pictures!

(we go so crazy when we haven't had internet for a few days)

Here are a bunch of pictures from around Washington!

Picture 1: Our first campfire! We finally bought firewood from the Boy Scouts and made smores.


Picture 2: The seat cushion we threw away! The car had been smelling for a few days randomly, and we couldn't figure out why. Turns out the cushion Christina had been using to make her tall enough to drive was soaked in cat urine. Thank you my garage at home for holding both old cushions and ornery cats!


Picture 3: Christina in a tree at the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park, Washington.


Picture 4: Ruby Beach, Olympic National Park, WA. We had a picnic and cooked on the beach. It was fun!


Picture 5: Deer! At the top of Hurricane Ridge, also in Olympic Nat'l Park.


Picture 6: The view from Hurricane Ridge. We climbed a mountain to get this picture!


Picture 7: A tsunami warning sign from Dungeness, WA. Whoaaaaaa


Picture 8: Rita's house! We got to swim in a pool and stay in an adorable little guest house and have delicious dinner and hang out with Rita and her parents and her chickens and her dogs. It was pretty great, and you should all go to Peshastin, WA because it is very pretty.



There is more to come!

CATS!

So, off the highway just inside Oregon, we passed this sign that said "GREAT CATS WORLD PARK" on it. We pulled over right away and this is what we saw:

greetings from Montana

Who would have thought that it would take us till we got to Montana to find wireless internet again? So a lot of days, four states, and one time zone later we bring to you...a movie about crap you can do between San Fransisco and the Oregon border! More to come shortly, aren't you excited? I sure am!

Also

Because it wasn't awesome enough that Nini took us rafting and let us sleep in her tent, she also sent me the great pictures that they took of us rafting!








Many super thanks to Neeners! everyone should go out west! It's great!

becaue who knows when we'll have free wireless internet again

We're leaving Seattle today for the Olympic peninsula and must blog!

We have been staying in Nick's sister's godmother (Katherine)'s house which is lovely.


We did a lot of the Seattle touristy things. We saw the sunset from the top of the space needle!



We even went on the ridiculous ride in the park under the space needle that flings you around so you can see the skyline upside down and a hundred feet in the air!


The next day we went down to the market along the waterfront where dudes in waders throw giant fishes back and forth to the amusement of dozens of tourists with their cameras ready.


Then we took the water taxi across the sound to West Seattle, where we just sat around looking at regular Seattle and playing with the toys we won at the arcade.




Then Nick took me to the crab pot for birthday dinner! We got an ocean feast and I even got to blow out a candle.


All in all, a good time and a great birthday. Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes! 22 is cool so far.

rafting! (and some other stuff, bunnies, etc.)

So yesterday we went whitewater river rafting on the White Salmon river in beautiful Husum, WA.

The river looked like this:


and our guides looked like this:


Christina's friend Nini from high school and her boyfriend Chris! The river was lots of fun, and Christina went over that rapid in the picture holding on to the front of the raft like a cowgirl at a rodeo.

In more extra-niceness, Nini and Chris let us stay in their tent for the night, next to a lovely creek:


It looks suspiciously like our tent from REI, but is more comfy and more next to a scenic creek.

The tent was also near a bunny hole. Look!


On our way to Husum, we found the real Yale.


Har har har.

Oh yeah, and Christina went through a fast-food drive-thru for the first time ever. Look how excited she is!


We also saw a bunch of waterfalls on the way out of Husum, along the Historic Columbia River Gorge Highway, gorgeway, something like that. This one was nice:


And now, we're in Seattle!


Maybe there will be some sort of video about it...

Time to go look at the Space Needle!

p.s. It is Christina's birthday tomorrow, so if you forgot, you should email her presents.

California 1

Most of what we did after San Fransisco and before Oregon was drive around on the beautiful and windy California 1, so we made this sappy sappy sappy movie about it. All the exciting things we did on this stretch of road will be in another movie when we have another three hours to kill.

and a bonus

here's a little olde timey video from the arcade at the Winchester Mystery House.

San Francisco!

hey everyone, here's a little video about our big day out in San Fran.



The introduction song is from cousin/host par excellence Nina Jo Smith; you can buy her cd here.

wooo eugene is so great

days 6, 7, 8, and 9

Hello! We are in beautiful (ok, maybe beautiful isn't the right word. The prettiest part of Oregon so far has been the highway, no fooling) Eugene, Oregon, using the Days Inn FREE WIRELESS INET.


We have a lot to talk about. We went to San Fransisco and it was pretty awesome.


After that we went to a campsite that had more mosquitos/foot^3 than anywhere I've ever seen.


But the next night we went to the most beautiful campsite I have ever seen.


Did you know that some California State Parks have FREE WIRELESS INET? Well, we didn't go to one of those, but we did finish up our San Fransisco movie while we were camping that night. We are crossing our fingers that youtube will work this time, but no promises I'm afraid :(


After that we drove through sketchy-ville California at the very end of the 1. It was so sketchy that I accidentally helped a small child shoplift from the supermarket! We were in line to check out and the kid was reaching for a word-search book and couldn't reach it, so I picked it up for him because I am so tall. Then instead of thanking me and giving it to his dad to pay for it he just put it in his pocket!!!!! An 8 year old shoplifter!!!!! It made me sad.

My sunglasses broke

I broke my sunglasses :(

Here is a video about it.



I got new ones!

movie, days 3 and 4

So now we're on day 8 and are only posting movies from day 3 and 4, but don't blame us, blame the internet. This movie includes exciting footage from Los Osos, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, among other things. We realized that we didn't have any movie footage with Annie Lin in it, but she should have been in there somewhere too. Enjoy, and rest assured, there is more to come!

Pictures!

Greetings from Mendocino, CA!

Movies should be uploaded soon, but in the meantime, here are some pictures from a few days ago!

We camped out in Santa Cruz, and after a mosquitoful night, went to the Boardwalk!

Christina had her first corn dog ever


and won a prize at the smash a hammer really hard game.


After leaving Santa Cruz, we drove to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, which was less mysterious than advertised. I would call it the Winchester Ugly House With Restoration That Makes It Look Like a Fake.


It was sort of neat though, because the original Winchester Repeating Arms factory was in New Haven, and there were a few references to Mrs. Winchester's hometown.

we haven't forgot about you

we have THREE videos to upload, but you tube is being sucky and after two hours in a fancy shmancy wine country internet cafe, we have to give up and keep driving north. We'll try again tomorrow!

day 3, in pictures

The campsite that Annie recommended was pretty freakin' scenic. This was sunset at the beach 100 yards from our tent. prettttyyyyyyy


In the morning we went down and looked at the tidepools and saw starfish! amazing! and I touched an anemone in situ for the first time! No more aquarium for me, until I go to the Monterey Bay aquarium with Mike Chan in about an hour.




Then we went to the actual town where Annie Lin is from and had awesome lunch with her. There is this enormous ex-volcanic rock there! And this telescopy thingy doesn't turn far enough for you to see it. bitches.


Then we drove to Hearst Castle to look at rich people's things.


just kidding, that one's Nit Wit Ridge, the "poor man's Hearst Castle" or something.

Anyway, here's real Hearst Castle, pretty freakin' ridiculous.




When we were leaving we didn't listen to the GPS, and instead of getting lost we got the most scenic drive in the whole world and to our destination an hour sooner than we expected!


Then we ate at the restaurant next to THE WORLD'S LARGEST ARTICHOKE. This caused us some campsite problems, but that's for another post.


We also drove through a town that has the same name as my sister, shipyard.