North by Northwest II: Home on the Cascade Range

Halfway into the second week of our cross-country road trip it was already obvious we should have drawn out our stays a little more.

Spending only a day or two at each destination didn’t allow us to stop and smell the roses, but then again, we did have a lot of territory to cover.

For the most part August presented favorable conditions for us throughout our five-week journey, but the one instance the weather stood in our way of quality adventuring was during our stay at Mt. Rainier.

Let me set this up. We had just recharged our batteries after a few days at Yellowstone; we enjoyed the trails outside Missoula and took a crack at the scenic Spokane and Seattle downtowns; and we were on a roll with two contiguous shower days.

All things considered we were ready to hit the trails again, and immediately upon our arrival at Mt. Rainier National Park we were not disappointed.

Scaling roads along the park’s north-side in my trusty Saturn Aura, it became apparent we were headed into a massive shroud of mist.

We stopped at our campsite, Cougar Rock, near Rampart Ridge, and as we stepped foot on solid ground it felt like being transported to Middle Earth.

Dense forest surrounded us, as did moss-covered rock formations. It didn’t take long for us to set up the tent and get to adventuring.

The first half of our hike was incredibly peaceful, as there’s nothing like a low-grade trek through one of the most beautiful parks in America.

Spending part of the walk together, alone with our thoughts, it was easy to get lost in the stillness of the park and, in its vastness, feel like the only people on Earth.

But in the middle of the Cascades, level paths quickly turn into steep climbs. And after reaching a certain altitude, there became a noticeable drizzle.

Taking a break and chillin’ out in a cloud.

 

We relied on a map to find access to some of the parks waterfalls, but dense fog obscured our view. For all we know, we were climbing higher and higher into an excessively large cloud — and the drizzle materialized into a harder rain, making the trails slick and muddy.

Time to turn back, we thought. Thank god for ponchos, but also fuck this. We’re not about to slip and break a leg this early into our trip.

The hike back to our site was unexpectedly long, and the rain never let up.

We wondered, is it cheating to skip out on making dinner at the campsite just because it’s a little wet?

Probably, we decided, but we did anyways. It ended with beer, burgers and free blackberry pie.

Given a second chance, I’d say we’d do it all again.

North by Northwest

We’re very enthusiastic when it comes to public markets.

Let me preface this post by saying the Pacific Northwest is the most beautiful goddamn place I’ve ever seen.

There are few places on earth where you find yourself positioned near so much natural beauty — the mountains, the forest, waterfalls, the beach — while maintaining access to some of the most progressive, cleanest cities.

Simply magical

On the tenth day of our cross-country trip, we had the pleasure of rolling into the Seattle area on a mild August-afternoon.

We actually stayed in Redmond with our Airbnb host, LoraLee — possibly the most professional and eccentric host we’ve had the fortune of staying with.

Typically, we stay in a guest room for most of our Airbnb stops, but at LoraLee’s we were treated to something a little different.  She apparently went through the trouble of converting a sizable storage shed in her backyard into a cozy guest cabin.

And this was no typical backyard, mind you. It was a garden paradise in the middle of suburbia.

The view of from her back porch. The guest cabin is somewhere in there.

Exploring the City

I guess I have an idealized image of Seattle after this trip. We’re exploring cities we’ve never been to before, and this is THE city that managed to leave the strongest impression.

It’s clean, it’s active, there’s a food forest, and you’re not far from excellent hiking spots. You really have to be trying to find something wrong with Seattle.

Anyways, Javier, one of Lis’s past roommates, guided us through the city, taking us to some of the cool, and oddly surreal, spots throughout the city.

Of course we got a glimpse of Elliott Bay, marveled at the Space Needle and pondered before the strangeness of the gum-wall — typical tourist stuff.

The Space Needle: I don’t know what purpose it serves, but it’s the best kind of strange.

But Pike Place Fish Market was an absolute blast. It’s effectively a cross between a farmers market, shopping mall and retail strip, and it’s home to the very first Starbucks.

Several of the shops have retractable walls, so as you walk past these store fronts, your senses are assaulted by a barrage of fresh seafood, baked pastries and — god knows — all of the coffee.

One of our last stops was at a truly exceptional restaurant looking over the fish market. Lis and I were jonesing for fish, and sweet Christ! It certainly wasn’t what we’re used to in the Midwest.

Not sure why we took a picture of the gum wall. Starbucks cup in hand, this is at least the most ‘Seattle’ picture anyone has ever taken.

More to come

Hit up the comments if you have any recommendations on other chill spots in Seattle. Though we were there for less than a day, the city really stole my heart. I’d love to make another visit someday.

Big thanks to Javier and LoraLee for being awesome. In the next posts we wrap up our stay in the Pacific Northwest with stops in Mt. Rainier and Portland.

