Holiday to the Pacific West Coast in Aug 2006: Day 4 – Vancouver to Seattle

A better night’s sleep was had by all – we are slowly dealing with the jet lag. This morning we grabbed an early breakfast and then were on the road by 6:20am, missing most of the rush hour traffic, headed for the border and then on to Seattle.

We thought about taking the train but Amtrak only run one train per day and this is in the evening which doesn’t fit in very well with our schedule. The other Amtrak trips are by bus, and we didn’t want the hassle.

We reached the border in about 45 mins, and waited in the very small queue of cars. It was exactly the same as at the airport – everyone queues up behind a line and when it’s your go you move to the passport control booth where you try to engage the official with some amusing story.

We read all the signs. One of them highlighted the importance of declaring any fruit and vegetables you intend to bring into the US. Another indicated that you also needed to declare any drugs you had on your person.

When it was our go we drove up to the booth and wound down the window – the custom officer didn’t seem too interested in the bananas in our car, and on that basis we didn’t bother him with the Anadin we had in one of our bags!

But there was obviously something since he told us to park up and he sent us into an office for questioning. Anyway we managed to blag our way through the interrogation and within 15 mins we were back on our way.

We hit the I5 and with about 40 miles to Seattle we stopped off for a coffee and a bun. Another Starbucks I’m sorry to have to say.

The view of Seattle as you arrive driving South on the interstate is amazing. This was another clear, blue day and as we drove closer to the city we saw the water that surrounds most of the city twinkling in the sunshine.

We arrived in Seattle by about 10:30am, and luckily our room was already prepared for us. So we dumped everything and off we went to “do” Seattle.

First stop was the Space Needle which looks similar to the CN Tower. Nice views and it was very clear so there was lots to see.

There’s a monorail linking the Seattle Centre with Seattle Downtown, but unfortunately this wasn’t working, so we jumped on the bus.

We found a good collection of shops – Vick had a browse around Nordstrom in the afternoon. We searched out Pike Market which was an interesting array of tiny, independent shops selling all sorts of weird things (a bit hippy-ish, even) and the first ever Starbucks coffee shop (which obviously we had to take a photo of).

To be fair we didn’t find that much of interest in Seattle, so glad we are only stopping overnight!

Follow the whole story here: Holiday to Pacific West Coast in Aug 2006