We head out early off to the Seattle bus depot to catch our Amtrak bus to VC.

The bus was pretty comfortable and we got chatting to a girl from Michigan called Amber. By 6.30 pm we had arrived an hour late due to a delay caused by the most irritating woman ever - irritating but comical!

Basically, as we were about to pull away a lady who we'd noticed running around the station manically, had a station master with her instructing the driver to detour to her Ferry port as she had missed her bus and the next Ferry to Alaska isn't for a week - this is a big detour but needs must and no one wants to leave a person stranded eh!

After 3 hours of listening to her rattle on torturing the poor driver, who is also trying to train up a new driver, we were all convinced the bus left early on purpose - the ferry passengers must have told him to make haste. She constantly interrupted the driver with the most stupid questions - he must have said "I don't know I have nothing to do with the ferries" and "why don't you just ask at the office when I drop you off" about a million times, she paid no heed and kept bombarding him with "but where do I go?" "What road are you taking?" "Aren't those trees lovely, what kind of trees are they?" "Oh I've had a bad day, yours couldn't be worse than mine" we were sure the driver was becoming more and more inclined to disagree.

So, after three hours of verbal diarrhoea she was dropped off - best one yet despite a bus load now being an hour late for their connections "can't you just drop me at the ferry?" Get off the bus woman you have two hours until you depart!!!

So, we're back on track and hit rush our because of the delay - we pull up to Pacific Central station and our buddy John from back home is stood waiting - hugs and selfies galore!

John's doing well now an IT project manager and we find out his girlfriend Jess has a new job teaching art to kids and organising events - sadly it means she's off training this weekend so it's us and John for a bonding session!

We get to John's dump our stuff and head out to his local the coach house for a bite with Jess's cousin Chris who lives with them.

John is gonna put us up until Friday which is great. Jacq tries Long Island Ice Tea - delicious and we grab some booze from the off-license aka liquor store.

We make tracks for Maple Ridge bowling alley where John's buddies are and grab some pitchers, Jacq bowls (awfully) and then we all head to Pete and Caroline's house.

This house is like something out of MTV cribs! It's gorgeous! With tasteful Harley Davidson signs, a small electric car hanging on the wall and music area with drum kit, keyboards and guitars galore permanently set up. The pad has a den and the lushest pool and hot tub out back - it's the most awesome house we've seen for people who aren't famous, Jacqs convinced he must have had a number one hit in Germany years ago and the royalties are still paying out! It's trimmed with wood and has a massive central stone built fireplace -it's almost cabin like inside - so classy! So, the predictable happens - the boys jam and it's a fab night.

Real boys' night and Matt's lovin it!