Over the River and Through the Woods to Washington We Go!

Monday morning we traveled a few hours to the neat city of Missoula, Montana. We grabbed some maps and info from their visitor’s center, then headed about 20 miles out of town to a more secluded campsite at Lee Creek. We decided to hike through the mountains a tad so we found a place to park and a trail to explore. After hiking for what seemed like forever and never really reaching the top of any of the rolling mountains, we eventually came to a sign that let us know we were on the Lewis and Clark trail. That gave us the hint that we were never going to get to the top of any of these mountains; we were walking in history’s footsteps though, and that was definitely surreal. I couldn’t imagine being one of the first people to explore these mountains, not ever knowing what was going to be on our path.

Mountain selfie. At this point, neither of us had showered since South Dakota at Steph and Tyler’s.

After our hike we needed a big, hearty meal, and we were craving pizza. After roaming a few blocks of the downtown, we ended up at MacKenzie River Pizza Co. The pizza was delicious, the service was far from excellent. Come to think of it, we were pretty great at picking restaurants with great food and sub-par service throughout the entire trip. After dinner we headed back to our campsite and, yet again, wished we would have had more time to check out the city. When we had visited the information center, the man suggested renting bicycles (for free) and check out the city that way, and if we had a couple days in the area to rent inter-tubes to float down the multiple rivers that flow through the city. We’ll definitely have to go back to Montana to check out more of Missoula, visit Bozeman, and mosey further north to check out Glacier National Park on the border of the US and Canada. I cannot express enough how beautiful of a state Montana is. More pictures and more time..next time.

Tuesday we had a very foggy trip to Spokane, Washington. I didn’t sleep well the night before, so I napped for a bit of the drive. We did listen to some very good Radiolab podcasts that day though. Radiolab is tied for first with the Stuff You Should Know Podcast I talked about a few posts ago. These are hour-long, three-part stories centered somehow around one subject or idea. They’re so great, so check them out! This was also the first time in almost a week that we gained back any cell phone service.

Mountains and trees were sprouting out of the clouds and fog!

Spokane was actually a really cool city. We spent most of our time there in the downtown area walking the trails and learning the city’s history at Riverfront Park. This was neat area full of carnival rides and activities for kids, and viewpoints of the falls and historical landmarks for people like us!

Me, my slushy, and fanny(pack) overlooking the Spokane Falls!

Spokane Falls Selfie!

Cute as hell!

Definitely shaking my booty.

After exploring the park, we ventured into a few book stores including Auntie’s Bookstore, Boo Radley’s where we bought some classic books, and Atticus Coffee Shop where there were so many cute kitchen accessories and it even had a section where you could rent books! We ate at a delicious Irish Pub called O’Doherty’s where I had my first local piece of salmon and the strongest glass of sangria I’ve ever tasted! After dinner it started to get pretty cloudy outside and decided to get to our campsite. Prior to our trip there had been a number of forest fires throughout the state of Washington. While they didn’t affect us directly, since there was a storm rolling in and there was so much dust and ash from the remnants of these fires, the sky turned a scary shade of red and black. We managed to get our tent up just in time for the heaviest downpour on the trip. Unfortunately, we found out our tent wasn’t the most waterproof, so Kevin got out in the storm to put tarps over the tent to help prevent any more water from entering.

Book I found in Atticus Coffee Shop that reminded me of our good friend Brian ❤

My babe being the absolute best and taking care of b’idness!

The first time we remembered to take a picture of our setup!

We’ll finally be reaching Seattle and Portland in our next posts, so stay tuned for those! Happy traveling!

South Da-Koty

We said our goodbyes to Heather and Greg the morning of day 3. The remainder of this day was to be spent in the car.. 9 hours until our next destination in the heart of the Badlands. All in all, our drive was smooth. Our one and only police encounter throughout the whole trip happened about an hour outside of Des Moines. Never fear, though, this cop knew he was being an asshole and we were sent on our way.

Many of our longer days of driving weren’t spent listening to music. Instead, we expanded our minds with podcasts such as Stuff You Should Know with Josh and Chuckers. They delve into everyday things that we all kind of take for granted and explain everything there is to know about it. Some of our favorites were How Monopoly (the game) Works, How Marijuana Works, and How the NSA Works.

We hit rain driving through the heart of South Dakota, but the weather cleared by the time we found Sage Creek Campground in the Badlands. The cool thing about this site was that it was FREE! There’s no running water and you can’t have open campfires, but otherwise this site was definitely one of my favorites throughout the trip. It was quiet, there weren’t a lot of people there because it was so secluded, we still had access to a pit-toilet, and we got to explore just a slight hike from where we slept!

View from the drive.

My bug.

Our campsite from the hike.

Self-timer’d that shit!

Aged buffalo poop. My foot for scale.

