Leaving Canada and back to the Home of the Brave!

So, we packed up the RV and headed for the promise land, America!!! We enjoyed Vancouver but I miss dollar bills and I don't feel like lugging around all these Canadian coins in my little purse. Kills my shoulders! So, we we headed for the border and crossed our fingers that the American border would let us back in without a problem. The waiting time for the line was about and hour, so we just idled and waited. Sipping our juice, snacking on rice cakes and using our plush bathroom when needed. We had the life compared to the other people just waiting in their simple cars. I think I may have even taken a nap in the bedroom. haha.. J/K So, we are almost to the front of the line and we see a fast lane on the side for people with special passes or if your vehicle is too tall or wide then you go through as well. We thought, we are only about 5 cars away from the front, but this is our chance, I think that this lane is for us. I mean, I have no idea how tall this thing is. Especially not in meters! So we pulled up to the lane...the guy at the booth was not at all happy with us. I quickly reassured him and said, "Ugh, sorry sir, we waited in line the whole way, but then saw this lane for tall/wide loads and we got confused and thought we should enter in here!" I  mean, after all, that was the truth, it was totally innocent. But of course, people hate me in foreign countries and he said, very condescendingly, "Really, you thought you were too tall, gimme a break, lady, please!" And I just said graciously, "No really, I'm not bs-ing ya! We really didn't know. Sorry! It's our first time going through the border like this, sorry!"

So, he gave us a break, thankfully and proceeded to play the 20 question game with us. Pretty similar questions to the first time we came in. We told him we were relocating to NYC for our jobs and just wanted to take a cross-country road trip before we got settled in. Ya know, the usual travel story. Funny how they never believe this. So he asked me all these questions like what we are going to do when we get to NYC, what have we been doing all this travel trip and asked us to declare any goods. Personally, I think we just intrigued him. But at any rate, I told him the truth. And it worked. He asked us again though about the goods thing, like not even a souvenir, and we just told him that: "Hello...it is too expensive in Canada. I mean, we didn't even bring back a postcard, really!" So that was it, he said, "You're free to go, but just so you know, you're not even close to being over height so don't pull that one ever again!" I grabbed the passports and said, "You got it!" I pulled away slowly from the booth and we headed into the USA. Ryan and I started singing, "I am a Real American!" from Rocky and it was awesome! Felt good to be home!

Capilano Suspension Bridge & The Waterfront Market in Vacouver, Ay!

After an awesome day in Downtown Vancouver, we were hoping for some better weather when we set out for the Capilano Suspension Bridge. Fortunately for us, it wasn't raining but it was a bit cold for my liking, so we bundled up and head out on the town. We took the RV around the area and first headed up to Grouse Mountain to find out if the slopes were open. Which unfortunately with all the bad weather they were having the mountain wouldn't open up til next week, but no worries, we were able to check out a wolf habitat on site so the day wasn't a complete loss.

After checking out the baby white wolf, we headed over to see the Capilano Suspension Bridge. Which is this crazy, you guessed it, simple suspension bridge that crosses over the Capilano River. There is a huge local native presence with totem poles and there is a cool path that leads to these treetop adventures where you're up in the trees like the Swiss Family Robinson. Pretty neato if ya ask me.

We left the Capilano bridge but not before receiving our certificate proving that we had hit every part of the park and experienced it all. We get pretty competitive like that. Headed over to check out some thrift stores and stumble upon this awesome waterfront market that overlooks Downtown Vancouver. We walked up this huge flight of stairs on this lookout tower to get a better view. Took a few snapshots and headed down, trying not to slip on the wet metal stairs and land in the harbor. We walked down towards the market and what did we see...The Golden Arches. But not just any golden arches, a Canadian one.

I told Ryan that if my awesome experience from sampling McDonald's in Europe was correct and that it actually tastes good and doesn't leave you feeling like crap afterwards than it would have to be the same in Canada. I mean it is another country. So for the sake of science, we did it. We tried Canadian McDonalds and it was amazing! Now I know what you Americans who haven't traveled to other countries and ever sampled McDonalds are thinking: yeah right! But when I tell you that it is purely scientific you have no choice but to believe in science. I mean, think about it, they use local farming and believe me when I say that I am sure the FDA regulations are far more strict than USA. So there...you don't have to take my word for it, just either go to Europe or Canada and see for yourself.

