Day 11: Vancouver to Seattle
Maple leaves (Canadian National Symbol) growing along the shoreline in Coal Harbour
After tempting the gods yesterday with talk of getting used to waking up at 6am, this morning the alarm and I had a huge falling out. Needless to say the comfortable marshmallow like bed in Burnaby kept me asleep far beyond my anticipated rising. At 9.06am my body decided to awaken from its slumber and for a fleeting moment I didn’t see the time. Then, a sense of panic set in. Showered, packed and loaded into the car, at 9.45am I walked into the bar to get some continental breakfast. The Asian chef, who literally laughed in my face because breakfast ceased to be at 9.30am, felt bad and made me coffee which I split the scene with quickly. Given that I have qualified for and been granted an IEC visa to Canada, I really couldn’t afford to lose time checking out the city I may potentially end up moving to for a year.
Cruising into Vancouver from Burnaby, the city looked decidedly better in not only daylight, but in sunlight. Overnight rains made way for a cool but bright day, and the veil of grimness coating the city from what I’d experienced last night was lifted. Although, to be fair, I did have an incident last evening that would have contributed to my grumpiness. While trying to navigate the city in the rain with a GPS shouting delayed directions to me, I ended up missing an exit and diverting up a one-way street, in the wrong direction. Luckily there was no on-coming traffic and as I performed a U-turn, I scraped the Fusion’s driver side alloy off the curb island dividing the street. Pulling in further down the street to assess the damage, I was both angry with myself and totally peeved. So apologies, Vancouver, if I maligned you.
Modern Vancouver architecture from the Convention Center
Today however, I just had to focus on seeing as much of the city as I could before heading back Stateside and continuing my journey around the USA. To do this, I headed for Gastown, an historic region of the city. I parked the car and went out into the cold brightness to see what this city was about. Gastown is a pretty part of the city, but on closer inspection it’s more of a tourist honey-trap than a local hangout. Needless to say the camera lashed to my wrist didn’t go amiss in the crowd of German and French tourists (and a few Brits too – no doubt visiting the Commonwealth). Once I got out of Gastown and headed south however, I got to see more of the real city. You instinctively know you’re not in an American city though – I can’t exactly say why that is – perhaps it’s the cleanliness, or the bold architectural style of the city, but something does give me that impression. Vancouver is an impressive city with historical buildings juxtaposed with modern, confident skyscrapers and apartment complexes. There are Starbucks stores all over the place too – almost on every street corner – giving credence to that Simpsons vignette when Bart goes to get a haircut, is warned the barber’s will soon close to make way for a Starbucks and emerges sipping a frappucino passing many many Starbucks stores constructed in the interim.
I headed up Robson Street and passed the art gallery and the fifth-avenue high street stores. Once I ran out of street and time, I decided to head back, ending up in Coal Harbour, a place I’d seen many times with some of the nicest apartments when I was searching earlier in the year to try to establish a cost base for possibly moving here. Walking along the shoreline to the Convention Centre and the 2010 Winter Olympics Cauldron and on past the cruise-ship dock and Canada Place center, I really opened up to the city. Its beauty is simply stunning. I think it’s more that it’s so new and fresh that I like it, but I really felt as though that one section of walking through the city really helped me decide whether I liked it or not. And I do. Now that said, there were plenty of homeless guys and crazies roaming the streets too, and on the way in from Burnaby I did notice some rather less attractive areas of the city – but on the whole, it appears as if Vancouver is a vibrant and healthy city which is growing. I also noticed a lot of Irish accents (not that you needed to hear them, something about the Irish just makes them stand out).
Seattle from the Space Needle observatory
After shelling out CA$11.00 to have the car parked for the 3 hours strolling, I decided to make for the border and get on into Seattle – not a short drive by any measure. Arriving at the border and queueing to enter the US, I was struck by just how quickly I breezed through customs on this side – less than 20 seconds of questioning compared with almost 10 minutes the day before from Canadian authorities. Once across in Washington state, I pulled in at a Starbucks (getting addicted) and checked back into the land of the internet again – happily my MiFi was back working. I also had to book a hotel in Seattle as I’d figured because of the delays in the morning, there was no way I’d get all the way to Portland and see Seattle at the same time. After a bad experience in Colorado with the HotelTonight app, I fired it up again and gave it another chance – this time booking the Red Lion hotel in Bellevue, outside Seattle. In seconds I was set, and I went to join the traffic queues that swarm Seattle at rush hour, and got to the hotel in good time, arriving just before 6pm. I decided that I’d get the Space Needle tour out of the way and that would allow me to manoeuvre a bit better tomorrow’s journey – and after crossing the bridge and negotiating the road works, I got to the Space Needle in good time – before nightfall. Joining the queues after paying US$19.95 for the privilege and ducking the obligatory photograph, I took the 42 second elevator to the top, pushed out the door and went out into the cold Seattle air. After a few minutes (and more than a few shocked stares that a man could bear the cold with just a t-shirt) I headed back inside ,walked around the full circle and joined the queue to get back down. After collecting the car and paying US$12 for less than an hour’s parking, I went back to Bellevue, pulled up a chair at the hotel restaurant and had one of the nicest meals I’ve had so far on the trip – chicken fettuccine.