Day 9

We finally had to leave Nita Lake Lodge this day. We packed and began our drive out of Canada. Along the way we hit traffic, saw a few bald eagles and eventually made it to Arlington Washington for the night. This day was basically spent traveling and finding a place to stay for the night. I tried to keep myself occupied by taking pictures along the drive and we also chose to go around Vancouver which meant we avoided a large part of the downtown traffic. I was so sad once we left Canada. I wish I could go back! Note: the random mountain picture is Shannon Falls from the highway.

Day 8

Sunday, July 27th, 2008: We got as much sleep as we could before getting up and getting something to eat in the hotel cafe. I swear the only thing that kept us sane there was coming back to that wonderful room! We got ourselves there in time to see the Airborne Toxic Event. We went stage hopping after that. I saw Death Cab for Cutie! They were okay, but most of the bands on the big stage (such as Death Cab) seemed rushed. Every single band showed up late because of the traffic. Pemberton is a little tiny town above Whistler in British Columbia. There is a single two lane road from the South and the same from the North. The congestion of the traffic should not have been a shock, but for whatever reason, none of the bands seems to get there on time. N.E.R.D. showed up with, I believe, only two band members because the rest were stuck in traffic. I heard that they played a great show, although, I spent that entire show venting on the phone about all the issues going on with the festival.

Earlier that day, we had gone hours in between music sets. People were bored, had nothing to do. However, they were still kicking the smaller bands off the small stage, although I'm sure they would have gladly played longer for the crowds that had nothing to do in between. By Sunday, the trash had become so bad that we had to move trash in order to be able to sit on the ground. I personally absolutely hate it when people throw trash on the ground, however, I also threw my trash on the ground because there were so few trash cans that I couldn't see any around most of the time. On Saturday, cars were being towed in the parking lots because some rows had been packed so that there were no way out for many cars. Many of the problems associated with Pemberton were foreseeable and I'm not sure how the experienced company Live Nation was not able to overcome them.

When Jay-Z started playing, my mom and I moved to the very back of the group of people. The crowd at Pemberton loved him. That was the most packed show of the entire festival and I was one of the few people who didn't care much for him. As we stood in the back, it finally started to really rain hard for the first time that weekend. We grabbed out our umbrellas and enjoyed knowing that we each also had a rain poncho hiding in our purses in case it got too bad. After a little while it stopped raining and it ended up being just enough to wet down the ground pretty good which got rid of the dust for us.

After Jay-Z stopped, many people went off to the party tents (the lines were ridicules for them!). Because of this, I was able to go forward closer to the stage to see Coldplay. The show made all the struggles of the weekend worth it. To hear Coldplay live was great. The lights and paper butterflies added to an exciting show.

After the show was over, it too over an hour of standing in line to get onto a bus. Then, it took well over an hour to get to the parking lot. The bus we were on was so packed with people, that we were standing in the isle. The night before, a bus had crashed into a ditch on the side of the road while heading to the VIP parking lot. I actually saw the bus on it's side Saturday night as we passed it. This night, at least out bus didn't have any major issues. Although, we did hear over the radio that one bus had been taken over by frustrated passengers who kicked out the driver and drove themselves to their parking lot. When we got to our parking lot (my care was completely covered in dust each night) we waited in line for almost another hour before we got out of the parking lot to the street. I think it was after 3am before we got into the hotel room. Thankfully, I had booked the room this night also, so once we got back to the hotel we were able to go to sleep. Yes, that is me stretched completely out in the tub in the hotel room. Really that room was awesome!

Day 7

July 26, 2008: We woke up after sleeping in (our room was completely dark with the curtains drawn and the bed was soooo comfortable!). We made our way over to the festival, and traffic wasn't much of any issue because we went so early in the day. We got there about 11:30 and decided to make our stake out our area and then I went to get something to eat. The food was one thing the festival did great on. They had a ton of vendors with all kinds of food. Some was expensive, but there as long as I didn't have one specific thing in mind, I was able to find something reasonably priced. I think that morning I grabbed some banana bread. When I got back they had decided to cool off the crowd using a snow blower, but of course it was just water coming out the other end. People were hot enough that they were soaking themselves in the water.

Low Vs Diamond was the first band to play that day. They were supposed to start playing at about 1:30 But instead didn't start until closer to 2:30. I attempted to go back and forth some between the stages, although since bands on the smaller stage started late, bands began eventually playing at the same time instead of alternating like the schedule had planned. The sound would have been better if the stages faced opposite directions, but instead, they both pointed the same direction, such as West (that's my guess as an example, I don't know which direction they actually face). The result was that although the music was mostly clear, we could also hear music from the other stage. This was especially true if we were at the smaller stage, as the music wasn't quite as projected compared to the larger stage.

