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! 

Day Five

Woke up this morning for a full day of Montana fun! Completely forgetting it was July 4th, and not really planning on seeing any spectacular fireworks out on the open road, we headed to Helena. Driving though Montana was very scenic, there were beaufitul mountains and green land everywhere, and some amazing homes that we kept pretending were celebrities hiding out in the west. We got to Helena and drove around the old part of town. It was so quaint and peaceful, and had the most beautiful old cathedral that stood in the city center. After meg almost drove down a one way street (clearly these Ohioans had no idea what they were doing) we headed towards Missoula, Montana. 

We had heard from a few different people that Missoula was a big, hippie college town. It's the home of The University of Montana, and it sure screams college and YELLS hippie (more like smells, if you catch my drift). But we LOVED it! It has a beautiful park in the middle of the town with a river that students were floating down in tubes and drinking beers, celebrating the good ol USA. Oh to be in college again....but we walked around and got some coffee and hung out for while before a little 5 hour stretch to Lake Moses, Washington.

We wanted somewhere close enough to Seattle that we could drive to in the morning because Cailin was flying in! Lake Moses was perfect, 3 hours outside of Seattle and CHEAP :) My dad booked us a little motel, and we arrived around 7 with full intent to eat and shower and sleep peacefully. The motel was decent and the beds were amazingly comfortable. We were STARVING, so naturally, as all good Amercians do on the 4th, we scoped out some Chinese restaurants close by. Unfortunately, many were closed. But we prayed and remained hopeful. Finally, after many agonizing phone calls, our Chinese food dreams came true...we headed to a Chinese Buffet a few miles down the road. God bless America. 

We ate our starved roadtrip hearts out, headed back to the motel, showered and passed out. Tomorrow we would finally reach Seattle and get to see Caitlin, AND go to Victoria, Canada...because this is an international roadtrip y'all and the funs just getting started :) 

Day Four

Woke up to the sound of our campground neighbors making a delicious smelling breakfast. We almost died when the dad asked his son if he had enough to eat...must be nice. We both froze our butts off during the night, and I woke up multiple times to the sound of wolves howling. Wolves. Howling. Unreal. 

Today was the big loop of Yellowstone, all the way up to Mammoth hot springs! We stopped at Yellowstone Lake again because we were both obsessed, and started making our way north. We stopped a few times for the upper falls, and just to see the beautiful scenery. And we had some unintentional stops for some buffalo crossing. One got super close to our car and was growling...not okay. But we continued on! 

The mammoth hot springs were awesome! We hiked up a lot of stairs and saw the different levels, and when you looked out there was a great view of the park.

We made our way down and eventually had to leave out of west Yellowstone because that's where we were camping. We were both very sad to leave, but looked forward to the days ahead! 

We camped at a really nice KOA in West Yellowstone, Montana. There was a really nice kitchen to use, Meg cooked us Ramen. It was the BEST Ramen I ever did have. The bathrooms were showerable and everyone camping was really nice. Well almost everyone...a man and his wife were camping with what looked like their grand kids in a site by us. We have come to learn that one of the best parts of camping is people watching. There are some weirdos! Anyway... Meg and I are just relaxing and minding our own business when all of a sudden, said man, who looked just like Santa Claus, started cursing and yelling. After listening intently, we came to find out that he burned his hand on a stove! His wife shouted (from the tent) "THROW SOME ICE ON IT!" Mean Santa continued to swear and whine about his burned hand...it was hilarious! Meanwhile, a child in one of their tents seemed to be very unhappy and was crying pretty loudly. Meg and I tried to come up with the best noise that describes this child's crying and all we could come up with was "dying donkey." Literally, sounded like a dying donkey. Again, maybe it shouldn't have been, but it was pretty funny. 

Meg made a mean fire, and we made dinner and just relaxed. We waited for the Montana sky to light up with stars and then hit the hay.