Seattle to Vancouver, BC

This segment of our trip is ferry hopping from Seattle to Vancouver where the Pacific cruise departs.  We hit a lot of firsts with this leg of the trip: first boat, first bus (double decker - wheee!), first metro train, first international border crossing and the first dipping into our stack of foreign currency.  Every other country's money is very colorful compared to those boring US dollars - it feels like we're buying stuff with Monopoly money.  

While in Victoria, one of the touristy things to do is to have afternoon high tea at the Empress Hotel.  Here we are royally classing it up with finger sandwiches and tea. Good thing it is early in the trip and our fancy clothes aren't too wrinkled yet. 

We spent the rest of the day in Victoria walking off the tea time pasteries, enjoying the sunny weather and harbour views from patios. Hey look! They have craft beer in Canada too!  No surprise that Brian was able to pull this place out of the stack of guidebook recommendations.

A sequence of bus, ferry, bus and metro rides brings us to Vancouver - great practice in navigating public transportation while the signs are still in English. It's been very interesting listening to other tourists struggling with the English language in restaurants, transportation hubs and check-in desks. We're starting to realize the language challenges we will have ahead of us in China, Russia and the rest of the countries. 

We ran across this couple on the ferry...  really showed us what serious backpackers look like!  Wonder how long they have been traveling with those mega bags?  I definitely can't complain about the weight of our packs any more.

Vancouver is known for their great asian-fusion cusine and so we stand in line a while to get into a small little authentic ramen shop.  This stuff is a serious upgrade from the college days of ramen noodle packages (8 packages for a dollar in my day).  It features handmade pasta, delicious broth that takes days to prepare and lots of tasty additions.  

Stuffed after the ramen-fest, we spend most of the afternoon trekking around Stanley Park, Vancouver's huge city park. Here are some examples of the mountains and harbour views we enjoyed.    

We're looking forward to settling in to the Pacific cruise tomorrow. Mostly because that means an end to the daily pack-go-unpack cycle we've been experiencing this first week.  You probably won't see any updates on the blog for awhile since we aren't planning on ponying up the bucks for an internet connection on the ship.  See ya in Shanghai in two weeks!

"Traveling can help us face reality and get a better understanding for others and ourselves." - unknown