Day 5: Vancouver and back to the USA--Seattle & Port Angeles, WA

The long and rough night yesterday wore us out. So, we decided to sleep in til 9 a.m. to try to catch up on some much needed sleep--and for me, beauty rest (lord knows I need it!). When we woke up, it was a beautiful, sunny day with 60 degree weather in Vancouver! We drove around the city some and decided to take the pups for a walk by the one of the marinas. This has to be the most active city--or perhaps we caught it on a great day--because people were everywhere running, biking, jogging, rollerblading, skateboarding and in row boats (you name it, they were doing it).

We could definitely see why everyone lives in Vancouver. It really is a unique and beautiful place! We definitely wouldn't mind living there after experiencing that.

We'd already planned to leave and head to Seattle, but on the way back to the U.S. (which wasn't very far--about  50 km) we started wishing we would have stayed in Vancouver another night. It was so gorgeous, and we just wanted to put on our work-out gear and jog with the pups around the city.
But unfortunately we didn't; we headed to Washington instead. I drove to Seattle, once we crossed the U.S. border, and that was not fun. I get nervous in large cities, especially ones I've never been to, and Klay said I got 'brake happy' in the car.

But Seattle was also a cool place! Once we found a park right by the water, we started to dig it too. We tried to find gift shops in Vancouver and Seattle and literally had no luck. After a drive in downtown Seattle to the Space Needle, we decided to go to Forks (but stay in Port Angeles). It was supposed to be a pretty drive --and you know me with "Twilight," it was almost a must--and we'd never be so far up in Washington to get there again. It was only going to take 2 hours to get to Port Angeles and after driving from Alaska through Canada, it seemed like cake.
We ended up boarding a ferry in Edmunds to get across the bay to Kingston to get on Hwy 104 to Port Angeles(it's a lot faster, only 30 minutes, rather than going down to Olympia and around to Pt. Angeles). We've never boarded a ferry, so that was kind of a cool experience for us! The dogs stayed in the car, but we got to walk around and enjoy the view on the 30-minute ride over to Kingston.

When the ferry ride was over, we headed toward Port Angeles and arrived safely. I realized I was headed toward two places that understood my passion for "Twilight," when I saw this store in Port Angeles--which made me so excited for Forks in the AM! =)
Port Angeles was a pretty cool town with a great burger joint called Frugals. It was a cool town to stay overnight.
Stay tuned for more updates with us "From the road..."

Day 4: Prince George, Whistler and Vancouver, baby!

The drive from Smithers to Prince George was extremely boring--or at least it was after driving the Cassiar Hwy. There were some pretty parts with some neat small towns, but most of the way it was mostly farming communities.

They were pretty, but I kept saying "I miss the Cassiar" to Klay most of the time.

After a few recommendations in the morning in Smithers and some friends of ours, we decided to detour through Whistler, BC and stay the night there. When we made this decision we were in the car leaving Smithers, so we had no idea what the town looked like, how large it was or any knowledge what-so-ever about it. All we knew was it was a beautiful place, a tourist town (home of the most recent Winter Olympics where Shawn White got the gold) with a gorgeous drive. And that was it.

We started on the gorgeous drive up, turning off before Cache Creek, and drove in between mountains surrounded by multiple rivers and creeks. We passed small towns in the mountains way out in the middle of nowhere. It was an absolutely stunning drive.

After stopping off along the way to take lots of pictures, we finally made it to Whistler at 9 p.m. It was a gorgeous town with tons of hotels and resorts--super lodgey looking and was a real ski town. People were everywhere and we made our way to four different hotels which were all booked. Guess it was just our luck cause it was Friday night. So, after the fourth failed attempt in Whistler, we decided to move forward.

On the way toward Vancouver, a silver porsche passed us, and somehow I got on the conversation of Robert Pattinson owning a green one, and then we got into where they were filming and everything. The silver porsche turned off in Squamish (a town 70 km outside of Vancouver) and headed toward Extended Stay Suites. We ended up stopping in Squamish at the Best Western because the drive started to wear on us. So, I went in the lobby to see if they allowed pets and had vacancies. The hotel receptionist said they were all booked too.

