Seattle Trip - Day 3 - Vancouver
Getting up at 6:15am, we leave at about 7am and stop at Starbuck’s for breakfast. I pick up three mini-scones (vanilla w/ icing) and bottled green tea. Amy got an eggs florentine muffin sandwich and a hot chocolate. We proceeded north on Interstate 5.
We stopped in Bellingham, WA to gas up. I get a pack of Sixlets and a map of Vancouver. I come out while Amy is still inside and tell Lara, “I bet you Amy walks out with some beef jerky”. This is her traditional road trip food. I was right.
We make it to the Canadian Border and the wait is only about 20 minutes. After taking a few back roads (missing turns due to me forgetting how to read a road map), we arrive at Fort Langley at 9:45am, still 15 minutes before they opened. Good thing we didn’t leave when we had originally planned, else we would have had a longer wait.
Upon paying the entry fee for the three of us, we tour the fort. The 15 minute film was cheesy, but fun. The fort contains one of the oldest buildings still standing in Canada, built in 1840. This fort is also the birthplace of the colony of British Columbia in 1858, when it was established by a decree of Queen Victoria. Ironically, this was in response to the influx of Americans during the Klondike Gold Rush (didn’t expect a connection between this and our visit to the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park in Seattle on our first day).
We saw a demonstration of blacksmithing and Amy purchased the final product. We also saw the steps for building a wooden barrel and how the homes were built as well. As we were walking out of the fort to go to the gift shop, Amy took a picture of her shadow and declared “Amy sees her shadow, one more day of fun!” Yes, Amy, it came true.
After some shopping, we go to downtown Langley for lunch. We finally settle on Planet Java’s 50’s Soda Fountain. I stuck to my plan of having salmon as much as possible, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the salmon burger on the menu. I got it with a tossed salad while Amy got a burger with tortilla chips and Lara has the grilled cheese with chips.
After lunch Amy orders a turtle sundae without really asking why it was over $5. It turns out that it was a triple dip sundae that she had to get Lara to help her consume. Well, I say “dip”, but that really threw off the cashier when I ordered a single dip of mint chocolate chip ice cream. She said “we don’t do dip cones”. I realized that, once again, my Texan English was conflicting with British English. She thought I was asking for a ice cream cone dipped in chocolate. I corrected it to “single scoop” as the menu said and all was well. :) It was the best ice cream I had ever had from Coast Mountain Ice Cream.
About forty minutes later, we’re in downtown Vancouver and making our way to Stanley Park. We had a huge difficulty finding parking due to the unusually warm weather (mid-70’s and mostly sunny). We did make it to Prospect Point park where we got pictures of the Pacific and of a raccoon begging for food. I found a t-shirt for the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Olympics that I picked up.
We left the park and found parking in the downtown area to go shopping. We found Pacific Centre Mall almost completely by accident. Amy got a necklace at H&M while Lara got a neat sequined top that looked awesome. Next door to H&M was the Apple store. Amy got my photo in front of it. The last store we went to was Fairweather where I got a leather jacket and Amy picked up another necklace.
We left downtown Vancouver and went by Hwy 99 through Richmond to return to the border crossing. Unlike this morning the line was much longer, but only about 30 minutes.
The following list is things seen in Vancouver & Canada that were interesting or unusual:
- Oregon license plate: IM JEDI
- Dairy Queen stores everywhere ( a few in downtown Vancouver)
- Destruction in Stanley Park from December 15, 2006 wind storm.
- Despite bilingual language in Fort Langley National Park and in Stanley Park, all other signage (including traffic) were only in English.
- One purchase made in Fort Langley (from the blacksmith) was made giving U.S dollars and receiving Canadian dollars in return (due to the almost equal exchange rate, the blacksmith was perfectly fine with the exchange).
- Pay by phone parking meters.
- Drug sniffing dog being led down line of cars by guard.
Amy offers me part of her leftover donut she bought at Starbuck’s this morning. I decline because we have no water and it would make me thirsty. She responds “I just swallow my own spit” and finishes the donut herself. I think to myself that I can’t wait to get back to Bellingham for dinner.
Oh, and I got jerked back to reality again when I saw the sign that said 108 miles to Seattle. The last sign I saw said 221, but then I realized it was back in Canada and that number was in kilometers.
We exit in Bellingham to find a place for dinner. However, Lara could not remember the location of the restaurant she wanted to take us to. So we settled for “Sol Del Mexico”, a Mexican restaurant (not Tex-Mex). Amy then coined the phrase “Wash-Mex”. It was actually very good with the exception of the overcooked tortilla chips. I had arroz con pollo with water and Amy enjoyed a margarita on the rocks with her two chicken enchiladas and taco. The waiter served a small sundae on cinnamon tortilla shell. Just right so we didn’t have to order dessert. I was surprised that, for water, we were given three glasses of ice and a pitcher to pour our own.
When Amy insisted on paying for Lara’s dinner, Lara responds “you’re not the boss of me”, followed by calling Amy “Bossy McBosserson”. We proceeded home to Seattle and got there just after dark so we got to see most of the skyline lit up.
To see the photos from today’s adventures, just go to the album called Seattle Trip - Day 3 in my Picasa account.
