Vancouver and onto Jasper

So on Saturday afternoon I said “goodbye” to America, and “hello” to Canada. Leaving Seattle it took about 2 hours to reach the border…which was a lot easier in customs than coming into America (and friendlier)…there was no scanning of our stuff, just a sniffer dog…seriously! Then getting my work permit granted took about 20 minutes (if that). Then after that it took about another 2 hours to get to Vancouver.

Upon arriving, I didn’t have any Canadian money, which I didn’t think would be a problem…..oh how wrong I was….I couldn’t get any money out any at first, so with all my stuff I started to walk to my hostel…yeah, didn’t take me too long to give and just jump on the skyline (Vancouver’s equivalent to the London Underground…but in the air (less grim)).

Weekend consisted of fair amount of drinking and hanging out with a lot of Australian’s. I couldn’t tell you all the bars I hit, cos if I’m being honest I didn’t really care about their names. But it was a productive weekend too, I got my Social Security Number sorted on Monday. Met some pretty sweet people though, Kathrine, my new Irish friend who is heading to Jasper in a few weeks. Jenna and Dana (good luck with your new sofa Dana), two of the very few Canadians I met in Vancouver (seriously everyone there was Australian, including all my roommates) and Karl, an Australian who must’ve had a pretty sweet night on Sunday, waking up in Vancouver on Monday morning, with a whole set of new clothes….good going! Also bumped into my friend, Tom’s roommate, Stu from Cardiff for a couple of hours before he headed off to Whistler. Glad to get away though, Vancouver was fun, but I rinsed through my money!

Vancouver at 7:30 in the morning...I stayed awake for breakfast...which was just toast! Great

The view from my room

Stanley Park

The top bunk was mine, I got about 5 hours use out of it!!!

Poutine (not Putang (and knew I'd say it wrong, and yes  Putang means the same in Canada as it does in England)

I left Vancouver on Monday night and travelled overnight to Jasper (which is in Alberta but right on the British Columbia / Alberta Province border). I’m pretty sure I slept most the way, and ironically I dreamt that I was on a bus! But with each rest stop, the snow kept getting thicker!!!

I arrived in a very early, very closed and very cold Jasper on Tuesday morning deciding to head straight to the Jasper Park Lodge to sort out my dorm and offload all my gear (I still have waaaaaaaaaaay too much stuff). And how sweet is this, I have my own room until…dunno when. My view is pretty sweet too. Don’t think too much of the kitchen (and lack of utensils) so it might be a while before I try working on my cooking again, which does suck. Although I did manage to get a frying pan (yes, a frying pan from the “free bin” today. Met up with my management and it looks like I’ll be starting work a little latter due to the Store not being ready yet. But only a day later. Still waiting for them to turn my internet on in my dorm, I’ve been using “default” but the signal is soooooo weak!

Had a night out last night in Grizzly’s Cafe, $2.75 for Alberta’s local beer! Too Right. Finally actually hanging out with some Canadians (all from the East though, aint met no one from the West (as in, where I am)). Everyone seems well friendly. Apparently block A (where I’m living) is meant to be the party block….sweeta! And my gym is cheap and VERY close too (I can see it from my room).

Need to check out the mountain situation though. The runs are open, but I think we’re gonna need (and, more than likely, get) a bit more snow…bring on the cold. Which sucks cos I hear that the snow is pretty thick right now back home……and you’ve all got the day off work, I start working tomorrow! Least I've got the mountains, and stuff discount to get to them!

My new "bare"  room

And the view from my window

My new store inside the Fairmont, not quite finished...but it should be now. We're moving stuff in tomorrow and opening on Friday.

….And to top it off, they have Root Beer here too! No, scratch that….They have FREE Root Beer here, so long teeth! In fact all food’s cheap (and healthy) in the staff canteen! Also the "White Man" at road crossings lies here too!

Again, I aint gonna check this one over cos it's late, plus I HAVE to get up in the morning...first time in a long while!

Happy Thanksgiving and goodbye to America

That’s it…I’m sick of packing….I don’t care how crap or amazing Jasper is, once I’m unpacked I’m staying there. Least next time I unpack my snowboard it’ll be cos I’m actually gonna use it. It was so knackering, yet again. I thought I got rid of a load of stuff, but apparently I didn’t get rid of enough…think I’ll be leaving some stuff in Canada in April. - Least I wasn't drunk when I was packing this time. I couldn't fit all my stuff in my big backpack STILL, so I'm gonna try my English charm and ignorance with greyhound tomorrow "oh, really, I didn't know that I could only have one luggage in the storage"...yeah we'll see how that one goes!

