I just had the best vietnamese food I’ve ever had in my life, at a restaurant called Long in downtown seattle. I’m not sure I can go back to Calgary and eat vietnamese again after this.
I had a very interesting sweet and salty lime soda (chanh muoi voi nuoc) to drink, and a rice soup with lemongrass sausage (chao doi heo chien). I highly recommend it if you’re ever in Seattle.
For the interested, Long is at 1901 2nd Avenue.
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The weather today was cool, windy, and rainy. With that and all the excitement the past 3 days, I decided to take a slower paced day today.
First, I slept in. Until about 8:30 anyways, which is the latest I’ve slept so far on the trip. Once I got moving, I hiked up into Capitol Hill to meet a friend for brunch. By the time I got there I was soaked, but the rain let up a bit when I came back to downtown.
I started out the afternoon by wandering around to Pike Place market. It was very busy but overall I didn’t find it that interesting. So I headed down to the waterfront and hit the aquarium since it was something indoors to do. It too was crowded, but kind of neat to see. Walking along the waterfront I stopped for some clam chowder, served in a sourdough loaf instead of a bowl. It was quite a tasty lunch, but I couldn’t finish all the bread.
I then trekked over to the ferry terminal, and up the hill on Columbia to 5th. The elevators took me the rest of the way to the 73rd floor of the Columbia Center. Even with the weather the view was spectacular. It was neat watching the fog patches rolling in.
On the way back to the hotel I made sure to walk by the library. It’s a cool looking building for sure, but unfortunately it is closed for a week for renovations, so I wasn’t able to get inside for a better look.
Now I’m back at the hotel, deciding what I want for supper.
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Day 3 was off to a very slow start at first. An overturned semi trailer in Highway 1 Eastbound forced me to take Fraser Highway from New Westminster to Abbotsford and added an extra 45 minutes to the trip prior to getting to the border at Sumas.
After crossing the border I drove highway 547 to 542, and then up to Mount Baker. The drive was beautiful and the weather was gorgeous. Clouds obscured the top of Mount Baker but I did do a nice one-mile hike starting at Artist’s point and along the ridge with great views of the area. Then I headed into Bellingham, parked downtown, and had an absolutely delicious lunch at the Old Town Cafe. It was a portobello mushroom sandwich with beet and fennel soup. So far that’s the culinary high point of the trip.
I then drove Highway 11, stopping to get some pictures and again enjoying the winding, narrow highway along the coast. Once I hit I-5, I stopped in Everett and had supper with my friend Adrian, then got to Seattle at about 8:30pm. I’ll be here for a few days before continuing South.
I’ll be posting pictures here on my weblog. Some of them are already up.
Day 2 was a nice fast drive on the empty Coquihalla Highway through some dreary weather, then arriving in Vancouver where it was sunny and warm. I had lunch at a pub in New Westmister then took SkyTrain downtown for the afternoon. It was a nice day, and I was able to catch up with a number of friends I hadn’t seen in some time.
I didn’t take any pictures even though the Coquihalla can be quite beautiful since it was foggy, rainy, and overcast most of the drive.
As of 5:30am, I am officially on vacation.
I managed to leave more or less on time this morning, only a half hour later than I wanted (bit still plenty early). The sunrise was pretty in the rearview as I approached Canmore, but I wasn’t about to stop. I did stop briefly in Lake Louise. It was a little chilly there: -2C. Despite all of the construction I was making good time, although the sunrise gave way to a rather grey morning.
Just as I crossed into Yoho National park, the sun came out to welcome me to BC. Briefly, anyways. West of Golden I ran into a downpour, but since that point it’s been very dry. Here in Kelowna, it’s drier than I expected. Reasonably warm, but breezy and not really a beach kind of day. I had lunch across from the library in a funky little independent cafe / bistro. They were a little slow with my panini, so they gave me a free cookie. Can’t beat that!
The tent is set up at Bear Creek, and after relaxing on the beach for a bit (while the sun peeked out), now I’m heading out again.
I think it’s time for some more wine tasting. I stopped at Grey Monk on the way here, but since I’m already on the west side of the lake I’ll hit some wineries over here next. Then I’ll probably head back into Kelowna for supper – I have a place in mind, but there are lots of choices if it turns out to be too busy.
All in all, I really good day. I got better gas mileage than I expected, making it all the way to Enderby on 2/3 tank.
And on that note, so much for Enderby being the home of cheap gas. $1.12 / L. Yuck. Calgary’s a bargain in comparison.
I did take some photos, but I’ll wait until I have a bit more time (and a better connection) to start posting.
So, the theme song for the road trips is Hyper Crush / Keep Up (Tony Arzadon Mix). And the car is henceforth known as Icarus.
With less than two weeks remaining until I leave for the road trip, preparations are well underway. The type-A part of me has made a detailed list of things to pack, even down to which things are going into each bag / pack / suitcase. And has already verified that everything fits i the trunk with plenty of room to spare. And has optimally packed the articles to make an appropriate trade off between free space in the trunk and easy access to the majority of the stuff. But enough of that.
I’ve also spent some time on the important decisions for the trip, like deciding what the theme song will be. There are a number of candidates (in no particular order):
I’ve also been considering what I’m going to name the car, and I think I’ve settled on something. All will be revealed…
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I’ve managed to get a few hikes in so far this summer, more than last summer anyways. They’ve all been great hikes, and I took a number of photos (as usual). I’ve started to upload some of them here. The photo on the right is from a hike I did with Brian, Pam, and Arman to Elbow Lake. Click on the photo to see the rest of the photos rom the hikes.
Jeremiah Wittevrongel lives in Calgary, Canada. Though he works as a software developer and loves what he does, this blog isn't about that. It's about the rest of his life, which tends to revolve around music, board gaming, hiking, travelling, and cooking.
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