The Flaming Lips deserve their own paragraph here. They had some of the most interesting props for their show. Big balloons, bright colored paper shot from the stage, characters in costume, and one of their band members came out crowd surfing in a big bubble. Most of it was rather silly, but it made everyone want to watch just because we wondered what they would do next.

Dust was an issue the very first day at the festival. While images had been associated with the festival as being held on a green field, this was not at all the case. The ground was dirt with sparse hay laid out on top. Our feet were covered with dirt and when people would walk there were clouds of dust in the air. I later heard that many people were treated over the weekend for respiratory problems, which really was no shock to me. We were grateful that day for the cloud cover that reduced the heat. And later as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers began playing, it started to rain. Petty commented, "I'm going to slow it down just a little bit here. See if we can grove in the rain here a little bit." And then he started playing Free Fallin' while we all enjoyed the rain as relief from the heat and something to settle the dust. Their show was awesome! It started making it all worth it.

That night, we waited a little longer in line for the buses. We also first went to one gate, only to find out we had to exit from a different gate that night. It might have been nice if they had told us, but mass confusion from a huge crowd was probably more amusing. I'm not even sure what time we made it back to the hotel that night. Tom Petty started playing about an hour late and it was after midnight before we got back to our room.

Day 6

Day number 6, also known as July 25th, 2008. The Pemberton festival started this day. We left Vancouver early to start the drive up to Whistler. Again we went through downtown Vancouver and across the Lions Gate Bridge. Once on the other side, we followed the sea to sky highway to Whistler. Along the way there was of course some more things to see.

The first thing we stopped to see was another waterfall. This one was called Shannon Falls and it was the most dramatic fall we had seen yet. The falls along the Columbia River Gorge are beautiful, but it was the magnitude of Shannon Falls that made the difference. The waterfall is 1105 feet high and 75 feet wide. Absolutely gorgeous!

Just off in the distance from Shannon Falls we could see a rock formation that was known as Stawamus Chief. Just beyond this was a town called Squamish. During the Fall, this area is known to be the largest gathering of bald eagles in the world. Thousands of eagles will line the banks in search of food. So, of course we kept our eyes pealed for eagles as we passed through. However, it was still summer, too early for the gathering of the eagles yet and we didn't see any that day.

The next thing we stopped for was to see Brandywine Falls. This was another dramatic waterfall. This was one of the few falls that we were able to view from the top of the fall, looking down at the drop, instead of looking up from the bottom. This gave us an understanding of how far down 216 feet really is. This waterfall was absolutely beautiful and worth the small hike to get there.

We continued to make our way to Whistler. I had my face down, probably looking at either the many maps at my feet, the list of things to see that I had made, or the Pemberton music festival lineup when my mom called out "bear!" I looked up in time to see a bear on the side of the highway as we went flying past. I'm not sure what he was up to, but he wasn't even phased by the heavy traffic within his view.

We checked into the beautiful Nita Lake Lodge (the place was worth every penny!), changed, and got our things together for the concerts. And so begins our three days of chaos. We left around 1pm to make what should have been a 30 minute drive North to the small town of Pemberton. This 30 minute drive turned into three and a half hours of stop and go (mostly stop). The drive was still entertaining as we watched many other people scramble out into the bushes for pee breaks, which was especially funny when it was the city girls in the dresses with high heels. One or two decided it was worth it and came back to their cars. We also passed locals who were walking the highway selling Popsicles and one guy who set up a BBQ on the side of the road and was selling hot dogs.

We finally made it into Pemberton, only to suddenly realize the line of cars just disbursed into three different directions. There were no clear directions as to which parking lot we needed to go to. I called home and got some directions that were online. Once we got into the parking, I was charged less than I was supposed to be (no complaints from me). We grabbed our stuff and got on a bus, which didn't take too long. The bus ride to the festival took a little while since there was still bumper to bumper traffic. Once we got to the festival we actually made it minutes before Wolfmother (the first band I wanted to see that day) started to play. We did some stage hopping and saw The Secret Machines, Kathleen Edwards, and Interpool.

We left early, not bothering to stay and watch Nine Inch Nails. We knew traffic would be bad getting back and didn't think Nine Inch Nails was worth losing sleep over. We later heard that the buses were worst that first night. People stood in line for over two hours to get onto a bus and then the ride took an hour to get to the parking lot. And then there was stop and go traffic to get to a hotel. But, when we left that first night there was little traffic and we were actually able to get a good nights sleep. (Thank goodness because it would be a few nights before we'd have that luxury again.)

