Road Trip Adventure: Days 21-27, Thursday, June 12th – Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

Locations Hit:
Manchester, Tennessee
Unplanned & Utterly random parts of Kentucky
York, Pennsylvania

The Bonnaroo music festival combines the dirtiest and grimiest atmospheres with some of the most fun and entertaining atmospheres on one gigantic private farm in the middle of nowhere, Tennessee. I will start by saying no showers were taking during this entire stretch of the trip. Yes…no showers were taken for 6 days of cooking burgers and frying curly fries. I witnessed drugs being taken I didn’t even know existed, and saw the consequences of them on some of the 80,000 people present. Likewise, some 150 bands and musical artists played some of the most incredible shows I’ve ever seen, and even though we were working we got to see a lot. It was a scenario unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed, but somehow it functioned; somehow it worked, and has worked for 6 years.

Lots of funny things happened throughout the festival and lots of funny interactions with stoned hippies occurred. On the same note we got to meet a lot of great people and we had a great time. In any 8 hour period on any night we could count on seeing several of our favorite bands playing just hundreds of feet apart from each other which was pretty surreal. Here are the acts we were able to get to, in addition to the many we could just hear from our food stand:

MGMT
Vampire Weekend
The Raconteurs
M.I.A.
State Radio (backstage)
Metallica
Gogol Bordello
Cat Power
B.B. King
Ben Folds
Iron & Wine
Jack Johnson
Pearl Jam
Sigur Ros
Lupe Fiasco
Talib Kweli
Chali 2na of Jurassic 5 w/ Galactic
Ourstage.com
Deathcab for a Cutie

We spent the majority of the day after the festival ended cleaning up our 4 different stands. We enjoyed some showers and a hearty dinner and hit the road around 6:00P.M. with high hopes of pushing through back to Philly, with our beds anxiously awaiting. It was sometime around 11:30P.M. though when I started seeing signs for the Kentucky School of Music. Funny I thought to myself, knowing we weren’t supposed to be in Kentucky.

I awoke Kim, my navigator, and we quickly determined that we were indeed in Kentucky and had missed a crucial turnoff in the midst of a construction detour. As we worshipped the atlas we decided it wouldn’t take much longer to just continue north and swing east at a later time. This seemed like a great idea but as the night progressed, and our bodies, exhausted from 6 days of abuse and minimal sleep, began to catch up to us. By 5:00A.M. we unexpectedly reached West Virginia University, and knowing this was still 5 hours from our destination, cursed a lot. Except for the mostly negative realizations like this that happened throughout the trip, it was mostly a blur. We ended up crossing right through York, Pennsylvania, Dan and my hometown around 9:30A.M. and called it quits…finally.

After 27 days on the road, I’d made it home. Not exactly to the home I’d anticipated, but hell…it was a bed and good food. I had 40 day’s worth of a beard on my face and my sister literally yelped when getting on of the car to pick me up. In all, the trip had been flawless. A few minor setbacks like nearly dying in a mid-western tornado or exposing my back to a whirlwind of long term damage from sleeping in an overloaded Jetta, but overall an incredible run. From big mountains to big cities we saw more than anticipated and met a slew of different personalities and friends along the road, and that was what it was all about.

The masses awaiting the first shows to start. There were said to have been 80,000 people in attendance.

Vampire Weekend performing.

One of the four french fry and burger stands we worked in.

By the end of the entire road trip I was looking a little rough around the edges.

Road Trip Adventure: Day 20, Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

Locations Hit:
Atlanta, Georgia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Manchester, Tennessee

After a red eye flight from Anchorage to Philadelphia, with an early morning layover in Atlanta, we were exhausted. At our age and with a self-inflicted full schedule, however, there is little room for exhaustion. With that we jumped into our rented Chevy Impala our friend Kim was waiting for us in and headed off for Manchester, Tennessee, nearly 13 hours south. Dan and I passed out immediately, waking just in time to relieve ourselves at the Country Pride Rest Stop, which coincidentally was having its annual jamboree. This comprised of a local bluegrass band, dozens of old pick up trucks, enough Marlboro Reds to make the surgeon general cry, and lots…and I mean lots of parking lot jiggin’. This was no average square dancing I’d learned in middle school gym class. This kept us entertained for about 6 and a half minutes and we continued on.

