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Friday 06/01/2012
We didn't have to check out till 12 today and didn't have far to travel so didn't rush. We packed and went and had some breakfast then Marty went and got the car. In the big motels here you don't have to actually check out, because they have already swiped your card, they just charge what extras you have to the card, slip the receipt under the door the night before and give you a note saying thanks.
We were on our way to Santa Rosa, close to the wine districts of Napa and Sonoma, and it was only an hour away, so when I saw the sign for Muir Woods I suggested we go and see the giant redwoods there. Muir Woods was one of the heavily advertised tours from San Fran so thought it must be good. We had to park a fair way from the entrance as the car park was full, but not to be deterred we were strolling up to the entrance and I noticed it was getting colder and colder and colder. Marty only had a T shirt on and although I had a vest and a couple of layers, I realized we were certainly not prepared to spend an hour or so in the 'woods' freezing, so we jumped back in the car, cranked the heater up and headed off again.
We found our accommodation in Santa Rosa easily, then went and shopped for supplies, including fresh foods for our meals.
Saturday 07/01/2012
This morning I made the first mistake of our trip, I decided as I was awake early I would book our accommodation for Seattle, which is where Marty had said he wanted to go, so an hour or so of research and I had secured a booking at a very nice motel for 3 nights. Then I wondered how long it was going to take us to get there and what we could see on the way. Woops - 13 hours between Santa Rosa and Seattle. Well no sightseeing on this trip.
Anyways Marty had planned out a round trip of some wineries. They charge anywhere from $5 - $20 for tastings here, with good reason. A few years ago they had what they termed as "slammers" , groups of 20 year old+ people who would drive around and do up to 40 wineries in a day, eventually driving drunk. After a few serious and fatal accidents the wineries decided to charge for tastings to deter this behaviour.
However, if you get a card of recommendation from somewhere/one, it is free. Marty had collected a few from the concierge and based which wineries to go to on these. I had volunteered to drive, basically because I am such a wonderful wife. We arrived at the first winery, card in hand and Marty tried a few of their wines and bought a bottle as they were reasonably priced. The next one we were planning on had a sign out the front saying tastings were by appointment only, so we went to the one right next door. Russian Hill. Tasted there very expensive wines ($25-$35) a bottle and had a great chat to the lady who gave us cards for wineries she recommended. A lot of the wineries in this area have their tastings in shops in the towns, so we ended up at Healdsburg, found the first winery which also had very expensive wines, and decided that lunch at the deli across the road would be nice. We spent a very relaxing hour or so sitting outdoors undercover with a fireplace blazing behind us, with a beautiful deli lunch and glass of wine.
Marty decided he didn't want to go to any more wineries as he was uncomfortable tasting but not buying and we weren't going to spend $20 - $30 on a bottle, so headed back to Santa Rosa.
Sunday 08/01/2012
Spent 13 hours driving from Santa Rosa to Seattle. But got in in time to plan the next 2 days of sightseeing. It was also the best accommodation we have had so far. (The Westin Seattle). Looks a bit like the twin towers :) however it doesn't have the cityscape that Frasier had in his sitcom.
Monday 09/01/2012
We woke to a gloomy looking day so rugged up. First things first, we got our car out of the motels parking lot & moved it to a cheaper parking alternative. Then headed off to find the office to book our tour tickets for tomorrow. My god it was cold. I had to bring out the beanie, scarf, gloves, and Marty even had to put on his jumper. We found a cheap breakfast spot & had a quick bite, then strolled down 1st avenue to find what we were looking for. Bought our tickets then made our way back to the Pike Markets.
This is an old old market that has lots of fresh foods and nick nacks and all sorts of interesting things. We saw cheese being made, had free samples of fish, jams, dips etc, it was so much fun. We were keen to have another crab, and found a place that sold crab meat in cups and even had fresh prawns in cups, but it hadn't been long since we had breakfast so weren't all that keen today, maybe tomorrow. We spent a good couple of hours strolling around this delightful area. We obviously are at an advantage being here at this time of year because there aren't any crowds or queues, weather isn't great, a little overcast today, but that doesn't make or break a holiday, and so far we have had beautiful weather everywhere.
