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.

portland: comedy and coast

as comedy lovers, jam and i always planned to try to go to a proper american comedy club while we were in this part of the world so we were pleased that when reading a guide for portland i came across a description for the helium comedy club. the guide described the club as appealing to 'the daily show' crowd. well we've seen the daily show quite a bit and both like jon stewart so we thought we might come under that description. we opted to pop along a few nights later and were seated on a candlelit table for two with full table service (serving both food and drink) for the evening. it was quite different from the usual arts centre dash-for-a-pint-before-squeezing-into-any-vacant-seat process. there was an emcee compering the evening called zak toscani, and a support act called virgina jones, as well as the headline act, tommy johnagin. johnagin made me cry with laughter a couple of times (always a mark of success) and the other acts were also pretty good. however i have to say that, although it was nice to have service throughout the evening, not to worry about where to stand my drink and not to struggle for a place to sit, i can't help but feel that i prefer comedy clubs back home. to me the packed room, the queue at the bar and the buzz of chaos just adds to the fun.

right before we went to the comedy club we popped along to the 'lucky labrador' across the road. i must say i have been really impressed - in america in general but particularly in portland - by the number of real ales available (often brewed onsite). there's always a good list to choose from and all the bartenders have been keen to offer advice and make suggestions. in the lucky labrador i sampled a couple of pints of their moonlight ale while waiting for the gig to start.

one of my favourite days of america so far was the next day when jamie and i went to the oregon coast. we drove to astoria first which is about a two hour drive from portland. well, astoria isn't actually on the coast, it's on the columbia river, but that is where we went first. we went to the columbia river maritime museum, as it came highly recommended, where we discovered something very important: that i am better at learning to tie knots than jam.

we also learnt about the columbia river, the difficulty of crossing the columbia bar, as well as important history of oregon over the last few hundred years. our museum ticket also gave us admission to the 'columbia' ship docked outside which used to be a lightship. so we spent some time exploring the boat both on and below the deck.

the astoria column is a 125 foot tower overlooking the columbia river and was built in 1926. the column had been recommended to us an excellent place for views of astoria. driving up the steep road to the column takes you up about 600 feet and you then have the option of climbing the 164 steps to the top of the tower for the extra height. 

we made our way over to the astoria column and on paying for our car parking ticket we were asked if we'd be climbing the steps to look out from the top of astoria column and if so would we like to buy a small wooden model aeroplane for a dollar to fly from the top when we got up. i optimistically said yes and bought the model aeroplane.

jam, rather sensibly, opted to stay on the ground. i started off up the stairs quite well, albeit with children running past me on the circular staircase, however by the time i'd reached the top i'd worked myself up into such a state it was all i could do to take a couple of snaps, throw the aeroplane and run back down the stairs again! a shame really because i do think it was a lovely view!

the view from the bottom of the tower was still pretty impressive though so we made sure to grab a few snaps before heading on.

our coastal stop was cannon beach a little way down the road. we stopped in ecola state park first as we were informed that it was a good place to go for excellent views of cannon beach and the haystack rock which it is famed for.

we made our way down to cannon beach which was still pretty busy even considering it was a brisk march day.

we finished the day off with a swift pint of blackberry beauty (brewed in-house) at bill's tavern!