Montana to Washington

Hello all!
Sorry we haven't posted in a while. We left Whitefish, MT and headed for the coast. We decided to take the scenic route through the northern part of Washington taking Highway 20 through North Cascades NP. The drive was beautiful, albeit pretty wet. We stopped along the way first to camp, then to get some fresh apples and other fruits from a Washington orchard, and then to take a gander at the Shafer Museum in Winthrop, WA. Shafer being Isaac's last name (although he spells it with two fs), he was curious as to what the museum had to offer. Unfortunately, the museum proper was closed, but we cruised around the grounds a bit. They had a pretty amazing collection of turn of the century artifacts for a po-dunk little museum in the middle of nowhere. Winthop itself was a museum of sorts itself. It looked like it was straight out of a wild west movie set.

We made our way through the Cascades to the I5 which would take us down to Seattle. Our goals in Seattle were threefold: visit my brother, Paul, and his family; go over to the Olympic Peninsula; and see some gelato shops in Seattle. As soon as we hit the I5 I was reminded of why I don't ever want to live in a big city. Ughh the traffic! The difference in the time it takes to travel from north of Seattle to south of Seattle with and without traffic is about 1 hour. A whole hour of your life because of traffic! Of course we hit it just at rush hour too which didn't help matters! Welcome to the city!

The first of our goals proved to be the most difficult as Paul, his wife Jennie, and their youngest son Kyle lead really busy lives. We managed to get in some hang out time in the evenings though. It was nice to see some family and meet the family dog, Boomer. Rizo wasn't as thrilled with Boomer as we were, but by the end of the first evening, even she was warming up to him!

We went to the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park on Tuesday. Unfortunately we left at a rather late hour in the morning and weren't able to do as much hiking as we would have liked, but it was beautiful all the same. The trees and moss were amazing as was the giant elk that just appeared out of the mist about 15 feet in front of us! We saw signs everywhere warning us about the elk and we had a good laugh at them (every park has to have its dangerous animals--Yellowstone has bears and bison, Glacier has bears and moose, Olympic has....elk). After seeing his ability to hide in such thick brush, however; we began to understand the warnings! We ended our day at the beach with a beautiful sunset and made the long drive back to my brother's.

On Wednesday we lazed around the house playing with the pups and then made our way into Seattle to conduct some business---ice cream business. Our first stop was Molly Moon's ice cream in Wallingford. Molly Moon's had some impressive flavors--Balsamic Strawberry, Honey Lavender, and Sweet Corn to name a few. The ice cream was good. They have their base made for them at Snoqualmie Dairy (I think). So still not exactly what I had in mind as far as homemade, but pretty close I guess. We then walked down the street to the Fainting Goat gelato shop. This shop is owned by a delightful Turkish couple. They were so friendly and helpful when we asked them about their business. Eating their gelato re-affirmed our belief that gelato is the way to go. It is just so much tastier than ice cream. Unfortunately for me, they also have a pre-made base that they use for their product. The same one, in fact, that the folks in Grand Junction were using. Apparently it is unreasonable to think we would be able to make our own (at least that's what folks tell us). Our final stop was D'Ambrosio Gelateria, but by this time, my belly was telling me that I had eaten too much! Isaac and I didn't plan this research very well. We both ordered single scoops of ice cream at the first two locations (kiddie cups at Molly Moon's), but the scoops at these places were enormous! I had to pass on the third, but Isaac was a trooper and managed to get a taste. Never again! We had ice cream hangovers by the time we got into the car to return to my brother's place. We didn't get to speak to the owner or gelato maker at the last stop, so we're not really sure of their ingredients, but I'm going to guess they use the same base as the rest.

We ended our stay in Seattle with a nice dinner at Salty's with my brother. I felt that Isaac needed to get some seafood while we were here and they actually offered vegetarian fare. Today we'll pack up our things and head down for more family time (and more gelato) in Portland. Isaac's sister and her family live not far from Portland in Newberg, OR.

Oh yes, and we added more pics to the Picasa site, so click the link in the previous post to see a little of our Olympic NP trip.

Laundry Day!

Today we drove up through Montana to Missoula to stop at the Big Dipper Ice Cream shop (and do laundry). The Big Dipper had good ice cream, but once again, the definition of "homemade" was slightly different than what I expected. I guess I'm just old fashion, but I think that if you are going to call something "homemade" you shouldn't get your base delivered to you on a truck. We'll keep looking.

Anyway, I thought I would talk a bit about how its going living out of our truck. I'm attaching a few pics too.

So first things first. Isaac made a sweet little platform bed for us in the bed of the truck. The frame is welded steel with a plywood top. Under the platform, he made us some storage drawers. One drawer is shorter than the other to accommodate the cooler. In addition we have a separate "hidey hole" compartment toward the front of the bed accessible by two doors. We keep our clothes in the hidey hole and all our camping and play gear in the drawers. On top of the plywood we have a memory foam pad and our sleeping bags. Isaac also added some super efficient LED strip lights to the front and back, a converter and outlet for our computer to charge, and some adapters to charge our cell phones.

So how is it? Well the storage areas are working out really well. At first we had a little too much food, so stuffing everything in was quite a puzzle. Now that we have eaten much of it, we have no problems sliding the cooking/food draw in and out every day. The climbing, camping gear drawer is heavier and a little harder to slide, but still it works just fine. Getting to our clothes can be a pain. It is worse for me because I like to get up early and Isaac --not so much. So if I forgot to set out clothes for the next day (or for running in the morning) I am kind of stuck because the hidey hole is under his head. Once I recognized that though, I have been more prepared. Sleeping is extremely comfortable (I love memory foam!). The only problem is that it is really narrow up there. Getting in and out or changing clothes can be quite an exercise in contortionism. It is certainly not for the claustrophobic! The real problem is that once you're in, you don't really want to get out. We tend to sleep in a lot due to this fact. It is easier just to keep sleeping than to try to extract yourself! For me this is especially hard as my "delicate condition" makes is so I have to pee during the night --or at least early in the morning. What a drag to have to move around with a full bladder!

Other than that, I have to say, our set up is pretty sweet. It is great when we just stay in a campsite for one night not to have to set up a tent.

Well that's about it. Hope everyone is doing well. Next stop---Glacier NP!