March 14, 2011 by Rae

Salem, Oregon

Today, I drove to Salem, capital of Oregon, to visit with Joan. She had an afternoon all planned out for us and I was happy to let a native guide take the lead!

First stop was a yummy lunch at Adam’s Rib Smokehouse. I had a BBQ pulled chicken sandwich with a side of hush puppies. The meat was very flavourful, with a sweet and tangy BBQ sauce, and the bun was particularly tasty. Very nice sandwich, if not too healthy! I haven’t had hush puppies since I first discovered them in 2008 during my adventures south of the Mason-Dixon line so they were a real treat!

Next, Joan took me to a museum she’d always wanted to go to, the A.C. Gilbert Discovery Village and Children’s Museum. A.C. Gilbert is the fellow who invented the Erector Set. This is the kind of place a grown up can’t really go alone without feeling silly. But as a pair? I haven’t played like that in a very long time! I even got on a swing. Joan and I just laughed and laughed and laughed. Such fun!

After the museum, she took me to the Salem Carousel. This beautiful carousel features hand carved horses, each with its own name and unique personality. I can’t remember the last time I was on a carousel. At $1.50 each for a ride, it’s an affordable outing.

Finally, we headed to the Sweet Papaya for dessert/a snack. This is a self-serve frozen yoghurt joint where you pay by the weight of your confection. You can mix together as many flavours of yoghurt as you want, then add candies, fresh fruit, sauces, mini cakes, and more. Yu-um.

Awesome day, Joan. Thank you!!!

state capitol

Adam’s Rib

A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village

looking out over the gaming and music area; each table had a popular game like chess and snakes & ladders

staircase and stained glass

ahoy matey!

fun with shadows

China exhibit

bridge over a ‘river’

wasp nest

Joan by the BIG chair

Willamet River

Joan on a BIG chair!

the bubble master!

creating a giant bubble

giant bubble

entrance to a display looks like we’re going behind a waterfall

beautiful staircase

Joan got a kick out of the cow and insisted on a photo of me ‘milking’ it!

gorgeous stained glass

the chess set from The Chamber of Secrets?

mammoth dig

one of several giant xylophones

A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village

inside the Erector maze

Atomic energy lab set!

magic trick set

Erector sets

the Erector maze

Doing my best Dr. Horrible impression

A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village

Willamet River

the Salem carousel

I picked this horse because of the kitty!

each carousel horse had a name; this was mine

Sweet Papaya self-serve frozen yoghurt

3 kinds of yoghurt (pina colada, cheese cake, mango) with peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, brownie pieces, Oreo crumbs, pineapple, papaya, and some tasty little strawberry bubble things

March 5, 2011 by Rae

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

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

ladder into the Duck

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

public art–typewriter eraser

Pike Place Market

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

entering Union Lake

crossing another Duck

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

this structure was a gas and coal factory

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

driving over a drawbridge

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

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.

June 30, 2010 by Rae

Mammoths, Atlatls, and Plane Crashes

I touched a real honest to goodness fossilized mammoth bone on Tuesday. It was about 25,000 years old. And that was after seeing a mostly real honest to goodness, fully reconstructed, mammoth skeleton. I know I’m getting ahead of myself, but have you ever seen a mammoth skeleton???

So, ahem, one of the biggest and most visible attractions in Whitehorse, because it’s right off the Alaska Highway, is the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre. I had no idea what Beringia is/was and thought the place was a tourist trap, so I never really thought about visiting it. But after so much time in the Yukon I’d begun to hear things about the place and it started to work at me. So, after I got in from my Kluane Country jaunt, I decided to go find out just what was this thing called Beringia.

Beringia is a lost continent, a landmass that joined Siberia and present-day Alaska during the last ice age. It was a fertile grassland known as the ‘Mammoth Steppe’ in which giant animals roamed the land.

Stories of those days have been passed down through the ages to the present native peoples of the Yukon. One archaeologist studied those legends to see if there was any realistic basis to them and was lead to the confluence of the Old Crow and Porcupine rivers where there had been a legend of a giant monster slain on those banks. That legend is now a true story, as the skeleton of the ‘giant monster’ was found thanks to this orally passed down story–it was a woolly mammoth! Talk about myth coming to life!

