Category Archives: Honeymoon

Honeymoon Day 15

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Day 15
August 15th, 2004
Seattle, WA to San Jose, CA

She Says

Woke up early to pack our things & say goodbye to a life supplied with maid service.

It took a while, but we did eventually find our way down the Seattle streets to find Pike Place Public Market. It looked like a farmer’s market/street faire.

We would have liked to have stopped, but we couldn’t find parking anywhere. When we did find parking, it was so far away that we wouldn’t have had time to park, walk the market, & walk back without missing our flight.

So, now we’ll have something to do when we come back.

I’d really like to come back to Seattle sometime & finish the city, take a ferry to Victoria, see more there, & then ferry back again to Seattle. Next time we’ll just leave the car in the US & spare ourselves the wait & vehicle ferry fees!

Driving south to SeaTac Airport, Bryan kept asking me to try to get pictures of the Qwest Ballpark…

The wait at the airport wasn’t too bad. At least we found the rental car return in a timely fashion & were able to get to our flight without having to run for it!!!

Bryan’s folks were nice enough to pick us up and we got home where my mother was there to meet us with open arms & a condo that she cleaned for us & the chance to open all our presents!!!

He Says

Got up early in the hopes that we would be able to check out Pikes Place Market for at least a little while before we had to speed off to the airport. But, unfortunately, by the time we navigated our way down too Pikes Place (we stupidly left the map in the trunk), we did not have enough time to park and check it out. Not that there was anywhere to park anyway. So we headed off to the airport.

Airport and flight were uneventful.

My parents picked us up from the airport and took us home. Kryis’s mother had cleaned up some of the mess we had left in the mad scramble the few days before our wedding. There were a slough of feral cats and kitties waiting for us when we got home. All eager for some food, no doubt. And a plethora of unopened presents just begging to be relieved of their confining wrapping.

Honeymoon Day 14

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Day 14
August 14th, 2004
Seattle, Washington

She Says

Lazy Saturday morning… We spent so much time rushing about yesterday, it was nice to rest a bit.

When downloading pics from the digi-cam to the computer, I plugged in the camera, which jammed up the whole thing. We did eventually get it all straightened out.

Breakfast was at this nifty little coffee shop at the bottom of the Westin. They make German pancakes…yum.

We managed to find my cousin Jasun and Tanya’s (his wife of 1 year come this September!) place without problem, but parking is a bit of an issue. Glad we managed to not get the rental car towed!

Off we headed for the Underground Tour, but parking was an issue there as well. We found a place that was $3 for 2 hrs and went to join the tour. Unfortunately the 1pm tour was booked and we had to take the 2pm. We wandered the local galleries (art, glass and Japanese prints. The glass one was playing “Lovecats” by The Cure.) and street faire in the mean time. I managed to not buy anything, but the velvet shirts were tempting. Back to the car meter to insert more $

The underground tour is part comedy act/part historical(hysterical) fact.

Apparently the seattl-ites don’t think much of the Tacoma folk. Something to do with the train being built to go to Tacoma and then when Tacoma making up the map, they left Seattle off the map.

Seattle seems, per the tour version, to be a comedy of errors. Building a town in an area where the tide comes in, so they had to build the town on wooded planks above the water level. Later, the “crapper” was invented and the wood pipe that came down from the cliffs would flow into the bay (and south to Tacoma) but at high tide, the lower cities toilets would spout about 6′ high of refuse.

Later the city suffered a great fire. It was rebuilt, but the city streets were made 12′ – 34′ higher than the sidewalks. (With ladders at intersections). The business owners later put doors on the new street levels, but the underground exists to this day. The purple glass in the sidewalk acts as a skylight to some underground sections. Nifty, eh? Our tour guide, Eric, was very informative, but cracked really bad puns the whole way through. Which I suspect is part of the routine and it kept the tour from being a dry boring history lecture. See book: Sons of the Profit.
After, we needed to get back to the car before the meter ran out.

The Blue Bistro. Since Jasun and Tanya are vegetarians and Bryan has a touchy stomach, it took a while to some to a conclusion. The Blue Bistro filled all the requirements. Dimly lit and eclectic, a large menu (and larger liquor menu) lots of bamboo and private little nooked tables under stairways and wherever. It was neat. It had character.

The Onasiss Pasta was wonderful. Portabello mushroom marinated for 2 days and served on pasta w/ tomatoes, roasted garlic and herbs… Bryan got the wrong meal (tomatoes, olives, garlic, and feta on pasta, instead of a Chicken dish) delivered to him, so they boxed up the error and let us take it with us. They also gave us a pass for a free drink some other night. I think this was good karma for Jasun and Tanya for buying us dinner, they get a better value this way! (They also bought our tour passes, ironic, since Bryan and I had talked about buying them passes to the Music Experience, but we wouldn’t have had enough time to go through the whole museum. )

We wandered by the space needle and music museum. There was a really neat fountain in the park that kids would run and play in. Around the corner was a carnival.
I heard around the corner the strains of “Poor Bela…Bela’s dead) I kept walking and burst out laughing. There’s a carnival ride the is on a coaster track that just goes faster and faster in a circle that is playing a Bauhaus song…and 2 “homie” looking kids are there running the ride. It was hilarious. They probably had no clue what music as playing…the song was probably older than them. Bryan recorded a bit of it for posterity.

Since the sun would start setting soon, we went to a park off of Queen Anne and got a really great view of the city and its skyline. Mostly we just sat and chatted away until the sun was almost all the way down and the city lights came on. A few more pics and we left. And found another great picture spot.

The street lamp was fizzling a bit, but when Jasun touched it, it completely died out. The after a moment, Bryan touched it and it came on again…until Jasun touched it again. Also, on the inside of the frosted globe was a spider, we could see its shadow crawling on the inside.

By Aurora (st?) there is a troll under a bridge. It has an old VW bug in one hand. Most cities put up statues of dead politicians. This one put a troll under the bridge. Cool.

After all this 10pm rolled around and it came time to part ways. We have to wake up early to pack up, see the fish market, and get to the airport so we can return the rental car, check in and get through security before the plane leaves!

Its sad. Our honeymoon is almost over. (and getting time off from work is like getting blood from a stone lately, so I know its going to be a while until the next Great Adventure. )

On the upside, I get to visit my mom, see our pets, have double-family get together and finally open our wedding gifts!!!