After we devoured our gourmet mcD's, we suddenly had a surprise burst of energy, not at all what we expected and proceeded to walk around town and check out the local shops. After a few hours of walking and our mcD's energy wore off, we headed back to the RV to gear up to get the heck back to the good ol' US of A!!!

Downtown Vancouver - Super Cool but Very Wet!

After getting into Canada pretty late, all we wanted to do was find the Walmart and go to bed. We had to go towards North Vancouver to find one. This particular Walmart just so happened to be on an incline, so we had to pull the Yella in as much we could without it feeling like we were sleeping downhill. Lights out and tomorrow the Real Vancouver!

We woke up to the sounds of shopping carts banging into one another, since we had to park right next to the cart return. I mean, it was the most level spot, presumably. So, we got our warm clothes on and headed for the Capilano RV park which is on an actual Indian reservation. We checked in and ate some lunch before we headed out for the city bus into downtown. Turns out in the summer there is a salmon run along the river that runs right through our RV park. Too bad we didn't come then, that would have been really cool to see. Just think about the Indians back in the day. They must have had some good eatin'.

We hopped the bus just outside of the Park Royal Mall after we had exchanged some American into Canadian for bus fare. Ouch! Even though the rate right now is only a couple cents to the dollar, it still hurts to know that the Canadian dollar is doing better than ours. We inserted our Canadian coins, a "Toonie" ($2 coin), a "Loonie" ($1 coin) and 2 quarters and were on our way. I thought it was cute that they refer to their there one and two dollars as "toonies" and "loonies", but I did not however find it cute that I had to lug around a whole bunch of change.

The bus was super clean and again, everyone seemed friendly and helpful and everyone seemed to dress quite nice, not at all what I think of a city bus when I think about the HART line back home. We made our way across the Lion's Gate Bridge (an awesome suspension bridge) and headed for Granville St. to explore. We checked out Yaletown, Gastown, the Heritage District, Granville Island and the ferry port. All these little areas of downtown were so cool, clean and happening. On our way to Gastown, however, we somehow managed to stumble into what seemed like skid-row. I mean, I have seen a meth/heroine/crack user or two wandering around a town in my life before, but so many at one time, was a bit overwhelming and just down rightt frightening. I told Ryan that they can smell fear, so we acted naturally and quickly to get the hell out of East Hastings STAT.

Ryan and I recalled a TV program we had watched before that spoke of free needle clinics for these people and an area in a downtown that was geared for these people and this behavior. After walking through East Hastings, we realized that the city in that TV program they were speaking of was Vancouver. No need to gross you out with the details of what we saw, so we jaywalked more times than I can count to avoid these folks and ended up in the beautiful cobble-stoned street area alongside the water called "Gastown". We sat at a park bench for a minute to catch our breath from dodging all the crack heads, but couldn't avoid this one lady who wandered into the nice part of town, with decayed teeth asking us for change in exchange for her fake tiffany charm. We told her the same story, "Sorry, we don't have any change." She walked away weirdly, almost as if she didn't even know she had just spoke to us. For all we know, she was a soldier in her head in some war zone or something. At this point, we decided it was time to get out of downtown and head back to the RV for some R & R.

Crossing the border to Vancouver, Ay!

So we set out for Vancouver, Canada not realizing to the full extent what border patrol had in store for us. We left Seattle a little later than planned because we were busy working on the blog, uploading all our trip videos and pics, but we were determined to get to Canada either way. Seattle is not too far from the Canada border and after the border, Vancouver is only like 30-40 miles so we figured a couple hours drive and sail through border patrol and get there in no time. Well... little did we know, there is an hour long wait on the highway just to get to the border. But we were optimistic, after all, we had nothing to hide.

