My 2nd US Roadtrip: The Great North West RT
I didn't think it was possible for anyone to be so busy (don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining!) but between work and play I I've probably just had pretty much the busiest 8 weeks of my life!!8 weeks; A guest in 6 house holds, 5 hotels. A host for 5 weeks. Planes (8 of 'em), trains, automobiles... and boats and buses. Including 1 raft, 1 speed boat and 2 ferry's. 5 US States. 2 Countries. Co-drove 2,070 miles.
I've just completed a road trip with Simon and Andy who both visited from the UK. It was great to see some friends from home! The trip started in Seattle where Marisa joined us for a few days, we took in Canada's British Columbia. Vancouver BC has a very European feel to it. In case you were wondering yes you do need a passport to get in to Canada... I almost didn't take mine... thank goodness I did!!! Otherwise I'd have missed the whale watching, hot springs and meeting up with an old school friend and his girlfriend (also an old friend)!
We travelled passed the erupting Mount St. Helens in Washington - having been interviewed in Seattle airport about it. We got chatting to the news crew who decided our international flavour and the fact we had 11 cameras with us was news worthy! We stopped in Portland and sampled the hospitality of friends both Shannon (who put us up) and also of Tony (who took us out on his boat).
The majority of the trip was on the road between Portland and San Francisco on the coast from Canon Beach and took in many hundreds of miles of beautiful coast line which I'd highly recommend visiting. We found the "lost coast" on what felt like a "lost highway" AKA US 211 which winds its way through forests, up and down mountains along some of the most treacherous roads I've ever had the pleasure of driving on.
We went white water rafting - in which we capsized and got dragged across rocks in the river!!! And we also visited the redwood forests where Star Wars was filmed and also another one which is home to the tallest tree in the world and the tree you can drive through! We saw more fog on the coast than you could shake a stick at - it was cool though, very eerie and mystical!
We slummed it in motels down through Oregon and California and ended up in San Francisco. We couldn't have picked a better weekend to be there! Lady luck was on our side for a beautifully clear Saturday on which the city was hosting a significant portion of the US Navel Fleet, an Air Show and a Celebratory Taiwanese Parade through China Town! We rode bikes around the bay area and over the golden gate bridge (Great fun and certainly a recommendation). Late Sunday I turned in our SUV Ford Explorer (which we managed to get for a bargain as it was a Sacramento car they needed to return!!!) at Sac airport with about 2070 miles on the trip clock!!
Prior to the road trip I was lucky enough to have my little sister Sarah visit and stay for 2 weeks in which we went to Utah to visit some very good long time family friends The Grahams (Thanks for putting us up! It was great to stay with the huuuuge familly!) and The Garliques (Thanks for lunch :-))! We also went to a Beastie Boy's concert in San Francisco - they were fantastic, if you even half like them make sure you catch them if they are touring near you!
Delictible photo's - Thanks to oFoto for providing the service, you'll have to login to view but I recomend signing up for their handy to use service (oFoto the Fluid Pixel online photo service of choice).... no I'm not getting paid to say this:
Road trip photos
Labour Day weekend photo's & more of Sarah's visit
Utah trip photo's
posted by Matthew Woodget @ 8:37 PM
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