We made it. 56 days, exactly 8 weeks of traveling on the road and taking in what mother nature has to offer.

I don’t think it’s quite hit us yet.  We keep hearing that going on this trip is incredible and a once in a lifetime thing and we agree. It doesn’t seem like it yet. Perhaps with time and growing up it will truly feel like a trip of a lifetime and make it an even more cherished experience.

It’s good to be home, weird but good. After traveling for 2 months and moving on to a new place within a few days after you just got there makes staying in once place feel weird and different. Knowing that we don’t have to plan on what we’re doing or where we’re going tomorrow makes today feel slow and almost dull.  It may sound depressing, but it’s a good thing. It means we’re home and it means we’ve seen and done all the things we set out to do.

That’s the thing about this trip. We’ve seen countless things. There isn’t something we missed and said, “I wish we saw that…”  We’re very satisfied with how things panned out and we’re glad just to be home.  We missed our families and friends.  Just to see them and spend time with them again makes the return home even better.

I suppose it’s bittersweet that it’s over, but hey, we all knew that was going to happen. :)  You hate to say goodbye to such an awesome trip, but its got to end some time and I’m just happy we got to do this.  That’s all. I’m happy and feel very fortunate.

In case you were wondering about our return trip, here are the details.  There isn’t much to report, so be warned.  We left Friday, July 4 (Day 54) and drove from Truckee, CA to Twin Falls, ID.  We got to watch some fireworks in Twin Falls, but after traveling for 7-some hours on the road, we just wanted to crash.  The following day (Day 55), we drove 12.5 hours from Twin Falls, ID to Rapid City, SD.  That was a long day and it felt good to hit Rapid City because we knew we were only a day away from home.  The following morning (Day 56), we met up with Shayanne’s grandparents to have breakfast and say goodbye.  It was good to see them again and I know Shayanne was excited to see them.  We left Rapid City about 10:00 mountain time and hit Waconia about 7:30 central time.

Shay’s family was expecting her and I elected to keep it a surprise and only tell my roommates.  Everyone was super excited to see us and we got a nice welcoming.  It just felt good to be home…

I have the remaining pictures uploaded to the site.  I’ll write another blog following up with my thoughts of the trip sometime in the near future.  I just need some time to walk away from it and let it absorb.

Day 51 Pictures
Day 52 Pictures
Day 53 Pictures
Day 54-55 Pictures

Wow!

That is probably the best, single word to describe the past week.  Why wow?  Because we have seen a lot, met a lot of people, done a lot of things and have just been busier than ever.  Let me recap the past week for you.

Friday, June 27th (Day 47) was our last day visiting Anna and Nate in Eugene.  I worked during the day while Shayanne and Anna ran errands.  They ended up coming back to the house while singing happy birthday and carrying my very own ice cream cake, which happens to be my favorite.  Shayanne also bought me the movie, “Hot Rod.”  We first saw the movie while we were staying in Pagosa Springs and we both loved it. It’s so stupid, but it’s a good stupid. :)  So we cut up some ice cream cake and watched the DVD, it was a really nice gesture. Thanks to both Anna and Shay for a nice early birthday moment.

In the afternoon, we headed down towards Medford, Oregon to camp for the night.  We wanted to cut our drive down to Redwood in half and the KOA at Medford did just that.  It was a warm day. It was in the high-90’s, but by time the sun it went down it was quite comfortable.  We made hot dogs by the fire and just had a relaxing night around the campfire.

Saturday, June 28th (Day 48) was my 25th birthday.  Quarter of a century already, wow.  Makes me sound old.  We started the day off by driving from Medford down to the Redwood National Park.  We drove through it while in awe of the most amazing trees we’ve ever seen.  We stayed down Hwy 101 and eventually hit the northern coast of California.  It was hazy and a bit cold, but still very cool to see.  Neither of us have ever seen the Pacific ocean from the continental U.S. I saw it when I was in Hawaii, but the Pacific Ocean there is MUCH different than the Pacific Ocean you see in Northern California.

