Due to my injured shoulder, I can't go back to work yet.
My friend Jamie and her husband Eric planned a trip to Washington quite a while ago, but Eric had to help his father move on relatively short notice and was unable to leave their home in Rock Island, IL on the designated departure day. Jamie couldn't wait for him because her brother and his family had purchased plane tickets to be out there at the same time. Jamie can't drive at night very well. I can.
So I joined Jamie on a road trip.

Sunday, 7/10
 

Jamie picked me up at my apartment at around 2:00. I took us on an unintentional scenic tour of the highways of Minneapolis, then we got going in the right direction and headed to South Dakota on I-90. The trip west on 90 is a long stretch of a whole lot of nothing, with a little bit of something thrown in every once in a while.

One of my favorite parts of the trip is crossing the Missouri River in South Dakota.

We stayed in Rapid City that night. The bedspreads were very shiny.

Monday, 7/11
 

Long stretches of the West. It was all brown. We saw western things.

I liked Billings and Missoula. We cut through a really beautiful chunk of Idaho mostly in the dark and got into Lewiston at around 11:30 PM. Lewiston is across the Snake River from Clarkston, Washington. Funny.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 7/12-14
 

We basically followed the Columbia River Gorge to Portland. We found some road construction.

We didn't really stop very often, but Jamie wanted to see a replica of Stonehenge built on a bluff overlooking the Columbia in Washington.

the view from...
 

the view of...
 

We rolled into Portland at around 3:00 or 4:00.
(My parents were there. My sister-in-law Tara's family flew in Thursday. They all went to the beach. )

My brother Corey had a softball game Tuesday night, so my mom and dad and my nephew Cayden met Tara there to watch it.

Cayden
 

Corey (good eye)
 

Corey's friend Ted
 

Cayden and I found a dead snake by the drinking fountain.

I pretty much hung out with my family for a couple days.

Wednesday was Cayden's 2nd birthday, so we had a party when Tara's family arrived on Thursday.

I got him a bouncy horse.
 

Then everyone but me left for the beach.

The Rest of Thursday, 7/14

Jamie and her friend Bess drove down from Seattle to pick me up. I locked Corey's front door and outfoxed the safety feature on his garage door, a feat which was rumored to be impossible. ( )

We drove to Seattle. There's a nucular power plant along the way.

There's also Olympia, Washington along the way. We visited The Evergreen State College, home of the Geoducks (say gooey-ducks), and the Spar Cafe, home of a killer happy hour.

The Evergreen State College library (?) has cool waterless urinals.

And if you go to this site (maybe not work-safe? -language-), you might see this picture. We were surprised that the hippies hadn't torched it yet.

my mom will be so proud...
 

Friday, 7/15

Jamie and I picked up Oliver, a boy her mom babysat in Seattle. Then we picked up Eric from the airport and went to the Museum of Flight. It was pretty interesting. There were several of these things in the children's area.

Whoops! It looks like the museum needs a little help with plurals.

I stayed at Bess' apartment. She grows things in her gutter.

We went out to dinner with a bunch of Jamie's friends (and one of Eric's). We parked near this sign.

After dinner a few of us went out for further adventure. I got to see Seattle at night.
 

Saturday, 7/16

Eric, Jamie, Bess and I went to breakfast at a record shop/cafe. Eric and Jamie left us to visit a friend, so I hung out with Bess for the day. We visited her parents' house in Snoqualmie. It's a beautiful house with a lovely view. They had a cougar in the rocks above their driveway not too long ago.

Snoqualmie Falls. This pic gets its own soundtrack.

Then Bess may or may not have gotten her hair done. You can't prove anything.

All I can say is, I slept in Bess' car in the parking lot of a strip mall in Redmond for quite a while.

That night, Bess and Jamie's friend Derek and his girlfriend Katie threw a party at their house. It was Katie's birthday. They had a DJ. Thumpin'. The question of the night for everyone was: How did you end up here? I met a couple who had just moved from Texas. They ran into Bess' friend a couple times in a couple days and were comfortable enough to stay late into the morning. Bess' neighbors came over. Bess and I left at around 3:30 AM and it was still hopping. When we got back to her place, her neighbors called us to see if we wanted to come over for french fries. We didn't. We both had big days ahead of us. It was time to sleep.

Sunday, 7/17

Jamie and Eric came over for breakfast on their way out of town. Bess was headed to her parents' house for her brothers' birthday party. I hung out for a while, then took a cab to the airport. The flight was 2 hours, 45 minutes. Easy. As soon as I stepped off of the plane I could tell that I was going to miss the cool, dry weather I had left.

My time in Seattle was sort of interesting in that I never got downtown and I never got to the waterfront. I just hung out like I lived there. I liked it a lot.
 

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