West Coast Antics

I believe we had just entered Washington State at the end of my last post. After spending one day in Spokane, WA, we drove to Seattle. My roommate from bible college, Kimberly Kulseth, lives there and she met us downtown at Pike Place Market. This was somewhere that Kim had taken me to, way back in 2001, and I had to go back because I knew Soren would love the fish mongers (they throw giant fish across the market at each other). But first, Andy had to make the most incredible parallel parking job (on a very steep uphill, with a 32 ft. vehicle). He did amazing, and after purchasing three parking passes, we were good to go.

Andy and Soren learning about the fish available for sale.

Soren did love the market (and asked to go back there for the next two days). Then we wandered around downtown Seattle, seeing the first ever Starbucks, the cruise terminal where all the Alaskan cruises depart from, Sculpture Park (where there was weird and inexplicable art), and back to Kim's apartment. After a day in the city, we headed to one of the suburbs to eat at Chipotle and shop at Target. These are two of my favourite activities when in the U.S.A. It was the first time we took the kids to Chipotle, and they were unimpressed, so tonight, when we ate there AGAIN, we got take-out for just Andy and I.

Kim came to pick me up that night and we went out for drinks together to catch up on the last 10 years of life. This trip has been so awesome for meeting up with old friends.

The next morning we headed out to the shore (we were going to drive down the coastline into Oregon). We stopped for lunch in DuPont, Washington where we had a great picnic in the park and went for a family bike ride. And that's where the day stopped being fun.

Oregon is really green. I think that's why they
have a tree on their license plate.

First of all, the 'coastal highway' only opened up for us to see the ocean every 12 miles or so, so that wasn't quite what we were hoping for. Second of all, it was pouring rain, so we couldn't really stop and get out and play, and since I was getting so sick driving along the windy roads, I took over driving. Shortly after, I got a speeding ticket for going 55 mph in a 35 mph. Apparently it goes down to 35 in front of the casino. I tried explaining to the cop that since I wasn't from here so I should be given a break, but as Andy says "[my] negotiation skills need some work." I clearly wasn't charming enough. Getting a ticket is always kind of humbling, but from a cop who appeared to be 16 years old and who was smacking his gum and using phrases like "pissed off", well, I had a hard time with that.
Andy started to get sick riding in the back as well and there was nothing to do (we were going to drive down Long Beach and visit the World Kite Museum) because of the rain, so we pulled over to eat dinner and re-assess our plans. We decided to head back in-land and go to Portland instead. We weren't planning on going to Portland, just because driving an R.V. in the big city is difficult, and we had just done 2 big cities (Vancouver and Seattle) in the last couple of weeks.

But Portland was amazing. We are so glad we came back this way. We had another rainy day today, but there was sun intermittently, so we didn't have to stay inside.

Annika, at the Rose Garden.

The kids, pulling some logs.

Andy and Sawyer in front of a 650 year old tree.

Playing on the raft simulator at the World Forestry Centre; clearly Annika was not fazed by it.

We visited Washington Park downtown and went to their playground, rose gardens, and the World Forestry Centre (a museum about trees). After that we went to Powell's bookstore downtown (the largest independent used and new bookstore in the world). I could have spent an entire day there. I walked out with a much heavier load to carry. I kept thinking, "oh man, I want to bring my father-in-law and my brother back here", because they both truly appreciate books. Anyway, tomorrow we are headed to Multnomah Falls. It's only 434 in the world waterfall height ranking, but apparently it is an Oregon must-see, and I am a sucker for a good waterfall.

Kai, carefully choosing his book at Powell's Book Store