Redwoods Down Hwy 101

Our drive through Oregon was notably uneventful and rather dull. This is one of the few times that we have actually traveled via the interstate on our trip and we were acutely aware of it. There was nothing to look at except farms and no road obstacles worse than a turn at which I was warned to slow down to 60 mph for. Usually the roads we have driven are known for their beauty or danger, often warning of 15 % grades and hairpin turns, but not today. It was nothing but tedious driving, a means to an end, an experience in which I have already devoted to much time to describing. Our plan was to drive to the Oregon - California border, visit the Redwoods, and stay the night in the area. Then in the morning we would hit the things we missed and

travel onward to San Francisco before nightfall. By the time we reached California, it was already bordering on 6p.m. We hopped on highway 101 hoping for a change in scenery. After crossing the border at an Agricultural Inspection sight, we were rewarded minutes later with a view of the setting sun over the California coast. We stopped for a minute to watch some surfers and then got back in the car to head into the Redwood National Forest. Since it was already late in the day, we didn't do much in the way of viewing the Redwoods besides driving through some of the park. Just about dusk we were driving by a sign that warned of elk crossing and experienced

one of those rare moments when the signs should have added RIGHT NOW! We had stumbled upon reportedly one of the largest elk herds in the country. We got out and walked up pretty close to the herd, but not too close for comfort. We watched as the alpha bull ran around and scattered the smaller women and children for no apparent reason, then began to bugle. If you check

out this video, it was exactly the sound the elk made. It did it about 4 times before moving the herd on, out of our sight. It was really cool to experience and a completely unexpected sound to hear coming from an elk. A little down the road we passed another part of this herd. Apparently they section off into various groups dominated by an alpha male during the mating season. After our second stop we got some information from a local about good hikes to do in the morning, then headed on toward Eureka for some dinner. We pulled into what looked like the only open place in town, at least the first one we saw, which turned out to be Big Louie's Pizzeria. If you ever happen to be passing through Eureka, do yourself a favor and take a pit stop right here. We

shared a small pizza and a garlic bread, both were phenomenal, and cheap to boot! The place doesn't look like much from the outside and these looks are not deceiving, it wasn't much. It was small and seemed as though many of the locals that came in didn't even have to order, they just made their presence known and their order came out moments later. Even with this local favoring atmosphere, we never felt unwelcomed and meshed right into the late night crowd. Thoroughly satisfied with dinner we headed back toward the National Park to a rest area just outside where we stayed the night. Tonight we were accompanied by some loud teenagers that were parked next to us and stayed up late into the night partying at the rest stop. In the morning we headed back into the park to do some hikes before heading down 101. We scoped out the biggest trees in the area and did a few short hikes back into the forest before we had to

move on. On our way out, we passed by Eureka again and stopped off at our favorite pizzeria. This time they had a lunch buffet going on and we got to eat until our hearts were content. Trust me, stop there and you will not regret it. Instead of Hwy 101, we planned on taking the Avenue of the Giants down its entire stretch which

we had heard took a considerable amount of time. We started down the Avenue of the Giants, joyful again to be driving though something truly unique and beautiful. We traveled down the road for about 15 miles, stopping at various gift shops and doing another self guided nature hike until we reached a road closed sign. There had been a landslide which apparently covered the road and made traveling through impossible. We were forced to revert back to highway 101 and leave the rest of the Avenue of the Giants for another day. We still plan to pass by that way at least once more and hopefully we will be able to complete the

entire trek. For now, we headed down the highway toward San Francisco. Again, we were poor judges of time and would be arriving later than anticipated to Angella's house. In San Francisco we would be staying with Angella, a coworker of mine

at Sears, and her newlywed husband Kyle. Angella is actually the one who got us in touch with Scott and Megan in Anchorage and they would be staying there as well for the show. She joked with us that they should name their house the Horton Hippie Hotel. We capitalized on this and bought them a "Hippies Use Side Door" sign as a combination housewarming and thank you gift. It is currently adorned in their front foyer. We called Angella at about 8p.m. and asked for directions to the HHH. As we approached San Francisco we tried to make a glorious entrance into the city by passing under

the Golden Gate Bridge while rocking out to some Grateful Dead.

Much to our dismay, fate had different plans. First, the bridge was completely devoured by fog and we could barely even tell that we were on it and secondly, as soon as we got in the range of the city, all of the stations on the radio came in stronger and messed up the signal for my ipod, making it intolerable to listen to anything on it. Defeated, we rolled into the city in silence and under the cover of fog. After deciphering Angella's directions we pulled into their place and were again welcomed as though we were coming home. Angella had made us some excellent chili for the weekend and Katie and I both indulged as we talked about everything that had been happening since we had last seen one another.

No Coffee in Portland!?!?

