We made it to the coast!

Location: Seattle
Mileage: 5,529
Music: Singalong mix featuring such favorites as Ace of Base, Destiny’s Child, and David Brent

After over 5,500 miles and 42 days we’ve literally made it from sea to shining sea! We’re now on the Pacific Coast, ready to enjoy the beautiful city of Seattle after having had a great time in Vancouver and in Idaho with Jim and Margie. Last Sunday night, after watching the Redskins choke in the game against Dallas, we enjoyed a fantastic dinner of fresh Alaskan king salmon and some good conversation before hitting the sack. The next morning we took our time starting the day and enjoyed an enormous breakfast of crab benedict and fruit salad before Jim and Margie drove us up to Priest Lake, nestled in the green mountains near the Canadian border. Jim took us to some of his favorite views of the lake, repeatedly lamenting the view-obscuring rain even though Alina and I both felt that the mist gave the lake and mountains a majestic blue tint that looked like something straight off of a post card.

Beautiful Priest Lake

After we returned back to their house, Jim took Alina and me, along with their two huskies, on a hike around their property of nearly 400 acres. I can’t believe that anybody could have so many great views on their own property, but I suppose that’s part and parcel with living in such a mountainous and beautiful place. Along the way Jim taught us a lot about forestry, showing us places where he has had his forests logged. Before that I had never realized how much private property owners worked with state agencies and logging businesses to log in a way that provides lumber while maintaining, or even improving, the quality of the forests. Having enjoyed a bit of exercise we returned to the house for more than a bit of really good food and wine. Margie had cooked up a great crab cake feast, and after enjoying that we sat around the table for a long time talking and drinking good wine. Alina and I have been extremely lucky to have a few hosts and hostesses who have spoiled us with incredible food and drink, and Jim and Margie were certainly standard setters. It’s been really great to take the occasional break from our regular fare of trail mix and cheese sandwiches.

View from the top of our hike around Jim and Margie's property. You can see their new house's shiny roof on the right.

The next morning was spent doing logistical things like laundry, post cards, and eating another huge breakfast (salmon omelets!). After we got everything cleaned and packed we said our goodbyes to Jim and Margie and hit the road, heading north towards Canada. We passed through the border without any problems except that we had to forfeit all pitted fruits, so those fresh apples and pears that we had gotten at the organic farm in Montana had to stay in the USA. The drive across the southern portion of British Columbia featured some of the most beautiful scenery that we have seen so far on the trip. The mountains were green yet snowcapped, and our drive down Route 3 offered many stunning views. We drove until it was almost dark and then camped in a Provincial Park outside of the tiny mountain village of Greenwood.

One of the many spectacular views on our way to Vancouver.

The next morning we let ourselves sleep in a bit since we knew the second day of our trip to Vancouver would involve lots of driving, partly because of mileage (or kilometrage, since we were in Canada, eh) and partly because of the slow mountain roads. The second day's drive was just as beautiful as the first, although as we approached Vancouver the weather turned and it began to rain. The rain continued all evening, as we got a bit lost in the city and eventually made our way to the trendy Davie St. area of downtown where we split an order of veggie fajitas for dinner. After that we read in a café until our hostess got out of choir practice at 9 and we could make our way to her house to meet her.

Having enjoyed more than enough Motel 6 nights on the trip, Alina and I had decided to try out a site called globalfreeloaders.com, where you sign up to host freeloaders or to become one. We used this site to meet Katrin, our hostess in Vancouver, who turned out to be a very friendly twenty-something with a nice apartment on a hill that offered a view of both the city skyline and the surrounding mountains. We spent the rest of the evening getting to know her. She and I had a lot to talk about since she is part Estonian and is planning on moving there next year and I had been there after studying in St. Petersburg and am thinking of pursuing an EFL job in the Baltics. After showing us pictures from her Estonian folk dancing days, she gave us keys to her apartment and told us to make ourselves at home!

The view of downtown Vancouver from Katrin's street.

The next day, Alina’s 22nd birthday, was spent walking all around the city to get a feel for it. We browsed through the shops and cafes in the Commercial Street district near Katrin’s place, wandered around China town, and ate at a tasty but cheap Mediterranean place downtown. After that delicious lunch we spent some time strolling through downtown before making our way to the quaint neighborhood of Granville Island, home of many quaint shops, eateries, cafes, and the kids' market. After strolling around for a little while, we watched the various ships come in and out of the bay for a while before hiding from a passing rain shower and enjoying some coffee (me) and tea (her) in a little café. Then we started the long, long walk clear across the city to Katrin’s house, where we planned to regroup and figure out what we would do to celebrate Alina’s birthday.

Vancouver view while crossing the bridge to Granville Island

Vancouver street scene.