So this is my last night in the USA. Tomorrow I will be heading North of the boarder to Canada, first stop…Vancouver. I decided to take my job in Jasper working for Fairmont, so accommodation is sorted from Tuesday night onwards. And I’ll be working again, as of Wednesday first time in exactly 3 months. I’ll have a weekend in Vancouver, staying at Samesun. Making the most of Vancouver for a weekend, and getting my Canadian Social Security Number, before travelling overnight (via Greyhound) on Monday arriving at Jasper nice and early on Tuesday morning.

So I experienced my first (and quite likely last) Thanksgiving on Thursday. Twas great, kinda like Crimbo minus the presents (no complaints from me). I probably ate too much, but Jane and Mariah did an awesome job with the food…how can you blame me! Sweet Potato (weggies…na) covered in marshmallows, twas all different (except the turkey…even the brussel sprouts taste different over here (although they still taste mighty fine (and on that note, I’d also like to add that chocolate Nesquick also taste different over here..don’t even know how that’s possible))).

These are also pictures of Duvall in the snow on Tuesday……we all had the day off school….yyyeeeaaaaaaa!!!!

Cos I aint shown it yet, but this is Jane and Steve's "crib"

Thrive let me still use the gym this week, even though my membership expired last week. Apart from that I’ve pretty much been planning Canada stuff, I’ve booked my flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong for Sunday 3rd April 2011, and I actually have my letter of approval to hand over to the Canadian officials tomorrow. Got myself some shirts, ready to start working again (fortunately I brought trousers, shirt and tie over with me for a wedding (which I never attended), unfortunately I gave the shoes to Ryan and Katie to take home with them). I’ve also been trying to clear my netbook, I was worried that I might have (very stupidly) got a key logger on my netbook, but I think that I’m OK.

I also finally convinced Jane to let me take here and Steve out for a meal tonight, nothing too big, but we had a Clam Jumper, awesome food, some of the dessert portions are huge. We also learnt, that whilst Steve may be “Hot Stuff” and I’m “Naughty, but Nice”, Jane can be a bit “Clammy”…”Mild” at best! Dunno if I completely agree!?

More big American stuff!!!

I also think I may have got Jane into Peep Show...now don't tell me that's not worth staying up till 3 in tne morning for!

Overall my time in America has been pretty crazy and not at all as planned, due to situations I’m not even here for the 90 days that you get without a visa (all that effort) in fact Saturday is Day 79…although I did get to see a whole lot more of America than planned. I’d have rather stayed in Rhode Island for the 6 months, but I can’t pass up on the opportunities and as a result I’m getting to go to Canada for four months. It’s just amazing how one person can change so much, I’ve never been let down so much and so quickly by one person. That’s the last time I hype someone and my situation up so much....Thanks for that. I wish I could just say “screw it” and move on, least crossing into Canada tomorrow for a season of snow should help. That first “Thanks” was obviously sarcastic, but these are genuine: Big Thank you to Mum, Dad and Stinks for all your help back home with my application, including G-Man for the awesome reference, there’s no way I could’ve done any of this without you (and it sucks that I won’t be seeing you next week Stinks). Also thanks to James and Gary, I dunno if anyone did phone you from Canada but thanks for letting me put your names down. Thanks to Danny G, David, Ed (The Church boys) for the awesome gifts (they really did crack me up) and Daz for actually “having the balls” and taking the time to ask about me Thanks to Eva for being an awesome roommate in RI (sorry about the unnecessary mess). Thanks to Ryan for finally giving me an awesome friend (physically with me) to vent to after about 6 weeks. Thanks to my big bruv Russ and Anessa for always being there. Thanks to Winston for your random but true words, I aint “there” yet, but I’ll get there. And thanks to Keri and James for wanting to get me out of Duvall (you know I don’t really dislike America or the stars and stripes, you crazy drunk fool). Thanks to Katie for being awesome over the last few weeks and sorting all this out (I don’t really blame you or Ryan for all this, you’ve been more than amazing). And a big thank you to Jane, Steve, Eric, Emma, Mo, Rob, and yes, even you Mariah, for being awesome hosts over the last SIX weeks, I couldn’t have asked to have been with better people. Thanks also to Mark and Dylan for the spontaneous and cheap road trip so I actually got to see California and the sun (all the best with the move back down there Mark). Sorry to Andy, you didn’t catch me at the best of times, I’m glad I met you though, just wish it was under different circumstances - if you’re ever in England (and I’m there) I’ll take you out with the boys for a “proper piss up”. And a big sorry to everyone in Florida and a certain person in Michigan, I would’ve love to have seen you all but money really was the only reason and nothing personal - after speaking with Tyler and Rob on Tuesday evening I miss you ALL even more, and hopefully we can sort something for the next few months in Canada. I also wanna apologise to G-Man, James and Tom, as the first time I speak to you in months is to ask for help, but hope you’re all well. It’s well nice to know that over both sides of the Atlantic I know some amazing people, if I don’t already miss you then I soon will. So long America, I’ll miss you and I dunno when we’ll meet again. But with all that’s gone on (and although this might not make perfect sense) it really makes me feel more unsure of when I’ll go home.