We didn’t get into Manchester until around 12:30am, where we were instructed by our boss to meet up at Wal-Mart. I forgot to mention what exactly we were doing at this acclaimed hippie music festival – selling burgers and curly fries to make some extra cash that would cover the costs of our prior three-week adventure. I anticipate doing a full entry on how I fund my various trips, but this will surely be example one. We pulled into the parking lot to find thousands of eager Bonnaroo attendees awaiting the festivals opening doors the next morning. I found out that apparently Wal-Mart always allows anyone to camp in their parking lots. Allegedly it is the firm’s way of “giving back” to the community, and it was being fully exploited. As vendors however, we were able to get into the farm where the festival is held that night and actually camp out. This began the next portion of our road trip adventure at the Bonnaroo music festival.

The Country Pride gas station and their annual jamboree. Hee-Haw

The main stage before all the action started.

Road Trip Adventure: Day 19, Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

Locations Hit:
Anchorage, Alaska
Atlanta, Georgia

On the final day of our near three-week adventure we awoke with one thing on our minds: the gaudiest, most hideous Alaskan souvenirs imaginable. Were talking bright purple shirts with the face of a wolf emblazoned across the front. Were talking the large mesh trucker hats with patriotic eagles on the front that every grandpa that’s ever visited the state still wears proudly years later.

Lisl took us right into center city Anchorage to Grizzlies, a legendarily tacky souvenir shop catering to all of our desires. After a quick stop at the ATM, however, we were quickly reminded just how poor we’d made ourselves in the past few weeks and settled on just on t-shirt. Dawning the words “Alaska Grown” Lisl reminded us we were the most authentic representatives of the garb, but they couldn’t be passed up. We then finished packing up our bags and got a huge pizza at a local joint called the Moose’s Tooth. Half was loaded with every vegetable and cheese one could fathom; the other half was loaded with multiple types of sausages and meats. What a terrible decision before a 12 hour plane ride. Undoubtedly worth it though.

On the way to the airport, convinced the trip was finally coming to an end, I received a phone call that our flights had been delayed at multiple different levels and there was no way we could get to Philadelphia at the scheduled time. When flying these days, such problems simply need to be anticipated. After a long discussion with Charlotte, our flight representative, we rearranged our itinerary to fly through Atlanta and get into Philadelphia 2 hours later. Dan and I had plans from there to meet another friend and hit the road once more down to Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, Tennessee. This delay meant we would not be able to stop in at my apartment briefly to shower and change bags. Nope, it was straight from the airport into our next 13-hour drive. With that we grabbed a few beers to help process the new schedule and jumped on our plane. The road trip just got extended another 6 or so days.

These things were everywhere in Alaska. Naturally we got pictures in every single one.

Oh yeah...this is exactly what we were looking for.

This trip in the bottom right of the display has our total miles, taken right when Lisl dropped us off at the airport in Anchorage - 6,150.2 miles.

Road Trip Adventure: Day 18, Monday, June 9th, 2008

Locations Hit:
Homer, Alaska
Gittoffmy Island, Alaska
Anchorage, Alaska

Waking up to a clear view across the Alaskan coast to monstrous mountain peaks and a warm sun is comparable to nothing. I got up a little early and went for a hike around the island to reflect on the trip and get a little alone time to take in the views. Although the island isn’t quite large enough to sustain much wildlife I again saw several sea otters eating off the shoreline and dozens of bald eagles, which were all over the island. Something many Alaskans take for granted but still make my jaw drop. Seeing bald eagles in the wild is a pretty magnificent experience.

I returned to the cabin and the breakfast making process went into full swing once again. This morning is was 12 eggs and 12 pancakes between the three of us. I’m not sure what it is but for some reason eating breakfast while camping is like eating the last meal of your life. You just can’t stop. Absolute joyful gluttony. After that we did a full cleaning of the house and restocked the woodstove supply, got some pictures, and caught our water taxi back to Homer. We stopped at the Salty Dawg Saloon, the local dive bar and an Alaskan staple. One Alaskan Amber Ale later and a short walk around the Homer spit it was a gorgeous 4-hour drive through the mountains back to Anchorage.

