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Mark & Lyndon's Seattle - Vancouver travel log
Friday, July 7th, 2006.
Seattle Weather: Sunny 55°-77°. Our morning flight was delayed 1.5 hours due to air conditioning problems. After a brief taxi, the plane pulled back up to a gate. During the flight we had great views of the snow capped Cascades. After arriving in Seattle late afternoon, we spend the afternoon and evening hours walking around the Capitol Hill area focusing on Pike Street and Broadway.
Saturday, July 8th.
Seattle Weather: Sunny 55°-82°. Ok, this was a major walking day. We explored Pioneer Square above ground and below. All this excitement worked up our appetite, so we walked down to Pyramid Ale House. They had a great beer selection there. After our bellies were full, we walked to the Smith Building for a trip up to the observation deck on the 35th floor via a 1914 manually operated elevator where you could get wonderful views of Seattle, the Cascades and in particular, Mt. Rainier. Then we did another healthy walk to Pike Place Market. We saw some fish throwing and the ‘bare breasts’ on the original Starbuck’s sign. We opted to skip the Space Needle and walked back to the car for a trip around Green Lake where lots of people were out enjoying the lake, park and sun. We meet our friends Jeff and Leslie at Asteroid Café in Fremont for dinner. Before meeting them we visited the Troll under the Aurora Ave Bridge and shared a beer at Dad Watsons. After dinner we walked over to see the largest statue of Lenin in the US.
Sunday, July 9th.
Whistler Weather: Cloudy 57°-77°. The drive from Seattle to Whistler took about 4:45. Going through the border was a breeze, no delays at all. We were upgraded at the Hotel to a one bedroom suite which was very nice. We had a very nice lunch outside at the High Mountain Brewing Company’s Brewhouse Restaurant and Pub. After lunch we took the Peak Adventure to the top of Whistler Mountain. The gondola took us up the Roundhouse Lodge where a short walk took up to an open-air chair lift to the peak of Whistler Mountain at 7000 feet. There was still snow up there and we did two hikes: The Peak Interpretive Walk and part of the Peak Road Trail. We spent lots of time walking through the village at ate dinner at Citta’s Bistro. Long days up here! Sun Rise 5:12 am – Set 9:20 pm
Monday, July 10th.
Whistler Weather: Cloudy 59°-69°. Drive from Whistler to Vancouver took about 2:45 minutes including stops. The road is under construction in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics. We stopped in the town of Squamish and also at Shannon Falls which is the 3rd highest waterfall in BC with a drop of over 1000 feet. Checked into our room at the Nelson House at 11 am and walked down Davie St. to Howie St. and took the Aqua Bus to Granville Island. Explored the area and ate lunch at Dockside Brewing outside on the patio. The weather was cloudy, cool and windy. They had heaters on the patio, but Lyndon was still cold. We walked around some more and spent some time in the Public Market. The fresh produce, meats and fish in here were wonderful. We got some smoked salmon jerky... yum, yum. We had a brew at Granville Island Brewing (The Kitslano Maple Cream Ale was the best!) and took the Aqua Bus back across False Creek. We strolled down Beach Ave and Sunset Beach Park to Cadero St and back to the B&B. After a brief rest, it was back out walking down Denman St to English Bay Beach. For dinner we ate Vietnamese food at Vina on Denman. Time for another long walk, so we walked down Denman to Robson and down Robson to Burrard and then Davie to the Fountainhead Pub. While on Robson St, we had some yummy chocolate from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.
Tuesday, July 11th.
Vancouver Weather: Cloudy to Partly Cloudy 53°-70°. Ate breakfast around 9am. 2 other couples were at the table: 1 from Quebec and 1 from England (Brighton). Went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge and then to Grouse Mountain. Did a hike on Grouse Mountain and saw two orphaned Grizzly (Grinder & Coola) they have in captivity. We drove to Sailor Hagar’s pub in North Vancouver near the Lonsdale Quay Market for “fish and chips” and beer. After driving back to the West End, we walked down to Sunset Beach (where we stopped to watch dogs play in False Creek) to Burrard and back on Davie where we had a Thai dinner at Thida Thai on Davie St. After a brief rest at the B&B, we went to the Fountain Head Pub for beer and appetizers.
Wednesday, July 12th.