And finally, I hope My Little Stavie Stav, Lee has an awesome birthday weekend (in Southampton, not Portsmouth). Sorry I can’t make it.

(Them two paragraphs above were originally written for facebook, but due to me making this “PG friendly” I’ve toned down on my “French”, it’s like a Eminem radio edit – “Dear Slim, you still aint called or wrote, I hope you have a chance, I aint mad I just think it’s ‘messed’ up you don’t answer fans”). Plus I can't put it all on my status as you can only have 6 tags, not 21, and you can only have 420 characters, not 3000+.

American things I’m gonna miss include:

• Root Beer.
• BASEBALL (I know it’s been over for ages now, San Francisco Giants won the “World” Series at the beginning of the month) – can’t believe I got sucked into the sport.
• Big, if not HUGE everything!
• Clam
• Pumpkin
• I’ve missed Dunkin’ Donuts for weeks now.
• The awesome awesome awesome people, I’ve been over here six times now, and very few Americans have that “plastic friendliness” well least the Americans I know, they’re all beautiful people (well….most of them). I have some great friends all over this mass country. And I'm not sucking up, I'm leaving in about 12 hours, I can say what I want!
• I will always miss comments like “Can you teach me some English”…..I don’t care how drunk you are!
• …..OK, and the Duvall Tavern…….!? Maybe!? Although I did miss out on “Ladies night”...Dam Girl!
• Vanilla Coke, they still have it over here!

American things I don’t think I’ll ever miss:

• The American “British” accent – trust me, you don’t sound like anyone I know…don’t do it!
• The white man who says that I can cross the road! You’ve nearly killed me on numerous occasions, you liar!
• “Do you have …… in England!?”
• Peanut in pretty much all “candy”
• Dragged out American adverts (commercials)…and the health warnings.
• Talking about the queen…..look we only hooked up once, and I don’t wanna talk about her!

And things Americans miss:

• u
• Where the language came from...I aint the one with the accent!
• It's called "mobile" phone for a reason, what does "cell" or "cellular" even mean!

I'm sure all lists could/should be longer. I never did have a peanut butter “jelly” sandwich…good for me!

I also dunno how long it’ll be till I have the internet again …so we’ll speak whenever readers!!!

Jane, also sent me this this week, this is Duvall:

Jane’s Mom’s in this video too!

As I know that The Church boys have got their returned gifts, I can show you what I sent back to them:

They even ate them popcorn Jelly Beans...

I also got them some 'make your own animal balloons', and this is what they do with them!:

...And they did take it out into town with them!

And another “finally” to people in England, I hear that you’re getting an extra bank holiday making it 9 in 2011 cos Harry decided that Kate’s the one for him, and we’re ALL so happy for you. But I can top that, my Bank/public holidays in the last year:

1. Christmas Day – Ringwood, England.
2. Boxing Day – Somewhere in Florida.
3. New Years Day – Florida
4. Good Friday – Gulf of Mexico, just off Florida
5. Easter Monday – Over the Atlantic and back home
6. May Day – Chilling in Hedge End
7. Spring Bank Holiday – Studying in Hedge End
8. Summer Bank Holiday – Recovering from Reading Festival
9. Columbus Day – Getting pretty wasted in the Hot Club, Providence
10. Memorial Day (it’s a “public” holiday here) – BBQing in the California sun
11. Thanksgiving – Awesome grub in Duvall.
12. Black Friday (is to Thanksgiving what Boxing Day is to Christmas) – Enjoying my last full day in the States.

Looks like it’s gonna be Christmas, Boxing Day (cos they have it there) and New Year’s in Oh Canada!

