Out of Canada into Washington state
Chrissy recommended 'Quick Shuttle' service over the Greyhound as it's quicker and there's less hounding when going through the border to the US, apparently they're more rigorous with Greyhound buses. Plus the Quick Shuttle left just down the road from the flat and had only 12 other people on the bus, the benefits were immediate, bus was sparse, no one smelt bad or was weird and the bus was clean and in good condition. The border had the nicest immigration officials I've ever come across. They only had to process 12 people in that instance so I suppose that helped (and none of those people smelt bad).
It was another 2-3 hours to get to Seattle from the border, and the bus driver dropped me off right by the hostel, he was the nicest bus driver, he even gave some smelly weird guy $2.25 for a coffee in Vancouver, and he sang to himself and was generally humorous, he reminded me of a goon which made me feel at home.
I had booked the Green Tortoise Hostel, also recommended by Chrissy, breakfasts included and free dinners 3 times a week plus a bunch of things organised throughout the week, as well as free computer and internet use*. Some enlightened being had had the idea to put curtains round each dorm bed, which made them more into wee bedrooms, each bed had its own light and fan and plugs. Plus the bathrooms were all individual rooms rather than communal areas, so each floor had a series of private bathrooms, all tiled and decorated in a manner befitting a rather nice hotel. And all this right opposite Pike Market Place, a fantastic, lively, messy working market place. I found Seattle ugly but very interesting, and the food is just wonderful. After wandering around the market place and eating some very filling pancakes, I walked to an area called 'Seattle Center' where there's a bunch of interesting places like IMAX cinema, science museum, sky tower, music and culture museum. I didn't have time to go to all so went to the EMP (Experience Music Project) as there was a bunch of exhibitions including an Avatar exhibition, a horror movie and sci-fi exhibitions. I was just about done and found an area full of instruments with mini booths around them, so you could play away on guitar, keyboard, drums, mixing desks. There were even completely sound proof booths which gave you 10 minutes slots to use. I spent about an hour playing drums and was pleased I could at least knock out a standard rock drum beat. I must have spent 5 hours in that place.
The next day I took a tour to look around the Boeing Factory just north of Seattle. It's the biggest building by volume in the world, the building is mindbogglingly big, imagine the planet construction building in Hitch Hikers Guide and your going in the right direction. You enter via a sort of portal...actually an underground tunnel, a network of which run underneath the building, and from one end - look infinite. The building is in sections, each section building a different class of boeing, there are massive horizontal cranes which move across the roof, and are as impressive as the constructions on the ground. We even saw the newest Boeing called the Dreamliner, flight is still evolving it seems, and the things they are doing are pretty amazing.