Week 15 (Toronto to Richland)

Hi Lovelies!  I have been summoned to put in my 2 cents worth.

Toronto produced something we haven’t encountered before.  While on the 35^th floor of our accommodation we were woken at 03:45 by a fire alarm and building announcement.  Over the next 15 minutes there were more alarms and announcements until we got the all clear.  During this, I noticed flashing lights outside, not from the street, but the whole sky.  It was a thunder storm rolling through.  While all this was going on there were thoughts of do I get dressed ready to evacuate, do I just start heading downstairs to avoid the rush, do I go back to sleep and ignore it.  I was looking forward to 35 floors of stairs, but not in an evacuation situation as everyone would hold me up.  Then I realised I would have to get Denise down, so I would be holding everybody else up.  In the end it was a lot of wasted energy thinking about the scenarios, and yes, I will continue to go up in tall buildings.  We didn’t wake up until 08:00, but at least the next day was a short drive to Niagara Falls…and another high rise overlooking the falls.

While in Toronto we caught up for dinner with another friend from our volunteering life in Tanzania who we hadn’t seen for a few years.  This trip is to visit one of our African Family.  We wished we could have spent more time with her but at least we were able to catch up.

Next whistle stop was Niagara Falls.  Apart from additional fees and charges it was worth the visit.  The room we had I didn’t realise how big it was until we went out.  As we had a view of the falls, all I wanted to do was see if we had a glimpse by standing on a chair or a full view.  We had a full view of the Horseshoe Falls and the river above the falls from the Canadian side.  We spent about 30 minutes just looking at the falls and the packed boats going up to the falls before venturing out for a closer look.  It was as we were leaving the room I realised we had a nice BIG bathroom and a loungeroom.  No wonder it cost so much… Why does he say these things????

We walked down to the falls and on the way saw a concert stage being set up for a company called NU Skin.  I asked what was happening and they were having a final presentation/concert for their sales people followed by fireworks.

We decided to do the walk under the falls and the view from behind the falls was amazing.  I was reluctant but was amazed also with the power the falls created.  We had on our yellow plastic “garbage bags”.  As it wasn’t sunny, all you could see was a large sheet of water and spray, but you got a good sense of the volume of water in front of you.  The next part was to see the falls close up from in front of them.  This was supposed to be the time we really got wet.  The view from that platform was worth the entry fee as you could feel the power of the water and the wind it generated.  I didn’t get too wet, but I picked my times to be in the spray area.  All in all, worthwhile.

After dinner I decided to come back and watch the concert and fireworks.  Denise wasn’t interested in another walk down and back.  Had nothing to do with the walk it was all about some me time and I don’t like fireworks because the effect it has on the atmosphere.  When I got there I discovered it was 5,000 Chinese sales people and the talks were all in Chinese.  After 1 hour I decided I would go back to the top and watch the fireworks, but when they hadn’t started by 21:30, I went back to the room.  We heard them after 22:00, but as we didn’t have a view of that section, I just watched the Horseshoe Falls in all it’s glory as it was illuminated with changing coloured lights.

The following day we headed to Gettysburg to see stuff about the Civil War…well, Denise wanted to see it.  I was pleasantly impressed.  While Denise was out taking photos of yet another monument I Googled how many monuments are there in Gettysburg - 1,328.  When I showed her this she decided not to photograph each one.  I started off taking photos of the monuments and then Peter told me I should be looking on the sides of the statues, so more photos.  I would have thought Peter would have been happy that I was walking around, but he objected to me walking in the rain with no umbrella.  So, after he made me get in the car we went to the visitor centre and entered the museum.  We watched a film and then went up to the Cyclorama.  A Cyclorama is a painting by the French artist Paul Philippoteaux depicting Pickett's Charge, which was the culmination of the Battle of Gettysburg.  The Cyclorama has lighting and sound that is added to the explanation of what happened on that day when General Robert E Lee took on many loses for the Confederates.  I hope I have got that correct.  I thought is was very worthwhile.

We finished off the driving arriving back in Washington and out to dinner at a place we went to the last time we were here - Barcelona Wine Bar Cathedral Heights.  I don’t normally name places, but this place just did everything so well, even down to the chef coming out to speak with us and make some special meals for us.  The food was fantastic; Mr Fussy loved it.

The following day we relaxed a little before heading off to Seattle for our West Coast adventure.  I dropped off the hire car and walked back to where we were staying which was only 3.5kms.  Luckily I took an umbrella as rain was forecast, and rain happened.  Again, I had some time to myself so I managed to get some things done, without being pestered.  The flight over was with Delta and we had a stopover in Salt Lake City.  I only caught the mountains around the city and they look like amazing ski country – probably why Park City is located there.  After 1.5hrs we were off again to Seattle and on this flight got to see the Salt Lake/s and the Rockies with snow on top.

Once on the ground in Seattle and we had our bags it was then time to find our shuttle bus to our accommodation – unfortunately there were no signs or information booths, or none that we found.  When we found a bus, so we asked the driver and he said go back upstairs, across the road, and back down.  Once there we looked for the bus and discovered that we needed to phone the accommodation so called and they said they would send somebody.  When the bus finally arrived, we headed to our accommodation, but I thought we were going to be involved in our first accident.  I thought we were going to die but that didn’t happen, so all good. He locked up the bus when the traffic stopped in front of us – luckily no crash, but it didn’t minimise his erratic driving.  Bloody Crazy driving!

The next morning I decided to walk back to the hire car place, only 5.5kms away and no rain forecast.  Off I went only to discover the route I was following was taking me onto the freeway so instead I scrambled down a steep slope, across a creek and up the other side before climbing over a fence and off to my destination.  That boy called to say it was a good thing I didn’t go with him, as you have just heard why!  During the walk it decided to rain, but luckily it wasn’t too heavy.

Once I picked up the car I drove back and picked up Denise and the bags and we headed off to look at Seattle harbour before going to Spokane.  The harbour had two Cruise Liners in, one was the Ruby Princess and the other was the Holland America Line.  Absolutely massive ships that can hold a ridiculous number of passengers.  When we got on to the I90 (an intersate highway from Seattle to Boston), Google Maps said we has 438km before the next turn.  Before this, on the whole trip to date, the longest Google Maps had said before the next turn was around 200kms.

On the way to Spokane we drove through the Rockies with some amazing mountains, then discovered a huge canyon with the Columbia River in it.  The road went down one side of the river and up the other and then further up the road we went through a town Moses Lake which has a lake in the middle of it.  The whole trip we had a 70MPH speed limit so at least it went reasonably quickly.

In Spokane we stayed with another Tanzanian friend.

That night we went to dinner and the restaurant was looking over the Spokane River Falls.  What an amazing sight.  The next morning I offered to take the dog for a walk so off I went back to look at the floor.  The poor dog was exhausted by the time we got back – It was only 10kms, so I’m not sure what the problem was.  After that I did some handywork around the house we were staying in before receiving a home cooked meal.  Good Peter!

Denise failed to do her bit, so we are now in Richland which is part of the Tri Cities area to see another person from Tanzania.  Somebody said our trip seems like a St Jude’s World Tour.  Thinking about that it could be the alternative name for this trip.  So, my failure was to comment but ha-ha here I am.

I will close for now!

Big Hugs and kisses to everyone

Denise and Peter

xxxx