Now on to quite possibly Katie's most anticipated stop, Portland. We arrived late around 10p.m. to Dustin and Alyssa's place on Monday because of our unexpected detour in the Ape Caves. Alyssa was still at work, but we hung out with Dustin and their roommate Sarah late into the night, just watching TV, which was a nice change from our busy schedule. We woke up leisurely in the morning and headed into the city to do some exploring. Dustin gave us directions so that we could park close enough to downtown to get within the free ride zone which meant that we would have free public transit all day, though we would only use it getting in and out of the city proper. The Portland area was so small that we could easily walk anywhere we wanted to go once we had gotten down there. We hopped on the train and headed into the city. Our first destination was lunch. Katie had found a Thai restaurant online the night before and it was my job to get us there. After overshooting our intended bus stop by about 3 stops, we got off, gathered our bearings and began to walk in the direction of the restaurant when we passed by it. I knew that we were not in the right location but Katie insisted that this was the name of the place that she looked up: Typhoon! It turned

out that we were both right as the restaurant was a mini chain that had about 7 locations scattered throughout Portland. We got some menus and sat outside enjoying the beautiful overcast day. It was nice to eat outside and we got to people watch as we ate our delicious meal. Our bellies stuffed, we made for our next destination, Powell's Books, which claims to be the largest

independent new and used book store in the world. We walked around inside for a bit, browsing all of the books, while looking for various editions of Steinbeck and Tolkien, basically just having fun in a book store. Katie decided that she was going to read the entire Tales of Beedle the Bard while at Powell's. This book is very short and only took her about an hour and a half to read. I began reading a book which I picked out that was soon to be mine as well as browsed around enjoying the extensive collection while waiting for her to finish. After Katie had finished, we purchased some books and went back to the streets. We walked around a bit more

until we stumbled upon, get ready Nate, the infamous Voodoo Doughnuts! We had heard about this place from our host Dustin. He had said that before he moved to Portland, if he brought it up to anyone, they would say "you have to go to Voodoo Doughnuts" and so he told us the same. We were not disappointed. Luckily, there was relatively no line. We had heard from Dustin that the usual wait is about an hour, but it would be worth every minute to wait for it. We waited about 5 minutes and it was definitely worth waiting every minute of that. I got a doughnut that was

covered in Cap'n Crunch while Katie had something that looked like it came to life out of the Simpson's movie, blue frosting with pink sprinkles. They were both excellent, gone in seconds, not to mention cheap! We both knew immediately that we would be back for seconds later in the night. Next we headed to another one of Dustin's recommendations, Ground Kontrol, a

Barcade as he liked to call it. This place is stuffed full of late 80's arcade games, basically everything that I grew up playing. Katie and I exchanged 5 bucks in quarters and went to town. We played everything from my youth, The Simpsons, X-Men, the original big buck hunter, Area 51, Rampage, Paperboy, Gauntlet Legends, Mortal Kombat, it was great. The best part is every game was only 25 cents to play, so we got to spend a lot of time there on very little cash. After Katie couldn't take it anymore we decided to again move locations, this time to a place called the Shanghai Tunnel. This is a bar that is located underneath another bar that acted as its front back in the day. You walk into the front bar and there is absolutely no one there except a door man who asks for your ID then directs you to the basement. You go to the back, down a creepy little staircase, and into this big basement that has been converted into a bar. Supposedly it used to

be an opium den which was connected to Portland's underground system of tunnels called the Shanghai Tunnels. It was a really unique atmosphere and we spent the rest of our evening down there again playing some more games in between dinner. Before hopping back on the free train to Dustin and Alyssa's, we called them and asked what kind of Voodoo Doughnuts they wanted. We made one more stop at this Portland landmark and came home with a half dozen doughnuts to share with everyone. We spent the rest of the night much like the first, just hanging out together and watching TV, talking about our travels as well as our day in the city. In the morning, our plan was to head south to California. We (Katie especially) did not want to leave Portland, or Oregon itself so quickly, but we had to make it to San Francisco for the weekend to catch a free bluegrass show, Hardly Strictly. We were planning on meeting Scott and Megan, our former hosts from Anchorage, down there to go to the show and we wanted to make sure we got there early. This plan gave us 2 days to make it from Portland to San Francisco; plenty of time to make the drive, but not nearly enough time to see all the sights. We promised to come back to Oregon and Portland once more after the concert, but for now, it was off to the Golden State. And can you believe it?!?!?! We visited Portland and didn't even stop at a coffee shop! :)

