August 5 2009
Well about a week ago is when I decided to head down to the states on my own. The first night I drove to Langley BC where they had a great skate park. Too bad it was full of kids and teenagers who were sitting all over the ramps. The park had a great mini/spine section that was all concrete and really smooth.
That night I parked the van in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and when I woke up the next morning it was hot as hell in the van. This was the start of a heat wave that lead me to staying in hostels, because the van would stay roasting hot till 12 at night and start heating up as soon as the sun hit it in the morning.
The next day I crossed the border. Barely. I thought I was prepared to cross, but they asked me all kinds of questions, mainly after they found out I didn’t have a job to return to. Its hard to explain that your on a leave of absence from a career placement organization. Anyways after a young lady interrogated me for a while, to the point where I was sure that I wasn’t gonna get across, she sent me to her supervisor who asked a few more questions and finally sent me on my way.
That day I drove down to Arlington cause they have a crazy skate park:
Unfortunately it was hot as hell outside and after an hour of riding I was soaked. And I still hadn’t figured out a good line around that bowl.
So I drove over to a campsite by a river and stayed there the night.
Not the best Campsite, but it worked
My spot was right next to the river
The next day I drove down to Seattle where I had booked in at the Green Tortoise hostel. I left the van on the side of the road with the bikes locked inside in a suburb in north Seattle, because parking downtown was $21 to $28 a day. I took the bus into the city.
That night I went out to the Fun House, which is seattle’s punk bar. Anyways it was a Wednesday night and it was dead in there, even though there were bands. This band called Pink Pussy Death Machine played first, it was these two women who looked to be in their 30s, and they rocked the place(me and 4 other people). Next was a band called Quick Brown Fox, they weren’t bad, and they gave me a demo for free, which was cool. Some other band played after them too, but they were forgettable.
One thing about Seattle is there’s lots of homeless people, and they have no shame in beggin’. When I was walking to the bar this one guy came up beside me and grabbed my arm and he said: “I need money man! My parents are dead! I have no job! I have no house! I need money!” I told him I haven’t got no American money on me(which was the truth). Then he said, more desperate than ever “come on man, how bout some of that Canadian money? Twenty bucks! Twenty bucks Canadian and I’ll leave you alone!” (this whole time he had been hangin onto my arm while I was walking). “nah” I said. He followed me for another block pleading his case then he grabbed onto someone else’s arm. The guy didn’t even look poor, he had nice shoes and it looked like his hair had been cut recently.
I don’t mind giving a buck or two to people who busking or flying signs, but don’t try to force me to give you money.
Next day I walked around and checked out Seattle. I walked through the fish market, which was crazy busy, then down the waterfront to Olympic Sculpture park. There were lots of weird things made out of metal that were baking in the hot sun:
These giant steel wavy things were neat
Metal Tree!
After that I walked over to The Experience Music Project, which is like a music museum mainly focused on the northwest music scene(jazz, punk, rap, rock, and grunge). The main focal point is a huge instrument sculpture (made up of over 700 instruments). Some of the instruments were connected to little devices that could play them, and if you put on headphones you could listen to the song the sculpture was playing.
I stared at thing for at least half an hour
Also featured at the museum was an extensive Jimmy Hendrix exhibit, featuring his old clothes, guitars, and his handwritten song lyrics(where you could see lines that he crossed out or added to famous songs. That was interesting.).
After that I went back to the hostel to get out of the heat for a few hours and to eat the free dinner they were serving that night(did I mention they also serve free breakfast there?). Then a large group of us all went out on a pub crawl to a bunch of different bars(some bars were selling $1 pints of PBR!). I met a bunch of cool people, and our table at the bar looked like a UN meeting.
I left Seattle on Friday to drive to Portland so I could check out Portland Punk Fest, featuring a ton of killer bands. I checked out all the hostels in Portland but they were all full so I ended up staying at a cheap motel. At this point it was still to hot to be sleeping in the van.
It was a good show, here’s some pictures (the pictures suck because I usually just pull the camera out as an excuse to get to the front of the crowd).
Ponx!
