some girls wander by mistake.

i've arrived in vancouver (an exhausting trip via amtrak cascades--not sure why but it feels like it's almost midnight right now). when i walked out of the train station this woman overheard me talking about finding the air-tram, and gave me her all-day transit ticket. we took the train, got to our hostel, walked around a bit to grab a quick dinner of crepes, and now am back in the lounge area with 15 other people--2 playing pool, everyone else computing or reading. james and i are, by far, the oldest people here (thus far)--we wondered if you hit an age where you're supposed to be mature and want tiny shampoos and mints-on-pillows and renovated showers. perhaps we are reverting, wanting less (not more) the older we get: this place suits us just fine.

there is a full-service kitchen and self-serve all you can eat pancake breakfast here. i can't wait for tomorrow.

we are decidedly exhausted right now. the idea of even exploring this beautiful city is about the last thing we can do right now. instead, i think we're going to shower and go snuggle up in our bunked-bed.

i won't be posting project 365 pictures this week. too slow of an internet connection, pictures at home, etc.

mmm, mmmount st. helens. i think i've found my favorite place in all of the pacific northwest.


hoffstadt bridge (even more impressive from the air), on the edge of the "blast zone" and about 30 miles from mount st. helens. this is somewhere off the 504, one of a couple possible routes to get you to the volcano. we stopped at a visitor information center for a map, which we received from an adorable retired man who took special care in highlighting the "you are here" spot on the map.



( more pictures, here... )

day 5 (saturday 1 april 06): roadtrip day.

the day begun early (we're only just now starting to adjust to the time-change): i picked up our rental car, then returned to the B&B for breakfast (strawberries and pastries and cereal: i don't really know why i was complaining about it before, except to say that i am a glutton for breakfast food and sometimes want far more than is actually necessary). we drove out of portland, feeling like we had seen so much of it, and yet there was still much we did not see or do.

roadtrip stops, detours and destinations:

*aloha, OR, just about 5 miles out of portland. right out of portland, our first off-course stop was to drive by harvey marine to see harvey the giant humanoid rabbit. the roadside america website was argument enough to seek out this gem (as the article mentions, people write letters/honk & wave at harvey as they drive by: while we were there at least one driver honked and, when we looked, was waving).

*forest grove, OR, for the tualatin estates vineyard and winery. the drive was beautiful--hilly and rural, lush landscapes around us everywhere. unfortunately, vineyards aren't really set up to be theme park attractions: signs were difficult to decipher, roads were narrow and gravel, and the tasting room (which really was the only thing for a visitor to do) opened at noon. we walked around a little, though it seemed most of the vines were not yielding fruit (or even leaves). getting back to our road, however, was another story: we got lost for about an hour on side roads, and everything started looking the same ("didn't we already pass that rusted barn with the school bus out back?" "no, i think that's a different one...").

*cannon beach, OR. perhaps one of the most beautiful places i've ever seen in my entire life. there was a moment on the highway where the trees parted, and we looked out on the pacific ocean (up on some hill or mountain) and the monolith of cannon beach (haystack rock) and it looked like another world. james and i were both completely blown away. it's also sort of surreal, as florida folks, to see a beach where no one is in the water, no one is wearing a bathing suit, and in fact most people are in hooded coats or jackets. the weather was brisk but beautiful--we stayed for a while, collected some rocks, and took it all in.

*seaside, OR. pretty run-of-the-mill ocean-town: small, touristy, family-oriented, quaint. we couldn't find parking to really experience the boardwalk (didn't really care that much anyway) so we parked further down the coast. the "beach" was mostly rocks in our section--only a few miles north of cannon beach--and just your average ocean/sand thing everywhere else. highlight of seaside was our lunch at bigfoot's, which should be self-explanatory. also, the business (which somehow we did not take a picture of): thugs off drugs--completely juxtaposed with the shiny happy seaside residents.

astoria, OR. a bit more inland than our other coastal-oregon stops--in fact a port inland a bit off the pacific ocean. one of the main streets reminded me of st. pete as we drove through. the highlight of astoria was a beautiful view of the columbia river. the first-bridge crossing (into washington? we didn't take it...) was awe-inspiring, just huge. there was even a rainbow (seriously, oregon, stop showing off.). there was lewis and clark stuff everywhere, but we weren't feeling it.

olympia, WA. stopped at more for possible significance (and the desire to see more of washington), we quickly noticed that all that's in this state capital is really just the capitol. took a few pictures; nothing to see folks, move on.