Spelunking at Mt. St. Helen's

We got to Mt. St. Helen's without incident. We shaved off a few more chapters of Harry Potter as well as some more quiz questions, but that was about it. Our initial goal for the Mt. St. Helen's area was to do a climb through some lava tubes called Ape Caves that we had found out about while doing some research into the site. To our dismay, our research also revealed that it was closed after Labor Day. Due to this revelation, we decided to take our time getting to the park since there really wasn't much we wanted to do now besides site see. We pulled into the first National Park Visitor Center we could find so that we could get are stamps and confirm that we could not hike through the Ape Caves. Turns out

that the website was misleading and though the Ape Caves Visitor Center is closed after Labor Day, the actual caves themselves never close, night or day, winter or summer. We were pumped! Our uneventful day just switched gears and we had not only a destination, but also a hike through a cave. There are 2 hikes that the Ape Caves offer, the lower level, easy hike or the upper level,

difficult hike. Confident in our spelunking skills we chose to do the difficult one. There are also 2 roads that go through the National Monument, one on the north side of the mountain where the eruption happened and one on the south. The visitor center was on the north road along with a place called Johnson Ridge which offers the best views of the eruption crater as well as fallen trees from the blast. The mountain had been covered by clouds all day

and it looked like we were going to have another day like we had at Mt. Rainier where we saw nothing of the mountain but its base and the clouds that covered it. But as we approached Johnson Ridge the clouds began to break and we ended up getting the clear, close up view, that we didn't have at Rainier. We messed around in the info center for a while before we had to hit the road to make it to Ape Caves. Since the 2 roads that enter the park do not connect, we had to drive out to the highway and back up the southern entrance which took a few hours to do, so by the time we got to Ape Caves it was almost 5. This was later than we wanted to start since we had to be in Portland that evening for some couchsurfing fun. We had heard that it would take us about 2 hours to complete the trek through the caves and we had high hopes that we could complete the adventure in equal if not less time. We were still about an hour away from Portland and we figured that if we at least called by 7p.m. it would not be that much of an inconvenience for us to show up at their place. When we arrived to Ape Caves we were virtually the only people around. There was about 6 cars scattered throughout the parking lot and no one to be seen or heard, they must have all been in the cave. We geared up for the hike. This included each of us

bringing a flashlight, Katie packed an extra one in her bag, and I hung a lantern from my belt, and thats about it. We did pack some extra batteries just in case, but also forgot to bring a lighter. We did have these headlamps which my Dad got us for Christmas last year, but both of ours were out of batteries and since we didn't pass a store along the way that we thought would have them, we decided to do without them. In the end, it would have proven easier to just make a stop and pick up some extra batteries. We set off for the cave, prepared, not well, but enough for our planned 2 hour journey. We both descended the newly built staircase and were soon immersed in complete darkness. We switched on our lights and began walking down this

enormous tube shaped tunnel, 40 ft. tall and 20 ft. wide. Occasionally I would shine my light forward and it would stretch on until it faded into darkness. Other times it reflected against the walls revealing massive turns in the flow. As we walked my lantern shed intermittent light before us, in sync with my stride, so that it would briefly show what ominously loomed ahead. It was awesome. At times there was a stillness in the air that gave you the feeling that you were being watched but turn a corner and you were chilled moments later by the rushing wind. We passed a few of the landmarks of the cave, that had we paid any attention to the maps of the cave or done any research before diving in headfirst, would have given us obvious clues that we were going the wrong way. These landmarks were the "meatball" and the "railroad tracks." The meatball is a large round piece of the ceiling that fell into the lava flow and got trapped in a narrow passage that now hangs above your head. The railroad tracks look more like tire tracks and I even

speculated that they were just that until Katie convinced me there would be no way to get a tractor or anything down into the cave. They were formed on either side of the cave walls for a short stretch and acted as a levee for the flowing lava in the middle. Both of these landmarks are located on the easy hike. At the time, Katie and I knew none of this information and were left to bask in our wonder and argue about our false speculations. After a while, we reached, what seemed to us, a crossroads. In front of us stood apparently 2 ways for us to continue on. The cave was cut in half, only not vertically, but horizontally, leaving us the option of crawling underneath, or climbing above. Initially we believed that both paths met up after this obstacle, so naturally we chose the bottom path. At first we had to duck down to proceed but soon had to resort to crawling on our hands and knees to finally laying down and army crawling until we could see where the tunnel abruptly ended. After a difficult turnaround we were back at the crossroads and decided we had to go up to continue on. This would prove much harder than the lower path did. At the easiest spot to climb, the ledge was around 7 ft. tall, with no good hand grips, and a very uneven, wet floor. We had heard that the Ape Caves boasted an 8 ft. wall of lava that you had to climb and we supposed that this may be it, though we still both thought that it didn't make much sense. I hoisted Katie up to the top and she turned around and anchored he feet to some rocks and helped lift me up. Keep in mind, this is all going on with only our tiny light sources to keep us from infinite darkness. We made it to the top and almost immediately were forced to crawl again. This time the passage was even smaller, about 10 inches tall and 2 ft. wide. Katie graciously appointed me as scout this time and had me proceed ahead to see if anything opened up further down the path. It did not, another dead end. I again had to shimmy my way through the small opening and then we had to face the difficult part, getting down. We did not have the option of jumping because of the factors I described earlier, so we had to stick with what got us up there in the first place. Katie again anchored her feet and lowered me down as best she could, then I guided her feet and supported her until we were both back on solid ground. The effort was both nerve wracking and physically strenuous on both of us. Happy with our mild victory, we began the walk back toward the main entrance feeling, as it seemed at the time, ultimately defeated by the cave. We assumed that there was a path that we had missed somewhere that would lead us to the difficult trail and indeed that was the case. Just before we

