Ok so since that vancouver post I've actually written a reasonably lenghty blog about Vancouver and I think seattle however since writing it maybe a week ago I haven't had a chance to upload it or to write about any of the other strange happenings.... untill now....
So bear with me as I take another 2 hours to tell the tale from Vancouver to Seattle to San Francisco (Via a west coast college town called Eugene courtesy of the first assisstant to the Govener of Oregan) to LA and all in between..
Here we go....
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
Vacouver Pictures/ Mogwai story
So we spent the first day driving up to Whistler which was pretty nice. Heres some pictures from the drive up, Whistler Village and some of the surrounding scenery.
After getting into the city we pretty much crashed for the night. The next afternoon we managed to get out of bed and take a walk around. Stopped in China town for a coffee then accidentally walked through Gastown which was a bit dodgy with folk taking drugs in the streets and a general feel of depravation around. Once back into the city proper we decided we were going to head towards the comedy club we'd thought about going to the night before but it wouldn't be open for a little while so we decided to stop in at a bar on the way.
We stopped in at an Irish bar and sat down for a nice cold Guiness. Iain got chatting to the guy on his left who looked at little familiar. He was out visiting his brother and his band were playing in a club down the street and after asking the band name I felt slightly embarressed :D
Turns out it was Dominic Aitchison, the Bassist and founding member from Mogwai! Gutted.
Legend
Anyway we sat and talked about the usual nonsense you do with strangers which we like to believe was a welcome break from adoring fans and the like ;) He was nice enough to put us on the guest list and so after grabbing a bite to eat in a restaurant that just happened to be showing UFC 88 we headed to the commodore to catch the gig!
Unfortunately we could only stay for about half the gig as the car was parked in a dodgy carpark about a mile away and we could only leave it there till 11:45 but it was still a good show. Iain and Stu had never heard them before so it a good introduction. A band I'll definately pick up when I go home.
The next day we went up to the Capilano Suspension Bridge (built buy a Scot no less!) just outside Vancouver.
**Ok, so the story now picks up in a dodgy little motel about 50 miles north of LA. Basically since that I last wrote that stuff We've seen the following (I'd normally take time to add some pictures and try and give you an idea of how things went and how we felt but right now Im knackered and when I go to bed im going to sleep till 10:55am and leave this place at 11 so Im afraid it migth be a little more brief than expected...)...
Seattle:
Ok, Seattle was actually really nice for a city. Right on the coast so the temperature was much more like home again! As I cast my mind back through the haze thats been the past week I seem to remember we took an underground tour around a few blocks of the city and got a general idea as to how the city came to be and where it actually made its money (please note this will be a crudely brief description and for those who have been before or know the history I do aplogise.. I'd throughly reccommend reading up on its actual history however as we found it pretty entertaining.)
Basically as people were going north into Canada in the search for gold they needed a place not far from there to assemble their parties and set up equipment and thus the city expanded.... They were all about making money and not spending it so they did really clever things like reclaiming land from the sea with sawdust and then building ontop of this slushy mixture, smart guys eh? The place was also full of conmen trying to make some money of those crazy people stopping on their way to Canada to find gold and alot of them succedded! Around 87% of the cities actual revenue came from ladies of the night who they government aloud to operate in a few parlour houses under the pretense they were seamstresses, good way to make some tasty tax dollars eh?
So yeah, Seattle was a really nice city made and ran by conmen and prostitues but I kid you not when I say it did have a really nice feel to it. I didn't take my camera out those days as I was pretty sick of picture taking however I had masterminded a scheme to take several pictures form the TV series "Frasier" and photoshop our heads into the background. Had I not taken so long get round to doing it I'd have had pictures ready to add in and In my mind it would have been rather humerous! It is however a dream gone wrong..... I'll see if any of the boys have good pictures and maybe stick them up at some point.
From there we drove down through Oregan towards San Francisco. This was a rather bizarre epidose of the trip for quite a few reasons. As we were driving down I had a look at the map and seen that between Seattle and our halfway point to San Francisco lay the town of Salem. In my delerium from our many hours of travelling I put it to the guys that this was perhaps the place of the infamous "Salem witch trials". Now for all of you who know anything about the Salem witch trials, what can I say? I was really tired... For those of you who dont i'll get around to why its funny later on. So we stopped in at Salem and had a look around, driving around the streets and taking in the nice smalltown feel. After a while I spotted a really grand looking building with a golden statue ontop so we decided to go and check it out.