We continued down Hwy 101 until we got south of Eureka and then checked out the Avenue of the Giants.  It’s a road that stays close to Hwy 101 but runs through a bunch of small towns and LOTS of redwoods.  We stopped at a few places to marvel at the beauty of nature and take in some of the attractions in these towns.  We saw the Eternal Tree, which is basically just a hollowed out Redwood that they built a little tree fort of it. It was neat to see.  After that we continued southward and eventually hit Myers Flat, California.  Myers Flat has a redwood you can drive through, so we decided to check that out.  It was pretty cool and to be honest I was worried that I’d fit the width clearance because of our bikes.  We made it through, but by no more than a few inches. No lie there.  We also checked out a lot of the wood carvings they had at Myers Flat. Just a very cool place to see. I’d definately recommend stopping in.

After Myers Flat, we headed down Hwy 101 and then turned off on to Hwy 1 to ride down the California coastline a bit.  Very beautiful, despite it being hazy and cold.  We stopped in Fort Bragg to grab a birthday dinner.  First thing I noticed was the prices in the menu.  A regular hamburger was $13.00. Incredible, California is SO expensive!  We then headed east on Hwy 20 towards Ukiah.  Once we hit Ukiah, we found a hotel to rest our heads and decided to go to Applebees for a free birthday drinks. We had fun and it was good to share my birthday with such a good friend.  It was tough though that I couldn’t share my birthday with ALL of my family and friends, but I got plenty of phone calls, emails and text messages that made it easier to bear.

Sunday, June 29th (Day 49), we headed for Truckee. Originally we wanted to see the Napa area and try the wineries, but we decided to skip that and head to Truckee because of all the wildfires that are going on in California.   The wildfires also presented a problem with travel. Many major routes were closed because of the fires. We had to call and ask around for the best possible routes to get towards Truckee.  We had two problems: wildfires and road closures.  We figured Hwy 20 all the way from the coast to Truckee would be our best bet, so we took it.  It was a very nice drive actually, it was smoky out (in fact, it still is) but you couldn’t smell it. We hit Truckee late in the afternoon and just hung around until my friend Lucas got home.  Lucas Meyer is an old friend from high school and he was kind enough to bring us into his home for the week.

Monday, June 30th (Day 50) I spent the day working. I’ve been working all week and have been SUPER busy doing it.  I’m working as much as I can this work so that I have a good chunk of time I can take off next week to travel back home.  We spent the evening hours sipping beers with one another and catching up.  It’s been great to see old friends on this trip and just catch up. It’s always interesting to see what people have been doing with themselves since high school.

Tuesday, July 1st (Day 51) was another pretty laid back day.  I worked all day while Shay did some odds-and-ends things like go for a mini-hike with Lucas’ dog. After work we headed south to Lake Tahoe and checked that out.  That was very neat to see.  Emerald Bay was breathtaking and we made it as far as South Lake Tahoe and decided to grab a bite there.

Yesterday (Day 52) was more of an active day.  Again, Shay would go out for a walk with the dog while I worked, but we went out for the evening. We first headed to Donner Lake and hiked a bit.  We eventually hit a boulder where most of our party went to climb it while the rest of us drank beers and watched.  I decided to scale the easy side of the rock. Really, that was nothing special. I’ve climbed harder things on this trip. :)  After our bouldering session, we jumped into Donner Lake to cool off.  That was super cold and I didn’t last long.  Once we were done with the lake, we headed into town to BBQ and check out Truckee’s Wednesday Night Music in the Park.  It was pretty cool and just nice to be outside and get fresh air with everyone.

Today (Day  53), it’s been the same-old, same-old story.  I worked all day.  Shayanne went for a hike along the river and floated down the river with one of Lucas’ roommates, Bob.  They’re still gone, but I’m not sure what we’re going to do when they get back.  The thought of going to Reno has come up, but I’m not sure.  I really would like to be able to afford the trip back home.

I have pictures posted of Eugene, Medford, Redwood National Park and Ukiah up on the site.  We will post pictures of Lake Tahoe, Donner Lake and Truckee shortly!  Again, sorry for the long overdue update. We have just been SO busy!!!  Hard to believe, we’re only a week away from being back home.  Where has the time gone?

Day 47 Pictures
Day 48 Pictures

After all the hard work I have been putting in, yesterday I took the day off to relax and be able to go and do something with Shay during the day.  We started by going rollerblading along the Willamette River here in Eugene.  I believe we rollerbladed for probably 4-5 miles.  The scenery was beautiful and we kept running into these world class athletes.  You see, they’re having the US Olympic trials for track and field going on in town.  When going down these trails and you run into other people, there is a distinction between the normal people jogging and the athletes who are in town with Olympic dreams.