reached the light of the main entrance, we stopped for a moment and turned off our lights and stood completely still, listening to the cave and experiencing the darkness. We stood for about 2 minutes in this state which could have been an eternity for all I know, then clicked our lights back on and headed back to the start. Now we were in a little bit of a dilemma because even if we could find the harder path we would be another 2 to 3 hours later arriving to the house of our would-be host. We had not contacted them aside from our couchsurfing request, so we were a little nervous whether or not it would be OK to call at 9 p.m. and ask for directions to their place. We decided that worst case scenario we would sleep in the van again, so we decided to take the difficult path, if we could find it. When we got to the stairs there was a sign on the wall at the bottom which clearly stated the upper path began behind the stairwell. I assume that Katie and I were so eager and enthralled by the cave that neither of us noticed this sign on the way in. We trudged on and immediately understood that this was going to be a different hike. The path we had just taken was large and though you had to watch your every step, there were not giant piles of boulders blocking it. On this path, there were many. The boulder piles were caused by the roof caving in after the intense heat left, it began to cool and crack which caused these massive pileups. We scaled approximately 27 boulder piles when it was all done not to mention the 8 ft. high lava fall. The lava fall looks exactly how it would if you took a waterfall and froze it. It was the most obvious sign of molten rock on the entire hike. You sometimes forgot that everything that you were standing on was once flowing lava and that it was likely filled to the roof, but at the lava fall, it was a hard fact to ignore. Though this path was difficult and the moving was slow at times since you had to literally jump from boulder to boulder, it was a piece of cake compared to our earlier climb at the dead end of the easy cave. Katie and I both managed to knock our heads on the cavern walls leaving us with war wounds that kept a soft spot on our heads for days. As we got closer and closer to the surface you could see the elements of the cave change. We first noticed dead trees that were washed down through openings. Then you could see the moisture in the air which was a direct result to the rising temperature which was becoming evident as well. We passed a few holes in the cave ceiling that peered out into the now night sky until we reached the ladder that would lead us out of the cave into a beautiful starry sky. We left the darkness of the cave and entered the darkness of the night. As we were exiting, I decided it would be a good time for a photograph, Katie emerging from the small opening, but when I pulled my camera out I noticed a problem. Apparently during one of our crawling excursions, the camera was in my pocket and was scraped across a rock, damaging the LCD screen beyond repair. Sad but true, the Ape Caves had claimed the life of my camera. We didn't have much time to dwell on this since though we were out of the caves, we were not out of the woods yet. The cave spat us out 1.5 miles away from where we started and in the dark we had difficulty picking up the trail. First we walked in the general direction which we had just come from until we spotted one of those diamond shaped trail signs. We followed this trail back, praying that it was leading us to the parking lot or at least somewhere that had a sign or a map. Eventually, it did lead us back to the main cave entrance where we notice 3 guys all dressed in white jump suits getting ready to explore the cave at night. Judging by their cars in the parking lot, they were with the park service, but we still have no idea what they were doing out there, especially at night. We drove off and headed back to cell phone service so that I could make a call to our hosts and ensure that they were still up for company. Thankfully they were, and even had tried to reach us a few times to see what happened to us. They told us that they were usually up late and wouldn't be in bed for a while, so I stepped on the gas and we headed into Portland, Oregon late that night.

Seattle and Sushi

Again we woke up to a leisurely morning while staying with John and Karen. It seemed that everyone in the house had taken advantage of sleeping in on Sunday since today breakfast was not in full swing until 11:30 a.m. For breakfast John treated us to another amazing meal, this time pancakes, sausage, and eggs (if you like that sorta thing). The meal was great and more than Katie and I could ask for. John and Karen had wanted to show us around Seattle today since they were both available to be our guides. They wanted to give us a better sense of the city, show us around the different neighborhoods, take us to the best viewpoints, not to mention take us to their favorite sushi restaurant in Seattle, so how could we say no? I think that they felt we had gotten the touristy version of the city yesterday, which we admittedly had, and wanted us to leave with a more accurate feel for the city, which we were very thankful for. After our breakfast settled down a bit, we hopped in their car and headed towards the city. Our first destination was West Seattle which offered us a beautiful