tacoma, WA. the worst-traffic-ever. it was nightfall by the time we arrived here, and from what we could see from the interstate (i acknowledge this isn't saying much) it looked like a huge dallas, TX: malls, chain restaurants, car dealerships. next.

seattle, WA. we seriously "ohmigod"'d the skyline the entire descent into the city--completely beautiful. all the hills were lit up with thousands of little lights--it looked like a starry sky in reverse. arriving into downtown seattle wasn't too stressful, once we figured out the one-way/grid of the city (which had nooks of exceptions: we found those first of course.) james and i checked into our hotel, the max, which was a fancy-looking mod place i chose for it's arty mission statement (as found on the website)--mantras can be misleading, as i'll talk about more later. we were pretty beat, but excited to be in the city, and our final destination for our trip, so we walked around a little. of course, we began by walking through the wrong part of town (following our intuition in new cities does not bring us, as we expect, to awesomeness. ever.): between generic ritzy shops and chains (macy's et all) and witnessing a gang or homeless almost-fight with cops, seattle was looking kinda scary. this of course was reversed once we 1) got a map and 2) were pointed to the right direction as to where to find good stuff (1st and 2nd belltown district, from our hotel) to eat/drink. all was well after some pizza and a decent little bar playing franz ferdinand.

the drive as a whole was pretty manic--oregon went from beautiful stretches of nature to moody curves on steep (like, terrifying to look off the shoulder of the 2-lane road) hills. it was mostly clear, but the added element of rain was not my best friend as i did my first-ever terrain driving. oregon was completely beautiful, though, and we didn't even take the "scenic routes." sadly, we spent 90% of our washington-driving on the interstate, so it was hard to see much of the landscape. there was a moment somewhere before tacoma where we saw mount rainier for the first time: there was just, all of a sudden, this peeping out white beautiful thing in the distance, it almost looked illuminated it was so white. breathtaking.

so here i am in washington state, in seattle, staying with the lovely fraxl, about a million emails to respond to, two more days of backlogging our trip to do, a belly full of amazing thai. outside the balcony window is the entire seattle skyline--i love it. love love love it.

day 1: flight from orlando to atlanta to portland wasn't nearly as painful as i had braced myself for. i took allergy meds and slept for the bulk of the "long" flight, while james suffered through watching the family stone. arrived at PDX at 11pm, which to us EST-kids felt like 2am--the time-change always just confuses me. took a cab from PDX to our first stay, the jupiter hotel. the hotel was renovated from some econo-lounge looking place to a hip, urban masterpiece. a little grunge, a little rock n' roll, but we liked it. connected to the hotel was the doug fir, a lodge-inspired restaurant, lounge/bar, and venue. we decided to eat there that night, not really knowing our way around (and pretty tired to boot)--food was exceptional, service was cooler-than-thou (so we waited. a lot.), prices were reasonable. went to sleep at what felt like around 5am our time.

day 2: woke up, worked a little, walked around the southside of portland, stopping to eat breakfast (poppy seed whole wheat pancakes of the gods!) at a little place called old wives tales. walked, trying to find the "SE" district, but was mostly residential along hawthorne. pretty much walked all day, crossed the river into downtown (financial area), then walked up the west hills to washington park and then the japanese garden. the view looking down on portland was spectacular, and though it was misty and overcast, it was a welcomed-change from the 85+ degree sunny weather we'd been having in FL. the japanese garden was absolutely beautiful--nestled in the hills amongst tall trees were all these serene visions of rocks, waterfalls, and cherry blossoms.

we took the bus back into town, pretty tired and soggy from all day. ended up by the library, walking around and window-shopping. found a bunch of thrift stores and record shops. ate at a lebanese-pizza place. went to voodoo doughnut for dessert--i got a cap'n crunch covered glazed donut that was pretty friggin' amazing. walked back home, back across the river (feels like we walked all day; i guess we kinda did.), to our hotel. we got tickets to see jason collett at the doug fir, but between 2 openers, a leisurely pace, and the onset of jetlag, we didn't make it to actually see the main act. instead, we went back to our hotel, retired at 10:30pm (portland time) and fell asleep immediately.

notes on portland:
-everyone is pretty. the boys are bearded and beautiful.
-the city is impressively clean.
-i'm in love with the hills, but how come i still haven't seen/cannot find mount hood???

please tell me a little bit about your city--where you live now/where you lived before/where you grew up.

i am trying to broaden my horizons and learn about new places that i've never been. i am hoping to add at least 10 cities to my list of places i want to visit, and at least 5 cities to my list of potential relocations.

enlighten me.