Seattle > Cascade Mountains > Canada

So it turns out that driving huge distances is really not a big deal to Canadians. At home, driving anywhere past the Trafford Centre is debated for its necessity - after all, why bother, when instead you can just sit in and watch a marathon of Teen Mom on MTV? Hypothetically speaking, of course. I would never do that (although while we're on the subject, Mum can you make sure the new series is Sky-Plussing for me?) Anyway, we drove (when I say we, I mean someone else drove and I took charge of the music) from Seattle, Washington, all the way up to British Columbia, via the Cascade Mountains and a pretty odd little town called Twisp where I ate a burger made from buffalo and drank really strong home-brewed cider. I think this is the route:


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And below is how retro the town looks. To give you a bit of context, the town's population was only 928 at the last census.



The oddest thing about the drive through Washington was the rapid change in scenery. One minute it was ten feet of snow and the next it was completely dry. Regardless, it was beautiful; lakes, waterfalls and lush greenery were a complete change from anywhere else I'd visited on my trip thus far, plus it was all very Twin Peaks.

Literally 20 minutes before these photos it was clear, dry weather. It went from this:



To this:



This snow was piled so high it was taller than me. Most things are taller than me, but never usually snow.





The drive took about nine hours, punctuated by various stops and a Canadian border crossing at which they really don't take any funny business, you have to declare whether you are carrying any apples, all of a sudden everything's in French and Celine Dion is on the $10 note*.

Feel free to comment below!

Toodles
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*Total lie

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is known for a few things. This is what I knew about it prior to making an unexpected trip there on May 25th:

1. It's where Starbucks started (I have a coffee addiction and had to start rationing my trips to Starbies at home when the staff at in the Piccadilly Gardens branch started saying "Oh hi again! Same as usual?")

2. It's where Frasier was set

3. It's where grunge music is from

4. It rains a lot

My knowledge, as you can tell, was a bit limited. I listened to some Pearl Jam and Nirvana on the way in a bid to swot up, but to no avail. As it happened, on my Virgin Atlantic flight the woman next to me started doing the usual American thing of striking up a conversation out of nowhere and being utterly lovely for no apparent reason. Non-British readers - this doesn't happen at home. You either scowl at someone or don't look at them at all. If someone in a shop or public place is overly nice to you, it's usually because they are a) delusional or b) one of those WACKY AND CRAZY people who accost you on your lunch break and ask you to donate AS LITTLE AS £49.95 PER MONTH to charity JUST BY HANDING OVER YOUR BANK DETAILS TO A STRANGER. I always remember when my sister Fi was approached by one who was like "HIIIIII! WHAT'S YOUR NAME?!?!?!" and she just said "yeah wouldn't you like to know". Sidenote - I already give to charity so I'm not being snide, they genuinely are very annoying.

I keep digressing. Turns out the woman on the plane was making a documentary on swing dancing (!) and going to Seattle for research. I have no idea what Seattle has to do with swing dancing, so it's possible she was delusional too (I.e. like the mean people in the UK, not me. I don't think I'm delusional. Hang on, that's what crazy people actually say, isn't it? Shit.) The woman sat on the other side was wearing a trilby (because a comedy hat is totally necessary on a plane) and reading a book called Performance Points, while writing motivational, encouraging words such as LIVELY, ENERGETIC, SELF-AWARE and BEAUTIFUL in a tiny notebook. It's possible she'd been in LA too long.

Back to the original subject: Seattle. We took a little walk around and ate in a great yet casual restaurant - the name of which escapes me - and I had possibly the best steak ever, which was described by the waitress as "very thin" but was actually close to a baby cow in size. The city is pretty nice, closer to reality than LA, New York or Miami, in that it has actual people who seem to be doing normal things like going to work and struggling with their shopping bags. There is weather too - it rained the whole day, night and next day, which reminded me of home - and a kind of light fog that gives a bit of energy and atmosphere to the place.

I've put some pictures below of Pike Place Market (a farmers' market dating back over a century) and surrounding area, to give you an idea of how it contrasts in weather, colour and texture to some of the other US cities I've so far visited.













I obviously had to take one of the first ever Starbucks:



And here is an awesome building I later found out was the library!



I didn't even stay in Seattle for 24 hours so I didn't get to see anything else but maybe I will get to do so one day! It seemed like a great place.

Toodles
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