view of both Elliot Bay and the city itself. Along the way we passed the industrial port where all of the containers are transfered from ship to truck and then distributed all over the nation. I couldn't help but think of my old job at Sears which this process is directly related to. I snagged a few pictures as best I could from a moving car for nostalgia's sake. We walked along the beach for a bit, enjoying the weather as well as the ocean before we became parched and stopped in to wet our whistles at The Celtic Swell where we watched some of the Seahawks game but mostly kept our eyes on the coast and watched the action outside on both land and sea. As we left the pub we walked across the street to Liberty Park, a small section of the coast devoted to

the soldiers of past wars. In the middle of the park is a miniature Statue of Liberty, undoubtedly how the park got its name. As I approached for a closer look, 2 foreign gentlemen approached me and asked me to take their picture. I was immediately perplexed. "This isn't the REAL Statue of Liberty" passed through my head, and since there wasn't a very good view of the Seattle skyline from this point, I had no idea what else they wanted me to take a picture of. "Anything" was their response when I asked them. Apparently they were just excited to be together. I took a couple of photos of them with the city in the background, though it looked like a tiny Lego fortress on the horizon compared to the two giants in the foreground, but hopefully they were satisfied. I always feel self conscious when asked to take other peoples photos. They instantly go to the review button afterwards and judge right away whether or not you did an adequate job. Most of the time the response is a vague "thank you" and you don't know if they are satisfied or just being polite, waiting until you leave at which time they can find the next person to reach out to. It makes me wish more people would just buy tripods. But thats just me... anyway, the next stop on our list was to a park that offered an amazing view of the city, though the name of the park escapes me, I believe it was located in the Queen Anne Hill neighborhood. On the way, we passed by some of Seattle's most oddly shaped buildings, the infamous Space Needle and the Experience Music Project, which apparently is designed after a guitar that Jimi Hendrix smashed onstage. We made it to the park which offered great

views of not only the city, but also some great perspective

pictures of these two landmarks. We only had a minute to spare at the park, because we noticed that we were all of a sudden strapped for time if we wanted to get all of our sights in for the day. Not only did happy hour at the sushi restaurant end at 6p.m. but we also had to be back in the suburbs by 7p.m. to pick up Johnny from basketball tryouts. After the park we ventured over to the Hiram Chittenden Locks in Ballard to see the fish ladder. When we got to the locks they were just starting to load boats in that were heading out to sea. The first one that entered had Juneau, Alaska as its home town

which we though was pretty cool. We watched them load for a bit then headed across to the fish ladder. It was the perfect time of year to see fish jumping up the ladder but we were not so lucky. A sign as we entered told us that the fish action was "quite low"

today. Still, we got to see lots of salmon through the windows at the fish ladder which was pretty cool. Luckily, our next stop was to eat them at the Redfin Sushi Restaurant! We got in just before happy hour ended, 15 minutes left, which meant basically half off on all of the rolls! I have never had sushi before in my life and Katie has only had it once or twice, so basically we put our trust in John and Karen to steer us in the

right direction and we were not disappointed. Katie played it safe and got a roll of nothing but vegetables for herself while John, Karen, and I split 5 rolls amongst us: a California roll, a Seattle roll, a spicy tuna roll, a tarantula roll and another roll that wasn't on the menu which John asked to be made specially for us. I still have no idea what half of the things I ate were, but I do know that it tasted delicious! My favorites veered between the two more exotic rolls and Katie even ended up trying one of them! It was one of the fancier ones which was covered in avocado but also had some row, tiny fish eggs, sprinkled on it as a garnish. This was Katie's least favorite part, but she was a great sport and tried it anyway, resulting in the predictable conclusion that "it tastes like fish." She was especially grossed out later when after we were already in the car I commented on how every once in a while I would find a piece of row in my teeth and pop it in my mouth. She about threw up right there remembering the popping sensation in her mouth. My first sushi experience was an overwhelming success, and I would like to thank John and Karen for an excellent day in the city and for opening up a new world to me in the form of sushi. Back in the suburbs, we spent another relaxing night watching football and doing more research online for our travels. In the morning we left Seattle and headed south with the intention of reaching Portland early in the evening. We had gotten ahold of some couchsurfers who offered us their place, but for now we were headed to Mt. St. Helen's to make our last stop in the great state of Washington.