He Says

We did not rush out of bed when we woke up in the morning. It was nice to be a little more relaxed in the morning for a change.

Met up with Kryis’s cousin Jasun and his wife Tanya at their apartment in the Capital Hill area of Seattle… not really too far from where we were staying.

Headed down to where the Underground Tour sets off from. It was a little difficult to find parking, but we eventually did. Walked over to the underground tour and found out that the 1:00 tour was already full so Tanya and Jasun bought us all thickets for the 2:00–which was very nice of them. We wandered around for a while checking out art galleries and stores in the area before wandering back to the car to put more money in the meter.

Go to the underground tour, and it was very interesting AND entertaining. I enjoyed the history lesson that was presented in a very humorous way. Even Kryis was entertained by it, and its HISTORY!! Wandered through the underground and heard more of the stories. Still good. I recommend the Seattle Underground tour to anyone. I wished there were surviving pictures of when the street level and the shop level were 20 feet different.

Finish the underground tour and head back to the car. We were all hungry so we started talking about where we were going to eat. Jasun and Tanya are both vegetarian (and Tanya is a full blown Vegan), and I am fairly picky, so it was not an easy decision.

Finally we decided to go to this place called the “Blue Bistro.” And it was fairly scary. Very mish-mash, throw-a-table-where-ever-you-can-cram-people-in-a-booth-under-the-stairs. Not what I would exactly call my favorite place to try to eat.

When I first picked up the menu, it had nothing but alcoholic drinks in it, which was the furthest thing from my mind in terms of ordering, especially considering of the four of us, I was the only one who could drive. Found out there was supposed to be food in the menu, so Iooked on with Kryis in another menu. Slim pickins for what I would be interested in. Most of the items on the menu had ingredients in them that I am either unfamiliar with, disturbed by, or do not like the taste of. I finally found something that I liked, but when the food came, it was the wrong dish. I had to wait a little longer for my food, which was okay. Tanya and Jasun paid for this as well. Which started to make me feel bad. I felt Kryis and I should treat them to something, so we decided, if we could, we would pay for them to come to the Music Experience with us. Afterwards we headed to the park near the space needle and the Music Experience.

Unfortunately, by the time that we got there, there was not enough time to go through the Music Experience. We wandered around the park for a while, until we had seem most of everything.

Next we headed to a park on Queen Anne hill and saw a great view of the Seattle skyline. There was a wedding party taking pictures at the park. We sat on a park bench there for a little while until the sun had set and then got back in the car. We drove around the neighborhood some more, and found another neat overlook. We stopped there and checked it out. Took a few more pictures and headed out again. Jasun and Tanya mentioned that there was a statue of a troll under a bridge, so we went to check it out.

It was cool, but there was an annoying kid climbing all over it making it difficult to take a picture of it. Afterwards we decided it was late. Kryis and my honeymoon was ending the next day, and we had still hoped to get up early enough to check out Pike’s Place Market before we had to head to the airport.

More information on the Seattle Underground tour can be found here.

Honeymoon Day 13

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Day 13
August 13th, 2004
Victoria, BC, Canada to Seattle, WA

She Says

Woke up early so we can get breakfast this time and drop the car off at the ferry so we can be certain to get a space on the 3pm to Port Angeles. Tired…food should help.

Sitting up in Vista 18 for breakfast looking out I come to the conclusion that Victoria is what you get when you mix the brighter points of SF and Monterey, then throw in some castles. Some tall buildings, but fairly flat. Has a Pier 39 feel to the street life, but more Monterey bay relaxed attitude. Not too Steinbeck, not too city. I’d like to come back sometime.

They weren’t kidding about the getting to the ferry early. The 10:30am just left and we got in line at 10:45 as a stand-by!!! But we’re first in the stand by line, so we have a 99% chance of boarding the 3pm…good odds, but still… There are already people parked for the 7:30pm ferry!!! (Apparently Fridays are very busy as per girl at ticket desk.)

Wandered through Thunderbird park, the Fairmont Empress hotel lobby, and more of the shops by Yates and Douglas. Doubled back to see the Dragon Boat Festival tents start to open up at the inner harbor. Dropped by the Gatsby mansion, but since its a B&B, we didn’t go in. Also didn’t have a chance to go to:
Parliament
Under sea gardens
Hatley mansion
Royal BC museum
Helmken house
Emily Carr house
Bastion square
Bent mast pub- supposedly haunted
and 4 other Ghostly Walks

But hey, we get a good view of the ferry building since we have to be in our car by 1:30pm for customs check. Then we get to load up, hopefully at 3pm! I think the ferry folks should invest in a shade tent.

Thousands upon thousands of my skin cells have revolted and declared war and will not be appeased until freckles are formed. Great.

Finally, on the ferry. It seemed like there was no way possible that so many cars could have fit on the boat, but we made it, as well as about 12+ others…

Pulling away from Victoria was sad. It was saying like goodbye to ignorance of the world. A reminder that we only have 2 more nights to our honeymoon…

Oddly, the ferry, The Coho, announced that there were orcas in the nearby waters and we actually veered off course, as per 1 regular, to see them.

While trying to park to get gas at Port Angeles, a car with Oregon plates was just sitting in the middle of one of the entry ways. Bryan asked ” why are they just sitting there?” I said:” because they’re waiting for someone to come out and pump their gas. ”

Just a little bit away from Kingston is the Norwegian village. Too bad we don’t have time to stop.

It took until 5pm to get out of Port Angeles and another 2 hrs to get to Kingston. We made it in time to catch the 7:15 ferry to Edmonds, but the ferry is running a little late.

I’m just glad that it won’t be another case of waiting in a parked car for 2 hours. This trip is only 30 min, and it should be about another 30 or so on Hwy 5. Maybe we will get to eat dinner before 9pm???

He Says

Got up early and had breakfast in the Chateau Victoria’s restaurant. It was nice. And an even better view than in our room that is only 10 floors further down or so.

Went to drop off our car for the 3:00 PM ferry and were only first in the stand by line. Fairly likely that we are going to be able to get on the ferry.

We got out of the car and started to explore the area around the ferry dock. Saw and awesome condominium complex that was right on the water, the unit on the top floor looks awesome. I wish I could live there. We got a closer view of the Parliament Building and Thunderbird Park and then on to the Empress Hotel.

