We took an indirect (very scenic!) route north from Seattle to Vancouver, BC, where we would spend most of our trip. Here's a shot of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. It was overcast but it only rained occasionally through that day.
I took a picture of our GPS at one point to show our route; we first headed south from Seattle to Tacoma and then turned north to take a very pretty route over many islands & bridges, and through lots of cute small Washington towns.
The furthest north we could go on that road was a nice little historic-looking town called Port Townsend. We stopped at a 50's style diner for lunch before getting on the ferry that would keep us on our northward journey.
Here we are on the ferry. It was chilly & windy but we stayed outside enjoying the view most of the time; it was only about a 20 minute ride. We even saw some dolphins swimming off the back of the ferry, but couldn't get any good pictures of them.
The ferry took us to Whidbey Island, which is just beautiful. We spent quite a bit of time around Deception Pass; there was a state park there that we hiked around in for a little while, and then there were two bridges that had walkways on both sides of them. So, we walked back and forth across them to admire the view before we drove across. Look at the color of that water; it was such a pretty place.
Here are the bridges at Deception Pass; they're VERY high off the water and I wasn't crazy about standing out in the middle for very long (a mild fear of heights). Aaron didn't mind the height at all so he took lots of pictures from the bridges.
The trees were enormous!
Not long after Deception Pass we headed back over to the I-5 to drive the remaining few miles north to the border. Before that, though, we went on some pretty roads like this.
There was about a 45 minute wait at the border, but we made it across while it was still daylight. British Columbia here we come!
The city of Vancouver is only about 10 miles from the border but it was dark by the time we got there. Here's Zoe's Flat Stanley!
What a city! Wow. Very impressive. Wikipedia says the population is 2.3 million but I would've thought more than that upon seeing the number of skyscrapers; they are endless! There are a LOT of residential high-rises, and the whole city seems to be made of glass... every building appears to be nothing but windows. Quite a sight. On the way to our hotel we drove on a bright-neon Vegas-style street; fun. We'd booked our hotel online weeks earlier with only strangers' recommendations and ratings, so we were pleasantly surprised when we got there. It was situated on a very nice downtown street; away from the more "yucky" downtown areas and on a street where we weren't worried about walking down the sidewalk at night. There were nice shops and residential highrises surrounding our hotel. When we checked in we found out we'd been upgraded to the next size room; another great surprise!
I took a picture of our GPS at one point to show our route; we first headed south from Seattle to Tacoma and then turned north to take a very pretty route over many islands & bridges, and through lots of cute small Washington towns.
The furthest north we could go on that road was a nice little historic-looking town called Port Townsend. We stopped at a 50's style diner for lunch before getting on the ferry that would keep us on our northward journey.
Here we are on the ferry. It was chilly & windy but we stayed outside enjoying the view most of the time; it was only about a 20 minute ride. We even saw some dolphins swimming off the back of the ferry, but couldn't get any good pictures of them.
The ferry took us to Whidbey Island, which is just beautiful. We spent quite a bit of time around Deception Pass; there was a state park there that we hiked around in for a little while, and then there were two bridges that had walkways on both sides of them. So, we walked back and forth across them to admire the view before we drove across. Look at the color of that water; it was such a pretty place.
Here are the bridges at Deception Pass; they're VERY high off the water and I wasn't crazy about standing out in the middle for very long (a mild fear of heights). Aaron didn't mind the height at all so he took lots of pictures from the bridges.
The trees were enormous!
Not long after Deception Pass we headed back over to the I-5 to drive the remaining few miles north to the border. Before that, though, we went on some pretty roads like this.
There was about a 45 minute wait at the border, but we made it across while it was still daylight. British Columbia here we come!
The city of Vancouver is only about 10 miles from the border but it was dark by the time we got there. Here's Zoe's Flat Stanley!
What a city! Wow. Very impressive. Wikipedia says the population is 2.3 million but I would've thought more than that upon seeing the number of skyscrapers; they are endless! There are a LOT of residential high-rises, and the whole city seems to be made of glass... every building appears to be nothing but windows. Quite a sight. On the way to our hotel we drove on a bright-neon Vegas-style street; fun. We'd booked our hotel online weeks earlier with only strangers' recommendations and ratings, so we were pleasantly surprised when we got there. It was situated on a very nice downtown street; away from the more "yucky" downtown areas and on a street where we weren't worried about walking down the sidewalk at night. There were nice shops and residential highrises surrounding our hotel. When we checked in we found out we'd been upgraded to the next size room; another great surprise!Here's the view of the street from our hotel balcony:
That night we walked down the street to a little over-priced corner market to get some breakfast items to keep in our mini fridge for the next few mornings (and the market only took Candian dollars so I was glad I'd brought some with me!) and then just relaxed in our room after a full, fun day of sight-seeing and travel.
That night we walked down the street to a little over-priced corner market to get some breakfast items to keep in our mini fridge for the next few mornings (and the market only took Candian dollars so I was glad I'd brought some with me!) and then just relaxed in our room after a full, fun day of sight-seeing and travel.
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