Vancouver

I'm posting this from a coffee shop in Seattle - opposite Fremont Abbey (see next post) but I thought I'd take the opportunity to update my blog with news of our trip so far. This is my first time to N America and also the longest flight I've ever done, so the jet lag was a bit of a nightmare but it was good to be in a hotel with a pool etc. for very early morning swims when I couldn't sleep etc. This image is the view from our hotel room overlooking the harbour in downtown Vancouver. We could watch the sea-planes take off and land and see the mountains to the north.
We loved Vancouver - it's such a great city. We hired bikes one day and cycled round Stanley Park - fantastic - round the shoreline to Yaletown (a very funky area). There is literally a Starbucks on almost every corner in Vancouver and as breakfast in our hotel was very expensive (we found out on the first morning) we had breakfast in the Starbucks round the corner from our hotel each morning.
On our last night we had dinner in the revolving restaurant at the top of our hotel which gave us a great 360 degree view of the city. On our last day we went to the aquarium and saw the dolphins, the biggest sea-lion known to man (chernobyl sea-lion I called it), balooga's, sea-otters etc.
Then we took the boat to Vancouver Island where we were staying with an old college friend of Pip's - Maila - and her family: husband Rob and little daughter Teija (+ dog and 2 cats). They live in a classic N American house with a porch etc. - just like in the Waltons! Here's a pic:

We had a great time with them - spent two afternoons on the beach, went to the iMax cinema one night, out for dinner etc.. Vancouver Island is actually the same size as England+Scotland - not the small island I was imagining.
I've put a set of photos on flickr here.
We then took the boat from Victoria down to Seattle - where we are now - for the next leg of the trip which I'll blog about in the next entry. Tomorrow we go to San Francisco for the last leg of the trip.