Second try on flying home. Our flight was a couple hours later than the day before, so we were able to wake up at a much less ridiculous time…around 6:00 instead of 4:00. Our flight left on time and we finally made it home safe and sound.
the 97 degree weather was a shock when we finally landed, but nicki had the air conditioning cranked for us when we got home.
Mission complete. Success.
Well, we woke up at 4am to go home, but things didn’t work out so well, and we ended up staying an extra day at the airport hotel. Long story short, our plane had a broken part, and I guess there wasn’t an available patr anywhere in the country, so one had to be flown in from Dallas or somewhere. In any case , we had a lovely evening in the Sheraton Hotel.
Alyssa ventured off by foot this day to do a little more exploring. We left with grand ideas of museums and sushi and gaslamp districts and more. Our plans were a little more ambitious than we were actually capable of though, and we ended up just doing breakfast and some exploring around the gastown. That turned out to be just fine though. Vancouver is really an excellent town, with a little bit of everything for anybody.
Gastown Steam Clock
One of our stops was to a place called “Salt Tasting Room”. I really wish we had a place like this back home in Minneapolis. Here’s the idea: They have a menu of wine, a menu of cheeses, a menu of meats and a menu of accompaniments such as almonds and honey and olives. You can choose whatever you like from whatever menu you like, but even better, you can just say to them, “give me three delicious wines, and pair it with three perfect cheeses, with a side of whatever tastes incredible with them.”, and they will! It’s like they know the perfect alchemy for making magic in your mouth and they bring it to you at your beckon call. I really want to recreate this again back home.
Our cheese and wine tasting paired with olives, honey and apricots.
In the morning Alyssa and I geared up with Noel and Jasna’s bicycles and Noel led us down to Granville Island where he has his ceramics studio. From there, we ate some of the most amazing fish and chips I’ve ever had at a riverside stand named “Go Fish”, and then went for a bike ride along the sea wall around Stanley Park.
Waiting for our fish tacos at Go Fish at Granville Island
Perhaps My favorite moment was when Alyssa slowly huffed and puffed her bicycle up a hill, passing a little old asian man on the left. He looked over at her as she passed and said, “Ohh, you very strong!”.
Enjoying an ice cream cone after biking up a really long hill in Stanley Park.
We passed a guy balancing rocks on end. I had no idea anybody would spend such time and training learning such a skill, but this guy did, and he’s really really good at it.
This guy takes rock balancing to a level I had never imagined possible.
This is a pretty famous Vancouver landmark. It
In the evening we met up again with Noel and Jasna, and Noel’s sister Meghan and her new husband Sean, and we all went out for dinner. If only I could remember the name of that place… anyway, it was great.
Woke up really early to catch the first car-ferry back to the mainland and drive up to Canada to return our van and meet up with Noel and Meghan for a few days. We may not have Internet reception once we cross the border, so it may be a few days before you hear from us again.
wish us luck in not getting harassed by the border patrol because we’re driving a van with a big picture of Bob Marley’s face on it!
updated …
We made it to Vancouver without any trouble from the border patrol. The guy had the usual stern and unamused demeanor, but he said he’s seen the Wicked vans before, and waved us by without any trouble. We met up with Noel and he invited us to his apartment where we met his wonderful new wife Jasna, and her awesome son Colya, who was kind enough to loan us his bedroom for our few nights there. It was really good to see Noel again, it has been years since we last hung out in person. The day we arrived Noel had just received his Canadian Citizenship, so we had a celebratory dinner and life was good.
Top 5 of the day:
1. Renting the most awesome little tiny car and driving around San Juan Island. I felt like I was driving a fisher price toy around town. We did a loop around the island and saw the sights which too about eight hours total. What a great trip!
2. Having a cheese picnic at beach spots along our coastal ride, reading boks in the grass and watching for whales off shore. Interesting how you’ll see one or two whale watching boats milling around one spot at first, then you can spot the whales they’re watching, and in the course of about ten minutes two dozen more whale watching boats have circled the wagons. They whale watching tour boats clearly have some constant communication going on.
