Red Lion Hotel Olympia

... is so calm and flat it could be a lake. It is the southeastern tip of the Strait, and a curious seal pokes its head out of the water to welcome us. There are oyster shells scattered on the rocky beach, but alas - the shellfish season has just closed so there will be no digging for clams for us. It is damp and smells familiar, we haven't been this close to the ocean in ages!

... answer. I've spent some time thinking about what this choice at this point in my life means. I can't really call this a coming of age adventure anymore. I'm beyond that I think, plus I took about four of those already. I've considered the thought of midlife crisis, but I don't feel a crisis, I'm not feeling the end of my life coming any more than any other time in my life. I guess the best answer I can give to that question is plain. I am a traveler. I started my ...

... not for flavor of it: I'm really missing my Daniel Joy. Daniel is my coffee-drinking buddy, among other things. We consume coffee or some form of it daily and we prefer it with pastries. I like to find out different (awesome) places to have coffee and pastries and then take Daniel along. He's such a good sport at this with me. We might make great Brits if we had a pallet more inclined toward tea...and crumpets, though I'm not ...

... scale." Bill 11.18.08 Steph: "Am I a ski-R-ggggggrrrl?" Bill: "No." Steph: "I'm NOT? Why not?" Bill: "Because you are wearing a pashmina." 11.25.08 "It's sorta like...an elderly Stevie Nicks?" Bill, describing my "look". HUH? 11.25.08 "Pink stuff YOK." Bill, mourning the asbence of this classic Innis family dish at Thanksgiving. (YOK means NONE in Turkish, not yuck in English.) 11.26.08 "The word for mouse in German is....uhhhhh....MAUS?" Bill. 11.29.08

... a couple of Brats for lunch. We were weirded out long enough, and set off toward Steven's pass. One of my favorite scenic drives was enveloped by a thick fog, but we stopped and took some pictures anyway. Our last stop before getting into the city was at Wallace Falls just outside Monroe. We got out and took a "hike" (a half-hour walk on well kept paths) through the rainforest. If you have never scene the rainforests ...

Seattle...now before i came here i knew nothing about the place apart from the fact that they made a movie here called "sleepless in Seattle". Had no idea what to expect... Our first impressions were not great as the greyhound station is always in the dodgy area of town, but by the time we had got to the hostel our opinion had changed. The hostel was just off the waterfront, and in a great area of town. However, the hostel itself was interesting!!!! They are in the ...

... meadows with the Elk roaming around. The Redwoods are spectacular, with some of them well over 300ft high we both had cricked necks by the end. As we had had quite a lazy time of it we decided to head into Crater Lake NP to get a good couple of hikes in. However as we got closer and closer more and more snow appeared on the ground. I reckoned it was just where they had sno plowed the roads leaving deep piles by the side, however when we asked at the entrace if we ...

... details about Vietnam. Since I've been back, I've heard from several people that they had a hard time keeping up with our blog because I tended to be so verbose. So, I'll just let the photos do the talking. The photos that I have, that is. Unfortunately, I don't have very many photos from Vietnam ...

... it is incredibly frustrating, and at others, its fun to figure out a puzzle, its interesting to imagine this inner world that she lives in, and its exciting to get a laugh from here everyonce in a while. Well, being the only female leader on this trip, I was the one who has to take care of her along with all the burdens of deciphering her code. Every night, I try my best to accomdate and get very frustrated inbetween taking ...