Portland

I've had two absolutely beautiful days in Portland, and it's by far my favorite city so far on this trip, a little bit because of the weather (sun, a clear blue sky and 25-30 C), but also because it's just a really cool and beautiful place. The city is full of art galleries, flowers and beautiful, old houses, and it has a really laid back comfortable feeling to it.
Later today I'm taking the Greyhound bus (or maybe a train?) down to San Fransisco where I'll hook up with Marie again and her friend Belinda, and maybe go on adventures in another rental car!
:]

Fjell, strand og regnskog! Roadtripping around the Olympic Peninsula

After a day (or was it two?) at Sylvia's house, Marie and I set out for yet another adventure. With lots of help from our host, car reservations and enough (in backpacker standards) gourmet food to survive for a few days we headed west to drive around the Olympic Peninsula.
Here's a short summary.

DAY 1: Tacoma - Port Townsend
Not much to report, we made it painlessly to Port Townsend where we walked up and down the main street, enjoyed the scenery, had ice cream and hung out with the local (drunk) hippies for a little while before driving out to the hostel. We made it out there without hitting any deer, which at one point I was sure we would as they were everywhere. It's pretty cool though, we soon discovered it was like this all over the Olympic Peninsula, and they don't seem to be very afraid of people, so you can see them up close (like right outside your car).
The hostel was nice, though we got the feeling it could have been taken straight out of a thriller movie. The only ones there was the bald manager and an old man, but luckily I don't think any of them had intentions of killing us.

DAY 2: Port Townsend - Forks

Dungeness Spit, Port Angeles, Hurricane Ridge, Lake Crescent, wine, and an afro american police man in Forks (which according to him was pretty unusual).

Dungeness Spit

DAY 3:
Forks - Hoh Rain Forest - Ruby Beach - Ocean Shores - Aberdeen.
Sun, sun, sun. This day started out really cold, waking up in the car earlier than we'd woken up the past 3 months, but ended up being the most beautiful day on our trip. We drove up to the Hoh Rain forest, where we changed in to our "running clothes" and ran for about 6-7 miles (omtrent ei

mil) among HUGE trees in this amazingly green and old forest. The idea was to jump in the river when we got back to the parking lot, but we chickened out and ran in to the warm restrooms instead.
The day ended in Aberdeen, we took the long way there, along the coast and via Ocean Shores. The plan was to park somewhere in Aberdeen and sleep in the car again, but the city was full of drunk people (yelling or sleeping on the streets), so we drove on, found a rest area a few miles further east and fell asleep at once.

piccies!

We're at Sylvia's house southeast of Seattle, enjoying life and comfortable beds. It actually couldn't be better right now, she has three beautiful Greenland dogs, a cat, a chipmunk, three funny-looking cute alpakkas, and chickens and a climbing wall in the basement! We've been hanging out, planning a trip for me an Marie (we are renting a car and driving around the Olympic Peninsula), and earlier today we took the dogs for a walk in the woods.
Not much more to report from the evergreen state so far, but here's some pictures from the last weeks :]

EH?

Summing up the past week in British Columbia; SUN, Vancouver, Squamish, bouldering, camping, hiking, nutella, more coffee, climbers, more beautiful spring weather, stunning scenery, pikniks, even more coffee, nice canadians, good views.
We havn't really done much but hang out in the woods underneath the Stawamus Chief in Squamish, bouldering and eating bagels. One day we hiked up to the 2nd summit on the Chief, and the view up there was amazing. I'll try to upload some pictures soon.
We ended up having about 5 sunny days in Squamish, and one rainy day in Vancouver before going back to Seattle. Totto got on a plane back to Norway, and I met up with Marie who was also coming down from Vancouver. We went pub crawling (på fyrste paaskedag faktisk), and I got a free beer as my American birthday had just been the day before :]

Seattle; påskeegg, kaffe og heidøl!

I made it safely to Seattle, as did Totto, and for the past two days we have had more coffee than what's good for us. Starbucks' birthplace has coffee shops on every corner and it's hard not to drop in every now and then, especially as the coffee is really good! (Eg drakk sterk svart kaffe i gaar Marie, og likte det!).
Seattle is a really cool place, we have been lazily walking around the city, doing tourist stuff like smelling and enjoying the busy Pike Place Market, taking pictures and enjoying all the funkyness.
(I gaar kveld saag vi Monsters vs. Aliens i 3D, og der var det i folge Tot like stort oppmote som naar dei snurrar film i Heidalen).
We've seen the Fremont troll, and spent a few hours there today soaking up the sun and the good atmosphere. In Gas Works park people were flying kites, playing ball games, or laying around on the grass studying, reading, or just enjoying the beautiful view of downtown Seattle.
Tomorrow we're taking the train to Vancouver, and as long as the weather gods hold off the rain, the plan is Squamish and bouldering for a few days. Exciting! :D