VANCOUVER vs SEATTLE vs SAN FRANCISCO vs HONOLULU

But first, was there any movement on Ukraine-Russia peace talks?  Well, there is this guitar duo.  Have you seen Zelensky, Putin and Trump entertaining as three tenors?  Watch We Run the World.

Four of my favorite cities are Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and Honolulu.

• We are here in Vancouver, and this stop has been mostly wet.  But I've been here around a half a dozen times, and, aside from rain and cold, this city has much to offer.

• 
  Our previous trip in October of last year began in Seattle, where we caught the Norwegian Encore for a 39-day cruise through the Panama Canal to Southampton, UK.  I've also been here at least 6 time, the first for the Seattle World Expo in 1962.

• 
  The Encore's first stop was in San Francisco.  The San Francisco Bay area is my second home.
• Graduated from Stanford University.

• 
  Worked at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View on the Search Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

• 
  Spent two summers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on laser fusion
• During the past 60+ years, have passed through or stayed in San Francisco at least twice/year.
• Honolulu is where I was born, grew up and now live.

Average temperature, degrees F.

• Vancouver 50.9
• Seattle 52.4
• San Francisco 58.2
• Honolulu 78

Average rainfall/year, inches.

• Vancouver 58
• Seattle 38 
• San Francisco 24 
• Honolulu 22....this surprising.  I would have thought that Honolulu rained more than San Francisco.

Population of city.

• Vancouver 662,000
• Seattle 755,000
• San Francisco 810,000
• Honolulu 342,000

What most distinguishes a city?  Certainly, something like the Eiffel Tower is Paris.  Seattle has the Space Needle from Expo 1962, SFO the Golden Gate Bridge and Honolulu perhaps Aloha Tower. Vancouver?

The most unique and popular foods eaten.

• 
  Vancouver:  JapaDog, a Japanese-inspired hotdog, which includes teriyaki sauce, seaweed, miso and wasabi mayo.  Salmon candy is next, a sweet andsmoky cured salmon coated with syrup.

• 
  Seattle:  Seattle Dog, featuring a smear of cream cheese, grilled onion, plus pickled jalapenos, red onions, and often topped with salmon caviar.

• 
  San Francisco:  Cioppino, a heart, Italian-American seafood stew often featuring Dungeness crab, mussels, calamari and more, simmered in a tomato-based both.  Love it in a sour dough bread bowl, but must seek one out with crustaceans because of my allergy.
• Honolulu:  Spam Musubi, further description unnecessary.

Tourists/year.

• Vancouver, 2019 11 million, but less than 10 million/year since then.
• Seattle, 2019 42 million, but barely 40 million in 2024.  
• San Francisco 2019 36 million, but 24 million in 2024.  2025?  Expected to be slightly less in 2025 because of perceived safety concerns.

• 
  Honolulu, 2019 just under 10 million, and just over 10 million in 2024.
• Tourism figures are complicated, for some surveys only use overseas visitors.  Thus, most sources say San Francisco gets a lot more visitors than Seattle, but Seattle authorities disagree.  This source provides the following list.

1. Orlando (75.8 million)
2. New York City (66.6 million)
3. Chicago (57.6 million)
4. Atlanta (57 million)
5. Los Angeles (50 million)
6. Philadelphia (46 million)
7. Las Vegas (42 million)
8. San Antonio (41 million)
9. San Diego (35 million)
10. Dallas (27 million)
11. San Francisco (26.2 million)
12. Kansas City, Missouri: (25 million)
13. Washington D.C. (24.6 million)
14. Miami and Miami Beach (24.2 million)
15. Boston (22.7 million)
16. Houston (22.3 million)
17. Seattle (21.3 Million)
18. New Orleans (19.75 million)
19. Denver (17.7 million)
20. Nashville (16 million)

• For the record, 60 million overseas visits to the USA, with the top five states being #1 New York, #2 Florida, #3 California, #4 Texas and #5 Hawaii.

It was still raining when we headed out to lunch somewhere not so far from our hotel.  

Moseying about was my Blue Bar Pigeon, who suggested Kosoo, a Korean Chicken and BBQ restaurant.

 

The chicken plate had 15 pieces.  We couldn't even finish eating half.

Walked 4255 steps today.

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