Wandered through the lobby and checked out the area where John Adams had told us a ghost story about the evening before. Wandered through the attached conference center and then on to some shops.

Went to a shop that specializes in Bear paraphernalia and bought a present for my mother.

Started heading back towards the ferry. A lot more walking today even though everything is close, our car was holding our place in the ferry line.

Checked out the Gatsby House B&B and had some ice cream at a nearby ice cream shop. They did something I have never seen before. They put a jelly bean in the bottom of the sugar cone so that the melting ice cream would not leak out the bottom. Interesting.

Got back to the ferry and waited for the ferry and watched all the cars that were there even earlier than us go by, and go by, and go by. I was starting to worry that we were not going to get on this one, but we did.

When we were just starting the crossing, the captain announced that there were Orcas in the water, and actually turned the ferry to get closer to them.

The rest of the trip to Seattle was fairly uneventful, but we did not get there until late. Had a little trouble finding the Westin. Parked and waited longer than we should have at the front desk to check in. When we finally got into our room, it was very nice. Not a suite, but still a nice room.

Kryis called her cousin, Jasun, to see if we could hook up tomorrow. We watched some TV and went to bed.

Honeymoon Day 12

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Day 12:
August 12th, 2004
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

She Says

Woke up too late for breakfast so we headed out for Bouchardt Gardens. Very large and very lovely. The gardens would be quite peaceful if they weren’t so crowed. Its a Thursday and the place was packed.

It makes the whole relaxing stroll through a wondrous garden into a push shove, wait for someone to take their picture, and then have people who speak another language just Stop in front of you and block the walkway as you try to progress in a carefree stroll through these historic gardens…

Unfortunately the Dining Room (in the Bouchardt home) was closed for a private party when we first got there and we had to wait until 1:30 before we could sit and eat, so we went to the Italian and Japanese gardens and gift shop. We rushed through the rose gardens, but there were so many people, it was hard to move anywhere quickly.

The gift shop had lots of odd maple sweets. We bought sugar candies, lollipops, cookies and maple butter.

High tea was neat. Little finger sandwiches, quiche, Cornish pasties, scones, tart, cookies, chocolates and Teaberry tea. Bryan had water and chicken breast with hoisin sauce

After, we left Bouchardt and went to the butterfly gardens. Ok, so I took lots of pictures and used a lot of the camera battery, but the butterflies wouldn’t sit still and pose properly. There’s a lovely waterfall and “river” that runs through it for the koi to swin in. Koi are always nice to watch.

Very peaceful. The whole place could have been a wonderful zen if, again, it wasn’t so crowded, but I did get to see lots of other pretty flutterbys.(Not as tattered as the ones at the Crystal Conservatory) I found a few stuck to a t-shirt, so I bought that for my mother.

Next stop: Craigdarroch Castle Its not wide, but it is 5 floors tall. Owned by the Dunsmuir family. Lovely wood paneling and stained glass. I got a book on Victoria’s Castles and candies and postcards. Too bad we ran out of space on the camera’s memory stick. Would have liked more photos.

I also wish we had more time so we could go to Hatley Castle…

For some reason blackberry has registered my handheld 4x today??? Go fig.

7:30: haunted tours. Ghostly Walks by John Adams. Man has real personality and a sense of show. For his stories see other notes. Bought his book “ghosts and legends of Bastion Square” from him. Talked about places Bryan and I have stayed at along our trip. I gave him the flyer from my purse on Winchester Mystery House. (He hadn’t been there yet)

Back to the room, eyes burned by mild winds and heat, legs sore.

He Says

Got started late, and we had a lot to do so we hurried and drove to Bouchardt Gardens with the hopes of being able to eat there. Got there, parked and went inside looking for someplace to eat.

Kryis did not want to eat at their cafe type restaurant, she wanted the fancier one, but when we went there, even though the hours said it was supposed to be open, there was a sign on the door that said “closed.”

We wandered around a little hoping to kill some time so that when we went back to the restaurant it would be open and we would be able to eat.

We go back and are told that the only opening is in a few hours… How could they go from being closed to being booked for the next few hours in only about 30 minutes? Apparently, the first time that we got there they had had a big party taking up a lot of the restaurant and put the closed sign out.

By the time we got back they had taken down the sign and started taking reservations for later. So, as hungry as I was I needed something to eat to tide me over. We went to the Coffee Shop and I had something to drink and a Rice Crispie Treat. We checked out the gardens while we waited.

They were beautiful. It is amazing that this place used to be a rock quarry. I think I liked the Japanese Garden the best out of all of them. The biggest problem was how crowded it was. The number of people and the noise that came with them detracted from the serenity and beauty of the gardens. Oh well, got to pay for their upkeep somehow.

Afterwards we went to the Butterfly Gardens that is just a little ways down the street. There were a great many different types of butterflies and some tropical birds and koi as well. It was pretty.

It was not as big as I had imagined based on the descriptions I was given from other people I know that had been here before… but it was still very cool. Kryis took a lot of pictures both here and at Bouchardt. It was a good thing we had all of our memory sticks empty at the start of the day.

Afterwards we went to Craigdarroch Castle. It was very nice, but we were running out of space on our memory sticks. I conservatively took pictures of the house. Rationing them out as best I could so that I could get pictures of most of the cool rooms in the house.

I enjoyed reading the history of the family and their rise and fall from fortune in the room that told the story of the house and of the family. I spent a while in there while Kryis went and wandered off somewhere as I continued to read. After we explored the house, we dawdled in the gift shop for a while.

We headed back to the hotel to vacate some space on our memory cards for the night. We went on a “Ghostly Walk” with John Adams. A local haunted story expect. He had a very good presence and delivery as we walked around downtown Victoria. He pointed out different places where ghosts are said to inhabit and stories of how and why they were there. It was very good. But being so late, we did not really take many pictures. ShruG.

After a long day, it was nice to get back to the room and collapse. Had to be prepared for the next day when we were going to be waiting for the ferry.

 

More information on Ghostly Walks with John Adams can be found here.

Honeymoon Day 11

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Day 11
August 11th, 2004
Vancouver, BC to Victoria, BC

She Says

Woke up in the Opus and decided I really like the comforter and duvet. It was like sleeping in marshmallow creme! Its nice and fluffy inside, but the outside fabric has a nicely textured rayon/poly like feel. The only problem? Its white! I don’t know what is the filling to the pillows but they were very comfortable. Not too hard, not too soft. It doesn’t feel like down or feathers, but after dismantling the layers of pillow cases, I found a contour feather sticking out.

