Where It All Starts

As the end of the summer nears, I tried to make sure to take in as much of what Victoria had to offer. Funny to think back at first arriving four months ago and how that time has gone by so fast. In just a few days I will be driving back to Windsor, without a co-pilot.

What a better place to start a journey from than Victoria, the beginning of the trans-Canada highway and starting point of Terry Fox's inspiring trek.

"SAFE!" in Seattle

Finally a weekend off! We need to get out of Victoria and see a new city. Seattle was the answer.

The quickest way to Seattle is by boat on the Victoria Clipper. A fast cat that leaves from downtown Victoria and takes you right into the heart of Seattle past the Space needle and on to Pier 69.

We left Victoria in the early evening, crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the United States and arrived in Seattle, Washington. The crossing took two and a half hours and definitely made us fight to keep our lunches down.

Once we made it to Seattle, we checked in to the Olympic Hotel. And right away we wasted no time...off to a bar. Great night life with a whole lot of life; Irish pubs, bars with pinball tables and nothing but wild, wild...

So, the next day rolls around and we're sitting with our head in our hands wondering what sort of stories we created about Canadians and Windsorites. Nonetheless, our second day in Seattle was well spent. We walked through Pike Place Market and Pioneer Market and up towards the Seattle Mariner's SafeCo Field. Mike's used his street sense and talked us into seats at the baseball game.

Seattle was super fun, but our time was up. Back to Victoria.

Mountains, Music and Memories

This is Mike's blog unravelling the splendor of the 2008 Pemberton Music Festival.

I left in the morning to catch the ferry to Vancouver with Heater and Dave. They were both on to their next journey after having spent 2 months with us in the McKenzie Ranch. Dave was heading home and then to a secluded town in northern Ontario as a teacher and Heather was heading to Kelowna to teach as well.
We spent the day together in Vancouver and then parted ways. I was off to stay at a buddy's place in Vancouver, just a walk away. Chris is a friend from home who we have grown up with. Kind of like a big brother. Chris, along with some other hometown friends and I, were going to spend the weekend at a cabin in the woods and celebrate the beginning of a Canadian tradition, The Pemberton Festival.

This would be the first Pemberton. Something that would hopefully grow to become the next Lollapalooza and we could all tell our kids that we were part of the first Mountain party.

We camped out at a cabin in the woods and made our way down to the festival grounds to partake in the mayhem. The lineup included Coldplay, Jay-Z, Death Cab for Cutie, Sam Roberts, My Morning Jacket, N.E.R.D. and Tom Petty. Amazing! It was great to see Chris, Nick, Lyons, Stone, Bobby, Drew and Fish. We had a blast!Can't wait to go next year!