Sleepy in Seattle

It has been a week since we have been able to blog. A lot has happened since then though. After Pismo Beach and Hearst Castle we headed north to San Francisco. We stayed in South San Francisco and took the BART (train) into the city. Public transport is always an experience the people are always crazy on there. We went through Chinatown, ate some good oven baked pizza in little Italy, and then went down to the pier to check out the seals. We took a boat out into the bay and under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz. It was so cold and windy. We took some great pictures but the fog was in over the bridge. We also got to hang out with a Chemi friend Cory, we grabbed an In and Out Burger and he showed around town. It was great to see friends !

After San Francisco, we drove north to the Redwood Forest. It was Memorial Day Weekend and we had no reservations so we ended up having to drive an extra hour to get a hotel. The Redwoods were gorgeous though. There is a highway that drives through and I would tell anyone going from North Cal to Oregon to use this route. We got out and did some hiking to check out the biggest of the trees and try to find a redwood cone but we did not find one. We saw a sign that warned us about cougars attacking, but it told use to act big and yell loudly if we encounter one and to fight back FEROCIOUSLY if one attacks! We then drove the jeep through the center of one of the giant redwoods.

Then we drove up towards Crater Lake in Oregon. It is the largest lake (by volume) in North America and has some of the cleanest water in the world since there are no rivers flowing from the lake the water has filled up over time due to huge amounts of snow fall that can get up near 40ft a year. When we were there there was more than 8ft of snow in many places. The water was the so clear blue you could see a perfect reflection of the mountain in the water.

We then drove to Portland for the night. Portland was a pretty city that we thought we would have fun in. It has 4 bridges crossing the river in the center of the city and they all look very different. They had one of the cleanest transit systems we could ride from our hotel on one side of the river to downtown and all around downtown for free. They do this to encourage business growth. Once we got downtown we found out that other than malls and the university there was not much to do.

We then drove to Seattle. On the way we passed by Mount St Helens and Mount Ranier in the distance. We met up with our friends Chris and Joy who took us to Ivar's this awesome Salmon restaurant right on the Pungent Sound. It was great getting to see them since they moved from Tulsa after the got married last October. The next day Tiff, Joy and me went downtown. We went up in the Space Needle which was very cool, we wanted to eat at the restaurant but it was like $50 a plate. We then went to Pioneer Square, where the city of Seattle first started. We went on the underground tour to explore how the city was rebuilt after the fire that destroyed the first settlement. Next, we went to the fisherman's market and bought coffee at the very FIRST Starbuck's. Finally that night we went to Chris and Joy's church, ate and crashed.

Well that is where we are now. We will be heading out shortly heading toward Yellowstone National Park. We will be staying in Butte, Montana tonight and camping in Yellowstone for 2 nights. We had planned to go to Glacier National Park on the way to Yellowstone but we are running short on time and we watched this animal channel show where a man and his daughter were nearly killed in Glacier by a bear while hiking a common trail. After Yellowstone we will be headed to Jackson Hole Wyoming, Mount Rushmore and home. We should be home by Wednesday afternoon and we move into our apartment the next day.