Week 9- Seattle and Vancouver

Ok so I haven't put out a blog post in like two months now.  I kept up (well, sorta) for the first half of the trip and I got so far behind that I said, "Screw it, I'm just going to wait until I get home to write the rest of the posts."  The rest of the posts get the benefit of hindsight and the good stories stand out even more.  Here are a few quick theories could explain why I was delayed so much in writing.  


1.  The trip abruptly ended in Las Vegas and we spent 6 weeks walking home.   


2.  The camper got pawned off to pay for gambling debts and I spent months running from collection agencies.   


3.  Bub's mustache took human form and took over.  


4.  We lost a member of the crew and were afraid to say anything to our parents so we stayed in Southern California.


5.  The camper was driven off the side of a cliff and my computer was in the camper. 


6.  Curiosity killed the cat aka we went to Mexico and messed with the wrong people.   


I can only confirm that that #6 did not happen, but after posting 8 weeks worth of stories, pics, and videos, I realized that I have never shown the inside of a camper.  I will show it to everyone that to prove that we didn't leave Marion and immediately drive to Key West to stay for 3 months instead of traveling the United States.  

The magnet collection

After taking plenty of time off from writing, let's get back to it.  Expect 2 posts a week from now until Christmas (hopefully) and what can I say, enjoy the stories.  Without further ado, week 9 with my girlfriend Kaysee and Bub's girlfriend Sarah.  

After 2 nights in Canada, it was back to the United States, for now anyway.  We entered the United States in…… Idaho!  Wait a minute, what's in Idaho?  I'm not even sure to be honest.  Decisions are made on the fly during the trip, so sorry Idaho, maybe you receive more attention in the future, but for now, it's on to Washington.  

It happened to be raining the entire day, so we stopped at a thrift store shortly after crossing into the United States.  I bought a 3 dollar blazer that might just be a good luck charm in the near future.  If you have never been to a thrift store, you are missing out.  Don't go to the ones in Raleigh, it is the upperclass of thrift stores, which amounts to not much of anything.  Goodwills are almost too nice.  You don't want to go somewhere and spend $25 bucks on used items.  Go to the random places where blazers are $3 and other nice used stuff is $5.  

We continued to head west for the night before stopping at..... gasp, a casino.  What else would it be on a rainy day?  Making its first appearance, the new blazer!  I was certainly making no fashion statement by wearing this blazer, because, well, I wore it with shorts and sandals.  I was only interested in making money for the night and had a feeling from the get-go that the blazer was good luck.

This casino was a battle.  It took me over 3 hours, but the money was doubled.  Time to walk away from the night and buy the crew Applebees.  They retreated to the camper about halfway through and sat in a parking lot while I did my thing, so why not buy them a decent meal?  

The Pacific Northwest is known for rain, and it didn't stop the next day.  We knocked out about 3 hours the day before and 3 again today to get to the Seattle area, but the rain limits opportunities outside.  On the opposite side of Lake Washington from Seattle is Bellevue and we drove through the city before heading towards the airport.  On the way through, I could have sworn I saw Kenny Mayne on the street.  Kenny is a reporter for ESPN and used to be on Sportscenter all the time.  I could have sworn on my life it was him, so we parked at a nearby Wendy's and went to search for him.  This didn't pan out to anything, but I will let the picture speak for itself.  On his wikipedia page, it says that he is from the Seattle area.

Kenny crossing the street with Bellevue in the background

Hey, he lives in the area.  I think it's him

The girls were flying in and out of Seattle, and the plan for the weekend to go north to Vancouver first and make our way back to Seattle before Sunday night.  Because of the rain, two things came up to do until they flew in that night.  First of all- let's see if there is an indoor putt-putt course and if not, let's find another casino.  The casino we found, or that I found was a hole in the wall place connected to a bowling alley.  The whole place didn't have a good vibe from the start, but we decided to venture in anyway.  

Allen sat down with me for awhile while I spotted Bub a few chips to cover a hand or two.  It started out horribly, the dealer went on a crippling run of cards to shorten the chip stack.  I made a comeback to even or a little more, but then lost it all.  The hard work from yesterday basically amounted to nothing.  I tried to push my luck in the state of Washington without the new blazer and it backfired on me.    

