Our trip started on August 11 with a 6 hour flight from Adelaide to Singapore with Singapore Air and to some warmer weather (28deg C and that was just at night!!!). We stayed overnight in Singapore at the Paramount hotel on Marine Parade. Hotel was fine with the only complaint being the piece of board covered with a sheet disguised as a bed...

The next morning saw us back at the airport around 8am in the morning (12th) for a 10am flight to Vancouver via Seoul. The flight took the scenic route over the bumpy roads due to a little bad weather (something about a typhoon???) but we landed ok in Seoul late in the day. A word of warning here if you do this flight about the transit stage in Seoul. We were glad to hear we could get off the plane and stretch our legs but we spent the whole time (approx 50mins) in queues showing our passport and boarding pass and going through security checks before reboarding. It still beats sitting on our backsides for another hour.

Leaving Seoul around 7pm we headed off on the 10.5 hour leg to Vancouver over the date line to land at 1pm the same day. The flight was fairly uneventful but not much sleep was had. Thankfully the inflight entertainment on Singapore Air is pretty good even in cattle class. Over 60 movies + tv shows + 208 music cd's all 'on demand' kept us amused.

We were certainly glad to get on the ground in Vancouver and cleared customs fairly quickly. Then we went to get our backpacks. The first one was spotted and grabbed quickly and we waited for the second... and waited... and waited. It soon became obvious it wasn't on the belt. A quick conversation with the handlers confirmed all luggage was off the aircraft - bugger!!! Luckily it was only Michele's clothing so my only concern was the extra shopping I was going to go through :-) but after standing at the lost baggage counter for 10 mins and much cursing we decided to check the carousel once more and guess what - magic. Our second backpack had "appeared" from nowwhere (maybe one of the handlers had finished using it as a seat for his smoko break???).

We then picked up our rental car and headed off on the wrong side? of the road to Seattle to stay with Michele's Uncle Nick. In hindsight I would definitely have stayed overnight in Vancouver before attempting this drive given my lack of familiarity with driving this way round and the lack of sleep but we got into Seattle ok around 7.30pm on the 12th.

This part of the trip was set aside to allow us to settle into the new timezones and catch up with Michele's Uncle so sightseeing wasn't a high priority. I know there are some wonderful things to do around Seattle but we enjoyed the chance to relax and unwind (our loss maybe?). We spent one day driving up to Snoqualmie Falls (about 65km's east). This is a really nice spot and the falls are well worth a look even if they are a bit dry after a warm summer.
View image of Snoqualmie Falls

Just for those back in Adelaide it has been in the low 80's (high 20's C) every day so far :-) and it's daylight savings too. Not far from Snoqualmie Falls is Fall City where Michele's Uncle Nick spends one day a week working in the gun shop so we paid a visit which, coming from Australia, was quite an eye opener. Later that day Nick took us to the local firing range for some 'dispute resolution training' and we both tried our hand at shooting a range of different handguns (including a .44 Magnum of Dirty Harry fame!!!). Whilst not being a 'gun' person I have to admit the firepower of these things was quite impressive. The piece of cardboard never had a chance... View image of sad piece of cardboard

We then met some good friends of Nick's, Lee & Kim and spent the evening in rather animated and enjoyable conversation.

Today (Mon 16th) we paid a visit to the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. I can highly recommend this museum. As someone with an interest in military aviation (particularly ww2) this was pretty cool for me. I could easily spend hours here. A walk through a Concorde and a 707 used as Air Force One around JFK's era was also very interesting.
View image 1 from Museum of Flight
View image 2 from Museum of Flight

Well that will do for a first entry. Nick is cooking up a feast on the bbq and my beer is calling. We are heading off to Victoria on Vancouver Island tomorrow and then onto Vancouver on Friday. Not sure when the next entry will come and don't be surprised if the entries become smaller and smaller the more I unwind :-).