The hike was short but awesome. I was even unlucky enough to find a snake and have it hiss at me! Kevin was lucky enough to hear me scream and run away, and then even luckier to have to give me a piggy-back ride until I felt safe again. I’m a huge baby when it comes to snakes. We ended our night reading next to lamp light and sleeping without the rain fly on.

The next day we spent our morning and afternoon driving and hiking through the rest of the Badlands. As the pictures show, I was speechless. It was like looking at the remains of another planet. And although the terrain was much of the same, I kept taking pictures of the slight differences and could not believe the stillness, beauty, and landscape of South Dakota. Each viewpoint had the opportunity to explore the land, so of course we did just that.

A buffalo crossing the road as we left our campsite Thursday morning!

Rocks for days.

Off the beaten path.

Mountain goats!

Yours truly.

After the Badlands, we took a stroll through Wall Drug, a pretty popular tourist trap on your way to Mount Rushmore. After eating a late lunch, we decided to make our way to our next stop at Oreville Campground in the Black Hills. We took in the fresh air and drove past the Crazy Horse Monument. We got coffee and a snack at a nearby hotel to use their wifi. This began our week long journey of no cell phone service. We enjoyed our meals, a warm fire,  and the company of deer that night.

The next morning we got breakfast and made friends with the owner of the local Subway and headed to Mount Rushmore! We watched the informational video and took the hike to the base of the monument.

Presidential love.

Also, we don’t recommend visiting or traveling through South Dakota during the first weeks of August, like we did. You will be accompanied by the bikers with Sturgis, as pictured in the previous photo. They’re friendly, but their bikes are loud and distracting when you’re trying to appreciate nature.

After Mount Rushmore we traveled an hour north to Spearfish to visit our friends Stephanie and Tyler. Our short afternoon/overnight visit with them was definitely one of my favorite times on the entire trip. They took us to this very Goonies-esque hiking spot up a waterfall (my fave!) and then to Crow Peak where we climbed the summit.

Do go chasin’ waterfalls!

3 mile hike up, 3 mile hike down! Well worth it!

We did it!

Later that night they fed us a Mexican fiesta and we talked about life over shots of Red Stag and bottles of wine. It’ll be a time I will never forget! I also hope to visit them again very soon!

Stick around for the end of week one where we finally make it to Yellowstone!!

Des Moines Does It Better

Wow, you guys. We royally suck at letting you know how our trip went, don’t we? We’ve just kept putting it off, but we have to start somewhere, sometime!

The first few days were spent with some of our very dear friends in Des Moines, where they’ve recently moved. Heather and Greg were great hosts and took us paddle boating at Grays Lake almost as soon as we arrived. We worked up a sweat and appetite, so we recharged at Ritual, one of the coolest little coffee shops downtown! We headed back to the house, got all snazzy, and prepped for a night out in Des Moines!

#highclassasses

Heather bought us tickets to see this amazing band, Run River North, at the Vaudeville Mews — an excellent little venue, by the way.

He took his shoes off!

To say they put on an amazing show would be an understatement. This Korean-American folk band had stories to tell in their lyrics and you could tell they touched everyone. We shared the audience with maybe 50 other people, fans and new listeners alike. We even got to meet and talk to some of the members afterwards! Please check them out if you’ve never heard them before! (I even hear they’ll be playing in Iowa City within the next month and a half, so we may be checking them out again!)

We continued our night by getting noms at Fong’s Pizza where we got an amazing and unique crab rangoon pizza! We got more drinks and played some arcade games in the same place: Up-Down!

The best game of MEGA JENGA ever played.

Day 2 consisted of meeting up with another friend for lunch at Jason’s Deli, exploring the free Des Moines Art Center, perusing shops in the downtown art area, and checking out the capitol building!

Researching how to use “we” in government documents.

Looking up at cha’dome.

Later we stepped into some bars and got to experience the glory that is ZOMBIE BURGER!

Z’OMG! It was amazeballs and awesomesauce all rolled into delicious burgers and alcoholic milkshakes. You heard me right. Kevin and I split what could only be named the Drunken Unicorn, made with vanilla ice cream, fruity pebbles, marshmallow-y goodness and Loopy vodka.

The Drunken Unicorn in tact before demolition.

Needless to say, after more drinks at bars in the vicinity, including the Barcadium, we needed even more food which was satiated by a 24/7 drive-thru, authentic, and delicious Mexican feast from Abelardo’s.

Our time spent in Des Moines was a fantastic start to an epic journey and we are so grateful for Greg and Heather’s hospitality and all the spoiling we received while visiting them, and we hope to return very soon! Stay tuned for the second half of week one! And please, if you have any questions or thoughts about our trip, don’t hesitate to put them in the comments below!

Wise words from a bathroom stall.