Vancouver Twice in One Day

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 23:59:59 -800

The third and final summer trip is the usual Jason and Darrick roadtrip fare,
but this year with a twist! We decided to meet in Seattle, rent a car, and
drive from Seattle to Vancouver, BC; Whistler; Victoria; Port Angeles; and back
to Seattle. I took Amtrak up to Seattle, which turned out to be a rather
pleasant affair--while it's a three hour trip, that's no slower than driving,
and you can zone out for the three hours on the train. The train stops a few
times, just long enough to exchange passengers, and it takes off again. I
think it stopped in Vancouver, WA; Olympia; Centralia; and Tacoma before it was
my stop. Unfortunately, I had to get off at Tukwila so that I could take a cab
to the airport. Beware that Tukwila station; it's a bunch of plywood boards
and nothing else. No ticket booth, no cabs. Jason's Google instructions then
sent me to the Alamo car maintenance facility instead of to the rental counter.
It was sort of amusing--the service shop is a long parking lot with tons of
rental cars queued up for service. Eventually I got a lift to the actual
airport and we headed out.