Hunger pangs started to set in while rollerblading. Once we got back we Googled chinese restaurants in the area and decided to get out the Fortune Inn.  The reviews were promising but once we pulled into the parking lot and saw the building, I started to have reservations.  By no means was this place the type of restaurant you’d pick off of appearance alone.  So we got in, got a table and glanced over the menu.  All the while, the one waitress who was working the whole room would stop by our table and be very curt with us.  We understood why, the poor lady had 10 tables that she alone had to handle, but still… It’s not fun having rude service.  We ordered our dishes and in a short while they came out and they were just awesome!  It was really good food and certainly not the type of food you’d expect from such a dumpy looking place with rude waitstaff.  We dug in and shared our courses with each other and had quite the filling lunch.

After lunch, we came back to Anna and Nate’s place to just relax. We put in a DVD, updated this website with a new blog and some pictures, and even caught up with some laundry.  Once the evening hours came, the four of us decided to check out a restaurant that’s situation along the Willamette River, called McMenemin’s. Anna was telling us that they’re a bit of a chain restaurant in Oregon.  What they typically do is buy an old building, fix it up and turn it into a restaurant.  I guess they’ve redone old school houses, residential houses, and other things of that nature.  The food was good and the scenery excellent (we got a table outside).

Once dinner was done, we split off into two groups.  Nate and I opted to check out the minor league baseball game while Anna and Shay went to the naked lady party. Yes, the naked lady party.  More about that in just a moment.

Eugene has a single A minor league baseball team in town. They’re called the Eugene Emeralds and they’re a San Diego Padre affiliated baseball team.  Outside of the St. Paul Saints, I never got to see a minor league baseball game before, especially a team who is affiliated with a major league club.  It was an experience because these guys are still pretty rough.  Granted, all of them have to be from ages 18-22 or so, but you got to see them make a lot of mistakes.  There was plenty of highlights too, but one thing that sticks out is the trouble some of them were having with pop flys.  They would make these super awesome catches and they really shouldn’t had to have.  They were fairly routine plays and they misplay them and then have to make up for it by diving or falling backwards.  Still, it was fun.

And then there was the naked lady party.  Let me tell you about this one… First off, it’s EXACTLY what it sounds like.  I’m just kidding, but a guy can wish, right?  So, what happens here is there is a group of woman that gather and they all bring clothes or housewares they no longer want or need.  They, of course, bring a lot of wine to drink as well.  So they’ll spend a few hours going over everyone’s items and trying on clothes and take home the things they really like.  Anna and Nate are in the midst of moving to Omaha and Anna was happy to dump a lot of the things she didn’t want to take with her.  Dumping items off at the naked lady party will always help with a move.

I have posted pictures from Portland and Eugene, so please check those out.

Day 43 Pictures - Portland
Day 44 Pictures - Portland
Day 45 Pictures - Portland
Day 46 Pictures - Eugene

Anya and Rob’s place was fabulous! They are renting a room from an artist named Remedios Rapoport. She is a very talented lady and uses words as a main focus in most of her paintings. Her most recent piece is a mobile with ways to create a better world. She was trying to shorten the width before sending it to Boston (I think that was it’s destination…). I helped her measure things and got to find out a little bit about her life. She’s always been into painting but worked as a sign painter for a number of years before becoming a professional painter.  Check her out for yourself at www.remediosrapoport.com.

Anyhow… Moving on…

Shortly after we arrived at Anya and Rob’s place on Tuesday (Day 44), Rob left for work and Anya took me biking through Portland. (Poor Mike had to be a responsible adult and work all day.) Our first stop was at a restaurant called Vege Thai. AWESOME vegetarian food! We walked down Hawthorne Street and checked out some of the interesting little shops. Then we visited Rob at work. He works at a non-profit computer recycling place called Free Geek. They provide computers for those who can’t afford them and recycle the parts that they don’t need. He’s interning there for the summer as well as fixing up bikes on the side to sell. After that, Anya showed me a park area across the bridge and then Powell’s Book Store which just so happens to be the largest book store in the world! (I love bookstores! ) We spent quite some time there. I didn’t buy any books, but Anya found two that interested her. Around 7p, we met back up with Rob at Free Geek to bike home with him. Some of his co-workers were going to Rock Bottom Brewery (I think that was the name…) for an organic beer and invited us to join. Great beer! Plus, the people were really nice. When the three of us finally got back to the house, it was getting late, so Anya, Rob, Mike, and I watched comedians on YouTube and called it a night. Remedios asked me to help her in her painting room, so I was the last the go to bed.

