The Other Side of the Story

Here are my answers to the same questions:

1. What souvenirs did you buy? 1 shirt from the University of Oregon, robo-keys (it's a key cover that looks like a robot head), and some vintage looking postcards from Oregon and Colorado. I think that might be it.

2. What was the can't miss spot on the trip? Definitely Crater Lake. There's a reason Oregon put it as the design for their state quarter.

3. CD most likely to add to iPod It's so hard to say because I know I'm going to add more than one of them, but I think I'm going to say Dena's. It got the trip off to a great start, and it's music I don't currently have on my iPod. I listened to the cd in my car today.

4. Place you were most surprised by? I think I will say Yellowstone. I guess I didn't know much about it other than oldest national park and Old Faithful. How can you not be surprised by bubbling mud pits and hissing pools of steam?

5. Place to spend another week in? Am I allowed to say Boulder? That technically wasn't part of the road trip, but we started and ended there, and it was part of the overall trip. It just has a little of everything there.

6. Cabin vs. yurt vs. teepee? The cabin and yurt were both pretty similar inside, but I'll say yurt because it had a skylight.

7. Best meal? My spinach, candied walnut, grape, and goat cheese salad at Alibi in Seattle, plus the pizza that I stole from Holly.

8. Favorite activity? Kayaking on Lake Union in Seattle. I saw a seaplane land on the water (or do you land on land and water on water?) out there, which was cool.

9. Road trip advice? Don't plan every single minute of the trip out, but it was nice to have some stuff planned. We didn't have to argue about what to do because we already had a basic idea of what was possible.

10. Things you wish you had packed more of or had packed at all? I meant to bring my headlamp so we could have had some light in the teepee. Also, I apparently needed more than two pens. Both of the pens I brought on the trip died. I guess I did a pretty good job packing if those were my biggest complaints.

11. The thing(s) you were most glad you packed? Two cases full of about 75 cds. They didn't exactly do me much good as the primary item in my carry-on when we were stuck overnight in Charlotte, NC on the way home, but I was certainly glad to have them for the trip. Other than the cds, I was glad that Holly packed Simon, her GPS, and I'm glad we bought pillows to bring with us.

12. Worst place we went / most disappointed by? The worst place we went was definitely the Yakima Wal-Mart. I can't stand Wal-Mart. I guess I wasn't disappointed by it though--it was exactly what I would expect from a Wal-Mart. I was disappointed that we didn't get the do the Street Scramble in Seattle (because apparently nobody around knew where it started or at what time, so we just enjoyed our day in Fremont instead) and that we didn't play disc golf on a mountain in Big Sky (due to rain and cold temperatures), but we made up for it with all the other fun things we did.

13. Things I learned about myself? That the reason I don't lose things is because I won't stop looking for it until I find it. Holly said she would give up way before I do. Also, I'm scared of bison. Did you know they can weigh 2,000 pounds and run 3 times as fast as you can?

14. Things I learned about the other person? I knew this already, but Holly has really long legs. We're not really all that much different in height, but you wouldn't think that based on the amount that we had to adjust the driver's seat and mirrors when switching drivers.

15. Looking forward to at home - not living out of a huge yellow duffel bag

16. Best thing that kept us entertained while driving? The scrabble board that we set up on the armrest in between the driver and passenger. Kidding. The 18 different things that the passenger was in charge of--reading cd commentaries, taking photos, reading the question cards, filing in mad libs, crossing off license plates, getting snacks.

16 Things for the 16 Days - Holly's Version

Here are the questions we said we would both answer:

1. What souvenirs did you buy? 2 tshirts from University of Oregon, a sailboat painting (I bargained the guy and got it for $5!), an Annie Leibovitz book from the vintage shop and mon-key rings.

2. What was the can't miss spot on the trip? Oregon! Especially Crater Lake. It was too gorgeous to describe.

3. CD most likely to add to iPod Aly's, I already added it!

4. Place you were most surprised by? Tillamock Cheese Factory. I gave Jamie such a hard time about it and in the end, it was the best icecream of the trip. And Project Vote Smart, it was a beautiful property and a great cause.

5. Place to spend another week in? The entire state of Oregon

6. Cabin vs. yurt vs. teepee? I loved the cabin, but the yurt had the bunk beds!

7. Best meal? The organic sandwich shop in Freemont (Seattle), great sandwich and gold star logo

8. Favorite activity? Kayaking on Lake Union. It was very cool seeing the Space Needle why we were on the water.

9. Road trip advice? plan before you go, seriously

10. Things you wish you had packed more of or had packed at all? Sure Holly, bring 4 pairs of socks, that will last you 3 weeks.

11. The thing(s) you were most glad you packed? I am glad Jamie brought Bananagrams, I glad we brought Lil Mac (for blogging purposes), I was super happy with my dorky (yet practical) camera bag, and all my hoodies. It was cooler than I expect everywhere we went.

