We start at the very beginning...

  Everett, Washington, United States
Friday, July 27, 2007

...a very good place to start :)

We had a wonderful four night layover at our friends' G and B recently completed country home north of Seattle.

G and B's Dream home

 It was a nice break to be in one place for a few days. 



It was also great fun to turn home improvements into a unified diversion.

G and B after our day raising the blinds

We never did make it into Seattle.  After weeks of leisurely driving two lane roads* we just did not want to face traffic jams and such. 





Everett - the beginning.
During our layover we did go to the little city of Everett at the western end of US-2. 

Here we are at the water's edge of Everrett

We had our photo taken with Puget Sound in the background and spent some pleasant time in conversation with locals enjoying the day. 

Everett had a small demonstration/counter demonstration going on at the main downtown square.  "Impeach George Bush" on one side and "Support the Troops" on the other.  Not sure why they seemed so disagreeable to one another; seems like booting W would support the troops if you forget about Cheney.





Snohomish.

Snohomish historic house

 
We also got the town of Snohomish and looked at an array of well preserved late 19th and early 20th century homes in all styles; craftsman, Victorian painted lady, Queen Anne, etc.








Coffee.

Goodbye, lousy cappacino maker!

We stopped at the house wares department of the local Target before we actually hopped onto US-2.  Our unsuccessful mission was to pick up a plain old stove top espresso pot for use on the camp stove.  So far our greatest disappointment on this trip (from this you may surmise that things are actually going pretty well) has been the failure of a recently purchased, fancy schmancy, makes its own foam, stove top cappuccino pot. 

After weeks of boilovers, foam explosions and rocketing hardware bits, we gave up and deep sixed our Bialletti Mukka Express.  These things do not work satisfactorily.  If you are considering one, just move along quietly.





Meanwhile, without our own set up we are forced to make stops at the ubiquitous coffee shacks. 
Will Idaho and Montana be as caffeine friendly? 
Only time will tell.