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.