12. Worst place we went / most disappointed by? "Big Pine" and the Lapine National Park in Oregon. Seriously, that was the largest ponderosa pine in Oregon? I highly doubt it. Sorry Kelly, but I was also disappointed with the Yakima Walmart. (or maybe just disappointed that we had to go there)

13. Things I learned about myself? I fell in love again with cruise control and found out that I am very afraid of Bison. We saw one in the field and I wouldn't let Jamie walk by it. She read to me in the brochure that you have to stay at least 25 yards away.

14. Things I learned about the other person? Jamie is a walking map. She has a great sense of direction.

15. Looking forward to at home - my own bed

16. Best thing that kept us entertained while driving? umm, each other?! the CDs were great!

No bull about it, we had a great time at the Rodeo

For every day in June, July and August, Cody, Wyoming has a rodeo. I kept calling it the Codeo. No lie, the rodeo made me feel very proud to be an American. Some of the highlights included the rodeo clown who we discovered is a high school chemistry teacher. During his 15 min. dance routine in between the festivities, Jamie and I just kept thinking about how he teaches the youth of America, just like us. We were also impressed with the barrel races and the pee-wee round that included a 5 year old!! Every time a guy would fall off the bull I closed my eyes and winced. I just didn't want him to get stepped on. A special thanks to the 3 little cowboys that sat on the fence in front of us, they provided some great photo ops for us.

We're not quite done yet

Here you go blog fans, 3 new posts and more to come...

Let's all read Organic Squirrel Gets a Bike Helmet

Once we got back to Boulder it was kind of like the trip was over and we were home again, but the trip wasn't really over and we certainly weren't home again. It was just that we were in a place we had been to before with people we knew and that the road trip portion was over. We cooked dinner, or a team effort with Bob and Aly and Sandor led to a tasty dinner on Friday night. On Saturday we had pancakes for breakfast, courtesy of Brother Bob. Then we rode bikes and met up with Aly, Ruthie, and Joel. We rode down the Boulder Creek Path and came upon this rope that swings out over the water and that Bob had always been wanting to try. Other people were doing it and it seemed relatively safe, so Bob and Joel took turns. The girls (wisely, I think) stayed out of the cold water though. We went to the Boulder farmer's market for lunch and key lime pie and a pretzel as big as Bob's head, then to 7-eleven because it was free slurpee day! July 11th, 7-11, get it? You get a free 7.11 ounce slurpee, or if you're Bob and I you go more than once and get two. We were a bit limited because Boulder only has one 7-11. In Williamsburg alone I can think of 6, and I think there might even be more, but one was enough this time. We hung out at a pool with Aly's brother for a while, then headed home to change for dinner. For my birthday dinner Bob and Aly reserved a little room with a table recessed into the ground at Sushi Zenmai. We got a boat full of all different kinds of sushi--the number 9 roll was definitely the tastiest. Then we happened upon the Boulder Big Wheel Rally. I wish I had a picture of this...just imagine adults in costumes riding big wheel bikes. Not big wheel bikes meaning bikes with big wheels, but big wheel bikes meaning those bikes little kids ride, just made for adults instead. It was weird. Then we got gelato to conclude the evening.

Saturday Holly and I actually went our separate ways, so here's my recap of my time without Holly. I'll try to make it sound not-so-fun so she won't be jealous. We (me, Bob, Aly, Ruthie, and Joel) went for a hike near Lyons, then got lunch at a place in Lyons, and then tried to go tubing nearby, but a rain downpour during lunch cooled things off a bit, so only Bob was willing to get in. The look on his face when he sat in the cold water in his too-small tube was quite entertaining. So we gave up on the tubing and went to watch Dan's bike race in Longmont. Then came the best part of the day...outdoor movie night at Kim and Ken's! It was a group effort to set up a sheet hanging from the house and attached to a pole somehow, a projector and speakers, a snack table (did you read that Holly? a snack table!) with popcorn, beer, Ruthie's homemade apple pies, vanilla ice cream, red vines, m&ms, and junior mints. Eleven of us sat outside and enjoyed Bedtime Stories under a clear, starry sky. Very nice.

And then our time in Boulder was pretty much over. Holly returned from her trip-within-a-trip the next morning. We packed up, got the best sammiches in Boulder to take with us as our lunch, and arrived at the Denver airport. But that's a whole other story...

When we got tired of doing all the driving...

We never got tired of listening to all of our mix cds though. I think this was definitely one of our best ideas ever, right up there with blogging and that time when I was holding a loaf of bread and Holly said "Why don't you slice it?"

--On the morning of my birthday as we were leaving PVS, Holly surprised me by downloading the Away We Go soundtrack on her iPod and having it all ready to listen to that morning. It's mostly by Alexi Murdoch and tends to be pretty laid back. I enjoyed it muchly. Now I just hope that I get to have a copy of it and my present wasn't just that I got to listen to it once.

--Matt Robinson, another one of our many friends named Matt (I think Holly calls this one Captain Quay) made us a good mix of 90s music.

--Our student April had a good mix with a variety of songs on it, from Beatles to more recent stuff

--As we left Big Sky and headed to Yellowstone on day 15 of the road trip, we listened to track star Michelle's mix. It started off with some interesting piano music and then had all kinds of things on it. Holly remarked that Michelle might make a good wedding reception DJ because there were a number of good danceable songs in a row on there.

