Seattle and at their football, they seemed genuine and very proud of their city. A nice change to Van, where every third person is aussie.
We drove back to Van after 766km's in our Kia, and checked into the same hostel.
Our last couple days in Van were spent on a bit of a city tour, just walking around and catching the bus to Lynne Canyon, a beautiful spot in the forrest only a twenty minute public bus ride out of downtown Van. It's also where alot of Hollywood movies are made, alot are made in Vancouver itself, earning the city the nickname, hollywood north.
As we walked the streets, all these 'cherry pickers' filming the top story of a small apartment building, where a blonde woman could be seen, rumour has it Reese Witherspoon is in town!! The security guys could only say the name of the movie, This Means War, and not who was in it...
We also went for a bit of a scenic ride around the beautiful Stanly Park.
Tomorrow we fly to Calgary and onto Banff.
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Bill Brott
non-member comment
Glad to hear you enjoyed a bit of the USA!
Not quite the Amazon jungle, is it?!? Sounds like you had a great time in Seattle and at the Huskies game. I grew up in Michigan where we regularly have over 100,000 at each home football game. Incredible! Anyway, hope you guys are doing well. Maybe one of these days I'll head "up north" and catch up to you while you are in Canada, eh? Bill