Hello all, Brian here for this week’s update. As Kate mentioned in the previous post (Here) I’ll be covering from 7/15 to 7/21 and then after that we’ll try to get back into slightly more frequent and shorter updates rather than these mega-posts that take longer to digest.

A brief overview: We were spoiled this week and got to stay with friends and sleep in beds! In houses!

The morning after sleeping at a rest area along the sunrise highway we hopped back on the road and shortly made our way into the Rose City. We were staying with some friends of mine, Katie and Tom. I first met Katie back in Chicago at school. Kate and I attended their wedding in Portland a couple years ago and as anyone who has been to the city can tell you, once you’ve had a taste – you’ve gotta go back.

The house we were staying in is located in the Sunnyside area of Portland and was just so lovely, you’ve done great work there Katie and Tom. Shout out to Tom for cultivating a great garden in such a tiny space! We got to hang out with their cute pups Pancakes and Pepper. We were treated to some local vegan eateries and a cozy bar called The Sweet Hereafter. We had some great hangout times back at the house and I got to play Katie’s collection of Ukuleles, which was nice as I didn’t bring my guitar on the trip and had been missing that fretted fun. Another day of exploring the city’s downtown area, visiting Powell’s in search of journals (but not finding any we liked), exploring the parks, and stopping in for a happy-hour pint. We ended up heading out of Portland the day after, our sights set north.

Seattle was sunny and warm, just as it has always been every time I’ve gone. Sure it is cloudy, rainy, and all around dreary from late Sept. through to April or May but in the summer it is NICE! This time we were staying with some friends of Kate’s, Kevin and Derek. Kate and Kevin go way back to 8th grade. These guys also had just the loveliest home and two beautiful pets named Wesley and Willow — a dog and cat this time. As Kevin was able to be home both of the days we were there, we were given some awesome tours of West Seattle where they live and the downtown area where they used to live. We had some really tasty fresh fish right on the water the first day we arrived. We were hungry and things timed out perfectly – Derek had just gotten off work and was able to take a ferry across the water which unloads passengers right at the restaurant we were eating at called Marination Ma Kai, a Hawaiian-Korean fusion place. We popped in and out of lots of little shops along The Junction, getting pastries, ice cream, admiring some of the English imports (Salad Cream and Ambrosia rice pudding!) and finally finding a journal I liked.

The next day we got to explore downtown Seattle some. We of course visited the market, Kate really wanted to see the Gum Wall which was cleaned 4 years ago but being there you wouldn’t be able to tell that. We got some refreshing ginger beer and made our way over to a sandwich place called Honeyhole (10/10 super tasty). In the afternoon we headed over to MoPop, the museum of pop culture. There are lots of really cool things to do and see there, including all things Seattle music, Indie Games, Sci-Fi, Horror, and Fantasy sections, and a temporary Pearl Jam exhibit. Plus there is the Sound Lab on the top floor where you can play instruments, record demos, and learn about audio engineering.

This is a good place for readers to take a two-minute break as I’ve still got to cover Leavenworth and Spokane, WA and Coeur d’Alene, ID…

Welcome back! Shall I continue?

Driving across Washington was broken up by a detour up to Leavenworth, at Kevin and Derek’s recommendation, which is a destination town in the north central part of the state where everything is in the Bavarian style. It looks like a little town right out of Germany or Switzerland. We of course had to get a beer and pretzel, which was a nice mid day break. Then off toward Spokane!

The drive takes a pretty long time so we ended up camping at another free campsite about half an hour outside of the city. A little place called Fishtrap. There was this old abandoned barn you could walk up to and explore. I didn’t go inside as it was starting to get dark and I didn’t know the status of snakes/spiders/hobos with knives, etc. There was also a nearby pond with a little duck blind where one could presumably view wildlife. Just a night of car camping before heading into town the next morning.

Spokane is really nice. The downtown and all the red brick buildings give the whole area a kind of … mini Chicago vibe? The riverfront area is beautiful, lots of parks and public art. We stopped into Auntie’s Books, a multi floored bookstore with a separate game store inside called Uncle’s Games. Kate found a journal she liked and even pondered if they were hiring, I guess she really liked the place 🙂 We walked back along the river and near the clock tower which had a public piano available for play. We didn’t end up staying too long as we were destined for Coeur d’Alene in ID where we’d meet up with Dennis and Cynthia, who are relatives of Christine’s – Kate’s old supervisor from SAFY.

In the sake of complete honesty, Kate and I were a little hesitant about meeting these two just because we hadn’t met either of them before, but we couldn’t have been more relieved after getting to know them that first day. Truly our kind of people. Beautiful house, beautiful pets (a dog named Buddy, and two cats named Moochie and Ruby), and a KILLER salsa! Seriously, Dennis – we want that recipe. We had such a great time with them that we ended up staying an extra day! They took us all around Coeur d’Alene, and even out onto the lake on their boat. We had a delicious dinner at the resort in town and relaxing evening with great conversation back at the house.

The next day we visited a farmer’s market, went and got pizza for lunch at a place called Fire, dropped our leftovers off at the house before parting ways briefly. They went to spend some time on the boat with their kids and grandkids while Kate and I hiked around Tubb’s Hill which is a little nature-preserved area smack-dab downtown area adjacent to the resort and marina. We spotted them on the boat from the hill and they us, after a bunch of silly waving back and forth, we wrapped up the rest of our hike and spent some time looking around the downtown area grabbing a drink and playing a game of Sequence at a place called Fine Brewed while we waited for them to end their boating. We met back up with them a short while later and joined them on the boat, ate some dinner onboard and then headed back out into the lake a ways before returning to shore. Another relaxing evening at the house and in the morning we had a delicious breakfast that included fresh huckleberries and french toast pizza (which we had previously raved about to Dennis) that they made from our leftovers before departing. Onward toward Glacier National Park!

Back to camping for the last day of this week. We found a free campsite at a place called Blankenship Bridge. One side of the bridge is a day use area, there is a meadow and river access for fishing. The other side of the bridge however is available for camping right along the river. There were probably 20 or so different campsites set up, some right along the water and some tucked back into the woods a bit. We found a little spot nestled in a little ways and gathered up a bunch of firewood from this massive pile up of driftwood, had to watch out for spiders though! A cozy night of tent camping with a short lightning storm and a spot of rain in the middle of the night. In the morning, Glacier — but that will be the next post!

Thank you SO SO much to all of our friends, old and new, for hosting us this week – you all spoiled us and we’re grateful for it.

In the next post we’ll update you all with our adventures – night two at Blankenship Bridge (when we had to call the police!), Glacier National Park, and Bozeman, MT. Stay tuned!!