On Wednesday (Day 45), Rob and Anya made us apple pancakes. Mmmm…. SO GOOD! Then they both went out to work and left us home. Mike worked through the morning and then I chatted with Remedios in her studio. For lunch, I convinced Mike to leave the house and grab lunch at a French restaurant that Remedios recommended. I know he talked about it in his blog, so I won’t say much other than that the food was fantastic. Then, like he said, we walked down Hawthorne Street where Anya had taken me yesterday. There was a bedspread I wanted to check out, but it was a way out of my price range. No matter. Cool little shops.

Mike worked for a bit once when we got back to the house while I read my book in the backyard. It was a nice day and I decided it would be good to get some fresh air. We stopped by Anya’s work before leaving Portland to say goodbye. She works at a plant nursery down the road from where she lives. I love all the plants in Oregon. There is such variety! And it was great to see her, but I was sad to say goodbye. She and Rob are great people and I miss them like crazy.

Eugene has been a lot of fun so far. It’s fun to see Mike catch up with his old friend, Anna. She and Nate have been wonderful to us and we really appreciate it. Dinner was fabulous and then we went to a bar down the road for some music. The music wasn’t playing when we got there, but we drank pear cider, anyway. Neither of us had ever tried it, but it was very good.

Love and miss you all!

Shay

Hey all.  Shay and I are going to break down the past couple of days from our own perspective and our own adventures.  Here is my take on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

I have a pretty easy blog entry, actually.  I really haven’t done much other than work the past couple of days.  I’ve been working hard to keep up with things back in Minnesota so we can enjoy time off here and there without having to worry if things are falling apart in my professional world.  It’s been challenging, but successful.  So in the end, it all works out.

Yesterday, after mucho pleading and prying, Shay finally convinced me to take some time off and check out the Hawthorne and Division Streets of Eastern Portland.  We grabbed some lunch at a french place called Petite Province.  The food was fabulous and the waitstaff, although French, was actually quite friendly.  After lunch, we then went to Hawthorne street because Shay wanted to check out a bedspread she saw the day before when hanging out with Anya and Rob.  We went to check it out and although I can’t say rating bedspreads is a strength of mine, this one was very nice and unique.  You could tell it was hand-sewn and the attention to detail was superior.  But when asking the help how much is was, Shay fell less in love with it.  It was $500 for the spread and the pillow cases. She said she could knock it down to $450, but uh, no way.

Once we were done with walking around town, we headed back to the house and started to pack up and head to Eugene. I must say, the people we stayed with in Portland were super friendly people. Very hospitable and a lot of fun. And it was good to see Shay happy when being around Anya and Rob. You could tell she really missed them and was happy to be around them, if only for a short while.  So, we packed up, visited Anya at her work one last time and then headed down to Eugene to visit my friends.

We’re staying with Anna Warnes and her husband Nate Erickson.  Anna and I graduated high school together and really haven’t been in contact with one another until the past year.  Right before Shay and I headed out on this trip, I contacted Anna (knowing she was living in Oregon) and asked her about places to stay and see and all that good jazz. She was helpful with providing some information and as things turned out, we stayed in contact throughout the trip.  Right before we hit Oregon, she sent me a message on Facebook saying that if we come through Eugene, we should stop in and even crash here we’d like to. After talking with Shay and figuring out where we wanted to be and when, we thought staying in Eugene would make perfect sense and we took Anna and Nate up on their offer.

We got into town last night and spent the entire evening catching up with what we’ve all been doing since high school (which seems so long ago now…).  They made us dinner and bought some local microbrews that we sampled.  It was very delicious, all of it.  So after dinner, we walked to a bar that was nearby just to see what the Eugene atmosphere was like on a Wednesday night.  It wasn’t too crazy, but then again, we didn’t go out too late either.  We had one drink, sat around outside and then left. Nothing too crazy or wild, in fact, that seems to be the running theme when it comes to drinking and going out on the town for this trip.  Which is fine, actually, it makes the trip a lot less expensive.

