Day 16-18: Seattle

Day 16

We woke up the next day and, wouldn't you know it, Steph was not feeling well.  She had been feeling a little off the night before but we thought she might get over it.  On top of that, for reasons I won't go into, we didn't have a campsite reserved for this night so we had to decide whether to leave Rainier early or just head on to Seattle or its outskirts.  We decided to head on out.  We will definitely be back to Ohanapecosh one day though.  What an amazingly beautiful campground.  It was a shame to have to leave it so soon and we were both pretty bummed out about it.

During the drive to Seattle we got into easily the worst fight of the trip.  Sick, tired, no place to stay and 2.5 weeks in the car kinda piled up and came out.  We knew it would happen eventually.  After stopping at a McDonalds in Auburn, WA (not an accident) we called around and found a room at The Westin in Seattle.  After an only slightly stressful drive into the city we got to the hotel.   After a quick bite since Steph was sick and us needing a little time to ourselves I went and saw the new Star Trek movie for some "normal" time.  It was a nice break from each other as most couples will understand.

Day 17

Since we had to scramble to get a hotel a day early we woke up and lounged around the Westin before leaving for the Moore Hotel where we had reservations.  The trip to the Moore shouldn't have been interesting, but with the new addition of the roof rack to the van, it was.  Driving in downtown Seattle is notoriously difficult to begin with, but tack a roof rack on your van and all the sudden you start having to pay attention to the "clearance" bars in the entrance to parking garages.  Ugggggggg.  We got halfway pulled into one the day before and had to back out when it became evident we wouldn't fit so at least we knew to be watching for it.

After circling the block near The Moore a couple times we FINALLY found the parking garage.  The clearance height?  6"10.  So,  having no clear idea exactly how tall we were, we made a go for it.  As we sloooowly and caaaaarefullly pulled under the bar with our fingers crossed a ROBOT VOICE started YELLING at us to turn around.  We panicked and kept going.  As we looked back we saw the clearance  bar swinging.....uhh ohh.  There was no turning back as we went like 2 mph up 3 levels.  The lady behind us was not happy.   After what seemed like an eternity we finally made it.  Whew!  After getting out and looking, we only had about 8 inches clearance between the roof rack and the ceiling.  Jeez.

After getting checked in to the Moore and grabbing breakfast.  I (Brett) decided I wanted to go to the EMP museum and Steph wanted to go thrift shopping in the Capitol Hill area, so we decided to go our own way and meet up for dinner.
The EMP museum was filled with all sorts of neat stuff like classic horror movie props, Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix displays, Indie Video games to play, and wearable art from a huge festival in Sweden. 

Surprisingly the wearable art was the highlight.  Super cool.  It was also located right under the Space Needle.

For Stephs part, there was a community yard sale going on in Capitol Hill.  She described it as the hipper part of town.  Kind of like a bigger version of East Nashville.

We met up afterwards and headed out for some excellent sushi at Umi Sake House to cap the night off.

Day 18

Woke up determined to go get us some gravy and biscuits from a place called "Biscuit Bitch".  Steph got the "Straight Up Bitch"(no comment) and I got the "Gritty Scrambled Cheesy Bitch" which is biscuit and sausage gravy with scrambled eggs, grits, and cheese.  Yum.  You can take the girl and boy out of the South......

Off to the Beneath the Streets tour which talks about how Seattle was formed and then burned down and then built atop the ruins, leaving a city under the city.  It was pretty neat and took us through parts of the city we wouldn't have explored otherwise.  Specifically Seattle's old Skid Row, or old town, Pioneer Square.  It was one of our favorite parts of the city.

After that we went over to the famous Pike Place market.  a 6 story farmers market complete with guys who throw salmon to each other at a fish market.

It was a neat place with tons of produce and products we just don't see in Nashville.

Finally we went back to the hotel and got ready for some Italian food and trapeze artistry at Pink Door.  We opted for the outdoor deck seating which was a really good move.  We had just been talking earlier about how we wished there was a nice place to view the bay and then we found ourselves being seated there!

Steph had an in-season pasta dish with fresh heirloom tomatoes, cream, and fresh basil and I had one of my favorite dishes, Cioppino, which is a seafood stew with tomato and white wine broth served with crusty bread for soaking it up with.  We also decided we deserved a whole bottle of wine for the occasion which had Steph chatting up our neighbors(seen above).  Cheers.

Day 14-15: Mt. Rainier

We arrived at Ohanapecosh Campground around 9 a.m. or so and my ohh my what a beautiful site we got.  Probably the best of the entire trip so far.  Under 150 tall old growth cedar trees and not 30 yds from the Ohanapecosh river.

After taking our time making camp and taking a dip in the icy glacial melt of the river, we took off to Paradise.  Literally, the place is called Paradise.  We were headed to do the Skyline trail.  A John Muir quote lined some steps on the way into the trail stating that these sub-alpine meadows were his favorite and it's easy to see why.  

Panoramic views of Mt. Rainier.

and fields of wildflowers everywhere

Our tour guides on the trail were pretty awesome but I think the last guy may have peed his pants.

After about a 3-4 hour walk we decided our feet had enough for the day and headed back to camp.  We drove back to camp and ate Chinese leftovers...which are good, even in a camping situation.  After sitting around a warm fire for a bit we hit the sack.
 

Day 13: Spokane

We left Glacier this morning headed to Spokane for a much needed resupply stop. We arrived in Spokane around 3:30 and stopped off to wash clothes. 

We got a room at a Super 8 hotel that had a check-out time from 11-2 (HECK YES). We spent this time reworking the van situation, charging up eelectronics posting the blog, etc. We also grubbed out at this Chinese restaurant

... and ordered WAYYYYY too much food,  but it was oh so good.  We got a great nights sleep and woke up rejuvenated, ready to head out.  This is what a goods nights sleep looked like at this point.

