offense74 Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 (edited) Here's my vacation report. Keep reading, it's got food and everything.First I would like to thank everybody that made my stay in the US and Canada a pleasure. Thanks to lotus, loveliberate and darth for letting me stay in their homes. Thanks to all the ones with cars for driving all of us everywhere and thanks to robert for making it all possible. Thanks also to Ravi and pelicanAndrew for hanging out with me and eating good food in their respective cities. It started out somewhat bad as I got stranded in Detroit due to bad weather in Detroit and Chicago. So I had to spend the night in Motown and as all the hotels nearby the airport were full (due to cancelled flights) I had to take a cab to downtown and check in at a motel. This whole adventure cost me like $180. But at least I got to see a little of Detroit...http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1006.jpg The next day I hopped on the plane to Seattle for transfer to Portland. Since the weather in Sweden haven't been the best this summer it was nice to finally get out in the sun and feel some heat. Robert picked me up since he was the last to leave Portland for the beach house in Lincoln city. When we got to the beach house it was already crowded but I somehow got roberts room and robert slept on his massage bed in the laudry room. I never really understood how that happened but anyway, a big thank you to robert is in place.http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1012.jpg We walked the beach, we took some short and one loooong hike, we ate alot, we hung out and it was all to my liking. Some pictures of the mentioned:http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1022.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1025.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1041.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1046.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1062.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1065.jpg After our stay in the beach house we headed back to Portland. Here we mostly ate food and hung out. Both were good. This is a picture of darth, eating alone:http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1087.jpg Since everybody on the forum is from Portland I won't bore you with too much details but it is as close to a vegan city as one can get today. You see alot of tattoos, alot of organic stuff, things in stores marked as vegan. Almost everyone knows what a vegan is. It's all very hippie. I like it.We got some room in there for hiking too but without loveliberate leading us the situation could have turned in to a disaster if it weren't for tofutod who found a map.Some pictures from Portland and the activities there:http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1103.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1111.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1126.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1144.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1150.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1153.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1164.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1184.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1195.jpg After that I took the train up to Seattle and checked into my hotel near the spaceneedle. It was a nice walk to downtown and the bus system was good which made my stay alot better. Seattle seems to be a nice city from what I reckoned. It seems a little calmer than most big cities in the US. On the first day I did alot of walking and not so much eating since there are no places to eat if you're a vegan downtown. I took the monorail back to the space needle and after some rest I realized that if I'd want something to eat I better get my ass up to the University district. So I hopped on the bus and was there in like half an hour. I did alot of walking here too since it's quite different from downtown. It's nice up there. I was heading for pizza pi and sneaked in to Sidecar before I got there. For those of you who didn't know Pizza pi is an all vegan pizza place and sidecar is like Food Fight only slightly bigger. I bought some stuff and headed to Pizza pi and had a delicious pizza:http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1223.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1220.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1222.jpg The day after I rode the Duck (a guided tour). Yes, you heard me, it's embarrassing but true. It was kinda fun though and I got to see some stuff. I also went to the market place not far from (or in?) downtown and had me a vegan cookie and a box of blackberries right next to the first starbucks. It was yummy for the tummy. After some more walking I had a bite to eat with Ravi at a Chinese place (was it bamboo garden?). It was basically fried gluten with noodles, rice and sauce. I was in for a gassy night...http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1295.jpg The next morning, me and Ravi went to Mighty-O donuts and got our sugar fix. The donuts are better there than at Voodoo even though those too are awesome. I thought I had more pictures of that event but I had just this one:http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1296.jpg After that I went out to check out Qwest stadium since it's right next to the train station. I then hopped on the bus to Vancouver. Some pics from Seattle:http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1214.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1250.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1270.jpg I thought I would be traveling by train to Vancouver but apparently I wasn't. The bus was outside the train station and I almost missed it because I was waiting for the train. The half shitty weather almost made me hop on the train the other way though, to SoCal, but I decided I wanted to see Canada instead of ...well... traffic jam. And also, I had already booked the hotel. So off to Vancouver it was.The latter part of the busride was very scenic with beautiful mountains and forests and as usual the border patrol were grumpy and unwelcoming (why is that?).Vancouver is like the worlds third most livable city in the world according to research and it's not impossible to see why. Much like Seattle it seems friendly and a little slower than you'd expect from North America. Funny thing was also that the biggest change copared to the US was that the streets were not named Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, etc but instead had other names of fellas I