seattle, vancouver, whistler...

danny and i went to seattle and vancouver in the fall of 2011, one of the trips we have been wanting to take for a long time since we are so close now. we spent about 10 days in seattle, vancouver, and whistler. we did all the touristy stuff in seattle...pike place (most perfect flowers i have ever seen for $5 to $10, everyone had a bunch in their hands), sculpture garden, space needle, EMP (danny loved the music part of this museum), coffee houses, gas works park (unique with awesome views of the water, city, space needle), stanley park, aquarium, took a ferry to bainbridge island where we got lost walking miles and miles in my boots, but ended up doing a relaxing wine tasting, etc... but what i do want to focus on is the food!!! the BEST sushi in the world is at Shiro's, and very good sake too. the salmon is like butter, melts in your mouth! we had great french food at this cute little place right by pike place, and great ice-cream at Molly Moon's near pike place (yummy honey lavender and earl grey ice-cream!)

we then took a scenic train ride into vancouver, rented a car and drove to whistler. whoever said that the sea to sky highway is one of the most scenic drives in the world has not been on the road to hana in maui! nevertheless is was a fun way to explore, we stopped at some hiking trails along the way. whistler is what you would expect, a cute ski resort town, except we were there during the fall, which was still very nice. we didn't get to ride the gondola to the top because it was very cloudy that day. our lodge was super cute though and right by the ski lifts! we definitely have to come back when there is lots of snow, they say the ski trails are amazing there!

we drove back to vancouver, back to an area called yaletown, where we stayed at this ultra hip and swanky hotel call the Opus (too hip for us), the lounge turned into a south beach club at night! we had the most delicious indian fusion food at a place called Vij's, it was so hard to get into, we had to go at 10:30 at night when they were dying down. earlier that night we also had amazing sushi, but Shiro's in seattle tops it....we had 2 dinners in one night because it was our last night and we had to try both :) touristy stuff we did was capilano suspension bridge, went to a market where they sold lots of junk, and went to granville island (have to stress that they have the most mouth-watering delicious pink grapefruit gelato!!!). the not so touristy thing we did was we took a ferry to north vancouver (also where the suspension bridge was) and hiked the GROUSE mountain....holy hell did we not know what we were getting into with our jeans and backpacks! but we did it and people were congratulating us at the top, it's hike is straight up on these unusually large steps! thanks goodness we took the tram down and bought t-shirts that said I survived the Grouse Grind! it did feel like a great accomplishment, it's a must do again! it was a wonderful trip and we will definitely be going over and over again for the SUSHI! lol