new york: i want to be a part of it

when people ask where our favourite place on our trip was both of us have said that new york is right up there on our list. that is why it is unacceptable that it has taken me nearly one month to blog about new york. what can i say? it's a lot easier to blog when you are away! but anyway, let's dive right in. 

after arriving in new york from our flight from vancouver (via toronto) we got our only yellow cab of the whole trip from the aiport to our hotel. arriving late on the friday night we had just enough time for a quick look at times square before collapsing into our hotel bed. the next day, the first thing we had to do was to sell our gps device as we had no more use for it without a car (despite my request that we should keep it... just in case!) anyway, we sold it successfully in a second hand electronics shop in the 'diamond district' to a group of quite threatening looking italian-american guys who could easily have been extras from 'the sopranos'. we'd decided to do the open-top bus tours to get our bearings a bit as neither of us had been to new york before. we took the uptown bus tour first taking in columbus circle, cathedral of st john the divine, grant's tomb, harlem, and central park. in the afternoon we went to the museum of modern art (MOMA) which had a mind blowing collection of modern art including van gogh's starry night and work by miro, kandinsky, pollock, gaugin, rothko, magritte, matisse, and monet. 

'top of the rock' (rockefeller centre) provided excellent views of new york from its 68th and 70th floors.

we got up early the next day (sunday) to go on a wall street area guided tour, something that i was particularly excited about after my economics classes at uni! the tour was lead by james, an excellent tour guide, who told us lots about the area and took us to see the bull statue, NY stock exchange, the financial district and city hall.

that afternoon we went to the national september 11 memorial and museum. a fitting tribute with the twin waterfalls and survivor tree. it was a very emotional experience and we felt it an appropriate way to pay our respects to the city. 

the next day we were back down to battery park to get on the ferry to liberty island where we went up to the pedestal of lady liberty. we actually had tickets to go right up to lady liberty's crown, but we estimate we probably made it as far as her breast before the extremely cramped and steep spiral staircases became too much for us and our combined fear got the better of us. besides, the best views are from the bottom - we got some great snaps from the downstairs. it was selfie central outside so jam and i thought we better join in!

the ferry afterwards took us to ellis island for look around the immigration museum which we both found very interesting. back on the mainland we walked over the brooklyn bridge, which, by the way, jamie cannot say in any way other than as an alicia keys impression from her annoyingly catchy hit 'empire state of mind'. the walk across the bridge was lovely and gave brilliant views of both manhattan and brooklyn.

 

once in brooklyn we had a look around the dumbo area which was so much quieter than manhattan and full of cool book, art and pastry shops! we then took the subway to williamsburg where we had happy hour cocktails in a thai restaurant called Qi; the bathrooms alone make it worth a visit but the lychee martini was super beautiful too. dinner was at the very hipster-esque commodore complete with arcade games, diner booths, dim lighting, fried chicken and mint juleps!

vancouver: a late update

okay, i've been a bit slack in writing up the last few places on our trip. not because we didn't love them (we really did) but just because we were so busy and didn't have the best internet connection at the end. now we have been back home in the UK for nearly a whole week and this is the first opportunity i've had to sit down and write. anyway, excuses over.

so, after we'd had our little break to vancouver island we returned to vancouver for a couple of days. we took the car back on the boat and had a smooth sailing. we spent sometime in downtown vancouver on the first day, checking out robson and granville street as well as yaletown. we checked out the vancouver public library which is an absolute gem, as well as being a stunning piece of architecture.

in the evening we went to see the vancouver canucks play the nashville predators at ice hockey. the atmosphere was electric as expected, and we took our seats among the thousands of navy blue-clad fans. the canucks certainly took their time to get going and had a few sketchy moments early on, but eventually won with two goals in the third period, and their newest supporter was thrilled.

the next day we ventured out to find a traditional canadian breakfast. i had a craving for pancakes and bacon. well, i got a plate of pancakes and bacon alright. the biggest plate you have ever seen in your life. i ate approximately one eighth of this plate (yes i did take a nibble before snapping away!).

we went to lynn canyon park in north vancouver where we took a walk through the beautiful forest. the park has three bridges over the canyon. i went on two of them, but i couldn't quite bring myself to walk across the suspension bridge as it was far too wobbly! although a little scared, jam found the courage to cross.

i managed to have a peek over the side of one of the more stable bridges.

before we left we went in the ecology centre there which was full of interesting information about the park and the background to the area. the next day we said our goodbyes to sparky and dropped him off with the car rental people before checking into our flight to new york and preparing ourselves for the long plane journeys ahead.

