Somewhere Only We Know...?

Sun Peaks, "near" Kamloops, photo by vikingchild

Back to the holiday slides. You know how it is booking things online - never quite know what you're going to get. So driving towards the Rockies my better half found a good deal - a very nice sounding 5-star hotel near Kamloops, a place called Sun Peaks. Well, "near" is a relative word, of course, and after a few false turns, stopping to ask directions then driving about 40 miles straight up, we finally found our hotel - by which time it was dark. So all we knew was that it was a small village with lots of fairy lights, and that it was very quiet indeed.

The hotel - wow....but given the quietness it was somewhere between Twin Peaks and The Shining. Really. I ran along the corridors in case I got chased by some scary kids on trikes. The inexpensive price was the off-season rate, of course - we'd rolled up to a ski-resort. It had the kind of foyer that you could hold a fairly large ball within, and the requisite log fires and wooden decoration.

Next morning we woke to brilliant sunshine and the view over a pseudo-Alpine resort, transplanted into the Canadian mountainside. Apparently it is owned by a Japanese company (Nippon Cable Co.) or at least the Canadian branch thereof, and is still expanding. Of course, off season it was still deathly quiet during the day - just the odd retired couple out for a morning stroll. In some ways we were sorry to leave, but on the other hand - Red Rum, Red Rum....

Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle

Experience Music Project, with Space Needle reflected, photo by Vikingchild

I didn't know what to call this post, so it seemed appropriate to give Nirvana the nod in Seattle. Add to that that Kurt Cobain grew up in the nearby Aberdeen, although there's not much in common between Aberdeen, Washington and Aberdeen, Scotland. We've also visited Aberdeen, Maryland (Cal Ripken-town) and Aberdeen, California (two houses and a caravan, it seemed).

Seattle is one of the cities you can walk around, given the size. Pike Place is tourist-central, but off-season it's quieter and magical, especially eating breakfast upstairs at Lowell's, watching a low mist roll away over the Puget Sound...

Whilst Seattle is known for the rain, we've been lucky and had drizzle at the most. This time round we had roasting sunshine and I even managed to get accidentally sunburnt (not good). We've had 6 years between visits, and sadly to say (a) the Mariners have gone downhill badly, but more worryingly (b) the homeless problem in Seattle seems to have got a lot worse. You can't help feeling that the draw of north-western prosperity (Microsoft, Boeing, coffee) attracts people with high hopes - but little chance.

The monorail had given up by the time we revisited (shades of a "Simpsons" episode), but we walked to the Space Needle and I love this shot of the Frank Gehry-designed music museum. I don't know why people criticise this but are happy with something like the Space Needle...