I asked, "Is it because of Whistler?"

"No," hotel receptionist said. "We're booked because film crews are staying here."

"Is it the 'Breaking Dawn' film crews?" I said.

"No, try Twilight," she said.

"Oh, really? It's the same thing. So, the film crews are here?"

She nods.

"Hmm, I wonder where the actors are staying..." I said.

"Oh, I'm not at liberty to say," she smiles.

I walked out and told Klay. His immediate reaction was I'm sure they weren't staying there (it wasn't the nicest of hotels). I doubted the actors were staying there too, and then he said "what if one of them were in the porsche?" I was like "REALLY?" Now, I'm going to be thinking about that. Anyway, to make a long story short, I got on breakingdawnmovie.org and the guy who plays Carlisle Cullen, tweeted a picture of a sign that said "Bear spotted in the area. Please be careful."--or something.

Ashley Greene (Alice), Jackson Rathbone  (Jasper) and Kellen Lutz (Emmett) were all spotted in Vancouver Wednesday and Thursday. So, who knows where they are!

Anyway, after that last failed attempt in Squamish, we made it to Vancouver at night (which was crowded with people bar-hopping). We were so exhausted and looking for any place to stay. We had one more failed attempt, before finally finding a place that would take us in.

So the long night wasn't very much fun, but the drive in was a blast!  We decided from now on that we should really plan our trips, hotels & stops more throughly than before.

Tomorrow we get to experience Vancouver in the daytime! Yay!! =)

Check back for more updates at 'From the road...'

Day 3: British Columbia & Cassiar Hwy

Day 3 was interesting for us. Westmark hotel was great, so we started the day bright and early. We wanted to get to Bell 2 Lodge, and that was our original plan, but when I called this morning, their cheapest room was $230--with taxes and extra fees for pets. So instead, we decided to go as far as we could and see what happens.

We saw some more swans (they're funny to watch in the water) and while driving, Klay almost murdered a squirrel running across the road and a bird who just stood in the middle of the highway like he was committing suicide. But thankfully, we all came out alive.

That was about as exciting as the wildlife got for us--besides Klay seeing a wild ferret. But we finally made it to Cassiar Hwy and it was a beautiful drive. It was pretty warm out, sunny and snowing--a combination I've never seen before. It was beautiful.

We had our first "gas scare" today. When we left Whitehorse, we filled up our tank (like $84) and headed toward Cassiar. The first gas stations on the Cassiar were closed and by that point we had maybe a half tank left. Then, a sign said "Check Gas. Next Gas 100 km" (they go by kilometers), so we planned to stop there. Little did we know, that Good Hope Lake (the town 100 km away that's supposed to have gas) doesn't sell gas until May 1! Klay and I at that point started to get concerned. We had a 2 gallon gas can (which was full), and were running on empty in the car. The extra 2 gallons we had would get us to Dease Lake, the next closest town (that's also supposed to have gas), but if they were closed, we were screwed. Luckily, Dease Lake was open and running (what they call a "gas bar" aka gas station was also a grocery store for the small town).

It was about 4:30 p.m. when we got through Dease Lake, so we decided to keep on trucking forward. We passed Bell 2 Lodge, actually we stopped and got gas there, and it was a beautiful place! I wanted to stay, but I still wanted to see how far we could get.

After another 4 hours in the car, we had our first 'night drive' which was scary--at least it was for me. It made me nervous and took way longer to get to Smithers than planned.

After 14 hrs and crossing one lane bridges over rivers at dusk, it was time to find a hotel and get some sleep.

So here we are...at Hudson Bay Lodge in Smithers, BC and I'm on the computer blogging! This is probably my only means of communication for a while--other than Facebook. I know my Mom will want to know what's happening. So, Mom--we're ok. The dogs are great, Stretch found new spots to lay at in the car (see pictures). It's beautiful here. Love you!

I need to go to sleep, if we're trying to get to Vancouver tomorrow. We'll see how that goes!

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