Sue and Roy's American Adventure: Days 55 to 59 Seattle - Vancouver, Canada 08

Day 55 Seattle to Vancouver 08.06.12

Got up at 7.30am, showered, had breakfast & packed. We’re going to Vancouver, Canada today for 5 days. We’ve only got 130 miles to go so there’s no rush. Just before the border the rain was so bad we could hardly see where we were going. We filled up with petrol, as it’s so expensive in Canada & then crossed the border. The guy on duty wanted to know where we were from, why we were going to Canada, what we did for a living, if we’d bought any alcohol or cigarettes but didn’t even look at our car papers which we’d made sure to print off! Typical, if we didn’t have them he would have wanted to see them.

Anyway our plan was to surprise Jennie at work but before we could do that we had a text from Louise saying that Jennie had gone for some lunch & could we go to her house at 4.00pm? Since being in Canada Jennie hasn’t been able to get in touch via phone so emails Louise to text us.

We first had to find an HSBC bank to get some Canadian dollars, which we did, then find the hotel & sign in. As we were too early to check in we popped next door to McDonalds for a coffee & burger then checked in & unpacked. Our room is a nice 2 queen bed room with everything we need for our 5 night stay &, for the first time in ages, I unpacked properly!

The next thing was to find Jennie’s house, Roy had an idea where it was from Google maps but hadn’t allowed for the fact that house numbers don’t go in numerical order! There were odd gaps between them of 50, 70 or even more than 100 so we’d gone past Jennie’s house without realising it. After turning round & going back we found it & went in to have a look at where she’s been living for the last year & a bit.

At this point it should have been a grand reunion but we had that in Vegas when she & Louise surprised us! After an inspection of the house we went for a walk down to the water via her neighbourhood, which is very nice & residential. We were hungry by the time we set off back so went into White Spot (similar to Wetherspoons) for some tea & then to meet Amy & Mike who share the house with Jennie. We’ve been lucky with the weather today as it’s been very pleasant.

Day 56 Vancouver 09.06.12

Woke at 7.30am & got ready for our trip to Whistler, where the winter Olympics have been held. Picked Jennie, Amy & Mike up about 9.30am & set off on the 70 mile trip to Whistler. On the way we stopped off at Shannon Falls & Brandywine Falls, both very picturesque. Whistler is lovely, like an alpine village in the mountains with snow still on top of them. We had a wander around, took some photos & had an ice cream. There were loads of people on bikes going up on the ski lift then cycling down the steep path back to the bottom! This is what they do when the skiing season is over. Looked dangerous to me but exhilarating!

After a couple of hours we drove on 40+ miles to the Joffre lakes high up in the mountains. So high in fact that there was still quite a bit of snow that we had to walk through down through the trees to the lake! Wow, it was worth it. Pure typical Canadian scenery, woods, lake, mountains with trees & snow on, perfect. I have to say that throughout the day I had shorts on, even in the snow!

The scenery on all of the drive today has been superb. On the way back we stopped for a drink & the 3 ‘young ‘uns’ had hotdogs then we came back stopping by the water for a quick look before dropping them all off about 8.00pm & calling at Wendy’s for baked potatoes & chilli for our tea, then back to the hotel to relax.

Day 57 Vancouver 10.06.12

Can’t believe how fast these Sundays come around! Rang home so they know we’re still alive, then got ready for our next day out. Picked Jennie up at 10.30am & drove to Capilano Suspension Bridge. Jennie’s friend has got us complimentary passes which was greatly appreciated. What a well set out place it was. We went over the suspension bridge, 450 feet long, 230 feet high over the river. Yes, I walked over it & loved it! It was swaying loads because of all of the people going both ways but was very safe & great fun, just like on ‘I’m a celebrity!’ I can prove it by the pictures! We also went along all of the wooden walkways up among the Douglas firs in the treetops adventure & high up on the cliff walk via another 7 suspension bridges ( not as long as the main one), up the sheer granite cliffs over the canyon. Fantastic! We rewarded ourselves with hotdogs, chips & a drink before heading off.