We then walked back to the very first monorail in the USA for a trip to the Space Needle. As we pulled into the station, which was only a 2 minute ride from where we got on, I noticed a sign advertising something about Avatar, so when off the monorail we went looking for it and found the EMP (Experience Music Project). This is a huge interactive entertainment place that has tributes to Sci Fi, Horror Movies, Music, and had special exhibitions on Nirvana, Avatar & for Marty's benefit Battlestar Galactica. He had read this exhibition was on somewhere and was delighted to find we had stumbled onto it.
We spent a couple of hours enjoying the exhibits, then made our way back on the monorail for the 2 minute trip back, by the way, the monorail has heated seats :)
This city is so different to San Fran, which is entirely different to LA, but so far we have loved all 3 of them. People everywhere have been incredibly friendly, they love Aussies but have a lot of trouble understanding us, but they also say they love the accent (what accent!).
When we ventured out for dinner, I donned the long johns, it was soooooo cold. But the problem is when you go inside you start to sweat straight away as everywhere is heated, so clothes go on, then they come off, then they go back on again. We found a Mexican restaurant for something different and had our first margarita since we were in the USA last time, this time we opted for the regular size, not the El Grande, they even had a mur El Grande which was a bucket, but we declined. They feed you to death here, before you order your meal they bring you bread and dips, this place gave us corn chips and dips, so by the time the dinner arrives I am full after only a few mouthfuls, then they get upset that I haven't enjoyed it and I have to explain that I am full, then they want to give it to me as a takeaway, and I accept, then throw it in a bin after leaving as I don't want to upset them. The other thing is the tax & tips, they quote everything without the tax, so when you go to pay for it you have to add 12%, then for tips, you have to add either 15% if the service was poor, 18% if it was good and 20% if it was excellent, and really they don't do anything that our waiters at home do, so we generally give them 15%, once or twice we haven't left anything cause we weren't impressed at all.
It was raining when we left the restaurant so opted to cab it home, cost was $8, but when we gave him $20, we only got $10 change, so obviously $8 is really $10 *##*#~****.
Tuesday 10/01/12
Officially 2 weeks today, and so far we have stuck to our budget even though we have stayed in 4* accommodation, it has been great staying in upmarket accommodation, love the biddingfortravel.com site.
We made our way down to where the tour starts and decided to miss breakfast this morning so we could partake of the crab for lunch. This tour is of the underground city below Seattle.
The story of how Seattle developed is amazing, but apparently not unique. They built the city on flats that flooded twice a day, it took them 30 years but they raised the level of Seattle by 15 feet by building retaining walls around businesses and then eventually building the streets from one retaining wall to another. Now the city sits over the old city and we went down to the bottom level, and saw the houses and businesses that used to exist below. AMAZING.
We then went for a walk a couple of blocks and found the coffee shop that Frasier apparently was based on, it uses the below ground area as its coffee shop but unfortunately wasn't open.
We made our way back to the Pike Markets by cab, and surprise, surprise the cabbie didn't have the correct change, so ended up with an extra $2, starts to wear a bit thin after a while. We bought ourselves a bagel and some crab meat and stood outside the markets overlooking the bay (which incidentally is 600 feet deep, the deepest in the USA), and thoroughly enjoyed our lunch.
Off to the military store where Marty found a pair of jeans and a pouch for his e ciggy, then we collected our car to find a Safeway and buy some supplies. The laws are different here, the supermarkets sell beer & wine but no spirit and so on the way back had to find a liquor store to get scotch. We enjoy this extra driving around cause we get to see the suburbs of the cities. Taking the wrong turns is a good way of also seeing the city outskirts, because you never actually get lost cause Moneypenny always takes you back on track.
We had an excellent cheap Chinese meal not far for the motel, but getting to and from was challenging as it was definitely the coldest we have experienced.
Wednesday 11/01/12
Nothing particularly exciting today except we left USA and made our way into Canada, and did some laundry. Nice motel, but this one is not downtown, so will have to use public transport to get into the action. I strongly believe that unless you use the public transport you don't really experience the city so I was more than happy.
Thursday 12/01/12
What an amazing, amazing day. Once again, it doesn't get light here till 8 - 8.30, which is so hard to get used to being an early riser, but I generally find something to keep myself occupied. We headed out about 9.15, found a coffee (I can't believe how much coffee I drink over here and it's full strength too), then onto the skytrain, a train line that is built on an aboveground track, which we discovered after getting to our destination had no driver, it was automatic, and the voice announcing stations was computerized, "Total Recall" revisited.