3. The beautiful weather and restaurant for lunch at the marina restaurant on the north side of the island. We had a lovely spot on their patio in the sun, and ordered some of the most delicious fish tacos I’ve ever had.
4. paying a visit to Mona the Camel. This is the islands’s resident camel, and will happily trot over and give you a camel-kiss in exchange for an apple.
5. Finally having a respectable campfire at our campsite.
Top 5 of the day:
1. Getting to the ferry landing expecting a 2 hour wait, and finding out we can get on the next boat in 45 minutes. Later, the view of quiet Friday Harbor on Sam Juan Island as the ferry came into the dock was super exciting.
2. sitting at the crabhouse for grilled salmon and the best view of harbor life, watching sailboats come in.
3. happy hour and appetizers at “The Bluff”, an amazing restaurant we found with a small patch of lawn and Adirondack chairs overlooking the harbor.
4. Going on a whale watching cruise and seeing lots of killer whales swimming, jumping and playing.
5. Ending a great day by stipping in at the “Rumor Mill”, the neighborhood pizza joint where we saw some live jazz and watched the locals dance.
We woke up at our campground and headed to fort townsend where we were to catch our ferry to Whidbey Island and continue our next leg of the journey onward towards the San Juan Islands. We weren’t able to make a reservation for the ferry due to lack of internet connection, so we showed up at the ferry station an hour early with high hopes for making it on the next boat. We were unfortunatey four cars away, so it ended up being a three hour wait.
A car ferry ride later, we made it to our next land-mass and drove on to the town of Coupeville, and in the words of a Coupesville native, GPS doesn’t even know where we are! This is one of the best towns ever…. At least one of the best towns the I/we have ever visited. It is a town with the right light, the perfect amount of shops, the perfect number of people with stories, the perfect number of informational plaques… Just perfect. There is no amount of touristy bs. On a Friday night we had no problem finding a place to call home and several places to call home for a bite and a pint. This is the place I hate to share and love to share. It is like stepping back a few decades in time.
Top 5 of the day:
1. Alyssa’s first car-ferry ride. (the Bob rode the ferry with class)
2. Getting to Coupeville and walking main street shops. Having a glass of wine at Kim’s Cafe at the end of the pier and watching boats dock.
3. Having a cold beer at “Toby’s”, which our hotel lady told us “smells like the boat the fish came off of.”, but turned out to be a comfy, local watering hole.
4. Eating at a recommended restaurant named “Christopher’s” and having the best mussels we’ve ever had…ever…ever.
5. The way the light from the setting sun hits the tiny three blocks of downtown Coupville in just the right way.
Top 5 of the day:
1. Waking up to the sound of rain pattering on the roof of our van-home, then falling back asleep.
2. Arriving at Sol Duk hot springs and taking a hot, sulphate hottub soak.
3. Beautiful 6 mile hike. Mossy trees, stream crossings and fern-covered forests.
4. Seeing an awesome waterfall!
5. Campfire at night and camp-cooked dinner…even though we were sold broken campfire wood that was fire-proof.
1. We may have slept in a parking lot, but we can’t complain because this was out our front door.
2. The barista at our morning coffee shop in Astoria. She was the poster child for happy morning person coffee shop worker. Why is it that everyone that works at a coffee shop is so HAPPY that the sun is up?!? haha. Well, she makes the top 5 because she took the cake and she would make the Guiness book if there were a category for chipper in the morning. Oh, by the way, Astoria is where the Goonies was filmed. 🙂
3. Crossing over the gigantic bridge into Washington and singing “Washington” as a 4 part barbershop quartet with only two of us. We are talented.
4. Finally arriving at the Hoh Rainforest after 8 hours in the car. Seriously. We were so sure we would be there in 3 hours. We got our campsite and headed out on the trail. The Hoh Rainforest is amazing and walking the Moss-ome mall of moss trail felt like stepping back in to pre historic times. BTW, DP is laughing at me right now for typing out Moss-ome (rhymes with awesome). Lol.
5. Not actually going crazy in the 8 hour car ride that was supposed to be 3 hours long.
This is our life together now: