Washington to Oregon

On Tuesday morning we headed to Hertz to pick up our car for the Roadtrip to San Francisco! Our vehicle was a Kia Soul, quite a beast and in such a delightful colour too. 

We headed off along the grey I5 under the grey clouds, pretty quickly I was used to the righthand side of the road but not the fact that everyone drives at the speed limit! So there we were at 60 making our way down through Washington commenting on things the car pool lane and how you only need 2 people for it to count, I personally was all for three or more. Or the numerous ads that adorn the roadside and the extremely verbose road signs. Our aim was to head to Mt St Helens so that's what we put into Google Maps and after about 2 hours we  headed off the freeway and followed a tree lined winding road that seemed to be heading towards the mountains. After half an hour the houses had vanished and the road was starting to disintegrate, after another 15 minutes later the phones lost any semblance of signal and we had no idea of where we were. Despite our thinking that Mt St Helens was a relatively sizable tourist attraction there weren't any signs anywhere, or tourists for that matter, we barely saw any other cars. Our one tiny thread of hope was the occasional sign pointing us in the direction of 'Lava Canyon', we thought it was a pretty good sign. George and I swapped over and we carried along the road until the towering trees disappeared revealing a landscape of scorched rocks and hardy bushes, with Mt St Helens looming in the background. 

There wasn't a visitors centre, we'd taken the wrong turning off the I5 and it was an hour back north of where we were, just a little car park. We bit and scrambled over the rocks for a bit until we were stood in the middle of what must've once been a river of lava, it was full of black porous rocks that had carved their way through the landscape. Mt St Helens was ringed by cloud so we couldn't see the top, but it did look quite dramatic. 

We made our way back to a little town we'd passed through called Cougar, there were a great selection of places to eat, the gas station or the diner. Weirdly we opted for the diner, but when we walked in it was like a scene out of a movie everyone went quiet and stared at us. A real small town experience for us then, after a quick burger & chips (with free drink refills!) we headed off back to the I5 for the next 2 hours to Portland.

On the way we stopped off in Walmart and were freaked out by the spreadable cheese section, the fact you got powdered drinks and in return I freaked out security guard by asking where the toilets were; he was initially disturbed by the fact I'd said the word toilet, and then directed me to where I could buy one. Ah culture confusion, always fun. 

As we headed into Portland the popped out to say hi so after we dumped our bags in the fanciest hostel I've ever been in we headed out for a walk. We made our way down to the river, where the sunset had turned everything a beautiful pinky gold. 

On our way back we stopped in at a craft brewery bar where we (illicitly for me) sampled some tasty beers. Portland is so hipster, but as a rather fortunate result is full of lots of independent bars, restuarants and shops, basically it's a pretty cool city. 

The next morning I went off for a run, and had an idea to go see the rose garden as I knew George would be fairly uninterested. It didn't look all that far on the map but what the map didn't day was that it was up a rather steep hill, anyway I persevered and had a great time running amongst the roses. There was a slight issue when I tried to leave, see it was a very big garden set in quite a large park, filled with very windy paths. After a while I found one that appeared to be going in the right direction, it even joined a road, very quickly it started going downhill at a pretty steep grade and as I turned the corner I saw it led to a dual carriageway. There was no way I was going back up that hill to work out a way back out the other side, so I ran along the dual carriageway at rush hour in the pouring rain on a tiny pavement. Well at least it was downhill. 

That morning we headed to Powells city of books, a bookshop so big it is spread across a number of buildings, all with multiple floors and you're given a map upon entrance. Essentially my idea of heaven, especially on a rainy morning. 

I had to limit myself to one book and persuade myself that spending a few weeks budget on one book was a bad idea. The rare books room was pretty special, a signed edition of the Silmarillion, a first edition of all 30 volumes of dickens and so many different of editions of Lewis and Clarke. 

It was amazing. We easily killed a couple of hours in there.

Now I really wanted to queue for doughnuts at apparently the best doughnut shop ever, Voodoo doughnuts, everyone was walking around with these pink boxes filled with sugary goodness. However grumpy George believed that 45 minutes was too long to wait, which is obviously a ridiculous sentiment. 

So we headed into a cafe to wait out the rain. We even asked our waitress what there was to do in Portland when it was raining but she replied 'oh we do all the things we do in the sun, in the rain' which was quite blatantly not answering the question. Fortunately the rain petered out, which allowed us to walk around and see a bit more of the city. After a  tasty lunch we jumped into the car, and headed off to the coast!

As we left Portland it was lashing it down, we joined the freeway heading West and started climbing up through the mountains that separated us from the coast. The forest was really dense as we wound our way through, but as we came through to the other side the land cleared, now the rain was impossible to see through. We had to slow right down, trying to work our way through Tillamook, a little town which we were aiming for. Given that it was a torrential storm we didn't get out to look around and nor were we interested in the cheese factory. So we headed onto the coast which was another 20 minutes West, as we reached It the clouds cleared and the sun shone through. We drove up to an 'Octopus tree' which we'd read about, and as we rounded one bend we got a first glimpse of the coast. 

It is stunning, so dramatic with these big dark cliffs and fragments of rock just off the shore, but also golden sandy beaches with big rolling waves coming in. It truly takes your breath away. So we drove up to the Cape and got out for a walk around, the octopus tree was not as amazing as we'd imagined, but we wandered round and watched the birds on the cliffs.

Generally just admiring the view.

We were pretty keen to take advantage of the lack of rain whilst setting up a tent so we headed off to find or campsite, google couldn't locate it but we had a vague idea. The drive along the shore was once again breathtaking and as we wound around we kept driving in and out of the clouds. We turned up at what we thought was our campsite, but it turns out it wasn't, fortunately the guard was very helpful and pointed us in the right direction. 

So we headed down the coast a bit further to ours which was decidedly less developed. We'd booked into an rv/atv park. There weren't showers, washing up sinks and only one water pipe that was down the road. It was also a popular destination for 'ATVs', we had no idea about this, so were a bit taken aback by the plethora of quad bikes driving past us as we were right by the access point for the dunes. At least we had a sandy bed, though George did think I was being ridiculous when I banished all traces of sand from the tent, personally I thought it was a sensible thing to do. We had dinner, lucky for us the rain held off, then we headed off for a walk down to the sea, only to discover that one couldn't. The dunes were dominated by the ATVs , and were so tall that you couldn't see over them all the while the quads would come flying over the top. Not ideal for a romantic walk.

At least the ground was soft.  

Alice and the Chocolate Factory.

So we were a bit tired and a bit disgruntled, but at least our feet were on American soil, we jumped in a cab and wound our way through Seattle to our accommodation. We'd booked through AirBnB and were staying with Lee and Steve about 30 minutes North of Downtown. As they weren't expecting to be there when we arrived they'd left us instructions for how to get there and where our room was, still even if you're anticipating a midnight walk through the woods the reality is always a bit freakier. Our cabbie dropped us off at a dead end, and we headed in what we hoped was the right direction through the woods, after a couple of minutes we could see lights glowing through the windows, and carefully avoiding the sizable vegetable patch made out way to the door. We knocked, rang the triangle - yep, triangle - tapped on one of the windows but even after five minutes there's no response. I push the door slightly so it swings open, and ask 'Hello?' to the empty house. George decides this is the perfect time to voice his opinion, telling me that 'this is just like in Psycho', thanks sweetheart that's just what I need running through my head. As if the dark woods, empty house and open door aren't creepy enough, I now think I'm in a horror movie. Luckily, however, we made it to our room without an axe murderer attacking us. 

The next morning we actually met one of our hosts, Steve, before heading out to explore the city. It turned out we'd left the sun behind us in Canada, it was a grey damp day filled with drizzle more than actual rain. Anyway we headed off to Seattle's tallest building, the Space Needle, it's certainly very futuristic looking even though it was built back in 1962 for the World Fair.  

I've already been up it and George didnt really fancy it, he had his eye on the food festival, so that's where we went. There was a real mix of food from deep fried anything to traditionally cooked salmon - they lay half a salmon between two grills and smoke it over a fire - George was in full on eating mode sampling a little of most stuff then finishing off with a pizza. Admittedly the pizza was very tasty, personally I went for a Peking duck taco, so good, with Chinese bun dough instead of a taco shell and loads of spring onions in a really delicate plum sauce. Scrummy. 

We saw these guys driving around, screaming 'argh' at everyone. Not a clue why though. 

We had to stop being tourists for a moment as I had to go shoe shopping, not just because I wanted to, but because my poor converse's soles were detaching from the rest of the shoe. Admittedly it wasn't exactly a chore, I may have made one or two unnecessary purchases on the way and George's shopping limit was sorely tested but eventually I found a nice pair, in the sale no less. We resumed our touristy ways after a quick pit stop to avoid the rain and headed to Pike Place Market, it's a big indoor market that sells fish, honey, flowers, artwork, vintage newspapers, actual sized celebrity cardboard cut outs, psychic visions and a whole host of other things. 