I mentioned earlier that we were going to rework the van situation...well this was Brett's great idea. Clark Griswold style!!!!

After driving down the interstate hearing what sounded like a hive of bees, we decided that we had to figure out a way to get more storage and not look like Clark, so this was the best and laziest idea we had: 

Yes!!! It is now sooooo much better. 
When we arrived into Mt. Rainier territory, there was a scenic viewpoint so we pulled off and WOW...just WOW.  This was our first glimpse of Mt. Rainier.

We also met a local photographer who REALLY had his shite together. He told us that this was the spot to view the Perseid Meteor Shower, which was peaking, and that it will best be seen around midnight when the moon sets. So we decided we would take his advice to view the shower. 
But, before the meteor show we needed to check in to our hotel.  We arrived at the Crest Trail Lodge around 9:00 p.m (just missed our free glass of wine, shucks). Grabbed a bite to eat and headed back out to the scenic point to observe the shower.  The meteor shower was really neat.  Whitish blue streaks across the sky left beautiful trails that lingered for seconds before fading away.   We stayed out until 1:15 a.m and headed back down to the lodge to get some sleep. It's off to Ohanapecosh Campground in the morning. 

Day 12: Glacier Day 2

This morning we woke up to a drizzling rain in Glacier.  We decided that since it was raining we would hang out around camp for a while. While I (Steph) was sitting in my camp chair relaxing, out of the woods comes a black bear strolling up into the campground. This time I did not panic or become frozen.   Instead we told the campground ranger, a 70 year old woman who just happened to be passing by, that there was a bear coming.  To our surprise that old lady went straight up beast mode and starts running straight at the bear clapping and screaming!  Holy crap!  The bear did not  want ANY of that old lady and tore off running into the woods.  The ranger then casually went back to looking for peoples clothes hanging to keep them out of the rain.  What a badass!

After lazily lounging around camp we left  at 12  to go grab some lunch and check out the Many Glacier area. We ate lunch at this cute local restaurant, Johnson's Cafe. It had checkered table clothes, family memorabilia, old shotguns and moose heads hanging up, and some stick-to-your-ribs food.  I got the "Sloppy Joe Special w/Huckleberry slaw and beef and barley soup.  Brett had the "HIllbilly" which was a country fried steak sandwich. It was exactly what we were in the mood for and what we needed.  What a great little place. 

Bellies full, we headed out to Many Glacier.

On our way back we noticed a crowd of people on the side of the road.  Generally in these parks this means wildlife.  So, we pulled off and asked some guy what everyone was looking at.  "Grizzly Bear" he replied.  OH MY!  We had been half hoping for and half dreading this.  Brett jumped out to see what was going on and there he was, not 50 yds from the road.  Let me tell you, when you're standing there looking through binoculars at an 800 lb bear that could probably close the gap between you and it in around 5 seconds its a good bit different than the Discovery Channel.  You gain a true respect for exactly how powerful those animals are.  Jeez.

Around 10 minutes later a ranger came through and broke up the party.  The grizz was probably about 30-40 yds out with a big crowd of people by then and they do not want the bears to  become comfortable in these situations.  So, we had to split..... but what an awesome experience.

That night we hung out with Dan and Anne again by the fire and discussed the days events and future plans over a bottle of wine.  Great end to a great day.

Day 11: Glacier Day 1

Got up early trying to forget  the long hellacious drive from last night and headed out to get a first-come site at Rising Sun Campground. We ended up getting a site for two nights with no problem, but they did fill up quick. 

We decided to do some day hikes in Glacier and the main hike we wanted to do was the Highline Trail.  Its a popular trail that hugs some VERY steep cliff sides above the Going to the Sun Road.  Its not for the faint of heart, but compared to the Static Peak stuff it was pretty mild. Trying to find a parking place was pretty stressful because everyone wants to be around this area of the park at the same time.  After one unsuccessful pass through, we stopped and got our heads straight.  The road around this area is EXTREMELY narrow and crowded.  Its also on the side of a cliff (of course). Luckily, on our second pass  we caught a couple heading out to their car and stalked them for their parking spot. 

The trail did not disappoint.  We weren't even a mile in when we were told to watch for a mountain goat just up the trail.  Sure enough, there he was.  A big ole goat with big ole horns right there in the middle of a 4 ft wide trail with a steep drop-off on one side.  We had read about these goats beforehand and it is recommended that you squeeze against the cliff on the inside of the trail and let them pass you.   As they pass, you aren't supposed to make any loud noises or look them in the eyes.  The have very sharp horns and they have no problem jamming one in your stomach if they feel threatened.  This particular goat was missing one of his horns.  He passed us veeeeeeery slowly..... no more than a foot away and as he did so he cocked his head to one side, gave us the "I ain't the one" look, then went on about his business.

The trail itself was absolutely beautiful and the views of the mountains were amazing. 

We did not go up to the top of the trail, but were able to enjoy the view at a pass about halfway through.  Look for the tiny people in the second pic for a sense of how big these mountains are.

We made it back to the car and headed to camp but not before seeing some more mountain goats.  This one a little baby.

When we arrived back at camp, we fixed up one heck of a dinner and enjoyed some local beer!! 

Our camping neighbors, Ann and Dan dropped by with their awesome dog Miso (great name) who we shared some of our chicken dinner with.  Ann had to pretty much drag Miso away.  She really really loved that chicken lol.   Later Dan generously invited us to hang out by their fire that night and we found out that they are RV'ing indefinitely at this point. Both had very interesting stories and we truly enjoyed hanging out with them and with Miso.