Ye Olde Seattle

Today, our big stop was almost as big as they get, Mt. Rainier. By driving the 3 hours at the end of the night yesterday, it opened up today enough for us to visit Mt. Rainier, which we had originally planned to bypass. The park was beautiful, even

though we saw it in nowhere near its full glory. Mt. Rainier is known for its wildflowers, all of which bloom sometime in the spring and summer, none in the fall. Also the striking size and view of the mountain is a popular attraction, but today it was veiled in clouds. We still had a great visit and felt that we got a real taste of the park. We drove to sunrise point, the highest spot

that you can drive in the park, which offered beautiful views of the surrounding valleys and a nice view of half of the mountain. Then we drove through the park to Paradise where we entertained ourselves at the visitor center for a while and then moved on. We made various stops to enjoy waterfalls as well, another big attraction at the park. We left and headed back toward Seattle where we were going to spend a few days with another one of my mom's boss's sisters and her family; Karen and John. They would be our gracious hosts for the next three nights, but for the time being we had to waste some time for John to get back from work since Karen had a party in BC on Friday and would not be around. We decided, as always, that the best time waster would be food! We were in the mood for pizza, or at least I was, and we stumbled upon this great place, The Rock Wood Fired Pizza. We ate our fill and then headed to a Starbucks to update the blog a little bit and relax

until we could figure out exactly where to go. The ultimate kicker is that as we were leaving dinner we both noticed the sky was completely clear now, not a cloud in sight. We got back to the freeway and sure enough, Mt. Rainier was completely visible after hiding all day. Luckily, we were able to snag a few photos as well as a couple choice views of the mountain while it was out and looking so prominent on the horizon. We got a hold of John and headed to their house about 9 p.m. He is a football coach for his son's team, so Friday night is football night, obviously. We arrived and were immediately welcomed in as family, talking for a bit about our trip and what to do in Seattle, not to mention petting Rosie, the family dog. With our books as a guide and John's suggestions to help us, we had a plan of attack for Seattle the next morning. We went to bed late and woke up late as well, despite eager plans of making an early start. John prepared us a great breakfast of eggs and bagels then we hopped in the van and headed for the city. Our first stop was Pioneer Square, which we luckily enough stumbled upon. There was an outdoor

market there, it being a Saturday, which we walked around for about 20 minutes before deciding we had to check out times for the Underground Tour. This tour came recommended by virtually everyone that mentioned Seattle to us. Apparently, after a great fire that destroyed the city, the city's engineers decided that they should take advantage of the opportunity to regrade the roads as well as the city. This process would take a decade or so. In the meantime, people rebuilt their buildings with 2 levels of store fronts, one which eventually would be underground. Thus, a tour was born. It was about an hour and a half of walking around Pioneer Square, only this time underground. It was a fun tour and neat to learn about the city's history, especially the not so proud parts. After the tour, we made a stop to get another stamp to get the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park. The funny thing about this place was that it was in Seattle. We found out that Seattle is the self-claimed "Gateway to the Gold Rush" in an attempt to "mine the miners" as its called. For this reason they have this Historic Park in their

city center. However, the entire museum is about Alaska and the Yukon, barely even mentioning Seattle at all. It was interesting and slightly comical to experience all of the things and places that we had been over the past month all neatly summarized for us in Seattle. After our history lesson for the day we headed to one of Katie's most anticipated stops in Seattle, Pikes Place Market. This place was packed full of people, locals and tourists alike. The market place is most famously known for a few things. First and foremost would have to be that its the birthplace of Starbucks, and secondly the fish market, where they throw and catch the giant fish as you order them. We walked up on the market and began to browse around. They had everything! We walked around for a good hour just checking out everyones booths and sampling the free food which many

vendors had out and displayed. My favorite thing I found, aside from all of the food, was real life replica's of Link's Ocarina from the Ocarina of Time. Too bad they were a couple hundred bucks or else I would have had one in my pocket. We, of course, made our way to the first Starbucks and waited in line to get a coffee from the original place. Afterwards, having made our rounds at the Market, we began to walk around a bit to try and discover the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, a Seattle landmark, and also a shop that we had no idea of its location. Our search was not in vain however, because during it we discovered a few choice things that we may not have stumbled upon otherwise. First was the Pike Brewing Company and second was the famous Seattle gum wall. We passed the brewery with plans to visit it later in the day and headed in the direction

of the water, hopefully to find the curiosity shop. Directly behind the brewery, we noticed a large group of people huddled together in an alley and taking photos of something. The star of the show turned out to be a wall, completely covered in chewed bubble gum. Katie and I looked around for a bit and watched people

sticking more gum on the wall until we found the most conspicuously located gum ball machine on the planet. It stood in the corner, almost blushing. It reminded me of a child standing with a paintbrush in hand, in front of a freshly destroyed wall with a mischievous smile on its face that seemed to say "it wasn't me." How could we resist? We had to join the fun and make our mark in the history books by adding our saliva to this modern mural of germs. And so we did. After leaving our mark, we unsuccessfully searched for the curiosity shop, ultimately ending back at the Pike Brewery where we had a light lunch of chips and salsa. There was football on everywhere and it was at this point that I noticed that we had seen a ridiculous number of people wearing San Diego Chargers uniforms. Apparently they were the visiting team in tomorrows match, but by all the fans that flooded the city, you would think they were the home team. More and more of them started to enter the bar, apparently part of some bar crawl, at which point Katie and I decided to make our exit. Luckily our waitress had known how to direct us to the curiosity shop, so we were on our way. Now, if you don't know anything about the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, let me tell you that outwardly it looks pretty normal. It is

obviously a big tourist area and also a big tourist trap. Many tours start out of the building and at first glance, the store is largely a glorified souvenir stand, that is until you take a closer look. Strewn throughout the store are a number of oddities that catch your eye and make you look twice, three times, four times, until you are just staring and wondering, "can that be real?" Here are some of the "treasures" the store has to offer, in my opinion the more noteworthy ones. A two-headed bull calf (stuffed), a stillborn fawn (mummified),