It's great fun, bustling and full of quirky things, plus it hides you from the rain so that's a win. 

Outside, despite the weather and plethora of other coffee shops (including Starbucks) around, there is a giant queue for the original Starbucks coffee shop. I don't know whether they grant you magic wishes inside or what but apparently it's worth standing around for 30 minutes. Needless to say we couldn't care less, but we did go into the 'Left Bank Books Collective' bookshop, full of political rhetoric and definitely not mainstream history books. 

On our way to dinner we walked past the chewing gum wall, a truly delightful place where for at least tens of years people have been sticking their gum to the sides of buildings, unsurprisingly there's a minty scent in the air.

After a fabulous dinner, at which I was served a glass of wine, yay for looking older! We headed to Union square where we were meeting for a tour of underground Seattle. Back in the 60s a guy found a load of rooms and sidewalks underneath Seattle, these were from the 1800s when after a fire had destroyed most the city the city planners decided to build above the swampy goo that was the streets in those days - a man actually drowned in them once. 

So the city planners built the streets one storey high, however the businesses and sidewalks stayed on the original level, so to cross the road one had to climb a ladder up and then back down the other side. The road and shops remained between one and two storeys apart up until 1907, when the shop owners saw sense and moved upstairs. 

The tour takes you down into a few of these 'streets' and underground rooms; not many are left, they're either in use as basements or are a safety hazard. The ones they took us through are brightly lit with walkways and conveniently placed historical objects, however the dark windows are pretty creepy. 

Still, it was an interesting and informative tour, and before we booked on I never even knew there was an underground city.

The next day we went to Fremont, Seattle's hippie suburb with vegan cafés and truly random works of public art. 

We started off with Brunch in a vegetarian restaurant where I ate the weirdest omelette imaginable, Japanese themed with seaweed in it alongside peppers and spring onions which would've been tasty except for the fact it was smothered in gravy. Not good gravy either, weird gravy that was almost the same consistency as gel. Anyway it was sustenance, so we went for a stroll around and saw some of these interesting artworks. First up was the troll under the bridge, as seen in 10 Things I Hate About You, I'm not really sure why but it's crushing a VW bug in its hand. 

We also saw a decommissioned rocket, a statue of Lenin, Dinosaurs carved out of hedges and 'commuters' waiting where the old station was. Apparently anyone can dress them up for a couple of days at a time, whether as a promotional thing or just fun. 

Next we wandered into a truly vintage store, there were clothes, furniture, old board games, random trinkets, perfume bottles basically anything and everything was thrown in with some vague nod to themes. It was very cool though, we easily spent the better part of an hour there. Next up was a chocolate factory tour! Theo were the first company in the US to import the chocolate bean instead of just chocolate mix, which means their chocolate is super tasty as well as Eco friendly. 

Beard mask!

They told us all about the growing process, gave us loads of chocolate to try and then showed us the actual chocolate making process. 

All very cool apart from when we tried the cocoa nibs - the part of then bean that goes in to make chocolate as we know it - they weren't that nice, almost like a really bitter banana. 

Then they took us to the kitchen to show us how they prettify their chocolates and gave us more truffles and caramels, all really delicious. 

Unfortunately that was the end of the tour, but they gave us a free bar each! I may have also bought a one or two or a few in the shop. It's just that awesome. That night Lee and Steve gave us loads of veggies from the garden, so we cooked one last meal before embarking on our road trip!

Fantastic Ferries and Where to Find them.

We were finally off on the travelling section of our trip, first west to Vancouver Island then South to San Francisco! We packed up all our camping gear, roll mat on the outside of the rucksack and everything, and jumped on the bus to the ferry. Whilst the bus ride was a nightmare, crowded hot and not kind to people with bags bigger than a small child, the ferry was a gorgeous way to travel. We went from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo on the island, the ferry takes an hour and a half and ploughs through the waves at an impressive speed. 

It's pretty stunning especially as you're leaving the mainland, winding your way through coves and islands of rock and trees. As we moved out to open water you could just see the island on the horizon, so we decided to head upstairs on to the deck for fresh air. 

It was certainly fresh, the wind whipped all our clothes and hair, and with our rucksacks on almost knocked me off balance, when I went to the rail for some photos my sunglasses almost went flying along the deck. 

A bit breezy.

We did reach Nanaimo with all our belongings however, so no harm done. 

