This is a VERY short video of the Seattle Space Needle as seen from our helicopter ride.

Video of Deception Falls, WA

Deception Falls, WA on Route 2 on the way to Steven's Pass.

All Good Things Must Come To An End

Monday 6/25/12

The highlight of today was going to hear one of Susan's favorite authors, Ridley Pearson, speak while on a book tour for "The Risk Agent". We drove to the nearby town of Beaverton, which is about 15 min. from the Residence Inn in North Portland. The famous bookstore, Powell's Books, hosted the event and 40 people attended. He went around to every person there, shook their hand and thanked them for coming. It is very unusual for an author to do that. He spent about an hour speaking and personally signing books. We were very lucky to get to see him and even got a photograph with the best selling author of 42 books. One of his books, "Peter and the Starcatchers", co-written with Dave Barry, has been turned into a play and is currently on Broadway. The Flanagan Drama group (including Susan and daughter Lisa) saw the play in NYC at the end of May and loved it. Ridley is a fascinating energetic speaker and has had a very interesting life.

 

Tuesday 6/26/12

We drove back to Seattle with no detours today. It rained off and on for the drive so this was a good day not to be outside. After checking into the Hilton Bellevue, we returned to the Sea Star in downtown Bellevue and enjoyed a delicious lunch. Susan ordered Sockeye salmon and Mary had Steelhead salmon. Both were heavenly. We REALLY like the Sea Star restaurant! Many thumbs up for excellent food and outstanding service.

 
 

Wednesday 6/27/12 Travel Day Home

Mt. Rainier on a rare clear day

We splurged and ordered a Town Car service to the airport. We appreciated the door to door service during rush hour traffic. We very reluctantly checked our bags at the Delta counter and boarded our B767 to Atlanta, with the final destination of Daytona Beach. The weather was as perfect as it could be for flying. The skies were crystal clear which made for amazing views of the mountain ranges. On take off from SeaTac Airport, we could see six mountain peaks at once - all were covered in snow! What an ending to our incredible journey though the Pacific Northwest.

 

 

 

 

Snoqualmie National Forest

Little Kachess Lake with Mt. Rainier

Observations

We have noticed that the weather in the PNW is quite different from Florida's weather. That is especially obvious now with Tropical Storm Debby pounding the Sunshine state. Parts of Florida have received two feet of water in a few days and here in Portland they are making a big deal about having the 4th rainiest June on record with a whopping 3.72 inches for the entire month! Locals have told us that there is a constant fine mist and sometimes a bit of a drizzle but that's about it.

We have watched dark ominous clouds roll in that would be real frog pounders in Florida and yet here they don't get a single drop. Tonight on the local news they reported that there have been twice as many days of 80 degrees this June as compared to last June although they keep saying that the 30 days of June 2012 has been one of the coldest on record. We have been exceptionally lucky and have had good weather all but two days in the PNW. Even then, we didn't complain because we came here to experience cold wet days.

The air out here is clean and crisp and surprisingly dry. Mornings dawn cold in the 40's and slowly warm up reaching the high temperature by 6 pm. Days are very long with sunlight until 9:00 pm and sunrise at 5 am. They warned us that it is the opposite in winter and quite depressing. That's probably why everyone is outside every second they can get during this very short period of decent weather. We are terribly spoiled in Florida.

Seattle is known as the connected city and we did get terrific Wi-Fi almost everywhere in Seattle. Vancouver's Wi-Fi internet service was so-so and Portland has poor/weak coverage. It's strange that the very high end hotels do not provide free Wi-Fi for their guests or even plastic liners for the room trash cans. You have to pay extra for every little thing. The middle to lower end hotels have plenty of amenities like free Continental breakfast, free internet and computer usage, free Wi-Fi and friendly satisfied customers. We enjoyed the Hilton Bellevue and Residence Inn by Marriott the most and give both chains great big thumbs up for making our stays exceptionally good.