2 4 legged chickens (1 stuffed - 1 in a glass jar), a 2 headed pig and 2 headed cat (both in a glass jar), 2 human mummies, and a large collection of real shrunken human heads, one boasting to be the smallest shrunken head in the world. Needless to say, the store was pretty neat. We stayed for a bit, both browsing the items for sale as well as ogling the more outlandish display items. When we had our fill, we left the Market area and got in the van and headed to over to the Center of the Universe!

This of course, is located in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood, infamous for being the art / hippie center of the city. It is also home to the largest statue of Lenin outside of the former USSR as well as a giant troll which lurks under the Aurora Bridge. The troll was the main thing we set out to find in Fremont, though Katie had wanted to see and explore the rest of the neighborhood as well. We found the troll but also found hoards of people climbing all over it and taking pictures with it. Katie and I were lucky enough to sneak in and get our own pictures right before a group of high schoolers hopped out of a limo all dressed for homecoming to take their pictures with this giant. There was a street festival going on at the time of our

visit, the Fremont Octoberfest to be exact, but we opted not to go. It seemed extremely crowded and not worth the 30 bucks to get in and sample 5 beers. Instead we went to Hale's Ales and got some late night dinner. I had heard of Hale's the day before from the morning newspaper where Hale himself chimed in on a current proposal to change some of the beer laws in Washington. Our dinner was very filling and delicious, it had felt like we had been eating all day. After our meal, we left the city, and headed back to John and Karen's where we stayed up late with them chatting with about our travels and many other things, enjoying one another's company.

Snow Day

At Jane and Levon's place on Camano Island we had an excellent morning, completely relaxing and satisfying. Jane had made us a makeshift breakfast bar which Katie and I both happily indulged in. I went for an early morning run while Katie joined the fight against our odorous van by doing some much needed laundry. After our morning of newspaper and coffee, we got into the car to head over to Anacortes to catch our ferry to Friday Harbor. It took us about an hour to get there which gave us about 5 minutes to make the ferry. I ran to buy tickets while Katie went to pay the parking. The ticket lady told me that she wouldn't guarantee that we could catch the ferry by buying the ticket and that we had better hurry. I quickly ran to get Katie then we both took off down the ramp and literally jumped on to the ferry as it was pulling away! It was a real photo finish and very lucky that we made it on that ferry since we didn't

have a back-up plan nor was there another ferry out to Friday Harbor until real late in the day, which would have basically made it pointless for us to go. But we did make it, in true nick-of-time fashion, and headed up to the observation deck to revel in our close call. We watched as we weaved in and out of many islands on our way to our final destination. We had hoped to see some of the Orca whales on the way out to San Juan Island, there are 3 or so resident pods in the area, but we had no such luck. The most wildlife we saw were tons of jellyfish swimming by the boat and some bullwhip kelp many of which were over 10 ft. long. We finally got to Friday Harbor, departed from the boat, and had a "what now?" moment. We agreed upon a quick meal first as there were several restaurants that overlooked the harbor and we needed some time to decide what to do on the island. Katie had a salad and I got a crab cake burger, which was surprisingly spectacular. Our ferry schedule allowed us 4 hours on the island but after our meal, we were still at a loss for what to do next. There was many storefronts in this harbor town which screamed Katie's name, but of course, I tried to steer her away from them as much as possible. We visited a whale museum for a bit, and though we didn't actually go into the exhibit, we discovered that you could do some whale viewing from the far side of the island. We figured out transportation costs and time and decided it wasn't worth 40 bucks and possibly missing our ferry to go to a place that we could hopefully see whales from. So instead, I conceded to Katie's

wishes and we hit up the shops. However, for the second time in our travels, it was me who was being dragged away from the stores, not Katie. This is because one of the first shops we visited was basically, the best shop on earth - The San Juan Hot Shop. This place was a shop devoted to hot sauces, but the real kicker is that you could sample almost every sauce they had! I began the tasting with the hottest sauce available on the market. The heat ratings go from 1 to 10 but this one was, 10++++. The owner warned me that it took an entire minute to build to full heat, but as soon as I took the spoonful, I knew I was in trouble. I instantly began hiccuping followed swiftly by some sweating; basically it was awesome! The lady took my photo at full heat to put up on a board full of other brave souls who dared try it. Fortunately, I ended up purchasing a bottle of this toxic concoction, so if you're feeling brave enough, all you have to do is ask to take the challenge next time we cross paths. But after sampling the hottest sauce available, I delighted in trying out about 30 more sauces before Katie dragged me away. We did some more shopping, this time more in line with

