Day Twelve

San Francisco day! Francisco, that's fun to say! (Name that movie!) 

We woke up, and headed...you guessed it...south! It was an almost 2 hour drive to the Golden Gate. We stopped at a really cool overlook before we actually passed over the golden gate. It has a good view of the whole bridge. 

We crossed the bridge, and headed to Fishermans wharf. We found parking and then went looking for Pier 39 which has the famous sea lions, or so we thought. There were 0 sea lions. All day. We went back 3 times. None. Zilch. So upsetting.

We did, however, get the world famous clam chowder and sourdough bread bowls. Amazing! We walked around Fishermans wharf for a while and watched some street performers. There were a lot of people and it was actually really fun and a really nice day. Megan pondered if she could actually get a job as a street performer. What would her talent be? Tap dancing? Joke telling? Perhaps a mime? The possibilities are endless! 

We will keep looking for Megan's street performing talent, but there was so much city to be seen! We were meeting up with our ohio friends Bryan and Jordan in San Fran, so we waited for them at a Starbucks. Once we found them, we wanted to do a total San Francisco must and ride a cable car. It was so fun! We rode to union square, then went to china town, then golden gate park. We also drove by the Full House house a few times :) 

Oh, also..meg snapped probably the funniest picture of the trip when we were driving down Lombard street which is the windiest road in the world! This picture speaks for itself....

We loved San Fran, but we were staying a little outside of the city in San Mateo, so we headed out. Tomorrow we are driving down the coast on the PCH. Wowza. 

Day Eleven

Meegs was nice enough to drive the entire way to Tahoe, an almost 7-8 hour drive. Caitlin and I slept almost the whole time. 

We got to Tahoe around 5 and headed (surprise,surprise) to south Tahoe. We got some breakfast and then headed to the beach! We picked the perfect beach which will remain unnamed because we want to conceal the secrecy and privacy, just kidding it was called Zephyr Cove. It had jetski rentals! 

Meg had never been on a jetski before, and there is literally no where more beautiful to do it than at Tahoe. The lake is the bluest blue and the mountains surrounding you are unreal. I rode with Meg first, and we laughed and screamed until my throat hurt. We jumped in right in the middle of the lake and had a fricking blast. 

We layed on the beach until the late afternoon when it started to rain. My best friend Addy was home for the summer with her family in Sacramento, and we had plans to stay with them that night. It was a short hour and a half drive down. We were, again, treated like royalty. They fed us, let us shower and do our laundry, and gave us the most comfortable beds to sleep in. Is this technically cheating?? Don't care! 

Mr. Duane aka Uncle Dave had us laughing nonstop and Aunt Carrie welcomed us like her own, and it was nice to see Addy too :) Love that family! 

Day Ten

Our time in Seattle had to come to an end, even though we didn't want to leave :( We said goodbye to Meg's friends and headed South, our direction for the remainder of the trip.

We had planned stops in Portland and then wanted to head straight to Tahoe. We had heard about the food trucks in Portland and the worlds largest biggest book store (Caitlin and I were ecstatic, Meg could care less). We drove about 3 hours through Washington and got to Portland around lunchtime. The food trucks were really cool, but this Bookstore! OMG. Each room was color coded according to genre. They have every book ever made and more. They also had a rare book room with books that were priced at $20,000+. We bought like three of those and then called it a day ;) But seriously, we could've spent all day there. 

After discussing our options, we decided we wanted to make a not-so-convenient pit stop to the Redwood Forest. It was about 7 hours south, and then it would be another 7 to Tahoe. This is a roadtrip and we were obviously prepared to drive. To the Redwood Forest we went. 

Oregon driving was pretty lame (sorry) and we were super tired and excited to get to the redwoods. We stopped in Eugene for a quick second so we could go to Voo Doo doughnuts which were amazeballs! As we started getting closer, the trees got bigger and bigger and finally we had arrived.

Driving through the redwoods was like being in a movie. Those trees were fricking huge. We loved it and were so happy we decided to adventure there. There may or may not have been tears.

That night was an all night trek to Tahoe where we would lay on the beach all day, life is good! 

Day Nine

Our hostel was literally across the street from the Pike Place Market, so it was not even a question that would be our first stop in the morning! It was bustling with tourists, but the stands and all the food we tasted and bought was outstanding. We went to Beecher's for Mac and cheese, stocked up on Market Spice tea, and saw the Pike Place fish market guys throwing fish around and singing. It was so lively and so Seattle. We loved it!

