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

Portland

Well, what a "triple F" lay day we had.(fantastic,free,freezing) Got the washing done early, so we decided to head off for a drive towards Mount Hood. On the way out we stopped at the Bonneville Lock and Dam, which is situated on the Columbia river (river separates Oregon and Washington States, much like the Murray but on a much bigger scale). They have two power plates run by the water flow and still a massive spillway (as pictured in gallery). The amazing thing for myself and the rest of Team Connor, was the fish ladder, for the salmon to get up stream past the lock. We have also included some photos of it but the unbelievable part to us was, where they funnel the salmon through, they have a person sitting in an office counting the fish as they go past!!! Some video footage provided for the fisherman to drool over (Raymond and Pritch)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93r6H1l2EWs

Next we continued our journey to Mount Hood, another 1/2 hr. away. We were told there should still be some snow about, yeah right, it was everywhere!!! Drove up to a ski lodge (closed for summer! maintenance) and we all got out, had snowball fights, built a snowman and kids were even sliding down on their butts. Drove around to the other side, to another lodge, that was open and people were skiing etc. just couldn't get over the concept that at the bottom of the mountain it was 25 degrees and up here it wasn't that cold but while we were at this resort it snowed the whole time we were there. First time the kids had been out in so much snow. Also learnt that Mount Hood was a dormant volcano, 3% chance of erupting in the next 30 years, and is the 2nd most climbed mountain in the world, behind Mt. Fuji in Japan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0srtd4GPP_o
Finished the day off drinking beer, watching the final game of the Stanley Cup (ice hockey) live!!!.. on t.v. (not actually there N.Miller) lol...... All in all not a bad first day.

Well Portland peaked early for us, not much more to add. Went into town on the train twice, once to shop(no sales tax in Portland) and once into Washington Park, kids went to a museum and we kicked the footy and played ball  in the gardens(baseball). Last day here, rained all day, went outside twice for the day, once to shop and maccas for lunch (had a maccas store basically at the front door and only went there once).

Head off in the morning for our next destination, Vancouver, Canada. Will post from there in about 5 days time.

Team Connor USA

San Francisco to Portland

We'll we headed off from San fran on an overcast day, with 3 days to get us along the coast up to our next stop, Portland.

Day 1- The scenery along the coast on the way up was amazing. As we kept getting higher towards the Californian/Oregon border the more the Belinda Jane (Pritchard) part of the journey kicked in. State park after State park after National park!!!! The lakes and streams were just picturesk, something you see on postcards or doco shows and can't believe that they exist. Plenty of camp areas, bushwalking trails,birds and animals and of course plenty of trees to hug!!!!(as seen in the photo gallery). Even managed to find a park named after you Tim (Aqua Domain). Luch and tea were had in State parks by the lakes skipping rocks on the water, back to the simple things in life!!!

Day 2-They seem to have there state borders pretty much spot on, as we crossed into state no.7, the weather changed dramatically as we climbed higher into the forests. The jumpers made there first appearance, as we were back down to days of 15 degrees (still better than Ballarat), fresh mornings but by lunch blue skies and a gentle sea breeze. Also had our first taste of rain, since day 2 at Disneyland, on the night we slept in the car by the sea in a park area. Was soothing to wake up to light drizzle and the waves crashing in on the shore line, with a stiff neck to go with it!!! As we got further up the coast on this day, we came across a National park full of sand dunes. We ventured in to take a look and came across a dune buggy hire place. The option was given to the kids, half hour dune buggy ride and another night in the car or a comfy motel further up the road for a good night's sleep. So, as we strapped our helmets on and ran through the safety video, dad was very happy with the selection but mum wasn't that keen on the idea. You'll notice why in the following videos and as they say "a picture is worth a thousand words", just happy she got out of the buggy first!!!!After a couple more beach stops along the way, we pulled into a motel for the night (mum also got what she wanted).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yRqtH2HALw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x-x6QntCcc

Day 3- A short drive of about an hour, found us at a place called sealion caves, the world's biggest natural cave along the coast, that is home to about 350 sealions and seals (apparently there is a difference-homework for everybody to find out what). It has been a tourist attraction since 1932, even has an elevator that goes down 200 feet through solid rock to a view point, so you are in the cave. From here we continued up the coast, with a few stops along the way, lunch and beach frolicing, before leaving our good friend, of about 6 days all up, US101 North behind as we headed in land to Portland.

We have 5 nights here, with some down days needed, washing etc. to catch up on, so we will blog again before we move on.

Team Connor USA