Chasing the Sun: United States of Mina - Seattle, Portland and Rockaway Beach

Seattle, Portland and Rockaway Beach - Monday 9 May to Monday 16 May.

Something you want in a hotel, above and beyond the low rates

Seattle - Monday 9 to Thursday 12 May

So just after our Alcatraz and San Francisco street car adventures we grabbed a shuttle to the airport and all got on board our flight to Seattle, where we'd be met by Rolo of Rolo's Ramblings fame.

Rolo, true to form and despite his now vagrant lifestyle, was ready and waiting at the airport when we arrived and whisked us away in his amazingly cozy but somewhat creepy Chevy (read 'Creeper' but think A-Team) Van.

Monday 9 May -

Sleeping: Hostelling International Seattle

Eating: Hard Rock Cafe, Seattle - my first HRC experience but it seemed fitting given the city.

First impressions: Not good, for any of us. It was a cold, grey night in a cold, grey city.

Tuesday 10 May -

Breakfast was included at the hostel, but we were now travelling with someone who loves coffee almost as much as my parents (I'd like to pit them off against each other one day and then all sit down for one of Dad's homemade ciders afterwards) so we started our walking tour of Seattle with a REAL coffee (which to my North American readers does not include anything from Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Second Cup, the petrol station, the convenience store, anything that's passed through a paper filter, or anything that's black with little yellow bubbles on top).

At the beginning of our 'tour' (term used loosely) we were lost little lambs in this hard edged city, but things started to come together once the sun came out.

First up, a visit to the Space Needle toilets (note, sky still grey)

Second, the Experience Music Project (note, sky brightening)

EMP was amazingly awesome, first up we all got two for one tickets, then their audio guides are done on ipods, then there was a special exhibition on for Nirvana, then we got to look at a cool Jimi Hendrix exhibition, then we got to play some musical instruments and then we had our photo taken for our new band, the Red Velvets... or was it the Velvet Creeps? Rolo will have to tell you, because he still has our poster in which we are ROCKING.IT.OUT on.

Ok Seattle, you're growing on us.

Sun now well and truly out, we went in search of lunch and were directed to a sweet little joint near the Space Needle called Local 360. It's an organic restaurant that raves about sustainability and using local foods - hence the name. All food and drinks must be sourced from within a 360 mile radius... which is a bit of a farce really, because 360 miles converts to about 580kms. This means that if you're at the restaurant in Sydney the food could have come from as far away as Bermagui, Wagga Wagga, Bendoc near the Victorian border, Griffith, Glen Innes. I mean when you're sitting in Sydney and you're eating something from as far away as nearly twice the distance of Canberra you're not thinking that it's local.

BUT the food was great, our waiter was a hoot and the place and a great feel about it. We all sat down in a little booth, with a vase of flowers from the garden and a light just like you'd see in any garden shed and started liking Seattle more and more.

For our afternoon activity we then headed back towards the city to the Pike Place Market. Famous for the flying fish, the first ever Starbucks and briefly featured in Sleepless in Seattle when Tom Hanks walks out of his office building (I worked that out during the Rockaway Beach to Kamloops drive).

Our mission was for Jono and me and Ella and Rolo to each come up with a couple of vegetarian dishes for that night's dinner. So we headed off in different directions and with bags full of fresh fruit and veg all seemed to end up at the same coffee shop. I tried to cook Valeria's amazing ragu, but of course, since we were cooking back at the hostel, it lacked the appropriate amounts of wine, oil and salt. Still lekker though!

The Original Starbucks

Wednesday 11 May -
Yesterday's sun was long gone and it was back to rainy Seattle. Today we kicked off with an Underground Tour around Pioneer Square, which was not just a way to escape the rain, but also a fascinating tour of the underground world in Seattle.

The story goes that the first pioneers to settle in Seattle set up camp on tidal flats (obviously when the tide was out). The city developed while every day this tide came in and swamped the streets. It was some time before anything was done about it and it took a large fire to get the city organised. The city of Seattle finally decided it would shift the dirt from the hills above down onto the tidal flats below, raising the street level between 10 and 30ft at some points. Once this decision was made it then took the city a few more years to get the project underway and the store owners were getting antsy - they opened up their stores at the original level and carried on with business. Years later the streets were raised, but the stores' doors and the footpaths were still down at the original level. Solution: ladders at every corner.

After a few people fell to their doom the city got itself organised again and covered the lowered footpaths with raised walkways. These days on street level you'd have no idea about all the underground tunnels beneath your feet.

A family gets to live in the pyramid up top and it's only about $6 to go up this one, compared to the Space Needle's $18

Underground

Some oddbods we found while we were down there.

Street Art

More Street Art

More Street Art... I should start paying attention to the tour guide

Toffee apples in a window between holes in the ground.

While the underground was condemned for a while things still went on down there - usually 'underground' sorts of things - prostitution and gambling. More recently an underground section of a building was used as a homeless shelter.

After the tour we were in need of a caffeine fix and decided to check out one of the underground coffee shops, we came up the Elliot Bay Cafe. It passed all the tests set by our resident critic.