We ventured on to pick up the girls from the Seattle Airport.  No one has seen each other in 8 weeks, and was it sure a good feeling to see Kaysee, and I'm sure the Bub would say the same for Sarah.  Let's hope the beards didn't throw any snags into any relationships.    

All they have heard are stories from us and the daily happenings of life on the road.  Taking showers in random places and sleeping in a different location every night is a strange way to live.  But hey, let's see what they think of it for a few days.  The stop for Wednesday night- Everett, Washington- about 45 minutes north of Seattle.  We stopped in at pub about 1/2 mile from the campground to grab a round of beers and wings before heading in for the night.

The next morning, instead of 3 people moving around and trying to get ready, there were 5.  It was a little bit of chaos, and if we didn't like to sleep anyway, the girls had to adjust to the 3 hour time change.  Check out was supposed to be at 11, but we weren't even close to be ready to go by then.  If the campgrounds actually care what time you check out, it can be a problem.  These people were on top of the game on the campground manager scale.  When this happens, it is totally improvisation on what to say to these people.  I just hope that whatever reason/excuse I blurt out actually works.  One bathroom was closed from 10-12 so this was the excuse today.  I told the guy driving around in the golf cart that I didn't see the other bathroom and was waiting for the one to open.  I kept repeating that I didn't see the other bathroom until the guy got bored and drove away.    

We headed north into Canada for the third time of the trip.  Within 24 of getting to Seattle, Kaysee and Sarah had made it into our neighboring country.  We ended up just south of Vancouver in nearby Richmond and got a hotel for the night.  The sky train that serviced the Vancouver area went right into the heart of the city and was conveniently located about 3 minutes from the hotel.

Vancouver

The evening led to a walk around the city and a little exploring.  We went to the waterfront and then into the historic "Gas Town" section of the city before grabbing dinner and watching the Vancouver Canucks hockey game at an upscale sports bar.  If you are unaware of what goes on in Canada, hockey is huge there.  Put it this way, the city of Vancouver rioted last summer when the Vancouver Canucks lost in the Stanley Cup Finals.  They didn't riot to celebrate a major sports title like US cities do..... they rioted because they were unhappy with losing.  I want to be part of a riot at some point in my life, and I think I need to plan better.  What if on the night of "The Decision", (the night where LeBron infamously said he was taking his talents to South Beach) I had been in Cleveland?  I'm thinking that could be fun.    

The US has Reese's, while Canada has Reese

My middle name is Hastings.  Streets in Vancouver are named after me, it's not a big deal or anything.

Vancouver Waterfront

Vancouver showed us a good night and the next morning started with a breakfast buffet.  This wasn't the greatest buffet in the world, but it was still a buffet.  Good buffets (especially Chinese buffets) are pretty damn hard to beat.  Hey, we are going to make like 40 different kinds of food, and if you pay what you normally pay for a sit down meal here, you can have as much food as you want.  Who thought of this amazing idea?

We headed through Vancouver across the water to North Vancouver for the day to check out the rainforest.  Washington state and British Columbia have rainforests because of the mild temperatures for the year, not the tropical kind you think of in South America and Australia.  Rainforests are an unusual ecosystem because plants and what not grow everywhere because of the abundance of water and rain.  You never really think about rainforests being in the United States, nevertheless Washington state, but just add it to the list of all the different kinds of scenery for the trip- mountains, beaches, lakes, grasslands, flat stretches of nothing, Kelly DD, the desert, Canada, casinos.  We drove the camper through Vancouver (driving through the city with a camper isn't the most ideal thing, but there weren't really too many options.)  We spent the afternoon exploring the place and maybe even learned a thing or two about these rainforests.  A river ran right through the forested area and the two sides were connected by a huge suspended bridge.  The place had huge walkways built through the trees that gave some great views of the area.

The restaurant for the evening was a nice place with televisions everywhere.  I'm not sure if it is the Canadian way, but everything is nicer is Canada, even the sports bars.  Maybe we should all move to Canada, well except it is way colder than the South.  