We walked through Lisl’s front door. Our mouths dropped. In a moment of primeval barbarianism drool came out.

There on the kitchen table Lisl’s mom had on ice 4 of the largest Alaskan King Crab legs I had ever seen. I capitalize these to stress their sheer superiority over…well everything. Along with grilled corn on the cob and a Gorgonzola and fruit salad, we dined on pieces of crabmeat comparable in size to small fish. I’m not sure if this is really a regular meal in Alaska or not just because the crabs come from Alaska, but for whatever reason it felt right. And it felt good. We will be forever in debt to Lisl’s mom and the pleasure she brought us. As if this wasn’t enough she emerged from the freezer a dessert called Baked Alaskan, which is essentially a dome of various ice creams on top of a bed of brownies and baked in meringue.

One couldn’t tell we’d just spent the past 3 days binge eating at the cabin as we collapsed on the couch a hot mess from the quantity of food we’d just consumed. We then took on the task of giving Hotel Jetta a final unload and cleaning. Too exhausted and full to do anything else we enjoyed a movie and exchanged the over 3,000 pictures we’d taken collectively. As hard as it is to believe the trip had just about come to an end.

A view from the beach of the island.

A bald eagle, it's a little hard to see but they were everywhere.

Me, Lisl, and Dan right before leaving the island.

In Homer at a lookout over the mountains and bay where the island is.

Baked Alaska.

Road Trip Adventure: Day 17, Sunday, June 8th, 2008

Locations Hit:
Homer, Alaska
Gittoffmy Island, Alaska

Breakfast is a sacred event when camping. A properly prepared skillet breakfast is a right of passage; an epiphany of the mind, body, soul and pallet. We awoke around 9:30A.M. and got to work immediately. 12 eggs, 2 pounds of instant hash browns, 3 croissants, 2 pots of coffee and enough calories to get us through the next 3 months later we finished around 12:30P.M.

We finished just in time to catch low tide and hike around the bluffs and beaches surrounding the island. This is known as tide pooling, which leaves hundreds of small lagoons the size of baby pools around the shore until the tide comes back in. Almost all of these small pools are filled with all sorts of cool ocean creatures to check out. We spent about 2 hours doing this and saw all sorts of sea snails, mussels, small fish, starfish, sea anemones of various shapes and colors, hermit crabs and all sorts of other species we couldn’t identify.

After a laborious morning of eating and playing with snails we went to various spots across the island to take some heavy afternoon naps. Now I know it may sound like we were living the easy life on this island…and that’d be a pretty accurate evaluation to be completely honest. After our naps it was time for a late afternoon lunch of what else? Beans & weenies. I promise this is the last time we dined on such luxury.

After lunch we pumped up an inflatable boat that looked like it might be able to fit one and half adults comfortably and headed out to sea for some halibut fishing. After what seemed to be a day of eating and napping it was time to do some work and catch dinner. About 40 yards offshore we dropped our lines, which took quite some time to hit bottom. Around this time Lisl realized she’d forgotten to plug the air nozzle on the bottom of the boat and we’d been taking on water thus far. Luckily the problem was easily rectifiable and I’m still here to write this entry and therefore alive. During the trip we were in the close company of about a dozen curious sea otters and a dozen more seals checking us out. As awesome as that was we had no luck with the halibut. Fortunately enough we hadn’t had much faith in ourselves to begin with and packed salmon and fettuccini in the reserve coolers. Again we enjoyed a great meal together while watching one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen.

Dan working the skillet in his skippies for our breakfast feasting.

Tidepooling around the island during low tide.

A starfish I found while tidepooling.

A sea anemone that we found hundreds of in the various pools.

Halibut fishing in a raft around the island.

Dan and I admiring the sunset. This was probably taken around 11:00P.M.

Road Trip Adventure: Day 16, Saturday, June 7th, 2008

Locations Hit:
Anchorage, Alaska
Talkeetna, Alaska
Homer, Alaska
Gittoffmy Island, Alaska

Lisl’s Mom: “Make sure you guys have your sneakers, appropriate jackets, gloves, and a hat in case of a crash.”
Me: “Okay. Sounds good.”
Lisl’s Mom: “No. If we crash that doesn’t sound good at all.”