We sat in line, watching all these silly Canadians keep getting out of their cars and fidgeting with their purchases in the trunk. We come to find out later, why all the fidgeting. So..here we are, next car up...the signal light turns green and this is it...the moment of truth. We handed our passports to the cute, innocent-looking asian girl at the counter. She looked at us with a most serious face and proceeded to ask us several questions. It went like this: What brings you to Canada? How long will you be staying in Vancouver? You drove all the way from Florida to stay in Canada for a few days? What do you do for work? How much money do you have on you? And get this...She even asked Ryan and I how much money we had in our savings and checking accounts? Can you believe they are allowed to ask that? Ridiculous!

Well, after our dealings with the border patrol in New Mexico, we realized that these people have no sense of adventure and totally do not understand the whole traveling around the country for exploration, discovery and ya know, experience thing. So, naturally she hands us a yellow slip, has us pull over to the side, go into the Canadian border center and try to explain what we are doing to yet another no-nonsense, no adventure, power tripping border patrol. Our slip was yellow and as we noticed early on from the line we were standing in, this colored slip was for the people that drew some red flags. Fabulous! We're in the line with all the drug smuggling, weapon carriers, this will be be quick, I'm sure!

We waited patiently, remained calm and tried not to make any sudden movements. The young, bald juiced up patrol called us over to his counter. Lucky us...the guy with something to prove. We handed him our slip and passports and I had Ryan do all the talking. I tend to talk too much and tell people more than they need to know, so Ryan was the obvious spokesperson for us. The patrol asked us the same questions yet again. Why are you guys going to Vancouver? For, how long? What do we do for work? At this point, the whole in-between jobs thing wasn't really working in our advantage. So, he asked if there was anything he needed to be aware of in the RV. We said "No". And he took our keys to search the ol' Yella.

We sat anxiously in the waiting area with the rest of the wrongly accused stereotypes. We started to people watch and realized there were a lot of Asian people in the waiting area. Then, one border patrol was hassling a nicely dressed asian woman at the counter, where he was going through her purse and having her take off her jacket and telling her, "This is new, you just bought this, I can tell, it still has creases, you're lying!"So we quickly discovered that you can only bring back so many new goods from the US to Canada and they are real sticklers about it. I mean, I saw them have people pull their pant legs up and check for goods, I thought for a second they were going to check for tags on these poor people's underwear, it was that obtrusive. So at least while we waited for the patrol to invade our privacy and personal belongings, we were mildly entertained.

We sat and sat and sat for what seemed an eternity, but it was really only 2 hours. Ryan had to go to the bathroom and headed for the washroom, but the door was locked. He said to me, "Why is it locked, do I need a key?" And I said, "Maybe someone is in there!" He heard the hand dryer blowing inside and waited at the door. A guy walked out and Ryan went in after, naturally. Wouldn't ya know, right when Ryan goes to the bathroom, I see our tough, bald patrol come back inside. He sat at his counter and looked over at me, noticing Ryan wasn't there. He walked through the back and came through a side door. He approached me and said, "Where did he go?" And I was like, "Oh, he's in the bathroom." Then, he said aggressively, "Who let him in?" I was like, "Uh, well no one, this guy was coming out and.." And without even letting me finish my sentence, the guy quickly jumping on me said, "ugh, Was the door locked?" I hurriedly said, "Yes." He condescendingly replied, "Well, usually when a door is locked that means you can not go in there and you have to ask someone."I immediately replied, "Whoa, sir listen...He tried for the handle, saw that it was locked, then heard someone in there drying their hands, so assumed it was locked because someone was in there and figured he could go in after. I'm sorry, we didn't know." He said, "Fine. Here are your passports, you're free to go." I said with great relief, "Oh great, thank you so much." I turned to walk away, but then he came at me with another question. Oh no, I thought, what now, you said we could go. He asked me, "Who organizes the RV?" I said, "I do, sir." And then do you know what he said to me? He said, "Well, you did a great job organizing everything in there. I have searched a lot of RV's and you wouldn't believe the kind of messes I've seen. You made it very easy for us out there." What!?!!!  I quickly replied back, "Wow, thank you so much for noticing that. I really appreciate it. You should tell him (Ryan) that." And he walked away. I don't think I got a smile out of him, but man, I was on cloud nine after that compliment. I mean, to get a nice compliment from a tough border patrol guy. That was really nice of him to notice because I put a lot of work in there.