The group headed south back to the US in order to catch a whale watching tour the next day.  We tried to do this off the coast of Maine, but it was canceled because of weather conditions and our lack of planning.  We got a reservation to go off the coast of the San Juan Islands in Washington the next day.  We had to catch the 10 am ferry to get there the next morning, so we decided to stay at the closest RV park.  We played a Monopoly game that night to show the girls how a game is actually finished.  I have been constantly complaining about my bad luck in the game but this took it a step further.  After we all traded and everyone got monopolies, it was my roll.  The very first roll after all this, I roll, hit Kaysee and am out of the game.  Monopoly has it out for me.  Kaysee came all the way to Seattle to...... knock me out of a game of Monopoly.     

The ferry that took us to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands took about an hour and a half, easily enough time to grab a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch from the snack bar.  To put the ferry into perspective, this was a ferry you could drive a car on to and had room to carry hundreds of people.

We booked a whale watching tour through a random site on the internet that claimed they had a 90% sighting.  Who knows how true this was, because well, if I owned a company that did whale watching tours, I would claim I had a 100% sighting.   We showed up to the dock where we were supposed to meet at 11 to find our guy and boat for the day.  The day before when we called to book the trip, he said that this was the last tour day of the season.  This was the first 2 weeks of October, and it's about time that the weather was getting cold.  Luckily for us, we beat the rain for the whole day.  The area from Washington through Oregon to Northern California experiences plenty of rain so anything you do outdoor relies heavily on the weather cooperating.  We lucked out on no rain for the day, although this would not prove to be the case for the rest of Washington and Oregon.

I had never been whale watching, and really didn't know what to expect if the whales actually showed up.  Our captain for the day showed up and said that we had a 99% chance of catching some whales for the afternoon.  I'm no mathematician, but that sounds like pretty good odds to me.  He told that the people running whale watching tours were all in close contact and the word easily spread whether conditions were good or bad for the day.  Even though they competed for business, working together benefited everyone in this business. 

On the boat were the 5 of us, one other guy and the captain for the day.  The boat was about the size of a normal sized passenger boat that an everyday person would own.  It had an enclosed area in the middle for the captain and anyone who was cold and then an outside deck on the back for good pictures and anyone who wanted a cool breeze.  (And by cool breeze I mean low 50s on the back of a boat, pretty damn cold.)

Our captain heard there were multiple packs of Orca Whales in the area for the day and we headed towards the promise land right away.  We stopped on the way to catch a pack of sea lions hanging out on the rocks.  These guys are huge and make loud, weird noises all the time, but they weren't there to cause problems, only to lay on the rocks and make noises.   

Whale watching consists of a few steps

1.  The captain contacting reliable sources to figure out where the whales are at that specific time

2.  Driving a boat to that general area

3.  Getting as close to 100 yards to the whales

4.  Watching the whales until they are out of decent viewing range 

5.  Repeat steps 3 and 4 as time permits

After about 30 or 45 minutes, we make it to the whales, and man, was this cool.  We had one point during the afternoon where they swam to within 20 yards of the boat.  The protocol for whale watching is staying at least 100 yards away from the whales in a boat.  But if you drive 100 yards from them and they swim closer, then hey, forget that protocol.  The whales are really loud swimming by trying to breathe and right before it happened, the captain who did this for a living said, "Get the cameras out for this one, it doesn't get any better than this."  It is a mind-blowing to think that you can see such a small percentage of an animal and truly enjoy it.  Unless the whale jumps out of the water, you can only see a small part of his body….. the upper part of his back near the face.  We managed to see a few jumps along the way and got plenty of good pics and videos.

 

The ferry ride back was pretty rough.  Kaysee found a puzzle and tried to talk me into helping her put it together.  This happened to be the hardest puzzle ever made and because of the early wake up call, I felt like a zombie around 4 o'clock in the afternoon.  I talked my way out the puzzle after not being able to concentrate and talked my way into a nap for the last 30 minutes, right by where Bub and Sarah were stretched out across 2 seats on the lower deck.  I apologized to Kaysee for not helping out any, but this puzzle seemed impossible at the time.  

