Olympic & Beyond

Whole lotta miles

After we left Yellowstone, our trip-o-meter flipped over to 3000 miles. That's a long way! It was exciting to see that milestone in the emptiness of Montana.

Brush fires in the distance

We crossed through Montana and Idaho with relative ease and before we knew it, we were in Spokane, WA that night. We ended up staying in a motel and thanked the great indoors for internet access, a mattress, and pizza delivery. 

Driving through the eastern part of Washington was very interesting, and it's easy to forget that the state borders a sliver of Idaho that rubs up against Montana. Eastern Washington had a lot of plains, a view that contradicted my vision of lush forests and pines. We passed numerous brush fires, and learned that the summer has been very dry for this section of the country. 

I tried to soak in Washington as much as I could, knowing that this would be my definition of my home country once we were in Victoria. I know that sounds silly, since Victoria butts up against some Washington-owned islands, but this state would be my ticket home back to the east coast whenever I needed it.

Olympic beauty

Getting into Port Angeles and Olympic National park was exciting. This would be the last stop on our road trip. About two hours north-west of Seattle, Port Angeles has a ferry route that can take cars and its passengers to Victoria's inner harbor. After finding our way around a bit, we staked out a camp site in the beautiful Olympic national park. 

Olympic consists of a varied terrain, including rocky coast line, temperate old growth rain forests, and beautiful snow-capped mountains. While we didn't get to hang out by the coast, we saw some old growth around our camp site and got to have a terrific view of Mount Olympus and its surrounding cousins.

The Cascades

Beautiful old growth trees

In the morning we took the early ferry over to our new home. The ferry was fairly old in terms of boats (from the 50's), and rather slow, but it got us there in one piece. Finally our trip was over; we were in Victoria!

Goodbye, U.S.!

Leaving everything we know behind

So we finally meet!

And that concludes the cross-country road trip portion of this blog! I still intend on posting west coast adventures, recipes, themes, and other things, so stay tuned!

Chicago, Badlands-bound, & Rant

I fell behind in blogging the last week, so I'll slowly post a description of our adventure as soon as we get some internet in our new apartment. This is the only post I wrote on the road and I wrote it while feeling passionate about some principles that mean a lot to me. If you don't care to hear about vegetarianism, I'd suggest you skip the last two paragraphs.

Our Chicago host

After we left Chicago we made the 6 hour drive to visit family members in Stillwater, Minnesota. My uncle lives just on the boarder of Wisconsin and Jon's family lives in Stillwater, so it was a great meeting point for everyone.

Old mill in Stillwater

Stillwater is an adorable town just outside of the twin cities. It's the oldest settlement in Minnesota, and has a lot of old time charm. The building facades speak of years of stories and the booming antique stores are quaint and interesting. We met everyone for dinner at a pub along the water next to the only bridge from Wisconsin into Stillwater. It was great catching up with my uncle and his wife, and to get to know Jon's family members better. It was, for the most part, a quiet and relaxing evening.

Corgi host

We got up early that next morning to Badlands National Park in South Dakota, where I'm typing this now in the car. The scenery for the most part is typical farmland, but Jon and I just witnessed one of the saddest things I've seen in a very long time. In front of us, for about five minutes, was a truck towing a large shipment of large, plump, alabaster turkeys, presumably to the slaughterhouse where they'll be prepared for consumption. Feathers flew at us periodically as we watched one of the birds in the top right-hand corner flailing in vain to stand up, get comfortable, or possibly escape.

I rarely ever preach my vegetarian principals, and hardly consider myself someone to push my beliefs on other people, but there was something sincerely sad, desperate, and slightly horrifying about those turkeys. Jon, the man who's eaten every and all types of meats, commented on its sadness, and it just got me thinking about this country's diet and reliance on meat. I understand that humans evolved to eat meat and that it typically is an intrinsic part of our diet, but the fact that we, as Americans, have the luxury to make choices about what we eat and how often, seeing those turkeys made me wish that more people made the conscientious choice to eat less meat. To have bacon in the morning, a turkey sandwich for lunch, and then chicken for dinner is eating a lot-- more than we need-- of animals. Our bodies don't need that much protein and the carbon emissions and waste that is manufactured in order to get that piece of ham on to our plates is astronomical, but Americans have conditioned themselves in believing that this type of over-abundant luxury is preferred and, and some believe, a necessity.

I'm not asking everyone to become a vegetarian or vegan today, tomorrow, or even a year from now. I just wanted to express these concerns of mine, and hope that they get you to start thinking about what you eat and how it affects you and the world around you.

Little bunny adventurer

Aaaaand they're off!

Ready to go!

After packing up the car Monday morning, Jon and I started on our adventure around 10am through the large state of Pennsylvania. The more we got out of the suburban areas, the more beautiful the scenery became. Out by the Poconos it becomes hilly and mountainous, a terrain that I know well by trips I've taken these past years. It felt surreal knowing that I wasn't quite sure when I would see them again.

Mountains in the distance

Ohio was boring and flat and barely worth photographing, and before we knew it we were in Indiana. After driving about 600 miles, I remember seeing a sign posted that said "Chicago: 270 miles" and thought to myself, "Yeah, we could do it." Well, apparently Jon had the same idea. We decided that we would stop for crappy dinner, call his family in Chicago to let them know our change of plans, and we then booked it all through Indiana to the Windy City.

Driving into Chicago at night was like looking at a Christmas tree! I didn't get a chance to take any photos, but we have the whole day today to soak it in, so I'll be posting some thoughts and images about this beautiful city later!

Bunnies on the road.

We can see a little bit out of the back! 

Road Trip Map!

Leaving today and this is the map of our road trip! You can see the Google Maps version here to get a closer look of our stops. For the lazy, we'll be going to:

1) Chicago

2) Minneapolis/St.Paul

3) Badlands National Park

4) Yellowstone National Park

5) Olympic National Park

6) Victoria!

For those who are curious, stops B and G are arbitrary-- we'll probably just stop by a camp ground or motel in that vicinity, but that's about where we want to be during that time.

So excited!!

Looking Forward: Cross-Country Road Trip

Yellowstone National Park Map

Bing Image Search

Jon and I are really really looking forward to our road trip! We'll be starting from Philly and driving, mostly along route 90, to Victoria. Along the way we'll be seeing family in some cities and possibly friends in some national parks. In total, it'll be around 3,000 miles from point A to point B, and if we were to drive straight through it'd take us just about two days. 

We're not power-drivers, I get cranky without sleep, and we want to see and do stuff along the way, so we're going to take about two weeks to get out there. Our highlights include Chicago, Minneapolis, Badlands National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Grand Teton National Park. Yellowstone is the part we're looking forward to the most, and intend on spending the most time there. One of our friends road tripped for months before he started med school, and suggested we try and spend the most time at Yellowstone, and the more we read about it, the more I see his point of view. With all of the natural wonders, wildlife, and beautiful sights, I could see us easily spending two weeks here alone! Too bad we won't have that time, but we'll make the most of it.

Chicago

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St. Paul

Yahoo Image Search

Badlands National Park

Top Dreamer

Grand Teton National Park

Top Dreamer

Yellowstone National Park

Photorator

Yellowstone National Park

National Park Service