Adamanda's USA '95: Weekends Away

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During our summer in Seattle we had a lot of weekends away, soaking up the fantastic scenery and activities in the region.

Vancouver, B.C.

Vancouver reflection The Canadian border is only a couple of hours' drive from Seattle ... not that it's easy to tell which side of the border you are.

We loved Vancouver, it's an exciting place, but it still feels safe - like San Francisco. It has more sports cars and orders of magnitude more sports bikes than anywhere we've seen in the USA. Outside the art gallery Amanda got creative with some glass buildings.

Victoria, B.C.

Victoria is a four-hour ferry ride from Seattle. Victoria's slogan is "More English than the English" and it may be true. There are certainly more Union Jacks than in any town in England! It's a smaller, quieter place than Vancouver, and if anything we loved it more.

It's the capital city of British Columbia so it gets some impressive Government buildings, and it's a busy port. The Fisherman's Wharf is a pretty bit though.

Our whale-watching trip was a life's ambition realised. The boat ride (in a 23-foot Zodiac with twin 150hp outboards) was exciting enough, but being among a pod of 60 orcas was just incredible.

If there's one thing guaranteed to give you a sense of perspective, it's floating on the Pacific in a boat smaller than the Orca that's swimming towards you.

Orca!
Orca! 		Our Orca-watching boat
Our Orca-watching boat
Government buildings, Victoria
Government buildings, Victoria 		Fisherman's Wharf, Victoria
Fisherman's Wharf, Victoria

The Olympic National Park

Olympic1 The Olympic peninsular (seen here from the Space Needle) holds a third of the World's temperate rain forest. We spent a weekend in the enchanting Quinault rain forest. For once, we were pleased that it rained all weekend! We spent Saturday evening at Kalaloch on the Pacific coast. The sunset was incredible. We would not have believed these colours if we hadn't seen them ourselves.

The beaches are lined with tens of thousands of logs. For thousands of years they have been prized by Hawaiians because they're good for making canoes! Look at a globe - either there's a log-expressway between Washington and Hawaii, or there are a lot of big logs in the Pacific!

Clouds coming off the Pacific struggle to get over the Olympic mountains and dump 300 inches of rain per year on the National Forest. Between the Olympics and the Cascades a mere 30 inches fall each year (I know what they say about Seattle, but it has a lower annual rainfall than Houston!). Crossing the Cascades costs the clouds some more water and Eastern Washington has only 3 inches per year.

Kalaloch, Olympic Peninsular Kalaloch, Olympic Peninsular
Kalaloch, Olympic Peninsular Kalaloch, Olympic Peninsular


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