We arrived at what we thought was the right stop, then stood on the street for 10 mins trying to work out where we were and where we had to go, eventually found our way to somewhere where we thought we were meant to be and found a place for breakfast, so stopped there first. They gave us directions of where we needed to go and we found the place to buy tickets. We bought a 2 day pass for the hop-on, hop-off trolley and passes for Grouse Mountain and public transport to get there. We had a bit of a wait till the next trolley so went and watched the seaplanes take off and land, in front of the huge convention centre.
Onto the bus, and more Aussies joined us. The driver was excellent and gave us so much information; we hopped off at the lookout over the Lion's Gate bridge. This bridge was built by the Guinness (Irish beer) family for the sole purpose of selling the real estate that they bought on west Vancouver, (the most expensive real estate in the country) they then sold the bridge to the Vancouver government, but still pay to keep the lights on it..........., how much money do some people have.
Back on the trolley again, then off at Granville markets, wandering around these markets we found French Onion Pot Pie, couldn't resist it so shared a bowl of the best French onion soup we have had since Paris. We then found a lovely warm bar and ad a couple of glasses of wine and shared some stories and recipes with the young bar people.
Back on the bus and back to Downtown. The trip on the seabus (ferry) looked so inviting, we found our way to the terminal and jumped on the ferry to west Vancouver, found yet another bar and had a glass of wine and then made our way back on the seabus again. It was getting late and extremely cold, it had only been very cold up to this point, 3 layers of clothes, beanie, scarf, 2 pairs of socks, gloves, but I still had my special warm jacket in reserve yet.
We skytrained it back to our motel, unloaded, then went down to what was essentially Asia-town, connected to our motel on the lower floors. When I checked in, the lady at reception gave heaps of recommendations for restaurants down the street but never mentioned a veritable smorgasbord of Asian restaurants right underneath us. We chose the first restaurant we came to and had delicious Korean fried rice and chicken and cashews. The shredded potato wasn't so good but we picked the chilli out of it and enjoyed that with our other selections.
Friday 13/01/2012
The first thing we did when we woke this morning was check the weather forecast, as we had planned on going to Grouse Mountain ski resort for the views and to see some snow, but were worried that the weather might turn sour. Nope. Forecast was for fine in the morning, clouding up in the afternoon. We high tailed it back onto the public transport, skytrain, seaboat, bus, then cable car up to Grouse Mountain.
WOW
Neither of us has experienced snow like this before, so we were pretty enthralled by it all. We walked around the slopes for about an 1 ½ hours enjoying the snow and the view, being able to see all of Vancouver, Vancouver Island and the beautiful snow-capped mountains surrounding the horizon, how lucky were we.
We were making our way back to the Chalet when I spotted an unusual site. Sno Limo. For $29, they will take you on a ski sled around the slopes. OMG I wanted to do this. Marty wasn't so keen, but after some lunch and a couple of wines he was willing to accompany me J.
This was the best thing we have done since riding the push bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge. We flew down all the slopes of Grouse Mountain, which included slopes from the Winter Olympics in 2010. For close to 40 minutes we had the best time ever. My driver Jesus, really wanted to come to Australia to work so I gave him my email and told him to contact me when he was ready and I would help him find a job in the mines (I hope).
It was starting to get cloudy by then, we were feeling totally elated with the experience and felt we weren't going to experience anything better, so headed home, once again cable car, bus, seabus, skytrain, then home. We didn't even bother with dinner.
- comments
anne sounds like a whole lota fun just planning our greece / greek Islands trip and bewildered by the smorgasboard of options. Just found a travel sim hardly costs anything to text and available at post office so that will be useful.
Jo & Steve Very COOOL trip your're having. Enjoy. Life's short!
Ayyappan Well, I hope there will be more time for Greek poiposhlhy and writing poetry but drinking wine with nice people is defintely a worthwhile pursuit. Thanks for checking out the blog, Dirk and enjoy your Mendocino wines!
Lucia I just diseovercd your blog and love it! I live in SF and I'm so bummed I missed this event. Oh well, next time! Thanks for all the great info!