--When we got to Yellowstone we thought to ourselves, what would be most out of place to listen to here? And the answer was Uncle Ed's Jimmy Buffett faves. We particularly enjoyed the final song on the mix, an unreleased song about Jimmy's thoughts on a driver that cut him off. We thought of this song later when we encountered a few not-so-great drivers ourselves.

--Amber made us a mix called 21 Female Vocalists for 2 Female Roadtrippers, which I quite enjoyed.

--Tina's grandpap made us several cds, complete with cover art and track listings, and we listened to one of his while driving up to the Old Faithful visitor's center. I actually sang along with a few of the tunes.

--Holly was getting a little sleepy at this point (not because of the previous cd, just due to it being her naptime), so she told me to put in something upbeat, so since it's hard to predict if someone's mix is going to be upbeat or not I put in a mashup cd I recently downloaded called Feed the Animals by Girl Talk. If you don't know what a mash-up is, go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JBAxkZun3s&feature=PlayList&p=5D5E3471964CE94A&index=0&playnext=1 and watch the video for the first song on the cd. But don't watch it if you have sensitive ears and might be offended by the language.

--Then we put on Matthew's cd (how many Matts is that now...I've lost count). His wife Heather works with us at GHS. It had music on it that I recognize like Neutral Milk Hotel and that I think was new to Holly. It's kind of predictable which songs Holly or I will be able to sing along with. If it's country or rap, those seem to be Holly's domains. I'll take the alternative pop rock indie whatever you want to call it.

--This is getting to be a really long post.

--I guess that's why we should have posted before now and not waited 5 days to do it.

--We ended the day with GHS English teacher Matt's second cd, this one a themed cd entitled Travels, Transportations, and Destinations. It kept to the theme quite well.

--On day 16, our final day of driving, we listened to student Amber's mix, then student Kevin's disc 1 of 4, student Jenni's, student Daniel's, and finally student Laura's disco dos. They were all a little of this, a little of that, and all were quite enjoyable.

--I think we finished out the trip by listening to road trip mixes #2 and 3 by the Staabs. We were on #3 as we pulled into the parking lot of the Jamba Juice in Boulder, thereby concluding our road trip.

--But did that conclude the music? Why no, it didn't! As we speak I'm listening to Karen's Ridiculously Good Songs Vol 1, which was waiting here for me when I returned home. So it didn't make it on the road trip, but I can listen to it from the comfort of my own home or car. She included personal commentary with every track, which a few people did and I have found I quite enjoy. It's interesting to see what people have to say about the songs they pick, especially if you're as funny as Karen.

--So that's it. That's all the music we listened to. We got through at least one cd from every person who gave us one (a few people submitted more than one disc, and we didn't quite make it through every cd in the case). I think the only one I didn't list on here was Steve's screamo music, which he gave to me just so I could find out what screamo was. I did put it on at some point, and no offense Steve, but screamo isn't my new favorite kind of music. Oh, and I don't think I listed Megan and John's cds because they wouldn't work in the car. I guess something went wrong in the burning process. I'd say we listened to about 70 cds total though and can now provide people with killer road trip mixes for their future road adventures.

Have you ever slept in a teepee?

Yeah, I've slept in a teepee. I don't know if Holly can say the same thing or not. She spent the night in a teepee, but I'm not sure there was a whole lot of sleeping going on. You'll have to ask her, but I think she had a rather cold, uncomfortable night. I think at 5:30 am she was done trying to sleep in the teepee. She left the teepee around 6am, so she was definitely done at that point. Me, on the other hand, I slept more than I expected to.

We rolled into Cody around dinner time, found our teepee, got some dinner, and headed to the Cody rodeo. In the morning, after our night in the teepee, we headed on back to Boulder, Colorado. Seven and a half hours later and we were done with the road trip. It was during those seven and a half hours that Holly got a little punchy and asked me to give her a pep talk. She said she needed some vocal caffeine. Then she made me announce all of the items in our food bag as if I were presenting them on The Price Is Right. She criticized my first attempt, but was pleased with my description of the pita chips as being "mint in bag" (they hadn't been opened yet). You can draw your own conclusions from all of this as to our mental state after all those hours on the road with limited social interaction with other people, but I will say that those seven and a half hours actually weren't too bad. They passed rather quickly and we were back in Boulder by 3pm.

I'm gonna get me another pickanick basket

Yellowstone was crazy. It was like going to another planet at times. There were mountains, a giant caldera, streams, rivers, lakes, bison crossing the street, tourists stopping like idiots in the middle of the road to take pictures of said dangerous bison, bubbling mud pots, pools of water with steam rising off them, water that was clear blue, water that was orange from bacteria mats, water that smelled like sulphur, geysers, and the second most traffic that we've been caught in on the trip (first place for traffic: driving into Seattle, but that one I kind of expected). Quite an amazing place. And our nation's first national park. Congrats, Yellowstone.