Ryan came out of the bathroom, I told him what happened and then I said "Now, let's get the hell outta here!" Back to the RV we went, with everything still in its perfectly organized place. Ready or not Vancouver, here we come!

Miranda & Clark off to find the Pacific Northwest!

All I can say about the Pacific Northwest and will continue to say…is how ridiculously gorgeously green and colorful it is out here. Washington state is so pretty. It is bright green landscapes and vibrant color flowers everywhere with the fresh smell of just after the rain. Oh and did I mention that the people here are so freaking nice. No, really, you would think with all the rain they have they would Kurt Kobain depressed, but I guess, rainbows come out a lot here. The rebirth of after the rain is gone with the glowing lush landscape reappearing; really hits home for these peeps and creates such a positive affect.

So the first day we landed in Seattle, it was raining like expected and very grey. But the next day, the sun came out to play, the rain went home and the wind was quite nicely breezy. It was the perfect day to take the city bus into town and explore. The city buses here are super clean with super friendly staff and pretty easy to find your way around. Also, a huge bonus is…that once you get into downtown Seattle, the metro buses (in city buses) are FREE! So you can just hop on and hop off. You wanna walk from Pike Place Market to the Space needle, you don’t have to, you can take the bus. It’s great!

We checked out the market and got some baked salmon sandwiches, had to! Then we just walked everywhere, took the bus when we didn’t feel like walking everywhere, checked out the Space needle, Seattle Center, took the monorail back to center of downtown. Oh yeah, they have a monorail. They rule! And we happened to run into this awesome Salvation Army, where the whole store was 50% off and I managed to get an L.L. Bean Ski jacket for…you’ll never guess, don’t even try…6 bucks. Awesome deal!

Looks like we will be making the trip to Vancouver after all to catch some skiing so the jacket was definitely necessary. Seattle rules…I mean, it really makes a girl rethink the whole NYC thing and just pull a 180 on everyone and go Northwest. But the Big Apple holds my dreams, so I must stay focused. We just keep running into and visiting so many awesome cities in the country, one right after the other and they just get better.

But for now, Seattle will stay in my heart! Gotta rest up and gear up for the slopes in Vancouver, Ay!!!

Miranda & Clark to view the explosive Mt. St. Helens!

Before we got to Seattle, we had to check out the famous Mt. St. Helens. It was still snowing up at the top and there were a lot of roads closed but we managed to check out the bottom of it, along with the sweet Ape Cave. The Ape Cave is actually an old lave flow tube for Mt. St. Helens and I guess, although we walked through it, if Mt. St. Helens was to erupt, I think it would still work. We took our chances with it anyways. Were crazy dumb like that. Haha…It was pitch black, wet, muddy and the dripping of water squeaking through from the ceiling was anything but reassuring. We forged ahead, nonetheless, step by step, with only a lil LED flashlight my mom got for us, and suddenly, yep..you guessed it…Ryan stepped in a hug puddle with his white sneakers on. I told him to where his hiking shoes. Did you guys think I was going to tell a bat story? Nah…although the brown bats and deer mice do live down there, we were fortunate enough to escape Ape Cave without any bats getting caught in my curly rat’s nest head. We didn’t go the whole mile through it, we were too smart for that, totally unprepared with our gear and alright…a bit frightened.

So, we hopped in the RV and headed for Seattle!

Miranda & Clark explore The Oregon Trail!

We landed in Portland and thought for sure we would have been ran off the road by a mob of bicyclists, as rumor had it. But to our surprise, only a few cyclists. We asked around and I guess since the day we went the weather was bad, the bikers weren’t out. They must all be driving their Priuses around. Still, though we saw a lot of cool lil downtown sections of the city with cafés, shops and such. We also checked out this awesome park that had a ton of hiking trails and an inactive volcano.