Breakfast at Elixir, the Opus’ restaurant. fluffy pancakes with caramelized peaches and vanilla whipped butter. The hot chocolate was overflowing with whipped cream. It looked much like a volcano in a huge white coffee cup.

The people in Canada have all been very friendly and helpful. Our waiter at the Marriott, the waitresses at Elixir, and the Opus staff…

We drove about Vancouver. The Chinese gardens were not very interesting, and china town was small compared to SF. Stanley Park was impressive. We drove thru wishing we had had more time to get out and hit the trails. Lots and lots of big trees to see and museums and such as well. (Imagine Golden Gate Park with less meadows and more trees.)

After, we drove east to find Playland, the nearest amusement park. Small and county fair-ish, but the way there took us through a very…interesting part of town. So this is where they put the crack dealers and prostitutes…

Running low on time, we went off to hunt ferries. We managed to catch one. I took a picture. Whilst waiting in line, I watched a raven chasing a seagull, it was funny.

The view from the ferry is beautiful. After about 40 minutes of open ocean, we get another 45 minute mini tour of the islands on the way to Schwartz Bay on Vancouver island.

Remind me that I need to tell people that we are honeymooning every time Bryan and I go on vacation!!!

We got upgraded to a suite here as well!!! No extra charge, just regular room rates and we are on the 14th (13th) floor with a spectacular view.
The kitchen is ok, a living space is nice, but the View…WOW!

They even left a note on the dresser to congratulate us on our marriage and little boxes of chocolate!

All because when I booked the rooms, I told them it was our honeymoon!!!

So Bryan and I broke out a bottle of Jones Green Apple Soda, 2 wine glasses and the chocolates and we toasted to our honeymoon…

Only being about 6pm, we hit the nearby streets. I find it interesting that a lot of signs are in English and Japanese. French I could see, but apparently there is a large Asian culture here according to travel guides.

The Crystal Conservatory has bats!!! Indian fruit bats. Also in the nocturnal section: Short tailed leaf nosed, Egyptian and Jamaican fruit bats. They’re all so cute…

Miniature world was interesting if you realize how much work must have gone into all the models. There was a working model of a lumberyard (that they couldn’t run due to fire regulations) that had a video to show how it worked. Nifty.

The harbor area is much like SF, it has street performers and vendors. Lots of touristy places and restaurants.

Dinner was teppanyaki at Japanese Village. The plum wine was very good. Takara brand.

He Says

We had breakfast at the restaurant attached to the hotel. It was a good breakfast. After breakfast we tried to drive by some of the other attractions in the city. We went to the Chinatown and checked that out, and drove around a little more of the town.

We drove though Stanley Park but did not get to stop and walk around or explore. We knew going in that we would not have enough time to do Vancouver in one day, but we got a nice sampling for when we come pack some time

There was something about Vancouver that made me really want to play Sim City

I was really was tempted to go and check out Point Roberts… a small little peninsula not attached to the rest of Washington, only to BC that is still part of the U.S, but figured we did not really have that much time, so we just headed strait to the ferry.

The crossing was nice. Going through the San Juan Islands was beautiful.

When we got to the outskirts of Victoria I was wondering why people said that it was so beautiful, it did not look all that beautiful to me. But when we got to the more touristy part of downtown, I could definitely see why. Our hotel did not look all that impressive from the outside, and getting there was interesting due to an odd arrangement of one way streets near the hotel. But…

We were upgraded to a suite here as well, just because we were on our honeymoon. Great! Room was nice. Separate living room and even a kitchenette. It also had a great view of the Empress Hotel.

After relaxing for a little while in the room and checking out the tourist pamphlets and such we headed out to explore some of the local attractions. We went to the Crystal Conservatory and Kryis got to tell me how “cute” bats were. I think they are ugly. They might be fascinating creatures, but “cute” is definitely not a word I would use to describe them.

After that we went to Miniature World, which was interesting. The best model was the one of the sawmill that was actually functioning, but they were unable to have it running due to fire regulations. Too bad. The video of the model being operated allowed us to see what it all could do though.

We walked along the harbor and saw some of the street performers before deciding to get something to eat. We went to a Japanese restaurant and then to bed.

Honeymoon Day 10

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Day 10
August 10th, 2004
Bow, WA to Vancouver, BC Canada

She Says

Missed the breakfast at Skagit’s buffet, so we’re waiting for lunch. Bryan turned $20 into $90, so he’s down only $9.50, but I gave him a $20 to stop playing his money and let me keep the winnings. The machine won my $20. So I’m down $13.25.

Driving through customs was uneventful, which I think is fine. Our border guard acted as though we were a nuisance. He was probably the most unhappy employee I’ve seen in a while. Any weapons, how much money etc. Of course the man is sitting in a box on a hot day watching cars go by and getting a good daily dose of carbon monoxide. I suppose that can ruin anybody’s day…

The Opus is kinda hard to find, and parking is even harder to find. Had to have their valet park the car in the underground hotel garage.

Opus has 4 styles of rooms depending on the color. I chose Blue. Soothing and sophisticated, contemporary.

Red was my 2nd option. Modern and minimalist. I hear green is eclectic and funky. I think they use the term “artistic.” Yellow is “Tony” and traditional. Taupe is dramatic and daring.

Wandering Vancouver with no clue where we are going is frustrating. We did go to the library. Absolutely awesome architecture. Sadly, being tired, means poor Bryan has to deal with me being cranky and slow. Its harder for me to breathe here. I think I got spoiled in the redwoods/little cities.

We wandered thru the centre mall. It looks like someone took Vallco and Eastridge and made them into 1 mall. 1 floor underground, 1 at street level and 1 above.

Dinner at Marriott hotel’s “Showcase”. Salad and asparagus for me, steak for him. They cut the potatoes into rectangular “logs” and put 4 of them together in Lincoln log fashion as the platform to present the steak. Nice presentation… (I seem to be getting a lot of fruit and veggies on this trip. Esp. Berries and asparagus.)

Speaking of berries. Our waiter brought us a plate of chocolate covered strawberries to congratulate is on our wedding! (The waiter’s name tag said Emerson or Edmunston or such.) It was a really nice surprise. He also helped us find a few places to go check out since we are on a tight schedule. He recommended Robson St.

