Long overdue Seattle/Canada trip
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 02:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
evila_elfI am going to toss this behind a cut...it is going to be long. With lots of pictures :D
I went down to Seattle Friday and was picked up from the Amtrak station at about 6:30 by Michelle. After settling in at her place, we started to watch some of Peep Show with Mitchell and Webb. It took an ep or so for me to get used to them, and then I found them hilarious. Michelle burned 3 seasons worth of their radio program to disk for our road trip to keep us entertained.
Got up around 7:30 the next morning and we left around 8:30 to go pick up Gin before heading off North towards the boarder. Michelle started up the disks, so we listened to that. I got the backseat, which was fine by me so I could spread my stuff out and do a little typing on Pea (my laptop). We stopped at McDonalds for breakfast along the way. Then we stopped at Walmart (dunno why lol) and Michelle bought a new digital camera (which proved very handy).
The line up wasn’t huge to get into Canada, as what it could have been, I was told. As we waited in line, Gin got out to look at the Peace Arch. I was cozy in the car, so didn’t feel like getting out, so I snapped a pic from the car. Plus got a few of Gin, which I will be kind and not repost here :)
I think we were only stopped for about a half hour to 45 minutes. The guy at the boarder asked if we had been to Canada before (they had, I hadn’t) then asked how we knew each other. Then how we met...To me, meeting over the internet doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but it was probably a good thing that wasn’t given as an answer. I can’t really remember what answer was given, but it seemed to satisfy him and we were off.
We checked in at the hotel, which was very busy with either one large family, or three families. We didn’t bother with Valet parking yet, since we were heading off soon, so we dumped our bags into the hotel and zipped off.
We drove around a bit, trying to decide what to do. We ended up at the Aquarium and debated for a bit, trying to decide if it was worth the 20 bucks to get in. Finally, after basically coming up with a 'why not?' answer, Michelle started circling around looking for parking. We chose a lot by the 'Bright Lights' Christmas light display. We looked to a map stand, but the part that said where we were (You are HERE) was messed up. So, we picked a direction and started to walk. And walk. I will say that we got a nice look at Stanley Park.
Since I was an idiot, all pics from this day are taken from Michelle's Camera. (click to make bigger)
So, after about 20 minutes, or something around there, we reached the aquarium.
It was pretty crowded, and we started making our way around the place. First, we stopped off at this area that was done up like a rain forest....was surprised to see non fish-critters at an aquarium. There was nothing seperating us except a rail from them.
There were birds:
turtles, a duck:
a handful of mice darting around (too fast to get any pics of them), a lizard, and three sloths, which we could only spy one, and it was sleeping.
We started making our way around to all the tanks:
There was an interesting bit where there were tons of bats, but it was hard to see them since it was super dark. Could see them flitting around at the bottom as they grabbed bites of fruit. Michelle tried to take a few pics, but I am not sure how they turned out.
This little guy was by the forest part in his own cage. He looked lonely:
There were two shows we heard about and were going to try to see there. Don't remember what the first one was, since we weren't in time to catch it. But we made it to the second, a Beluga whale show. They performed some tricks with their trainers and swam around. They also got to splash the audience, which we stayed away from that part. It was already freezing (we were outside) and threatening to drizzle. I think Michelle has a video clip or two, so I will poke her about them.
We wandered around for a bit after that, and practically stumbled across another show, this time with dolphins :D
We got to see them leaping about (again, need to pester for a video). There was also this seagull who kept trying to steal their fish. It stayed pretty close to the trainer and even made a dive to try to grab fish from the dolphin. Then it floated around in the water some.
After that, we paid another visit to the bats (Gin seemed to be obsessed), and hit up the rain forest part one more time.
One of the sloths had just woken up!
A two-toed one, which are rarer than the three-toed. It actually moved pretty fast from what I had seen on TV. While we hung around, it hit up two different food stations. Sleeping most of the day is Hell on your appetite ;)
So, after forcing ourselves to leave, we went to the giftshop and bought a few things, then asked for directions to get back to our car, since it was dark outside (we had spent 3 hours there!). Asking was better than my idea of just looking around for Christmas lights. We were told to go to the right, up a hill, and to follow the path.
So we started out....
....2 minutes later we found the car *facepalm* I think I was more amused by it than the others :D
It was 5-6pm and we figured it was time for food. We hadn't eaten since breakfast.
....and I am getting tired of typing. So I will conclude up the trip in the next post. Or Posts :)
I went down to Seattle Friday and was picked up from the Amtrak station at about 6:30 by Michelle. After settling in at her place, we started to watch some of Peep Show with Mitchell and Webb. It took an ep or so for me to get used to them, and then I found them hilarious. Michelle burned 3 seasons worth of their radio program to disk for our road trip to keep us entertained.