Vancouver Weather: Light Rain all day, Cloudy 55°-62°. Ate breakfast at B&B with guests from Australia and Massachusetts. Left B&B around 9:45 for an aggressive agenda for touring Vancouver. We decided to do indoor attractions since it was a rainy day. We started by going to Storyeum where you went underground to 7 ‘stages’ where actors portrayed the history of the area. This was very informative and entertaining. We visited some gift shops and art galleries and made our way to Steamworks Brewery where Mark had a Turkey Sandwich and Lyndon had Salmon Quesadillas (and of course we each had a brew). We then drove to the UBC Museum of Anthropology and on the way stopped to get gas which was a very pricy $3.83 US per gallon. The marathon continued with a drive back to Stanley Park and the Aquarium. They have an exceptional aquarium in Vancouver, we highly recommend it. We walked the waterfront since the rain had temporarily almost stopped and ate dinner at Banana Leaf. Then for our evening entertainment, we went to 2 bars: Sugar Daddy’s and the Fountainhead Pub.
Thursday, July 13th.
Vancouver Weather: Cloudy 56°-70°. Ate breakfast at B&B, then went to walk up and down Commercial Drive to check out the funky shops they have there. We bought some great chocolate at Dutch Girl Chocolates. After walking and window shopping some more, we drove down to Chinatown and had noodles for lunch at Hon’s Wun-Tun House. The highlight of the day was riding bikes around Stanley Park, English Bay and False Creek. After a very long bike ride, we took a very long walk. We walked down these streets, Denman, Robson, Thurlow and Hornby to the Aqua Bus to go over to Granville Island. We were going to the Market over there, but we arrived past 7:30pm and the market was closed. So we walked over to Granville Brewery, but they were getting ready to close, so we had a very quick beer. They were also out of Maple Cream Ale which was a big disappointment! We were looking forward to that during our long walk through town. So instead, we headed to Dockside Brewing and sat at the bar and had Smoked Seafood Platter (candied Salmon, house smoked coho, smoked trout, lox and drambuie macerated mission figs) and Pizza (lamb, asparagus and sun dried tomatoes). We got home early and stayed (9pm) and stayed in for the night.
Friday, July 14th.
Victoria Weather: Cloudy (some light rain) 53°-68°. Got up early and drove to Tsawwassen to catch the ferry over to Victoria. We caught the 11am ferry (we had made reservations in advance). We got to the Swan’s Suite Hotel around 1:30 pm. We fell in love with the hotel. The fact that they had a top notch brew pub downstairs didn’t hurt! After checking in we walked around Victoria around the harbor area down where the Empress Hotel is. We took a stroll down to Chinatown via Fan Tan Alley. We relaxed at the hotel before taking in the Royal British Columbia Museum which was open late hours. For dinner we ate at Spinnaker’s Brewpub. Our evening feast consisted of a Smoked Salmon platter. We walked along the waterfront. It ended up being a much longer walk then we thought it would be, but it was very enjoyable although chilly. It was a 20 minute walk back to the hotel. Saturday, July 15th.
Victoria Weather: Partly Cloudy 50°-75°. After a continental breakfast at the Hotel, we drove to Butchart Gardens where there is 55 acres of flowers, patch and lawns. We tried to get there early before the crowds came later in the day. We had lunch and brews at the hotel (Swan’s Brew Pub) and then went shopping around Victoria. We bought a “Raven” (Native Indian Art) and a Tibetan Singing Bowl. We also took the opportunity to wash clothes at the hotel. For dinner we ate at Canoe Brewpub and called it a night relatively early.
Sunday, July 16th.
The crossing time on from Victoria to Port Angeles was about 90 minutes. We drove up to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park. It was very beautiful up there and the weather was very sunny. We hiked High Ridge trail (5471 ft), Cirque Rim Trail and Big Meadow Trail. We then drove to Mt. Rainier via Tacoma and checked into the National Park Inn where we had a mediocre dinner. We did have a nice view of the summit of Mt. Rainier from the ‘front porch’ as there were not any clouds around the summit at all. We drove to Paradise and back to get an idea of where we would go tomorrow for our hike.
Monday, July 17th.
Spent the day in Mount Rainier National Park. We did lots of hiking on the Paradise Area trails. We hike the Skyline Trail just past Myrtle Falls where the Golden Gate Trail branched off to the left. We hiked up in elevation to where we ran into snow on the trail and turned around and went back down the trail. We then hiked up the Skyline trail to Deadhorse Creek Trail up to the Glacier Vista at 6336’. We hiked down the Skyline Trial via the Alta Vista Trail and down to the Jackson Visitor Center where we had lunch. We drove around the east side of Mt. Rainier and up to Sunrise (6400 ft) to see the view from there. Then we drove to our hotel for the evening that was a short 10 minutes north of the airport. We had some good brews and BBQ at Pacific Crest Brewing. We got back to the hotel around 9am and called it a day and crashed!
Tuesday, July 18th. Early morning flight home from Seattle via DFW.
questions/comments: comments@marklyn.us
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