vancouver island: away from the hustle and bustle

jam, sparky and i took the short ferry trip from vancouver to vancouver island and made our way down to victoria for three nights. the trip was only 90 minutes on the water, although it was a bit longer than that from door to door. victoria is the capital of british columbia and therefore the appropriate location for the 'Royal BC Museum' which was the first thing we went to see. we were really impressed with the museum and actually rated it second best of the whole trip (there is no beating the museum in wellington). the museum was also showing the 'wildlife photographer of the year' entrants from across the world which were just amazing; there are some incredibly talented photographers out there - the younger age groups were particularly impressive.

right next to the museum stand the visually impressive BC parliament buildings. unfortunately we couldn't go in as they were closed for the weekend, so we had to make do with walking around the outside.

jamie has a keen admiration of model miniatures so he was thrilled when he found out that victoria had its very own miniature world. naturally we had to pay it a visit. the displays had 10 working miniature railways and depicted scenes from canada's history, famous battles and wars, as well as fairytale stories and an area dedicated to the circus (with working miniature bumper cars). the models themselves varied from 5mm to 20mm and there was obviously a lot of love and passion put into making them which is always great to see. 

the art gallery of victoria is home to a number of excellent exhibitions, mostly notably by emily carr (a BC native and one of canada's most famous artists). we enjoyed visiting the gallery not only for its exhibitions but also as it is housed in an old victorian mansion. 

we also visited victoria's chinatown which is home to fan tan alley, which apparently used to be a gambling and opium den district, but unfortunately now houses only regular shops. at its narrowest point it is only 0.9m wide, and is said to be the narrowest street in canada.

nanaimo is about a two hour drive north of victoria and made a good destination for a day trip for us. on our way to nanaimo we stopped in duncan, known as the 'city of totem poles', and chemainus, known for their murals. we also stopped on the drive on the way to take in some beautiful views, allowing us to see all the way across to the US as it was a clear day.

we enjoyed making our way around the numerous totem poles in duncan and the murals in chemainus. both made easily findable by following the yellow footprints on the ground. both of these places had a really nice community feel.

in nanaimo we visited the harbour as well as the nanaimo museum, which told the history of the town and had a very good coal mining experience that involved entering a dark cave to learn more about the town's original industry. in the museum we took down the recipe for the town's own dessert creation, the nanaimo bar, and then decided we should pop next door to the coffee shop where they sold some to check that it was tasty before we went to the effort of making it! sweet and chocolatey, jam concluded that we should definitely make some when we get back to england.

vancouver: vivid and varied

so we arrived in canada - vancouver to be precise - with the assistance of our little car, sparky (as we have lovingly named him). sparky got us to vancouver safely and we found our accommodation for the next few days.

canada place is vancouver's flagship building along the harbour. it is a cruise ship terminal, hotel, conference centre and tourist trap. you can walk all around the building, which juts out into the harbour (resembling the shape of a large ship itself - sails included!), giving you excellent views of the harbour and beyond which is what drew us there. in fact, the views from canada place take in stanley park, north vancouver, the port, and the mountain range that sits behind it all. i think those mountains are the north shore mountains, of which one is grouse mountain, but i'm not 100% sure which one to be honest!

stanley park is a big park, i mean really big - it is 8km around the perimeter, and is a major attraction in vancouver. one notable attraction inside stanley park is vancouver aquarium which we visited. we really loved the array of marine life to see inside. my favourites were the beluga whales which are just so cute (see picture below for evidence of said cuteness). we also saw sharks and otters being fed (not together!) and went into the aquarium's 4D experience theatre where we were sprayed with water from the whales on screen and jolted in the back by the snakes!

unfortunately we did not walk the 8 kilometres around stanley park but we did drive around it (twice - by accident), getting out and walking around various points of interest. we did not have time to see all of the park, but we did see prospects point with its excellent views across the ocean, english bay with its pretty beach, and the totem poles which provide an attractive tribute to the areas heritage.

we also stumbled across this art installation which gave us a bit of a giggle (as it intended to i reckon!).

jam and i visited gastown, the oldest part of vancouver, and went to maple tree square where an old maple tree once stood (under which the name vancouver was decided by the city's founders i believe) and now in its place, the statue of gassy jack, one of the cities liveliest historical characters, stands proudly. around the corner is the iconic steam clock which is said to be the world's first steam-operated clock and chimes every quarter of an hour.

after our walk around gastown we made our way to the vancouver police centennial museum, located in the town's old morgue, where we learnt about the city's police history. we also went to chinatown where we strolled around the dr sun yat sen chinese garden. we hopped back in our car and made our way across the bridge to granville island, a lovely island with a huge public market and a variety of shops as well as more gorgeous views of the vancouver landscape. we treated ourselves to some raspberry flavoured almonds (made with real organic raspberries no less!).

