A metric interlude, eh

A reasonable flight had us swapping the dry desert heat of LV, for the cooler North West. Lumberjack country. And bears....
We landed in Seattle and got a taxi to our hotel; right on the lakefront (Lake Washington), in an up-market suburb. By far the flashest place we had stayed in so far.

View of marina from our hotel room

We needed a rest, so stayed for a couple of days, just sight-seeing.

One of the many local breweries...

A Seattle landmark

The hotel complex had a marina, access to a gym (which we used) and a Starbucks on the corner! (since they make the only coffee in the US that I found came anywhere near close to Kiwi coffee, I have been planning our trips around Starbucks and their Cappucino's the whole time....).
If you don't know it, Starbucks actually started in Seattle. Their first store is a tourist attraction, with long lines of punters trying to get in. I hate queueing, so settled for a photo from outside on the street.

The original Starbucks in Seattle.

Margarita by the lake.....ahhhh, holidays....

We picked up a rental car in Seattle and made like a draft dodger in the 60's...heading north to Canada.

The border between imperial and metric...complete with two Mounties on the right.

The signs above the road are bi-lingual signs, even though we were heading into BRITISH Columbia??

 
This would be my second time in British Columbia, and Carmen's first. I was here 8 years ago hunting, so it was good to be back in the land of big mountains. We stayed a night in Vancouver - at the Uni of BC Vancouver, in fact; a very nice, new student flat (helps pay the bills while all the scarfies are on holiday, I s'pose).
Canada is obviously metric, but still drives on the right-hand-side, in left-hand-drive cars....so we had to use the little dial on the speedo (the one marked km/h), not the big one (marked mp/h), to avoid any unwanted attention by Mr Plod.
Next day we headed further north, driving up the coast and inland, past Whistler (a ski-resort town not unlike Queenstown, without the lake), and overnighted in a tiny Indian town called Lillooet. Typical of most small towns in the mountains - closed down shops, one petrol station, 3 pubs and 6 hotels. Our hotel was small, old, but clean and cheap.
After our low-end escape, we got on the road again, this time headed for Prince George - BC's second biggest city and a real hub about half-way up the province.

One of the many signs warning of this and that...

And, another..

The mission was to show Carmen the real BC, and also to meet up with my mate, Ken, who guided me 8 years ago. We over-nighted in the same hotel I stayed in back then - complete with attached Denny's!
We caught up with Ken over a nice dinner and great chat, and then he drove 2 hours back home & we retired to our hotel next door.

Ken the guide and some random bloke in Prince George.

The next day we made the long haul (8.5 hrs) back to Vancouver.

Scenery on the way back to Vancouver. Not unlike Central Otago, eh?

This train was about 1km long...

Interior of V.I. Mountains and trees..

But we weren't done yet - we added another mode of transport to our "planes, trains and automobiles" marathon - a ferry!
Specifically, a ferry to Vancouver Island. (V.I. is a large island just off Vancouver, and is around 12,000 square miles in size - that's almost as large as Canterbury at 17,000 sq mi. So it's quite big, eh)
A couple of ex-pat Kiwi's I also met 8 years ago had offered to put us up for a few days, so we jumped at the chance. I  was really looking forward to catching up with them. Long story short, we had an awesome stay of 4 days, going for a hike in the hills with a local hiking club; driving to some awesome beaches, lakes etc, and generally just chilling out with an awesome couple of down-to-earth and wet-your-pants-funny Kiwi's. We didn't really want to leave, but had to complete the mission.

A water taxi in Victoria (capital of BC, but on V.I.). Don't they look like a toy?

Another hike, another location. Happy.

Love the rocky coastlines, we do...

Oh, and lighthouses....

On a beach in Victoria, looking South to the mainland. Pretty eh?

 It was time to convert back to imperial and use the big dial on the speedo again.