Today, day 46, we’re gonna play by ear and write a blog about it when the time comes to say something.  We have unposted pictures from Portland still.  I’ll get those up sometime today.  Watch for Shay’s take on the past couple days in an upcoming blog!

As previously mentioned, Mike flew back to Minnesota Wednesday, June 18, for Kevy and Katie’s wedding. (CONGRATS!!!! I’M SO HAPPY FOR BOTH OF YOU!!!!) While he was a away, I stayed with Andrew Fredericksen and his roommate, Alex, in Corvallis, OR. They were nice enough to invite me over so I wouldn’t have to camp alone and risk being eaten by a bear. (Thanks, boys!)

So… After dropping Mike off at the airport on Wednesday, I drove to Corvallis to meet up with Andrew and Alex. They both work in radiation therapy and weren’t off until 4:30p. So, I sat in a colorful organic coffee shop by the college, drank lemonade, read my book (Kurt Vonnegut is amazing…), and watched all the cute little hippy kids come and go from the shop. I swear, it seemed like everyone was on bikes. I loved it. :-D. Later that night, we watched Juno and just relaxed. Andrew and Alex love playing Rock Band, so they introduced the game to me and we all rocked out. It was a lot of fun! All they needed were a couple mullets and I would have sworn they were real rock stars. Haha.

Thursday, while the boys were at work, I went for a quick bike ride, picked up around the apartment, and made cookies. It was a pretty good day. Sammy, Freddy’s dog, followed me around the apartment all day and sat on my feet. She’s a fun and energetic dog to be around, but it was nice to see her so mellow. That night, the three of us played a little cut-throat pool at the Peacock (a bar downtown).

Friday was a little less productive for me. I took an early morning nap, did some laundry, and took Sammy for a walk. Well… I suppose you could say that she took me for a walk. (She was a bit stronger than I anticipated and SUPER excited to go walking. I was being pulled most of the way! Haha.) Alex ended up visiting his brother in Portland for the weekend, so Andrew and I went downtown with his co-worker, her boyfriend, and their friend, because Callie (his co-worker) was moving to Portland the next day. We had a lot of fun and it was really nice meeting them all At one point we even sang karaoke! EEK!

Saturday was pretty low key. Andrew and I hung out around the apartment, grabbed some dinner at an AWESOME fish place, and saw Get Smart. It was really funny! I definitely recommend seeing it.

We took Sammy for a walk on Sunday, got dinner, and then Andrew showed me around Corvallis. It’s such a pretty town! We checked out some of the parks and stopped at the organic coffee shop I had visited for some lemonade. (Did I mention that they had really good lemonade? I didn’t? Well, they did. )

So far, I love what I’ve seen of the west coast states. It is absolutely beautiful out here! Everything is so green!

Today (Monday), I picked Mike up from the airport in Portland. We’re staying at a hotel in the area tonight and then visiting my friends Anya and Rob tomorrow. I first met them in Bayfield, WI, last summer at the marina. Fabulous people. I can’t wait to see them! It’s been almost a year, which is much too long.

As always, I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying your summer so far. We miss and love you dearly. Take care!

-Shay

Today we got to sample what downtown Seattle has to offer. We started by checking out the Space Needle downtown. It was built in the 60’s for the World’s Fair. We bought the tickets and went up to the observation deck. The view was spectacular. The only downside was the overcast skies, but it didn’t take away from the beauty Seattle and the Washington area has to offer. It was quite spectacular.

Once we were done with visiting the Space Needle, we checked out two museums that were nearby. One was a science fiction museum and the other was a music museum. Both were cool and had a lot to offer. I don’t think Shay appreciated the Sci-Fi museum as much as I did. The music museum was pretty cool. They had all sorts of guitars you could see and read the history about. We enjoyed that immensely. They even had a part of the museum where you could play and jam on instruments. They had guitars, bass guitars, drum kits and keyboards you could play around with. Very cool!

