After giving Sydney such a rap, it has to be acknowledged that British Columbia put together a pretty fair effort at creating a good impression on our arrival. As we approached VYR And we descended through the cloud we flew directly over snow covered mountains on Victoria Island. Beautiful!
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| Vancouver Island Mountains |
Despite the lack of sleep on the Pacific crossing we managed to drag ourselves around the city for the afternoon before collapsing into bed after dinner. The walk took us along the southern shore of the CBD past the city's "beaches" towards Stanley Park then back to Canada Place.
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| Sunset Beach |
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| English Bay |
The city seemed deserted this morning when we stepped off the SkyTrain from the airport. Later in the afternoon it seems that half the residents of Vancouver have come out and are heading to a free outdoor concert in Stanley Park. Many were riding bicycles, lots more were walking.
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| Stanley Park |
The SkyTrain network we caught into the city is not extensive but a very effective light rail operation. The driverless two car set zips along and got us into the city very quickly. We now have a better appreciation of our former Labor government's enthusiasm for building a light rail network.
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| SkyTrain |
Canada Place is the cruise ship terminal and tourist meeting spot. Four ships berthed and left during the two days we've been in Vancouver including Zaandam (our cruise ship we'll be sailing on from Alaska back to Vancouver in a week's time).
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| Celebrity Summit and MS Zaandam berthed in Vancouver Harbour |
The US border crossing lived up to it's reputation (long queue, officious staff with an "our country, our rules)" attitude. If you've been to the States you'll know exactly what we mean.
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| US / Canada Border |
The north eastern corner of Washington State is very picturesque with lots of green (crops) and snow covered mountains. The scale of many businesses we saw on the way to Seattle is remarkable (eg. truck and RVs dealerships with hundreds of vehicles on the lot).
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| Upstate Washington |
We caught the monorail from near the Quick Shuttle (intercity coach) stop to the hotel downtown was built for the 1962 Seattle Fair (similar to a World Expo). Even though it got refurbished recently it's a bit dated - rubber tyred wheels on a concrete beam track. It only travels between the Seattle Centre and the Downtown Terminal (about ten city blocks apart). Quite handy for us - the Downtown Terminal is in the same block as our hotel!
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| Seattle Centre |
We discovered the waterfront markets and also bought Helen's Nook (eReader from Barnes and Noble) on the first afternoon in town. The politics of the publishing world makes purchasing electronic books direct from Barnes and Noble impossible unless we have a Credit Card with an USA postal address. Apparently we have the Harry Potter phenomenon to blame - publishers in different continents releasing books on different dates and loosing control once the electronic version is available.
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| Pike Place Markets |
Spent the best part of Tuesday at the Boeing factory in nearby Everett. The tour of the factory was short but fascinating. There are thirty thousand employees (three shifts) on the Everett site producing new 747s, 767s, 777s and 787s. Some other interesting facts about the Everett facility - they have their own
- Child care
- Gymnasium
- Restaurants
- Security force
- Fully equipped medical clinic
- Electrical substations and
- Water treatment plant
Guinness World Records list the Boeing Everett factory as the largest building in the world by volume at 472 million cubic feed (13.3 million cubic meters). This factory also has the largest digital graphics mural in the world.
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| 787 Dreamliner Assembly Line |
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| 747 - Joining the fuselage |
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| World's biggest mural |
The factory is on the opposite side of the freeway to Paine Field and so the assembled aircraft are towed over the freeway on their way to the paint shop and fuel farm.
We saw one of Boeing's four cargo planes called a Dreamlifter (modified 747's) heading off to pick up a load of 787 components.
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| Dreamlifter at Paine Field |
Boeing's latest commercial airliner - the 787 (Dreamliner) is the first aircraft where Boeing invited a number of airlines to contribute to the design and the first to outsource the majority of the major components. Only final assembly, painting and testing takes place at Everett.
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| The first Boeing 787 after roll-out in July 2007 |
Some of you who know Roger well will be amazed to learn that he completely lost his sense of direction (even with the aid of maps) and continually started walking in the wrong direction. The more he tried to sort out his bearings the more confused he became. Added to the confusion was the use of a tourist map that was NOT to scale.
Seattlites also refer to their home town as the "Emerald City". Strolling along the Puget Sound waterfront on our last morning before heading north we experienced lots of similarities to Sydney Harbour.
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| Puget Sound |
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