Left Coast

I included the day I spent in San Francisco even though I was there for work but it happened only a week earlier...

San Francisco - 20 June

I woke up pretty early (for a vacation) thanks to a three hour time zone change and an eagerness to take advantage of of being by myself on the only day I didn't have to work. My hotel was near all the touristy stuff of the Fisherman's Wharf and it was crazy expensive even at the government rate ($192 a night). I went for a wonderful six mile run along the Embarcadero (or waterfront) to AT&T Park (where the SF Giants play) and back. The weather was surprisingly cool at 55°F, at least to me, for June and there were a lot of people out and about even at 0800 hrs.

Bay Bridge during the morning run


After a shower and breakfast I walked down to the Wharf to rent a bicycle for the day. I rode along the northern shoreline through the Presidio towards the Golden Gate Bridge. It was pretty cold and wet after the nice weather I had during my run and I'm glad I packed a light rain jacket.



The weather improved significantly after crossing the bridge to Marin County and cycling down to Sausalito. I really like this little town and especially liked the little boat houses on the northern end of the city. I caught the ferry across the bay and had nice views of Alcatraz and the many sailboats that were out.



The ferry dropped me back in the Wharf district and I continued riding through downtown San Francisco. The hills were pretty rough but the weather was beautiful so it wasn't that bad.

Lombard Street


Haight-Ashbury, the epicenter of counter culture for decades


Chinatown


Coit Tower. The lines were too long to the top and I think I had been up it before with my family when I was younger.


There were a bunch of these cruising the Embarcadero


A very fast sailboat


More homies down by the wharf


Didn't take a trolley ride but probably should have


After turning the bike in, I went to Pier 39 and happened to see a large crowd gathered which got my attention. At first I thought they were waiting for sunset to take pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge but that didn't make much sense since the bridge was to our west. After walking through the Pier 39 boardwalk (which is my nightmare) I saw the reason for the crowds. There were a bunch of sea lions laying around on the floating docks, They are pretty entertaining to sit around and watch for a few minutes as they make honking sounds and wrestle with each other. I stopped into Hard Rock Cafe for a flight of beers for tradition's sake before heading back to the hotel where I passed out after running six miles and riding 30 miles, some of which were up some serious hills.


The next morning I had only a few hours before my ride picked me up to head to San Jose. I decided to get an Uber to take me to try and get better pictures of the Golden Gate bridge since the fog had lifted. He took me to a great spot but I didn't have a good enough camera to take advantage. The driver was named Neal Murray and claimed to have created the "Cosmopolitan" cocktail in Minneapolis in 1975. He was definitely interesting to talk to and surprisingly, the ride only cost $8 as we rode around for about 35 minutes.


Palace of Fine Arts


Vancouver - 29 June

Getting to the hostel from the airport was pretty easy via the Sky Train and walking a few blocks along the main drag of Granville Street. Canadian customs was interesting with a digital submission of your declarations card but no visa stamp in my passport or going through a normal window clerk.

I stayed at the SameSun Hostel in a six bed dorm. It didn't have air conditioning but each bed had a little fan which was much appreciated. After dropping off my things I walked back down Granville to the waterfront. They have some legacy buildings from the 2010 Winter Olympics including one called "Canada Place." Overall, it's a pretty nice and upscale waterfront.

Canada Place


Docks for the sea planes


Interesting bicycle rack


Cool little houseboat conversions


View of downtown from Coal Harbour Marina


BMW i8


Olympic Torches


Lego-like Killer Whale


A gift shop for Canadian Mounted Police...doubt we'll have anything like this in the U.S. anytime soon.


I walked through the older part of the city (although all of Vancouver looks new) known as Gastown named after a guy named "Gassy" Jack who opened the first bar in Vancouver in 1867. They had a cool steam clock that I got to see at the top of the hour.



"Gassy" Jack


I then barhopped my way back to the Vancouver Lookout tower to watch the sunset. It was a revolving deck which was nice and probably a little too classy for me but they did have beer flights!



Looking down on Gastown


After waking up at 0400 hrs and adding three hours to my day I was pretty tired. Surprisingly, I was the last one in my room at 1030 hrs.

Vancouver - 30 June

Walking to breakfast I saw this cool little moped on Granville Street


I'll take one...


