Fiyaaahh!


"Fiyaaahh!"
translation "fire!"    -Beth, Salt Lake City UT
















Seattle Update!

OK, in my previous post I wrote that Seattle was not all that interesting. I have to amend that. This morning I woke up and went for a run around the city. The sun was up but had not yet peeked from behind the cities tall, but not too tall buildings. I ran around the hotel to the sculpture park and saw some great public art, the sci-fi museum building which is a giant sculpture in itself and of coarse the space needle. I ran the pier by coffee shops and fish markets and then up the hills back into the heart of the city. I guess a city is contrast. A contrast between the nature and wild beauty that surrounds its steel and concrete buildings and of the people that fill its streets. I'm glad I gave this town a second look, but its time to move on and into the amazing rain forests of Olympic National Park. I'd better get my rain coat!

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

Colorado Album



http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyjoyashman/ColoradoAndTheRockies?authkey=Gv1sRgCPTH5sOB8rfJ7AE#

UTAH

UTAH is exciting.  Day one we went out for delicious burritos, sneakily hijacked firewood, purchased some premium alcoholic beverages & tried to sleep outside for the whole night (FAILED due to chilliness). Early yesterday we got our national park pass- hiked up, around and through the arches (just behind a large family of mormons)--we earned our patches.  There is a great fossil shop here, we took advantage of their parking lot to make a fabulous mexican lunch.  Made our way to the local thrift shop after && spent more money than we should have.  Who can resist a belt with cats all over it?  Not me. Spent a good couple of hours in the afternoon at the cafes in town to go through pictures, the coffee is not nearly as spectacular here as it was in Boulder.  Always comforting regardless. We celebrated HALLOWEEN by driving out to Canyonland, slightly sketchy because of the lack of anyone or anything within 30 miles, a great way to celebrate a spooky holiday though. I wore a skeleton suit and Ashley got a weird wooden cat mask with the name 'Hayden' scribbled on the back (cute!<3).  Just this morning we watched the sun come up over the canyons.  It was pretty majestic, lacked the pegasus I hoped for- I think it might be too cold here.      

------------------------------>Beth

ViewMaster



"It's like being inside my childhood viewmaster."  -beth

Moab, Ut

Bird.



"Bird. It's fun."   -jason