High Bison Alert at Yellowstone

We left Big Sky and were on route to Yellowstone National Park. When we arrived at the park we saw signs that announced it was a "High Bison Alert" on the roads today. And that it was. Jamie read some information about the wild beasts and we knew that they were not cute and cuddly animals and that we were not supposed to get within 25 yards of them. There was some traffic in the park, especially when the bison were trying to cross the road. (that sounds the start to a good joke . . . )

Wifi vs. Smoke Signals?

We have never created a post without pictures . . . but we just wanted you to know that we made it to Cody, Wyoming! We conquered Yellowstone today (lots of bison out and about!) We spend the evening at the Cody Rodeo and are now in our teepee. It is a little cold and there is no electricity, but we can get wireless. Pictures will have to wait until we can plug the computer in. Tomorrow is our last drive and we should be back to Boulder by dinner time. 

If you are having trouble visualizing the teepee visit www.codyponderosa.com! Our teepee is named Red Cloud. 

Big Sky indeed!

I have a whole collection of pictures called "taken from the window". Today there was little sun, but it was a special fun Jamie day none-the-less!!! 

But what if I need my lime green sombrero and my collection of POGs on the trip? I'll pack them just in case.

I have been very impressed with Jamie and I and our ability to road trip. We plan things out before, we wake up early and tackle the world, we see all the sights that we can, etc. My major downfall this trip has been my ability to over-pack. Its a problem that I will always have. First, I start with more of the normal "essentials" than a person needs. (I have enough underwear to do the entire trip again.) When Jamie and I travel on Spring Break, we always say that we have to wear everything that we bring. So far I am going to be wearing a bathing suit, 3 sundresses (did we mention it was 45 here today), 3 tshirts, 2 pairs of shoes, and about 14 pairs of underwear on the plane ride home. 

We have other things with us that are probably not necessary. For some reason I thought we would need 2 bottles of rubber cement. We do have some stuffed animals that have made the trip. Domo, the pink monster, was a gift of my friend Kate and I have taken a picture of him at every major attraction in every spot. I have been printing out the pictures of him and been mailing them to my niece and nephew in Nebraska. Apparently reading Domo postcards are an incentive to get the kids to eat all of their dinner. Who knew?

They say it's my birthday. It's my birthday too yeah.

Best phrase of the day: birthday pancake. I had a birthday pancake this morning. Holly and I were invited over to Richard's house for breakfast--he's the president of Project Vote Smart and lives there in a house on the ranch, and he hosts these orientation breakfasts for new folks where he cooks for you and then explains some of the history and philosophy behind the project, which may sound a little boring, but it's not. He's really kind of fascinating to listen to. This is a man who ran against John McCain for Barry Goldwater's vacated Senate seat back in the 1980s. He lost, obviously. But this morning when I walked in he had a pancake with a candle in it and sang happy birthday. Holly told his wife that it was my birthday, so she passed the news along.

As soon as we were all oriented, we left PVS for bigger skies. Big Sky, Montana to be exact. I don't know why, but several people thought we were sleeping in a teepee tonight, others thought we were back in Colorado. I guess a blog isn't enough. Maybe we need to get major news networks to announce our whereabouts. We drove about 3 and a half hours to Big Sky, which is a ski resort. We had grand plans to play disc golf on the mountain--you take the ski ride up, and play your way down. As soon as we bought the tickets though it started to rain and the temperature dropped to 45 degrees, so we wisely decided not to play. Unfortunately there's not much to do around here in the summer when it rains, but we made the best of it. We headed to Lone Peak Brewery for some drinks and chips and salsa, plus a rousing game of bananagrams (which Holly won) and then an equally rousing (look how excited my hand looks in the picture!) game of shuffleboard (which Holly won). She tells me that now that I'm 30, I need to learn that I can't win all the time. We had dinner at Choppers, a motorcycle themed restaurant. Then we got some wine and ice cream and headed to back to the hotel to relax with some America's Got Talent (strangely addicting) and the hot tub. All in all, a good day. Oh, and I won $5 on Virginia lottery tickets. Score.

"Watch out for those man eating jackrabbits and that killer cacti"

I am proud to say that I just sang the entire "Hey Dude" theme song to Jamie. She didn't seem that impressed. 

Night View from our Villa

One of my weaknesses is that sometimes I volunteer too much...

So we went to work in the office this morning and we heard there was some worry about layoffs in the near future. Dwight asked Jim if he wanted to form a secret alliance, and Jim said absolutely he did. Jim and Pam exploited this secret alliance to convince Dwight to get inside a box down in the warehouse to listen in on conversations, but then they just left him down there. Meanwhile, Michael planned a birthday party for Meredith to try to boost people's morale...oh wait, this isn't what happened today, it's a plot from the tv show The Office.

