Vancouver pics 2

Found this guy at the giftshop

Capilano suspension bridge and tree walks

This is at Grouse mountain

Top of Grouse mountain

I then took a ski lift to the wind turbine at the very summit of the mountain and then got the elevator to the top of the turbine to see the cloudy yet still stunning view of Vancouver.

Hate ski lifts

I also saw a wolf at the bottom of the mountain in another enclosure

Vancouver pics 1

Downtown vancouver

Stanley park

Vancouver

Been too busy having fun, sightseeing and changing hostels to update the blog, so sorry, but at least I'm getting round to it now :)

Done quite a bit while I've been here and met some amazing people, its just a shame I'm leaving them, would have been cool to stick around for a bit and work in Vancouver for a while.

We're actually having a picnic tonight on the beach for Victoria day, today is a bit of a chill day for me, im doing laundry, reading etc because ive been running around like a headless chicken all the last week.

I'll be posting some of the pictures of my Vancouver trip after this post by the way.

Downtown is crowded with the things that you'd expect to be in a popular, affluent, modern city.  Theatres, apartment blocks, skyscrapers and shopping centres make up most of downtown Vancouver, although it is a nice place the accumilation of drug addicts and homeless people makes downtown a particularly dodgy place at night.  Overall I like it here and I've been busy visiting; Grouse mountain, Capilano bridge, Stanley park, outer edges of downtown and granville market.

On grouse mountain the grizzly bears in the enclosure have just woken up from dormancy (technically not hibernation) so it was pretty fascinating to actually see them interacting with one another.

There's so much to say about my experience here, so I think I'll let the pictures explain otherwise I'll be here all day.

Vancouver

Been too busy having fun, sightseeing and changing hostels to update the blog, so sorry, but at least I'm getting round to it now :)

Done quite a bit while I've been here and met some amazing people, its just a shame I'm leaving them, would have been cool to stick around for a bit and work in Vancouver for a while.

We're actually having a picnic tonight on the beach for Victoria day, today is a bit of a chill day for me, im doing laundry, reading etc because ive been running around like a headless chicken all the last week.

I'll be posting some of the pictures of my Vancouver trip after this post by the way.

Downtown is crowded with the things that you'd expect to be in a popular, affluent, modern city.  Theatres, apartment blocks, skyscrapers and shopping centres make up most of downtown Vancouver, although it is a nice place the accumilation of drug addicts and homeless people makes downtown a particularly dodgy place at night.  Overall I like it here and I've been busy visiting; Grouse mountain, Capilano bridge, Stanley park, outer edges of downtown and granville market.

On grouse mountain the grizzly bears in the enclosure have just woken up from dormancy (technically not hibernation) so it was pretty fascinating to actually see them interacting with one another.

There's so much to say about my experience here, so I think I'll let the pictures explain otherwise I'll be here all day.

Seattle so far...Pictures day 2

Seattle's famous Pike place market

Pike place is particularly famous for its variety of fresh sea food, the "throwing of the fish" ceremony is also a mini tourist attraction

 Smith tower

The views from the top

A section of the underground tunnel tour

Seattle from the ferry

Entering Bainbridge on the ferry

Part of the harbour walk (stank of fish)

The original Starbucks coffee shop!

Seattle so far... Pictures day 1

Space needle!

The view of the Seattle skyline from Kerry Park view

Yes! I did a selfie, and I shall never forgive myself haha

Still, pretty good view though.

Looking out into Puget sound 

An Olympic statue and the space needle

Panorama from the harbour

Totem pole

Seattle so far...

After a lengthy walk from the railway station I made it to City Hostel, it's a very big and well kept hostel and is surprisingly well situated (15 min walks away from the space needle and other attractions)

After I'd been for a shop and sorted out my room I immediately made for the harbour front and kerry park view, which is known as one of the best spots to see the whole of downtown Seattles skyline.

After I'd visited there and took a few pictures I made my way to the harbour front and had a look around, its just shops and restaurants really, not a huge deal but still quite a nice chilled out place.  The Olympic sculpture park was definitely worth a visit too.

I then had a look around the famous Pike street market but it was closing because I arrived there at about 5ish when all the stalls were packing up to leave.

13/05/2014

Today was incredibly unorganised but was surprisingly productive and most of all fun!

I randomly set off at 10ish and made my way to Pike street market and grabbed a coffee from the original Starbucks store and had a look around the various stalls and tat shops before I walked all the way to Smith tower.

Smith tower was Seattles first skyscraper opening on July 4th 1914.  At 522 feet it was the worlds fourth tallest building.  You can pay to go to the observation deck on the top floor, so I thought I'd give it a go.  Needless to say, from such a height and on a day with weather like this the view was spectacular.

Afterwards I went on an underground tour of Seattles forgotten street tunnels that once housed all of Seattles illegal activities such as "sewing" (prostitution), gambling, drinking (illegal during prohibition) and the opium dens.  The tour was as expected, smelly, dark and cold yet interesting!

I had been recommended to go to Bainbridge island for the day so I bought a return ticket and hopped on the ferry to explore over there for a couple of hours.  The town of Winslow (Bainbridges main town) is a rather uneventful place, its more of a shopping and residential area.  I plan on going to Bainbirdge again tomorrow but will be renting a bike in order to travel to a lake amd wildlife reserve on the other side of the island. 

Portland, Oregon pictures - day 2 (Mt St Hellens, fort vancouver, columbia gorge)

You can just see the top of Mt St Hellens, shame about the cloud

Gravestone of the old forest

At the Hummocks

Without the cloud the volcano would be visible, but i still thought this looked nice regardless.

Hudsons bay company flag at fort Vancouver

The actual fort itself

Columbia river gorge

And to top it all off, a heart attack in a bag.