Month: March 2011

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Riding the Duck and Pike Place Market

The budget’s really tight this month, so I chose this afternoon’s Seattle attraction very carefully. My first instinct was to head to the sci-fi museum, but that wouldn’t have given me any information on Seattle. Instead, I decided to look for a city tour.

Thanks to Trip Advisor, I was able to determine that riding the Duck would be the best way to experience Seattle in a short span of time. It sounded cheesy, but the price of $25 and the reviews convinced me to take a chance on this one and a half hour long amphibious tour.

We started off in downtown Seattle at the Space Needle, now beige, but once painted ‘galaxy red’ (orange!). Our guide pointed out a building that is apparently very famous (judging from the reaction of some people on the bus), but all I caught is that it’s an exterior set for a popular TV show. I’ve included a picture of it; perhaps one of my readers will recognize it and go OOH!

Seattle was the missing piece of the gold rush puzzle for me since it was there that the madness began. I learned that the old city of Seattle burned to the ground and was replaced by fire retardant brick buildings. Moreover, the city was raised about ten feet off of the tide flats, so there is an underground city below what we see today.

We meandered around, with the guide pointing out a few Starbucks and saying “Only four hundred and ___ Starbucks left to see!”, but quitting that before the joke got too old. We also passed Pike Place Market and a few other locations before splashing down into Union Lake… to the tune of the theme for Gilligan’s Island. The whole tour was like that, with a cheesy sound track that was appropriate to the situation (we got ‘On the Road Again’ when we came out of the lake!).

This fresh water lake links Puget Sound to another inland lake. It’s sheltered from the elements thanks to the hills around it, so there are many houseboats and floating homes on the lake. We saw one that was featured in the movie ‘Sleepless in Seattle’, which I have not seen.

our Duck

our Duck

Space needle and the exterior of the 'Experience Music Project' and the sci-fi museum

Space needle and the exterior of the ‘Experience Music Project’ and the sci-fi museum

ladder into the Duck

ladder into the Duck

this building got a lot of oohs; I think it's featured on a popular TV show

this building got a lot of oohs; I think it’s featured on a popular TV show

public art--typewriter eraser

public art–typewriter eraser

Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

this caught my eye as a fan of M*A*S*H

this caught my eye as a fan of M*A*S*H

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entering Union Lake

entering Union Lake

crossing another Duck

crossing another Duck

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the house with green trim was a set for the movie Sleepless in Seattle

the house with green trim was a set for the movie Sleepless in Seattle

the house with green trim was a set for the movie Sleepless in Seattle

the house with green trim was a set for the movie Sleepless in Seattle

this structure was a gas and coal factory

this structure was a gas and coal factory

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this is a 'floating house' not a 'house boat'

this is a ‘floating house’ not a ‘house boat’

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driving over a drawbridge

driving over a drawbridge

a shout-out to a friend from Halifax--you'd love Seattle!

a shout-out to a friend from Halifax–you’d love Seattle!

Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

I really lucked out with the weather this afternoon; it had rained on and off all through my morning drive, but my afternoon in Seattle alternated between sunny and overcast, and it was warm. I would not want to do the Duck tour on a cold, windy day since the bus is open to the elements. I’d bring a coat even on a warm day for the bit on the lake.

Seattle’s a beautiful city; shame about how much rain it gets! I know I could never live in that climate, but I really got a sense for why people love it so much. It really reminds me of San Francisco, only with a more affordable cost of living. It has that west coast mentality that favours individualism, art, and using the outdoors as a gym.

The tour ended at 3 and I had some time left on the parking metre, so I decided to hoof it to Pike Place Market to get a feel for it. This 103 year old market only houses local producers and artisans. There are exterior stalls as well as a maze of buildings over several levels. It reminded me of Ottawa’s Byward Market on a grander scale.

I’d had a late breakfast and no lunch, so I kept my eye out for a place to grab some grub. I was sort of looking for sushi when I got a whiff of garlic that led me to a place called ‘Falafel King’! The lineup was long and filled with locals, which was a good sign. It was the first time I’ve ordered falafel and wasn’t offered any options, so the contents of my sandwich were a surprise. It turned out to be some of the best falafel balls I’ve ever eaten, with onions, parsley, tahinni, hummus, and cucumbers. This is the first time I’ve had Lebanese or Syrian-style falafel with cucumber and I think I prefer it to the more traditional tomato and turnip! Decently priced at $5, I was thrilled by this unexpected treat.

It was coming on to five when I got back to the car, so with a two hour drive ahead of me and a full day with lots of walking behind me, I decided to head on home to Blaine. I haven’t had my fill of Seattle yet, not by far, but at least now I can say I’ve done more than just pass through it.

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The meaning of FRY

I awoke to sun and the promise of more of the same in Seattle in this afternoon. I know I won’t want to stop in the Seattle area with the rig, so I decided to jump on this opportunity to go see a bit more of this beautiful city!

To get there, I decided to take back roads to explore a bit more of the Washington coast. I set off from home around 8:30, went into Bellingham to run a few errands, and then asked the GPS to take me to Seattle the long way around.

The route took me through downtown Bellingham and down a beautiful stretch of highway that used to be connected to the Pacific Coast Highway that still exists near Los Angeles. We then entered a stretch of farmland and small towns where every other house was a gorgeous Queen Anne Victorian.

Entering Anacortes, there were a lot of signs for ferries, but I ignored them until I got this little niggly feeling. The following conversation with myself ensued:

-You set the GPS to avoid ferries, right?