Katie's taste and finished up the rest of our day this way. We ended with a stop at the ice cream shop just before we got back on to our return ferry, this time we got there early and had to wait in line to get on the ferry. We got back to the mainland and decided to eat yet again, this time we went to Skagit Brewery and split a pizza, as well as some beers. We got back to Jane and Levon's around 8:30p.m. but no one was home yet. We made ourselves comfortable and sat at their table and utilized the internet. Jane came home after a while with John, and we talked for a bit about our day and she helped us

plan our next couple. We had decided to take the North Cascades loop through the North Cascades National Park and around the surrounding national forests. The main draw about doing this loop was to take a hike which came highly recommended from Jane and Levon. It

was the Maple Pass Loop hike which went to the top of a mountain, along the ridge line, and then back down another mountain, completing this 7 1/2 mile loop trip. When we left the next morning, the weather looked OK, not sunny, but not rainy. Though we had a computer, we still did not have the foresight to check the weather forecast, or else we may have been a little more prepared for what was to come. As soon as we got on the road and entered the actual North Cascades loop, the weather took a turn for the worse. At first it was only clouds rolling in low over the

mountains, but soon we had a light, constant rain, showering us non-stop. It took us about 3 hours to get to the trailhead, but this included multiple scenic stops for photos as well as a stop off at the visitor center for another passport stamp. As we prepared for the hike, Katie noticed

that she had misplaced her rain coat, a minor problem considering the weather, aside from that it was business as usual. We got ready for the hike in the normal way, packing a bag full of extra cloths and water, and we headed off for the hike. Katie was a bit nervous about the hike since it was basically going straight up a mountain, but it turned out to be easier than fear had made it. The trail led straight up from the start and was at a constant

incline, but it wasn't too bad. Katie took the lead for at least half of the climb up and we rarely stopped, only to shed layers as our body heat rose because of the exertion. As I said before, it was raining constantly, and it did not stop during our entire trek. I was wearing my trusty "hiking shoes," but as we got into the steeper grades, I began to slip and lose my footing

every once in a while. I didn't think much of it and we continued hiking further and further up the mountain. We hiked so high that eventually the rain turned into snow and we were covered in our first snowfall of the year. We made it to the top pretty quickly, again making adjustments to our wardrobe, only this time adding layers on as the temperature had dropped considerably. We walked the mountain ridge but unfortunately our views of the valleys below were completely veiled by the snowfall and clouds, so all we could do was trudge forward. We took the path as best we could find it until

we reached a crossroads and had no clue which way to go. By this time, we were both freezing. We were both drenched from the rain below, and now our clothes as well as ourselves began to freeze. Needless to say, we were unprepared for the elements. But more importantly, we couldn't find the way down. The snow had

covered up the path and we could not see any fresh footprints to direct us. There was a path in front of us, leading down to a lake and another that ran along another ridge line. Not to be dramatic or anything, but we were both worried about taking a wrong turn, especially in our current state, and getting lost in the woods was a real concern, at least in my mind. We scoped out our options and I decided on a path down that eventually turned out to be the correct one. As we descended we instantly could feel the warmth returning to the atmosphere. Both of our hands were frozen, and even hours later when we reached the van again, I still was unable to even unbutton my pants and Katie didn't have enough strength to grip a pen properly. However, for the time being, the decent from the snow into the rain was a welcome change, at

least for a while. It became evident very quickly that my shoes had even less grip going down than they did going up. I slipped multiple times and ended up falling 3 times, completely muddying up my freshly washed pants, much to laundrywoman Katie's dismay. Now, all of this may lead you to believe that we had a bad hike, but quite the contrary. We had a great time getting our exercise for the day on the mountain. We had spectacular views of mountain lakes on the way up before reaching the snow, as well as fall colors along the mountain side that looked like a virtual rainbow. The snow was really fun to experience and at the time we really didn't notice how cold our extremities actually were. The hike was great and we would easily recommend it, although we do suggest looking at the weather forecast and a map before setting out. We finished the hike in under 4 hours and were back on the road in no time, glad that CJ had enough juice in her to heat us back up from our chill. We stopped off in the town of Winthrop at the Old Schoolhouse Brewery for some well deserved dinner and drinks. Winthrop was a really neat little town. We didn't spend much time there at all, but we drove through, and it looked like an old west town. Even though we have traveled through numerous "old west" towns, it is still fun to experience and each town has its own variations. After our meal, we hit the road again and drove for another 3 hours before bedding down for the night on good old I-90 at a rest area, tired from our hike as well as the drive.