I will say that her Not Letting Her Know details was one of the most annoying things I could have done to her! :D
Fortunately her sisters were more than willing to come down and spend a couple of days with the kids, so on Friday morning we headed up to Seattle for a few days of Fun and Relaxation!
Friday we kinda piddled around downtown Seattle enjoying the touristy sites:
Pikes's Market and the view from where we ate lunch.
Lots and Lots of fresh fish were everywhere.
We spent the better part of the entire day walking. Just off of Pike's Market is a park with a great view of the Puget Sound.
We did take the Monorail over to City Center to see the Space Needle.
Shelly is there at the bottom... you can barely see her.We had a wonderful dinner at Cheesecake Factory and crashed early. All the walking took a toll.
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Saturday was the Day From Hell!
We (I) decided to head into Canada and visit since we were close and Norm suggested that we visit Victoria Island.
On our way we stopped at one of the numerous Indian Tribe casinos around the area for breakfast, we figured they would have a good buffet... not so much. From there it started to rain. Nothing more exciting than planning a day admiring the outdoors and it rains. A short while later I was on the side of the road having a pleasant conversation with one of the Washington State Troopers regarding my going 16 over the speed limit. I will say I thought he was a pleasant guy BEFORE he didn't give me the ticket. (I did get lucky!)
We managed to make it to the border crossing and only waited like 45 minutes in line to get to the guard shack.That is where the real fun began. We made the mistake of telling the guy in the guard shack that it was our first trip into Canada. So, he writes "First Canada Visit" on a piece of paper and sends us to see the folks in the Custom's office. I was wrong when I thought the gut at the guard shack was a prick, he was a bundle of joy compared the guy we talked with inside the customs office. That was a 1½ hour waste of my life that I will never get back. Sitting and waiting, then after they finally checked out the car asked us once again why we were entering Canada. After we reassured him we were planning on sleeping at our hotel in Seattle we got to go on our way.
Needless to say, both of us were rather pissy at that point. We drove the distance into Vancouver, and were disappointed beyond belief! The city was cramped, dirty, way too many overhead wires, and nowhere to try and park. We drove around for a bit, and decided to get the hell out of there instead of finding a place to eat.
We didn't take a single photo across the border, in fact the only thing that we did find as a "highlight" was a mile long tunnel on the way.
It was amazing the difference in the feeling once we crossed back into the United States, we could only come to one conclusion (with no offense intended towards Trevor):
CANADA SUCKS!
We finally found an Olive Garden around 7 and ate dinner before we passed out.
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A Sunday Drive!
This was the day we decided to drive to Forks, WA so Shelly could see all the sights that were the inspiration for the Twilight novels.
It was a BEAUTIFUL drive. (Unlike heading over the border, but enough about that crappy country north of us!) The views were spectacular, the lakes were amazing and the overall experience was fantastic. I've not read the books, but am a fan of the setting at this point! LaPush was AMAZING!
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHELLY!
It's always sad to leave when you're away from home, but sadly we did have to leave on Monday.
We headed back down to Pike's Market for breakfast and to do a little shopping.
The Tulips were in season and were everywhere. The growers would put together these beautiful arrangements that I wished I could have gotten some for my beautiful wife, but getting them home would have been a real challenge.
One vendor was selling the biggest and most beautiful Lobster Tails I had ever seen.
After Shelly shopped for some jewelery for her and Kylee, we had a nice breakfast overlooking the harbor. We were both in really good spirits and really enjoyed our crab omelet!
Notice Shelly's "FORKS" sweatshirt!!!
While looking out the window I saw something that immediately made me think of Norm!
As soon as we got home, we found that the kids had decorated for their mom's birthday!
Kylee even helped in making the Birthday Cake.
We then headed over to Applebee's for Shelly's birthday dinner. Bonus was that it was "Kids" night, so the had brought in someone to do face painting, and of course the kids HAD to get something painted on their hands.
Shelly even got serenaded to by the staff:
All-In-All it was a FUN FUN FUN (Minus Canada)weekend!
Happy Birthday Darling.
3 comments:
Oh my, I can almost taste the clam chowder on the pier now! I wish we would have known you were going. We did Seatle/Canada for our honeymoon. We could have told you that Vancouver was a big dirty city! Victoria, however, is absolutely stunning with cobblestone roads and oodles of charm, it is really quaint and romantic.
We have had the opposite experience with the border patrol going in and out of Canada to Niagra Falls. The Canadians are all smiles and the line moves 10 times faster versus the US side but I am sure it has more to do with the individuals on duty than anything else.
Way fun to see the pictures, I have seen videos of the Pike's fish market in some marketing conferences I attended. Was it a fun place. All in all it looked like you had quite an adventure and even a cake! Wahoo! Great Job Marc!
Wow you guys, that was so much fun! I feel like I almost went there myself. I am so jealous that you did the "Twilight" tour! Thanks for the great post. Well done Marc- you out did yourself for the birthday this year, but Shelly deserved it :)
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