Couldn't agree any more!

I can't really be bothered to check back over this one too much so......Now I’m done!

So I just popped into Seattle today

Well my day started waking up next to a right dog…

To be honest, I’m just putting this up to put a few more Seattle photos on here. I thought I’d go have another look round Seattle today. Not bad thinking that I was in San Diego on Sunday morning, then in Seattle on Tuesday morning.

So I just jumped on the bus from Duvall this morning. If you’re ever in the Seattle area it’s worth checking out King County transport and Sound Transit (which covers more of the bigger cities in the area). Although I have noticed that the buses don’t really run too late into the evening round here. And their drivers CAN be just as grumpy as our English drivers…but I’d be grumpy too if I had to wear tailor-made-shorts.

More than likely my next stop

The smaller building is the City Hall

Qwest Field - home of the Seattle Seahawks (American football) and Seattle Sounders (football)

Sounder "FC" (but they still call it soccer) have the highest average attendance in the MLS at 36,000. That'd rival most Premier league teams (in fact it's better than 11 Premier League teams)

I found an pretty awesome travel guide book of Seattle, as I was leaving (typically), so I may check out Seattle again before I leave Washington. But again, if you’re ever here check out http://visitseattle.org/

After getting back to Duvall I had a run down Snoqualmie valley trail, which is probably a nice run through the day, I dunno, I’ve never done it before. I suppose that made it more fun, running down there whilst it was pitch black.

Then my evening pretty much consisted of replying to emails, and chilling out, again with some awesome food (thank you once more Jane). And Mum you’d be impressed with how much salad I’ve been eating since I got out here (still no tomatoes though)...I said I would!

I’ve also just seen this, it may have been dark when I looked, but I could see enough to get excited….SNOW!!!

I Dream of Californication–Enjoying the last of the November Sun

I’m gonna have to start this blog be saying DAM YOU GOOGLE ADSENSE. I got an email yesterday (Sunday) saying they were deleting my account for advertising due to “misconduct” !?!? I aint even been on the internet for over a week now! So no more money for me to make on my blog, in fact none at all, they’re taking everything that I’d earned so far.

So anyway, me and Mark are currently heading back to Duvall after a pretty awesome weekend in San Diego. We left (later than planned) yesterday, so we’re currently making up for lost time, but it’s still sunny. I’m pretty sure my battery’s about to die but I’ll get down what I can now.

I haven’t really taken too many photos from the weekend…well, I mean, I don’t wanna look like a tourist! But I’ll add what I got. It was pretty much a weekend of chilling with Mark’s friends and family…and a slightly premature ‘welcome home’ party for Mark, which was a great laugh. And if I learnt nothing else from this weekend, if you ever jokingly tell a drunk Paul (Mark’s brother) to burn a garden tree when the firewood’s nearly gone…well…the joke kinda becomes a reality!

San Diego Beach - And my first view of the Pacific Ocean

Making the most of the sunshine, the whole weekend’s been well nice down here. Aint seen a cloud for a while now. Watched the Sun-set over a hectic LA freeway last night, before we crashed out at some random rest-stop, after searching for miles for one. Back on the road again today, and the Sun’s still out.

…And my battery died about here…So from here…I’m back in Duvall.

The sun setting over Los Angeles

The drive was sunny the whole way up until (literally) the California – Oregon state line, as soon as we crossed that boarder, it was cloudy and foggy, and crap. Carrying on up the I-5 I noticed that Oregon was boring this time around, maybe it was more fun on the way down cause I slept half my way through the State. And the weather was a bit overcast and slightly damp until we (literally) crossed over the bridge, crossing over the Oregon – Washington boarder where it started chucking down!!! Great!

Mount Shasta - We could see it about an hour before we actually drove passed it

"The Blue Sky" over California Vs "The Grey Cloud" over Oregon

It was pretty strange reaching Portland today, which is about 3 hours from Duvall and filling like “I’m nearly home”, but I suppose on an American scale we were. It was also weird cause seeing signs for Seattle felt like when I used to look out for Southampton signs, and Duvall signs felt like Hedge End signs, and cause I’m starting to know the area, driving through Belleview felt like the equivalent of driving through them cliff things as you pass Winchester down the M27.

But a new winning sign “Pizza – 500 miles away” – That’s crazy early advertising if you ask me.