After watching a fifteen minute movie about Beringia we were invited to step outside to try our hand using an atlatl, commonly known as a spear thrower. I’m quite good with a bow and arrow, so I was eager to try this other ancient weapon. I did three throws and the teacher informed me that I was one of the best he’d ever seen! While the others aimed to throw their spears as far as they could, with their first throw failing miserably, I focused on my technique and struck the same target three times, each time with more force. If I’d been hunting for the first time, I would have probably made a kill with at least one of those throws. It’s no wonder I didn’t last as a vegetarian–I’m a natural born hunter! 😀

My tour of Beringia filled me with such awe and wonder. Until yesterday afternoon, the Yukon was the Klondike. Anytime that happened before was of no interest. It was like discovering that an old friend has been hiding a wonderful secret from me.

The centre isn’t very big; there are a couple of exhibits outside and in, but it’s an excellent way to spend an hour or two. You can get a combo pass for the Transportation Museum next door for $9. That’s right, $9 can get you at least two hours of entertainment in excellent museums in Whitehorse. That’s less than the cost of a movie ticket!

The transportation museum was very good; with interesting displays. My favourites were those devoted to the Chilkoot Trail and to the Helen Klaben plane crash. She and a pilot crashed in the frigid Yukon wilderness in the 1960s and though badly wounded, lived to tell the tale. She wrote a book about the ordeal called Hey, I’m Alive, which was made into a movie.

between the Alaska Highway and the parking lot, a family of mammoths plays (dad shown)

this giant beaver apparently existed once upon a time. He was as tall as I am–5’6″!

The Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre

a mammoth skeleton

a giant sloth!

this statue represents the journey from life to death

(about the statue)

explanation of why glaciers are blue

explanation of ‘Beringia’

the displays at both Beringia and the Transporation Museum were excellent and very detailed

as I said, very detailed!

I had no idea that horses were RE-introduced to North America!

the Yukon Horse

Legends of Beringia

close up of the statue

touching a real mammoth fossil!

“please touch” is one of my favourite phrases

these are darts or spears

an atlatl

the dart rests against this rock and then you hold the two almost like chop sticks

plaque about the plane flying outside the Transporation Museum

explanation of the pivoting mount…

this plane always points into the wind

mural showing the different themes of the Yukon–native history, gold minining, the building of the Alaska Highway

kind of fuzzy, but this plaque says that it was on the site of the present day transportation museum that the US Army gave the Alaska Highway to Canada

what an incredible mural of the Golden Staircase!

the first public buses to travel the Alaska Highway started around 1948 and looked like this

the bus operators tried to make the miserable trip seem dreamy

inside of an old ambulance

I only noticed the old ambulance because it’s orange 🙂

LIFE magazine article about the Klaben/Flores plane crash

article about the plane crash

April 16, 2010 by Rae

A Final Day in Victoria

Being less than 300km from ‘home’ and not having to start work until 2pm tomorrow meant that I could enjoy a third day in Victoria. I dropped Mrs. H off at her friend’s house and then drove downtown to do a few museums. This post will gloss over some of the details of today as some destinations merit their own posts.

I decided to park in Chinatown since the daily rates are cheaper than downtown and planned my day as a loop. My first stop was just a block away and was a store! It was recommended to me by a reader and is called Chintz and Co.

Chintz & Co.

This store comprises 20,000 square feet (!) and is just about a one stop home decorating stop. It was the first time I have walked into a store selling new furniture and found myself liking almost everything. Had I had $2,000 I would have walked out with a handsome wingback chair covered in dark orange leather (*swoons*). The furniture style was mostly luxe shabby chic, with lots of rich colours abounding. I could have spent hours there, but focused mostly on the remnants section, which was much larger than I would have expected. I found some fabrics I thought would coordinate with ones I have already picked up, but I wasn’t sure enough to buy.

I ambled down Store street and turned into Bastion Square:

alley off of Bastion Square

Bastion Square’s giant tulips

My next stop was The Soda Shoppe, which I had discovered on my first night in Victoria. It is located on Government Street right in front of the Empress Hotel, kitty corner to the visitor’s centre.

