Day 23: USA

North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre

Nicole spotted the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre on an ad during our drive around Parksville. After a short research we decided to visit it on our way to the ferry.

It’s a beautiful made rescue center for injured or abandoned animals. They have the main mission to help the animals, but also try to raise awareness in the public for the wildlife and how the are endangered. They have a large building to train Eagles to be able to set them free. Also the bear cubs they have, are shielded from the public and only visible via live stream, to make sure that they don’t get used to humans.

We spent around an hour, strolling through the Centre and because we were the first people and there right as they opened, we had the whole centre pretty much for us.

Drive & Ferry

Then it was time to start the drive to the Black Ball Ferry Terminal in Victoria. We arrived around an hour early and used the time to do a short walk through the city.

Before we could board the ferry, we had to go through the US custom & immigration. This consisted of two steps, first an officer came to our car and asked some quick questions. Gave us a paper which stated that in our car 2 people are travelling. Then we had to go to the custom & border patrol building. As we needed a permit to enter the states, we had to wait until all US & Canadan citizens were handled. Then it was time for taking pictures and scanning our fingerprints. Some more questions about duration of the stay, address in the states, etc.

After all that was done, it was nearly time to board, the whole process took around one hour.

The ferry ride was around 2 hours, but we had WiFi and used the time to catch up a bit on our phones.

USA

After we left the ferry, there was a last quick interview by a border agent and then off we went. Welcome to USA.

From the Port Angeles Ferry Terminal, it was around a 2:30h drive. And as we arrived at 17:00, we decided to eat on our way to Seattle. Nicole found Family Thai Cuisine in Silverdale, as we arrived they informed us that there is currently only take-out possible. First we thought about looking for another place, but the lady convinced us that we should take out and then eat at the waterfront. We did that and were really happy with the choice, because the food was delicious and the view great. And this with nearly 30 degrees and sun.

After we dined, we did the last 1:30h drive to Seattle and checked in at the Hotel for the next 2 nights. It’s again a CitizenM Hotel, which we already had in Paris. The room is identical, but I like the concept overall, it’s very clean and has great location in the city.

As we spent more than 6 hours in the car, we needed some activity and went for a quick walk to the Lake Union.

Back at the Hotel I decided it’s time for my daily blog entry and Nicole went to checkout the Gym.

Pictures

Activities

Nothing Today