Amuurica, Amuurica! My Trip to Seattle Washington.

After a pretty eventful day one of our three day vacation we got up early and packed up the car for a day trip cross border in Seattle. This would be another first for me, because although I have passed through the United States several times, I have never actually visited any city in the states. Vancouver is only about a 3 hour drive away from Seattle so it made for the perfect day trip.

It was pretty easy to get out of Vancouver and head straight for the border. It was raining when we left Vancouver but we were headed south on the promise of sunshine in Seattle. The drive was okay, not greatly scenic but lots of things too look at for sure. Now, I don't know if any of you have every driven through Surrey BC but Amy and I have recently re-named it to Surrley. This is because boy is the smell there ripe! As we approached the exits for Surrley a waft of shart seeped in the car vents near gassing us death. It was just rancid! As we began coughing and gasping for air we wondered to ourselves what it was about Surrey that could cause it to smell so bad!? Luckily we weren't stopping in, just passing through so the smell was temporary but enough to give us a lasting impression of Surrey. Our border crossing was painless, and pretty quick and we were on our way! We jumped on the I-5 and headed towards Seattle. We stopped for a bathroom caffeine break in Skagit at the McDonalds where I had the most delish iced Carmel mocha (that we can't get in Canada). Then it was back on the road.

We got into downtown Seattle around 1:00pm and navigated their diagonal streets and one ways to park the car in a lot and travel around downtown by foot. We didn't have a really set plan of stuff we wanted to see while we were there. All we really had on the list was Pike Place Market, so that was our first stop. The Pike Place Market is pretty famous and has 5 floors of market vendors including the famous Pike Place fish mongers. They were featured on travel and tourism sites. They toss the fish around to each other and have whimsicle chants. It was very entertaining to see them in action that is for sure. Amy and I strolled the market stalls upstairs, downstairs, mid stairs and all around. I pressed some american pennies to send to the boys, and we had lunch at Lowells with a view on the water. We visted the copper piggy bank, and the first ever Starbucks. It was a very very interesting market and I really liked the atmosphere  there. We spent a few hours winding our way through the market and enjoying everything they  had to offer. After we saw all that we could see we walked out a side door that came out kind of in an alley way.

When we came out I looked to the right and saw and interesting looking wall and a few people looking at it. From the distance we were standing it looked very colorful and seemed to have some sort of finish on the brick wall. We thought we would wander down and have a peek. As we got closer Amy said, "It's the gum wall!!" She had previously been to Seattle and heard about the gum wall but had never gone to see it while she was there. When we got to the wall the sight I saw was both one of the most interesting and disgusting sights I had ever seen. A section of wall about 50 feet was covered in chewed gum several inches thick  and extended up the wall about 15 feet! There was all colors, stringy gum, balls of gum and some coins stuck into the mix. From the window sill long strings of chewed gum hung down like tinsil. Some people had taken the time to spell out their names, messages, initials and pictures out of gum! Apparently it started 20 years ago when for some reason people started sticking coins to the wall with gum as they went into the theatre.

The owners tried scraping the gum off but people persisted and it has turned into quite the tourist attraction. Even though the sight of all that chewed gum gave my stomach a vomitty feeling I knew I wouldn't be leaving that wall without adding to it. Luckily I had some gum in my bag so Amy and I started chawing while we were looking at all the gum. After a few minutes our gum was chewed enough that we were confident it would stick, and we could add our own contributions to the Seattle gum wall. I took a Canadian penny that I had in my pocket and proudly stuck it to the gum wall, maple leafs face out. I was very careful not to touch any of the millions of pieces of gum stuck to the wall, and then Amy did the same. So now, stuck forever, our DNA can be found stuck to the Market Theater Gum Wall.

After the gum wall we walked around downtown a bunch and visted my first ever Walgreens. I was shocked at all the flavours of things they had there that we don't in Canada. Lots of flavours of chips and chocolate things I had never seen. It was awesome! I bought some turtle chex mix and some reese whoppers to take with me. Before we left for vacation we had looked up things to do in Seattle that were off the beaten track. One of the things we came across was the troll under a bridge. We asked the woman at Walgreens if she knew where it was and she said she thought it was part of the underground tour. We knew for sure it was not part of the underground tour but we thought it would be interesting to see. We walked around downtown in the sunshine for a while taking in the sights. One thing we did notice was that Seattle has an abundace of beggars everywhere downtown. I gave one of them a few reeses whoppers. As we were walking we tried to keep our eyes open for someone that looked sane enough to ask if they knew where the troll was. We were walking through the park and there was a guy sitting on a stone and he looked sane enough to ask and hip enough to know where it was. So we asked and sure enough he did!  He told us where it was and how to get there, and that we would need a car to do so. Perfect! We planned that after a bit more walking around downtown we would head out and see the troll.

The troll was actually pretty easy to get to and in no time were were in Fremont to find the Aurora bridge troll. The troll was made out of mostly concrete and was very big. So big that in his hand he is holding and actual volkswagon beetle. He has one shiny eye made from a hub cap that shines among the dusty sandy concrete. The troll was sponsered by the Fremont Arts Council and has recently been becoming more popular among tourists. Amy and I took turns climbing up on the statue and getting our picutre taken. Don't mind the 'Keep Out' sign, we were actually allowed to climb on him, it was just an old sign someone left lying around under the bridge. After the troll we were headed to an American Wal-Mart for some cheap goods then b-lining north for the border so we could make it back to the hotel before too long.

American Wal-Mart is worth noting. I know that many of you may have travelled to the states before and this is nothing new to you, but I know many of you have not. I am here to tell you that you think Wal-Mart in Canada is cheap, you ain't seen nothing yet! Everything there was soooo cheap! And like the Walgreens, there were walls of several flavours of different things. Then we came across the alcohol section. There was a bottle of wine for $3.97 and a bottle of Yellowtail for 4.87! No wonder they are alcoholics! I would be too at that price! The boxes of wine were huge and cheap too. We all know that Carlo Rossi is a cheap wine but there it was in a 4 litre jug for $10.88! Amy and I bought a few things and then headed home.

We got back into Vancouver around 10:30pm and had a glass of wine before hitting the sack to enjoy our last day on the west coast.