We arrived in Bozeman MT in the early evening. After spotting Buffalo all day it seemed only fitting that we would get a Buffalo burger for dinner. We ate at a place called the garage, an old mechanics garage that had been remodeled into a restaurant. The menus are on old license plates. It was pretty cool. We ordered some microbrews and devoured our Buffalo burgers. They really don't taste any different than beef, at least from what we could tell.
The next morning we decided to hit up a little cafe for some breakfast before leaving town. What a great decision! Nova Cafe is the best place in town. It is also very eco-friendly, and environmentally aware (as is a lot of Montana, surprisingly). Then we took Henry to a huge park in the middle of downtown Bozeman to run off some of his energy. He ended up getting away from us AGAIN. His rope slipped out of my hand and he was in the creek and running as fast as he could away from me. Naturally I jumped right in after him. Everything from head to toe was wet. My boots took two days to dry. Ugh.
After catching up with him and changing out of my soaked clothing we drove a bit down the freeway until we hit Missouri Headwaters State Park. We decided to camp there for the evening. We were hoping for an Elk sighting, but didn't get so lucky. However, it was the first successful camping we did without rain, or wind or natural disaster. Henry dug a giant hole, and we had a fire complete with roasted weenies. We also camped where Lewis and Clark did on their journey. Love Montana.
6/28/11
We left Montana for Spokane, WA. Idaho was pretty, but we were only there for about 45 minutes. Spokane was the largest city we had been since Madison WI. Spokane was a little rough. While on the road reading about Spokane, I discovered that there is a huge meth problem. For the eastern side of the country, it's hard to grasp the magnitude of the problem. Meth started in the west and has slowly trickled across the US to the east. Apparently Spokane has it the worst. Not to mention our hotel for the night wasn't in the best part of town. It's odd having to make sure that everything that is valuable in your car comes with you. People often break windows in in order to find something of value to sell or trade for meth. It's sad. Our hotel stay wasn't bad, in fact none of our stays were. It's just those extra things that one has to worry about when moving west.
We left Spokane for Tacoma, with a little bit of wiggle room to stop in Seattle for a moment. Seattle was pretty cool. We decided to go to Pike Place Market, and the flagship REI store. The REI is out of this world. 3 stories, a rock climbing wall, and anything you want in outdoor gear. I was drooling the whole time we were there. We headed to the market walking roughly a mile or so from our parking spot through downtown Seattle. All of the buses and cable cars run on electricity. PRETTY SWEET. Pike Place was full of activity. Really crowded. We purchased some local Washington cherries, and ate dinner at a cute little coffee bar. Hotels were expensive in Seattle, although we would have loved to stay there. So we headed to Tacoma instead.
6/30/11
We left Tacoma and decided to visit Evergreen State College. It's a little college near Olympia, WA that takes great pride in its mascot, the geoduck. What's a geoduck? First, it's pronounced gooeyduck. Second, it looks like a boys part. Third, it's hilarious. I'll post a picture above. A geoduck is the largest burrowing clam in the world, and it's siphons or "neck" can reach up to 2 meters in length. It's found in Washington and Canada mostly. When our friend, Steve Sabo told us about it, we had to go visit the school. The school itself is tucked away in a forest of evergreens. Beautiful walking paths through dense forest, and a school store that carries lots and lots of organic and local products. Should have gone to school here. We picked up a few items and headed on our way.
We decided from Washington we wanted to drive Hwy 101 down the coast, all the way to Arcata. We drove all day, winding in and out along the coastline. The drive was fantastic. We reached Coos Bay, OR and decided to stay the night. Our motel was fancy with a flat screen, a recliner, and a really sweet balcony. We had a few beers and toasted to our arrival in California the next day.
7/1/11
We followed the coast all the way down to Arcata, CA. On the way down we drove through a bunch of Redwoods. The Redwoods are something everyone should see in their lives. We stopped at the giant Paul Bunyon and Babe statue. I'm not quite sure why he was there, we thought that was a Michigan thing. When we arrived in Arcata it was sunny and beautiful. Our apartment was ready, and we unloaded the car and plopped down after a long road trip. We were officially home!
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