I’m Headed Downtown, Cruising Through the Alley

May 15, 2016May 15, 20161 Comment

Seattle; home of the Space Needle, Pike Place Markets and Grey’s Anatomy. It’s also the home of Andrew’s mate Ozzie, who hooked us up with an Air B’n’b in his apartment complex.

Checking out a city on your own, versus having some show you their city is such a different experience. I love both versions, but having Ozzie show off Seattle was pretty special.

He’s a gem, not the kind of guy you would picture either of us being friends with, but has an absolute heart of gold and generous nature. He drove us around to a couple of bars when we got into the city, and played the most intense game of Jenga with us. 27 stories high, the leaning tower of pisa did so well! and I don’t want to talk about how it’s existence came to an end…

We snuck in another run, this time around Lake Union. Such a beauty!

Ozzie is half Puerto-rican, half Colombian. He drives a Mercedes, with R’n’B tunes blasting from the speakers. He works as a consultant, making deals and schmoozing clients all day long. He’s also a massive foodie and picked out the BEST food for us all day. You see why I like him?

Mac and cheese, BBQ pork skewers, steamed buns, lemon cheesecake greek yoghurt and oyster shooters were all delectable. Ozzie also wanted to sample some ghost pepper syrup (literally the oils drained from the hottest chillies in the world). We spent the next half an hour watching him sipping milk and looking very sorry for himself.

We hit up some touristy sights, rode the monorail, checked out the city a little more before Ozzie and his girlfriend Lily took us to meet up with their mate, Ahmed.

Ahmed is exactly the kind of friend you want to have. Not only was he pretty cool and a super nice guy, he also had a boat rental.

So, in Seattle you can sign up for a boat share programme which lets you pick from 10 boats to take out up to three times a week. You only have to pay during summer, and they get new boats in every year, plus do all the maintenance and storage.

He took us all around the lake for some pretty sweet views of Mt Rainier. I’m usually not the biggest fan of boats, but this was a spectacular sight!

The night ended with Ozzie’s home cooked pulled pork tacos, glasses of wine and laughing about the state of the American politics.

The next day we had to ourselves, so we set off to check out more of downtown and Pioneer Place, before heading to the baseball!

This was SO much fun! I thought I’d enjoy the atmosphere and the energy around the field, but I found myself loving the game too. It was such a close game, going into 11 innings with the Mariners winning off a walk-off home run.

Surprisingly, this has been one of the best days on the trip, I had the best time on another glorious day in paradise. Also, red wine spritzers are not the worst thing in the world 😉

Let’s just say I’m pretty happy that Seattle is so close to the border, because I’d love to come back here again. Perhaps when the football is on… maybe this live sport thing ain’t so bad.

Hanbel.
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I Think I’ll Have Myself a Beer

May 12, 2016May 12, 20161 Comment

Except by me, I obviously mean Andrew. #glutenintolerance

Although for all the places we’ve travelled so far, Portland is definitely the most food intolerance/ preference friendly. This town is basically a giant hipster suburb.

There’s a brewery on every corner, a fixie flying past at any moment and the most perth-like coffee we’ve come across so far. Safe to say, I like this town.

We hit the ground running, heading to a “Big Lebowski” themed bar, a rooftop hangout, meeting locals, and playing ping pong against them for most of the night. I feel like I need to mention that among all the Americans we’ve met, these guys were the friendliest, most easy going and easy to talk to. It was such a pleasant surprise getting to hang out with them for a night.

With more sunshine heading our way, we got up early to sneak in a run, before heading out for some of the weird and wonderful things Portland has to offer.

Ugh, this coffeeeeeeee! I need another in my life ASAP.

Also, notice the glittery wall behind it? That bad boy is part of Voodoo Doughnuts, an institution among Portlandians. You queue up amongst tourists and locals alike, with the scent of sugary baked goods wafting through the door. You walk past the bright pink sign on the door, to be greeted by cashiers looking way to cool for school, and two giant rotating glass cabinets of doughnuts.

This is when the panic sets in; do you want a regular, cake or vegan doughnut? Maple or glazed? Covered in oreos? Topped with fruit loops? THERE ARE TOO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM.

Get the maple, it was THE BEST. Enjoy the hell out of it and try not to feel too guilty, because there’s always another form of exercise you can try. It’s called BrewCycle and it’s super fun.

Eight people hop onto this contraption for pedal power, three get to chill on the back seat, and one “tour guide” sits in the middle to steer. You get to a maximum speed of around 7km/hour and sing along to whoever’s manning the iPod.

This vehicle took us to one brewery and two dive bars, where we sampled Portland’s finest and ended up with a hasty shot (we’ve got 10 minutes left, let’s do a shot!). Which seemed like a good idea at the time, until we rolled back into headquarters for another beverage and the rest of our tour got white-girl wasted.

Ahhhh Portland. You have amazing gluten free burgers for maximum alcohol soak-up-age, the best coffee in the states (I’m calling it!), beautiful weather and our kind of people. I will be back to visit you in a heartbeat.