It was a short walk to the space needle, which is close to the Chilhuly glass and garden museum we were told we had to see. It's full of glass blown sculptures and art and we were all blown away (pun intended!) The colors were vibrant and the exhibits were so carefully put together by Chihuly. You just can't stop staring. 

We walked back to the market, got our car, and got some fish and chips which we were told were amazing. Again, we were not disappointed. We got our food and headed to Alki beach. The weather was perfect, and the beach had a great view of the Seattle skyline. We layed in the sun for a while and then got ready to meet up with some of Meg's friends. 

Meg's friends Melanie and Susan both attend the University of Washington right in Seattle. Meg met them when she was in Morroco last summer, and hasn't seen them since! We met up with them for dinner, and then went back to Susan's apartment for the night. They gave us a tour of the campus (which is only a little smaller than BW ;) ) and we passed out. Our days have been so long and by the end we are completely wiped. But it was so nice for Meg to see her friends and for us to meet them! 

Day Eight

Every morning when we wake up, we always find ourselves asking eachother the same thing...can you believe where we are right now? So today when we woke up, we asked ourselves if we could believe we were in Canada?? Crazy, eh? 

Sue treated us like royalty. She made us breakfast, and then walked us down to a path right outside of her apartment where we would walk downtown in less than 20 minutes. It was a gorgeous morning, and the walk was right along the harbor, so we watched all the boats come in and headed towards the fun. 

We stopped to get coffee and walked around with plans to meet Sue at the Empress hotel in downtown Victoria. We had worried a lot about our questionable outfits for somewhere so fancy, but Sue assured us we were fine. We met her at 1:00 and were treated to the best meal we will probably have on this entire trip, complete with wine, awesome pasta, and desert :) We were stuffed and satisfied and did not want to leave Sue or Victoria. 

After lunch, Sue said she was "loving and leaving us" so we went to the BC museum and enjoyed a nice IMAX movie before we had to say goodbye to Victoria and Kirk to head back to the states.

All in all, we absolutely loved Victoria. It was beautiful, and the people were super nice and accommodating. 

We boarded our ferry to head back to Seattle. We had a night booked at the Green Tortoise Hostel, which is directly across from the Pike Place market. We made our way there, went out for a drink with a fellow roommate in our 8 bunk dorm, and passed out. Ready to explore Seattle in the morning!  

Day Seven

Today, Kirk had to work (haha) so we decided it was a good time to explore the city! We had an awesome breakfast, and then bought a one day bus pass so we could get around the city. Kirk told us to hike Mount Douglas, a mountain that looks over the whole island. Well you know what they say, Kirk knows best! So we got on a few (wrong) buses and eventually ended up at the foot of Mount Douglas. 

           Pubic transpo is the best! 

After a 45 minute hike, we made it to the top! And Kirk was right! It was an amazing view! We sat, looking out at the harbor and the mountains and soaked in the sights. We even saw an eagle soaring over the treetops which was so cool. We sat at the top for almost an hour, and then decided we should probably make our way down because none of us knew the way back by bus. 

After finding our route, we went back into town with a plan to visit Kirk at work (ahah). He works at a place right on the harbor with a nice patio, so we got some food and hung out. We walked around town for a little after dinner, and saw all the ships in the harbor and layed on the grass in front of Parliament. Victoria is so beautiful. We had completely fallen in love! 

                      Parliament 

                  The Harbor 

              Kirk at work (it rhymes) 

That night, we stayed with my cousin Sue who has lived in Victoria for almost 8 years. She completely and totally spoiled us (we WERE covered in dirt, sweat, and probably screamed for a shower). We stayed in her cute little apartment where we all got to shower and sleep comfortably. It was so nice to know a few people in the city and a night of rest and relaxation was just what we had in mind :) 

Day Six

After a full night of rest, we woke to get ready to get Caitlin from Seattle! Her flight was delayed, so we didn't have to get her until 1:45. We packed up and headed west! 

After a short 3 hour drive, we grabbed Caitlin from the airport (so excited to see her!) and headed toward the Pier our ferry boat would take off from. We drove through the city a little and could already tell we were going to love it! 

Our ferry left at 3:00 from Seattle and would arrive in Victoria, Canada around 5:45. Victoria is the new home of our old roommate Kirk, and also home to one of my cousins Sue. Sue met us at the ferry and took us to Kirk's apartment. We were so happy to see him! It's been a year since he left and we had fun hanging out. We went out for some beers and stayed with him that night.

We were already falling in love with Victoria and were excited for the rest of our time there!