Seattle.

From around 1800 to June 1866, what is now known as the U.S. State of Washington was the territory of the prominent Chief Sealth or more commonly, Chief Seattle. Seattle, in the "Evergreen State" is where we four find ourselves on this leg of our trip around the country. I am actually writing this entry from the warmth and comfort of our FREE hotel room in downtown. The space needle, Seattles most recognizable landmark stands to our north, the pacific ocean to our west. The monumental Mount Rainer looms in the south and miles and miles of rugged forest to our east. The city itself is an oasis of urbanism in a otherwise wild and natural state. Everything that I have seen of this state is beautiful. Oh, did I mention the FREE HOTEL!



We pulled in to town at around 1:00 p.m. and checked in. In need of showers and soft beds, we eagerly made our way to our second floor room. In no time we found ourselves in the workout room (a van can feel very stuffy after a while, we needed to move!). A little sweat and 30 minutes later we jumped into the 70+ degree pool until one-by-one we took turns taking extra long hot showers. Life is good.


Honestly, Seattle itself is rather uninteresting to me. A lot of overpriced retail stores and trendy restaurants line most streets. The most fun I have had has been walking around looking for a good meal and spotting locations that I remember from various WTO protest videos. I laughed a little inside as I walked by Nike Town!


For now we are all loving our soft warm beds, happy to know that tonight at least, we will not need to wake up at 2:30 a.m. to start the van and blast the heat to stay warm. After a good nights sleep and a honest attempt at eating all of the free breakfast, we will hit a few thrift stores and then make our way to Olympic National Park to see the rain forest and camp in Forks. More Later.

-Jason