Stanley Park, Vancouver

Stanley Park is the most beautiful public park. It takes up a whole peninsula of Vancouver Bay. We had a lovely day there. There is a great collection of totem poles that was very interesting. We hired bikes and rode around the perimeter of the park. Al fell of his bike into a puddle, the only puddle on the road, and got mud all over his foot and leg. I of course laughed. We had lunch and watched the beach touch football and to boats out at sea. It was a really relaxing and lovely day. We also took a picture of a raccoon in the wild. Its a big park. After such a pleasant day we taxied it back to the hostel, collected our gear and headed back to Seattle.

The Templeton Cafe, Vancouver

Just across the road from the hostel is the Templeton Cafe. It served great organic food and became our haunt while we were in Vancouver. The place had a great 1950's feel and had interesting period info on the tables. I particularly liked this Wonder Woman cartoon.

Vancouver, Canada

We stayed in Vancouver for a week. We caught the train up from Seattle. Another scenic journey. Vancouver is definitely a place to visit. In the spring and summer we both agreed that we could easily live there. Its very easy to get around as they have excellent public transport. We stayed in the Samesun Hostel in the downtown area. We we were the oldest people there but the "young people" we shared the room with were really interesting and doing great things. One guy had just returned from riding his pushy around NZ, Australia and Asia and was riding up to visit his friends in Victoria (Canada) about 100 ks up the road. A lot of them were young Aussies travelling the ski fields, snowboarding, skiing and partying (obviously) and working in Canada to finance their travels.

Both Seattle and Vancouver have some great public art. We wandered around the city and visited a banking building that had a great public display about the Aga Khan Development Network and the work they are doing around the world. It was excellent. The young woman who showed me around had done her degree in architecture and religion, which I thought was really a great combo. She was very passionate about the restoration work that the Network were doing. One of the interesting things they were doing was collecting plastic bags and melting them down, mixing them with sand and turning them into paving blocks.

We did so much in Vancouver and had such a great time there. The only real down side in the cities that we have seen has been the number of homeless people. In Vancouver there seemed to be a lot of meth addicts who were more aggressive as far as begging was concerned and younger than the people on the streets in other places. Meth is a real problem and along the roadsides in the USA there are posters advertising rehabs and assistance. Being homeless in Seattle and Vancouver in the winter must be the pits. I felt really sad for them and gave them money from time to time but there is a person on nearly every corner in the downtown areas and my money just cant spread that far.

Seattle

Well, everyone must be thinking we never got out of Portland. This holidaying is hard work. I just haven't managed to get to somewhere and get the time to update the blog. We only spent 3 days in Portland before going to Seattle to visit our good friends Dan and Karlene.

Dan and Karlene made us so welcome in their home and with their extended family it was hard to leave. Dan took some time off work and showed us around Seattle and took us to Port Townsend where he grew up. Its the place where they made the movie an Officer and a Gentleman. Port Townsend had some magnificent Victorian Mansions and like every where we seem to have been, the scenery is stunning.

We visited the Arboretum where Karlene works which is really beautiful. If the Canberra Arboretum turns out like the one in Seattle it will be a real draw card.


Among other places we also went to Dan's favourite shop, the Aussie Pie Shop, where they claim to make real Aussie pies. They were pretty good pies, but they have been adapted for American tastes so there wasn't a steak and kidney in sight.

While we were in Seattle we bought a car. Its a Honda Civic LX 1994. Its registered for 12 months and we had no probs with getting insurance. So far it has been really reliable. We practised driving under Dan's tuition and have both got the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road although I have to admit that Alan is much better at it than me. I am OK on the highway but get confused in the traffic in the towns. I feel like a learner driver all over again.

We took a week out from Seattle to go to Canada to sort out our drivers licences because we lost them in a bag on a bus in LA. Unbelievably, the NSW Motor Registry are not satisfied with a Public Notary from America verifying your identity, even though it is far more rigorous than any Australian Post Office employee sighting your credentials (they even took our finger prints). We had to go to Vancouver to the nearest Australian Consulate to have an officer there do the same thing. I was highly pissed off by the bureaucratic bullshit gone made but the best thing was we got to see Vancouver.

Portland, Oregon

We spent 5 days in San Francisco and before we got on the train to Portland we killed time seeing Scorsese's Shine a Light at the Imax theatre; a fifty foot Mick Jagger and Keith Richards belting out Jumping Jack Flash, it was a gas, gas, gas.

