Back Where We Started

Well we left for our last leg of the trip (in the U.S., that is) and made our way back to Grand Junction! Upon leaving Seattle, the original plan was to visit Vancouver and Whistler in Canada. Luckily we had only gotten 30 min away when we learned that we needed immunization records for our dogs to cross the border (thank you i phone!) So we headed to Mt. Rainier national park instead. It was a beautiful place, of course, but I actually enjoy the view of Mt. Rainier from Seattle better because when you are right up on it, it just doesn't look so big. But we were lucky to have probably the clearest day since we had been in the Pacific Northwest...not even a cloud in the sky and it was warm, even at the top...or the closest to the top of that monster volcano that the road takes you!

From there we had some long miles ahead of us to get to Yellowstone, but they were wonderfully scenic! I have always heard Idaho was beautiful, and the rumors are true. We drove right along Coeur d'Alene (its a lake) and goodness gracious I have never seen a lake like that. Like so many things we've seen, I just can't even describe it. Even pictures won't do it any justice. But I actually didn't take any :( I don't remember why. But after 2 days of driving we made it to Yellowstone and camped, or poached as some might say, our first night just outside the park in a campground that was full. But it was awesome because 5 other people were poaching as well, and it was an epic campground on top of a mountain with a rad view, and we were like the campground outcasts. We all sat around a fire that we made out of brush and drank beer together. It was a cool experience!

So Yellowstone is beautiful, yes. Not quite as epic as some of the things we have seen, but by far probably the most interesting thing we have seen yet. So a large chunk of the park sits on top of a volcano, and the land is rolling and green, with lakes and trees and tons of animals, then all the sudden there will be section of boiling mud pots and holes with steam coming out of the ground! There are sections that look like hardened volcanic lava formed a small mountain and all this sulfur water is flowing out of it, and my oh my does it stink! It smells like millions of rotten boiled eggs, but you have to stop and look because its so bizarre. And of course we saw Old Faithful errupt...very cool. There were hundreds of people waiting around to watch its erruption, which takes place every 90 min, give or take 10 min. One of my favorite parts was gettning to see a black bear AND a grizzly bear! We also saw Bison/Buffalo, Elk, and some other cute little things and I don't remember what they were called.

We spent 2 nights in the park, then made our way towards Salt Lake City. On the way we got to drive through the Grand Teton National Park/Jackson Hole Wyoming-another amazingly beautiful place. Those dang states are so big that you think you should be a lot further along than you actually are, and it took us forever to get to each destination, and poor Ryan hadn't been sleeping while we were camping. So I wanted to explore Salt Lake a little but Ryan had no energy at that point, so we decided to just drive onto Junction. Its about 4 hours away, and we could feel the heat building the closer we got. I belelive the day we got into town the high temp for the day was around 101!!! Quite a change when we came from being in Seattle for a month wearing jeans and longsleeves all the time, not to mention the very pale skin! :)

But it sure is great to be back here. Its where the trip began, and we loved it when we were here and made some amazing friends. This time around we are having so much fun. The first week we got to go mountain biking 5 times and loving every second of it. And our buddy Jeff was so kind and generous to open his home up to us this time around, and with its convienent location to downtown, Ryan walks to and from work everyday (he is working for the 3 weeks that we are in town)! I have been doing some stretching with the people at the crossfit gym (for trade) and it feels soooooooo good to do some body work again. I feel alive! It makes me realize how much I have missed it and how much I am looking foward to being settled enough to do that on a more regular basis.

My friend Ellie invited me to go with her and her dad to the front range to hike a 14,000ft. mountain last week and I got to go!!! There are 54 14ers in Colorado. Ellie's dad has hiked 20 of them now! It was so much fun. We drove up the day before, ate dinner and slept at a hotel, to wake up and 4am to get ready for the hike. Of course we did not hike from sea level, we started at 11,000 ft. But the hike was all in all about 8.5 miles, and took us about 7 hours total (stops included). We topped two 14ers actually...Gray and Torres were their names. We climbed from the parking lot to Grays, then over a "saddle" to top Torres, then down the other side. The view was epic and the weather was perfect. I will never forget it! Then two days later I got to go tubing down the Colorado river with my buddies and about 300 other people. It was great, ...sunny and warm, but a nice breeze on the water, beer, music, and good company. Its gonna be hard leaving Colorado with all this fun outdoors stuff to do. Not terribly excited to be back in Atlanta, but excited to see everyone for sure!!!!

Europe is only 4 weeks away, i can't beleive it! Don't know how much I will be able to update our blog, but I will try. Until then, we will be here for 2 more weeks, then Atlanta for 3 weeks. After that we are looking foward to settling back down in Atlanta for a little while so Ryan can finish his schooling at GA Perimeter. I have a sneaking suspision (sp?) that we will be moving from there again tho in about a year...the West coast just has too much to offer for us to pass it up! Who knows. Until then........

Still Loving the Rainy City

Sorry for not posting more regular blogs, but we have been without internet in the new place we are staying in Seattle. I made it a point this morning to make this happen today, so I took a nice bike ride up to Capital Hill where I have heard of a lovely tea shop called Remedy Teas. I am sitting here drinking from my pot of tea as I write to update my blog, looking out the window at cloudy and drizzly sky. We have had some wonderful weather since we have been here. On the clear days you are able to see the most amazing views of the Olympic and Cascade mountains, and the epic view Mt. Rainer is breathtaking every time you look at it. But its still the pacific northwest and its cloudy most days and drizzly sometimes. But despite the weather, we have truly fallen in love with this city.