Next stop Grouse Mountain. Jennie has a year pass so we got in for half price. Nice one Jennie! We went on the skyride which is a cable car straight up the mountain, a great 6 minute ride standing with 60 odd other people. On the way we could see the 3 wolves in the wolf enclosure at the bottom of the mountain. Brill – I love wolves – the furry kind, not the footie team!

When we got off we were glad to have on layers & rain coats as the cloud was very low & there was still a fair bit of snow around. No shorts today! The first thing we did was watch the lumber jack show – 2 guys competing against each other, chopping wood, climbing massive, high trees & log rolling in water & they both had a drenching. It was all great fun. Then we went to see if the 2 rescued grizzly bears, Grinder & Coola were visible in their enclosure. They were both rescued as cubs when their mothers were killed & have lived there for 11 years as they wouldn’t have survived in the wild. They have a large area including a big pond & somewhere to hibernate so don’t do too bad. Coola was only visible from the back but Grinder was having a look around but not walking around. They only came out of hibernation mid April.

On the mountain the snow is usually at least 20 feet deep every winter & takes quite a while to go. As it was too cloudy we didn’t take the ski lift to the summit as we wouldn’t have seen anything but we did enjoy watching people on the zip line.

Next we went to see the birds of prey show & saw a Kestrel, 2 owls, a vulture & a bald eagle. Drawn back to the bears in case they were moving about we listened to the rangers talk about them & then got the cable car back to the bottom to see if the wolves were around. We did see one of the white wolves lying down but the others weren’t around. Then we saw 2 black tailed deer so, all in all, it was a great day.

Jennie came back to the hotel with us to help put the photos on to discs, then we dropped her off at home.

Day 58 Vancouver 11.06.12

Forgot to say in yesterdays blog that people, including Jennie, actually run, jog & walk up Grouse Mountain for pleasure & there’s a list of fastest times with different age groups. If you saw how steep it was you’d think they were mad! There was even an 80 -89 year old age group & the times were amazingly fast!

Got ready & had a walk up the road before going to Starbucks where Jennie works to meet her when she finishes. Today we’re exploring the city & going to Stanley Park so we dropped the car off at Jennie’s house & walked to the skytrain to go downtown. When we got there we went on the seabus to North Vancouver then came back & went to an Irish pub for some lunch.

Well fed we set off for the water front & had a walk around seeing a big cruise liner & lots of sea planes landing & taking off. We walked to Stanley Park & had an ice cream then walked round. I have never seen so many cyclists, joggers & roller skaters in my life, everybody in Vancouver seems to be fitness orientated! It’s great to see after the excesses of America!

After walking for most of the day my feet & legs were a bit tired so it was nice to relax in the hotel for the evening.

Day 59 Vancouver 12.06.12

After 3 days of good weather it was a surprise to wake up to drizzle. No problem as we’ve got lots to do today. First off was to draw out some more money & we discovered that we could only use the HSBC bank so wasted quite a bit of time. Then we took the car for an oil change & then into town to find an Alamo office to take out breakdown cover for the rest of our trip. This done we did a bit of souvenir shopping before picking Jennie up from work.

We’ve booked hair appointments and the girl, Bonnie, is Vietnamese. She looked at my hair & went off to get the colour for the highlights & base without looking at colour charts – which was a bit worrying! I can honestly say no one has put colour on my hair so fast before! Then Roy had the fastest hair cut ever & I had the colour washed off & my hair cut. All in all she made a great job of us both but there were moments when I feared for our ears as she was a whizz with the scissors!

After a bit of shopping we dropped Jennie off at home, she’s making us chicken casserole for tea, yummy! Roy dropped me off at the hotel so I could do some sorting out & went to Jennie’s to fit her a blind & go for some shelves before picking me up for tea. All I can say is, ‘ Jennie, you make a great chicken casserole. Thank you!’ The day may have been miserable as far as the weather was concerned but it was a triumph as far as getting things done that needed doing & having a lovely, home cooked tea. Our time in Vancouver has been great & we’d like to thank Jennie for being such a great guide & host.

In Whistler at the olympic rings