Apparently all the food places were on Robson St. Walking down the streets we’ve seen several pan-handlers. One just walked up and asked for a dollar. One was a clean cut looking college aged boy who was just sitting down and setting up a “homeless” sign and a cup. Clean clothes, clean, pale skin, crew cut. Go fig.
The last memorable one was a boy about 14-15 sitting and shouting out “buy me some food” as if he were at a ren faire…

Getting back, finally, to our room, the staff had come and turned down our bedding. Chocolates on the pillows and all that. But getting a card with tomorrows weather forecast(in both F and C!) was a real classy touch!

Nice tub. Its extra deep. It might be a bit longer too. And there’s actual water pressure!!!

Speaking of water. Its been nice to find that so far only the Valencia had soft water. So I suppose there’s something to be said for small hotels and B&B’s.

He Says

We got up too late for breakfast at the casino buffet, so we waited around a little while for the lunch buffet to start.

While we were waiting, I played some more video poker and was doing very well. I kept going up and up until Kryis told me I needed to stop.

Lunch buffet was okay. Nothing to write home about.

Drive up to Canada was interesting. The border guard was probably the most unhappy person on Earth as we drove through. But I suppose asking the same questions over and over again in a tin can could get boring.

Vancouver is an interesting city. Very eclectic. Seems to have European, North American, and Asian influences. Has a lot of the feel of San Fransisco as well. Some of the architecture I did not care for, but some of it was great.

The hotel was a little hard to find. No big sign or anything, but once we got there it was nice. A smaller hotel with a very modern feel. We were in a “blue” room which has a very freaky feature. The bathroom has a window in one wall, with curtains and blinds to block view of the inside from the outside… except the person not in the bathroom gets to control the blinds. Guess you can be too bashful around other people in this hotel.

I liked the room, and the hotel, although I was constantly having problems getting the card key to let me operate the elevator.

After we checked out the room for a while, we left to go get some Canadian currency and then walk around the city.

I knew of some places that I really wanted to check out based on stuff I had read in some of the tourist books from the hotel room. As we were walking, we were looking for someplace to eat… and we were not really finding any. We seemed to be going down all the streets that only had fast food or scary looking places to eat.

We eventually found our way to the Vancouver Library, which I must say is the most beautiful library I have ever seen in my life. Granted… I have not been in very many libraries.

Afterwards we continued walking around. Wound up in a “Centre” apparently the Canadian word for “Mall.” Not too terribly interesting food wise… the architecture was fairly ugly and most of the shops were the same as you get find in a mall in the bay area.

We eventually made our way to the Marriott hotel and decided that the restaurant there was acceptable (it was actually much more than than acceptable) Good food and they gave us a complimentary dessert because we were on our honeymoon. Nice.

Kryis was pretty tired and whiny by this point so we limped our way back to the Hotel and to bed.

Honeymoon Day 9

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Day 9
August 9th, 2004
Port Townsend, WA to Bow, WA

She Says

Still no signs of un-life. So ends our official tour of haunted hotels.

Of course, I hear that the Skagit Casino is built on burial grounds…

Breakfast was your typical muffins and juice continental.

The manager, Ron Myhre, was kind enough to let us look at and photograph pages from the 304 and 306 guest books. After checking out, we walked the hallways once more. Room service was kind enough to let us into rooms 302 and 304, but 306 was unavailable.

As we drove thru the neighborhood to get to the main street, we passed a deer sitting on a front lawn. I thought maybe it was a statue at first, but it moved. No meadow of woods near it. It was as if it lived there and decided to sit in the shade of the tree on the front lawn… It didn’t even get up when we pulled back around to take its picture! It was neat.

Port Townsend has a nice little downtown section, but they also have a couple really nice Victorians in that neighborhood.

We had to drive and get turned about to find Fort Worden. There is a neat structure called “Alexander’s Castle” on the grounds. It was built for Alexander’s Scottish bride-to-be, but when he went to get her, he discovered she was married.

The man at the Guardhouse/gift shop was very helpful and gave us ferry pamphlets, so I feel a bit more comfortable now about our upcoming trip back to Seattle.

I got a few postcards and a map of the area for my dad. I got a wolfie pup (plush) for my Best Friend as well. She’s not really a plush kinda person, but he’s really cute. After, I went outside to feed the crows/ravens. They were cautiously watched as I ate and then threw things to the base of their trees. Eventually the 3 told their friends and soon I had 8 new friends.

We had to take a ferry from Port Townsend to Keystone. Nice views. The “Quinalt” which means “river with a lake in the middle” Hmmm, maybe Fremen is based on a Native American language?

Driving thru Whidbey Island to the mainland brought a bit of surprise. It’s much like south San Jose, but surrounded by evergreen hills instead of dead brown grass hills. It would be a nice place to live, being close to city, sea, and woods, if it weren’t for the fact I’d probably freeze solid in the winter! I’m tired of looking at brown skies and brown hills at home. I can breathe much better since we left the bay area…

We’re in Bow, WA. We were upgraded for free to a suite… and it is SWEET!!!

$95 and we have a Jacuzzi, fireplace, 2 TVs, fridge, microwave, coffee maker and an outdoor deck!!! We took a wander about the casino and I played about $20.

The buffet seemed a better option than the food. The fine dining looked fine, but we didn’t feel like spending another $70 for dinner again. Most “nice” restaurants serve a few things I will eat, but Bryan usually gets limited to Steak, Steak, or Steak. (He’s also a lot pickier than I am about what he will eat.) You can only eat steak so many days in a row. Not to mention being able to afford it… $teak isn’t cheap.

It’s now after dinner, and Bryan is at the the Blackjack table. I pulled out my Blackberry to type up more trip notes and e-mail my mom, and I was told I can’t use any electronics in the casino. I guess it makes sense… After all, slots are all nothing more than glorified computer chips now-a-days. Guess someone got an idea to hack one with a cell phone or a gameboy??? Hmmm…I suppose card counting programs can be put into a palm pilot…

Bryan lost $80 between video poker and the blackjack table. I lost $20 on quarter slots, but put another $20 in the nickel slot and got back $46.75. So I’m up almost a whole $7!

2 more things: The $8 fruit and cheese plate we got from room service is HUGE. (The look on the service boy’s face was priceless when I answered the door in a towel!!! He smiled and looked like he might blush, except he turned his head away.)