Once at the front door it was clear that it was a Goverment building of some sort so we headed inside to check it out. After standing in this grand entrance hall comeplete with fresco's a gentlemen approached us and asked us where we were from. After telling him we were visiting from Scotland and without so much as a by your leave he insisted we follow him around on a personal tour of the place. Turns out it was the State Capital building of Oregan (Basically their equivilent of our Scottish parliment). We were shown the two main chambers where their lords and commons would sit and then the Governers office, which had recently suffered incredible fire damage. After some time touring these grand rooms and getting to sit in the Main Speakers chair and bang his gavel (crazy i know...) we were shown to the new wing where a few people were actually working. We got talking to a women there who eventually asked with a puzzled look "So what brings you guys to Salem?"
Me and stu, who'd been waxing lyrical about the Witch trials, looked to Iain to voice our thougths who in true Iain style called it like he saw it.
"We hear you burn witches here!"
Im not sure if it was the puzzled look on our hosts faces or if perhaps the crushing weight of our stupidity that gave me that sinking feeling however that moment of realisation will stay with me to my grave...
"Witches? Your thinking of Salem Massachusetts.......*awkward silence*"
So Yes... we're idiots.....
Im pretty tired now so Im going to update the San francisco stuff (pictures and all) hopefully tomorrow night.
Until then folks.
Derek, the server of beer and giver of knowledge...
Death on the road...
After getting into the city we pretty much crashed for the night. The next afternoon we managed to get out of bed and take a walk around. Stopped in China town for a coffee then accidentally walked through Gastown which was a bit dodgy with folk taking drugs in the streets and a general feel of depravation around. Once back into the city proper we decided we were going to head towards the comedy club we'd thought about going to the night before but it wouldn't be open for a little while so we decided to stop in at a bar on the way.
We stopped in at an Irish bar and sat down for a nice cold Guiness. Iain got chatting to the guy on his left who looked at little familiar. He was out visiting his brother and his band were playing in a club down the street and after asking the band name I felt slightly embarressed :D
Turns out it was Dominic Aitchison, the Bassist and founding member from Mogwai! Gutted.
Legend
Unfortunately we could only stay for about half the gig as the car was parked in a dodgy carpark about a mile away and we could only leave it there till 11:45 but it was still a good show. Iain and Stu had never heard them before so it a good introduction. A band I'll definately pick up when I go home.
The next day we went up to the Capilano Suspension Bridge (built buy a Scot no less!) just outside Vancouver.
**Ok, so the story now picks up in a dodgy little motel about 50 miles north of LA. Basically since that I last wrote that stuff We've seen the following (I'd normally take time to add some pictures and try and give you an idea of how things went and how we felt but right now Im knackered and when I go to bed im going to sleep till 10:55am and leave this place at 11 so Im afraid it migth be a little more brief than expected...)...
Seattle:
Ok, Seattle was actually really nice for a city. Right on the coast so the temperature was much more like home again! As I cast my mind back through the haze thats been the past week I seem to remember we took an underground tour around a few blocks of the city and got a general idea as to how the city came to be and where it actually made its money (please note this will be a crudely brief description and for those who have been before or know the history I do aplogise.. I'd throughly reccommend reading up on its actual history however as we found it pretty entertaining.)
Basically as people were going north into Canada in the search for gold they needed a place not far from there to assemble their parties and set up equipment and thus the city expanded.... They were all about making money and not spending it so they did really clever things like reclaiming land from the sea with sawdust and then building ontop of this slushy mixture, smart guys eh? The place was also full of conmen trying to make some money of those crazy people stopping on their way to Canada to find gold and alot of them succedded! Around 87% of the cities actual revenue came from ladies of the night who they government aloud to operate in a few parlour houses under the pretense they were seamstresses, good way to make some tasty tax dollars eh?
So yeah, Seattle was a really nice city made and ran by conmen and prostitues but I kid you not when I say it did have a really nice feel to it. I didn't take my camera out those days as I was pretty sick of picture taking however I had masterminded a scheme to take several pictures form the TV series "Frasier" and photoshop our heads into the background. Had I not taken so long get round to doing it I'd have had pictures ready to add in and In my mind it would have been rather humerous! It is however a dream gone wrong..... I'll see if any of the boys have good pictures and maybe stick them up at some point.
