Bear Viewing, Coin Showers, Ghetto Prince George 8-14-10

We got up and went straight to Hyder to view the bears, or at least we hoped. They let us in, even without the park pass because I'd left it in the tent. Yay, me! When we first arrived, there were two bald eagles. It took us a while to figure out what everyone was photographing. A little later, a black bear showed up and ate a fish and wandered around for a minute before disappearing. Another black bear, or maybe the same one, was wandering in the weeds for a while, but decided not to show him/herself, probably due to the noise of the tourists. We got to see a lot of chum salmon spawning in the river, which is what draws the animals to it. They were pretty nasty looking, and the smell wasn't so great either.

We were cold and hungry, so we went back to the campground to shower and find some food. We were surprised to find that the showers were coin-operated. Jess put in three dollars worth of coins, and received a four minute shower, much to her dismay. She was very excited to shave, and unfortunately that didn't happen. I had already put my money into the shower by the time I found hers didn't work, but mine seemed to go much longer. Of course, the camp host didn't seem to care.

We got online at the grocery store in Steward and while sitting there, a really nice older gentleman started up a lovely conversation. He turned out to be very interesting. He was from Switzerland and had come over to live in Stewart about 30 years ago. He kept bringing Eddy treats and water while we sat. He also had beautiful flowers and could name every one of them, but had trouble pronouncing geranium.

We went back to Hyder for another shot at catching a grizzly, but we were again unsuccessful. We headed back into the town of Hyder to take some pictures, and ended up at the local saloon, which boasted a shot that would make you "hyderized." Upon entering the bar, we found walls covered in a very organized fashion with both Canadian and American dollar bills. We ended up at the bar briefly with some motorcycle riders who had pulled up right before us. Jess volunteered to be "hyderized" if they would buy the shot. It was rather an intimidating shot, at least with the hype the bartender used. Jess did the shot and regretted it for a while, but she was "hyderized."

To get back into Canada, we had to go through a border crossing, which proved to be a pain this time. The girl who was there was on a power trip or something, because it was much more difficult than the first time with the nicer guy from before.

We had lunch at a really cute diner in the King Edward Hotel, which we had to get "to go" because it was much cheaper than if we'd been allowed to sit there, for some reason. We ate in the car and headed out of Stewart.

We drove straight to Prince George, not really knowing what we were getting ourselves into. It was after midnight and the town was a dump. We had no idea where to stay. but didn't feel comfortable sleeping anywhere around that town, especially after talking about it being the highway of tears. Out of desperation, we ended up in a ghetto hotel downtown which was one of the cheaper ones there, but still really expensive for it being a crappy place to stay.