And

Falling Down is not a terribly romantic movie.

He Says

Last “Haunted Hotel” and no hauntings. Gee, that wasn’t predictable or anything. Pretty restful night. Hotel is nice, except for the room. We explored the hotel some more.

Kryis asked the manager if we could look at the journal’s that at one time had been left in the rooms. They had to take them out because too many people were stealing them or ripping our pages as souvenirs. We took photographs of pages that talked about the hotels reputation of being haunted so that we could compile them onto our website. We took pictures of pages of journals from Thornewood also. Wish we would have thought about that earlier.

We explored the town some more, this time in the daylight. Some very nice Victorian buildings, and a nice little downtown area.

We headed to Fort Worden State Park and explored a bit. It is apparently where they filmed An Officer and a Gentleman and other movies set on military bases. There is a neat building called Alexander’s Caslte on the grounds. Alexander built it for his Scottish bride to be, but when he went to Scotland to get her, apparently she had already married someone else. The best laid plans and all.

After we left, I got a snack at McDonald’s and then we went to the ferry dock. It was an interesting ride. There was an aircraft carrier that passed us at one point. I took a few pictures of it and a few pictures of what I thought might be Mount Ranier.

When we got to Skagit Valley Casino, I was not really that impressed. I had never been to an “Indian Casino” before, and I guess everything pales in comparison to Las Vegas.

The coolest thing was that they upgraded us to a suite, complimentary, because we were on our honeymoon. The fact that it was the middle of the week probably did not hurt that either. The room was nice.

I did a really dumb thing playing video poker. I was up… WAY UP, and lost it all. Oh well. I played some blackjack and lost there too.

We went back up to the room and ordered a fruit tray from room service. It was a nice fruit tray for eight bucks from room service. We kept the crackers for the rest of the trip.

More information on Manresa Castle can be found here.

Honeymoon Day 8

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Day 8
August 8th, 2004
Lakewood, WA to Port Townsend, WA

She Says

Nothing odd happened and the rug in the Hall of Mirrors hadn’t moved yet. Breakfast was with six other people, all of which hadn’t had anything happen, but the teen-aged girl in the Gold room also thought the Hall of Mirrors was creepy as well.

We packed the car and went traveling the grounds. We talked with Deanna (the owner) for about an hour.

She believes the ghosts are angels or guardian spirits. I asked about the identical mirrors in the Hall of Mirrors. She said I’m the first person to notice the fact that the mirrors mirror each other in shape and style. Also the mirrors on the bathroom wall at the end of the Hall of Mirrors matches the mirror on the end of the opposite hallway by the rose room.

I told her that I found it a bit creepy to stand between mirrors in the hallway. The endless reflections. She said that she set the mirrors that way with that in mind.

She also says thay she has seen many “unique” experiences. Her husband says he hasn’t seen any.

Deanna also says that they has looked at Manresa Castle when they were looking to buy Thornewood, but it was “too dark” and she didn’t like the “feel” of the place. She asked us to write to her after we’ve stayed at Manresa.

Tacoma
We stopped off to explore and ended up by the US Courthouse, University of Washington, and museums.

We went to the Museum of Glass. In “the hot spot” is where they do glassblowing exhibits. Not little animals, but BIG vases such. Huge kilns. The gallery was disappointing. Some things may be art, but had I known what was in the gallery, I would have saved my $ and just gone to the gift shop!

We did have a salad of mix greens, cranberries, apples, red onions, gorgonzola, and pralines with white wine vinaigrette. Had this nasty cow smell in the aftertaste.

We drove back to I5 and hit the road for Port Townsend.

Apparently there are 2 streets called 7th. The first one was a gravel path to farms. After a U-turn, we went down a main street and saw Manresa Castle on the left.

Right next to the check in window the have copies of Haunted Washington. Nice to see that they take pride in their ghosties.

The castle was built in 1892 and after the owners died it was left to a caretaker for 20 years until the Jesuits bought it as a school.

Our room is small compared to Thornwood and it smells of detergent, but the chairs and table are nice. Also we have a nice view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the city below.

I heard a Raven laughing outside.

Dinner was uneventful. We felt obliged to order, since we had already sat down, even though we didn’t really see anything we Really wanted to eat. The food was good, but we should have just checked the menu before setting reservations…

We decided to take off and explore. The manager talked to us out in the parking lot. Some stories he told us: A family heard crying late at night coming from the bathroom. No one was there, but there was Kleenex on the floor.

In the kitchen, glasses would be lined upside down but one would be turned right side up or explode.

A telephone man saw a globe of light above a chair that went through a wall. I, on the other hand, got to see 2 cute little bats flying about and catching their dinners.

Bryan and I went into town just after sunset. It looks quaint. Historic downtown with shops. Kinda like Ferndale. We decided it would look better in the daytime.

Back at the Manresa, we took a few film pics and recorded some audio tape and then went back to our room to crash.

He Says

We woke up fairly early, so we went down to the dining room (we couldn’t get in there last night because that is where the wedding reception was) and looked through the photo albums that chronicle the history and renovation of the estate including the two films that helped to finance the restoration.

Breakfast was nice. Blueberry pancakes were good, except for the blueberries. Two of the people at breakfast were relatives of the couple that got married there the previous day. After breakfast we went with them on a tour of the other rooms of the mansion. Each one was more beautiful then the last.

After we finished the tour of the rooms, we packed our stuff and went for a tour of the grounds. Nice stone chess set and the garden where the wedding was held was also very nice. We talked to the owner, Deanna, for quite some time between exploring. She was very nice, and had strong opinions about the French.

After we left, we stopped off in Tacoma. It was nice. It was fairly sleepy, even as late as we arrived. As this was a Sunday I guess it is to be expected. We walked to the Museum of Glass and spent a while in the Hot Shop. That was cool. I could have stayed longer, but Kryis was feeling a little sick. The galleries were really disappointing. I may not know art, but I do know crap when I see it. Too bad.

I was expecting to see art made out of glass, or the history of glass, or something like that. No, it was just really crappy ultra-modern garbage that had very little or nothing to do with glass. The museum is fairly new, so hopefully they are just building a collection or something. The Hot Shop was definitely cool.

Took a picture of the really cool Tacoma Narrows bridge. And this one does not sway in the wind.

