Considering the perfect weather, the wonderful food, and the spectacular sightseeing- I'd say we planned the best honeymoon money can buy!
Neither of us had ever been to the west coast. When we were thinking of options for our trip, Aaron mentioned Canada and it just kind of went from there. I found excellent prices on flights in and out of Seattle so we just planned it around that!
Tuesday, June 16
We flew in early to Seattle and arranged to be picked up by a driver in a Lincoln Town Car! Thanks to my endless hours of research the hotel recommended this for just about $5 more than the cost of a cab. What a fun way to start our trip, I thought! Our hotel was perfect for the start of our honeymoon! We stayed at the Hotel Max in downtown Seattle. Everyone was so nice and accommodating when we arrived, right down to attempting to pronounce "Mrs. Swartzendruber" every time they spoke to me! The hotel features lots of modern art and the room doors were photos taken by local Seattle artists. Each room also featured a sculpture or painting on the inside.
Inside the roomI planned the downtown location because we were able to walk everywhere. Public Transportation is so popular and inexpsensive that I refused to rent a car. That was an excellent idea considering how much parking cost.
Anyway, we walked to Seattle Center, where the Space Needle and Experience Music Project Museum are. We stopped along the way at Two Bells Cafe for the #9 rated burger in Seattle! It was the closest of the top ten that we could walk to. And it didn't disappoint! :)
Both the Needle and EMP museum were amazing, and the Sci Fi museum ticket was included as part of the cost. This wasn't exactly up our alley of interests, but they were featuring a Jim Henson exhibit that was really cool! We spent a lot of time at that exhibit and looking through "the history of the guitar" rooms at the EMP museum.
Reflection of Space Needle on the side of the EMP
Looking at the EMP from the NeedleWe were so exhausted with the time change and the 5 AM flight out of Des Moines that we had to go back and take a nap. We woke up later and went out for some excellent pizza and night views of the city though!
Wednesday, June 17
Rested up, we were awake bright and early ready for some Seattle coffee and the famous Pike Place market!
So early in fact, the market hadn't opened yet. We walked into the area to find all the vendors deciding where they were going to set up for the day. This was actually really neat to see. It was similar to an auction the way they chose where they would set up. The market is full of fresh food and fish and vendors selling souvenirs and other items. It was really cool, there was so much to see! We ate at the Crab Pot where our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs! This was one of our favorite places of the entire trip though because of the menu and atmosphere. We ordered a basket full of just about any fish you could imagine and a Salmon BLT. Sounds weird but oh my was this sandwich amazing! We walked around town some more, did some shopping, and then went out on the town that evening!
Thursday, June 18
On this day we were headed up to Canada via Amtrak. Amtrak bus that is. The train was all sold out by the time I purchased the tickets. We took off from historical King Street Station located right next to Safeco and Qwest Fields. We had time to kill so we found a cafe and walked around with our luggage looking like tourists. The King Street Station was really neat but I can't find a good website giving it's history.
The drive up north was gorgeous.
We sat in the front so we had a huge view ahead of us and on both sides. We pulled into Vancouver in the afternoon and immediately took a cab to a suburb called Ladner, BC for our stay at River Run Cottages Bed and Breakfast.We stayed here for two nights and it was so relaxing! I can't say enough how amazing and beautiful this place was. It looked straight out of a fairytale.
The owners have a home and 4 cottages located right on the Fraser River off the Strait of Georgia. We chose the Netloft cottage. It included our own private deck with a private jacuzzi over looking the water, a spiral staircase indoors leading up to a captain's bed with a gorgeous window view of the water, Vancouver skyline, and the North Shore Mountains. It was absolutely breathtaking. When we got there, the innkeepers were away. There was a note waiting for us on the wooden gate welcoming us to our cottage. There was "romantic" music playing and fresh home made cookies and Sherry (which we discovered we weren't fond of) waiting for us. The weather was perfect, 75 degrees, and the view of the North Shore mountains was sooooo amazing! They left duck feed on the porch and I was totally obsessed with feeding the ducks! Flocks of them swam up right under our deck to eat. The innkeepers even had a wonderful Yellow Lab, Elmo, that kept us company from time to time! Our cottage also had a living room and kitchen downstairs complete with other snacks and fresh ground coffee for us. Like I said- a fairytale!
The views from our deck 
The jacuzzi 
The ducks 
Elmo
The spiral staircase
The captain's bed upstairs 
Fresh herbs and spices they used for our mealsThat evening we walked to a Greek restaurant in the downtown area they call Ladner Village full of cafes and shops. The food was amazing and I learned that $2.50 Greek Coffee is really gross! I can't even describe it but the cup was smaller than a shot glass. We completed the night playing Scrabble with some drinks on the porch watching the sunset. And of course, dipped in the jacuzzi after the stars came out!
Friday, June 19
On this morning, our breakfast of fresh, home made strawberry crepes, fresh fruit, toast, scones, and french press coffee was brought to our deck. YUMM!! Elmo even came to watch us eat! We took the innkeepers bikes on a bike ride that afternoon to Windham Island.
About a 6 mile bike ride along the shore and across the river. We found a strawberry patch and we stopped and picked a few to eat.