-Probably. And I checked the route ahead of time.

-Check it again.

-Road, road, road, freeway, arrival. No, that’s FRY. Not freeway. FERRY!

I pulled over and reset the GPS to take me to Seattle by land only! I wasn’t really that far out of my way, thank goodness.

Approaching Everett, the GPS led me onto I-5 for a bit and that’s where I decided to stick to the interstate, not wanting to spend an hour navigating city traffic and also to make sure I knew what lanes to be in with Miranda when I drive through there on Tuesday morning.

downtown Bellingham

downtown Bellingham

This approach outside Fairhaven reminds of Montreal's Old Port and the Five Rose factory

This approach outside Fairhaven reminds of Montreal’s Old Port and the Five Rose factory

Fairhaven, WA

Fairhaven, WA

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information on Chuckanut drive, formerlly part of the Pacific Coast Highway

information on Chuckanut drive, formerlly part of the Pacific Coast Highway

information on Chuckanut drive, formerlly part of the Pacific Coast Highway

information on Chuckanut drive, formerlly part of the Pacific Coast Highway

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entering Seattle

entering Seattle

entering Seattle

entering Seattle

I got to Seattle at one, parked, and headed to buy tickets for the attraction I’d picked. Next post!

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Settling Down, Or Not

This morning’s post is a response to one written by Tioga George yesterday. The post explores the question that those in fixed residences ask of nomads: when are you going to settle down. George’s response was well structured, displaying the pros and cons of both lifestyles, especially in this paragraph:

Everybody on the TiogaRV Team agrees that stick home people are certainly living with less anxiety than us RVing vagabonds. Knowing all about the place where you are living is very calming. The routines that are established for stick home people can be wonderful. Tending a garden, for example.

For me, the hardest part of RVing is the uncertainty of what comes next. And the hardest part of living in a fixed home was the certainty of what comes next. I have discovered that I am a more fulfilled person when I don’t know what comes next because it forces me to be engaged in my life.

As my RVing days march on, I am finding a centred routine to my life that I can slip into the context of where I stop. Unlike George, I can pause somewhere for a few months and be content to discover the community, finding plenty of ‘excitement’ in that, but, like him, I need to move on at some point.

Why? The best answer I can give to that is that I am my best self when I am moving about and forced to go through life with my eyes wide open. I don’t full-time RV because it is an easy life choice, but rather because it makes me feel alive.

I think there are two categories of wanderers. There are those who are displeased with their life and take to wandering in search of that missing piece of themselves. These wanderers are further sub-divided into those who do find what they are missing and those that do not. I used to fit into the former sub-category.

But now I fit in to the category of wanderer that is displeased with her life and takes to wandering because wandering itself is that missing piece.

Can you wander forever?

George concludes his post with the scenario that wanderers fear: having to stop and stay put at some point:

Now comes the question that every RVing vagabond must face, sooner or late! When should vagabonding stop and staying put start? We do not know the answer to that question. However, we suspect that when the time to stop searching for adventure arrives for us, it will be abundantly apparent.

There will almost certainly come a time when I need to hang up my keys. I may not have to give up travel then. But if I have to, for whatever reason, I think I will be able to do so without bitterness. I will be looking back on a life richly lived and be satisfied to rest for a while, savouring the knowledge that I did what I wanted with my life and that I have no regrets.

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Response to an Email

The following email just landed in my inbox:

Hi – I subscribe to your blog. I wish you could please write more about travels and less about the personal woes. Thanks!

I’d like to remind my readers that full-time RVing pre-retirement is not a perpetual vacation. It’s real life. And this blog serves as a chronicle of my full-timing life. I wish it could all be about travel, but I can’t ‘travel’ all the time. Those who want me to write more about ‘travel’ are welcome to contribute to this part of my budget by buying my ebooks and hiring me for contracts.

In retrospect, I realise that the name of my blog doesn’t reflect the daily reality of my life, but, really, how much travel does one person need to do to qualify as having a ‘traveling’ lifestyle? In the last twelve months I’ve gone from Vancouver Island to the Arctic Circle, the Okanagan to Quebec, the Vancouver area to Washington state. All while addressing the same mundane issues of real life that I had while stuck in a fixed residence.

I practise a policy of honesty when writing the blog. I got up this morning and realised that I hadn’t updated in a while. Why? Nothing’s been going on. Why? I got screwed over by a client. But it’s not all bad; I have exciting plans coming up! I’m heading into Oregon! I have some major changes ahead! Yeah, I’m paused right now, but things are going to pick up. And my teasing tone showed, I thought, that I’m in really good spirits and enjoying my down time.

A few days ago I wrote about health issues I’m having. I guess this could be considered sharing ‘personal woes.’ It’s relevant to this blog because it’s going to affect the choices I’m going to be making over the next few months. It’s also relevant to my readers because it offered evidence of the problems with the Canadian health care system, an issue pertinent to Canadian full-time RVers.

Obviously my blog can’t be to everyone what they wish it could be. It certainly isn’t to me because I really do wish I was independently wealthy and could treat full-time RVing pre-retirement as a perpetual vacation.

But this email has made me decide to explicitly state something I decided on about a month ago: I’ve given up on using this blog as a way to generate some income to finance my life. So, I’m going to stop worrying about how often I post.

That said, there are thousands of resources for RVing around North America, but this is the only one about full-time RVing in Canada pre-retirement. My readers only get a glimpse into a very tiny part of my life, but I feel that what I share is relevant to the purpose of my blog. So, I’m not going to stop including contextual information when I do post.