Day 229: Athens

Today is the day we have all been waiting for, Gameday.

An early hungover morning filled with ESPN, eggs, and beer started off my first true Gamecocks gameday.

Luckily I was able get a great ticket with William a couple rows from the Gamecocks sideline. This game ended up being a heartbreaking loss, 30-41. Our schools are both big rivals, so most of my friends were so upset with the loss that they just wanted to go back to the house and to sleep. I didn't let that get in the way of me and the other guys having a great time.

Day 228: Athens

This morning, more friends from Columbia showed up; literally a bus showed up and dropped off about 8 people in front of their house. One of their friends bought and an old bus and turned it in to a road trip machine.

By about mid-day the keg and most of the friends had arrived. It was great catching up with friends and sharing stories from around the world.

Later that night we headed out to a half-day music festival featuring Savoy and Wiz Khalifa, among other artists. Another night with good friends and live music.

Day 227: Athens

I decided not to finish my blog until I get back home. I trip around the world is not completed until I get back to where I started.

This morning, I caught an early flight to Atlanta, Georgia. The coast to coast flight was not as bad as I was expecting, but the time change did throw me off. Once I landed, I took a shuttle a hour away to Athens, Ga. This weekend, my alma mater, the University of South Carolina Gamecocks, play the University of Georgia Bulldogs; not only a football game worth coming back for but an even better group of friends to ease me back into home.

My friend William picked me up where I was dropped off in the center of town. We headed over to some friend of our's house, James and Harper, two guys that I basically grew up with through high school.

We all met up with my sister and my cousin later that night for dinner and some drinks. It was great to see two girls from my family, it has been way too long!

First night back on the east coast in 227 days with great friends and family, couldn't think of a better first night back.

Day 226: Seattle

So, today is my last day on the west coast... What to do?

I decided to see one more thing in Canada and then head back to Seattle, Grouse Mountain, which is in North Vancouver, across the Harbor. Grouse Mountain is a great ski park that becomes a green tourist attraction during the summers. I took a large skyride up to the park, which was filled with tourist activities. They had a really cheesy lumberjack show that had me laughing at them rather than with them.

I took a ski lift up to the park's wind turbine and was able to go up to the top of the turbine. I have never been this close to a wind turbine let alone take an elevator up to the top of it. It was pretty cool not to mention the view of the surrounding mountains were amazing. After I got done exploring the rest of the park, I had to head back to the US and return my car. The drive back to Seattle was a long ride; the entire ride was spent reflecting on the past eight and a half months of my excursion around the world. Its even crazier to think its been that long... Almost nine months. While each country seemed to take an eternity to explore, the world has flown by in a mere blink of an eye.

Once I got back to Seattle, I returned my car and made the walk to my hotel. The last walk I will take, the last backpack I'll pack, and the last hotel reservation I'll make. Until my next adventure.

Day 225: Vancouver

I started off the day by heading across the street to a great spot for brunch. After brunch, I headed into downtown Vancouver.

I first stopped off at False Creek, which is a small body of water that comes in off the English Bay. To my dismay, there wasn't really anything to see aside from the beautiful waterfront are. Afterwards, I drove further into downtown past the BC Place and Rogers Arena, home to both the BC Lions Canadian football team and the Vancouver Whitecaps soccer team and the Vancouver Canucks hockey team, respectively. These two large stadiums really welcome you to the city.

Before I went into the thick of the city, I stopped off at Sunset Beach, a nice beach where I was able to sit on some carved logs and watch the container ships come in.

Downtown Vancouver is nice, tall buildings just like any other big city. It is clean, lots of renovation and construction going on (which causes awful traffic), and bikes everywhere. The city is really pushing bike transportation; I even heard on the radio how they are pushing to have the center part of downtown Vancouver to be only foot and bike traffic by 2040.

I found a parking garage right next to the Vancouver Convention Center which is on the Vancouver Harbor. The CC had a great exhibit of the War of 1812. I didn't know that the Canadian and US boarder is the longest unguarded boarder in the world. The Harbor is really beautiful. Water planes taking off and landing right in front of me, with large lush green mountains in the background; a sight I could never get tired of.

To end the afternoon, I decided to rent a bike and explore the large Stanley Park. There is a great biking path that goes all the way around the park, so I decided to attempt to make it around before the sunset. About halfway around, I realized that I was not going to make it back before the store closed so I cut through the park. The park is really nice; deep forests right in downtown Vancouver overlooking the Harbor. Luckily, I made it back just in time and made my way back to the hotel.

Day 224: Vancouver

I woke up early to William's alarm as he got ready for his flight back to South Carolina. The shuttle was full to the airport, so I dropped him off. I went straight back to the hotel and slept until checkout.

I packed up and had two options: camp in Mt Olympic National Park or go to Vancouver, Canada. While I was traveling the world I met so many Canadians and was almost embarrassed to admit I had never been to my neighboring country, and I have heard many great things about Vancouver. The next thing I know, I'm in a foreign country with no no more cell service heading into downtown Vancouver. Luckily, my map also included Canada and I was able to piece together where I was and where I needed to go. So this is what life was like before the GPS?

I ended up making it to my hotel late in the afternoon. All I did was clean out my rental car and update my blog.

Day 223: Seattle

That morning, William and I packed up early and headed back to Seattle; since we didn't have much time a couple days ago, we want to cram as much as we can into one day.

We started off by heading to the southernmost part of downtown and walked to Pike Place Market, which was founded in 1907 and is where the local Farmer's Market. Everything from fresh squid to peaches were readily available. No wonder these people like to buy local, there is a fun good looking Farmer's Market right in downtown; you know you did something right when your city's Farmer's Market is a top tourist attraction!

After we got done walking around the Market for a bit, we joined in on a tour of Elliot Bay in the Puget Sound. The tour gave us a some general knowledge about Seattle and its history.

Once the boat tour ended, we walked into town and caught the underground tour. Back when Seattle was founded and being created, the town was built from the timber industry and the small town was surrounded by swampy grounds. With all the wood the town was built almost completely out of wood: everything from the streets to the buildings. Yes, the streets were created with the sawdust from the lumber mills along with the sidewalks. One big problem was that the city was close to sea level, so the city's crude plumbing would flood the city during above normal high rides. In 1889, a large fire burned down almost all of Seattle, which caused  the creation of a completely new city. Because of the fire, plumbing, and other problems, the town was to be rebuilt 22ft above the current town (the height varied depending on the location). This rebuilding process didn't just happen overnight, and you can't have merchants building their stores to be almost four stories higher before the roads were even built. So the stores did end up being about four stories higher, but the original ground level was still used during and after the road construction. At some points during the road construction process, the road was built well before the sidewalk. Once you got done buying your groceries you hiked up a 15 foot ladder to get to the road and then down another ladder if you wanted to continue shopping, or eat, or drink. Its pretty interesting, a city is built on top of another city; the underground tour company has to rent out each little segment of the tour because the property owners of the building above ground also own the property below ground, almost every year the tour has to be re-routed.

As soon as we made it to the new Seattle, we made our way to a local microbrew, Pyramid Breweries. We each grabbed a sampler group of their beer and some finger food.

We then made our way to the hotel to rest off the long day.