Portland

Where did the summer go? It is 50 degrees and rainy in Hipsterburg, OR, otherwise known as Portland. We ate another indulgent meal (we won't go into details, but it involved a Fred-Flintstone-sized steak) and spent way too long in Powell's, the world's largest and most awesome independently owned bookstore ever. Says a lot about a city that their main attraction is a bookstore.
We are bringing home such goodies.
More flannel and ripped jeans to come!

Hello Seattle Part Deux

We had our friendly native guide show us some off-the beaten path hot spots today. Thanks Squanto, ahem I mean Sam.

Gasworks Park: we saw this on our kayak expedition on Lake Union but we loved this grass hill! A little slippery going down, but gorgeous view of the city and of course, the lovely gas tanks that are rusting at the bottom.

Arboretum: Emphasis on lake and de-emphasis on the trees, but it was a perfect way to seize the sunny day. Also, we saw a lone man on a canoe. Nancy thinks this is extremely awkward.

Also BIG NEWS: we finished the trail mix! epic endeavor. a personal milestone, but we thought we would share. Nancy also found her nooksack.

Oh, Canada! Eh?

Greetings from Vancouver! So, everyone is demanding and explanation as to why we are in Canada on our great "American" road trip, eh? Well, to them we say hah! Canada is just America on the metric system. What could be a better way to express our love for America than by claiming Canada as our own. Manifest Destiny, people.


We had a lot of fun in Vancouver, even though it is crawling with Canadian people. Stops included a fantastic tour of the Rennie art collection, a detailed trip to the Olympic village, a stroll around gastown and yaletown, and of course a trip to our favorite Canadian establishment, Roots. We realized that we got all the way across the country without a pair of sweatpants.

The evening's activities also included a scrumptious Indian meal at Vij's, which is apparently the trendy place for hipsters. And of course, a trip to the one and only Vancouver Art Gallery, affectionately known as the VAG (insert jokes here). We saw an exhibit on impressionist sketches of females (insert more jokes here).

We also had a lovely tour of Stanley Park and Granville Island, where we had to tear ourselves away from the pastry shops. We were thoroughly impressed by the greenness of the city but felt the need to jet back to our own glorious nation.

Toodles, Canada!

Hello Seattle Part 1

We hit the town running today in Seattle. Started the morning with a delicious pastry (but not the most delicious in the world, Emily) in Pike Place, which is absolutely heavenly. Yesterday we spend time wandering around and even saw the first Starbucks, although neither of us drinks coffee.

The day's adventures included a trip to the Seattle Art Museum's outdoor sculpture garden since it was actually sunny in this very rainy city. Somewhat disappointing, although they had a really cool Claus Oldenberg sculpture.

We also walked around Belltown, which seems like it would be a very happening night spot.

A very touristy trip up to the top of the Space Needle was a must, and we very much enjoyed the view of the city from the top. Pleasant surprise: tons of green roofs! I guess this is Seattle, after all.

A big highlight was our kayaking expedition on Lake Union, which was beautiful and very scenic. It was also tastefully sedentary exercise, our favorite kind.

More tomorrow...

A Note from Nancy: It was very difficult to take a picture of both of us on a kayak while IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LAKE. However, as you can see, I managed. Therefore, instead of being confused as to why the picture is so strange, please be aware that it was my best effort. Thank you. Goodnight, and good luck.

Leavenworth

This is the most hysterical place in the Continental United States. Leavenworth, WA is a town smack in the middle of the state flanked by gorgeous mountains on either side. When we first heard about Leavenworth (we'll tell you the gimmick in a second, hold on...), we were a little petrified. But when we arrived, we fell in love.

The town, population ~1,000 people, is completely decorated and designed to look like a town in the Swiss Alps. Sounds hokey? It's HYSTERICAL. They have every detail down: even the streets are called "strasse" on the street signs. They have Christmas lights up all year, and fake snow in the windows. Even McDonalds plays along.

The Inn at which we are staying has a man who plays the really really really long german shofar (for lack of a better term) at 8AM in lederhosen. Can life get much better than this?

