Pacific Northwest

We arrived in Seattle to find out that our hostel was far outside of town in the north-west. About six miles from town. This was going to play havoc with our drinking. Though by this point I was dying miserably. We arrived at seaview drive and it had a breathtaking view over to the mountains in Olympic Park (This is the world's only moderate climate rainforest and sadly we would not be able to visit it due to my incessant chatting with our hostel buddies. Will have to come back up here as we also missed Crater Lake and Lake Tahoe on the way south). It had proved too ambitious an itinerary to really get to know these areas, but had given us a tantalising taster of what could be on offer when we return. The owner Lee was just cycling up behind us when we arrived and welcomed us in. It was an awesome little hostel that was more like a house. It was completely open plan which added to the communal feeling and everybody who stayed there that we met was really cool. He introduced me to a cute Polish girl from New York called Lenka who I had noticed on our drive up. Ollie went to sort stuff out, we decided to book in for an extra night and I got chatting with Lenka about working in New York and how she wanted to move to Seattle. Ollie interrupted our revelry and we set off in to town, him complaining that I was flirting too much again. Tsk. I just love talking too much.

We started the long walk by heading to the locks. Everyone seemed amazed by them as I don't think they have many in the States and they were cool, but like giant versions of our canal locks. They also had a viewing platform under the river where you could watch the salmon swimming upstream. Now that really was cool. We carried on our long walk and stopped into a coffee shop. Having purhcased a famous Seattle coffee we got chatting with the guy there about charity, travel and literature. Shit it felt good to be back in the States with humans who have the time of day for people again. That would only last until we got to California. We passed a statue of a giant man hammering nothing in particular. Like Big Chicken. Ollie immediately loved Seattle. We were going to just miss MSTRKRFT and Talib Kweli, the same way we had missed Dan Le Sac vs Scroobious Pip in Austin, ZZ Top and Black Keys in Nashville and Rage Against the Machines free gig in Denver for the Democratic Convention. We stopped in a blues/jazz bar after wandering all over town and got some great Cajun food and some good conversation. I was tired as the virus took effect and we watched a bit the Ravens v Steelers in a few bars and headed out into some of the suburbs. So far Seattle was growing on me well.

The next day we got up and I got chatting with an Aussie girl at breakfast and then with another of the owners who was a Bihai. He explained his religion and he was from Nebraska so we were swapping travel stories like two old men would swap war stories. Neither of us liked LA, but neither had all bar one of the people we had met so far. Ollie remained optimistic and was tired of me bitching the place all the time. I showed the guy from Nebraska the Lonely Planet Adventure Travel Book and he recommended a hairdressers. The Aussie girl had also mentioned Woofing (where you get to live for free if you volunteer to work on some organic project of some kind). Sounded good for when I was desperate. We headed round to the hairdressers where it was cut by some demonic fratboys. They told us that when we were in Portland we should go to a striclub where you get steak with your pussy. I figured our host Amanda may not quite go for that but Ollie wanted to try. They also told us of the masive weed harvest that was currently going on in Acadia, but we didn't manage to make it there as Ollie was concerned about Yosemite and our time. On the plus side they loved our travel plans and refused to accept a tip because I needed it more than them. Friendliness really is currency over here.

We headed into the far leftist district of Fremont where we were able to get authentic Indian food. Ollie, finally sated with an Indian was beginning to move Settle up the list. It would make number five in mine. The rest of Fremont made it number one for him easily. They have a cold war era statue of Lenin that someone brought back from Slovakia and is now for sale while propping up a street corner. They have a giant rocket coming out of the side of a building and around the corner from that is an art deco house like a fucked up Gaudi. Round still another corner is a statue of 5 people waiting for a bus in concrete. To protest the closing of a local rail line all the people have hands coming out of their heads and the mayor objected so his face is now that of the dog. The absolute pinnacle however is under one of the bridges. Hobos used to camp there so artists were commisioned to build a work. The winner built a giant concrete troll devouring a real volkswagen beetle. For once one of these thing exceeded its hype. It was truly impressive. Ollie was in love with the city and around us they seemed to be filming a commercial for women's sportswear. One thing I noticed about the coasts. There are so many visible tramps compared to the centre (Austin excepted). In Vancouver there were hundreds fighting over supermarket trolleys and soups. After Fremont we drove into the centre and climbed the tower there. It gave great views of a pretty city. We saw the new art deco library which is very cool and found a concrete statue of Jimi Hendrix (he was born there apparently). We even found time for some mini golf, but this time I battered Ollie because it was more akin to actual golf greens rather than concrete weirdness.