Day 5

This day we decided to take some time and go through Stanley Park. Up to this point I wasn't really sure what I thought of Vancouver. The traffic was horrible and really nothing had been too special about it. But, Stanley Park changed this perception. We drove through the park from place to place. We stopped to look at gardens, hike trails in the forest, and hike trails by the ocean and along beaches. We saw a pair of Bald Eagles fly into some tall pine trees and we sat and waited for almost an hour for them to move again, but they refused to put on a show for us. We saw an otter on a rock munching on something crunchy. Raccoons, swans, and black squirrels were some of the other wildlife we saw along the way. This park is truly an amazing place in Vancouver.

Day 4

Finally crossed into another country for the first time in my life! We drove into Canada and went right through the heart of Vancouver and over Lions Gate Bridge. Traffic was a lot like driving in San Francisco during rush hour. It took a long time to get through the city and half of the streets are straight or right only, no left turns. Oh, the green lights flash! That made it hard to drive because the whole time we were trying to figure out why they were blinking. After the Lions Gate Bridge, we ended up in a middle lane that changes direction with the flow of rush hour. Green lights above the lane let us know if we were allowed to travel in it or not. I know we have those in the US also, but I had never actually seen one until going into Canada.

Our first event for this day was going to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. We spent a few hours hanging out there. The bridge was okay. I doubt I'd go through the trouble of going there again. Although, it was interesting and kept us busy for the day. The bridge itself is over a gorge and is 450 feet long and 230 feet high. We tried to cross with bridge without using our hands to hold the rail, but because there were so many people walking across it as the same time, the whole bridge swayed and trying to keep our balance was nearly impossible without holding on. The height of the bridge didn't really bother me much. Maybe I'll have to try skydiving to get my heart racing.

The next adventure was to again cross the Lions Gate Bridge into Vancouver and make our way to Stanley Park for the 2008 HSBC Celebration of Lights. Basically, this was a 30 minute firework competition. That night was Canada's night. We found our way into Stanley Park and found a great place off to the side of the crowds to watch the show. We arrived fairly early and had a few hours to kill. We walked around very briefly just to get an idea of where we were. We ended up just North of the English Bay (which is where the firework show was being performed out in the ocean). The beach directly in the English Bay was crowded. Since we were off to the side, we were not in the mist of the crowd. The spot where we sat was perfect. We were able to hear the music the fireworks were set to and we still had a great view of the show right in front of us (the barge was the base for the fireworks). It was probably the most amazing firework show I've ever seen.

That night, it took us a long while to get back over the boarder to stay in Bellingham again. We stayed there for practical reasons. Number one being that it was a lot cheaper to stay there. Between the firework show and the Pemberton festival, most of the hotels were sold out or very expensive. Driving back to Bellingham saved us some money, but the drive through the heart of Vancouver, especially after the fireworks, took a long time.

Day 3

Day three was just crazy. Way too much to see. We first went along the Columbia River Gorge. We saw waterfalls there and visited the Vista House. We hiked to a few of the waterfalls, which ended up being way too much walking. If I ever go back I want to spend a whole day hiking there.

Next was Mount St. Helens. We went up the less traveled East side of the mountain. We saw a few Elk on the way up. I didn't get any pictures, they moved behind the bushes too quick. We made our way up to St. Helens and stopped everywhere we could. The road wasn't open all the way into the East side. It stopped at that first viewing point. It was still a neat experience. The pine trees seem never ending and cover every space as they go up the mountain and into the valleys below.

The last place to see this day was Mount Rainier National Park. The drive into the park is beautiful. Cliffs on the side drop deep with a river at the bottom. The road weaves through the mountains (reminds me of home). There was one place where the trees were snapped off and all around this river. We believe this much be a place where an avalanche occurred. There was also a river near the end of the park that can only be described as massive during the winter months. I can hardly imagine the small river we saw flooding those river banks. And, it was at this point that I became extremely happy that I had decided to get a National Parks Pass. The whole time we were driving today it was overcast. It rained very little and it kept the temperatures down during our hikes. But, it was foggy at Mount Rainier. We went through the whole park and never caught a glimpse of the top of the mountain. So, next week we are going back to another portion of the park and hopefully we will actually see it next time.

That night we decided to drive to Bellingham, which is about 60 miles away from the US/Canada border.