What actually happened in the office today was basically what Holly said below...we looked at their teacher resources and told them what teachers would probably really find helpful. The stuff they had wasn't really stuff I would likely use. Then Holly took photos and I came up with some lesson plan ideas if they wanted to develop them. It is funny that yesterday Holly said that we get a little vacay today, and then today is the day we actually went to work. I think she just meant that we didn't have to drive or cook or spend any money or pack up stuff and we could spend some time just relaxing. Like this afternoon when I took a 45 minute nap. But this evening was a little more intense. The walk up the hill was way longer than I remembered it being, and the walk down was a bit worrisome when we couldn't find the path at first and then it started raining. But we made it and lived to tell the tale. So that's what I did on my last day of being 29. Climbed a mountain.

Tomorrow we are having breakfast at the house of the president of Project Vote Smart--he's going to cook for us and give new folks a little orientation to the project and the ranch. And then after being fed and oriented we head to Big Sky, Montana where I plan to play disc golf on a mountain!

because everyone loved the jumping pictures . . .

This morning we woke up and reported to the office to get our assignments for the day. We didn't have to volunteer, but we felt that we needed to give back in some way. We were both given a list of about 8 things we could work on, and Jamie and I decided to tackle the issue of helping create a teacher resource page using their website. Basically, they have about 5 lessons online that are pretty poor and not helpful for teachers. Its kinda funny that we are on vacation and spent the morning writing about objectives and looking at the VA SOL website. In the afternoon I took some pictures around the office and the ranch and will give them the files in the morning. (I think they are going to want the 115 pictures that I took yesterday of the rope bridge.) After dinner Jamie suggested that we hike this mountain which I will call Huff-Puffaluff. Its funny how this whole trip I picture a situation and then it ends up very different. I thought this was like a 30 min. jaunt up a hill. Ha. About an hour into it I knew this was an entire evening activity. (the best part of the walk up was when Jamie explained the entire Harry Potter series to me, perhaps we have run out of things to talk about?) But we made it and spent a few minutes frolicking and then it started to rain. And it rained the entire walk down. We made it though and we treated ourselves to one extra brownie that they had on the "snack table"! 

I think one of these might actually be a weed . . .

Give him a fire in his heart and a light in his eyes, give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana skies

Facts about today:

1. This was the first time we encountered rain on our journey. It pretty much rained while we were in Idaho this morning, but we were back to the best weather in America by the time we reached Montana.

2. We Jamba-ed again. We stopped at the Jamba Juice in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho before setting off this morning. Apparently we only stop at Jamba Juices in Idaho. 

2. We listened to a few more cds today...Erik's cd entitled Idaho Potatoes or Music to Make You Think started out the morning. He told Holly later that he envisioned one of us listening to it as we traveled down the highway at midnight and the other one of us was asleep. I guess he doesn't know that we don't drive at night and have pretty much always been asleep before midnight. We're so exciting. Travis gave us a mix of mostly Irish songs--particularly enjoyable were those by the guy from the movie Once. Student Sean provided us with the first cd we received, which we gave a listen to today. Amanda's mix was made especially for Big Sky Country as most songs had to do with sky or stars or giants or that sort of thing. Mamie gave us a copy of the latest Dave Matthews Band cd, which is what we listened to as we traveled those 12 miles down a dirt road to the Project Vote Smart ranch. 

3. This was our first foray into Montana...make that 7 states on your personal "states visited" list I know you've been keeping. Go ahead, color it in on your map.

4. Holly drove those 12 miles down the dirt road to the ranch at about 15 miles an hour. Do the math...it took us a while. It's not a complaint that she was driving slow, just an observation. It seems particularly slow after having gone 80 mph down the highway (don't worry--the speed limit was 75). I'm glad she took the dirt road slowly--we didn't want any adventures out there today.

5. The picture above is us on a rope swing on the Project Vote Smart ranch. PVS (http://www.votesmart.org) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization created in the belief that a democracy needs a well-informed electorate, and you can't be well informed by watching campaign commercials or debates where they're trained to avoid really answering the question. They collect information on all kinds of political office holders and candidates, and provide it for free to the public. They run off of volunteers and donations. I did a 2 week internship out here in the summer of 2004 and again in 2005, and thought it would be fun to return, even for a short time. They have a 150 acre ranch just a few miles from the Continental Divide. You can hike, go out on the lake, fish, ride horses, all kinds of stuff. And the people are extremely welcoming. The PVS president and his wife live here in a house on the ranch, and we're staying in a room attached to the back of their house. Pretty nice for a free place to stay. Oh, and they feed us too. We're pretty cut off from civilization here, except for this wireless internet I suppose. No cell coverage. We'll volunteer for them tomorrow and explore a bit, then head out on Wednesday morning to Big Sky. The president, Richard, asked Holly to take some photos for them to use in brochures. His wife Adelaide asked her to take some pics that make office work look interesting, which Richard was doubtful could be done. He told Holly to just photoshop some giraffes in the pictures or something. I thought that was a great idea. Richard is the mastermind behind all of the strange additions to the ranch--a 2 story treehouse, a rope suspension bridge over a stream, a two story gazebo, and the rope swing we're sitting on. He's quite a character.

6. Final fact of the day: we didn't hit anything with our car today, we have 4 functioning tires, and we didn't have to spend any time at all at a Wal-Mart in Yakima.