It was 6:00A.M. and hard to draw the line between sleep haze and anxiousness. The weather was clear and Lisl’s mom had promised us the unimaginable experience for a trio of poor recent college graduates and road trippers. She had her pilot’s license and a beautiful Cessna 4-seater plane and had offered to fly us around Alaska for the morning.

We got to the airplane hangers by 7:15A.M. and met up again with Lisl’s cousin, Lucas, who also had also recently gotten his pilot’s license. The destination was a diner/restaurant near the base of Mt. McKinley, where we’d been a few days earlier. Talkeetna, a town boasting less than 1,000 residents, is the standard starting point for most all mountaineering teams attempting summit of McKinley and the culture and atmosphere reflected these accomplishments.

The flight and experience of the small Cessna plane, of which I’d never flown in, was breathtaking. We got to see the untamed wilderness and bush areas of Alaska from the sky and see Mt. McKinley from a view most see only in postcards. We took dozens of pictures in the short 35-minute flight each way but they only taint the true beauty we saw. We were fortunate to have been granted this opportunity and it instilled a deep desire to learn to fly in Dan and I both. Oh yeah…we’re ready to start training to climb McKinley too…so many goals created in just a morning.

We were back in Anchorage before noon and packed quickly to head to Lisl’s family’s cabin in southern Alaska, just a 30-minute boat ride from Homer. We had planned it out so we’d be able to stay until Monday afternoon. Lisl had told us this was her favorite place in the world so it was crucial it was worked in. Upon arrival around 5:30P.M. we understood why. A beautiful wooden house situated by itself on a decently sized island became our home for the next two and a half days. That night we prepared our traditional and high-maintenance cuisine of beans & weenies while watching the sunset over the ocean.

In traveling one notices how lucky you feel when in a situation of pure natural beauty. It feels like something that you may not deserve or should have had to pay a lot of money for. The joy and satisfaction achieved from these sights, experiences and interactions is unrivaled in anything materialistic. No matter one’s beliefs on religion, science, or whatever it cannot be argued how overwhelming these feelings can be. These moments are the exact ones that create that burn to continue traveling, exploring, and meeting people. I haven’t discovered anything else that opens my mind as much and I’m not sure I ever will.

Lisl's Mom's 4-seater Cessna plane that we flew around in.

Dan working his charm on some of the locals in Talkeetna after breakfast.

Mt. McKinley (on the right) from the air...we were so lucky. No one gets this view.
The cabin.

We went old school when it came to cooking. Beans on the left. Bread in the middle. Weenies on the right.

Munchin'.

The view from the cabin windows and front deck. This is what we fell asleep to every night. As you can imagine it never got old.

Road Trip Adventure: Day 15, Friday, June 6th, 2008

Locations Hit:
Anchorage, Alaska

Word had spread quickly that Lisl was back in town so Dan and I woke to numerous family and friends visiting. Anchorage wakes up early. We enjoyed a nice home cooked breakfast of eggs and reindeer sausage while meeting, talking, and catching up with everyone. Stories and pictures from the various adventures were flowing.

That afternoon Dan, Lisl, myself, and Lisl’s cousin Lucas went out for a hike up Flattop Mountain in Anchorage, which overlooks the city and surroundings. In the midst of what was apparently still a pretty cold spring we found ourselves hiking through quite a bit of snow. The weather so far had been between about 45-55 degrees during the day and colder at night despite the sun still being out. Once we got to the top of the mountain a storm front began blowing in at the top of the mountain so we decided we needed to descent a little faster than normal. Naturally, with no proper rain or snow gear…or any really gear at all for that matter we determined our best option was sliding on our butts. Snow covered the upper third of the mountain, ensuring us a nice ride.

That night we hung out with Lisl’s mom and I had bison burgers for the first time. The meat looks and tastes nearly identical to hamburger but is leaner and has a great flavor. We ended up crashing early as the prior two weeks began to catch up to us. We also knew we had an early morning experience awaiting that we’d been looking forward to since day 1. Stay tuned.

Hiking up Flat Top Mountain.

A view of Anchorage from on top of Flat Top Mountain.

