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.

Day 222: Gorge

We spent the morning hanging out with the guys next to us who are from Washington, from "the other side of the Mountains," (the Cascade Mountains). It was great to learn more about people from Washington and have him learn about the South; he has always wanted to visit the East Coast and, "see what its like on the other side of the country." Its crazy to think about it, learning what its like on the other side of the country, but thats why I am here... there's a lot to learn and many differences.

Later that night, we headed to the concert. There are two main reasons why I am here: I never never seen Dave Matthews live, and I have always wanted to see a concert at the Gorge. The Gorge is an amazingly beautiful music venue that sits right next to the Columbus River with the deep river gorge surrounding the venue; the general admissions seats are on a massive hill that overlooks the Gorge.

At night you can experience two almost completely different concerts at once. You can either lay down and stare at the almost perfect display of stars or you can stand up, allowing the music and the lights take over your body. A good night with great music and amazing surroundings.

Day 221: Gorge

This morning, William and I had to get to Gorge to see part of a three day Dave Matthews Band concert. Before we left, we headed into downtown Seattle and go to the top of the Columbia Center. Today is a much clearer day, so I was able to see much of the mountains and the bay. After we saw the city from above and gathered supplies, we headed out, except we decided to take the long way. Instead of taking I90 pretty much all the way to Gorge, we took Highway 2 through the Cascade Mountains and then down the Columbus River to Gorge; a slow but beautiful drive.

We ended up getting to the campsite pretty late; by the time we set up and pre-gamed some, we made it in for the last couple songs. Tonights concert ended much earlier than we both expected, 10pm. While we missed most of the concert, it was still a good night getting to know the people camping around us and enjoying a clear night's sky.

Day 220: Seattle

After a good morning of sleep, I headed into cloudy downtown Seattle. The first thing I wanted to do was see the whole city. I went up to the top of the second tallest building west of Chicago, the Columbia Center; at 73 stories, I was able to see everything that wasn't covered by fog, cloud, and rain.

Afterwards, I hunted for a sports bar where I could watch my Gamecock's first football game against the University of North Carolina. Luckily, its 3pm here on a Thursday, so no one is at the bar drinking, except me and two other USC fans, what are the odds.

At halftime, I headed to the airport to pick up William. It is good to see a good childhood friend after almost 9 months. We headed to the hotel to drop off his stuff then we headed back into town. We ended up going back to the same sports bar to grab some food. Afterwards, we walked across the street to the Seattle Space Needle to head to the top. The Space Needle was built for the World Fair of 1962, at the time, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi. However, it was meant to be disassembled after the World Fair, as it was just a model of what skyscrapers were going to look like in the 21st century. The city refused to buy it, so Howard Wright, the contractor, bought it in 1977; the tower makes money from tour fees and the rotating restaurant at the top.

We then drove around downtown to get a feel for the Seattle nightlife.

Day 219: Seattle

So, today I was not too good of a tourist. As you can tell, I am pretty behind on my blog, so I spent most of today writing my blog. I was surprised that I had not caught up to today by the end of the night.