We started with some shopping at an outlet mall, it's always good to get new clothes when you're on the road, you get so sick of wearing the same stuff all the time (although if people keep pinching my t-shirts that's not going to be such an issue - at least they're only taking the old ones with holes in them). Afterwards we felt we should do something a bit more manly, so it was off to the Museum of Flight to watch the Blue Angels (the US Navy stunt jet team), who were in town practising for an upcoming airshow. The airstrip they were using was right beside the museum so we had a really good view, and then watched their afternoon flight from a hilltop park's water tower, where we could see them all around the city. They're amazing to watch and the noise as they roar past is pretty incredible as well. We went back the next day to check out the museum itself and for some more Blue Angel action, and (completely by accident, sort of) wandered onto a top level balcony so scored one of the best viewpoints in the place. We weren't really supposed to be there but luckily no one spotted us and asked us to get back downstairs until after they were done so it was all good.
It was all very educational in Seattle, as we also went to the Experience Music Project and the adjoining Science Fiction Museum (the EMP is probably one of the funkiest museums in the world, there's not many where you walk around tapping your feet the whole time - lots of stuff on the history of grunge, Jimi Hendrix and a live jazz band). Did the Seattle Undeground tour as well, which takes you, well, underground, to the original street level of the city - it was all built over after a big fire in the early 1900's levelled pretty much the whole city. It was interesting to hear the history but it was pretty much just at basement level, I'd hoped it would go down a lot further through dark tunnels, old sewers and we'd get to wear helmets with lights and stuff. Oh well. We stayed just across the road from the famous Pike Place Market, so watched them throw some fish around and visited the very first Starbucks store, where we learned the lady in the Starbucks logo (she's actually a mermaid) used to be topless, she must have gotten shy now that she's appearing all over the world. She also appears at the top of a tower on the Starbucks Centre, a big building which I guess is their corporate headquarters. Now I actually don't mind Starbucks (big fan of the frappuccino's) but the general effect is kind of... well, evil looking, they only show her from the eyes up on every side of the tower, so it's like she's keeping watch over her vast empire - it's all a bit Big Brother (in an Orwellian way, not the TV show).
But we escaped the clutches of the Starbucks lady and made it back to Vancouver, just in time for the finale of the Celebration of Light fireworks, which was phenomenal (and Canada won the competition which was good). Some of the other people we'd met (Ms Swiss and her newly arrived brother) suggested we head up to Whistler, so the 4 of us pitched in to get a proper hotel room and stayed up there for a few nights. Whistler's a nice little town, the main village is all pedestrian only which is nice. It's mainly a ski town but in the summer attracts lots of mountain bikers. We had a few rainy days so we spent a lot of time in the hotel, watching DVD's, making pancakes and just generally enjoying having normal beds and a nice bathroom. We did do some hiking though, and caught the gondola to the top of Whistler Mountain for a quick hike and the BBQ buffet (which was really, really good, especially the pork).
It was back to Vancouver one last time then, did the Grouse Grind a second time, visited Lighthouse Park and looked around Stanley Park and Granville Island a few more times. We also had a few more farewell dinners as everyone headed home or to keep travelling, which we would usually have at The Old Spaghetti Factory (remind me to tell you about them some other time). I finally left Vancouver (which is definitely one of my favourite cities in the world so far) on the 18th of August, and it was quite strange and a little bit sad to be on my own again after spending so much time with the same people. But that's the way it goes I suppose and it gives me even more reason to visit Europe soon to catch up with everyone and see what's so fantastic about this crunchy bread the Swiss keep talking about.
So first stop after Vancouver was Penticton, in the Okanagan Valley, an area well-known for it's fruit growing and vineyards. Penticton's in quite a nice setting, in between Okanagan and Skaha Lakes, and the countryside reminds me a lot of the Otago region of New Zealand, but with a more Western feel (they've got bears and rattlesnakes around). The weather was kind of gloomy most of the time so I took the opportunity to catch up on some work, but would always go for a walk at the end of the day when the sun would drop beneath the clouds for some really nice sunsets. The town itself wasn't as nice as I'd hoped, I thought it would be smaller and a bit more rural, but the trails around the lake were pretty nice. Kelowna was the next stop, further up Okanagan Lake, and it too was quite nice but not somewhere I felt I had to spend much time. Went for a walk up Knox Mountain in town (and copped a few blisters as I wasn't wearing the right shoes. Only meant to go get some breakfast but as I often do saw the mountain and couldn't resist going for a bit of a wander) but otherwise didn't do much. The hostel there was simed at more of a party crowd too, was full of lots of people who'd get completely drunk which caused them to constantly shout to each other (most of them were Australian too, there must be something we can do to stop all our bogans getting out of the country, it's embarrasing). Penticton was much more civilized, it had a nice little lounge so we'd sit up till late with people from Canada, Spain, France, Ireland and NZ, just talking about anything and everything.
So that brings me to Revelstoke, which I'm really enjoying. It's a small town in the Columbia Mountains, on the banks of the Columbia River and it's so nice to finally be amongst the mountains. Just been doing some hiking around here, down by the river, out to the nearby Revelstoke Dam, and at night there's been free music in the town square for their Railway Days festival. Went to that last night and it was great, sitting out under the stars listening to some good old fashioned fiddlin', with the freight trains and the 'ding, ding, ding' (ice cream man! ice cream man!) of the signals serving as the backing music, it all felt very Canadian. So I'm here for a few more days, then off to the Rockies and Yoho National Park, and the only thing greater than my excitement is the fear which my camera feels at the prospect.