We bought a sleeper to Portland on the train which was well worth it as unfortunately I got crook and needed to see a doctor in Portland to get some antibiotics. That took about a day to figure out how to do but I got the drugs and I'm on the mend.

Portland was another beautiful Victorian style city, with stunning gardens. We visited their Japanese gardens and the rose gardens which were unfortunately not in bloom but the rhododendrons and azaleas made up for it. We also met a very friendly lady from Minnesota, called Patti, who had a hire car and drove us out to have a look at Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Valley and a 1920's hotel, that was frequented by Rudolph Valentino and others. The Oregon scenery was volcanic, snow covered and picture post card even in the pouring rain.

I left my harp in Sandcrabs Disco

We caught a train from LA to San Francisco - it was a fantastic trip. Amtrack trains are comfortable, clean, luxurious compared to a bus or plane and definately exceed the XPT from Canberra to Sydney. They have a formal dining room with white table cloths and flowers and table service. The snack bar food was along the lines of the World Famous Santa Monica Hot Dog but the dining room food was great. The scenery was spectacular.



We met a lovely English girl, called Hazel and spent time with her while we were in San Fran. San Francisco really is one of the most beautiful cities. We arrived at night and the skyline was sensational. In the book 1001 things to do before you die it suggests riding the cable cars of San Francisco, we did and it was fabulous. We visited the cable car museum and rode the cars up and down the hills. We also took a tour of the city by bus which was well worth the money as the driver knew every spot and showed us all the lovely Victorian buildings and mansions as well as telling us about the history of the place.



We hired bikes and I RODE ACCROSS THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. Wow that was a Disneyland moment. Not only was I blown away by the fact that I was there at all but I was nearly blown off my pushie when I got on the bridge, it was so windy. I was riding along feeling so proud of myself, laughing and crying and Al was behind me going "Woo Hoo, you go girl" Fuck it was good.



Another big highlight was visiting Alcatraz. We had to book on line to get tickets but it was so interesting and worth every minute. They had a top quality audio tour with prisoners and guards talking about their expereinces at Alcatraz. Also there was a man there talking about his experience of living on Alcatraz as a child. They had a small village of guards families there.



We also visited a submarine called the Pampanito that was one of the subs that rescued Australian prisoners of war who were on a Japanese troopship that was torpedoed by the Americans during the second world war. The didnt realise the troopship was full of Australian and New Zealand POW's from the Burma Railway. The Pampanito had a crew of 83 and rescued 74 men, other subs rescued others but they were in the water for up to 3 days. A volunteer called Bill was on the sub and we had a very interesting chat to him.

Los Angeles

Its been a while since I had time to update what we've been doing. So I will have to try to remember as we are now in Seattle. LA - everybody told us not to bother, its big, crowded, polluted and dirty - but it wasn't. It was great. We stayed in Santa Monica at a very plush IYA and visited many a famous thing. Disneyland (see the separate entry) was my highlight but we also did a city tour of the rich and famous. You know, on your right is famous person's house, or at least one of them used to live there etc. It was exceedingly dull after about 5 minutes. Although the houses here generally are really interesting; a far cry from a brick veneer box. We went to Hollywood Bulouvarde and saw the stars names on the pavement, and took pics of LA from the lookout and saw the Hollywood sign. At Rodeo Drive, also pretty dull, we had a chat to a couple of union members on a pickett against a company that was paying carpenters less than the bottom wage. It was quite a contast seeing them protesting in such an affluent place.


We did have fun though when we hired a couple of pushies and rode along Santa Monica Beach through Venice Beach and Muscle Beach (where Al flashed his muscles) and visited the Venice Canals which were a collection of canals with the most beautiful and unusual collection of little houses, like dolls houses, all along them. The gardens were exquisite.


We also tried the "World Famous" hot dog from a vendor at Santa Monica Pier (our first American Hot Dog) which defies description in the worst possible way. eeeerrrrgggg!!!!! I will post some pics later.


We took advantage of the Hostel guided walking tour of Santa Monica with Colin, a british expat. The most interesting thing was a display of crosses put out by the Viet Nam Vetrans for Peace. Every sunday they put a cross on the beach for every American soldier killed in Iraq. They have picture displays of soldiers and civilians and a tally of all those killed and injured. It was very sad and very moving.