3.06.2012 – 3.06.2012  23 °C

We got going pretty early this morning as we had a full day of travelling ahead of us so that we could make it to Seattle to enable us to catch an early flight out for the East Coast! This therefore, is the last post for the West Coast part of the Ultimate US Road Trip!

Ok so we got going early, and got going that early that we needed to kill a bit of time before our ferry would be ready to leave!!! We decided to spend our time wandering the foreshore of Victoria harbour. It was really pleasant just walking along the shore of the harbour, which today is filled with small water craft and one huge ferry that heads over to Port Angeles in Washington State. The sun is shining there isn’t any wind and its nice and warm!! What a way to start the day?? We also went for a walk into the famous Fairmont Empress Hotel which is this gorgeous old hotel situated right on the harbour.. it’s overgrown with ivy and just looks like an old school five star hotel! The interior is as grandiose as the outside!!

By the time we’d had a good wander around the foreshore we had to head back, hop in the car and get ourselves up to Sidney and the ferry terminal. We had to arrive at the terminal early because everyone has to go thru immigration before boarding the ferry. We therefore had a lengthy wait before we could get on board.

The trip from Sidney to Anacortes, Washington was really peaceful. After we had all boarded we just settled in for a good three hours of sitting on board the ferry. We spent the hours wandering out to the back of the deck to look for orcas (no luck) or out the front to marvel at the many small islands that are dotted between Vancouver Island and Anacortes. The ferry did make a pit stop at Friday Harbour which is this really cool looking seaside town. If we had’ve known more about the town we probably would have tried and called in for the evening.. from the ferry looks like it would be worth another visit!

After arriving in Anacortes we sat and waited in a customs line for well over an hour (so long in fact, that the ferry had well and truly departed back for Canada before we had got thru customs!!). It was so long that although we were one of the first ones off the boat we were the last car that got thru the customs point!! What happened is that the ferry had us line up in 3 lines of cars waiting for customs operators. One lane wasn’t even manned, so those people got stuck waiting and not moving (until right near the end they worked out what was going on and moved into the middle lane). The middle lane was on cruise mode! Everyone got a cursory glance in the passport and a quick “any food items in your car” and waved thru. Every car in our line was fully inspected, boot opened, back seat checked etc etc.. Holy Smokes it was totally ridiculous!!! We were all super frustrated by the time we finally got waved thru the middle lane… SOOO annoying!

Our last part of the day was driving from Anacortes down to Seatlle (which fortunately is only just over an hour). We had driven the road earlier in our trip so it felt like coming back home!! On our arrival into Seattle we headed straight down town to see the Pike St Market (predominantly seafood mkt). I had studied the Pike St Mkt when I was working at Arnotts. It is world famous for a book that was written by the owner (John Christensen) of the mkt called Fish! Philosophies.. Its all about the turn around of the mkt from a down and out place where no-one wanted to work or shop into one of the biggest tourist attractions in Seattle. All of this was done by encouraging the staff working in the mkt to just have fun! They were encouraged to start throwing around the huge tuna and salmon and have fun whilst they worked!! And the philosophy has worked and earned JC PLENTY of dough!! People come from all around the world to see the staff thru the huge fishies in the air and catch them!

Unfortunately, we were too late to see them do their stuff but we did grab some seafood at a local restaraunt. It was just lovely to sit out in the sunshine and enjoy great food and wine.. What a day to end our trip on the West Coast??

All in all, the West Coast part of our Ultimate US Road Trip totalled just over 9,000 miles!!!! Imagine, what the mile count is going to be by the end?? Of course, the story is going to continue over on the East Coast so join me in Chapter 9: Pilgrims and Plantations; the Eastern Escapade!

Song of the Day– The Beatles, I’ll be back