Seattle
Monday was a day to forget, getting back in the US. We drive to the main border crossing South of Vancouver and after sitting in a really long line and not moving forward at all in 15 minutes we decided to leave that one and drive to a smaller border crossing East of there. Basically the same problem there, line of more than half a mile. We sat there for nearly 2 hours before we got through the border, and still had no clue why it was so backed up. Once we finally did get though the crossing we drove to Redmond, WA and it started raining (naturally). The only bright spot for the day was having some sorely needed pints at a great neighborhood English pub in Redmond where I also could not resist getting out and using my (Apple) notebook for all to see.
Can you see me Bill?
Tuesday was spent in Seattle, walked around the center of town to the space needle and rode the monorail. A couple pints at a pub and some fresh fish for dinner, a fine day. Then it was the Oasis concert, which was fantastic, sold out theater and the crowd was really into it. They played several songs of their new still-to-be released album and plenty of their greats, even throwing in a Noel solo b-side which was great! Then comes the dumbest thing I’ve done in a while, it had been a really nice day when we caught the bus downtown so I decided to leave my jacket in the truck, but apparently it likes to rain in Seattle, who knew? When the concert was done there was a pretty good amount of rain coming down so I ended up walking through town in a t-shirt getting drenched and no way to avoid this. (it’s a good thing I’m from England…)
Tags: Travel, USA
Adam
The border crossing used to take less than an hour and you basically zoomed through. Now in the fabricated fear of the post-9-11 world, they make you physically STOP and be questioned and checked out. So if there’s a line of people, the wait time just escalates. Even the Amtrak that runs between Seattle and Vancouver now has to STOP along the way for Passport and Immigration Control. That was never the case a mere few years back. We got on in Vancouver and got off the train in Seattle with NO stops for official baloney.
Good luck as you traverse ALL of the boundaries around the world!