Got up around 7:30 the next morning and we left around 8:30 to go pick up Gin before heading off North towards the boarder. Michelle started up the disks, so we listened to that. I got the backseat, which was fine by me so I could spread my stuff out and do a little typing on Pea (my laptop). We stopped at McDonalds for breakfast along the way. Then we stopped at Walmart (dunno why lol) and Michelle bought a new digital camera (which proved very handy).
The line up wasn’t huge to get into Canada, as what it could have been, I was told. As we waited in line, Gin got out to look at the Peace Arch. I was cozy in the car, so didn’t feel like getting out, so I snapped a pic from the car. Plus got a few of Gin, which I will be kind and not repost here :)
I think we were only stopped for about a half hour to 45 minutes. The guy at the boarder asked if we had been to Canada before (they had, I hadn’t) then asked how we knew each other. Then how we met...To me, meeting over the internet doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but it was probably a good thing that wasn’t given as an answer. I can’t really remember what answer was given, but it seemed to satisfy him and we were off.
We checked in at the hotel, which was very busy with either one large family, or three families. We didn’t bother with Valet parking yet, since we were heading off soon, so we dumped our bags into the hotel and zipped off.
We drove around a bit, trying to decide what to do. We ended up at the Aquarium and debated for a bit, trying to decide if it was worth the 20 bucks to get in. Finally, after basically coming up with a 'why not?' answer, Michelle started circling around looking for parking. We chose a lot by the 'Bright Lights' Christmas light display. We looked to a map stand, but the part that said where we were (You are HERE) was messed up. So, we picked a direction and started to walk. And walk. I will say that we got a nice look at Stanley Park.
Since I was an idiot, all pics from this day are taken from Michelle's Camera. (click to make bigger)
So, after about 20 minutes, or something around there, we reached the aquarium.
It was pretty crowded, and we started making our way around the place. First, we stopped off at this area that was done up like a rain forest....was surprised to see non fish-critters at an aquarium. There was nothing seperating us except a rail from them.
There were birds:
turtles, a duck:
a handful of mice darting around (too fast to get any pics of them), a lizard, and three sloths, which we could only spy one, and it was sleeping.
We started making our way around to all the tanks:
There was an interesting bit where there were tons of bats, but it was hard to see them since it was super dark. Could see them flitting around at the bottom as they grabbed bites of fruit. Michelle tried to take a few pics, but I am not sure how they turned out.
This little guy was by the forest part in his own cage. He looked lonely:
There were two shows we heard about and were going to try to see there. Don't remember what the first one was, since we weren't in time to catch it. But we made it to the second, a Beluga whale show. They performed some tricks with their trainers and swam around. They also got to splash the audience, which we stayed away from that part. It was already freezing (we were outside) and threatening to drizzle. I think Michelle has a video clip or two, so I will poke her about them.
We wandered around for a bit after that, and practically stumbled across another show, this time with dolphins :D
We got to see them leaping about (again, need to pester for a video). There was also this seagull who kept trying to steal their fish. It stayed pretty close to the trainer and even made a dive to try to grab fish from the dolphin. Then it floated around in the water some.
After that, we paid another visit to the bats (Gin seemed to be obsessed), and hit up the rain forest part one more time.
One of the sloths had just woken up!
A two-toed one, which are rarer than the three-toed. It actually moved pretty fast from what I had seen on TV. While we hung around, it hit up two different food stations. Sleeping most of the day is Hell on your appetite ;)
So, after forcing ourselves to leave, we went to the giftshop and bought a few things, then asked for directions to get back to our car, since it was dark outside (we had spent 3 hours there!). Asking was better than my idea of just looking around for Christmas lights. We were told to go to the right, up a hill, and to follow the path.
So we started out....
....2 minutes later we found the car *facepalm* I think I was more amused by it than the others :D
It was 5-6pm and we figured it was time for food. We hadn't eaten since breakfast.
....and I am getting tired of typing. So I will conclude up the trip in the next post. Or Posts :)
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-09 02:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-09 04:54 am (UTC)lol, I was wondering the same thing, since I hadn't been before. But if I were being smuggled in, I wouldn't say it was my first time into Canada ;)
no subject
Date: 2008-02-03 12:08 pm (UTC)I once saw a documentary on sloths on TV. I thought they'd taped it in slowmotion... but turns out nothing was wrong with the screen at all. LOL They do look awfully cuddly.
*on to next entry*