Day 55 - We're leaving the USA!

Today was bound to be a full day as we planned to explore Seattle AND leave the country.  The good news is that the boys woke up early so we were off to a good start.  We enjoyed the free breakfast at the hotel and then packed up and headed out, leaving Dover to wait at the hotel while we went downtown.  (Wouldn’t it be horrible if Dover is internally a city camper and we’re continuously depriving it of city experiences?! - Ha!)

The drive downtown had traffic, but we were commuting with rush hour so that was expected.  Overall, it wasn’t too bad and pretty soon we were parked near the market. 





With the recommendation from Garrett, we stopped to get a second breakfast at Piroshky Piroshky.  It was amazing and we quickly thanked Garrett for the recommendation.




Nearly next door to Piroshky Piroshky was the Starbucks.  The line was RIDICULOUS so we did not want to get something there. 



But at least we can say that we saw it.  From there, we wandered around the market, making sure to stop by the fish area to see some items being tossed around.  In truth, this is probably a bit overrated, but I felt I had to do the tourist thing and see it.  


We continued to wander around and ran into a giant ship that was driving down the road.  The pirates on board flung a couple of coins at Robinson and Sebastian so that was a cool souvenir.  We also stopped at the Purple Store where everything inside is purple.  The boys really liked this idea so they spent a fair bit of time wandering around inside. 



The final store we found was called “Sloth vs Robot”.  Robinson was nearly in heaven with all the sloth paraphernalia.  But ultimately, it was all expensive so we didn’t get anything.


Once we were done with the market, we walked down to the Science Museum.  It turned out this was right next to the Space Needle.  That was really cool to see, though I admit, I thought it was much bigger




The science museum was a hit!  The boys really enjoyed themselves - some of the highlights included

  • Laser Show - free with admission

  • A great outdoor water play area including a hamster wheel that held humans and helped move water around




  • There was also a creator zone that included many Legos that went around on a conveyor belt so you could pick what pieces you wanted as they went by 



  • A sound zone where you could do many different activities with sound



After finishing the museum, we started north, collected Dover and headed for Canada!  What we found was TRAFFIC!  I’ve complained about traffic before, but this time it added 90+ minutes to our trip.  It was ROUGH.  Eventually though, we got to meet the friendly (do I even have to say this) Canadian border patrolman.  We declared what we had in the car and while he wasn’t thrilled to hear that we had a few apples (and only ONE beer), he let us through on the promise that we dispose of the apple cores in the garbage and not in an orchard.  Deal!  And just like that we were in a new country!




The boys were excited for the new country.  It was nearly the same, but suddenly the metric system showed up.  So we learned the conversions between miles and kilometers so they could estimate how far we had to drive.  We also found out the small differences as we stopped at Walmart for some groceries.  It was nearly the same, but there were ketchup chips and HUGE sections for pierogies and Dim Sum.  Canada - you’re winning so far.


After Walmart, we headed north through Vancouver and up to our camp in Porteau Cove.  The whole drive was so scenic with the city and the ocean merging almost naturally.  But as we got further north away from the city, nature dominated and it was amazing.


We arrived pretty late to camp, but there was a host to check us in.  He was another friendly ranger and gave us directions, but also advised us about the raccoons.  He said that we really needed to keep our food secured or they would be there.


Because we were so late, we had gone with some microwave dinners for everybody.  We were unpacking and microwaving when the raccoons came to camp!  Whoa - they really are aggressive.  We finished dinner and started to get ready for bed.  Camp there was pretty loud though - rowdy kids with late bedtimes!  But we eventually managed to fall asleep.


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