a short drive from granville island is kitsilano beach. the beach offered a plethora of outdoor activities; we saw people playing tennis, playing volleyball, walking, dog walking, jogging, cycling, rollerblading, playing basketball, and even a couple of brave souls having a quick dip! and it was really, really busy. it was just great to see everyone being so active. the beach is stunning and covers what i think is the most amazing thing about vancouver, from one location in a 360-degree sweeping glance you can take in parks, forests, beaches, mountains, the city and the suburbs. it's just so varied.

for dinner we had booked a table at 'the eatery', a japanese restaurant specialising equally in sushi and craziness. jam had previously been on the website and decided within 10 seconds it would be an experience worth having. the place was decorated completely - ceiling and walls - in colourful tackiness. there were video-game character stuffed toys dangling above our heads, and countless portraits of (mostly dead) celebrities with the company's favourite 'miso horny' slogan covering their eyes. the menu was extensive and there were probably around 50 special sushi rolls to choose from, all named after superheroes, cartoon characters or pop culture icons. bizarre and very tasty!

seattle: day trippin'

for our last day in seattle jam and i had planned to have a little excursion. a 35 minute ferry ride from pier 52 in seattle city took us to bainbridge island. the short journey provided us with excellent views of downtown as we departed.

as we pulled into the island we took in the beautiful views; boats, pretty little houses, and lovely foliage. i couldn't get over how many cherry blossom trees they had in seattle and it seems bainbridge island had their fair share too! 

while we were on bainbridge island we admired the many pretty flowers and looked in the different shops. we stopped for lunch at the harbour inn, an english themed pub, for fish and chips. the pub overlooked a very busy harbour, absolutely chock-a-block with boats! 

after our lunch, stroll and a quick look around a couple of secondhand bookshops - we caught the ferry back across to downtown. as it was a clear day we were very lucky and we could see mount rainier as we pulled away from the island. we were told that this was a rare sight indeed so made sure we took plenty of snaps.

once we were back on dry land jam and i went over to pike place market. the market is a huge daily market selling a huge variety of goods from fish, fruit & veg to comic books and glass work. we also saw the very first ever starbucks which is located across from pike place market. we didn't go into the starbucks though as it was so busy there was even a queue of people waiting to go in!

that finished off our time in seattle, definitely one of my favourite places we've been, and the next day we were to make the short journey across the border to vancouver in canada. 

seattle: good night, seattle, we love you

on saturday we drove from portland to seattle. although it's only around a two or three hour drive we had planned to go to multnomah falls and olympia for lunch so we knew we'd take a bit longer, plus it was raining so heavily on the drive that we had to take it a bit slow. still, we did stop at multnomah falls in the midst of some heavy rainfall and saw the very impressive waterfall.

we then had lunch in olympia - the capital of washington - as planned and made our way onto seattle where we arrived at the lovely amanda's place. the next day (sunday) we made our way over to fremont, a rather trendy suburb of seattle, as we'd been told that their flea market on a sunday was something of a treat. fremont flea market was a hive of activity - buzzing with adults, children and dogs. there was a plethora of different stalls and food carts. we had a great lunch consisting of sharing a huge naan bread with chicken tikka, lentil dahl, rice and mango chutney all blobbed on top! and i even had a little organic white chocolate from the chocolate stall for dessert. we also bought some postcards by a photographer whose prints we really liked - erryn rose (ErrynRose.com) - but unfortunately we couldn't afford to buy full sized prints and we were a bit concerned about transporting anything larger all the way home.

afterwards we went to washington university campus as we'd been told it was very pretty and we wanted to go to the burke museum which is based there. the museum gave us a brilliant overview of the washington area and its people.

up high on jam's wish list of things to do in seattle was the EMP museum, a 'music + sci-fi + pop culture' museum. the EMP building is impressive before you've even set foot inside with the free-flowing edges, shiny iridescent surface and monorail going through the middle - i certainly felt like i was entering into the future.

inside the museum we worked our way around the different exhibitions, from tales of seattle locals nirvana and hendrix, to the guitar gallery, fantasy and sci-fi exhibitions. we also spent plenty of time on the top floor in the 'sound lab' where we both had a go at mixing on decks, playing the drums and the electric guitar (well, jam played and i observed that one).

afterwards we went to the most amazing art gallery. it is called chihuly garden and glass, and it shows dale chihuly's glass work. it was so good, we were really glad we went. jamie has now decided he wants to have a go at glass blowing after seeing these pieces! i must admit it is rather inspiring; i'm rather tempted to try to find myself a lesson too.

as you may have spotted above, we also saw the iconic space needle.

in seattle we also had one of the best evenings out of our trip so far (thanks to jam and his prior research!) - we went to the pink door for dinner. the pink door has no signage outside and is only identifiable by its pink door. behind the door lies a treat! not only was the food really tasty (and drink - a yummy fresh pomegranate martini for me) but twice during dinner we had a trapeze artist performing above us. she was really very talented and it made for a very unique dining experience.