Day 11 - Portland

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Today was a pretty chillaxed day. We slept kind of late and did some much-needed laundry before heading into the city after lunch.

We started with a trip to the Rose Test Garden and Japanese Garden. Portland is known as the City of Roses, which is obvious when you're in the Rose Test Garden. It's a very nice park. Next we headed into the Japanese Garden. This was a bigger slightly nicer version of the Tea Garden in San Francisco. Although, one Tea Garden is enough for a trip like this, so we didn't spend too much time in this place, even though it was a relaxing environment.












In fact, Portland is a very green city and seems like it would be a nice place to live. It's big enough to feel like a real city, but small enough to be easy to get around and it doesn't feel oppressively crowded. We spent a little time wandering through Pioneer Square, which is basically a nice mall in the center of the city. We also saw the Portland building and the statue of Portlandia, which is the second largest bronze statue in the United States, behind the Statue of Liberty. Apparently this building is renowned for being the first major postmodern building in a downtown area.

Tomorrow, we start the long drive to Glacier National Park in Montana. In fact, tomorrow might be the first full day of driving without actually reaching the destination. Although, we do have a couple scenic stops along the way in Mt. Hood and Lake Coeur D'Alene in Idaho. After nearly two weeks on the road, I'm a little fatigued, so I'm glad we had today to kind of recharge before the long drive.

Day 10 - Crater Lake

Friday, June 15, 2007

We put Medford behind us at about 9:30 this morning as we headed for Crater Lake. After driving through the dense, green forests on the way to the park for about 60 miles, we started to see snow on the ground. At first, I suspected they were just isolated patches, but there turned out to be quite a bit of snow, so much so that the eastern half of the park was closed. This was disappointing, because it meant we couldn't climb Mount Scott -- the highest peak in the park -- or take the boat ride to Wizard Island. However, the disappointment didn't last long.

Crater Lake is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful sights I have ever seen. It is hard to imagine a more calming sight than an almost totally still, perfectly blue lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains and vibrant green trees.

After staring out at the lake for a little while, we had dinner at the Crater Lake Lodge. This is a quant little hotel right on the rim of the crater, with spectacular views. I'd really love to stay here one day. It's hard to imagine a more relaxing location.

Once lunch was over, we headed out for two short hikes. The first was about a 2.5 mile round trip on the Garfield Peak trail. The path to the summit was snowed over; so, after crossing one snow field on our way to a point overlooking the Phantom Ship (a rock formation rising out of the lake), we headed back to the Lodge area.

Next, we hiked over to a rocky outcropping with a beautiful view of the entire lake. We sat here for probably half an hour and I think it was probably one of the best moments of my whole life. Crater Lake more than met my expectations.

After leaving the park, we decided to push for Portland, and that's where we are now. We'll be staying here tomorrow night as well and hopefully having a chance to relax after covering a lot of miles in the last two days.

Day 9 - Redwood National Park

Thursday, June 14, 2007

We started the day with an hour-long drive up to Redwoods National Park. This is an amazingly lush forest, especially compared to the Southern California photos I’m used to. There’s so much moisture in the air, which is key to these trees’ habitat. Like the Sequoias, these trees are strikingly big. We did a 2.5 mile hike through one of the groves, and found a dead tree that was somehow hollowed out all the way to the top, like looking up into a chimney. Also, at the trailhead, we saw about ten elk. These things are huge! Males weigh up to 1000 lbs., according to the rangers we spoke to, who were infinitely more helpful than the Yosemite backcountry rangers.

After driving north to the town of Klamath, we stopped at a privately owned redwood grove that was a little too touristified for my taste. The highlight, however, was a cable car ride to an ~800’ summit overlooking the ocean and the forest. “Neat” is probably the right word to describe it. Exiting the park, we passed some nice coastal scenery, with craggy rocks jutting up from the waves.

I’ve been traveling in California for nine days; but, today we finally entered Oregon. We stopped in Medford for dinner, which was an utter disaster. First, we tried Abby’s pizza. The pizza was totally wrong and equally disgusting. Next, we stopped at some fish restaurant, where the manager told us they had plenty of vegetarian dishes. Of course, what he meant was that they would take the meat out of any of the pasta dishes on the menu. This was nothing compared to what was to come. At a Denny’s clone called Shari’s, I ordered some kind of Western BBQ burger, with a garden patty substituted for the beef. Of course, I guess I should’ve also mentioned I didn’t really need the three strips of bacon on top of it! I mean, why would you put bacon on a veggie burger? Why!?

I’ll be glad to brush the Medford dust off my feet tomorrow morning when we head up to Crater Lake. I’ve been looking forward to this park for a while, so hopefully it’ll live up to what I have pictured.

