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We woke up Sunday morn and my thought (naturally) is to eat. We didn�t eat our desserts from the night before as the meal stuffed us and since dessert was included, we just took it to go. I had some cheesecake thing (very good) and Julie had a piece of chocolate cake. Julie had no room for food, but I did and she said I could eat some of hers with her. Well, once she tasted her cake she wanted to eat more of it since it was, as she said, the best chocolate cake she�s ever had. I also enjoyed the wonderful cake and I wanted it all to myself. I think we ended up splitting it. And yes, it was most excellent cake.
So we pack the bags, take some pics and head out with a mission to go to the beach. We stopped at the Fred Meyer (kinda like a Wal-Mart) there in Forest Grove to buy some beach towels and such. I saw the Iron Maiden Rock in Rio DVD for only $15 so I had to buy it since if I bought it through B&N, it�s twice as much. A most proud purchase. We navigated our way up hwy 26 until we hit hwy 101, which goes along the coast for the whole state of Oregon. This was a gorgeous drive with amazing scenery of trees and ocean (when not blocked by the massive trees). We decided to stop in Gearhart for our Beach Excursion. I had never seen the Pacific Ocean before so it was really important for me to fulfill my own personal Manifest Destiny. Dan and I wanted to actually swim in the ocean, but once we got on the beach it was way too cold and windy to get in our trunks and go in the ocean. Next time, I suppose. I did touch the water itself (super cold) and that was great. It was an extremely overcast day, with some mountains sort of jutting out into the Pacific. The girls got too cold rather quickly (15 minutes maybe) so they headed back to the car while Dan and I stayed on the beach and flew his kite that he brought. He�s an expert at it (this was a trick kite, so it could do cool stuff), but as I hadn�t flown a kite in over 20 years I only did OK. I crashed it often when trying to make fancy turns, but nothing was damaged so that�s great. I had a lot of fun flying it.
Memorial Day itself and Cherish actually had to work so while she was at work Julie and I just hung around the house and walked around Olympia a bit. There was yet another great breakfast fixed by Dan. For our long walk we walked to the state capitol (very nice grounds) and then over to the farmer�s market which was actually closed, probably for the holiday. We had some coffee at a little place next to the farmer�s market and that was nice. Of course I didn�t write the name of the place down so I don�t remember what it was called! After the nice walk we went back up 4th street (the one with the *really* interesting people!) and hung out at the home until Cherish got back from work and then we got ready to go out *again*, this time to Vancouver. That�s in Canada, kids. There was a pretty bad accident an hour or so north of Seattle (I think some people died, and it's hard for that to not effect you in a major way) and that held us up a lot. Once we passed it and stopped for some coffee, we headed to Oh Canada. The border check didn�t take too long to get through (10 minutes maybe) so that was nice. Cherish had never been to Canada so it was a cool new thing for her. Julie and I visited there last time we were in Washington in 2000. For me, the most confusing thing about Canada is the gasoline. Instead of being in dollars per gallon, it�s in Canadian dollars per Liter so we�re seeing something that says �89.9� and we have NO CLUE what it means. Is that cheap? We didn�t feel like trying to do double math and thankfully we didn�t have to get gas in Canada.
We got slightly turned around in Vancouver (an hour-ish north of the border) and had to get into downtown a round about way, but we still found our hostel just fine. Just like in Europe we used the heck out of our trusty Let�s Go book. Those things rule, I highly recommend them. Anyway, we stayed at the Seymour Cambie Hostel on Seymour Ave. We arrived pretty late so once we got checked in it was kind of difficult to find food. We ended up going first to the bar under the hostel (Malone�s Sports Grill), but we got there about 10 minutes after they stopped serving food. Since we were in a bar we figured we�d at least get a drink before heading out to find food. We decided on some huge blue thingie that ended up tasting good but had like no alcohol in it. Eh, oh well. After asking the server for food advice, we took her advice and went across the street to an internet caf� called the Electric Internet Caf�. Small place with very few people in there, but they had food, it was good and we were happy. The radio wasn�t on too loud and it just seemed like random heavy music playing, but at one point my ears perked up. I heard this guitar passage that sounded incredibly familiar. I listened closer and realized that they were playing Iron Maiden�s Back in the Village and it was a *radio station* playing this song. OK, this may not be a big deal to you reading this, but this is why I freaked. First, Iron Maiden on the radio itself is a rare thing. The only songs most stations ever play are 2 Minutes to Midnight or Run to the Hills (the big hit singles), so to hear an obscure, but great, non-single album track on the radio is a major thing. For me�I mean, Julie thinks I�m quite weird for freaking out over a Maiden song on the radio. The station also played a Pantera song a little bit later (it was an all-heavy metal station, which surprised me) and that was cool.
After the meal we went back up to our dingy little hostel (trying to avoid the teenage hoodlums on the street) and hung out until we went to bed. I�ve stayed in hostels when Julie and I visited Europe in 1998, but none of them were as small and dingy as this one. The rooms had stacked single beds which were very icky and scratchy and SO uncomfortable. Plus it was really hot (no A/C, but the window was open�it didn�t help), so Julie and I were not too comfortable that night. Plus there were people every so often making lots of noise on the street below for most of the night. But hey, we�re in Canada!
Julie and I woke up a little late, probably an hour before the check out time and when I looked out the window I saw that it was raining. Everyone here in Texas thinks that it just rains endlessly up in the Pacific Northwest, but that rain in Vancouver was the first rain that we saw in our trip. Of course, it rained for most of the day (revenge, I suppose), but it wasn�t too hard so I wasn�t bothered most of the time. After checkout and eating of our complimentary muffins we dropped some stuff off at the car and then went exploring throughout the city for the day.
The natural first stop (proximity-wise) was the tourist-trap area of Gastown. OK, it�s nice there and there�s lots of cool shops (we stopped in a Scottish gift shop where Dan and Cherish found out that their last names trace back to the same Clan back in Scotland�ha!) but it was touristy.
Since I was in massive need of seafood, and hadn�t had any yet, on our way back through Seattle we stopped off at the world famous Ivar�s Acres of Clams, which is located on Pier 54. It�s a really nice restaurant with great food. I had the �Best of the Northwest Seafood Platter�. Oh, it was awesome. Dan went all out and got the �Acres of Clams� which is just a huge plate of clams. I think we were all quite happy after that meal. We ended up getting back to Dan & Cherish�s house at a very late hour�quite a full day.
This is what�s known as a Travel Day. We saw Dan off before he had to go to work (he was working in Oregon, I think) and Cherish also fixed us yet another great breakfast. I have to say, they were extremely awesome to us. I mean, they�re our friends, but it�s still nice to have friends that generous. After gathering our stuff we hit the road back to SeaTac with our rental car. It was a small ordeal finding the rental car return place, but we did and made it to the plane just fine. We had another layover, this time in Denver. I wish we would�ve had more time, because I think it would have been cool to see Brian for a bit. Next time. By the time we got to DFW and then to our apartment it was close to 10, possibly after. All I know is that we were tired and we both had to work in the morning.
So that�s it. Excellent vacation. Can�t wait for the next one and the next visit to the Pacific NW.
You're probably wondering, where is Julie in all this? Well, she prefers not to be in pictures so she always ends up carrying the camera. I often forget to remember to force her to be in pictures. Next time, I suppose.