Vancouver - Seattle

Spent another two days exploring Stanley Park. Kept finding new lagoons, new trails, new parks and new playgrounds that we hadn't seen already. Also laid eyes on our very first RACCOON just walking through the kiosk eating area! Jackson (the squirrel hunter) was a bit 'stand off..ish' with the Raccoon at first. He couldn't quite work out it's temperament. The Raccoon's are about the size of a small koala and appear quite sleepy and slow moving but I think if approached they could attack like a skunk! 

Drove out to North Vancouver to find some really nice beaches (actually found some real Canadians over there)! Spent the day in the skate parks, ovals and watching some of the school kids playing ice hockey (on a basketball court - as it is the off season) on roller blades and tennis balls instead of pucks.

Also walked along the main Waterfront of Vancouver City. A total of about 8kms we walked for the day. Ended up in Stanley Park yet again.

Friday - Time to go back to the USA (thank goodness)! Where the food & beverages are cheaper!! Left Vancouver in a massive thunderstorm, glad to be heading out. Arrived at the border crossing at 10.15am and joined the queue of approx' 7 lanes of close to 80 cars each lane! We finally made it back on home turf at 12.30pm. 2 hours and 15 minutes!

Our main objective for visiting Canada was to have our Visa extended to accommodate our returning flight back to Australia. Had been told by LAX Customs and the American embassy in Australia this was what we 'had to do' to be able to stay longer than 6 months.

The American Border Control now advised that they "do not do this without a $300 fee per passport and applications to the American Consulate which can take up to 3 months to do".

We now have to be out of the USA by 13th of November.

Off down to Seattle. Wow - have never seen traffic like this in the middle of the day 'grid locked' everywhere. Apparently this is the 'norm' for this city. Are here for 4 days doing the catch up, laundry, groceries etc.

Our biggest news now is this........We say goodbye to the ever faithful "Rodger the Dodge". We had to drop him back to the Seattle Airport as our time was up. After 6,500kms of majestical scenery (and wildly squeaky front brakes towards the end and needing an oil change)! We would now like to introduce you to.....

Neville the Nissan!

Neville will be accompanying us on the next fase of the journey - from Seattle to Chicago, in witch we have 28 days to do it, taking in Yellowstone National Park and Mt. Rushmore etc. Neville is 3 months old and only has 2500 miles on the clock, he also still has a new car smell!

Love to all.

Team Connor USA



Vancouver Canada - eh!

Happy Father's Day!!!! It was dad's day here in the USA before we headed off, so the kids had made Scoop some father's day presents out of the Maccas wrappers from the previous nights tea. And his treat for the day was to drive us all around!!!!!

Set sail from Portland Oregon on another cold and miserable day. Crossed the Washington border (which is state #8), just 5 minutes into the drive and the sun was out!

Our first stop for the day was Mount Saint Helens. A volcano that erupted back in 1980 and claimed the lives of 57 people. The devastation that this blast, lava rivers and mud slides left is still evident up on the mountain today. As we approached the area "Blast zone" signs started to appear on the road sides, which were an incredible 14 miles out! On that treacherous day in May back in 1980, apparently there was no warning sound at all of the eruption in an approx 14 mile radius of the blast! This being that the sound waves got pushed straight up into the upper atmosphere (equivalent to 20,000 atomic bombs) before they returned  back to earth. Although the blast could not be heard in the immediate surrounding districts as a result, there were claims that the blast was heard an incredible 500 miles away!
The fog beat us up to the best view point of the volcano unfortunately and a lot of other access roads were cut by snow, but we were quite moved by what we did get to see and learn from the experience from the locals.

Stayed the night in a little place just before the Canadian border called Bellingham. Did a bit of research this night for what paperwork, visa's etc were required to cross the border. It's all a bit nerve wrecking going through as we handed over passports, visa's etc and answering many, many, many questions about what our intentions are whilst staying in the country. All checked OK and on we go.

Our first doubt, now being back into the British Commonwealth again (same as Australia) was aagghhh.....what side of the road do we drive on now? Answer - same as America. Do we need different money? Answer - yes, we need Canadian $$. The AUD$ is worth about $1.04 to the Canadian $. American dollars are not currency here. Will all our battery chargers and power plug chargers work in Canada? Answer - Same as America (using an adaptor for Australian power plugs). Do we tip here? Answer - not necessary, but if service is good by waiter staff then yes you can (as they get paid a lower wage still).

All measurements are now converted back to metric. All miles (which we've become accustom to now) have now been reverted back to Kilometres. All temperatures are now back in Celsius not Fahrenheit. Then off to the grocery store! Well, haven't we had it good for the past 6 weeks in America! Food prices were through the roof in Canada!! (Back to normal Australian food prices)!!... It's going to hurt coming back home. Let me give you an example.....We had been paying $1 for McDonald's sundae's and $5 for a 20 nugget pack.
Now up here in Vancouver it is $2 and $8 for only a 10 pack of nuggets. Fuel is back to Australian pricing $1.36 litre and scoop is hoping his USA beer stash doesn't run out, as it is also back to normal pricing! Curse the Commonwealth!

Checked into our hotel. Freshened up and headed out for tea in the "Gas lamp area" of Vancouver on the waterfront. We had a recommendation to try the original "Old spaghetti factory" - (thanks Mike Simper)!
Not disappointed at all. Very busy place which is always nice to see for a restaurant, great food, atmosphere and value for money. Will definitely try it again back in the states (which will be even better value for money)!

Second day here and we took the bus to "Stanley Park"! A beautiful park on the waterfront of Vancouver. Spent the whole day here, riding scooters, playing baseball, kicking footballs, walking and picnicing! Still only saw about a third of it.

First day of Summer up here today and Canada did not disappoint weather wise!
You know we have been here for 2 days now and have really yet to lay eyes on or talk to any Canadians. There is such a strong contingent of ....'ese' people in Vancouver - Vietnamese and Chinese.
Here 'till Friday then heading back to Seattle.

Hope you are all well back home.
Love to all......
Team Connor USA. XOXO