Dropping the car back at the hostel we bumped into an Aussie girl named Megan who was sailing home via the Pacific and had just bought a boat out in the harbour. A Dutch guy named Roy was also there (cool dude, modelled his hair on Curt Cobain and was there because of him, but was actually staying up in Canada). He had travelled Australia in a Scooby Doo van and the smell of my feet reminded him of the van. That wasn't good on the whole lol. Megan invited us to drink on her boat but had to go get a haircut. The three of us boarded the boat and drank out in the harbour. We were slightly suspicious that this wasn't Megan's boat at all and that we were being set up. Still we drank and had a laugh for two hours and with no sign of Megan and the weather turning cold, we headed into town for a drink. We found a bar with a pool table and an impossible quiz (like the one in Memphis). Then Megan joined us with her friend Tiffany. They came in briefly and then had to leave. Very random. It disappointed Roy as he quite liked Tiffany. Blondes do nothing for me and I was dying, so I really wasn't too bothered. We headed back to the hostel and joined some randoms in the basement to watch the Boondock Saints which is quite a good film.

In the morning we got sucked into a giant conversation with a guy from LA who agreed it had no soul. He told us of when he saw someone ran over and noone stopped to help. A young guy named Alex was thumbing through my Lonely Planet and gave us some tips for San Fran. There was another Canadian guy and we joked and chatted away for some time. The Bihai guy joined us again and we had a good breakfast before heading out a little later than planned., That hostel was easily the best hostel I had ever stayed in. Too cool. We stopped off in the Washington state capital of Olympia for lunch and had a Jack in the Box. The Jack character had a sinister bobble head and reminded me of the clown IT. Surely he must scare the shit out of little children. Look him up and tell me the photos of him hovering over that bed aren't eery creepy. We stopped off at Mt St Helens on the way south and saw the side of the mountain that had been blown off. We watched a ranger film and read some of the stories of people there. One guy had been close in and commentating from his van, when he realised it was coming in heavy and then just radio silence. Another four loggers had been blasted by the hot air and had their skin scalded off. They struggled on, with one dying in the wilderness and another found on a log after they had wandered off. He died as well. One other died when they were found by a helicopter and the fourth survived with tremendous burns. Really tragic story and impressive mountain.

We eventually arrived in Portland and had a look around the city in the early evening. It seemed really pretty and we had heard about the nightlife and live music scene there so it seemed a shame we would only have one night there. Eventually we made it to Amanda's apartment which she shared with Caitlin. They were watching CNN and we had some great dried fruit whilc discussing life in general. Both had been students in Flagstaff and said we should have seen it. Damn old man. Amanda told us how she wanted to build little models of things for a living and we joked about making coffee tables with mini coffee tables on them. Most who know me well, know how these conversation go. Everyone else thinks I am probably nuts but they are such good fun. We found wrestling man on couchsurfing so I could show Amanda and she told us about the swingers she knew who had 'sexy parties' and had once tried to start one at her house with massages, drinking and smoking. Sounded like Nashville lol. Anyway she had managed to sidestep the weirdness and forbidden them from hosting sexy parties in her place. It was a good night, but the girls had to turf in for work. We got some sleep and in the morning awoke to find out that Ollie had left his bank card in Seattle (The bank informed him they are torn up). I blame the inconsistency as some Yankee machines take your card, some don't. Gets very confusing. We also found we had our first parking ticket. Good day so far. We had lunch in Eugene, Oregon (the State capital) and paid the fine. There was a weird statue to the Japanese American victims of American internment camps during World War II that looked a little creepy. Onwards to California and the last leg of the US section.