Today's blog by Natasha: Alcatraz was worth the 20 year wait J (Note: if you're planning see Alcatraz, book in advance.Had we tried to get tickets today, we would have had to wait a week before going - that was the next available time! So I would have missed it, again.) Man, was it ever windy on the rock!I swear we were almost horizontal at times (and I nearly fell over a couple of times)We really enjoyed the audio tour - it was very informative and interesting....

Today's Blog by Natasha: Boarded the plane this morning believing that today was our long trek across the pond.As far as I knew, confirmed by the itinerary that I had, we were flying to San Francisco with a quick stop over before heading to Los Angeles and then finally off to Melbourne.There was no reason not to believe that this was the case since Chris always does his homework and would book the best flight options.We were starting on American airlines and the...

Today we did a four-hour hike along the Eagle Creek Recreation Trail in the Columbia gorge near from Portland.It was a beautiful trail through semi rainforest (who knew there was semi rainforest in Oregon).There were so many plants on all levels - underbrush, vines and trees - just breathtaking.We stopped and soaked our feet in the glacier fed stream, while watching two girls leap from a ledge above - we were sure that one of them was going to hurt themselves, be...

Woke up late.I mean, 12:30 late.It was great to sleep in after so many early mornings.We went to the grocery store with Lisa to pick up some food and get some caffeine and had a lazy afternoon J In the evening, we enjoyed some Comic bowling at a 10 pin bowling lane.We had never been 10 pin bowling before, so it was a bit of an adjustment.The music was rocking and the black lights were fun - we enjoyed watching the music videos on the big screens.Natasha won a ...

Security at the Vancouver Airport when going into the US sure is fun J.After waiting in line forever for the one (one!) border security lady to check us through (was she ever pleasant!), Chris was "randomly" selected for additional screening by Canadian security at the X-Ray machines.Lucky him - he got the pat down, search all the bags, check everything out ordeal, although at least this guy was nice about it. After hanging around YVR for a bit, we c...