Day 8 - Golden Gate & Avenue of the Giants

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Today was mostly a travel day. We started out by filling up on a huge complimentary breakfast at the hotel before heading toward the Golden Gate Bridge. On the way, we took a detour down what’s known as the world’s most crooked road. Well, it was. In fact, the hills in San Francisco are steeper than anything I’ve driven in the mountains so far.

After driving aimlessly through the Golden Gate National Recreation Area for a little while, we made our way over the bridge. It was kind of an exciting moment. We stopped on the other side for a little while to take some pictures and to walk a little ways on the bridge. The views of the city and Bay there are pretty spectacular.

Once we’d left San Francisco, we started the long drive north. First we passed through Wine Country. The scenery’s not bad, but since wine is about the least interesting thing in the world to me, we didn’t stop anywhere. Afterwards, we started to get into big tree territory, riding up the Avenue of the Giants. This should just be a small taste of what we’ll see tomorrow in Redwoods National Park.

One of the highlights of the day was a stop at some little tourist trap place called Confusion Hill. It was built around the premise that gravity or Earth’s magnetic field is distorted at that point or some nonsense. It’s basically a bunch of exhibits where you’re disoriented. There are a few spots where when two people stand across from each other, one’s taller, but when they switch, the other is taller. There’s also a house built at an angle that gives some weird photo opportunities.

We stopped for the night in Eureka, which is actually a pretty cool place. After dinner at a little Italian place that turned out to be really good, we went to see Knocked Up, which was also really good. I haven’t laughed that hard at a movie in a while – I was pretty surprised.

Day 7 - Alcatraz & San Francisco

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

We started this morning with a 9:00 departure for Alcatraz Island. The boat ride over treated us to some nice views of the Bay and the city. Arriving on Alcatraz, it's kind of surprising to see that the island is kind of beautiful. There are a lot of different species of plants there and tons of seabirds. Inside, however, is a different story. While the guides were instructing us where to go, I commented that I felt I really had to follow their instructions to the letter, or I would get in some kind of trouble. I guess I was already broken.

Alcatraz is really a terrifying place. Just imagining what it would've been like to be locked up there, with little to no prospect of leaving is the kind of thing I have nightmares about already, so this probably won't help.







After our time on the inside, we had lunch at a place called Tarantino's, with a great view of the Bay and of the Golden Gate Bridge. After all this, I was starting to think that San Francisco was a pretty great city. Little did I know, something was about to change my opinion of the city forever.

After mulling over our options, we decided to head to Golden Gate Park to check out the Japanese Tea Garden and the bison (hopefully). We rode one o fthe historic cable cars down to Union Square, which was another great-looking spot. Then, however, we stepped into Bum Territory. It started with the usual bum approaches, which we ignored as basically anyone would. But while I was looking at the map, a bum came up and started really getting in our faces and then started pounding his fist into his hand right next to my head. I wasn't really paying attention before that, but that was enough to make us decide it was time to start moving. We got on the 71 bus toward Haight-Ashbury, which proceded to pick up a revolving collection of bums, drunks and lunatics. By the time we reached the park, I felt I needed a shower and maybe a de-lousing.














The park was nice, but there's a lot of construction there. We stopped for some tea in the Japanese Tea Garden, which was a really nice spot. I was excited to see the bison, but apparently they herd them up and hide them away for the night at 5:00, so we missed them. Anyway, hopefully we'll be seeing plenty of big animals in Yellowstone.

We headed back to the South Bay (nice) area after this. We spent some time in what seemed to be the financial district, which is also very nice. We had dinner at an Indian placed called Gaylord. I don't think it's associated with the one in L.A., but it did prompt me to have a weird "leaving L.A." moment. After taking my first sips of Taj Mahal, I started thinking it would be cool to hang out in Gaylord's bar when I get back to L.A. Then I caught myself and realized that's not happening. Anyway.... Agent Orange ordered his Kofta extra hot, saying, "I know I'm an American, but I can handle it." Well, they gave him what he wanted. I took one bit and broke a sweat. To his credit, he finished most of it. That's some of the hottest stuff I've ever put in my mouth.

All in all, I like the city quite a bit, just stay off the bus. Tomorrow, we'll be checking out the Golden Gate Bridge and then heading up through Napa Valley on our way to Redwoods National Park. It's been fun to be in the city for a few days; but I'm excited about getting back out on the open road.

Day 6 - Whale Watching and S.F. Giants

Monday, June 11, 2007

I started today by throwing everything into the car and heading down to Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey to head out on a whale watching cruise. I should also mention that I was dressed like the Gordon's Fisherman. The boat eased out of the harbor, past the same group of Sea Lions that I saw yesterday, and out into the ocean. The water was a little rough, but just enough to be exciting.

