Pre-Adventure

We start our great adventure in Seattle Washington: one of the most beautiful places on earth. We spent one night in Seattle and then left for our honeymoon spot in Port Angeles. Colette's bed and breakfast is heaven on earth as you can see.

Colette's Bed and Breakfast Port Angeles, WA

Mountains, ocean and rainforest together in one place is too good to be true. This area could be our dream spot, but only God knows what the future holds.

We hiked around, lounged around, and ate immaculate breakfasts every morning with wine and hor d'oeures in the evening. We were very pampered.

After three nights of heaven we left for Canada. We took a ferry and went up the coast, across the border, out onto the peninsula that is a hustling and bustling city: Vancouver, B.C., Canada. We were welcomed with an hour's delay in slow traffic. In the midst of this slow traffic John had to relieve a pressured bladder. I (Shelbi) hopped into the driver seat and slowly drove on as John ran to the nearest gas station. It felt like 30 minutes went by and I got up to 20mph. In all reality probably 5 minutes went by and I got up to 3KPH. I freaked out with my active imagination thinking John had been arrested for indecent exposure or hit by a car. I pulled over and proceeded to stand on top of the car to look out over the traffic to see John. After what felt like 10 minutes later, I saw him running up the highway. I may have over-reacted a little, but all is well and we were back on the road going 3kmh again.

Deception Pass bridge

Welcome to Canada

We opted for the cheaper options in Vancouver seeing as we splurged on the last place. Our hotel was not representative of the natural beauty here, but did reflect the run-down downtown east side. We were surprised to see so many homeless and disenfranchised people in the midst of a city with so much wealth and beauty. There are clear distinctions in Vancouver's downtown districts. 

The View from our Window. Collette's eat your heart out

Is this the closet? Oh no, it's the bathroom complete with toilet and shower.

The beautiful floors in the hotel: they were doing some remodeling.

Seattle sky line

 
We were very close to Vancouver's Chinatown and spent a lot of time roaming the night markets eating fresh sushi and roasted meats.

Through Covenant's reward points we were able to get a two day trolly ride tour of the city. We took this to the Aquarium and forgot to bring the camera. We saw dolphins fly yards in the air and beluga whales like giant white sea cows. The ocean holds amazing creatures.

The next day we used more of the covenant rewards points and took a high-speed boat cruise touring Howe Sound: a deep, narrow, unpopulated bay north of Vancouver. It is a beautiful place where forested mountains meet the sea and a few extravagant houses line the coast.

 
We ended the evening in the lookout tower watching the sun set behind the mountains and over the ocean while eating sushi and pizza. John created a timelapse of the beautiful sunset. Unfortunately, he didn't account for the tower's flex with the wind. Please forgive the choppy and unstable video. Nevertheless, it gives you an idea of what we were looking at.

Now it's just a simple waking up at 2am and driving to Seatac Airport so we can catch our plane to Philadelphia for the first day of Peace Corps Moldova. We have a day of "staging" information and meeting our fellow Peace Corpsians before we fly to Moldova.

As James Bates would say, "It's a good life."