Glacier National Park

We finally made it to the tippy top of the U S and A. On the US/Canada border of Montana sits the most spectacular national park this country has to offer: better than Yellowstone. Even better than the Grand Tetons. Glacier National Park is home to stunning vistas as several glaciers, which seems weird for mainland America, but the park does not disappoint.



Glacier National Park is our nation's most ephemeral, since scientists predict that within the next 15 years the glaciers will have all melted away (thank you, global warming). This is why we insisted on seeing the place now.

The glaciers themselves are relatively difficult to make out since they look more like extra snow piled on top of the mountain (and less like Perito Moreno in Argentina), but the views were spectacular nonetheless. We even hiked!

Yellowstone

This park should be renamed Smellowstone National Park. We spent yesterday and today trying to hit all of the highlights. Last night, we went to Old Faithful and saw it erupt! It ended up being somewhat disappointing given the anticipation, but we saw many of the other geysers frothing around it. Today, we started on Yellowstone Lake and went up to the mud cauldrons. We may never get the stench of sulfur out of our noses, but the dragon's cauldron was definitely worth the hike. We finally learned how Yellowstone got its name from the yellow color of the rock at the Upper and Lower Falls.

It really is a shame that most of the park burned down in 1988, otherwise the smell of pine trees would probably overtake the nauseating smell of sulphur. All in all, a very nature-y day.

Jackson Hole

After an evening with relatively little sleep, we made it to this wonderful town. We passed through a very windy, scenic highway on the way from Dubois to Jackson Hole and saw the whole Grand Teton (kind of like the whole enchilada). The snow-capped Tetons rise out of the horizon as you approach Jackosn Hole. An absolutely magical sight!
We walked around town and had so much fun in the shops, including ugly doll hunting and trying on fur coats. We ate a delicious lunch at Trio Cafe (all organic!) before hittin' the trails.

All suited up in our new hiking gear (thanks mom) we took a spectacular 4 mile hike around Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park, up to the peak of a mountain and around a lake. We even saw a moose that wasn't Nancy and some other nature-life. The hike felt so good after 8 days of sitting.

Mount Rushmore

Today we had an exciting day, beginning with our entry into the lovely state of South Dakota! (Great faces, great places.)

As we drove, we passed through the Black Hills National Forest, which, with its overcast sky, looked incredibly ominous.

We saw 100,000 signs for Wall Drug along the highway, which begin somewhere near the Great Wall of China and build up to the culmination in Wall, SD. This quirky drug store began as an ordinary pharmacy and now boasts a wedding chapel, an 8 foot dinosaur, a mini replica of Mount Rushmore and a fantastic bookstore. (Sounds like Nancy's room). We purchased some goodies and attempted to head out to Badlands National Park but instead ended up shielding ourselves from a lightening/hail storm on the side of the road.

The evening miraculously cleared up and we headed to Mount Rushmore. To all you naysayers out there (ahem, Adam), Mount Rushmore is awesome. We heard countless times that Mount Rushmore was a blip on the radar: that it is easy to see it, drive by and move on. Well Nancy and I had some patriotic fun and decided to stay for the speech. We were impressed with the Park Ranger who dissected the Pledge of Allegiance, and although the movie was overly politically correct and a little cheesy, we enjoyed ourselves and learned a lot. For such a touristy town (a la the hotel shaped like the White House), we thought the park was an incredibly tasteful, interesting place. Learning about the history of the construction of Mount Rushmore and the politics behind it was fascinating, and we have never been so proud to be Americans!

Dickinson, ND

Despite North Dakota's lack of representation in our guidebooks, we still had a great time in this state (Thanks Simonieg Family!) After Alex's thorough tour of Dickinson, which included the local schools, shopping mall, lake/beach and even the local trailer park, we headed to Medora for some tourist-y fun. This town claims to be the "Beginning of the West," since it sits on the ND/Montana boarder, so it is filled with western tourist shops.