After we browsed the museums, we headed towards the world famous Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle. We walked around and browsed the local fare and shops. We grabbed some sandwiches and just people watched. It was nice. It was cool seeing the market people throw around the fish and yelling back and forth. Just watch your head!

We left Seattle in the afternoon and headed towards Portland. We’re staying at a hotel nearby the airport. I’m hoping to leave early tomorrow morning and hit Minneapolis sometime in the afternoon. Shay will visit her friend Andrew in Corvallis, Oregon while I’m gone. I expect to be back in Portland on Monday sometime. Meanwhile, don’t expect a lot of updates to the site unless Shay gets bored and ends up doing things worth posting while in Corvallis.

So, until then, keep well and stay safe everyone!

Day 37 Pictures

A lot has happened since our last blog from Yellowstone. Let’s see if I can remember everything…

Like Mike said, Yellowstone was beautiful and snowy. I felt like it was the middle of winter in Minnesota. Who ever heard of snow in June? Ewww….

Missoula, MT, was beautiful. While Mike worked, I spent most of the day reading all the brochures Marilyn left for us about the area and watched movies. We would have gone out more, but it was snowing AND raining. But it was okay because we plan on stopping again on our way back to Minnesota. Hopefully the weather will be nicer and we’ll be able to see more of the little city.

Okay… Now about our latest travels:

Glacier National Park was gorgeous. Oh my goodness! The scenery was better than I what I had imagined and there was water everywhere. WATER! YAY! After spending so much time in the dry areas, it was wonderful to see water again.

We started our exploration in West Glacier. The middle of the only road cutting through the park was closed, so we went as far as we could and hiked around the park. Mike felt the need to hop over every fence that we stopped near, so I followed and hoped he’d trip over a rock. He didn’t, but we did get closer views of lakes. AMAZING is the only word that I can think of to describe what we saw. Truly breath-taking.

Camping didn’t work out again, so we stayed at a motel nearby. The next morning we drove around the south end of the park and up to the east entrance of the park. (Remember: The middle section was closed.) The views on that side were even better than the ones on the west side! I didn’t think it possible! We did some more hiking through Grizzly country. (Oh? Did I forget to mention that the park was full of bears and other big animals that could eat us? YIKES!) We went a few miles down the trail trying to make loud random noises so that the big animals would hear us coming and move away. (Poor Mike had to listen to my singing…) All of a sudden, a deer popped it’s head around a bush on the trail and started walking down the trail toward us. It then picked up speed and headed off to the side. We hadn’t moved and started to wonder why it was in such a hurry. Was it being chased? Exercising? Late for dinner? We will never know because we assumed the first option and decided to head back. I know… We’re pansies… But we’re pansies with all of our limbs.

AND THEN we left that part of the park and drove to a more southern park entrance on the east side. The scenery was pretty, but we tired and ready to relax. So, we called it a day and drove to our little rented cabin nearby. There was a tiny diner up the road where we decided to eat dinner. From the outside, it looked smaller than our cabin. Normally I wouldn’t even mention where we ate, but it was such a cool little place that I felt it deserves mentioning. I’ll stop talking about it.

Our waitress had a bike tattooed on her forearm. It was sweet.

Okay… Now I’m done.

The next day we made our way across the border of Canada. It was much tougher getting into Canada than back into the U.S.A.. By the way, why is it that officers in Canada don’t smile? They asked all sorts of random questions and then questioned us separately in a back room. I was tempted to tell them that Mike was hiding drugs in uncomfortable body places (use your imagination), but decided against it. I would hate to have crossed the border with a guy who was cranky from being felt up by a Canadian officer….

We drove through Calgary and into Banff National Park to see Lake Louise. The water is so blue! But it’s kinda green! But it’s…. It’s… I don’t know, but it’s beautiful! Unfortunately, it was very cloudy and suppose to storm, but we hiked around the lake anyway. There was sand on the other side, but it seemed more like really tough clay. After that, we hiked back to the car and drove to Golden where we stayed for the night.