Portland gets extra gold stars for being the City of Roses. Rose bushes and rose shrubs are used extensively along highway medians and road hillsides and in parking lot strips. Everywhere you go you see beautiful blooming roses. They use roses for landscaping the way Florida uses palm trees. The soil here is a rich black color and full of nutrients. I had people tell me that they just throw something in the ground and it will grow without any help. No wonder the roses are so happy!

It was fun to see the giant log trucks rumbling down the highways on their way to the sawmills. The speed limit on the freeways ranges from 55 to 60 and people actually stay within that speed! We've noticed that the drivers are very polite. People in the PNW as a whole are nicer and more trusting so it feels safer here.

Our overall impression of the PNW is: a land of skinny pale people who spend a lot of time outdoors doing insane things like running up and down mountains simply because they can. Lots of people in the cities have cups of coffee in one hand and a cell phone in the other while walking down the sidewalks. They wear dark dull colors and wear outdoor gear as every day clothing choices. Not much color out here. It is common for women to wear yoga clothes to every event. At the finest five star restaurant, it is not unusual to see customers in yoga clothes. Definitely more eco-consciuous and health oriented. Markets and grocery stores are more like Whole Foods. There are more Farmer's Markets with local produce. The eating sure is good out here and the people are very friendly and kind.

Day 11 & 12

Saturday June 23, 2012

We enjoyed our time at the Ace Hotel in downtown Portland. It was VERY different from any other hotel and quite the experience. We tried fine dining and found our one experience a bit lacking. We then tried The Pita Pit - a very casual dinner - and loved it... so you just never know.

Ace Hotel from Stark Street Corner of our hotel room 409

Portland has left us unimpressed after two days. Public transit is a well kept secret here unlike Vancouver and Seattle. There are no maps to be found and no signs to be seen. We have used the car or walked to see sights in Portland unlike the other two cities where we parked and bought day passes to easily travel using public transportation.

Saturday we dedicated the day to driving Hwy 84 along the Columbia River Gorge to view waterfalls. Did we ever see waterfalls! Oh my! We climbed and hiked and viewed and admired the falling waters and lush green rain forest growth until we were exhausted. Wahkeena Falls was first along our route.


Wahkeena Falls

Two sisters taken by two sisters from New Hampshire

with Multnomah Falls in background

 

Multnomah Falls was next. This is the most visited attraction in Oregon. Multnomah Falls is the second largest most continuously running falls in the United States. These waters fall 620 feet and combine Susan's two favorite types of falls; plunge and block. We hiked up trails and had incredible close up views of the falling water. The fine misty spray makes a wonderful arctic facial treatment. Refreshing!

Horsetail Falls

We viewed Horsetail Falls on the way back to Portland. And, surprise!, this is a horsetail type falls. Each stop was spectacular and special. A wonderful train rumbled by as we were getting ready to leave. We waved and the Engineer blew the horn nice and loud. It was a special bonding second.

Train heading to Portland on a rare sunny day

Oregon has no sales tax at all. And, it is the only other state besides New Jersey where you cannot pump your own gas. Other taxes in Oregon and Washington are high but it really shows that you get what you pay for. Infrastructure and support for the citizens is superb out here. Florida could really learn a thing or two from these Governors. Thumbs up to Oregon and Washington for incredible parks and first class public transportation along with the many other benefits of residing here.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

The day dawned bright and sunny so we walked to a Starbucks and enjoyed Blue Java coffee, Portland coffeecake and blueberry scones while reading the Sunday paper. Good thing we were fortified because we tackled the Portland Arboretum and the International Rose Test Gardens. Both are free and supported by the city of Portland. The Arboretum is over 200 acres and we could drive through the whole thing.

The International Rose Test Gardens have to be the finest gardens anywhere on earth. Portland is known as The City of Roses. Beware that we may be posting hundreds of rose photos because every single rose we saw was spectacular. Please go to www.rosegardenstore.org/thegardens.cfm to read about the fascinating history of the gardens and to view their photo gallery.

