This is the first of a
series of posts dealing with my tenth and most recent trip to Seattle as adult,
this time also covering Portland. I’ve made minor corrections to these
reports. What few updates there are
indicated by NOW in brackets. Neither
Portland nor Seattle are part of Day 1, but they’re coming!
Hi everyone
Unsurprisingly for the
first day of a trip I was awake early and had to kill time a bit before leaving
my apartment. Walked to the McDonald’s on Douglas & View for breakfast. I
saw the 72 bus to the ferry terminal after leaving the restaurant and could have
dashed for it but decided to take it easy instead and wander to the first stop
of the 70 Express bus. It was a nice morning (I was even in short sleeved pants
even though it was before 8) and thought it might be nice to get some shots of
the Parliament Buildings.
[NOW: Just to clarify,
my starting point was Victoria, BC. The 70 bus is Victoria Regional Transit.]
En route an obvious
panhandler started to approach me. I declined before he could ask me for money.
He said, “What?!? Do I look like a @#$%ing panhandler?” I mentally replied,
“Well, Yes” but outwardly kept quiet and kept going.
When the 70 passed
through downtown Sidney I noticed that the nice sandwich shop near the main
southbound bus stop was replaced by some women’s clothing store, Miss Kitty’s I
think, something risqué like that.
Surprisingly, at the
ferry terminal most people still opted for the cashiers rather than the
automated ticket machines even though the lines for the cashiers were long and
not all the machines were in use. I also like that the machines, unlike the
human operated booths accept debit cards.
On the ferry I got a
day bus pass for Vancouver. The cashier there (the book and magazine area)
reminded me that fares are cheaper today being a weekend, but I opted for the
day pass anyway. Today was meant to be the day of the trip for relaxing, not a
lot of planning, so I didn’t want to have to start planning the day around bus
transfer expiry times.
[NOW: The ferry was BC Ferries.]
Parts of the above
were typed on the bus to Swartz Bay, then on the ferry.
Upon the ferry‘s
arrival at Tsawwassen, I noted that the transit buses were now closer than
before to the Arrivals part of the ferry terminal. I took the 620 Express bus
to Bridgeport Station, the Canada Line SkyTrain to Vancouver City Centre
Station, crossed the street twice to Granville Station, took an Expo or Millennium
Line SkyTrain to Main Street Science World Station, walked to the hostel
(C&N Backpackers).
[NOW: All transportation for the rest of the day TransLink.]
There was no place to
put a lock on the lockers; $2 coin slots had been removed. A key zipper on my
backpack broke. I was offered a private room, accepted, but then was told it
was extra, so I stayed in the room already chosen. I started heading out and took
off my coat, noting the weather changing. I ate lunch at Subway then took the
SkyTrain one stop and then doubled-back, decided to put a few more things in my
pack since I could lock my stuff away properly.
I took the SkyTrain to
Granville Station and bought a new backpack at the Bay. I visited Chapters then
walked to Gastown. I took a SkyTrain from Waterfront to Granville Station where
I met up with my friend Sheila. We actually talked for seven hours, having
dinner at Burger King part of the time. It was fun to do on the quietest day of
the trip but I can pretty much guarantee that this is the only point in this
trip where I will be able to fit in a seven hour conversation with anyone.
[That Chapters has now closed. Sheila has passed away.]
I took the SkyTrain back
to Main Street - Science World Station where I returned to the hostel in
preparation for my meet with another friend, Luca. There was a little confusion
but we did finally meet and had a nice chat at a nearby pub.
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