My phone didn't charge correctly overnight so after breakfast I sat in the hostel lounge when one of the staff came around to recruit people for the daily activity at Kitsilano Beach. It was only $20 for kayaking or SUPing and I didn't have too much planned so I joined in. This is one of the benefits of staying in hostels. They have cheap activities almost every day and it's usually an easy way to meet people. I chose the kayak and was able to make it four kilometers along the English Bay to Jericho Beach where there were a lot of dinghy boats sailing which I would've traded the kayak for any day. Usually it's difficult for visitors to rent stuff like that but I probably should've given it a shot anyways. I didn't have a waterproof case with me so I left my camera (phone) on the beach and didn't take any pictures.

I saw three seals but only one close up (10-15 meters) who was eating a fish. The SUPers struggled a lot on the way back in (and only covered half the distance) because of the wind, chop, and tide. Afterwards, we ate lunch as a group at LOCAL Public Eatery and watched the final for the UEFA U-21 Championship between Sweden and Portugal. It's similar to college football for Europeans and there was a Swedish guy with us so we pulled for them. It went to a shootout (lame) with Sweden winning 4-3.

When we got back to the hostel I joined a few people to watch the Women's World Cup match of USA v. Germany. We stayed at the hostel for the first half which was lame so we walked down to an Irish pub on the corner for the second half which was a lot more fun...


After the match I walked a few blocks to rent a bike at a shop recommended by the hostel. Most hostel travelers have a lot of time on their hands and don't try to cram as much as they can into a day like I have to. The bike shop owner, Simon, was a jerk but I didn't feel like finding another rental place and he allowed overnight rentals so I reluctantly gave him my money.

I briefly rode to Granville Island and back to make sure the bike was good (which I usually don't do but I guess this guy made me wonder). After the shakedown I rode the ten kilometers around Stanley Park which is a huge peninsula of prime real estate on the north side of the city. There were a lot of people walking, running, cycling, and even rollerblading around the park.

These type of statues seem common in this part of the world


View of downtown from the park


Girl in a Wetsuit (at high tide)


Lions Gate Bridge


Third Beach which seemed like a wild place to be. It was late afternoon and while there were still families enjoying the beach, lots of hippies with drums were there with dozens more walking in that direction as the sun went down or what I can assume was an epic drum circle.


Strange statues


I continued riding around False Creek which separates Vancouver from Richmond.

Neat little boat that had a bar-b-que grill on it.


View across the creek to Science World


Cool random statue


I thought "icing" someone was bad...Canadians may have discovered something worse


It was a great ride but I headed back to the hostel to catch the "Rock, Paper, Scissors" tournament at the hostel bar called The Beaver. I grabbed a seat at the bar and ended up spending the evening with some British people and a guy from Philly. The MC was really funny and made it an interesting game. I won my first two matches to make it to the "Elite 8" (out of 31 players) before I was knocked out. I stayed and drank with the Brits and the Philly guy until they kicked us out at 0100 when the bar closed.

I thought I was looking into a mirror outside the hostel


Vancouver - 01 July

Happy Canada Day!

To help get over my hangover I rode the bike out to Stanley Park again in the morning. It was very crowded because of the holiday but I still really enjoyed the ride. There were a lot of things happening along the waterfront including McDonald's breakfast which had Chinese tourists very excited.


A Jeep made of cans


The Canadian Army was out there with some big guns...


...and trucks. I think uncle Tom would like to have one of these


Morning view of downtown


Brockton Point Lighthouse


I took the inland route back to town and stumbled upon something I've never seen before. It was a golf course where each hold was only 50-100 yards. All you needed was a few wedges and a putter and it looked like a great way to work on your short game.


After returning the bike at d-bag Simon's I joined the hostel group over to Granville Island for a Canada Day parade. The island is small and has a lot of neat things on it including an artsy concrete plant.


I think this says it all


The entrance to the island


There were guys demonstrating this contraption which didn't look fun or an efficient way of transport


Burrard Bridge


The smallest parade I've ever seen. I think there were maybe five groups in the entire thing and it lasted 10-15 minutes.




We grabbed a beer afterwards by the water and I began talking with an interesting Englishman named Roger. He just graduated from university as an engineer and had some travel stories that make mine seem pedestrian. Last year he and a buddy cycled (no motor) from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City over four weeks. Next month he'll be going to India for a three week race over 4,000 km with two mates in a rickshaw. Obviously, I thought this sounded incredible.

We walked from Granville Island all the way across downtown to Canada Place. On the way, there was a marijuana rally...I thought pot was legal here?