When we got back to the apartment, Alina went online to see what was going on that night and discovered that the University of British Columbia had a Shastakovich concert that evening played by the Jerusalem Quartet, the sixth of a seven concert series during which the Jerusalem Quartet would play all of Shastakovich's quartets. Alina threw together a quick but tasty pasta dinner while I looked at the map to find the quickest way to get to the University, and we ate and then took off for the concert. Though we arrived a few minutes late we were able to get in after the first piece, and the show was absolutely amazing. We both sat spellbound for the entire performance and then drove in silence on the way home so that we could reflect on it. How perfect that we had the opportunity to go to such a fine musical performance on Alina’s birthday!

Friday we decided to check out the university by daylight. We drove out there but could not find free parking, so we drove waaaaay out past a park and into a residential area to park for free, and then embarked on the 30 minute walk back to our point of interest, laughing at ourselves for being such cheapskates, but actually thinking ourselves quite clever. Who has $6 for parking?!?! At ay rate, we enjoyed seeing the university. We also had the opportunity to check out the university’s impressive Museum of Anthropology, which featured a huge collection of art and artifacts from the North Pacific Native Americans, who the museum dubbed the First Nations. We also enjoyed rummaging through the museum’s off exhibit storage, which they open to the public, or at least the portion of the public who gets excited about looking through index books and then searching the cabinets for certain anthropological artifacts. Having had our fill of that kind of excitement, we set off for a little hike through the park and down to the beaches that surround the university. We were surprised to find these beaches to be clothing optional, but the naked old men, try as they might, could detract only slightly from the beauty of the bay and the hazy mountains of Vancouver Island from the stony beaches. By this time we realized we’d blown right through lunch time, so we made our way back to the car and set out for food. Being cheapskates, we settled on the best value in the area, a huge eight dollar pizza at a little hole in the wall place. Tired from so much exploring and the ingestion of so much grease, we decided that we would spend the evening relaxing and watching a movie. Katrin only had a couple of DVDs, but she did have The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I had never seen and Alina wanted to rewatch. We had a nice uneventful evening of movie watching and a full night’s rest for the next day’s planned hike.

In the anthro museum.

The beaches of the University neighborhood.

The next morning we ate a hearty granola breakfast and headed for the mountains looming over Vancouver’s skyline. After just a 20 minute drive our surroundings transformed from cosmopolitan Vancouver to rustic Lynn Valley Provincial Park. We set out on our hike, 3.5 miles up Lynn Mountain to a view which Katrin’s hiking guidebook promised to be a spectacular spread of Vancouver and the surrounding bays and mountains. The view was incredible, as promised, though the hike was very steep and extremely tough, especially considering that a month and a half of sitting in Speedblazer has done nothing good for our leg muscles. Despite leg struggles, we really enjoyed our first tough hike in a long time, and returned to the apartment that evening ready for a big dinner, a stroll to the gelato place down the street, and a solid night’s sleep.

Hiking takes a toll on both one's sanity and one's supply of fruit leathers.

The view from the top of the hike was fantastic. Like most pictures of great views, this one falls short of capturing how great it really was.

Sunday morning we gathered all of our things and hit the road, headed towards Seattle. The drive went smoothly except for the congestion at the border, which took us over an hour to get through. We arrived in Seattle in the early afternoon and drove to the home of Jerry and Whitney, our generous hosts with whom we were connected with once again through global freeloader. They are an extremely friendly couple who live a bit north of downtown Seattle in a charming house with their 3 cats. We’ve been very interested to get to know them a bit because they spent the past year traveling around the world, hitting up destinations in Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. They are also Prius-driving vegetarians so we feel like we fit right in here!

Having put our stuff in our room at Jerry and Whitney’s, we set out to do some exploring in Seattle. Alina had read about a music festival in a nearby park, so we made our way out there to see if we could find it. We have very bad luck finding that kind of thing it seems, and though we walked around most of the park, there was no music festival to be found. That’s okay though, we took the opportunity of being back in the States on a Sunday to call our families and then had a very nice stroll around a lake in the park, where many Seattleites were out enjoying the unseasonably warm weather by biking, walking, running, and skating. After a nice walk we made our way over to the trendy Capitol Hill district to find something to eat, which we found in the form of a surprisingly cheap but tasty Chinese buffet. Full and happy we made our way back to the house, where Jerry and Whitney were entertaining dinner guests, and relaxed in our room for a bit. Alina read while I tried to catch up on this blog, which we have absolutely got to be better about updating because these huge posts are no fun to write and probably less fun to read, sorry! Also, the DSL here is just not allowing the uploading of pictures, so when we get some high speed internet we’ll do a major photo dump. Until then, best wishes!

Fondly,
Paul