"and here is the snack table, help yourself . . . "

Jamie told me to drive down a dirt road for 12 miles. I just kept thinking that it was going to be a really long walk (or run) to find a person if we got another flat tire. And then it appeared. The magical ranch that I now consider our vacation spot for our vacation. 

Aaron met us at the ranch and showed us around the place. Because we are members, he pretty much treated us as royalty. The first thing he showed us was this table that was filled with chips, chocolate and fruit. He called it the snack table and said we could help ourselves. He had me at "snack table". This place is amazing. That word doesn't do it justice. beau-amazi-magic-specat-ulous. That will be my new word for it. After dinner we went on a hike with Cornelia and two other volunteers. We saw lakes, rivers, streams, canoes, hammocks, a tree house, rope bridge and wild horses. Just the normal things that you see on a walk! I made Jamie do the hike again with me so I could take more pictures. 

That's when I discovered my new calling in life. I am going to be a semi-professional wildflower photographer. (I don't want to go pro in case there are the flower Olympics.) I have no idea the names of these flowers, but I figure someone else can title them. Don't worry, I will keep the teaching gig. This will just be my summer profession. I figure the US postal service could use the pics for their special "wildflowers of Montana" series. (these will be unveiled in a later post)

At least it wasn't an elk . . .

It happened. Our first road trip "situation". Moments after our jumping pictures were taken, I hit a rock on the road and we got a flat tire. Not just a cute little flat tire, but a nice big gash type of flat tire. There was no where to pull off (we are talking 2 lane road on the side of a mountain) and we had about 1 bar of good cell phone. Neither of us panicked but I did comment to Jamie that I have "learn how to change a flat tire" on my list of 50 things to do in life. (I should have crossed that off before "buy a souvenir from Delaware" but I have my priorities I guess) 

I called the Hertz help line number and surprisingly the roadside assistance lady was of no assistance. She told me that she got a flat tire once and she just fixed it. Novel idea.

The first character of this story to arrive on the scene was Jack the park ranger. Jack is a retired test pilot from Boeing and he has been working at the park for seven years. Sweet old man, but had no clue how to change a flat tire. (I overhead Jamie asking him if she wanted to read the manual to him.) He called for back up. Before back up came, Antoine the motorcycle man came up and offered his help. He is an engineer at Boeing and was on a weekend road trip. In no time at all the donut was securely placed on the car. Jack seemed almost as appreciative as Jamie and I were. Next on the scene (are you envisioning this, we are talking a small road) was Howard the park ranger with maps. He helped Jamie plan out the best route to a tire place and also presented her with "the best map of Washington that one could have". The entire time this was going on, I really wanted a photograph to document the event, but I didn't want to bother these poor men. But before we were all leaving, Antoine pulled out a camera from his motorcycle and it was picture time! So yes, that is Jack with his arms crossed, Antoine in the leather and Howard took the picture. 

A minor snag in the day, but I can officially say that I have never had a flat tire in a more beautiful setting. (No worries, we aren't driving on a donut any more, we got a new tire at a Walmart in Yakima.)

On top of old Mount Rainier...

Or Mount Renoir as Holly called it. We left Seattle this morning, put on some good tunes, and were rolling along on our merry way. We listened to Nealy's Ultimate Dance Mix to get us started, which it definitely did. We had some 80s tunes on Ben's "The Ronald Reagan Years: Songs from the Oval Office." Holly's friend Kate's co-worker Angie sent along a good mix. Then we did Jamie's dad's mix, complete with accompanying entertaining story about our travels. Holly enjoyed the story (not included with the cd, but just an added bonus I told her) about how when Bob and I got to Colorado when he was moving there he began singing Judy Collins' Colorado (or I guess it's called The Blizzard). We listened to Laura's cd, our third student cd of the day, and then Leah's Tangled Memories in which we had to come up with guesses for what memories Leah attaches to each one of the songs. She provided cards for us to write our answers, and we get to hear the real stories sometime in the future when we get together. Then we went with Hayley's cd, our fourth student cd of the day. It had some good interesting stuff on there. We enjoyed singing along to White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes.

So today we made it to Mount Rainier! After spending a few hours there (Holly will explain the exact reasons why), we journeyed to Yakima, Washington (again, check Holly's explanation). Our final destination of the day was this lovely Holiday Inn Express in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. We had dinner based on a recommendation from a co-worker of PJ (one of our hosts in Portland) whose parents live here, and then watched some crazy lightning over the lake while we ate a giant sundae for dessert. Tomorrow it's on to Project Vote Smart in Montana. And we have to give back that extra hour that Oregon gave us last week. Hmph.

We should celebrate the 4th of every month this way!

We found the perfect spot! It was actually about 5 ft. over from where we at lunch this afternoon. Jamie and I got there early enough to play a round of "Bananagrams" (which Jamie won). I told Jamie before they started that I wasn't going to take too many pictures but I ended up with about 100. (They all look about the same.) The fireworks were lovely and lots of "ooooooooohhhhssss" and "awwwwwwwwsss" were heard all around. It was perfect that we were back to our house in about 15 mins! 