Early in the morning, it rained so many of the roses were still covered in rain drops making for some spectacular rose gazing. We spent the entire day strolling though acres and acres of over 8,000 rose bushes in picture perfect rare sunny weather. Each rose was better than the last and there is no way anyone could choose their favorite. The long wait and hassle in the Atlanta airport was well worth it just to spend the day in paradise.

We very reluctantly left the gardens and headed out to the Portland Marriott Residence Inn in the northern section of Portland. We have a full apartment with a big kitchen, living room with fireplace, bedroom and separate large bathroom. We are lving in luxury now! I am writing this from the desk in the office of the suite. Now the hard part is deciding which of the over 200 rose photos Susan took today, should we post and share with you. Oh my! That's a lot of rose pictures.

One more day in Portland and one more day in Seattle before we fly home. Gonna be VERY hard to get on that plane!

If you are viewing this post in an email, PLEASE go to our blog and view the post in it's original format. You will be able to see the pictures much better. When the post arrives as an email, it is formatted differently than we designed and if you view it on the web, you will hopefully see things as we intended. :-)

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Day 9 and 10

Thursday, June 21

Quiet drive to the border until we made a slight error in lane judgement and somehow cut in front of the hour long wait in the very very long line of vehicles waiting to enter the United States. The US Homeland Security Police were none too happy about this either! We had the privilege of visiting the lovely inside facility of the Peace Arch Border Crossing at Blaine, Wa. Our documents were closely scrutinized and our vehicle searched by very stern faced deadly serious officials sporting many lethal weapons on their belts. By the time we left, we still were ahead of the pack and saved a good 30 minute wait in line. We do NOT recommend you do the same!

We drove the scenic route via Hwy 2 heading up to Deception Falls. A slight detour led us to the Washington State Salmon Hatchery facilities just past the town of Startup. We parked and strolled around, not seeing a single worker. We went into the lab, walked through rooms, went back outside and peered into vast tanks of fingerlings (baby fish) and still no one arrived. Lovely bathrooms inside so we enjoyed a classy bathroom stop. We viewed the info boards and admired the paintings of the salmon life cycles and still not a soul around. After all, who is going to steal a fish? Trusting folks these Washingtonians.

Fingerling Tanks at the Salmon Hatchery

On down the road, past the town of Gold Bar we found Deception Falls. Oh the rushing waters, the sound, the truly icy cold spray! You really have to go to Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest . Check out our video on YouTube to get the full effect of motion and sound.

Deception Falls

We stopped for dinner at the World Famous Sultan Bakery. This fine eatery is known for homemade food and we enjoyed plenty of it. We were served a roast turkey dinner and roast pork dinner with all the trimmings on plates the size of a spare tire. These things were enormous! There was at least 5 pounds of red skinned mashed potatoes plopped onto each plate. We had worked up quite an appetite battling those Falls so the 8,000 calories were quickly consumed.

We drove through terrible traffic and saw lots of big smash 'em up accidents until we safely reached our destination, the Grand Hyatt Seattle and was it ever Grand! This one night stay was Susan's first win that started the whole ball rolling on this trip idea. Parking is a huge issue in Seattle and we paid dearly to park overnight in a public park garage. $30! Can you believe it? We did get breakfast added for free as an upgrade - valued at $50. The hotel and rooms were truly elegant and luxurious especially the bathroom. It was the size of a small apartment. We ended our fun day squeaky clean and pampered.

Friday June 22, 2012

We reluctantly left our elegant surroundings and headed south to Portland. We decided to take a scenic detour to view Mount Rainier by driving a long loop that took more than four hours to slowly drive around the base of the mountain going west to east and finishing around the south. Cold and rainy and cold and lots of rain (did I mention that it's really cold and rainy in the PNW in June??) made a decided impact on the visibility. Honestly, we couldn't see a danged thing. The clouds were low enough to touch the road and obscured most of the scenery. We did see waterfalls and a lot of enormous trees but never did see Mount Rainier or Mount St. Helens. It's pretty hard to miss this close up but we managed it! The cold wet weather kept the sane away so we had very little company all day. It was actually pretty neat.