From there we drove down through Oregan towards San Francisco. This was a rather bizarre epidose of the trip for quite a few reasons. As we were driving down I had a look at the map and seen that between Seattle and our halfway point to San Francisco lay the town of Salem. In my delerium from our many hours of travelling I put it to the guys that this was perhaps the place of the infamous "Salem witch trials". Now for all of you who know anything about the Salem witch trials, what can I say? I was really tired... For those of you who dont i'll get around to why its funny later on. So we stopped in at Salem and had a look around, driving around the streets and taking in the nice smalltown feel. After a while I spotted a really grand looking building with a golden statue ontop so we decided to go and check it out.
Once at the front door it was clear that it was a Goverment building of some sort so we headed inside to check it out. After standing in this grand entrance hall comeplete with fresco's a gentlemen approached us and asked us where we were from. After telling him we were visiting from Scotland and without so much as a by your leave he insisted we follow him around on a personal tour of the place. Turns out it was the State Capital building of Oregan (Basically their equivilent of our Scottish parliment). We were shown the two main chambers where their lords and commons would sit and then the Governers office, which had recently suffered incredible fire damage. After some time touring these grand rooms and getting to sit in the Main Speakers chair and bang his gavel (crazy i know...) we were shown to the new wing where a few people were actually working. We got talking to a women there who eventually asked with a puzzled look "So what brings you guys to Salem?"
Me and stu, who'd been waxing lyrical about the Witch trials, looked to Iain to voice our thougths who in true Iain style called it like he saw it.
"We hear you burn witches here!"
Im not sure if it was the puzzled look on our hosts faces or if perhaps the crushing weight of our stupidity that gave me that sinking feeling however that moment of realisation will stay with me to my grave...
"Witches? Your thinking of Salem Massachusetts.......*awkward silence*"
So Yes... we're idiots.....
Im pretty tired now so Im going to update the San francisco stuff (pictures and all) hopefully tomorrow night.
Until then folks.
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Vancouver
Its incredible.
We've been here a few days now and in that time we've made a trip up to the Whistler/Blackcomb mountains, took a walk round the city accidentally including Gastown which is like the gorbals/shettleston/easterhouse/tollcross all mixed into one, Met Dominic from Mogwai (who kindly put us on the guest list for their gig last night) in an irish bar in the centre of town, had dinner in a fancy restaurant that was showing UFC 88 in which Chuck Liddel got knocked into next week, caught the Mogwai gig and today we're going to check out Stanley park which has a tree thats 30m in circumference and generally just chill in the park!
I've pictures from whistler and all the other places but we're heading out shortly so I'll need to upload them later.
Travelling is the bee's knee's
We've been here a few days now and in that time we've made a trip up to the Whistler/Blackcomb mountains, took a walk round the city accidentally including Gastown which is like the gorbals/shettleston/easterhouse/tollcross all mixed into one, Met Dominic from Mogwai (who kindly put us on the guest list for their gig last night) in an irish bar in the centre of town, had dinner in a fancy restaurant that was showing UFC 88 in which Chuck Liddel got knocked into next week, caught the Mogwai gig and today we're going to check out Stanley park which has a tree thats 30m in circumference and generally just chill in the park!
I've pictures from whistler and all the other places but we're heading out shortly so I'll need to upload them later.
Travelling is the bee's knee's
Saturday, 6 September 2008
Ford Mustang Vs BMW M3
We've been in the states now for roughly 7 weeks and in that time theres been some pretty heated exchanges, none however so furiously debated as last night over dinner...
Since coming to America I've started to appreciate muscle cars, in particular the Ford Mustang.
Now for those of you who dont know, this car is about as technologically advanced as a hula hoop. Basically the rear suspension is pretty stoneage and thus while the car looks and sounds incredible it'll handle like a garden shed when it comes to corners.
However.... it looks at sounds like a beast... which is why I want one.
Iain however has his heart set on a BMW M3 which is a superior car speed and handling wise but for me it just doesn't do it. After some lenghty debate in which I as accused of wanting a mustang to impress girls and iain was accused of wanting an M3 to impress boys (which he admitted :O) we decided to put it to the ultimate test.....