Big thank yous to Dylan for the awesome road trip down, everyone who hosted me and Mark over the last week, everyone else down in San Diego and surrounding areas for an awesome week, and Mark for letting me tag along for the adventure, and getting me down to California on a last minute tag along.

But always remember (and I only learnt this today), California may have Weed, but Oregon has Talent! (And Merlin, and Wolf Creek).

And thank you Joe Nichols for this!:

Worst thing is, I don't mind it

I Dream of Californication–Day 1

It might not look like much, but that is

Jupiter...I wish my camera could pick up all

the stars. 

Apparently Uranus is right next to it too.

WOW…I think that’s the best and only way to start this entree. After leaving at 4 o’clock this morning, driving for 18 hours, and covering about 1,000 miles, we have stopped just outside a small town called Brookridge in California, the middle of nowhere. It’s pitch black here and I can honestly say that I have never seen this many stars in the night sky, amongst all of them is several extremely clear shooting stars and Jupiter. You can even see the Milky Way.

I’m writing this blog whilst being sat in Mark’s truck, my bed for the night in the passenger’s seat, I wish I could publish this now, but I have no internet. But I still wanted to get it all written down.

So after getting to sleep last night (this morning) at about 1:15, I did actually wake up to my alarm going off at 3:15…so me, Mark, and Dylan even headed out 5 minutes earlier than planned, leaving at 3:55. I did pretty much sleep the whole drive through Washington, but woke up in time to cross the state-boarder into Oregon, and I even got to see Portland…Twice.

Sunrise, near Portland

The pictures on this post are all in order to show you how much the weather has been changing through our day

Crossing the Washington / Oregon state boarder

Passing out several times through Oregon (I wasn’t tired, but trust me, the back seats in Mark’s truck are pretty tight to say the least, and sleeping just seemed the best way to get through it), though on each occasion of waking up I did see Oregon’s awesome scenery. We had a McDonald's is the most scenic venue that I’ve ever been to. The McDonald’s being there kinda made me laugh, kinda shows that you can’t except them arches.

After not too long, and after climbing higher, we past the state boarder into a not so typical stereotype of California…I’m pretty sure that it’s not meant to snow here. But to be fair I have seen extreme sun, some extreme rain, some extreme winds, and some extreme snow today, all on several different occasions (we’ve been travelling up and down several hills all day). And if I’m being honest, the north of California is VERY similar to the south of Oregon. We even got to stop off in a small town called Weed, which seemed to be taken advantage of it’s name for all the tourist gimmicks on sale…also thank you to the two girls in Weed’s Petrol (Gas) station for having such an entertaining conversation!

My last view of Oregon...

...And my first impression of California

Several hours driving, (and after another kip in the back) we crossed another state boarder into Nevada to the city of Reno and headed for an ‘In N Out’ which is pretty much what we did in Nevada, we were in and out within a few hours (and sorry to Ryan and Katie, we were still a good 5 hours away from you guys in Vegas). It was good grub…simple menu…awesome food. And my tip for any fast food, if you ever buy a chocolate milkshake, once finished, don’t rinse out your cup, just fill it up with root beer for a throffie and surprisingly tasty delight.

In N Out's menu...simple

It aint as big as Vegas

After driving for about another 3 hours (and crossing into California again) we arrived at our present destination. It’s pitch black here, so I’m pretty excited to wake up and see what’s around me…all I know is that I’m in a dessert…..(but by the time I get round to posting this, I’ll have already seen the answer.

All I know of my current surroundings

So here we are...currently halfway down the very east of California

This now means that (including DC and stop over flights (which I’ve been told I’m not allowed to count…but I’m gonna)) I’ve now been in 15 US States in my life time. And including my trip to Tampa, Florida (back in March and April of this year), by the time I arrive in San Diego, I will have covered the four corners of the USA in this year alone (including Seattle and Boston). Not bad, considering I was never originally planning on coming to the Sates and considering that I aint even covered the four corners of England (well…I’ve never had a need/reason to head up to the Northeast.

On this trip (to date (since leaving England two months ago – to the day)) I’ve covered:

• Towns/Cities: Already countless (but all firsts on this trip)
  
• States/Provinces: 7 (6 of which are firsts on this trip)
  
• Countries: 1

I’m gonna leave the car door open now until it gets too cold, it’s pretty impressive up there tonight, and it’s gonna be a long time before I see this many stars again…I hope it doesn’t cloud over tonight.

…And Dylan, if you ever read this, sort me out with them enhanced pictures of the night's sky so I can put them on here. Cheers mate.