Mount Rainier National Park

This whole trip, we have seen almost no wildlife. No road kill at all other than one raccoon the entire trip. The only animals we have seen are livestock in fields and pastures, dogs in the city on leashes being walked by their owners and a couple of common ordinary birds. Very odd especially since I see wildlife all day long in Florida. Guess the animals are smart enough to stay in their warm nests and dens and let the idiot tourists play out in the rain and cold. We drove over 250 miles and arrived safely in Portland, wet, cold and tired but in a good way. Hello Portland!

We found our eclectic Bohemian vintage industrial style Boutique hotel called The Ace Hotel. Portland is super casual and laid back compared to Seattle and Vancouver. There is a totally different vibe here. As we drove in to find our hotel, we looked up to see a tall large man wearing a dress. Then a man strolled by with the worst looking toupe ever made. Typical Portland; colorful and funky!

We like our hotel. It is unlike anything we have ever found - fun and interesting. As I write this on a cold and rainy Saturday morning, I am enjoying Stumptown Piramide coffee made with a French Press. We have local delicacies from the Farmers Market for breakfast like smoked trout, delicate cheeses, wonderful breads and fresh fruits. Oh my! It is worth flying out here just for the amazing food.

Tuesday 6/19/12

When we arrived in Vancouver, we parked the rental car in the underground garage of the Best Western Plus Uptown and have been taking public transit ever since.

We began our journey with a new Ford Focus. It is a great car for our travels; large enough for our many suitcases, quiet and comfortable, gets great gas mileage but is really, really lousy at turning. It has a surprisingly large turning radius! Thumbs down on this car. If you get behind one in traffic, don't get frustrated with the driver. It's the car's fault!

Both Tuesday and Wednesday, we spent time riding around Vancouver with our all day transit pass. We stopped at coffee shops to enjoy a beverage and use their Wi-Fi. Today, we tried Blenz - a Canadian competitor with Starbucks.

Tuesday, we had lunch at Sushi Moro - another restaurant recommended by Martha and Andrew, our coffee tour companions. We enjoyed a nice meal in the area called Yaletown. I like this section of Vancouver very much. We ordered a large mixed Bento box and had mango ice cream - yummm!

We took the bus to Granville Island. This section of Vancouver has a quaint village atmosphere with a market filled with vendors offering fresh vegetables and other wares. It reminds me a little of San Francisco. The day was cold and overcast; grey and dark like most days in Vancouver.

Then, at 7:30 pm, out came the sun. No wonder so many people were out biking and walking. The paper said that this June has been one of the coldest on record. In Vancouver, cold Junes are called Juneuary. The mornings have been 40 to 41 degrees and it takes until 6 pm for it to reach a high of 50 and even up to 60.

Wednesday, June 20th The Longest Day of The Year

Once again, we started our day with our spartan hotel breakfast. I needed some real coffee so we headed out to find a coffee house which is easy since there is literally one on every corner. Coffee shops are everywhere and all good. Cinnamon rolls seem to be very popular, too.

Today is our Granville - Gastown Tour with the Tour Guys. Susan booked this tour on line before we left Florida. The surprise here was that the tour is FREE! This company offers all kinds of tours - each on a different day of the week. They do ask that you tip what you think the tour is worth. What a bargain! We spent 105 minutes with our guide, Jessica and learned a great deal about the rich history of Vancouver. Jessica referred to herself as a history nerd who scours old records to glean authentic details about early Vancouver that even Vancouverites do not know. Great fun!




We enjoyed lunch at one of the top destinations for good sandwiches in the city. Meat and Bread at 370 Cambie Street, lived up to everything Jessica told us. Amazing food! Wow! Porchetta is their signature sandwich and the grilled cheese with Canadian white cheddar is equally tasty. Don't miss this place!

