We’re off to Washington State. The flight from Austin to Seattle is completely uneventful and we make it to Seattle by 6PM. Mike picks us up at the airport and we head to their house. They have an incredible yard with all sorts of fruit trees, berries, a pond and just a generally beautiful setup. This is the second time we’ve been up there and Travis continues to be highly jealous of their John Deere tractor. We do a quick tour of the yard (all the berries are about ready to pick and apples and pears aren’t far behind!). Then we’re off to dinner at a Mexican steak restaurant and then back home where Mike & Nancy finish packing.
The next morning, we leave about 10AM and stop for breakfast in Seattle at Jackalope’s Cantina. It’s excellent! The place is decorated with Tex Mex restaurant signs and menus from all over Texas, so we feel right at home.
We’ve got a pretty easy drive to Vancouver. Washington state is beautiful and all the mountains in the distance are getting us psyched for Canada. We’ve not planned anything ahead of time for Saturday afternoon so once we cross the boarder, the group decides to head to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park in northern Vancouver. It’s at this point that we discover our first signs of traffic and it ends up taking quite a bit of time to get through Vancouver and to the park.
Capilano Suspension Bridge
The park is built within a rainforest. Its main attraction is a suspension bridge over the Capilano River. The first hemp suspension bridge was built on the site in 1889 and has been upgraded a number of times to get to its current configuration. Over the years, there have been other attractions that have been introduced. Now there are various restaurants and other food options as well as lots of trails through the forests, canopy walks in the trees, suspended boardwalks along the canyon walls and some wildlife. It’s a lovely place and was a perfect first taste of Canada.
After we leave, we make a stop at a grocery store for breakfast food for the next two mornings and then start driving to downtown Vancouver where our AirBnB is. Traffic is horrendous and it ends up taking us well over an hour to go something like 8 miles. For quite some time we’re just not moving at all. We ultimately make it and get checked into our condo. It’s quite nice, but has a ridiculously small “parking space”. It’s definitely not a full space and so we have to unpack the truck before Mike parks and at that point, only the driver door is able to be opened. Despite that, the place is fine and is definitely convenient to both restaurants and our pickup location for the train on Monday morning. We have a pretty average Italian dinner in an extremely hot restaurant and then head to bed. Tomorrow we’re off to Vancouver Island to visit the Butchart Gardens.