We grabbed some beer and food at Tap and Barrel and watched the Women's World Cup final match of USA v. Japan. A mother and daughter from San Francisco sat beside us and decided to join us for fireworks at the Nine o' clock Gun in Stanley Park.


While we were waiting I asked a group of young people for a beer since we didn't bring any. One of the guys told me it was illegal to have alcohol so they didn't have many but that he was able to get three beers and all of his weed and coke passed the cops.

I had hopes for the fireworks but the barge moved farther out in the bay because of the floating Chevron gas station that would've probably blown up. The fireworks were okay but not as good as the ones we have in America.


I wanted to get a taxi but couldn't find an available one due to the crowds and I didn't have cell service to get an Uber. There were thousands of people walking the same direction so we toughed it out. Roger and I hung out with the British couple I met the night before at The Beaver which was another good night.

Seattle - 02 July

I opted for the later in the morning (and much more expensive) bus ride to Seattle at 1130 hrs which gave me plenty of time to recover from my Canada Day hangover. The bus was only 25% full which was great and even with this guy sitting in front of me it wasn't too bad.


The hostel was a few blocks from the train station and easy to find. Mount Rainier and CenturyLink Field are impressive the first time you see them. Seattle has "pay as you go" bicycle rentals through Pronto but the 30 minute time limit doesn't fit my requirements. I went with Back Alley Bicycles at $50 for 24 hours which is the most expensive bike I've ever rented. I tried to ride out to Discovery Park north of Seattle but the trail I was on ended at Elliot Bay Marina. At the beginning of the trail there is Olympic Sculpture Park which has some interesting art but I didn't spend much time checking it out.


Random runaway train...


I turned back and headed to Kerry Park which has a famous view of downtown and Mount Rainier. The hills getting up there were pretty steep but nothing compared to San Francisco. I sat there for two hours as the crowds grew and had another moment where I wished I owned a decent camera.



On the way back to the hostel I checked out the Seattle Center which seems to be the heart of the city and the home to the iconic Space Needle.


More interesting art. There is a glass exhibition there that would have been cool to go to given more time.


The rest of the ride home was all downhill and really fun as I raced the traffic lights at each intersection as they turned yellow (or pink). The hostel is in Chinatown and is a pretty bad neighborhood after dark. There's a lot of shouting and fighting in the streets with cops and their sirens everywhere.

Seattle - 03 July

I woke up and decided to take the hostel walking tour through the city. The guide Shawn was better than most and provided a lot of history of the city.

The King Street Train Station with CenturyLink Field and Safeco Field in the background


Smith Tower built in 1914 was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River for decades


The "Twelfth Man" signs supporting the Seahawks are visible throughout the city


Pioneer Square used to be the heart of the city and this building was built following the great fire of 1889 when most of the town was still built with wood.


Monument of Chief Seattle who one of the city's founders, Doc Maynard, chose to name the new city after due to his significance and relationship with white settlers. Unfortunately, "Seattle" is an anglicized bastardization of his actual name.


The original totem pole was stolen in 1899 from the Tlingit tribe and placed in the square but later was destroyed by an arsonist in 1938. The city sent the burned pole back to the Tlingit who carved a new one for the city once it received payment for the original stolen one.


A small monument to the Great Seattle Fire of 1899 which started when a cabinet maker named John Back was heating glue over a gasoline fire (the times have changed) when it boiled over and destroyed much of the city overnight.


Hammering Man statue which is featured in cities throughout the world including Frankfurt am Main and Seoul.


Not sure what the story is with this astronaut but "Go Further" is written on his visor


A wall of gum in an alley under Pike Place Market



Entrance to the market


Cool vehicle that dispenses soda


Where downtown meets the Puget Sound


The original Starbucks


Place where they do the fish tossing (wasn't quick enough to snap any action shots)


After two hours the tour was over and I headed back to the hostel to grab the bicycle. I decided to do a roughly seven mile loop around Lake Union on the northern end of Seattle.

Interesting name for a Port-a-Potty


Seattle Public Library


Trimaran passing under the Fremont Bridge on the Lake Washington Ship Canal. Fremont is the hippy part of Seattle similar to Haight-Ashbury for San Francisco.


View of the George Washington Memorial Bridge and Lake Union


The Fremont Troll who lives under the GW Bridge. If you look closely, you can see him clutching onto an actual VW Beetle he snatched from the roadway above and he stole the hubcap for an eyepiece.