I have to mention the incredible weather that made PNW residents go nuts. Two days of perfect, glorious sunny weather with temps. in the mid-70's brought out the best in everyone. The skies were a rare blazing blue and there was an air of happiness and bright joy that was palpable. Susan has taken over 600 photos and only a few show blue skies. And then we went right back to normal Northwestern weather. So savor the beautiful pictures with blue skies and plan for cold and rain when you visit.

We spent the rest of the day riding the bus and viewing many different areas and neighborhoods of Vancouver. We stopped at the campus of UBC, University of British Columbia, and strolled the grounds of the massive campus. The rose garden was a favorite back drop for graduates in cap and gown posing for photographs. The North Shore Mountains made a wonderful background.

Back on the bus and back to our hotel. We packed up and pre-loaded our car to be ready to hit the road, first thing in the morning, to return to Seattle. We ended our evening with another delightful surprise. We tried a sushi restaurant right across the street from our hotel. The place was a dumpy, ordinary looking place called Hime Sushi. We were welcomed as if we were family. We sat in front of the sushi chefs and watched them prepare meals. Our sushi platter of many different varieties of sushi was divine. We found a real gem and the price was very reasonable. Another recommendation from us!

Day 4 to 7

Been a little busy as you can imagine! A good example is yesterday, in Vancouver, we left our Best Western at 7:30 am and returned at 11 pm. I will start with Day 4 and work forward. Please tap on the photos to view them in a new window and larger size.

Friday June 15th, 2012

We enjoyed our helicopter tour of Seattle. We flew with our pilot, Trenton, in a trainer so the helicopter was the size of a Smart Car. Teeny-tiny. We flew just 500 to 1000 feet off the ground. We could see all of the city in a very up-close way. The highlight was flying up and around the Space Needle and over the top. What a unique perspective! After the short flight, we headed to the waterfront to dine at a famous seafood restaurant called Salty's. The restaurant is on Puget Sound facing Seattle with a spectacular view. Our food looked good but was subpar. We later heard that management had changed and quality had taken a dive. So don't go there until they fix it!

Seattle from across Puget Sound

While driving back to the lovely city of Bellevue, home to Microsoft and Bill Gates, we detoured to view the spectacular gardens of the neighborhood around the Hilton Bellevue. The homes are Craftsman style mixed with modern on tiny lots. While stopped in front of one home to take photos, the owner came out to see why we were there. She warmed up considerably when I mentioned where we were staying. After a good conversation, we said our goodbyes and headed to the end of the dead end street.

As we drove out, we saw our new friend standing there with a beautiful bouquet of freshly cut peonies in varying shades of pink. She said the flowers were to brighten our hotel room. What a wonderful, thoughtful thing for her to do! We were so moved. This is typical of everyone we met while in Seattle. It is SUCH a friendly welcoming place. The peonies drove with us to Vancouver and are still gorgeous in another hotel room.

Saturday June 16, 2012

We left our very nice Hilton Bellevue and drove down to the famous Pike Place Market area. Parked in a parking garage (very expensive parking everywhere) and joined our tour guide for a coffee tour that Susan booked ahead of time online. We joined our guide, Ed (about our age) and our small group of 8 for the Seattle By Foot Coffee Crawl tour. Ed gave us an incredibly detailed and interesting history of the Seattle area and coffee.

We visited 6 different coffee shops in different sections of the downtown Seattle area. Each store was special and each coffee sampled was unique. Some places served us 2 different types of coffee and some served us amazing food along with our coffee. Our favorite place was the chocolate store that served us coffee in a cup of fabulous hot chocolate. We greatly enjoyed talking with Ed and appreciated his vast knowledge of almost everything. You could tell he really loved his job and his life. We highly recommend this 2.5 hour tour.