We stopped a couple more times to walk along the river and check out the fisherman boats.Then we found a fresh fruit winery where we got to sample some and I picked a bottle out for myself. We had to find a way to get it back to our cottage on our bikes without breaking it! It was quite the jimmy-rigged contraption but we made it work.
We returned to our freshly cleaned room and fresh home made cupcakes waiting for us in our kitchen. Neither of us are pastry fans but these were SOOOOOO delicious! Of course, all their food was!
That evening we rode the bikes back into Ladner Village and ate at a seafood restaurant on the shore. You'd never guess- but it was delicious! We met some new friends at a local pub and shocked them with stories of drastic high and low temperatures and 2 feet of snow falling in one day! :)
Saturday, June 20
This morning our breakfast was our absolute favorite meal of the whole trip: Slamon Eggs Benedict! Again, it sounds kind of weird but it was great!
Our menu options we got the night beforeThe innkeepers were so friendly and gave us a ride into town to the bus station. It was a short ride to our hotel, Cascadia Suites. Again thanks to my endless hours of researching and Expedia, we stayed for very cheap on the 20th floor of this spectacular downtown Vancouver hotel. We had a kitchenette and walk out balcony with floor to ceiling window view. The view? Looking left to the English Bay and Burrard Inlet, looking right toward downtown and the breath taking North Shore Mountains. This just topped off the dream-like vacation we were having!
This was our stay for the next three nights! We walked around and checked out Robson Street, the downtown shopping district and Stanley Park. Stanley Park is too huge to describe!
There are parks, trails leading through forests and wild life, gorgeous views of the Burrard Inlet, North Shore Mountains, and Lions Gate Bridge. It was a long walk but totally worth it and we didn't even get to see all of it!Then we headed to the Coldplay concert where we scalped some pretty cheap tickets. It was an amazing show and just a 1/2 mile walk from our hotel.
Sunday, June 21
The longest day of the year, Summer Solstice! On this day we spent money on the only thing we regretted buying the whole trip-The Big Bus. Something about a two day pass on a hop-on hop-off double decker British themed bus was too tempting for us tourists to resist. It was a waste of money because everything we saw was winthin walking distance and it was really expensvie. But it took out some of the walking, which we needed by this point in the trip!
We checked out Vancouver's Chinatown, the 2nd biggest in North America behind San Fransisco's. It was pretty neat; lots of souveniers and history here! Then we took the jerky, smelly double decker over to Canada Place.
Nothing too spectacular, it serves as many things like a ship terminal and site for the East Vancouver Convention Centre (where part of the 2010 Olympics will take place) and of course more spectacular views of the shore and mountains.
A trolly picked us up here and took us across the Lion's Gate bridge to North Vancouver and the Capilano Suspension Bridge. If you haven't been checking out the links, I suggest checking this one out!
It's a HUGE suspension bridge 230 feet in the treetops over the Capilano River. It was so amazing! There was a little mist while we were there, but it's the only time it rained the whole trip! Once you cross the scary looking suspension bridge, there are "tree top adventures" with smaller suspension bridges and trails and boardwalks weaving in and out of the forest.
The trees were truly an amazing sight to see!Then came "The ring incident"!
Once we got done with the tour and back across the bridge, Aaron and I purchased some local brewed beer while we waited for the next trolly. We mutually decided it would be a great photo-op if we took off our rings and posed them next to the bottles.
(wasn't the photo a great idea?) Then we started a discussion about what fingers the rings look good on....who knows. Somehow Aaron and I were passing my newly soldered and shiny wedding ring from one to the other, and it dropped below us and down the crack of the deck we were sitting on. Thankfully, I was able to crawl under this gross spot with a restaurant bus boy and find the ring. The whole incident was a lot scarier than the bridge!
The crack 
The deck I crawled under
That evening we stayed in the hotel and watched the sun set over the bay and the mountains. One of the most memorable and favorite parts of the trip for both of us!
Monday, June 22
Our last day in Vancouver :(
We hopped on our Big waste of money Bus tour again and headed to Granville Island, a Public Market and shopping area. A lot of people recommend we go here, but I think we caught it at a rather un-exciting time. After the Seattle public market and the awesome shopping district on Robson Street, this place was just not impressive to us. We rode the bus then to Gastown, a unique historical area full of more shopping!
We finished up some souviner shopping at Chinatown and Robson Street and just enjoyed our last night in Vancouver. Lots of walking made us so tired, but it was totally worth it.Monday, June 22 & Tuesday, June 23
We took the bus back to Seattle, had one last amazing northwest meal, and took a cab away from downtown to an airport hotel. The plane ride home was a nightmare with a storm in Dallas that delayed us on the runway for over an hour. Then we flew over a storm and it was so scary that I vow never to fly again. Landing in hot, sticky, 95 degree Iowa made us wish we could go back!
I would recommend the trip to anyone and would love to take it again! We loved every minute and agreed 3 days is not enough time to spend in Vancouver, the River Run Cottages are a must for anyone taking a trip to the Vancouver area, and Seattle is easily do-able in two days, but could also spend a week there and not get bored! And definitely do not rent a car!!!! Trying to drive around and pay for parking would have just added un-necessary stress! Research the public transportation and walk if you are able. Then you have a great excuse to eat all that amazing food I kept talking about!
