Travelogue- Seattle and Vancouver

Mrs. View and I had an opportunity to travel to Seattle to meet an exceptional person and great blogger, Su Ring, who is on twitter @motley_su. She was our gracious hostess and tour guide around Seattle.

Su covers the the Western Hockey League action for SB Nation. Here we are at Salty's, a great local seafood restaurant

The restaurant was across the harbor from downtown Seattle. This is the view of the Seattle skyline from the restaurant.

Mrs. View and I then drove to Vancouver and joined the team at the team hotel. This is the view of Vancouver harbor from our room.

The view from our room, looking north at Stanley Park and North Vancouver.

The baby zamboni re-surfacing the public ice rink at Robson Square in downtown Vancouver. The rink is actually in an open air mall that is below street level.

This is the Vancouver Public Library in downtown. It was a magnificent facility.

Canada Place, which was the site of of much of the anchor desks for the Olympic television coverage. Canada Place sits right on the harbor and includes a five star hotel.

A view of Vancouver harbor from the waterfront. The freighters like the one in the picture were constantly plying the harbor.

Mrs. View and I at the marina by the hotel.

Seaplane taxis fly in and out of the harbor throughout the day. They ferry people to Victoria Island and points westward.

Rogers Centre is tucked in among light rail stops and local highways. This is the view from the metro stop outside the arena.

The inside of the Rogers Centre. The tall vertical screens are used in the opening activities as screens onto which are projected images of the team and the players. They are retracted into the rafters once the game begins.

Another view of the Rogers Centre scoreboard and retired numbers.

Representing for the Predators.

As you can imagine, the Canucks fans had a "warm" welcome awaiting Shane O'Brien. One fan was holding up a sign that asked Shane if he wanted to meet him at the Roxy after the game. That was the local bar that Shane was known to frequent while in Vancouver.

Predators in the pre-skate.

Pekka warming up before pitching a shutout against the Canucks.

Shea practicing his glare and waiting to get his snarl on.

Blake Geoffrion at the pre-skate. He played a solid game against the Canucks.

The Vancouver area is one of the prettiest areas in Canada. The downtown is vibrant and clean, although it does have an abundance of panhandlers. Getting around downtown is made easier by the Metro. Parking around the arena is virtually non-existent as the arena is jammed into a tight area between highways and train tracks.

I would highly recommend that if you ever have a chance to get to a game in Vancouver that you do so. It is a trip that would be well worth your time.