THE ASKING QUESTIONS TO RANDOM PEOPLE TEST
DUN DUN DUN....
Currently its Mustang -1 M3 - 0
Since coming to America I've started to appreciate muscle cars, in particular the Ford Mustang.
Now for those of you who dont know, this car is about as technologically advanced as a hula hoop. Basically the rear suspension is pretty stoneage and thus while the car looks and sounds incredible it'll handle like a garden shed when it comes to corners.
However.... it looks at sounds like a beast... which is why I want one.
Iain however has his heart set on a BMW M3 which is a superior car speed and handling wise but for me it just doesn't do it. After some lenghty debate in which I as accused of wanting a mustang to impress girls and iain was accused of wanting an M3 to impress boys (which he admitted :O) we decided to put it to the ultimate test.....
THE ASKING QUESTIONS TO RANDOM PEOPLE TEST
DUN DUN DUN....
Currently its Mustang -1 M3 - 0
Friday, 5 September 2008
Another day another ly in.
Thats us now in Canada. We crossed border control about 10pm last night and after some strange looks when we said we were staying in Vancouver for a few days then driving down the west coast of the states, then east through Texas, dropping the car in Kansas then somehow getting to NYC.
We're currently in a roadside econo lodge style place in Chilliwack, 50 miles or so east of Vancouver. The plan today (If Iain ever surfaces) is to get a hostel right in the centre of Vancouver for the next few nights and spend a few days taking in the sights. From there drive back south to seattle and a few other places down the coast before taking a jaunt east to Las Vegas where we'll pass the Grand Canyon and Meteor Crator amongs other things.
So far its been a great success! No real hiccups to speak of. I did take some pictures of the journey from Boise to here but there on my camera in the car and Its cold enough outside that I dont want to go unless I have to, which for anyone who knows me is a rare occurance :)
My farmers tan is coming along nicely. My face, neck and forearms are a nice brown colour however my legs and shoulders are still fairly translucent.
Thats Iain starting to stir now so we should be away within a few hours...
I'll write more once we get to Vancouver, If we get there that is :)
We're currently in a roadside econo lodge style place in Chilliwack, 50 miles or so east of Vancouver. The plan today (If Iain ever surfaces) is to get a hostel right in the centre of Vancouver for the next few nights and spend a few days taking in the sights. From there drive back south to seattle and a few other places down the coast before taking a jaunt east to Las Vegas where we'll pass the Grand Canyon and Meteor Crator amongs other things.
So far its been a great success! No real hiccups to speak of. I did take some pictures of the journey from Boise to here but there on my camera in the car and Its cold enough outside that I dont want to go unless I have to, which for anyone who knows me is a rare occurance :)
My farmers tan is coming along nicely. My face, neck and forearms are a nice brown colour however my legs and shoulders are still fairly translucent.
Thats Iain starting to stir now so we should be away within a few hours...
I'll write more once we get to Vancouver, If we get there that is :)
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Got Salt?
We set off this morning at 9:30am and thats us arrived in Boise, Idaho at midnight after an epic 850mile journey through 4 states. Another great effort from Stu!
So we left Aspen after I got some pictures and headed west through the rockies and then north to Salt Lake City.
Aspen Pics:
The scenery we encountered between Aspen and Salt Lake City was simly incredible. Here some more pictures as Im pretty tired :)
And so we've arrived in Boise with 500 odd miles to Seattle to cover tomorrow! We're all pretty beat but its been a great few days! I'll hopefully have more stuff to stick up in the next few days but all we've done so far is drive for billions of miles!
Later.
So we left Aspen after I got some pictures and headed west through the rockies and then north to Salt Lake City.
Aspen Pics:
The scenery we encountered between Aspen and Salt Lake City was simly incredible. Here some more pictures as Im pretty tired :)
**And then we hit the salt flats of Utah.....**
The road was about 25 miles straight so we decided to give her the gas and see what happened... Manged to hit 125mph!
And so we've arrived in Boise with 500 odd miles to Seattle to cover tomorrow! We're all pretty beat but its been a great few days! I'll hopefully have more stuff to stick up in the next few days but all we've done so far is drive for billions of miles!
Later.
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