The Soda Shoppe

I would normally balk at paying $4.19 for a small ice cream cone (even if it is of the waffle variety), but they have bear claw, a dark chocolately fudgy caramelly cashewy concoction I haven’t seen in about ten years since an Ottawa shop carrying it closed down. It was as good as I remembered!

From there, I walked the length of the Empress Hotel, crossed the street, and landed at the Royal British Columbia Museum:

Royal BC Museum

After a couple of hours, I headed across the street

street separating the RBC museum from the Legislature

and strolled along the length of the BC Legislature:

war memorial

close up showing the addition of the Korean ‘police action’; a nice touch since many forget that Canada was involved in this war

the BC Legislative Building is quite a handsome structure! It’s almost as impressive as Ottawa’s Parliament buildings!

this is all of the Sequoia I was able to get into one shot 🙂

then crossed the street in front of it to go visit the Undersea Gardens:

The Undersea Gardens

After that, I slowly began to stroll back towards the car with a stop for lunch:

Victoria Harbour

there was a whole row of dedication plaques

a magnific mosaic orca

a map of Vancouver Island

I was just going to get a slice of pizza for lunch, but was lured by the siren’s call of Cafe Mexico. I had an excellent meal there of a chicken burrito with ‘fries’ (more like chewy potato chips with a hint of crunch). The highlight of the mean was the ‘mojitea’:

mojitea

My drink of choice is the mojito, but I didn’t want to drink alcohol before a long drive home so I decided to try their virgin version even though virgin mojitos seem to be missing a little ‘something.’ Well, Cafe Mexico found what that little something is: sweet tea. The tea doesn’t have the same flavour as the rum, of course, but it’s the perfect non-alcoholic addition to turn the club soda and muddled mint into more than just minty soda. Yum! The burrito was fresh and light and the fries were served with a sauce that had me go ‘WHAT?!’ at first taste, but which grew on me with every bite. I asked the server what it was and she said it was a ‘chipolte aioli’ which I think means a smokey garlickly mayonnaise. It was the perfect complement to the fries. This wasn’t the best Mexican food I’ve had in my life, but definitely fits at the top of the list. It was reasonably priced to boot!

I grabbed an ice coffee for the road and returned to the car to plot a route to the Nanaimo Best Buy. My GPS is getting to be ridiculously outdated, so it didn’t have that store in its data base. It felt incredibly luxurious to boot up the laptop, sign on to my Telus connection, and get the necessary info. My life has definitely changed!

My destination mapped out, I headed out of Victoria at 3PM. I’ll write a separate post about the drive back to Campbell River.

Victoria left me with mixed feelings, some negative, most positive.

The negative feelings are towards the cost of museums and attractions: ridiculously high. There was nothing under $10 and most things were $15 and up. I would have loved to do the Maritime Museum, but with the RBC being $15 and the Undersea Gardens being $11, the additional $12 for the MM would have busted my budget. Having been to so many museums in both the Canada and the US I can say with a measure of authority that everything I saw in Victoria was way over priced. Whether or not I enjoyed myself is not relevant.

That said, Victoria is a beautiful and accessible city. If I have to stay in Canada next winter I will do so in the environs of Victoria, even if it means spending another $400 on ferry costs. I have nowhere had my fill of this city and feel that I barely got a taste of it. I’d like to spend more time exploring Beacon Hill Park and exploring the many hiking trails in the area.

Victoria is one of those Canadian cities that feels exquisitely ‘old world’ in its waterfront area, so much so that the cloppety clop of horse hooves is the most natural sound you could hear in the setting. The traditional architecture is Victorian with its emphasis on grand neo-gothic structures like the Empress Hotel. I didn’t get quite as much of a feel for the outlaying parts of town, but Mrs. H had me drive through many a neighbourhood that had streets lined with Victorian cottages, some simple, some dripping with gingerbread.

I had a lovely weekend and feel it is the perfect cap to my Vancouver Island winter.

April 14, 2010 by Rae

A Coastal Drive and the Ross Bay Cemetery

The final thing Mrs. H wanted to show me today was her old stomping grounds along the water front. It was a beautiful drive and exactly the sort of thing I miss out on when I don’t have a local guide. She also recommended I check out Ross Bay Cemetery, where many prominent Victorians are buried, including Emily Carr a writer and painter. I didn’t find that grave, but I did photograph quite a few interesting ones.