Washington Park Arboretum

After happy coffee time, we drove to one of the top Public Parks in the world. To our delight, we discovered that the Arboretum has FREE admission! We could have strolled through over 200 acres and viewed over 40,000 trees and shrubs but the day was at an end. We saw dogwoods in bloom, rhododenrums and Giant Sequoias and many, many other plants that do not grow in Florida. I found my new favorite place on earth and highly recommend visiting this park.

Consulting a list of restaurants within one mile of the Hilton Bellevue, we chanced upon the Sea Star in downtown Bellevue. You normally need reservations but of course, they had a perfect table for us. We learned that we were sitting in the number #1 rated restaurant out of 185 restaurants in town. This was the famous, Sea Star, owned by John Howie - a very well respected chef in the PNW. He was on Iron Chef and Top Chef Masters. The meal, setting and service was 5*. Copper River Sockeye salmon is in season and we have enjoyed it at every chance. Our fine dining experience at Sea Star far exceeded our expectations. We highly recommend dining here every chance you get.

Sea Star restaurant in downtown Bellevue

Sunday June 17th, Father's Day 2012

Elevators in Hilton Bellevue lobby

Meals were not included with our Hilton booking but we managed to get free certificates for breakfast each morning. The hotel has a terrific breakfast bar with everything you could ever want. I was in heaven with a large bowl of fresh yogurt, homemade granola with cashews and covered in fresh berries - all ripe and locally grown. It was better than a big bowl of ice cream.

Sunday was our day to leisurely drive up to Canada. The scenery was as breath taking as expected with enormous tall evergreens of every type and rock walls lining parts of the highway. Ever since we departed the plane in Seattle, we have noticed how good the air smells. Clean, crisp and refreshing with a pine scent describes it. The air is pure and crystal clear. Temps have been cool and slightly below normal for this time of year but that is why we are here. We crossed the border at Lynden, WA with a wait time of 27 minutes. We later learned that right after we crossed, a fugitive from Canada was caught at the same place. It has been all over the CBC. We just missed the action!

We arrived in Vancouver on Highway 1A and checked into the Best Western Plus Uptown. At first glance, we were not impressed but as we spend time here, we see that the location is convenient. Although the rooms are small, the beds are super comfy and the place is clean so no complaints.

Monday June 18th in Vancouver, Canada

Monday dawned cool, crisp and overcast. After a spartan hotel breakfast, we headed out to spend the day at Grouse Mountain. This is the big ski resort in Vancouver that offers summer activities. We learned that they now make more money during the off season than from ski and snowboarding sports. We spent the entire day on the mountain and found plenty to keep us entertained. Grouse Mountain was not touristy at all. It was more natural and relaxed than expected. The zipline tour that Susan had booked as a surprise was a great deal of fun. We zipped down five different lines and hiked up and down slopes between lines and even took the Screaming Eagle chair lift to another zip line. Each line gained elevation until line 5 was pretty scary looking. We were comfortable in our harnesses by then and enjoyed the tremendous views from 4,300 feet. The altitude was a kicker for us sea level folks but we powered through it. The day included many activities and educational shows and before we knew it, we had to leave the mountain. We were wet and cold but greatly enjoyed our day in the rain forest ecosystem atop Grouse Mountain in the North Shore Mountains of the Pacific Ranges. This day is a must when visiting the Vancouver area.

Grouse Mountain That is snow behind us!

Miku Sushi

We ate dinner at Miku Sushi - a downtown restaurant recommended by a couple we met on our coffee tour. They live in Vancouver and dine at Miku regularly. This was another restaurant where reservations are a must but - as par for our trip - they had the perfect table for us. We were in heaven enjoying the finest sushi in a modern vibrant setting. We savored many courses and reluctantly left at 10 pm.

Public transport is superior in Vancouver. A day pass covers modern clean buses, water buses that are large modern ships and the Sky Train that is above ground fast transportation - similar to the elevated train in Chicago. A bus ride returned us to our hotel before 11pm.