The Road to Seattle

So since I last left you, I have made it to Seattle! But you don't want to hear about that yet. There's time for that later.

Last time I updated, the three of us were in a little town called Gold Beach. It was raining heavily and visibility was slim to none on the coast. After another day of heavy rain, and no sign of it stopping for a couple of days, we made the call to go inland to a little town called Eugene after a wet but cool visit to a lighthouse.

I went to the top of this lighthouse. It was pretty awesome

Eugene was a cute funky town, and the following day we went to a vintage store where I got an awesome black short sleeved shirt which is my new favourite item of clothing. The weather was still not great, so we hung out in little coffee shops people watching and and eating Mexican.

We had a couchsurfing stop the next night in a wee town called Corvalis. Another funky town, we wandered around til our couchsurf host got back from work. The most beautiful little place, Ebba (our host), her three flatmates, and her 15 chickens welcomed us into their home, where Ebba made pea soup form scratch and wild rice. It was pretty cool there. They totally eat everything they can unprocessed, and grow a lot of fruit and vegies and of course eggs. We had a fantastic dinner and wine, and then we had a great jam session with one of the guys that lived there. Ebba has lived in this place for 4 years, and although all her books are in the house, she chooses to live in her van. I don't know if I could permanently live in a van, but it seems to work for her. It was an awesome little stop and a nice change from motels (Otto excluded of course as that motel was a very cool spot!).

Hanging out with Ebba and one of the chickens

Onwards to Portland we went, stopping again in a funky wee coffee shop, and went to this amazing place called Kennedy School which was a primary school which closed down in the early seventies, and has been totally revamped into a series of bars including "The Boiler Room" and "The Detention", a cinema, accommodation and just amazing funky artwork everywhere. It was such a great idea and use of an otherwise unused building and part of a whole bunch of buildings that had been reborn under a couple of brothers named McMenamin. See below for more details. It was a pretty cool place.

http://www.mcmenamins.com/427-kennedy-school-home

The Boiler Room bar at Kennedy school. This place was incredible!

We went to our couch surf host's place, and she was this awesome chick called Rose. we had a lovely evening and we cooked her dinner and then played board games. My perfect evening.

The next day we wandered in to the city, and we were totally lucky as not only was it the Rose Festival and the Saturday market, but it was the most perfect day with no clouds, and apparently the warmest day they had had all year. I absolutely love Portland! It has this amazing quirky and interesting vibe to it, and the most amazing bookshop in the world called Powells. We wandered around for a couple of hours and could have spent a LOT longer in there.

Powells City of Books

I restrained myself from buying many books (they were so cheap!) but ended up with 3 (which brought my tally of books I'm carrying in my pack to 7). Promising myself that I wouldn't buy anymore books, we wandered around Portland and found a thrift store where I found book number 8 (It was cheap!).

Also in Portland was the amazing Saturday Market (also interestingly on Sundays) with an amazing amount of people watching and cool buskers.

Portland Saturday Market

The awesome beautiful day in Portland was finished off by a gorgeous sunset with perfect clear views of the sunset and mountains and then going to one of the bars in Kennedy School which was cool. We finished off our Portland experience the following morning with a trip to Voodoo Doughnuts, where I had been told that I had to experience the Maple and Bacon doughnut (with real bacon!) and so dutifully, I did. Amazingly it was one the nicest things I have ever had!

With my Maple and Bacon Doughnut

So we made it to Seattle and I made it to my friend Danica's (although it was a bit of a mission getting there!).

The road trip was totally awesome and I got on really well with both Uli and Nina. I'm so glad that it all worked out and I found people to road trip with, and although the weather was a bit dodgy in parts, it was the perfect way to get up to Seattle.

Photos to follow as per usual when I can be bothered and have more time.