Notes From The Travel Journal--Vancouver and Washington State

Finally! Our last leg! It's fitting that this post will occur on the one-month anniversary of our Canada Day celebration in Canada. Simply uncanny.

We savored our last few hours on the cruise ship by conning some random dude into taking a picture of the entire group with no less than 15 different cameras. That happened, but then there was yet another stunning sunset as we cruised toward Vancouver.

The rest of the group headed to Seattle to plane home, but Simon and I had finagled some extra vacation time to explore Vancouver and finally visit my brother in Eastern Washington State. We spent three amazing days in Canada, with this perfection greeting us as we stepped onto Canadian soil:

It was like Canadia opened its arms and wrapped me a huge bear hug. Everyone and their mothers are into hockey in that country. It was AWESOME.

Vancouver is a really incredible little city. I say little, but it felt more like New York than Boston. Hip and young with modern architecture, excellent restaurants, and a really active, outdoorsy crowd.

We explored historic Gastown, strolled around Stanley Park (third largest urban park in the world), had some tasty meals, enjoyed a few cocktails overlooking the harbor, relaxed in our hotel's pool nestled between downtown skyscrapers, celebrated Canada Day with fireworks, took an "Aquabus" to Granville Island for beer tasting, and strolled around the shops looking for an appropriate souvenir for Merwin (I can't travel without buying a useless trinket for the darn dog).

If we were ever to move clear across the country and emigrate (immigrate?) to Canada, this would be our destination of choice (don't worry Mom and Dad).

 

After appropriately waving our Canadian flags to avoid being outed as Americans (gasp!) we hopped in our rental car to meet Jim, Traci and Claire in Mount Rainier National Park. More amazingness, both in the form of our adorable niece and more remarkable mountain views. We checked into the Paradise Inn and did some relatively easy hiking around the Inn and Visitor Center. While it was mostly flat, it was also mostly covered with snow! Christmas in July!

To celebrate America, we did some hikes on July 4th--Martha Falls, the incredible Box Canyon, Grove of the Patriarchs and a few other trails around the park. Not quite as ambitious as Jim and Traci's admirable trek on the 90+ mile Wonderland Trail, but I was proud of myself for trodding along. And I can easily understand why the Park is one of Jim and Traci's favorite spots.

We headed back to Traci and Jim's house for some quality Claire time (she is seriously "this close" to walking!), met the chickens (Nugget remains my favorite), explored Richland a bit and tasted some yummy Columbia River Valley wines. It was so great to finally see their homestead before heading back East.

What an amazing three-week adventure. Despite the time that has lapsed, I'm still processing the trip and trying to relive much of what we saw. I have a terrible memory and fear that I soon won't be able to remember how truly remarkable it was. Actually, Alaska should probably go ahead and hire me as a tourism promoter because I will forcefully insist that everyone I know try it out. Not sure I can classify it as life-changing (what does that really mean?!) but it was pretty darn close. If you're reading this, kudos to you for your patience as a I meandered my way down memory lane.