Silver Cloud Inn Redmond

During a stroll along the waterfront this afternoon, a good friend asked me, "What are your goals for the trip?" It was a very reasonable and sincere question, one I had encountered a number of times in the past few weeks. Its a question I ask my traveling friends before they depart on their adventures. Nevertheless, I had yet to come up with a satisfying response--that is, until this afternoon when I told her this: my goal is to not have a goal. Once I ...

... Tracy's parents had taken the train out to B.C. from Ontario and we met up with them at a chalet owned by one of Tracy's cousins. It was a beautiful place and nice to spend a few days away from the Big Zeke (if you can believe it). Highlights of our stay in Whistler include the following: · Walking through Whistler village during Crankworx, which, per their website, is billed as the "most ground-breaking gravity fueled mountain bike festival in the ...

... it is ironic that this has been the most drama free journey I've ever taken. No illness, robbery, theft, delay (minor), or cancellation; I had more issues in South America and Europe. So many people were worried about safety and probably thought it was pretty naive of me to venture alone here. I found that the Lebanese, Jordanian, and Syrian folk all really want the same security of peace and safety. My conceptions ...

Day 29 Four weeks has passed now. The day was pretty. Temperature relatively high. My camera was still broken. It wouldn't fix itself over night like I had wished. The decision was hard, but it was easy. I have to get another one. When I get home, the old one might be fixable. I went to the Seattle Culture Center to scope it out and meet some people there but when I got there, I found out that they weren't open today. Because it's Father's Day? I dunno. We decided to go to the beach ...

We're finally getting to the last few days before departure. Already been on a couple of trips at REI, using up all possible coupons, dividends etc that we've collected in the last few months. I have some of the equipment from the last backpacking trip in ...

... true what we'd been told, nobody cared about any bum notes, everyone applauded and sang along...all in all a lot less tragic than we would have expected karaoke to have been. Kirsty and Sunny did Don't You Want Me Baby? by the Human League, and unfortunately, there was a fair while between her signing up and her singing in which she could get really nervous. Still, went pretty well. Back at James' place, he broke out the guitars and we had a bit of a jangle together ...

... Decided to stay & chill. Library for internet, Safeway for food - chicken dinner, broccoli & fruit for afters, delicious. Small pitch with a standing BBQ to cook on - not very easy but manageable. Bought 2 more walking poles for Bonnie $14. Bonnie walked in to a door but not harm done to door. We went for a spa on the camp 8-9pm where we met Larry & Kaye ( she was from a Cherokee family in South Dakota), we talked about Indian Nations & travel. They were travelling ...

... We cooked some killer berry cobbler. I asked Zeke if he would be my roaddog down to Northern Cali and he agreed. We left with the same 4 and I realized I had never been in a car with Huck. They dropped us off at a gas station and I was sad to see them go. We camped out by the tracks and drank eventually walking down to the fairgrounds to see if we could get work the next day. We decided to keep going on the next day and ...

... Lou's birthday yesterday so we treated ourselves to a proper tourist lunch (yes, the eating has started already) A place by the water that does a dish called the SeafoodFeast, proper American style they come along, give you a bib and a hammer each, then tip the biggest bucket of crab, prawns, clams and all other stuff in the middle of the table for you to wade through, fantastic. We then went for an afternoon ...

From wikipedia:
Mount Rainier is an active stratovolcano (also known as a composite volcano) in Pierce County, WA, located 54 miles (87 km) southeast of Seattle. It towers over the Cascade Range as the most prominent mountain in the contiguous United States and Cascade Vocanic Arc at 14,411 feet (4,392 m).

The mountain and the surrounding area are protected within Mt Rainier National Park. With 26 major ...