Season Finale: Just the Beginning

Banff was nothing but a distant memory by Friday afternoon. I arrived to a rainy Vancouver and took the bus to Whistler, where the pow was awaiting a shredding. Thankfully there were plenty of other people there to shred because I spent most of the time lying on the ground wondering whether I was looking at beautiful powder, or fluffy clouds at the pearly gates. My crash tally was up to around 200 by the end of the weekend, with my brain just one gentle knock away from throwing in the towel and my shoulders about ready to announce their retirement. Australia's biggest mountain as it is affectionately known, is really nice though - as long as you wear ear muffs.

Vancouver is also a great place, and not just because of all the great views of the mountains and the ocean. They have some really great street performers. I mean really good. Some of them are so convincing it's hard to tell whether they spent years training as an actor or they really are nuts. There was one guy who came running out of a building with his suitcase, then stopped right in front some business people rushing to work, blocking the path. As I watched him, he continued to walk in front of people, putting his suitcase in their way.

Comes out once a month

My third time in the USA was a short bus ride away, and by Sunday afternoon I was in Seattle, Washington. Seattle was cool, but was really just a stop-over for my visit further south. I arrived in Portland with the intention of visiting LAIKA (the animation studio responsible for Coraline) but was still waiting on an email reply. If I didn't get it before before Friday, I would just knock on their door and try my luck. I had an afternoon and one full day before then, so with my bright red jacket, a baseball cap and my camera hanging around my neck, I set off to do more sightseeing.

Oregon Zoo had a big event on, so I booked my ticket to the wild adventure they call 'Hedgehog Day'. Apparently Portland don't quite believe in the groundhog's ability to predict the weather, so they opted for the African Hedgehog to take a guess. I turned up expecting to see a cool little ceremony, where after a few speeches, the hedgehog would crawl out of its den and do something groovy. What actually happened was they carried him to the courtyard in a tupperware container, pulled him for the crowd to see, and quickly decided “it'll be a short winter”. The hedgehog handler/ psychic forgot what she had said and began to ask other people whether it would be a long winter or an early spring. I'm still not sure what it means if he “sees a shadow”, but I know his quills felt weird.

Not quite a groundhog, but still better than a weatherman.

On Friday morning I set off for Laika. I had my puppet in my hand and my camera on my back. I was determined and I was excited. I was going to visit LAIKA and they were going to give me a personal tour, and maybe give me a puppet or two to take home as a souvenir. After making more than a few mistakes with the public transport, I had finally made the 15 km transit within 4 hours. I arrived at a huge warehouse in Hillsboro with everything planned in my head. I was ready for them with a collection of witty remarks and clever replies, and I just knew I was going to have a great time playing around on the set of Paranorman. I was a little nervous though as I pulled open the door with my sweaty hands, walking into an exciting world of creativity and imagination. I was opening the door in the opposite direction a few moments later. Movie making apparently is very big business and companies don't want people wandering around inside their studios. Well I had a 250mm zoom lens and they had windows so I decided to take the self-guided tour.

LAIKA has two studios in Portland; the bigger stop-motion facility in Hillsboro and LAIKA House, a smaller studio in the city centre, which works on other stuff. I gave LAIKA House a shot, which was not exactly a success either, but at least their lobby was more interesting.

Where I was staying I heard two girls talking about a gourmet peanut butter and jelly cart. An hour or two later I was on the corner of Lovejoy and 22^nd, eating what can be described as a strange idea executed to perfection. I went there twice in 18 hours, making it the last thing I ate in Portland before I was back on the train to Vancouver.

Too good to be in a real shop.

A quick visit to Vancouver Island capped my visit out West and I was soon in the nation's capital. Rideau canal, the longest skating rink in the world, gave me no troubles as I crossed another activity off my to-do list (taking that tally to two). I was back in Montreal and gone again within a week after saying goodbye to my Canada friends.

I saw Boston and whizzed through New York again on my way to a flight out of JFK, bringing my North American adventure to an end. I wasn't sure, but I thought I heard a distant cheering as the plane took off. London was next on my itinerary. It was morning peak hour when I arrived, and by this stage of the trip I was lugging around four bags. Needless to say, I received a warm welcome from the 400 people on my carriage as I crammed in.

I only had a few days, but I managed to fit in most of the must-do things for a tourist, including making a call from a public toilet. The phone booths in London are the only place in Europe where the Bubonic Plague is still found. A trip to Paris was in the middle of my London sandwich, and was a great opportunity to use all the French I had learnt in Montreal. I'm not sure how things work in Paris, but they seemed annoyed when I responded to everything they said with “Bonjour” and “Merci”. Well Paris was very cool, and I manged to order crepes several times using only French. I'm not sure if they just guessed what I wanted though, because I began to get the feeling that my French was beyond awful.

C'est moi!

They Filmed all 16 seasons of World's Worst Drivers right here, in only 2 hours.

Back in London I watched a Randy Newman concert, saw more sights, then headed north to the city of Manchester. Manchester was on my travel itinerary primarily to visit Mackinnon and Saunders. The company has worked on the puppets for films such as the Corpse Bride and Fantastic Mr. Fox, as well as TV shows including Bob the Builder. Unlike Laika, I was allowed to visit and they gave me was an access all areas tour. I even had to sign a confidentiality agreement because I got to see stuff from the upcoming Tim Burton film Frankenweenie.

Edinburgh was my last destination, where I got a little confused trying to buy a kilt and ended up walking around in a woman's dress. I saw the Stone of Destiny in Edinburgh Castle, went to the Highlands and Loch Ness, met a highland cow, went to the underground vaults and watched the sun set from Arthur's Seat. All this was nice, but with so many people in kilts, what I enjoyed most about Scotland was that I didn't feel like I had to wear underpants, I just had to make extra sure when I left the bathroom that my fly wasn't open.

The Highland Cow!

The Scottish Highlands

That brings the first season of Mounties and Mooses to an end. This time next week, normal scheduling resumes when Jackie discovers Bill's hidden past in an exciting new episode of Mulgrew Grove.