didn't recognise. My hotel was ok and it was right downtown. It was just to jump in the shoes and start walking again. I took a half day tour bus one of the days and I went to see the BC Lions play Canadian football. It was a blast:http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1410.jpgNotice how they are 12 on the field, the field is longer (see the 0 yard line in the middle of the field). All of the backs can go in motion and can be moving in the moment of the snap. They have 3 downs instead of 4. They also seemed to have different rules on the kicks? Some of these I was prepared for but not all.The food wasn't all that good. I was thrown back to reality in both Seattle and Vancouver because when I said I wanted it vegan they went like "Huh?". Also English is not my native language so I have some trouble when people talk with a foreign accent, which was quite common in Vancouver. I did find a burrito place that had soy cheese, a Chinese restaurant with tofu and a whole lot of Subways.Allthough my feet were double their normal size from all the walking I really enjoyed walking around in Vancouver and I think I pretty much covered all of the downtown part of the city, looking out in all directions of the city too.http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1319.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1432.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1433.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1449.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1467.jpg After almost 3 days in Vancouver it was off to Chicago and some summer heat. Funny thing is you go through customs and immigration already in Canada. It was kinda cool.I was staying at a good hotel right downtown in Chicago. No excuses, just start walking again...I took a tour bus here too. I visited the field museum and I pretty much covered all of the downtown area and the Michigan lake boardwalk. It's not as easy to be a vegan in Chicago as it is in NYC even though they are somewhat similar since Chicago doesn't have delis in the same fashion as NYC. I mostly got by on bean burritos and sanwiches. I'm not complaining.The last day I went to the suburbs to meet up with pelicanAndrew at the Chicago diner and I walked around there some too. It was fun to see a different part of Chicago and not just downtown.http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1554.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1569.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1580.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1632.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1652.jpghttp://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/offense74/PICT1663.jpg The next day I took the subway to Chcago OHare and almost missed my flight since I forgotten which airlaine I was flying with to JFK. I was flying with Air France from JFK so they helped me out. It involved running at the end. I was nervous to say the least.Again thanks all for this wonderful time Edited August 21, 2007 by offense74 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 Wow! I think THIS is my NEW favorite thread! Awesome stuff! I will now have to go back and read it. I just looked at photos. Luckily I'm sitting alone because I just had a very high-pitched laughing out loud moment when I saw the bread on potters head!!!!!!!!! Oh man, this is good stuff! Thanks Defense! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zack Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 haha poor jessi almost falling off the bed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loveliberate Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 Great stuff - thanks for putting it together & sharing it with us! I think you've set a new record by having 3 pic's of me in the same thread... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Octopussoir Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 nice pics!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offense74 Posted August 21, 2007 Author Share Posted August 21, 2007 I know you don't like pictures of yourself so I only chose the ones where you show your ass and neck. Feel better? Great stuff - thanks for putting it together & sharing it with us! Very Happy I think you've set a new record by having 3 pic's of me in the same thread... Confused Laughing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odidnetne Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 This is an awesome thread. It was a lot of fun to hang out with you too. I also laughed pretty hard at the picture of Potter too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessifly Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 Wow, Offense! This is an AWESOME post! Your pics turned out great!!! I especially love the one with the six hikers walking down the grassy hill toward the ocean and the HUGE trees on the left... that is a really awesome picture! Looks like you had a lot of fun after Portland too, I'm glad you enjoyed your travels! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 Great pictures I'm looking forward to you visiting again in a couple years...its gonna be fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lotus Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 thanks for sharing these great photos! Looks like you had a great time!Are you back in Sweden again? We hope you will make it back here sometime again soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offense74 Posted August 22, 2007 Author Share Posted August 22, 2007 I'm back in Sweden. I look forward to go back there sometime in the future Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravi Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 awesome pics! Hope to see you again soon....maybe in sweden? Would be great to come over as part of a euro-VBB meetup! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flanders77 Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 (edited) Thank you so much for putting this together! I really enjoyed reading it and like Robert I am happy to sit alone in my office!I love the picture of the hiking crew sitting in the tree!Btw: It seemes to me that your trip was all about eating and walking around... is that correct? Edited August 23, 2007 by flanders77 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loveliberate Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 I only chose the ones where you show your ass and neck. Hmmm, I wonder what you had yr mind on when ya took those photos.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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