Drove up to Port Townsend. Interesting drive. We had a little trouble finding the place, but after we got there it was nice. We checked in, explored a little bit.

I didn’t really like dinner, but it was okay. Afterwards we decided to explore the town a little before sundown.

As we were leaving, the manager came out and talked to us about some of the ghost stories (Kryis had mentioned something about it at check in). We ended up talking to him for a while, and the sun began to set.

After we departed from the Castle, we made a vain attempt to check out the town in the growing darkness. We were not really able to see much, so we went back to the hotel and to our room.

More information on Thornewood Castle can be found here.
More information on Manresa Castle can be found here.

Honeymoon Day 7

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Day 7
August 7th, 2004
Troutdale, OR to Lakeview, WA

She Says

Woke up and decided that Edgefield reminds me of rich folks who go to poor places to stay, or “play poor” because it’s the cool thing to do.

There is a sink in our room, but you use shared baths and toilets. The bedding is plain, not even fitted sheets. The decor is spartan. Obvious sprinkler systems, dim lights etc.

Breakfast was eggs and bacon for Bryan and a mushroom, brie and herb omelette for me. I liked the filling more than the eggs, but the red potatoes were delicious.

We got 3 bottles of wine that will be shipped to our home, as well as some other nik naks.

I asked the desk clerks for any good ghost stories. Apparently the administrators house is supposed to be haunted. I guess the admin’s daughter died young and is supposed to haunt the place. At one point a woman had placed a cassette recorder in her room there and got faint noises of someone walking about. A nurse is supposed to wander about the infirmary ward.

The black rabbit motif was because when the Mcmenamin Brothers came to the site a Black Rabbit crossed their path. The motif is fairly common in the main building. The restaurant even has a small figure of a child offering a carrot to a black rabbit on one of the sprinkler pipes.

We took the camera and cassette recorder to the Admin house as a last effort to get something and then got in the car and headed to Tacoma by route of Portland.

Lemon Drops are now called “fish food.” A few days ago, Bryan made fishy lip motions at me, and so I gave the fish a lemon drop (from Ferndale). Thus now when he wants a lemon drop, he turns to me and makes fishy lip motions. I love this man, he’s silly!

We’ve detoured to Longview. Gee, it’s…sleepy and grey. However it has Nutty Narrows, The only bridge built exclusively for squirrels.

We called Bryan’s dad, since he was born there and then tried to find the house his dad was raised in. After getting to 28th and Cypress, we realized that there are 2 intersections with that same signage! Apparently 28 ends on 1 block and continues 1 block away.

I took pictures of each house and then Bryan called his dad back. He let us know which house was his. When we pulled up in front of it, the old man inside looked thru the window at us, so we pulled up out of his view to take the picture,but an old woman has stood up to stare at us. I think we’ve spooked them. Imagine, if someone took a picture of your house and drove off…
We left before they could get a shotgun.

We stopped in Olympia for lunch. I think I’ll add this city to my list of places to avoid in the future. After a few miles and a 1/2 hour in Wendy’s, we saw quite a bit of PWT, a female beached “whale” which would make a good “say no to crack” advert, and a really Ugly transvestite wearing a pink and white and black outfit, including leg warmers.

I have to agree with Bryan: Vacations can make me appreciate living in San jose.

When we got to Lakewood we got to Thornewood Castle after only 1 u-turn. After bringing up the bags, Bryan rested and I went exploring. Our room, the “Rose Room”, is on the 3rd floor.

There is a hall of mirrors on the other(east?) side of the stairs from us (west?). Identical mirrors facing each other in a small hallway. It’s too spooky for me. I’m superstitious about mirrors in haunted places, but even more so of mirrors facing each other in eternal reflections. Bad juju.

On our side of the stairs is the Lord Byron suite, which also left me feeling a bit off. I think that is because I felt like I was trespassing.

The feeling went away as soon as I got passed the doorway to the sewing room (right across from Rose-historical note- it used to be Anita Thorne’s room)

I still took lots of pics, but I won’t go into the hall of mirrors.

I went back to the 2nd floor and listened to Gigi talk. She’s the owner’s mother. (Owner- Deanna)

I was talking to Beth, who has worked in the castle about a month, and I could have sworn one of the paintings on the wall of the stairway winked at me as I turned away from it.

Gigi has loads of tales to tell, including ghost stories. Apparently the carpet runner in the hall of mirrors keeps moving to the side even though the staff kept centering it.

There was a wedding downstairs, so I didn’t go to the first floor. I stayed and talked with Gigi for about 2 hours. Bryan came down and we eventually went for food.

Old Country Buffet. What is it about buffets that bring people who really don’t need an all-you-can-eat meal??? There was one girl there: black clothes and chains, mod hair, spooky eyeliner lining down one cheek… She looked young and pure, yet gothy. It’s nice to see there’s hope for the future. We kept catching each others eye and smiling. I’m glad I can set a good example of ” You, too, can retain your gothy image when you get as old as me without looking like a complete sell-out!”

Back to the Castle. Bryan decided to move the carpet in the Hall of Mirrors. He’s also walked up and down the 3rd floor with a cassette recorder. We’ll listen to these tapes whilst on the ferries or something, but I’ll have to wait in the film pics and the camcorder until later…

I looked at the Room Guest book. Some people don’t mention anything about ghosts, some say there are none, and others insist there are. I refuse to taint my mind and dreams by reading it ahead of time.

He Said

We woke up, had breakfast, bought some wine that we liked from the tasting and explored a little bit more of the grounds. Kryis asked the people at the front desk about some of their ghost stories and got some more leads on where to go. We went to the Administrator’s house and poked around in there for a bit before exploring the grounds a little more and heading off to Longview Washington, birthplace of my Father.

We first went looking for Nutty Narrows, the only bridge built for squirrells. There is even a statue of a giant squirrel and a plaque in honor of the man who created it.

After that, we called my father and asked him what his address was when he lived here. He did not remember the address, only the intersection.
So we go there, and find out there are two intersections. One street ends, goes along the other for a while, and picks back up.
We did eventually find it, but it was confusing. I called my dad back and asked him to describe the house, we eventually found it and took a picture of it (to the apparent dismay of the people who now live there) and were on our way to Lakewood.

We stopped off in Olympia for lunch. It was okay. Some scary looking people, but the town seemed alright. I took a picture of the Washington Capital building.