Medora sits at the foot of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which was one of the highlights of our stay in ND. We started at the Painted Canyon and took a scenic drive around the Park. Unfortunately, it began to rain right after our delicious (and healthy!) picnic, which ended with Faith's famous Scotcharoos (recipe to follow), so we couldn't get out and hike or walk on any of the nature trails. Even so, we had a great time and learning experience in our first National Park! Beauty to this degree is surely hard to come by during our travels on interstates so it was refreshing and exhilarating to see this natural landscape stretching for miles in front of our eyes.

We ended our day at the traveling carnival and a trip to Walmart, two American summertime traditions.

I-94 in North Dakota

I-80 wasn't exactly the sight-seer's ideal road to take, so we were happy to learn that I-94 has four must see road side attractions. The world's largest buffalo, crane, cow and metal sculpture. We made a point of getting off the highway to see these lovely creatures which were HUGE! (Mall of America sized) The Crane was the least exciting because it was on the property of an abandoned motel and there was practically a tornado when we were by the cow so we didn't stay long but overall the oversized animals were a real highlight!


Photo Vomit

Fargo

Tonight we will be brief, because we are exhausted. We had a delicious meal at HoDo in Fargo, what another hidden gem. We will elaborate tomorrow. Fargo is such a city of nothingness.

We drove the length of North Dakota and thanks to Alex's suggestions we had a day filled with large farm animals: the world's largest buffalo, crane and cow are all stationed at various points along I-94 between Fargo and Bismarck.

Hello Simoneig family: we are so happy to be spending the weekend with you!

Mall of America

WOW! This mall is simply huge. There are no other words to describe it. As you approach this monstrosity, you see two stadium-sized parking lots on both sides of the mall. However, when we pulled into the military compound/mall, we found ourselves a parking spot right in front of the main entrance. After a standoff with a mom van, we snagged the spot, which we later found out was reserved for expecting mothers or parents with small children. We definitely qualify for the latter.

As we entered the mall, our ears were greeted by high pitched screams that were coming from the FULL SIZED amusement park in the center of the mall. We indulged ourselves and went on the Fairly-Odd Parents roller coaster ride. (Side note: we were screaming our heads off while the 6 year-old in the car with us laughed)

After our excursion in the theme park, we stopped in a few shops, found the aquarium and took some pictures in a photo booth.

St. Paul

We only had time for one tourist stop in St. Paul and that was the home of F. Scott Fitzgerald. As Ellen went into her heavenly state of mind, I took pictures of the beautiful victorian house. We're pretty sure that the house is currently occupied so we didn't try to go inside but just being there seemed to be good enough for Ellen.

Greene, IA

KING CORN HERE WE COME! Greene, IA (pop. 1000), about an

hour + from any

major road in the state, was one of the best, most authentic American stops we have made thus far. This stop was part of the impetus

for driving through Iowa in the first place and it did not disappoint.

We arrived in Greene after skeptically scaling corn fields for 60 miles. A gigantic grain elevator welcomed us to this small town along with a nice woman who worked behind the counter at Smiths, Etc. General Store. She showed us pictures of the '08 flood

and helped us find our Americana stars that we were desperately in need of. Intrigued by the small town feel of Greene, we walked along the two perpendicular blocks that comprise the town of Greene, most of which is vacated retail space.

One can assume that there are hundreds of towns across America like Greene, where old fashioned farm town culture creeps through the modern day mass production machinery. We saw the remnants of old storefronts and tractors on main street hidden behind gas guzzling pick-up trucks and overflowing silos. Overall, however, we both could feel the sense of community and camaraderie amongst the smiling and helpful residents of Greene, IA.

This tiny town was well worth the detour, and made us very proud to be Americans.

Now off to Minnesota!

Trucks

Somewhere along Route 80, close to Iowa City, is the mecca for all trucks. The World's Largest Truck stop proved to be such an exciting adventure for our little mobile, and when we accidentally entered the site in the truck entrance, things got crazy. We were accosted by a hipster, overlooked by most of the 16-wheelers and overwhelmed by the smell of diesel fuel. It was AWESOME.