Waiting for us in the car park was Rondeau, Jens mum, who we were staying with for a couple of days before heading South. She lives in Chemainus, an hour or so South of Nanaimo right on the coast, when we arrived George and I went for a wander around the woods, which had some pretty tall trees and in to the town for an ice cream.  

We ended up in the General store, which is certainly general, apart from food and cleaning products there was furniture, old paperbacks, cassettes and vinyls. You know the standard things you need in a holiday village. 

The next day we headed off to their cabin on the island, which is another ferry away and then a five minute drive across the island. It's a beautiful spot surrounded by trees and right on the shoreline with a little ledge and rocky beach leading to the water. It looks out over the sea, across to the other little islands that flank the big one. 

The Cabin itself is really well done with the living room looking out through big glass walls to the sea, and the bedrooms round the back and up on a mezzanine. It's mainly wood, and decorated with shells giving it a really warm feeling. 

We started wandering along the beach which is a rockpoolers delight as the tide recedes, there are pretty purple shells, clams and massive Oysters - George cracked one open cave man style - they were so big there was no way we could've eaten them without cooking, we didn't find any pearls either... As we strolled around the corner there were even bigger pools with little crabs scuttling around and some baby starfish. We took a little paddle in the water, but out of the still coves it was insanely cold and the waves were churning the water so it was impossible to see where the barnacled covered rocks were. We also found ourselves as dead starfish, not dead as in rotting and seagull torn, but dead as in 'oh cool lets take him home!'. So we have a great souvenir from there. 

Even though the sun was out the wind cut through the heat so much that we ate Lunch inside. Afterwards we attempted to head out in the canoe, but after 15 minutes of paddling we'd only succeeded in being blown sideways into the straight. So we battled back across until we reached a point where we could be blown back to shore, which was far more fun. Basically it wasn't the best day to go canoeing.

On the way back to the ferry that evening Rondeau kindly took us for dinner at a little place by the marina. The meal had a very fishy theme crab cakes, popcorn shrimp and clams, super tasty, I was definitely looking forward to spending the next couple of weeks by the coast. 

The next day Rondeau dropped us at the depot for the bus to Victoria, which is a couple of hours South and the capital of British Columbia. I always thought that was Vancouver but hey you learn a new thing everyday. When we arrived we weighed ourselves down with bags again and headed off to our hostel, after half an hour of walking past old peoples homes into Suburbia we realised that whilst we'd walked the appropriate distance it was in completely the opposite direction. So instead of 8 blocks we had to walk 24 in total, in the midday heat. Obviously you should never trust us with directions. When we reached our hostel it looked like a cartoon house, bright yellow and green with random attachments and extensions coming off the sides. It turns out the crazy appearance mirrored our land lady's logic, she's a little Chinese lady called Sue. 

She showed us up to our room, which when we'd booked the small private didn't realise would be small height wise. We were in the attic so the roof sloped down until it was barely 1cm off the end of the bed not even a mouse could have lain down to sleep. Anyway it was only one night so we dumped our bags and went off to explore Victoria, it's quite a small city with a very European feel to it, at least aesthetically. First we headed to the harbour where all the ferries to and from America dock, which is fronted by their parliament building and the Empress Fairmont Hotel which is apparently very famous for its afternoon tea -you have to book in advance. We didn't even inquire as I doubt our budget has room for tiny sandwiches and petits fours. 

Next we headed up through tourist central towards Chinatown which is the oldest in Canada, we meandered through little shops that stretched back very deceptively until you exited on a completely different street. 

They were filled with the standard Chinese tat but were also interspersed with some beautiful furniture and genuine (looking) antiques such as musical instruments and bits and bobs from everyday life. We ended up in Fan Tan Alley at one point which has an infamous history for being the centre of all the things the bible doesn't like in Victoria. Now it appears quite tame with a psychic and a skateboard shop. 

We went for a couple of drinks before returning to the hostel and as bellinis were on a deal I took advantage, unfortunately for me my idea of a bellini and their idea differed somewhat. I was expecting a glass of fizz with some peach syrup, they gave me this sugar concoction, gummy worm included. It gave me more of a sugar high than an alcohol buzz to be honest. 

That night it turned out the bed proved more of an issue than anticipated as we couldn't stretch our feet to the end of it, and because of the ceiling if one wanted to roll over you'd either have to break your ankle or extract your feet first, turn and then replace them. Not at all comfortable. 

