Yes we have it all in this the latest post from the Saroians on Tour. Bearded Trees? Indeed. A sleepless night in Seattle? Check. A new friend in in the form of a pick-up truck? Absolutely.
But let's start at the beginning......Forks. 8 years ago, you said the word, people would have thought of cutlery or the Ho Rainforest, or perhaps Olympic National Park. Fast forward 8 years and most women will know exactly what the place looks like, without knowing precisely where it is in the world! All courtesy of the Twilight franchise :)
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| LaVonne the owner of the sheep wagon gave us eggs ,which we dearly enjoyed |
Our base for the few days we were there was another marvellous Airbnb lodging, that was basically a one bedroom bungalow. Lovely, cosy and comfortable. Of course this would mean another trip to the supermarket and another opportunity for Julia to roll her eyes at me as I walked up and down the aisles with a smile on my face.
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| Um....there's a vampire in my trailer! |
I still haven't figured out why, but I just a love a supermarket. Maybe because it says so much about the local community. Maybe because I am weird and should probably get out a bit more....make some friends? Who knows. Either way, I am considering a blog post on the differences between supermarkets around the world; if anything we'll get to see just how many sad cases there are like me that would be interested in reading about it!
As we drove to the supermarket we saw how much of an effect a film could have on a town. You can, for instance, by "Twilight firewood". Yup. Firewood. I am pretty sure that this is not official merchandise. There are Twilight Trailers to be rented in the trailer park on the edge of town and then of course Twilight Tours....but that one was perhaps a bit obvious.
Forks is unfortunately a bit dull though, so perhaps they should be grateful for Twilight? Who knows. The surrounding landscape though is anything but boring. In another wonderful example of the ugliness of civilisation, man has built a great big ugly settlement and not drawn a single ounce of inspiration from the frankly incredible natural environs in which he finds himself.
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| You can't see me...I'm a tree |
We spent an afternoon wondering around in the rainforest which showed us just how different forests can be. We've seen them all over the world now and we'd not seen one like this before. We did 2 hikes (which I think was 2 too many!) and though for some reason I couldn't quite get in the mood for sightseeing, there was no denying the splendour of the natural beauty around us. The moss hanging from the trees made them seem slightly mournful and I am sure in the rain (we
were in a rainforest after all) this would be heightened.
However today was a beautiful day and in the sunshine not even the gnarled and strange shapes of the trees covered in moss could look too sad. We had a lovely light picnic on a pebble bar in the river and sitting there was one of the first times so far I looked around me and really thought that we would soon be returning home. That soon got me back in the mood to see some sights :)
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| Julia counted "at least 4 bounces".....uhuh! Sure. |
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| RUN! |
Other than that little trip, we did a short drive out to the harbour town (I forget the name**) that hosts Beach 2 (imaginative!) and an Indian reserve. In true form, the place was run down and utterly reliant on tourists to look even as shabby as it did. The ocean today certainly looked ominous and the grey clouds scudding overhead, combined with the light drizzle, were all the hints we needed to move right along to our next stop. Port Angeles.
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| LaPush Beach......surfing anyone? |
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| Not a fan of Obama |
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| If only we had had this sign at TASTE23 |
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| yuk |
As it turns out, we weren't really staying in Port Angeles. We were staying in a Sportsman's Cabin, somewhere up in the woods behind the city. Probably the only thing of note on this wee stop was that it was the first and only fail we've had on Airbnb. We arrived and aside from the place being dirty, it was untidy......a stop complaining Saroian. We sorted it out, settled in, slept and moved on. I shan't expect sympathy from you, dear reader! It was a shame though, because it had all the potential in the world to be a really cool place to stay. Moving on.
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| Where do I start with this one? |
Seattle. Our final stop in the western USA before we finished our journey. As we entered the town renowned for Starbucks and a terrible, terrible Tom Hanks film (I know, surprising eh? Tom Hanks made a bad film!), I was certainly feeling like I was entering a kind of limbo state. We had spent 39 days with our dear friend Billy Bob and the mad dash we made on a Sunday afternoon to drop him off at the nearest rental office that was in the car park of a hotel, well, it all seemed a little blase. After all, this trusty steed had carried us and our belongings like a pair of gypsies for just shy of 10,000kms!!! Not bad eh? Sure he could drink a lot, but he did it in style and comfort. I for one was both happy and sad to say goodbye. Unfortunately, any happiness was muted, because though we had stopped our 6500 odd mile trip around the western USA, we were about to start a 1500 mile trip through British Columbia. Hmmmm. Out of the frying pan much?
The hotel we had was .....fine. I suppose. We'd had better for cheaper, but again, who cares. It was a one nighter and as we set out for a lovely meal in a restaurant that overlooked a marina, Mount Rainier and had a perfect view of the setting sun and rising (huge) full moon, it was all good. Dinner was lovely and the restaurant, after a judicial white lie from yours truly, decided they would send a limo to pick us up and drop us off. After all, we were on honeymoon! ;o)
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| The moon and Mount Rainier through the masts |
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| That desert cocktail was amazing |
Next morning we scraped ourselves out of bed at the crack of dawn and into a cab to King Street Station. We had tickets on the train up to Vancouver and we were both really looking forward to someone else doing the driving for a change! Check-in was weird. You get your ticket, then check your bags in like in the airport. As we hadn't "rationalised" our baggage yet, we had the usual last minute re-packing at the feet of all the other passengers to accomplish, then we were aboard and.......deflated like two very tired balloons.
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| Very early at the train station |
Sitting there in our carriage we were in heaven for a while. But just a short while. The journey was over too soon and then we were in Vancouver and enjoying a lovely chat with a border guard that whilst going through all the proper checks (asking us in detail about our time in Asia, did we meet any chickens that looked like they had the flu etc) he did it in style and with a friendly attitude. Please God, let someone in the USA Border Agency be reading this post.
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| A few Photos taken from the train whilst passing by |
Our Iranian cab driver was a lovely fellow and dropped us off at our next rental agency, though we were a mite early. So we wondered down towards Grenville Island and had some sushi. If you're in Vancouver, try Waterfall Sushi.....it's amazing. And cheap. So ridiculously cheap. If you DO go, could you ask them if they have my iPhone 6? Yes. This time I did actually lose my rather pathetic excuse for a mobile phone. Gutted. Still, the surprisingly enjoyable lunch kind of made up for that and kismet being fate, I am sure there was a reason for it all. Maybe someone will find it and realise one of the numbers in the phone is for an old long lost friend. Probably not.
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| @waterfall sushi |
Back at the rental office, we met our new friend. Eventually we called him Burt, though he did go through a few names before we settled on Burt. He was our brand new big-ass pick-up truck. Utterly impractical and totally gas guzzling, but ever since we landed in Santiago and went through the Chilean fiasco that is trying to rent a car and failed to get a pick-up, I had been hankering after driving the sort of car that real North American men drove. And now we had one. Nice.
First stop on our road trip in British Columbia? Whistler. Canada's answer to Queenstown and let me tell you now, we had the most amazing fun ever being taught how to downhill mountain bike by a 17 year old!
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