A folk-punk band that ruled
The next day I checked out of the motel and decided to head for the coast…
Washington and Oregon
August 5 2009
Well about a week ago is when I decided to head down to the states on my own. The first night I drove to Langley BC where they had a great skate park. Too bad it was full of kids and teenagers who were sitting all over the ramps. The park had a great mini/spine section that was all concrete and really smooth.
That night I parked the van in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and when I woke up the next morning it was hot as hell in the van. This was the start of a heat wave that lead me to staying in hostels, because the van would stay roasting hot till 12 at night and start heating up as soon as the sun hit it in the morning.
The next day I crossed the border. Barely. I thought I was prepared to cross, but they asked me all kinds of questions, mainly after they found out I didn’t have a job to return to. Its hard to explain that your on a leave of absence from a career placement organization. Anyways after a young lady interrogated me for a while, to the point where I was sure that I wasn’t gonna get across, she sent me to her supervisor who asked a few more questions and finally sent me on my way.
That day I drove down to Arlington cause they have a crazy skate park:
Unfortunately it was hot as hell outside and after an hour of riding I was soaked. And I still hadn’t figured out a good line around that bowl.
So I drove over to a campsite by a river and stayed there the night.
Not the best Campsite, but it worked
My spot was right next to the river
The next day I drove down to Seattle where I had booked in at the Green Tortoise hostel. I left the van on the side of the road with the bikes locked inside in a suburb in north Seattle, because parking downtown was $21 to $28 a day. I took the bus into the city.
That night I went out to the Fun House, which is seattle’s punk bar. Anyways it was a Wednesday night and it was dead in there, even though there were bands. This band called Pink Pussy Death Machine played first, it was these two women who looked to be in their 30s, and they rocked the place(me and 4 other people). Next was a band called Quick Brown Fox, they weren’t bad, and they gave me a demo for free, which was cool. Some other band played after them too, but they were forgettable.
One thing about Seattle is there’s lots of homeless people, and they have no shame in beggin’. When I was walking to the bar this one guy came up beside me and grabbed my arm and he said: “I need money man! My parents are dead! I have no job! I have no house! I need money!” I told him I haven’t got no American money on me(which was the truth). Then he said, more desperate than ever “come on man, how bout some of that Canadian money? Twenty bucks! Twenty bucks Canadian and I’ll leave you alone!” (this whole time he had been hangin onto my arm while I was walking). “nah” I said. He followed me for another block pleading his case then he grabbed onto someone else’s arm. The guy didn’t even look poor, he had nice shoes and it looked like his hair had been cut recently.
I don’t mind giving a buck or two to people who busking or flying signs, but don’t try to force me to give you money.
Next day I walked around and checked out Seattle. I walked through the fish market, which was crazy busy, then down the waterfront to Olympic Sculpture park. There were lots of weird things made out of metal that were baking in the hot sun:
These giant steel wavy things were neat
Metal Tree!
After that I walked over to The Experience Music Project, which is like a music museum mainly focused on the northwest music scene(jazz, punk, rap, rock, and grunge). The main focal point is a huge instrument sculpture (made up of over 700 instruments). Some of the instruments were connected to little devices that could play them, and if you put on headphones you could listen to the song the sculpture was playing.
I stared at thing for at least half an hour
Also featured at the museum was an extensive Jimmy Hendrix exhibit, featuring his old clothes, guitars, and his handwritten song lyrics(where you could see lines that he crossed out or added to famous songs. That was interesting.).
After that I went back to the hostel to get out of the heat for a few hours and to eat the free dinner they were serving that night(did I mention they also serve free breakfast there?). Then a large group of us all went out on a pub crawl to a bunch of different bars(some bars were selling $1 pints of PBR!). I met a bunch of cool people, and our table at the bar looked like a UN meeting.
I left Seattle on Friday to drive to Portland so I could check out Portland Punk Fest, featuring a ton of killer bands. I checked out all the hostels in Portland but they were all full so I ended up staying at a cheap motel. At this point it was still to hot to be sleeping in the van.
It was a good show, here’s some pictures (the pictures suck because I usually just pull the camera out as an excuse to get to the front of the crowd).
Ponx!
A folk-punk band that ruled
The next day I checked out of the motel and decided to head for the coast…