Tomorrow we are waking up early and heading to Mt. Rainier in morning and then to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho to spend the night. Lots of driving and CD listening will be happening! I personally am most excited about seeing the majestic city of George, Washington tomorrow! 

I think tug boats have the right of way?!

On our first night in Seattle, Jamie and I went kayaking around Lake Union! We made it to Gas Works Park and to the Freemont bridge! The whole time we could see the magical Space Needle (except for the times we weren't facing it). The best part for me was when we were really close to all the houseboats. It felt like we were in the movie Sleepless in Seattle. Now I wish I had made friends with some of the house boat people, that would have been the best place to watch the fireworks tonight!

Are you the king of anything? King of the lanes, king of the trolls?

We are still in Seattle. Yesterday we walked to the bus stop, took the bus downtown, took the ferry 35 minutes across the bay to Bainbridge Island, and then rented bikes. The guy at the bike shop gave us a route to ride to a park where we could sit and eat our lunch by the water. I was a little curious when he used the term "hill climbs" to describe part of our ride, but I figured they were small hills we could handle. Turns out those were some darn big hills. We made it though and had a nice little lunch by the water, but then we had to go back and unfortunately the hills we got to coast down on the way there were ones we had to climb up on the way back. Funny how it works that way. Afterwards, Holly told me that when she envisioned our day, she thought it would involve beach cruisers, mostly flat beachfront property with some gentle rolling hills, an AM/FM radio to listen to some tunes, and that we would be wearing bonnets. None of that happened. Well, except for the bonnets.

After we rode our bikes back to the rental place, caught the ferry, took a bus, and walked back to our little apartment, we then walked over a mile to the University District and saw the movie Away We Go. We laughed. We almost cried. We enjoyed it.

Today we attempted to do something called a Street Scramble where you get a map and have to visit various checkpoints in order to earn points, but they must have changed the time or something because nobody knew about it at 9am today. So instead we strolled around Fremont and visited a troll under a bridge. Soon we will attempt to find a place to watch the fireworks.

Didn't they make a movie here? Something about not being able to sleep?

Today was for downtown Seattle. Very busy day...Pike Place Market in the morning, a stop at the original Starbucks to use our gift cards, free admission day at the Seattle Art Museum, lunch at Ivar's Acres of Clams, walking through the International District so that Jamie could get some bubble tea (a slushy strawberry drink with strange tapioca balls at the bottom that you suck up through an oversized straw), and an evening visit to the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum during their free hours today. Just so happens that some things in Seattle are free on the first Thursday of every month. And just so happens that today was the first Thursday of this very month. How fortunate. There was a very cool Jim Henson exhibit at the EMP|SFM with lots of his drawings of muppets and other strange creatures.

Stop and smell

Thanks to Jennie and PJ for providing us with a place to stay in Portland!! They had other friends visiting too, so there were 7 people, 2 cats, and a dog in a one bedroom, one bathroom condo, but it all worked out quite well. We ate very well in Portland--you just walk 15 feet and there's another great restaurant or microbrewery. In the course of a day and a half, we were at a Mexican place, a sushi place, a little bit of everything place called Elephants, food carts with all sorts of ethnic foods (I got a falafel sandwich, Holly got tacos), a real frozen yogurt place, Rogue Ales, Deschutes Brewery, and a crepe place with the best name ever (Le Happy). But that's not all we did in Portland...we visited the international rose test garden, walked along the waterfront, got lost in Powell's books, and saw M.C. Escher and Chris Jordan exhibits at the Portland Art Museum. Also, we watched (in Holly's words) the world's most saddest documentary ever called Dear Zachary. Sad and frustrating, but a good documentary.

And I would drive 500 miles, and I would drive 500 more, and then 500 more, and yet again 500 more

We had a ways to go. And so we kept driving, and so we kept listening to music. I have to say, this mix cd thing was a great idea. We don't have to argue over what to listen to, most of the time we don't even know what's coming next. And we've enjoyed every mix we've gotten, so it's really working out for us. The picture above is us celebrating 2,000 miles. We were excited.

I think the last ones I said we listened to were Bob and Aly's, so here we go from there...

--We put on Christy's as we headed to the coast. I kept track...12 country songs, 6 non-country. I even liked the country songs though, especially the cover of Come on Get Higher. This was the cd that was playing as we hit 1,500 miles. It was also the cd that was playing as we didn't hit an elk. We were near Elkton, Oregon (go figure) and he kind of sauntered out into the road. Holly's cat-like reflexes averted all disaster with a last-minute swerve. Rule of thumb: don't swerve for tumbleweed, do swerve for elk. I just wonder what's going to happen when we drive near Elephanton, Washington.

--Then, since we were headed to the beach, we put on Felder's beach music. That got us in the mood for the ocean.

--Holly's friend Jenni made us a very enjoyable mix for our arrival on the coast at Reedsport, Oregon.

--Mike and Mary had a good mix of songs--ABBA, Beatles, Cat Stevens, Billy Joel, all kinds of stuff.