Revived we then headed to the Outdoor Research outlet to stock up on winter gear. We didn't come away with much, but I bought a pair of mittens from the kids section (at kids prices) for my child-sized hands.

En route to OR I came across this. Just in case I forgot where I was, this was a clear reminded that we were in the States.

From Outdoor Research we started heading back to the hostel and came across a Salvation Army store, which received a bit of our custom. In photos you'll notice Ella's red jumper, Jono's black vest and thankfully not my trashy grey Guess tracksuit pants.

Seattle Days.

After a nap we were back up again for a big night, first stop Pho in the International District.

Then headed to a bar near The Crocodile for some pre-band drinks.

Drinking friends.

And then on to The Crystal Stilts at The Croc for our last night in Seattle.

SEATTLE PICS

Crab Chowder... probably never again.

Portland - Thursday 12 May - Sunday 15 May

Accommodation: HI Portland, Northwest. Private dorm and guesthouse.

Thursday 12 May - Day one of the Road Trip proper, we headed south towards Portland, with a midday excursion through the snow to Mount St Helens. But not before stopping off for a cultural experience at Walmart... and for an experience of an altogether different kind at Mcdonalds.

That's for a gallon

Cool wHip

Yes. That says 20.

On the road again.

Lunch break.

And right about now my Year of Summers takes a detour to the snow.

Once in Portland we headed to dinner on NW21st Ave for some very decent steaks.

Friday 13 May - we had a bit of a free day today. Jono and I woke and headed off for a walk around some of Forest Park (the largest forested park within city limits in all of the country) along the Wildwood Trail. Stunning! We were having a really good time until we realised we had to check our of the dorm and into two private rooms in the guest house, at which point we turned on our heels and ran all the way back to the hostel.

Back at the hostel we met back up with Ella and Rolo and after checkout headed in the opposite direction from where we'd had dinner and into the city. Poor Ella was famished after a run with Rolo, so we let them head off in search of food while we went off in search of coffee. We found an organic place, grabbed some coffee (I made the mistake of getting the Coffee of the Week... not something you do in a country where drip coffee is so prevalent), pulled out the lap top and made use of the free wifi to try and sort out some flights. Unfortunately we couldn't get the flights sorted online, so our tour of Portland was based around us locating a pay phone.

First up we headed to a hotel and were directed to Powell's Books, a large first and second hand book institution in Portland (where we headed to on a later day as a group of four), from there we were sent three more blocks in the other direction, passing a micro brewery or two on the way.

Pay phone not found I ducked into an office building to ask the receptionist in the lobby. Extremely unhelpful in providing advice on where to find a phone, extremely helpful in lending us hers. Of all the people in the world I'd never thought I'd say that I think Americans are the nicest. But they are. Do things like lend you their phone, say hi on the street, stop their car to let you cross the road in front of them. Had a lovely chat with the receptionist and security guard while Jono sorted out the flights, they gave us lots of advice on what to do - the Japanese Tea Garden was one thing, the Saturday Markets another.

Flights organised, we bid farewell to our new friends and began the rest of Portland adventure, starting with a ride around town on the free Streetcar through the city and down to the waterfront. I was very impressed when we sat down to lunch at a cafe where I'd ordered a couple of sandwiches and they came out with a side of pickles and a packet of chips each.

For the rest of the day we just wandered our way back to the hostel and then napped away the afternoon.

We ate dinner in that night, grabbing groceries from Trader Joes (which do some really good samplers) and also at Fred Meyers, which was an experience all on its own. At Freddy Meyers you can hire a movie, go to Starbucks, buy a book, purchase your flour, dried legumes, pasta or nuts in the exact quantity that you require.

We got what we needed and headed back to the hostel to whip up a BBQ, which we followed up with champagne and a game of euchre.

Rolo and Me

Ella and Jono

Saturday 14 May - All of us headed into the hills for a walk. Even though we were far away from where Jono and I had walked the day before we were still on the Wildwood Trail.

Wildwood Trail

Banana Slugs! My cousin said I should look out for these at the park.. I thought they were something you ate!

After our morning walk we headed into town to the waterfront to check out the markets for lunch. I couldn't help taking a photo of this. Later I saw signs saying 'save our sign'... It apparently has quite the history.

At the markets there was plenty of food going on and Jono and I settled on some Polish hot dogs and pierogi, a dish we're familiar with and fond of thanks to our Polish friend Missing.

After lunch we passed an old-time American band that had a lot of supporters.

Including this old duck, dressed head to toe in a purple sequined dress, boogying her afternoon away.

Perhaps it was with her in mind that they posted this sign up.

That night we headed to a pub for dinner and learnt the hard way that although we are well above the drinking age of 21, you get ID'd if you look under the age of 45. And they won't accept your drivers license. The same pub made some excellent sliders though.

Rockaway Beach - Sunday 15 May

Sunday 15 May - we headed towards the coastline for a night. On the way we had a very adventurous walk through a forrest in the rain somewhere south of Cannon Beach, it involved ankle deep mud and a scramble down a cliff.

The weather was shocking that day, but we'd scored some great accommodation at an even better price - a self contained hotel room at Rockaway Beach right across from the beach with a fire place to dry our clothes and warm Rolo after a crazed dash into the surf.