Travel log still day 2 to Forks and Canada and back.

Vancouver :
Sept. 12th 2009
On our way to Vancouver BC we had one tiny little problem. See we still had to make our concert by 7 pm so while we watched Forks fade into the distance a new excitement began to build. We might get to meet a vampire. Did I mention I get sidetracked when it comes to vampires. OK snap out of it. Our tiny little problem was that we got lost. With a GPS mind you. Jenn and I had mapped out our entire trip and were planning to avoid a ferry to get us to where we wanted to be. We ended up in Port Angles. As we got closer and closer to the water we began to panic. You guessed it our GPS ignored our pleas to not ride on a ferry. Thankfully we stopped at drug store and were given directions to the shortest ferry ride. We made our way to a lovely port town and boarded the Kingston Ferry. The ferry ride ended up being lovely and Jenn and I enjoyed it. Feeling pretty smug we began to talk about all the things we would see and do in Vancouver. We ended up making good time despite the fact we got lost and had to take a ferry. Vampire Jasper here we come.

I will never forget the words that Jenn said next " I was a little afraid to drive in Portland. But for some reason Vancouver doesn't scare me at all " These words would come back to haunt her later. By the way my best friend the amazing Jennifer is an awesome driver. She drove the entire trip. I don't blame her for being afraid to drive in a big city. I was afraid to drive on the highway but don't tell her I said so. I was thankful that she ended up driving. I made sure to keep her laughing so she would not get tired. We finally made it to the border. Jennifer and I could not stop grinning. I looked out my window in time to see the Canadian border cop and I almost lost it I was so excited. We were so close now.

As we entered Canada Jenn and I noticed something right away. It would seem Canadians don't use miles everything was in kilometers and meters. Yikes I guess I should have paid more attention in math class. Not only did we not know how fast we were going but we also didn't know how long until our exits lol. Looking back it is pretty funny. But at the time you could see the panic written all over our faces. So my fellow Americans keep this in mind if you plan a trip to Canada. I bet this information is not a closely guarded secret. Next trip Jennifer and I make we will be sure to check out things like miles and meters.

The traffic in downtown Vancouver was the worst I had ever seen. It was bumper to bumper. We didn't know how fast or how far we were going on top of everything else. In that one moment I wanted to go home. So what call me a wuss. I admit it I was a total wuss. We were finally getting close to our hotel according to our GPS. Jennifer and I notice something as we are making our way towards our room and relaxation or so we thought. We were surrounded by drugs, hookers and homeless people on newspapers. Police all over. It began to sink in that we were in a very bad part of town. What do we do ? After everything we had been through all we could think about was the 100 Monkey concert and Jackson Rathbone aka Jasper. We debated for a while as to if we should leave our room and even try to make it to the concert. We knew from prior planning that the Rickshaw theater was only a mere 2.2 miles away surely we could make it. We left feeling out of sorts and wondering if we had made the right choice to come to Vancouver. As we circled the Rickshaw looking for parking we notice a line that looks to be about a mile long. I know Jenn and I were thinking the same thing in that one moment. Is it worth it ? We finally decided it was not and went back to our room. We just missed our concert and very possibly our one chance to meet a Twilight star. We were both very upset. We went down to the lobby of our hotel because we were both so hungry. We thought perhaps the hotel workers could help us find a place to eat that would not get us killed. OK maybe that was a bit dramatic. This however would be a turning point in our vacation.

The hotel workers were so nice and understanding. Turns out E. Hastings is the street we were on and the workers themselves did not even like being in that part of town. They told us that connected to them was a restaurant I think it was called the box or something like that. Anyway they assured us it was great food and that they were still open. Jenn and I walked next door sat down and had the best meal we had eaten all day. We got to play with our Canadian money which made me feel special haha. We returned to our room with full bellies and were determined to make the very best of this vacation somehow. Tomorrow was a new day. We would be staying in the Wall Center Sheraton for 2 days where the Twilight stars were said to be staying. I didn't think we would run into anyone but just the fact that we would be staying in the same location was so exciting for us.

We entered our room feeling much better. We sat down relaxed for a minute checked our e-mails. I heard Jenn say Kristal and I knew from her tone it was something good. She proceeds to tell me she just got an e-mail telling her that the 100 monkeys were doing a signing tomorrow from 10 am to 2 pm.

Next blog day 3 meeting Jackson and the Sheraton .........