--Then we listened to Brad's mixes--one for Holly and one for me. When we were most of the way through my mix Holly made the comment that she didn't think she had recognized anything for the past 25 songs, but we liked both of them.

--We finished the day with Lindsey's mix--something Holly could sing along to!

--As we journeyed further up the Oregon coast the next day, we listened to Joie's mix since we were headed to see her sister Jennie. She had a couple of songs I love like Up on Cripple Creek and Red Dirt Girl, but that I don't own. Now I do.

--One of our students, Laura, made a mix with a little armadillo picture on it. This is what we were listening to as we drove up to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Holly made fun of me for wanting to stop here, but which one of us was more excited by the 38 flavors of ice cream that we could get there? Hmm...I actually don't know the answer to that question. I like ice cream too. But Holly stopped making fun of the Tillamook cheese stop after that. Also, we learned that the local high school mascot is the Cheesemakers. And we thought Clippers was bad.

--We liked Megan's San Diego flavored mix a lot--we were even singing along to San Diego Chargers songs that we had never heard before. Really. 

--Laurie had a good mix that actually shared a few songs in common with Joie's, including one I liked about little birds singing the prettiest songs.

--Holly was super excited to discover that her cousin Kaylen shared her love of country music. 

--We actually had a day off from mix cds yesterday in Portland--the first day we woke up and went back to sleep in the same location. But we picked it up again today with Bob's (not Brother Bob, this is NY Bob) mix. Perhaps the only mix that included a song by a band from Montana, a band from Idaho, and a song called Portland, Oregon. Nice.

--Our drive today was less than 3 hours, so we only had time for 2 cds. The next one was Matt's, or should I call him ML to distinguish from all the other Matt's? His theme of now and then (a song and a remix, or an old song by a group and a recent song, or a song and a song that samples it) was fun. 

--Maybe I should have called this post I would post 500 things and I would post 500 more because I feel like I have written a lot. But that's all the cds we have listened to for now. 34 of them. We have more, and don't worry...we have more time to listen to them. There's a pretty long drive coming up on July 5th from Seattle to Mt. Rainier to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.

Pretty as a Postcard

At the sea lion caves I found a postcard book and one of the pictures said it was from Canon Beach. I told Jamie I wanted to go there and take a picture like that one . . .  and we did! Its a little crazy that they only reason we went to the park was because of a postcard image, but we found out that Brother Bob had been there too. It was on the way to Portland and our last time at the Oregon Coast! 

Yurt-astic!

As Jamie mentioned earlier, we spend our Oregon coast night in a yurt. I am still not really sure the technical description of a yurt, but basically its like a round cabin that is made out of thick fabric. It had heat inside and electricity (we are really roughing it, I tell you) and a skylight. It kinda had this feeling of sleeping in a circus tent. 

The cabin and yurt were products of our early planning. These things rent out like hot cakes! We were very lucky to get both of them, and I kinda felt like a celebrity sleeping in them. (At the Lapine campsite, our neighbor was super impressed that we got one and ask how far in advance we had to reserve one!)

p.s. I got top bunk!

The answers my friend...

So lots of people ask why we decided to undertake this journey. Mostly people who don't understand why we flew to Denver and then rented a car out there. I think some people were actually disappointed that we didn't just drive all the way across the country. But the answer is that I (Jamie) have already driven from Virginia to Colorado when Brother Bob moved out to Boulder. The first part of the trip (here to Memphis) was pretty cool, and the last part of the trip (Santa Fe up to Boulder) was also cool, but that whole middle section (Arkansas, Oklahoma, part of Texas) wasn't really anything I felt like I needed to do again, but I wanted to finish my cross country drive. So I just did it in two parts. And this very windy set of pictures proves that I did it. I have now driven from coast to coast. You can say I cheated, but I don't care. I think this is a perfectly reasonable way to do it.   :)

As for Holly, all I know is that back in October (yep, October) when I asked her if she would be interested in this trip, she said yes. And then a few days later she texted me and said she would really do it. And then she told me she was serious and that she was really into it and that we could buy plane tickets. So we did. Back in October. So I get to check off my list of things to do "finish my cross country drive by going from Boulder to the west coast" and "visit Oregon--Crater Lake, the coast, Portland." And Holly gets to cross off "traverse to Seattle, Montana, and/or Wyoming." We really do each have a list of things to do. And those things really were on there. Also on Holly's list was "start a blog," so bam. Done. 

ps these photos were taken outside the sea lion caves on the Oregon coast. Holly got a free bumper sticker while we were there. Look for it on her car.

We didn't find Nemo, but we found these

So after Holly and I slept in a yurt, we headed to the Oregon Coast aquarium. Pretty cool. Holly especially liked the otters. These are some jellyfish that were in an exhibit called Oddwater about all sorts of weird creatures that have adapted to live in different climates and conditions. We got to the aquarium about a minute after it opened, so we had the place more or less to ourselves for about an hour until other people woke up. I think that's the way to do it. 

ps. I brought home a baby otter