Reno!

We arrived in Reno after a harrowing journey through Donner pass, which sort of scared us with its implications. We had our first dry night camping, and drove into town nice and early to get to the repair shop.

We dropped the car off and took a bus into town, and hung out at a Starbucks in a casino while we waited to hear from the shop. After a little while, we got a happy phone call - our car didn’t need to be fixed after all!

Adventures in San Francisco!

Hello everyone, sorry it’s been such a long time since our last update. Don’t worry though, we have an excuse. The past few days have been, to say the least, very exciting. Here is a play-by-play of the most significant events:

1. We arrive in San Francisco after experiencing our first California traffic jam. (That morning, we were in Davis, hanging out with Max’s friend Alex at America’s #1 farmer’s market.)

2. Parking in San Francisco is an absolute nightmare. After driving around for about two hours, we ended up finding a spot, parking in it really quickly, and getting a death threat from someone in another car who’d been eyeing the same spot. After she drove away we realized the spot wasn’t even legal anyway.

3. Frustrated at the lack of parking, we head to the touristy area (the North Bay) to find a garage. On the way, we pass Lombard Street. For the unfamiliar, this is the windiest street in America. It looks exciting. Because it looks exciting, we decide we have to drive down it. So, with 4 people and all sorts of luggage in the car, we drive up the huge hill that leads to the entrance of the street. When we get to the top, we notice that strange smoke is pouring out from under our hood and everything smells strongly of burning rubber. We pull over and freak out for about 20 minutes. We think something has probably gone wrong with the transmission.

4. We drive down Lombard street anyway. It is every bit as awesome as we imagined, especially with the added adrenaline rush of a broken car. I have pictures, they will be posted later.

5. We leave the car in a parking garage. Jon, who owns the car, is undertandably stressed, but he still wants to follow through on his plans for the day. So, we go to a tattoo parlor where…

6. Jon gets a tattoo. Like a boss. It is an outline of the world. Pictures to come later.

7. We go to In-n-Out burger. This is a burger chain that exists only in California, and it is awesome. There is a secret menu, and we order our items off of it.

8. Max gets a phone call, and without explanation leaves his half eaten, delicious burger on the tray and rushes off. Matt eventually texts him to make sure his kidneys have not been harvested in an alley somewhere.

9. Max returns with his friend Peter, who is spending the summer in San Francisco. We all walk to the beach and look at Alcatraz.

10. We finally meet up with our friend Erica, our host for the two nights we spend in the city. Matt, Max and Erica go to a party hosted by an organization called Nerd Love. Everyone at the party is slightly older than us, and works for technology companies. We have fun. In the meantime, Jon and Brenna explore the city.

11. The next morning Jon drops Brenna off at the airport. We miss our photographer and story listener :)

12. We explore the city. We find a pirate store, we ride the old cable car, we eat street food in America’s largest Chinatown, and we go to a street fair. San Francisco has a lot of hills. We get very tired and spend the evening relaxing and watching TV shows with Erica.

13. On Monday morning we bring the car to a mechanic, who tells us that the clutch is slipping. The repair bill $2000. Rather than getting it fixed, we decide to go to Nevada where the repair bill will be cheaper (by half).

14. So now here we are, in the car on our way to Reno. Hopefully the car will survive the trip okay; we are being careful.

On the road again!

We’re leaving Seattle for Forks so we can stake some vampires. We did take away some great souveniers, though - Max got a phone number, Jon got a girlfriend, and Matt got a beard!

Ohhh Canada!

Vancouver was rainy, kinda confusing, but once we figured it all oot we discovered what it’s all aboot.

We explored china town, Matt and Max had octopus and Jon almost threw up. We saw Gastown, apparently cops found an abducted girl, went to a blues club, got WAY too much food at an Asian Fusion Restaurant and we spent the night at a hostel with some German dude who slept a lot more than we did.

Now we’re eating breakfast as we prepare to go back to Seattle to hang out with Max’s family and Brenna!

Adventure!

We are sorry we haven’t updated in soooo long! We have been going non stop since we arrived in Seattle!

Here are some of the things we’ve done:

Saw the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, Climbed on the big red thing, Fraternized with anarchist, Laundry, Chased by zombie hipsters, Saw the amazing Seattle library, Coffe coffee coffee, Dick’s, Oil change, Sock store, Fainting goat, Mix Master Mike, The Minus Five, Saw the sunrise over Seattle, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Saw a car accident, Pizza and beer, Spin the bottle, Beer, Mt. Rainier with 12 feet of snow, Avalanche! Sorta, Laundry, French toast and bacon for dinner!, Sleeping until noon, Staying up until 7, Beer pong. Rock-em sock-em robots, Fed seagulls, A capella practice,

Most importantly, we are staying with the most awesome people! Special thanks to Brenna, Lili, Becca, Natasia, Brandon, Fausto and Ryan for being AMAZING.

Day 7

We’ve been on the road for 7 days! We woke up in Livingston, Montana with an amazing view. We spent all day exploring Montana and a little bit of Idaho. Montana seems to be full of big sky. Idaho is Idaho. It had mountains and a Wal-Mart. We spent the rest of the afternoon traveling west towards Seattle. Not much in Eastern Washington! 

We pulled into Seattle at about 12:15 AM. We’re staying at our friend Brenna’s apartment until the end of Memorial Day. We’re looking forward to using Seattle as a “base camp” for adventures in Washington and Canada. 

When we arrived in Seattle, Brenna took us on a mini tour of the city. We saw a great view of the Seattle skyline, The Space Needle and a big red thing. It’s 7:10 AM on the east coast and we’re still awake…time to sleep.

Adventure!