About 30 minutes into the trip, the captain announced that some whales were spotted just out on our starboard side. Then, all of a sudden, they came out of the water right next to us, surprising even the captain. It's pretty amazing seeing these animals up close. Almost like clockwork, they would swim near the surface for about two minutes, then dive for five minutes before surfacing again. Each time they dove, they would raise their tales in the air before descending. At one point, they rose up headfirst, filtering fish from the water.

Aside from the whales, it was nice being out on the water in Monterey. For one woman, however, it wasn't so nice. She rushed to the edge of the boat and vomitted over the side right in front of me. She apologized, but it didn't really bother me. In fact, I thought about taking a picture.

After the cruise, I drove up to San Francisco where I caught a quick nap in the cell phone waiting lot before Agent Orange arrived. We headed to our hotel and took a quick stroll around Fisherman's Wharf (making it my second Fisherman's Wharf of the day). After a quick stop in a magic shop where we saw a few demonstrations, we decided to head over to AT&T park and catch the Giants game. This is a new park and it's really nice. I'm not a huge baseball fan, but it was still a nice place to hang out. Bonds hit a home run, so that was pretty cool.

Day 5 - Monterey Bay Aquarium & Cannery Row

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Today was the most relaxed day of the trip so far (or "chillaxed" as I heard some young folks saying in Yosemite). After another fine continental breakfast -- this time from Howard Johnson -- I headed over to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The design of the aquarium is very interesting; but, I found the exhibits to be a little lacking compared to what I've seen at Long Beach (my favorite), Charleston, and Chicago. I love otters, so I was excited to see their extensive otter display, but even this was a little disappointing. The highlight had to be the various displays of jellyfish. They do a great job of showcasing the animals in unique displays and with great lighting. Presentation is really this aquarium's strength.

I also attended a brief presentation discussing jellyfish, which was pretty interesting. The only problem -- and this applies to this aquarium in general -- it was a little too child-oriented. Almost all of the questions came from kids, such as "What's the biggest jellyfish?", "How old is the oldest jellyfish?" and "What's the most poisonous jellyfish?" I guess that's what I get for going on a weekend. Turns out the answer to that last question is the Box Jellyfish of Australia, which carries enough venom to kill 32 people. I only wish Karl Pilkington had been there to ask, "What's he so mad about?" On that same note, I wish I could've found an "educator" to explain to me why Octopuses are always trying to get into jars.

Of course, the most ridiculous behavior I saw came from an adult. One woman was actually tapping on the glass of the jellyfish tank. Now, I have to ask: just what was she expecting? It's annoying enough when people tap the glass of a fish tank; but, at least you know that they're trying to get the fish to look at them. A jellyfish has no eyes. What's it going to do? There was also the man who was ahead of me in line to check out in the cafeteria who, after learning that there were no drink cup lids or straws for environment reasons, blurted out, "Save the fish!" and then laughed and glanced over at me as if A.) he had made a joke and B.) it was OK for him to look at me.

I also happened to be standing next to a tall nerd and his wife and kids for a while. For a minute I thought I had stepped into a time machine. I could totally see that being me in ten years, explaining to my 7 year-old kids the mating cycle of a parrotfish. Honestly, it doesn't sound that bad. Although, this was not nearly as sweet as the last time I traveled through time and saw an overweight white guy and a persian guy rolling through Beverly Hills in a Benz, puffing on cigars (obviously, Future Rashad and Future Kevin, grown fat with success).

I ended up leaving the aquarium sooner than I had planned and decided to wander around Cannery Row and Fisherman's Wharf. It's a really beautiful area down there, even if it is basically a tourist trap. I could see it being a nice place to retire. At the end of the pier at Cannery Row there was a big group of Sea Lions sunning themselves on the rocks. Frankly, that was cooler than anything I saw at the aquarium. I never realized just how noisy these animals are! They're also pretty fun to watch. Some of them just kind of laze around, while others playfully swim and duck in and out of the kelp.

Next, I drove down to Fisherman's Wharf, where I walked into a couple of the places offering whale watching tours. I decided to sign up for one tomorrow morning. I'm pretty excited: I've never seen a whale and this is something I've always wanted to do. They say they spot whales 95% of the time, so I'm feeling pretty good about it. It sounds like we'll probably see some Humpbacks, but there could be an outside chance of seeing an Orca or a Blue Whale. That'd really be something if I saw the largest plant on Earth and the largest animal, all within a week.

I headed back to the hotel early to kind of rest up. I'm having a great time so far, but I needed a couple hours to kind of chillax. Plus, the Sopranos series finale is tonight.

Tomorrow, I'm picking up Agent Orange from the airport in San Francisco and it'll be time to begin the trip's Bravo Leg with a couple of days sightseeing in S.F., which according to many of my friends is pretty much the best place on Earth.