Thornewood Castle is amazing. We got to the gate and we were asked if we were there for the wedding. Apparently a lot of weddings happen at Thornewood, and I can understand why.

We got there and it was beautiful. Gorgeous in fact. When we got to our room, I was beat, so I took a nap while Kryis went and talked to Gigi, the mother of the owner. A few hours later she comes into the room and tells me some of the stories. By this time, we are both hungry and decide that we are going to go get something to eat in town.

When we get back, the wedding is still in full swing. In fact, the bride (who we ran across earlier as we were walking in, she was waiting to start down the aisle) asked us to join in their dancing. We passed and headed up stairs to explore more. We wanted to avoid downstairs because we did not want to intrude on the the wedding.

Kryis was freaked out by the hall of mirrors. There is a carpet runner in the hallway that supposedly keeps getting moved off to the side by the ghosts of the castle. I moved it halfway to the middle to see if it would move by the morning. I kept going into the hallway to check on it. I don’t think that there is anything all that freaky about the hall of mirrors, but it was interesting.

I explored a bit with the tape recorder and the video camera to see if I could see anything. And nothing. Carpet still where I moved it. Anyways… time for sleep. Better not watch the two Stephen King movies that were filmed here anyways.

More information on McMenamins Edgefield can be found here.
More information on Thornewood Castle can be found here.

Honeymoon Day 6

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Day 6
August 6th, 2004
Ashland, OR to Troutdale, OR

She Says

Woke up, still no ghosties. I am coming to believe that sleeping in haunted places helps me sleep deeper.

David cooked breakfast for all 11 guests. Poached pears with cinnamon and the Taming of the Shred (shredded hard boiled eggs and portabello mushrooms over toast)

We talked with the other guests, some from Concord and others from Petaluma (but once San Jose) Turns out that our host knows the Porteras in SJ that I grew up near. Distant cousins or something.

Someone suggested us seeing the play “oleanna”

We finally got our first ghostly sighting from one of the Petaluma guests. 11:30 yesterday morn the couple was just sitting in the library and a jar of jelly fell off a shelf. No one near it, it just fell. I took a picture of the Haunted Jelly (Pinot Noir jelly!) I’m sure when we get done telling this story, the jelly flew about the room and the a haunted knife spread it spookily across some haunted toast.

The other guests told us that Col. Silsby is still in the house, but also Elizabeth was mentioned. Apparently the Elizabeth Suite we stayed in used to be the prior owners home until she moved next door. I also noticed that the owners change hands every 10 yrs or so.

I bought some citrus scented lotion from the shelf near the haunted jelly and we went downtown.

I bought some rosemary sourdough bread for the trip, as eating loads of jelly bellies can just make me sick. The bead shops were the same as home, so I passed on the beads. However there was Unicorn gifts and toys that was neat. I found a Faery of the Ravens, and thus bought it. www.dragonsite.com.

Somehow when we left Ashland, I felt we should have bought some haunted jelly too…

As we drove back to interstate 5, We passed a homeless man with a sheep on a leash. I made a comment to Bryan, “I’ll give you money if I can borrow your sheep!” I wonder if the cardboard sign said “will work for ewe”…

About a 4 1/2 hour drive to Troutdale later…
McMenamin’s Edgefiled is large! But the brick and white exterior hides a lot of interior spunk. One cannot walk 10 ft without seeing another interesting mural. So…

I took more pictures… We ate at the Black Rabbit restaurant, 2 NY strip steaks.

Afterwards we wandered the grounds and went to a wine tasting. We both agreed that the 2002 vineyard select white riesling was awesome. I’d like to get a bottle for sooner and wait for a later anniversary. But how to pack it???

Night had fallen so we got the film camera and cassette recorder and went walking the ex-infirmary, which is now the hostel wing. At the end of the hallway is a set of double doors with a stairway in it.

The stairs go down the the winery, but the stairs that go up, go around the corner and then seem to go no where.

The brick wall says “hell”. Spooky…

He Says

What is with mushrooms? Everywhere mushrooms. Yeach! Breakfast was okay, despite the fungus shredded across and amongst my eggs.

Kryis and I were asking about the “hauntings” of the place and got a story about “haunted jelly.” Apparently when this other couple was sitting in the sitting room, a jar of jelly made by the previous owners of the B&B fell from off the other jar of jelly is was stacked on top of and made a loud noise. The new owner (which looked and acted surprisingly like Kryis’s ex-manager) came running in wondering what had happened. No one knew. They surmised that it must have been one of the jars of jelly when they knocked another jar off and it hit the shelf with the same noise. Kryis seems convinced (or at least claims to be convinced) that this must mean that a ghost pushed it. I, however, believe that Issac Newton had the right idea.

We explored a little more of Ashland looking for a post office or a mailbox. It took us a while, but we eventually found one. We stopped off at a small toy shop, and Kryis bought a few things including a “Raven Fairy.” ShruG.

As we were getting to the freeway, we saw a homeless looking man hitchhiking on the side of the overpass with a sheep on a rope. Oh how I wished that the digital camera was not in the trunk at that particular moment. Oh well.

We finally got to our next destination in Troutdale OR, McMenamin’s Edgefield. It was on a former poor farm, and had that bucolic feel to it, with a hint of alcoholism. It was a large property that contained at least 7 different places to get drunk. A brewery, a winery, a distillery, a pub… We got our room–in this place we had to use communal bathrooms–and then went to go get some food at the only restaurant we had seen up until that point. The food was okay. Kryis kept on taking pictures of these murals and paintings that were all over the palce that I did not particularly find interesting.
After we ate we wandered around taking pictures of paintings, and then more pictures of paintings… and then we went outside and explored the grounds. We went back inside and Kryis took more pictures of murals, and then some more, and then just to be different, she took a few more. We did a wine tasting in the winery. We talked to some other couples that were in the winery with us until we decided to do some ghost hunting.

We got the film camera and the voice recorder and explored some of the areas that are rumored to be haunted. One wing that is the former infirmary is supposed to have a lot of activity, we took some pictures there, and other places. There was a wedding reception going on so we did not have the greatest environment for EVP. We wandered back through the winery and saw the couples still there and talked to them some more before we headed back to the main building and did so more hunting before bed.

 

More information on Colonel Silsby’s bed and Breakfast can be found here.
More information on McMenamins Edgefield can be found here.