Category: Seattle

The great American adventure: Day 11, 12 and 13

Mittens and Sunglasses

Thursday morning we headed north, to give Canada a visit. On our way up we had a stop at a café north in Seattle called the Jewel Box, where we met up with a friend of mine, whom I hadn’t seen since she was living in Norway over ten years ago. It was very good to see her again!

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After that we continued towards our goal. The passing of the boarder up to Canada went smoothly, I even got a “Welcome to Canada!” from the guy who had a look at our IDs (and so my passport).

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We woke up to rain Friday morning, but that didn’t stop us. Right after breakfast we headed to the centre of Vancouver, and I got to visit the central library there. It was a huge building, and quite lovely. From above it actually looks a bit like spiral, from what I’ve seen on photos.

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After walking around at the library for a while, we set out to Granville Island. This is an artificial island, and has a lot of places to eat and small, fun shops. We spent quite a bit of time there, though most of it went to lunch, as we had to wait for our food for ages.

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After our visit to Granville Island, it was time to leave the city centre, and we traveled by something they call the sea bus, a sort of ferry that takes you from downtown Vancouver to the northern part of the city.

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Today we got early to visit the Lynn Canyon before heading back to Washington. The Lynn Canion was beautiful, and it’s woods and waterfall and just in general good smelling nature. Something different from most of what I’ve seen since I came over to Northern America.

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Driving back to Washington (state) took some hours, including a detour (due to a collapsed bridge) and having both lunch and a leg stretch or two. When we got back, I went for a walk, and it was a very sunny and warm day.

The great American adventure: Day 10

Mittens and Sunglasses

Today I went to Seattle. I got in touch with a bookcrosser there yesterday, and after mailing back and forth, we ended up with her picking me up here in Spanaway. It was fun to meet a new, and very friendly, person!

Our first stop was the Seattle Central Public Library. It was a huge library, with 10 floors! OK, so not all were open for the public, but it was a huge library. Lots of open space too, and it was just wonderful. Some floors were quite colourful, and it felt a bit like as we were in some sort of book ourselves!

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After the library, we headed to the Nordic Heritage Museum in Ballard. This was a very good museum, and I found it to be fun and interesting. It has three floors, and the first told about the Nordic immigrants and how they arrived in the US. It was called “The American Dream”. The gift shop and a bit more could be found on the second floor, while there were rooms dedicated to the Nordic countries on the third floor: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland had all their own rooms.

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When we had explored the museum, my new friend had to pick up her daughter at school. So we did that, and then headed back to my friend’s house. Her daughter was eager to show me their scrapbooks, which was fun. As the family is Jewish, the scrapbook, of course, holds photos from Jewish holidays and shows Jewish tradition. This is something I don’t know a whole lot about, so I certainly learned a few new things.

My new friend also made sure to take me to one of the Little Free Libraries in Seattle, which was very cute! It’s very much in the bookcrossing spirit, and it was fun to see.

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Then it was time for me to back to Spanaway, and I managed to find the right bus, and arrive safely in Tacoma. I made us some dinner when I got back, and it was nice to have a home cooked dinner.