awesome

We have spent one rainy day in Eugene. It is good to come back to a place you have been before, when you are traveling. I start to feel tired going to a new place every day trying to figure out where to sleep, where to eat, where to go next,… Don’t get me wrong, all is still fine here and were are off to new adventures, but well I guess I look forward to go home, soon.

I met my Professor and a collaborator from my time at the university, and Mosby the cat. It was good to see these people after such a long time. There are so many little things you forget about people you haven’t seen for a long time.

Yesterday I tried to show Mr. K. Eugene. But I think he was a bit disappointed. Well there is not so much to see, I must admit. No offense, there are a few nice places, but not Eugene downtown. Finally, we went for a pice of cake to Sweet Life. I have waited 5 years for this moment. They still make the best cake!

It is autumn here. The leaves turn yellow and red and the temperature has dropped. In hope to get a last bit of summer, we drove all the way to Ashland today. This is in Southern Oregon at the Californian border. The vegetation has changed a lot, it’s drier and sunny. But the air is cold. From here we will cross the Cascade Mountains and go back to Portland through eastern Oregon. A burning desire of mine!

From Portland we have traveled down the Coast to Eugene. I just love this misty coast and we were really lucky with the weather. Two days full of sunshine! I have already been to part of the coast but these lovely endless dunes were new to me. And we had them to our own.

We have arrived in Eugene, where I spent four month working on my master thesis. This was 5 years ago. At lot is still the same. But we discovered some new cool places. Unfortunately the weather was a bit wet today, but it’s supposed to be nice tomorrow.

I have finally done it! I went to a Yoga class in Portland. After 5 weeks doing nothing really. I don’t count walking between 10’000 and 20’000 steps a day. It was a great Hatha Yoga class with 12 people. The class was for all levels but I was surprised that I have not become as stiff as a stick yet!

I think we were very lucky with the weather in Seattle. It was only raining half of the time. The owner of the boat we lived on called the weather interesting. I guess it should always be raining, this time of the year.

On Thursday we took the train from Seattle to Portland. It took 3 hours and 40 minutes. I thought it would be a long train ride, because by that time you can cross Switzerland diagonally. But the train ride was short. Maybe we have developed a different feeling of time. A girl sitting behind us was constantly on the phone trying to get some information or transaction done. I didn’t get it. But by the end we reached Portland we new all her personal details.

It feels good to be back in Oregon. Portland is treating us well with blue sky sunshine and the temperature is back in the 70’s now. So far we have wandered around in the city, checking out coffee shops, stores and eating lunch in a park in the sun.

We have arrived in Seattle and have delivered back Sophia our car. We will live on a sail boat for the next three days. It should be raining all day but the sun was here for most of the time. We love it!

After bad luck both at Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier, (that was the view):

(Pic by Mr. K.)

we spent a wonderful sunny evening at one of the most beautiful campsites so far. Very small, nice people, and a wonderful lake. They don’t have WIFI, and therefore not too many guest go there. Internet seems to be a standard when you go camping nowadays. Also the big flatscreen is a must.

We are slowly moving north again and will have to give back Sophia next Monday and then spend some days in Seattle, before going to Portland and the lovely Oregon!

It has been raining a lot in the last few days. Not so much fun in a car which is not totally water proof. We’re trying to do the best and hope for the sun to return.

We have moved south to Mount St. Helens. The big volcano that erupted 30 years ago. We visited a lava tube today, which was formed 2000 years ago. It was very cold inside and the water was dripping from the roof. The tube was as high that you could drive through with an rv.

Basically it’s full of mushrooms here. The red fly amanita (Amanita muscaria) was everywhere. This is actually not only coffee land but also mushroom and lichen land!

Unfortunately we only got a little glimpse of Mount St. Helens. She is covered in clouds, but the snowy flank we could see for 10 seconds looked very impressive. Please come back sun!

It should have been raining today, but the sun was shining and it is still around 70° (very funny I know, it’s above 20°C). We enjoy everyday the weather man is wrong.

At the moment we are in Olympia the capital of Washington. Someone once said „Olympia is the worst city of the United States!“. I would not say that, but there is really not much going on here. However, suddenly we saw a hummingbird (Stellula calliope) at the harbor, drinking on some red flowers. And this changed my view of the city immediately.

Also we visited the Olympia Coffee Roasting Co today. They are roasting coffee and we enjoyed it very much. Coffee is one of the reasons we actually went to this part of the world. And we are getting closer and closer to Coffee Land, Seattle and Portland!

We have moved to the southern end of the Olympic Peninsula to a town called Hoquiam. On the way we passed the beautiful Lake Quinault. Only people from the Quinault Tribe are allowed to fish, because they are concerned about pollution and a decline in salmon population.

Today we went to Westport, a fisher village 20 miles from Hoquiam. I’m already talking in miles! I got fish and chips and we had the most decent cappuccino since we left Vancouver.

We have left Port Angeles behind and driven west towards the coast. We past Forks with the Twilight mania and found some very remote beaches. The waves were pretty high and did not invite for swimming. Last night we parked our Camper facing the ocean. It got cold at night but in the morning we could watch the waves from our bed:-)

I used the tripod to take the pictures from the sunset and was amazed how much more color you can get with a longer exposure.