Gas Works Park that reminded me a little of a small version of Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach



On the south side of Lake Union, there was a bunch of things going on including a wooden boat show



Riding past the Seattle Center again



On the way back to the hostel I went to the Skyview Observatory on the 73rd floor of the tallest building in Seattle. I thought it was a great because it was classy, had no crowds, and served beer!




After turning in the rental bike I went to a bar to have dinner and pregame before the Seattle Sounders match that night. There are a lot of Asians along the west coast but this is the first time I'd seen a cell phone like this. I wonder how it works since Chinese alone can have thousands of different characters (letters).


Out in front of the hostel provides a good contrast of Chinatown and traditional architecture with King Street Station


Even the street signs threw me off when I first arrived (not all of Seattle is like this)


Game time at CenturyLink Field (or the "clink")


Cool building outside the stadium


Panoramic from my seat (just about midfield, twelve rows up)


The platform where they hoist the "12th Man" flag prior to Seahawk's games


They were watering the field turf, which I didn't think was necessary since it's artificial


The stadium is impressive and definitely a unique design yet feels intimate despite holding almost 70k people. The fans weren't as rowdy as a Bundesliga (German soccer) match but still pretty good and better than any NFL game I've been to...college is another story. The Sounders beat D.C. United in the 88th minute (they are 90 minutes matches).

Celebrating the win



Seattle - 04 July

In the morning I wanted to check out the Seattle Center more thoroughly instead of just riding past. The lines were crazy at the Space Needle but I found out that if I paid $36 instead of the regular $21 I could get a "Blast Pass" and skip the lines straight to the elevators. I'm not sure why more people didn't do that but I guess everyone has their threshold.


I'm not sure if the view was any better or worse than the other observatory but it sure was a lot more expensive and crowded. Oddly though, I did meet a guy from Mooresville up there because they had a map where your could digitally place your "pin" by entering your home town.




The Experience Music Project Museum has some wild architecture



Interesting rain gutter at some random condos


I rode back downtown on a "pay-as-you-go" bike to the waterfront for a 1.5 hour sailing tour about Obsession. There were decent winds and I had a good time talking with a father and son who had lived in Hilo before and the son was a Coast Guard helicopter pilot who new a mutual friend of mine in Civil Affairs...small world.


The Ferris wheel that locals think looks like the London Eye and is a bit of an eyesore for the waterfront


More views of downtown



These guys looked like they were having a blast (and seemed a little intoxicated) but it reminded me of the time Brian and I sailed a windsurfer across Lake Christopher in Virginia Beach with an umbrella and a bed sheet.


Downtown


After the sail, I wanted to spend more time on the water so I biked back over to Lake Union to rent a kayak. The place on the south side was closing soon so I took an Uber across the bridge for an additional hour (which I ended up not using) and a longer paddle from the Lake Washington Ship Canal. Lake Union was getting very crowded much like the "Sandbar" on Lake Norman on holiday weekends.

Gas Works Park starting to fill in with crowds for the fireworks


Floating houses like those feature in Sleepless in Seattle


Ducks using some unique fishing tactics


After the kayak I walked up to the University of Washington to get dinner before going to the free festival at Gas Works Park. I took an Uber to the park and the driver had a tough time getting me there due to all the streets being closed for almost ten blocks from the park and the traffic was terrible. The park was packed (on the side facing Lake Union) and I didn't have enough cash for beer (although it was only $6) which is a non-starter and I had left my debit card in the hostel. Because of what happened in Guatemala I try to be cautious and separate my ID/financial cards but it seems I often need the one I don't have on me. So I had to draw money using my credit card which turned $6 beers into $11 beers because I only had two after feeling full from a pizza dinner and maybe a little dehydrated.

Gas Works Park


View of Lake Union and downtown from the beer garden

Skydivers coming in hot


My seat for the fireworks


Chinook with an American Flag in tow to Jimi Hendrix's version of the Star Spangled Banner


Hilo's nightmare


Goodnight Seattle!


I walked 2.5 miles to the nearest Pronto bike station through some kind of sketchy neighborhoods since there were no taxis or ubers available with the large crowds. Traffic was terrible around the lake but I breezed through it once I was on two wheels instead of two legs. I grabbed my things from the hostel and headed straight to the airport since my flight was departing at 0600hrs. Luckily they had a USO I could relax at but I didn't get any sleep until getting back home.