Seattle Washington/Vancouver BC

Seattle Washington:
The Seattle area was previously inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived from Illinois via Portland, Oregon, on the schooner Exact at Alki Point on November 13, 1851. The settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay and named "Seattle" in 1852, after Chief Si'ahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.
Seattle is also home to more big businesses than you even realize, I was surprised to learn of just how many, as a matter of fact Elliott Bay was the place where one of them got its start, you might recognize it, its called E-Bay, or maybe you've heard of google?, Amazon?, Nordstroms?,  or maybe Starbucks Coffee? That's right and many more.

Seattle has a history of boom-and-bust cycles, like many other cities near areas of extensive natural and mineral resources. Seattle has risen several times economically, then gone into precipitous decline, but it has typically used those periods to rebuild solid infrastructure.
The first such boom, covering the early years of the city, rode on the lumber industry. (During this period the road now known as Yesler Way won the nickname "Skid Road", supposedly after the timber skidding down the hill to Henry Yesler's sawmill. The later dereliction of the area may be a possible origin for the term which later entered the wider American lexicon as Skid Row.)
Like much of the American West, Seattle saw numerous conflicts between labor and management, as well as ethnic tensions that culminated in the anti-Chinese riots of 1885–1886. This violence originated with unemployed whites who were determined to drive the Chinese from Seattle (anti-Chinese riots also occurred in Tacoma). In 1900, Asians were 4.2% of the population. Authorities declared martial law and federal troops arrived to put down the disorder.
Seattle achieved sufficient economic success that when the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 destroyed the central business district, a far grander city-center rapidly emerged in its place.
The Great Seattle Fire was a fire that destroyed the entire central business district of Seattle, Washington, on June 6, 1889. The fire burned for several hours, destroying 25 blocks and causing as much as $20 million in damage ($527 million in today's dollars). As a result of the fire, streets in the Pioneer Square neighborhood in Seattle were elevated 22 feet (6.7 m) above the pre-fire street level and new buildings made of wood were banned.
Which leads us to one of Seattle's least known and very cool secrets, there's a city underground!

Despite the magnitude of destruction, the rebuilding effort began quickly. Rather than starting over somewhere else, Seattle's citizens decided to rebuild.
Seattle rebuilt from the ashes quickly. A new building ordinance resulted in a downtown of brick and stone buildings, rather than wood; and at the same time the street levels were raised by up to 22 feet.
Due to a fast growing population and limited space they chose rebuild the old city, then built all the sidewalks and roads on top of the old and added two more stories to the top of the original buildings, so the first floor in the buildings on Pioneer Square are actually the 2nd floor.

 Skylights were put into the sidewalks they built so the underground stores would still have lighting. They still work today!

You could walk over these throughout the city and never know you were walking over the old underground.
















                                                              
                                                        Vancouver,BC!

The original settlement, named Gastown, grew up on clearcuts on the west edge of the Hastings Mill logging sawmill's property, where a makeshift tavern had been set up on a plank between two stumps and the proprietor, Gassy Jack, persuaded the curious millworkers to build him a tavern, on 1 July 1867. From that first enterprise, other stores and some hotels quickly appeared along the waterfront to the west. Gastown became formally laid out as a registered townsite dubbed Granville, B.I. ("B.I" standing for "Burrard Inlet"). As part of the land and political deal whereby the area of the townsite was made the railhead of the CPR, it was renamed "Vancouver" and incorporated shortly thereafter as a city, in 1886. By 1887, the transcontinental railway was extended to the city to take advantage of its large natural seaport, which soon became a vital link in a trade route between the Orient, Eastern Canada, and Europe.

 Chinatown in Vancouver, British Columbia is Canada's largest Chinatown.

Chinatown was once known for its neon signs but like the rest of the city lost many of the spectacular signs to changing times and a new sign by law passed in 1974. The last of these was the Ho Ho sign (which showed a rice bowl and chop sticks) which was removed in 1997. Ongoing efforts at revitalization include efforts by the business community to improve safety by hiring private security; looking at new marketing promotions and introducing residential units into the neighbourhood by restoring and renovating some of the heritage buildings. Current focus is on the restoration and adaptive reuse of the distinctive Association buildings.

Once the epicenter for commerce has now deteriorated to becoming the ghetto. 

These are some of the art pieces that have been created to try to bring Chinatown back from decay. this is a large scale abacus.

Some of the markets in Chinatown that are still surviving.

Views from the Vancouver lookout, it's thier version of a space needle.

The Lions Gate Bridge, opened in 1938, officially known as the First Narrows Bridge, is a suspension bridge that crosses the first narrows of Burrard Inlet and connects the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, to the North Shore municipalities of the District of North Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver, and West Vancouver. The term "Lions Gate" refers to The Lions, a pair of mountain peaks north of Vancouver. Northbound traffic on the bridge heads in their general direction. A pair of cast concrete lions, designed by sculptor Charles Marega, were placed on either side of the south approach to the bridge in January, 1939.

Canada's First Nation's 
Archaeological records indicate the presence of Aboriginal people in the Vancouver area from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. The city is located in the traditional territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tseil-Waututh (Burrard) peoples of the Coast Salish group. They had villages in various parts of present-day Vancouver, such as Stanley Park, False Creek, Kitsilano, Point Grey and near the mouth of the Fraser River.

These Statues (not totems) tell stories of the people and tribes, they are recreations of the originals done by remaining First Nation's artist's and donated to Stanley Park. 

I absolutely loved our visit to Canada, it was a beautiful place in Vancouver with lot's of history and culture.
Our own country is in great turmoil currently and I feel that all to often we forget our own history and the lessons that it should have taught us, it's important to know where we came from and the mistakes that were made, it's what keeps people from making them again.
I would like to invite everyone to remember and forgive so that our future can be a safe and bright one.
Be kind to one another. Until next time.