The next morning crazy Sue came around to wake everyone up, no lie ins in her house. Half an hour before check out she insisted on coming into our room to make sure we were packing up to leave. It was like being back at boarding school but as an adult, supposedly responsible for your own life. Then when we went to check out we asked to leave our bags for the day as we explored the city, unlike most hostels she charged us but only after 5 minutes of denying that she had any space. Eventually she opened the door to an empty dorm room and said we could use that, there wasn't even any trace of people sleeping there at all, apparently she just dislikes people storing bags. 

We'd seen a diner - John's Place - the day before as we'd walked around and decided to have breakfast there, apparently we succeeded in picking the most popular brunch spot in the city. As we turned up at 11:30 on a Saturday there was quite a sizeable queue, however we stuck it out and 40 minutes later we had a table. That was the first time I'd queued for breakfast like that but it was so worth it. 

The diner was loud and busy with friendly wait staff and tonnes of posters and signed photos on the wall. We lucked out and sat next to a signed photo of Tom Hanks! We were told that whenever a celebrity comes anywhere near Victoria they are brought here for breakfast. You could see why, the menu is massive; pancakes, waffles, French toast, full English, burritos, eggs Benedict or any variation thereof was available, and each kind could come in about twenty different ways. I went for eggs Benedict with bacon and asparagus, and it was amazing so tasty, so big and probably ridiculously unhealthy. George had a big omelette filled with all kinds of vegetables and meats, we were both in agreement that it had definitely been worth the wait. 

So much choice!

A retired couple sat next to us and as the tables were basically touching we ended up talking, he'd grown up in Yorkshire until he was 16 before moving to Canada and they still had a lot of family over there. So we spent the majority of the meal chatting, until at the end they offered to buy Brunch for us, which was incredibly generous and quite frankly an offer we couldn't refuse as it turned out to be one of the most expensive meals of our entire trip. The only thing they told us to do was that when we were older and (hopefully richer) we should buy dinner for young travellers in our turn. 

So horrifically over full we headed off to the BC museum which we'd been assured was worth a visit, and once we'd got over the unexpected cost of entry - I do miss free British ones - we were not disappointed. We spent most of our time in the First Nations section, where they covered everything from the differences in art and culture to various hunting practices by separate tribes. It also explained how they had all evolved different lifestyles based on the environment they lived in, which is something that personally I'd never thought about before, that there were such massive variations and not just one homogenous culture. 

The atmosphere was judged perfectly, it was very dark and everyone was very quiet, allowing you to appreciate the beauty of the art and the native music that was playing, without distraction. Also catalogued was the destruction of their lifestyle by the arrival of Europe and the ensuing devastation to their population, language and culture. I didn't realise this was still an ongoing fight as the pockets of native communities struggle to keep their languages alive. It was a very eye opening and worthwhile visit for sure. 

We wiled away the rest of the afternoon before our ferry, until 4:30 when we went to board, we then found out our ferry was cancelled due to bad weather, but not to worry there was space on the next one in an hour. So we went to sit in the sun for a bit longer. Now the whole purpose of the ferry ride was to see the beauty of the San Juan Islands as we sailed along,  which was why we'd opted for this route and not just a coach to Seattle. So we turned up for the next sailing, went through border control and went to sit and wait to board, and waited, and waited until an hour later than scheduled we board the ferry. It was going to be ok the sun was still up, we'd be able to see it set over the islands, it was going to be gorgeous. So about 15 minutes after boarding we set off, only to stop moments later to refuel. By this time it was about 8/8:15 and we hadn't eaten since Brunch, as we'd expected to be in Seattle already. So I look at what's on offer, and there is cheese in everything, unless I want a bar of chocolate; I opt for least offensive thing which is smoked salmon with crackers and Philadelphia, which would have been fine if the smoked salmon weren't extremely thick and dry and didn't taste more like kippers than anything else. So hungry and watching the sun edge closer towards the horizon as we're refuelling I'm not in the best of moods. Eventually we set off and we leave the harbour start to pick up speed, until suddenly we come to a stop. Just great. We sit there for a while until they come on the speaker to tell us there's a log in the propeller. Now we're sitting out at sea with the ferry bobbing up and down, the sun setting and no food. We don't set off until night has fallen, the rest of the ferry ride is pitch black, no stunning views, no gorgeous scenery only the reflection of the cabin in the window. We arrive in Seattle somewhere around midnight quite disappointed and grab a taxi to our accommodation. It's ok though because if we book travel with them in the next year we get 50% off. Brilliant... I knew this trip had been going too smoothly thus far.