Hanbel.
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Into the Woods

May 9, 2016May 9, 2016Leave a comment

Back when we started planning this trip, Andrew suggested getting off the beaten track and heading in land for a few days. He figured we would probably have had enough of big cities, and want to see some of the countryside and quieter towns.

I LOVE THIS BOY.

The last few days have been so cruisey and full of the most amazing sights, that these photos absolutely will not do justice.

We started off with a VERY long drive to Lake Tahoe (we got an hour or so in before realising the road was closed off, and had to turn around and go another way). It also pissed down with rain the afternoon and evening we were there.

Despite this, it was one of the most beautiful drives either one of us has done, we had no idea there would still be so much snow on top of the mountains!

Plus, the next morning, it looked like this:

We didn’t have enough time to properly explore, we would have loved a few days here but had to keep moving.

Another five hour drive (I’m getting way better on the roads by the way, just not in cities – may have almost hit a parked car yesterday…) brought us to Klamath Falls, in Oregon. The quickest route took us just over the border into Nevada, before crossing back into California, which meant that we did three states in one day!

We hit the hay, preparing to wake up early and get going. I’d read about a lake in South Oregon that was highly recommended and was dying to check it out. It added an extra hour to our drive, and the park cost US$15 to enter, but I would pay it again and again for this view:

Quick facts and then I’ll shut up, I promise. Crater Lake is actually a basin of an erupted volcano, the deepest lake in the US and is the cleanest and clearest large body of water in the world.

And it’s so pretty!

I’m quickly falling in love with this state. It’s so much greener and more beautiful than California, the drive into Portland was breathtaking.

They also have some pretty tasty food, and beer is half the price. Winning!

Hanbel.
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Are We There Yet?

May 5, 2016May 5, 20161 Comment

For those of you who might not know, Andrew and I decided to hire a car in LA and drive it down to San Diego, and then all the way up to Seattle.

We have our mountain bikes with us, and this seemed like the most logical and cheapest way to transport them to Whistler. Once we hit Seattle, we’ll take a bus to Vancouver and then another to Whistler (to avoid extravagant costs for taking a car over the border).

“Jessicar Rabbit”

So, now you’re informed, I can start my rambles about how awesome road trips are. I just LOVE them. Benefits include:

More space for all of our baggage, plus we literally haven’t touched our bikes since we loaded them into the car
Road trip snacks
No queues for boarding planes or trains
Not having to be at a station at a specific time
Getting to see the sights along the way, there are some incredible things we’ve come across that we would have otherwise missed
In’n’Out on the road (although I don’t really get the hype)
THE LIST GOES ON AND ON

Back to our trip. We left our tacos and friends in San Diego, and started heading north. We vowed not to drive more than four to five hours each day, mainly for our sanity and to prevent a murder-suicide situation. Which brought us to Pismo Beach; a sleepy little beach town which was an absolute gem!

Wandering along the pier before dinner, we stopped to watch some surfers catching waves (it was freezing and I definitely thought they were crazy). As we turned to walk away I overheard someone say “Oh, are you going to take photos of the whales?”. Yep, there were mother flippin’ whales hanging around the beach. It was the perfect night with my perfect human.

The next day we hopped on highway 1, taking crazy turns through mountain ranges and cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. If you ever get the chance to take this drive, please do. It’s breathtaking, and scary, and unbelievable.

Elephant Seal Beach
Salmon Falls

I wish we’d had time to stop and take in more of the highlights, but we did as many as time would allow. Our final pitstop was Santa Cruz, to check out the original store and the sweet little town. I’d spend another day there in a heartbeat.

We hit San Francisco later that night and were completely overwhelmed with people, traffic and one way streets. I think we adjusted to the quieter towns a little too well 😉

Toodles for now, hope you’re all as well and happy as we are.
Hanbel
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California Here We Come

May 1, 2016May 1, 20162 Comments

So, this is officially my life from now on;

and apart from the limited outfit choices, I kinda like it. There’s nothing like being back on the road, in the air, on a bus travelling somewhere new, and this is bringing back some gooooood travelling memories.

Our flights were smooth and non eventful, we managed a few hours sleep and plenty of movies. For an added bonus, making our way out of LAX took around half an hour, and I’m pretty sure Mia Wasikowska was on our flight. #celebspotting

A HUGE thank you to my girls for the care package they put together for me. The slippers, hydrating mist and lip balm saved me during that 12 hour flight.

Now, we’re chilling in cali. But literally chilling, because it’s way colder than I thought and I keep forgetting to take a jacket with me. We hit up Venice beach and Santa Monica on day one; eating tacos and riding bikes through the beach, trying to stay awake as long as possible and beat the jet lag.

I’m digging the states, and Venice is so chilled out, but otherwise LA is not my cuppa tea. I’m trying not to judge too harshly, but I really have no interest in going back. Having said that; the city has one saving grace…

DISNEYLAND!

The happiest place in the world that requires no explanation.

We spent the whole day running around like 5 year olds, the next morning soaking up the last of the LA sunshine and after packing up our hire car (Jessicar Rabbit) we were on the road; San Diego bound.