The vibe was cool in Portland. People in the Pacific Northwest are so freaking genuinely nice! It is so refreshing, along with the crisp, clean air that all the rain brings. Fortunately for us, it wasn’t that bad of a grey day that we had heard so infamously of. 

We had to visit the made famous from the Food/Travel Channel: VooDoo Donuts. It is this hole in the wall donut shop that offers crazy donut combinations like grape soda infused, fruit loops, cocoa puffs and pretty much anything junk foodie. Turns out, it is a winning combination! Fruit Loops one was my fav.  We also checked out some cool thrift shops, of course. Ryan scored a cool track jacket for a couple bucks so we were feeling good about that deal. Headed over to Mulligan’s to sample the local brew. Mighty tasty!

So, after a day and a half, we were amped up to check out Seattle. We hopped in the Yella and headed for Washington. On our way there, we stopped at Multonomah Falls. The 3^rd largest waterfall in the world! We hiked up the couple miles to get to the top and boy, was it a grueling haul. We had this older couple behind us the whole way and I was determined not to let them pass us. Even though I was panting and had tp take a couple breathers, we pushed on up to the top of the falls.

We finally pumped our thighs in gear and got to the top. It was gorgeous and pretty freaky to look down a mile or two and see where you had just came from and what you had just hiked. We explored at the top, caught our breaths and made our way down to the bottom, gripping in to the ground so gravity didn’t take over.

Off to Seattle we go! Woo-hoo!!!

Avenue of the Giants & Humboldt County:

Driving to see the Redwoods on the way up to Humboldt County. Ryan and I felt like crap after our wild night out in San Fran with good ol’ Alyse. We pushed it to the extreme and so the next day was of all days, driving day. Not so good for me and even worse for Ry, since he would be driving all of it. I started to feel a bit better, thank god, so I got behind the wheel to give Ry a rest. We got close to Humboldt County, but decided to pull into a Walmart for the night and rest up.

The next morning, we headed for Humboldt and man, was it gorgeous up there. I see why they call it “The Lost Coast”. It was amazing! The beautiful ocean with huge rock islands and the sweet, green mountains too. The people were real friendly and laid-back, naturally.  We stayed for a night to check out the Redwood Forest and the 4:20 festival, to see what kind of silly hippies we could run into.

The Redwood trees are literally out of this world, like Fern Gully to the max. It was insane…I felt so minuscule compared to these giants. Anyways, we enjoyed our scenic nature stay in NorCal, but were excited to head for Oregon, Portland that is.

Be back shortly

After two day of being sick we are headed to Portland Oregon where we will post our most recent adventures to the blog. should be there tonite or tomorrow so stay tuned.

Tourist Day in San Fran!

The second day we were in San Fran before we hung out with Alyse, we decided to do the tourist thing and see Fisherman's Wharf and Alcatraz. Ryan was in love with Alcatraz, in fact we left the city on the ferry to the island at 10am and didn't get back til after 2, so you can just imagine what kind of antics we got into on the Rock for 4 hours.

We exited off the ferry onto the Rock where we were greeted by the Ranger. She told us a little bit about the Rock and where to start the tour. But we were intrigued by the free live tour called "Escapes". It was led by this retired FBI agent, who knew all about the awesome escapes from Alcatraz. He started to get a bit off course, as old people can do, but while others left the tour, we were fully engaged and stayed along for the escape ride. Turns out, it's a good thing we did, because the guy (Tom Clark, Ryan loved that they shared the same last name, both Irishmen, go figure!) took us behind this locked area where the laundry room is where Al Capone took care of all the Military's clothing. It was so cool to be back there. We had to walk through this underground tunnel to get there. I mean, this is the kind of thing, you don;t get to see in the paid for audio tour. It was just Ryan, me and this family of four from Boston. It was so cool! Like our own private, backdoor tour!

After our awesome Alcatraz experience, we checked out Fisherman's Wharf and saw the sea lions. Unfortunately, there were not that many out that day since it was warm and they all were enjoying the water I guess. We headed back to our RV that day across from Candlestick Park and got geared up for Alyse to visit.