The drive to Vancouver the next day was really long. (I slept most of the way, though… Haha.) We drove around the city for a while but were getting frustrated with the city roads. At one point, there was a long stretch of street that made us feel like we had entered Asia. Everything was either in Japanese, Korean, or Chinese. It was cool to see so many businesses that were like this, but we didn’t know where to go. AND THEN we decided to stop for dinner when this old man walked up to the car and told us to park in front of the building because we were in a really bad area. Mike and I looked at each other and decided to leave Vancouver. We’re glad we went there, but wished that we had known someone who could have shown us a better side of Vancouver. I must say, though, it’s a very compact city with a lot of shrubs. Am I the only one that finds that weird? Haha.

Right now we’re in Redmond, WA. Once we crossed the border, Mike spoke with his roommate, Drew, who was staying at a friend’s apartment here. His friends, Ed and Alex, were nice enough to invite us into their apartment, which is where we are now. Ed took us on a 20 mile trail to Seattle this morning while Alex took Drew climbing. It was a really sweet trail and was covered in bikers, runners, and people just out for a stroll along the river. At one point there was a golf course on the other side of fence along the trail. Ed and MIke were a little ahead of me when I started to hear something getting knocked around in a tree. And then a golf ball suddenly flew out of the tree a few feet in front of my path. Oh my! All I could think was of how awkward it would be to be hit in the head by a golf ball in WA. Hmmm…

The three of us decided to eat lunch in Seattle before making our way back to the apartment. While riding back (and feeling the burn in our legs…) we saw roosters on the side of the trail. Roosters! I had to double take because I couldn’t believe that’s what I saw. How strange… And then we saw an old man with a dog in a kid carriage attached to the back of his bike. I wonder if he knew it wasn’t a child…

So…. Let’s recap: Glacier was sweet, Canada was beautiful, Washington rocks, and we biked 40 miles today. Did I get it all? Oh, and we’re all in lots and lots of pain from biking. Okay, now I think I got it all.

I’m not sure what the day has in store for us tomorrow. I assume we’ll check out more of Seattle and then possibly head to Portland, OR. Mike is flying back to Minnesota for Kevy and Katie’s wedding on on Wednesday but needs to be at the airport by 4:30 am. EEK! While he’s away I’ll be staying at my friend Andrew’s place.

I hope all of you reading this are doing well and avoiding the bad weather I’m hearing about. Miss you!

Shay

P.S. I spoke with Sara on the phone tonight. Not that it matters to any of you, I just promised her that I would mention it on our site. I told her that she and I are moving to the west coast whether she wants to or not. It’s just so beautiful out here!

Day 32 Pictures - Glacier National Park
Day 33 Pictures - Glacier National Park
Day 34 Pictures - Banff National Park

Hey all. Shay is gonna write up a blog that summarizes our past few days from Glacier all the way to Redmond, WA.  Until then, here are some links to the photos we have recently.

Day 32 Pictures - Glacier National Park
Day 33 Pictures - Glacier National Park
Day 34 Pictures - Banff National Park

After our 4+ day stay throughout the state of Utah, it was time to move onward on Friday (Day 26). We left our kind hosts in Provo, Utah and headed north to Twin Falls, Idaho. We were told Twin Falls is an awesome Idaho town with lots to offer. It turns out that statement was no lie. I have to admit, I love the Idaho landscape, it was filled with lots of green, rolling hills and some snow-covered mountains in the distance. I much prefer that type of scenery over the dryness that Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Western Colorado offered. By us taking this trip, we have become privy to see exactly how diverse of a nation this is in terms of people, culture, and landscape. The things you learn and see, and the experiences you gather never end.

The main feature Twin Falls has are it’s waterfalls. It has a pair of them: The Twin Falls and the Shoshone Falls. The Twin Falls were originally a pair of waterfalls that fell next to each other but one of the falls was damed off for hydroelectric reasons. The Shoshone Falls was a bit more impressive than the Twin Falls. Not to mention the view was a bit better. After we saw the falls, we grabbed a bite to eat in the town of Twin Falls and then headed back on the road towards Yellowstone.

The weather was on and off sloppy. It would rain for maybe 30 minutes and then it would be blue skies for an hour. This process would repeat itself during the length of the trip to Yellowstone. The only difference is that by time we reached West Yellowstone, Montana, which is just outside the western entrance to the park, the temperature was in the 30’s and the rain become snow. After checking out the weekend forecast, we decided to cancel our camping reservations and find lodging instead. Not that camping in 20-30 degree weather when it snows can’t be done, it’s just that we wouldn’t have much fun doing it.

