Seattle and Vancouver

In October Lucy's school gave the seniors a few days off for college visits.  So Lucy and I headed up to the PNW.  We had a direct flight from ABQ to Seattle with some VERY loud talkers seated behind us.  We just love having to listen to old ladies become acquainted on flights.  It's our fav.  But we learned a few things about community college and stuff. ANYWAY....we landed in Seattle, picked up our car (an awful GMC SUV that was way too big and had no kilometer speed, which was problematic in Canada).  We drove straight to Puget Sound for a tour.  A lovely little campus in Tacoma.  Lucy really liked it. 

From there we drove to Seattle, checked into our hotel, nearly had a melt down, no wait, had an actual melt down trying to park the large car in the itsy bitsy teeny tiny hotel parking garage.  It was nice to abandon the car for the rest of the Seattle stay.  Our hotel was near the Amazon sphere things which were under construction, so we saw that.  Seattle is undergoing some major renewal.  GIANT building going up everywhere.  Apparently with such a giant workforce housing prices have soared leaving a massive homeless population.  Also as we witnessed, Seattle has a serious heroine problem.  So many many many junkies.  It was scary.  Anyway we went down to Pike's Market and the gum wall. Which is actually super gross. 

 We appreciated the hate of Trump.  

As we left Pike's Market a junkie who was stark raving mad, attacked someone and then another man attacked him, and it was terrifying.  So we were on edge in Seattle pretty much the entire time. Oh, yeah, also as I was walking through Pikes Market I almost stepped on a small bag of white powder.  Hmmmm.  So anyway, we had a delicious dinner, and then clutching our belongings close we passed by the rows and rows of homeless and made it back to our hotel.  The next morning we took a Lyft to UW for the tour.  It's a giant campus with some very pretty buildings (and some super ugly ones as well).  On a sunny day you can see Mount Rainier, but it was a drizzly day. Also enjoyed the Boys on the Boat setting.  The verdict on UW was way too big and impersonal.  Plus super expensive for out of staters.  Pro Tip, when choosing places to live seriously consider the quality of the state schools, because at the rate we are going the only way to pay for colleges will be instate tuition. 

After UW we took a Lyft to the Japanese garden.  The driver was listening to some alt-right conspiracy theory nonsense, which was entertaining.  He also suggested Lucy skip college and go into multi-level marketing.  So anyway....

The garden was gorgeous. 

 

 Next we took a Lyft to the Space Needle.  This driver was listening to Pod Save America.  Bonus points for him.  We went up on the needle which was fun and then we went to the Chihuly museum below.  Super cool. 

 These blankets almost made it feel like we were back in the Land of Entrapment.

 From there we wandered down to the waterfront, clear to Ivars for a cup of chowder. 

 We made our way to the Pioneer Square area.  At Occidental Square we got to see another junkie losing his mind shouting at imagined people.  And we got to follow three other junkies who found some food on a bench and chowed down on someone else's garbage. It was so sad.  Kids, don't do drugs.  It makes you look 90 and anorexic, and just isn't good. 

 We went back to Pike's Market because the first time most of the vendors had packed up, because we got there too late.

After this we went up to the big shopping center near Nordstroms and watched Victoria and Abdul (ok, kind of boring, kind of grossed out that she was portrayed as having romantic feelings for Abdul.  Ick.)  We ate dinner and then went back to the hotel for Lucy to do homework. 

The next morning we left Seattle and drove up to Vancouver.  Pretty drive and crossing the border into Canada was slick.  We realized once in Canada, that it is a version of the United States where everything works and is in good repair, and where ideas to control traffic aren't considered liberal, just practical, so they can actually be progressive. So, yeah, we were fans. Anyway, we crossed the border, and drove straight to Capilano Suspension Bridge.  We were not prepared for the LARGE and entertaining crowds of Chinese tourists.  Oh the posing.  Seriously.  The posing.  It was mind blowing.

 We went and checked into our hotel and drove to the botanical garden.  I wish we would have had time to make it to Buchard Gardens, but Victoria was out of the way.  But this place was pretty. We enjoyed the maze.

We ate dinner at a Pho place across from the hotel.  And it wasn't as good as our Reno Pho place.  Never had better Pho than that place.  I'm on a quest.   The next morning we headed straight to UBC for the tour.  It was a huge campus, but it felt more welcoming than UW.  Lucy was excited about it.  Really great campus.  Oh, and about that it's like the US only functional....college in Canada is quite affordable.  Especially if you are Canadian.  But even for American's it's a fraction of the cost.  After the tour we went to Granville Island Market.  Very cool.  Lots of good food.  And we found Mangosteen from Thailand.  Was fun to finally get to try it, after Lucy's raving reviews.

Our next stop was Stanley Park.  Gorgeous and huge.  We walked along the water and made it to see the Totem poles.

 The posing.  Oh the posing.  So much posing.

 We parked at Canada Center.  A large events center we believe was built for the Olympics and walked to Gastown.  It is a cool district with shops and restaurants.  We ate at a yummy place, despite not being particularly hungry.  When in Gastown, one must eat a good meal.

The next day we had to get back to Seattle for our 4:00 flight, which meant if we got an early start we had time to drive up towards Whistler, and see some of the beautiful BC scenery.  We only made it as far as Squamish.  It was beautiful.  Lots to explore, and we had so little time.  But we got a flavor.

Then it was back to the US, and onto the airport.  The border crossing into the US was awful.  Took forever.  And you could look over at the orderly Canadian side where there were so many lanes and cars just passed right through.  There were like three lanes open to get back and it was a reminder of the dysfuntion that is the US.  So sad.  

Crossing to the US:

 Crossing to Canada:

We made it to the airport....loooong drive, with lots of bouts of bumper to bumper traffic.  I saw this sign in the airport and may have shed a tear that we weren't going "home" but back to NM.  I took a pic and texted it to Diane and Shannon and said, "It's a sign."  Diane texted back and said, "Yes it is a sign."  Hehehehehe.

A fun trip and I'm glad Lucy and I got to go.  It will be interesting to see if she ends up in Tacoma or Vancouver!!!

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