Neither Ryan or I have ever been to a city before that is so close together that you can ride your bike around wherever you need to go with ease and very little time. In fact, the bike culture here is so condusive to our lifestlye that Ryan has a vision of opening a bike shop here one day. And the culture of natural medicine/yoga/green living is right up our alley as well. This place just feels like the vibe we have been searching for. Sarah, Jared, Kate and Ellen have been wonderful hosts-showing us around the coolest spots and views all around town, and opening up their homes to us. Thanks guys! You have made this a wonderful experience.

Two weekends ago we got the opportunity to go over to the Olympic peninsula with Sarah and Jared and camp. What a beautiful place that is!! First, its fun to get there because you have to drive your car onto a ferry and take it across the water. That is something we had never done before so it make for a great experience in and of itself! Once on the other side, we drove through Port Angeles and down around Cascade Lake (i think thats the name) as we headed towards the Hoh rain forest. Thats right, there is a rain forest here, and we got to see its beauty! I can't even begin to describe what that looked like. And Jared has all the good pics on his camera because I forgot mine. But it was soooooo green and bright, and everything was covered in moss. Every square inch of forest from the ground to the top of the trees was swimming with green life in one way or another. I could have spent days in there (with proper rain gear of course) but we had to go check out Rialto beach next. That was unlike any beach I had ever seen. There was no sand, instead, black and grey pebbles made up the ground of the beach. The shoreline was littered with beautiful, enormous old and white tree trunks, and the just beyond the waves in the water were huge rock formations covered in green moss. It wasn't a warm beach, but it was a beautiful site.



And for those of you who know about the Twilight movies, the stories take place in this exact part of the country. Forks is where Bella and Edward live, and La Push is where Jacob lives. We actually stopped into a grocery store in Forks where I took pics of all the cheesy, touristy things they have capitalized on with the whole vampire thing. And we actually camped about 1 mile from La Push, the Indian reservation. We did NOT go there to see these places, they just happened to be on the way. But I did read the books (and saw movies too) so it was kinda fun to take pics of it and send them to my other twilight fans. :) The funniest thing was on the way home the next day we stopped at a Mexican place in Port Angeles to have lunch after about an hour of searching for a place that looked somewhat decent to eat. It was a horrible meal and started out with the chips having a giant black hair in the basket. But we ate anyways and then walked across the street to get coffee. Only then was it that was it that we saw a marquis on the side of the building that said "try our German dishes." We knew at that moment why that meal was so bad. What kind of mexican restraunt attempts to cook German dishes anyways?

Oh, and I can't forget to mention the Solstice parade in Fremont! So the solstice is the longest day of the year. Fremont is a really cool pocket in Seattle...very artsty and free kind of place, and every year they celebrate this with the Solstice parade which starts out with a huge naked bike ride! All the bike riders paint themselves in the most amazing paint designs, but naked of course. And they ride through the thousands of people that come out for this parade, children included (which i thought was really neat). Then the parade starts and last for about 2 hours...people work so hard on this. It was a great thing to see, and made us love this city even more. Just the freedom, aliveness, and desire to celebrate life that people seem to have here. Its so different than anywhere we have been!

Its awesome to have friends that live in the town you are visiting, but its also awesome when freinds from home come to visit us in the town we are visiting!! Becky and Andrew were here last weekend and it was so great to see them. They came into town to run the Seattle Rock and Roll half marathon with Andrew's friend Will. They all ran great, and Ryan ended up walking the full marathon! He walked 26.2 miles in 6:36! I have never seen him so proud of himself before, and I am so proud of him too! He worked so hard on his poor metal-laced ankle that he couldn't walk for about 3 days. In fact, we had to go buy crutches so he could get around. But the swelling went down, and the ankle is almost back to "normal" (normal for that ankle means being able to walk, but very little flexibility and always pain). Good job Ryan, Becky, Andrew, and Will!!



Becky and Andrews stayed with their friend Will, who luckily lives 5 minutes from where we are staying, so that made it easy to see them as much as we wanted! Will has lived here for a few years and has become friends with some people that sail on Lake Union in the regata, knowns as the Duck Dodge, every Tuesday night. He invited us to come and of course we agreed, as that is an opportunity we could not pass up! It was an amazing experience to be able to see the city from that view on the water. There were about 10 people on the boat and it was a blast to be on the lake racing with that many other boats! After two laps around the race, all the boats tied up next to eachother in the middle of the lake and it was a big party! Traditionally the "virgins" of the Duck Dodge must walk from boat to boat and kiss the captains of every boat. So Ryan and I did just that, holding wine in one hand, using the other hand to navigate over the sailboats. After going on about 6 boats (there were about 30) Ryan decided that after a few glasses of wine and still not being able to walk on his ankle that it wasn't a good idea to keep going, so we turned around and went back to our boat. :) That is a night we will never forget.



For now I am really enjoying the time I have to spend with my dearest friend Kate. We had a lady date the other day where we rode our bikes to all these beautiful parks around the city and then saw a movie together (Eclipse). Then we got to hang out again with Will and some of his friends for a pizza and wine night! One of my favorite things in traveling is getting to meet aweosme people who invite you into their homes and lives-these are experiences I will never forget. Tongiht Katea and I are going to an acro yoga class together...something I have always wanted to do! Maybe one day we will end up in the circus together. We have decided that Greg, you have to come too!

We will be leaving here on July 6 as we head to Vancouver and Whister to spend a few days. Then we will make our way over to Yellowstone and then to Salt Lake City to visit some friends. Then we will be back in Grand Junction for about 2 weeks before we head back to Atlanta. I cannot believe its almost been a year since we left. We have seen some of the worlds most beautiful sites, met some of the greatest friends, and experienced our own selves in ways we didn't know were possible. I can't wait to see what is next! It may be a while before we can post again, but I will do my best! We love you all. Thanks for reading our blog :)