On Saturday (Day 27), we set out to explore the western and southern parts of the park. We started up at Norris Geyser Basin and walked around to see all the different geysers and hot springs. You never get used to the Hydrogen Sulfide smell because of the sulfur aroma. But you deal with it and crack jokes about how your travel buddy smells bad. And by “jokes” I mean “stress the truth.” The geyser basin, overall, was pretty cool. It never gets old to see how and why those types of things happen.

The snow and wind started to pick up after we left Norris and headed south to Old Faithful. Once we reached Old Faithful we took a quick lunch and warm up break inside the lodge. We grabbed some lunch and then headed back into the elements. We checked out Old Faithful but it wasn’t due to erupt for another hour and some change. Knowing that, we decided to explore around Old Faithful and see the other geysers and hot springs. There was quite a few to see, but not as many as at Norris. We found a mile long hiking trail and decided to check that out. During the hike the trees covered us from most of the wind and snow and it was SO quiet. It was actually really nice. It was really nice until the group of 4 guys in front of us started yelling and hollering at God knows what. Gotta love a peaceful nature hike and then some idiots ruin it for you. Anyways, we finally reached the top elevation of the hike and there was nothing to protect us from the snow and wind. It was coming down quite heavy and we couldn’t see further than maybe 30 feet in front of us. Kind of cool, but disappointing at the same time. The point of the hike was to reach the top and overlook the Old Faithful area.

After the hike and checking out some of the other features near Old Faithful, we came back to the world’s most famous geyser and waited for eruption. We didn’t have to wait long, maybe only 5 minutes. You could see the steam build more and more and then finally some water started to sputter out and then BAM, water was shot to the sky. Boy, that thing really shot up! It was pretty cool. We stayed for the duration of the eruption and took some pictures with it. See the video. Once that was done and given the travel time back to our base site at Canyon, we decided to head back and check into our lodge. After checking in, we both crashed and took about a 3 hour nap. That felt nice! However, once we we’re done with our nap, it was 9:00 and had this feeling of, “Okay, now what?” We just hung out, talked and read our books.

Sunday (Day 28) was another productive day. We headed north and east to see those parts of the park. We started at Mammoth Hot Springs and walked around there to see a lot of the older, dead springs and geysers. There were some big hot springs at Mammoth. I suppose the name of the area fits the bill, they really were mammoth. When walking around, we really spotted some creepy looking sites. It’s amazing what mother nature nature produces under certain conditions.

Once we finished at Mammoth, we headed east to check out Lamarr Valley which is near the eastern entrance of the park. The thing about Lamarr Valley is that it’s known for harboring TONS of wildlife. Turns out that was no lie. There was countless buffalo, elk and mule deer grazing off in the distance. The landscape was quite breath taking. A lush green valley with mountains and trees in the distance and on the other side was snow capped mountains and green rolling hills against a blue sky. Just awesome! Once we hit the eastern entrance, we headed back to Canyon. We had to take the long way back (going through Roosevelt, Mammoth and Norris) rather than heading south through Roosevelt to Canyon because the road from Roosevelt to Canyon was closed. That was super lame but also super fortunate because by having us go the long way back, we were able to spot the first bear we saw on the trip! It was a black bear and was maybe 100-some yards away. We wanted to see one before we left because we saw just about everything else Yellowstone has to offer in terms of wildlife.

Yesterday (Day 29) we left Yellowstone and headed to our next stop in Missoula, Montana where I can work a few days before we head to Glacier. Our hosts, Don and Marilyn Oliver, are in California for their son’s wedding so Shay and I are actually house sitting for them while they are gone. We never met these two people before and they were kind and gracious enough to still let us stay at their place without them here. We cannot express enough gratitude for that kind of hospitality. It really means the world to us!

Here we are, Day 30 today, and where did the time go? We still have a little over a month left on this trip but if that time goes at the same pace as it has been going, I will feel as if I blinked and it’s over. Hopefully that’s not the case because we are having the time of our lives exploring and learning more about our country, it’s people, it’s places, each other and ourselves. Shades of home sickness have set in. We miss our family and friends but we’ll be back in due time so that helps ease the slight pain.

Day 26 Pictures
Day 27 Pictures
Day 28 Pictures