Photo Friday: Pallets in Vancouver Harbour
What do I love more than moving myself around? Moving freight. It's been my chosen career for over 7 years now. Along the way I've gotten expressly familiar with these 1219mmx1016mm wood constructions. This industrial side of transportation is always visually appealing to me.
Soaked in Canada
The first weekend in August I finally made it up to Vancouver. Jason had gone once, in Spring of 2007, but we hadn't driven up in the 2 years we've lived in Seattle.
It was a last minute decision to go, and we got a last minute room using the Priceline.com Name Your Own Price song and dance. I wanted a decent room in downtown Vancouver, and remembered Lauren of Northwest Cheapsleeps mention good 4 star prices found on Priceline. Not wanting to be a "namby pamby" Jason wanted our offer to be $80. We were promptly rejected and given a counter of $95 for a 4 star downtown hotel. And this is how we came to spend the night of August 7th at the Renaissance Vancouver Harbourside Hotel. I'm a Marriott chain lover, so I was very pleased.
The hotel was a block from the water but was what I assume are kilometers from a decent stretch of restaurants, luckily we stopped by Ralf's Bavarian Bakery in Bellingham on the way up for some german pretzel goodness. Amazing pretzels! (A great tip from Pam at NerdsEyeView as well.) The view from the harborside has to be gorgeous, but the view of a misty downtown wasn't bad either.
We only had 2 real meals in Vancouver, dinner and beer the first night at Speakeasy on Granville and Kintaro ramen. Speakeasy had some great Canadian beers, a lemon ale and cider whose names I don't remember, and okay food. Kintaro gave me some delicious fatty broth ramen at a tiny table in a corner and was very tasty for North American ramen. Also, what's the big deal about Tim Hortons? (In all honesty I asked the same thing about Dunkin' Donuts when I went to NJ.)
It also heavily misted the entire time we were there, so getting to these places was a soaking affair, with the clouds only parking when we were within 3 miles of the border on our way home. It made for an extra relaxing time back at the hotel though when getting to warm back up in the soft bed.
Staying next to to the harbor also made for quick access to Canada Place and a good view of the working cranes and cruise ships. We did get a good walk in around that area during a break in the rain. We also got a chance to go to the Capilano Suspension Bridge and Stanley Park, but those pictures deserve their own post.
A few observations about Canada and the trip to Vancouver
- Our American credit cards suck. We've got to get on this RFID thing. It was embarrassing having to wait for the old card machine to come out for us everytime.
- Their crosswalk light guy is quite jaunty.
- Everyone is so damn friendly I don't know what to do.
- My heart aches for Cadbury Caramilk. It's so much better than the American version.
- The only mean person in all of Canada was working the counter of the Tim Horton's we visited in tourist central.
- Grouse Mountain timberwolves suck. My husband has been telling stories of how scary the pen of them is for years now. We trekked up and not a timberwolf to be seen.
- Canada is expensive.
- Scotiabank doesn't charge Bank of America account holders for atm withdrawls, and there's a Scotiabank atm in the food court across from Canada Place.
- The family cruise traffic sucks as much there as it does in Seattle.
- There's a wind turbine on Grouse Mountain you can tour with a panoramic viewing area. We've got to go back and go in there when it's not cloudy, and possibly when we've sold kidneys to be able to afford it. I think it's $65 CAD per person.
Photo Friday: What Really Surprised me about Japan
This might sound ridiculous but the one thing I didn’t expect in Japan was a rainbow. Tentacles on sticks, young girls in maid outfits, 8 story arcades…sure. Rainbows? I was gobsmacked.
I’m not really sure what was so weird about it. We had been in Japan for 11 days already and had moved down to Gifu City to sleep on the floor of some of my best friends. They were teaching English and had gotten sent to this town of 400,000 that seemed quaint compared to our stops in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima. It was late November and the continuing theme for all these places had been rain.
While our friends went to work on this Thanksgiving Day, Jason and I sat out towards Mount Kinka and Gifu Castle at its top. The 3 miles there were uneventful, minus a local crossing a 4 lane bridge to not walk beside us, and the gardens at the bottom provided a nice stop for us while waiting on the next cable car to the top. (What, we’d already walked 3 miles!)
The cable car to the top is a must. Kinkazan Squirrel Village at the top is a must. Why we went beyond that comfy cuteness? I have no idea. We had a slow trudging walk uphill in a thunderstorm to Gifu Castle that included us turning back at least twice only to be overtaken by cute, old grandmas. By the time we reached the castle the rain was hard enough that the 200 yen for entry was the perfect price to get out of the rain.
This Gifu Castle was built in the 1950s to replicate the old one from the 1500s and is a sparse military museum, and since military history isn’t my thing I dripped and squeaked my shoes the 4 or so flights of stairs to the lookout at the top. The rain had stopped and this rainbow ended in front of me.
It was familiar, and normal, and was the first thing aside from McDonald’s and Coke that could have happened anywhere.
Photo Friday: Weight of the World
This, unfortunately, is not the 14,264ft peak of Mount Evans. This is precisely the place where my breathing started to hurt and my head started to swell. The wind was cold and fast and my nose was running out of control. Going up stairs or toward the summit felt like I was dipping myself in cement with every step. And to add insult to injury a member of our party was an 8 month pregnant woman who showed off triumphant photos of her on top.
Apparently, I’m not ready for 14,264. The best I can give you is the view from 14,130.
Photo: Capture the Moment, Mount Evans
Taken on a view point on the Mount Evan Scenic Byway, the highest paved road in America. This was shot 2 days after the road opened for the season, May 30th, accounting for all the snow in the background. At this height I think we might still have been over 12,000 feet. The road goes up to 14,130 feet, which is also the exact height where I started to get altitude sickness.
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