Next up- a Saturday night in Seattle.  Navigating with a 6,000 pound camper is always an issue, and it took quite awhile to find a place to stay anywhere near Seattle.  We eventually decided on a Holiday Inn, the 3rd official hotel stay of the trip.  The girls had to be at the airport around 9 o'clock the next night for their flight that flew through the night and arrived in Raleigh on Monday morning.

In order to accurately judge a city you must

a) check out what the city has to offer during the day
b) catch the sunset in a cool location
c) enjoy the nightlife

We arrived in Seattle about 9 o'clock at night, so why not knock out the nightlife portion of a city right away.  Seattle had a train system that had a stop right by our hotel so we decided to take it into the city.  We might have gotten off a stop or two too soon, but we eventually found a place with loud music to hang out in for the night.  The train stopped running at 12:30 and the bars shut down at 2.  Either take the early train or catch a fairly expensive cab back late in the night.  We chose the latter of the two and slung it around it a little bit.  Needless to say, we had a good night.  

We caught an early lunch the next day and watched a few minutes of a few football games, given it was a Sunday.  Because of the 3 hour time difference, college football starts at 9 am on Saturday mornings and pro football starts at 10 am on Sundays.  It is a little strange at first, but pretty cool on the other hand.  Sunday afternoon was spent checking out the city to get a feel of it during the day.  We walked down to the market right on the water and entertained ourselves for awhile, looking at everything from seafood to souvenirs to street performers.  I ended up purchasing a leather toboggan, something I would describe as a 1950s pilot's helmet, but then again, I don't know what a pilot's helmet would look like in the '50s.  Actually, it was more like an old school football helmet.

We also made sure to visit the original Starbucks near the market in Seattle.  This doesn't look like a normal Starbucks and I wasn't quite sure what to do when I got there, considering I don't like coffee, so we snagged a few pics and kept on.  On a side note, the founder of Starbucks used to own the Seattle Supersonics basketball team.  He put the team up for sale about 5 years ago and sold the team to a group who then moved the team to Oklahoma City.  The city of Seattle now hates the guy because he sold the team knowing that the future owners had every intention of leaving.     

So throughout the trip, we have watched plenty of movies in the camper at night.  Our collection was about 30 random, good movies.  A crucial part of the collection that is missing is the movie Kingpin.  Kingpin is an all time classic and one of my favorites.  Woody Harrelson at his finest in the mid 90s as a washed up bowler who, through a strange series of events, gets an Amish kid to leave his farm to bowl in a tournament in Las Vegas to save the Amish land from being foreclosed.  We have been looking for Kingpin since day 1 and in Seattle, we finally found it at a random movie store in downtown Seattle. 

Making its first appearance on the road trip..... Occupy Wall Street in whatever city you live in.  Or go stand out on the streets with signs and try to get people to honk their horn at you.  It would be awesome if something like this succeeded, but how effective the protests are remains questionable.  Half of the people on the sidewalks looked genuinely mad and wanted to do something, while the other half looked they were out there just to do something and smelled of booze.  We met quite a few characters out there- people telling us all kinds of stories and asking us if we wanted to make a sign and yell.  We passed on the sign and yelling and decided to head out to the Space Needle before we got sucked in to something crazy.  

As I have mentioned plenty of times before, getting to the highest point in a city or a good observation deck is hard to beat, especially if it is right near sunset.  The Space Needle had an inside area with food and a gift and then a circular observation deck on the outside with a 360 degree view of Seattle and the surrounding area.  The Space Needle was built for the 1962 World Fair, can withstand winds over 200 mph, and has 25 lightning rods to prevent lightning damage.  (Note:  I had to look on Wikipedia to figure out the last 3 facts.)

We caught the sun going down on the city, snapped some good pictures, and then split 2 massive pizzas before the girls headed to the airport and we continued on with the trip.  Having someone join the trip was something new and it definitely breathed some life into the group.  Kaysee and Sarah caught a great part of the trip, seeing Seattle and Vancouver, going whale watching, and experiencing life in a camper for a few days.  Kaysee, I can't imagine what it is like dealing with me on a regular basis while I'm traveling, but thanks for all the patience and understanding you have had with me.  

Occupy Seattle

RIP JHW3