Road Trip Adventure: Day 14, Thursday, June 5th, 2008

Locations Hit:
Fairbanks, Alaska
Denali National Park, Alaska
Anchorage, Alaska

When we woke up Chris was already in the midst of preparing a breakfast of eggs, Dall sheep sausage, and toast with homemade blueberry jam. He had excitedly offered to take us on a boat ride so we loaded up the boat and headed out. We dropped the boat into the Chena River and road for about 45 minutes, stopped on a gravel bar and hiked around for a while before riding back. We saw a bunch of beaver swimming around and some traditional replica riverboats. When we got back from the boat ride Chris whipped us up some homemade beef stew and halibut cheeks, a super tender piece of the halibut that resembles lobster in both taste and texture. All in all I got to taste three new types of meets while staying with Chris and all were superb. As always we were on a time schedule though and had to move on to our next destination.

Denali National Park has always been somewhat of a dream for me to visit. All in all, the park is larger than the state of Massachusetts and home to Mt. McKinley, the highest summit in North America, making it one of the world’s seven summits. For those readers that have read or seen Into the Wild, this is also the park where Chris McCandles spent the final months of his life in the abandoned school bus. We had wanted to spend more time camping but were short on time and had to settle for a day of hiking. We climbed Mt. Healy which is about a 3,500 feet in elevation and offered a gorgeous view of the park and Alaskan mountains. After returning fromd the hike we pushed forward for our last 4 hours of the scheduled road trip to Anchorage. We arrived around 1:30A.M.

Chris, Dan, and Lisl on the gravel bar during the boat ride in Fairbanks.

Me and Dan while climbing Mt. Healy in Denali National Park.. This picture was taken around 9:30P.M.

Me, Lisl, and Dan on top of Mt. Healy in Denali National Park. This picture was taken around 10:30P.M.

Hotel Jetta in all her glory. She has a lot of character after all that.

We arrived with a warm chalk welcoming in Lisl's driveway from her mom.

A ragged looking crew, but we made it.

Road Trip Adventure: Day 13, Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

Locations Hit:
British Columbia, Canada
North Pole, Alaska
Fairbanks, Alaska

We ended up finding an incredible campsite in Pike Lake in British Columbia last night. Even though we drove until around 11:30P.M. it was still broad daylight when we pulled into camp. During the summer months in British Columbia and Alaska daylight typically lasts about 22 hours a day, and even the darkest hours are still fairly visible. We woke up and headed down the final stretch of about 6 hours into Alaska.

About 2 hours in and just before heading into the “no-mans-land” section of the drive, in which civilization is few and far between, things took a turn for the worst. We rolled down the window to snap a photo of a passing coyote and noticed the most horrid screeching noise coming from our rear right wheel. We turned around and headed back to the last small town we’d passed. Mind you this consisted of no more than 7 businesses, including the gas station we stopped at.

Now if you have been following the blog thus far, you’ve heard just how packed our car is. Unfortunately our best alternative was the full size spare tire buried underneath the trunk…the filled to the brim trunk. We unloaded the majority of our inventory in the gas station parking lot under the close supervision of Peter, the gas station attendant who was simply enthralled with the action that we’d brought to him on this particular day. Even though the spare tire eliminated the sound, which we suspect was a rock stuck in the brakes, Peter was insistent we take the Jetta on down to his friend Charlie the mechanic for a look. We couldn’t turn down an opportunity to meet someone else from this wonderful town so we went. Charlie was a character in him-self and didn’t particularly tell us anything of use so 15 minutes later we were off again.

Just before hitting our destination of Fairbanks we made an obligatory stop in North Pole, Alaska. Yes folks, North Pole, Alaska. The light poles look like gigantic candy canes and the main attraction is the Santa Clause House, which features 4 distraught real-life reindeer. Our experience in the North Pole took about 17 minutes. We got into Fairbanks around 9:00P.M. to the house of a close friend of Lisl’s family’s, Chris. He had been born in Michigan but moved to Alaska a long time ago and knew a lot about the state and its wildlife. Chris was once asked what his ideal age was and he said 12. Naturally it was like adding a fourth to the road trip trio.

As soon as we arrived Chris served us a phenomenal meal of moose ribs he’d been slow roasting in the crock-pot all day. It was extremely tender and has a flavor unlike any other meat but was delicious, especially after so much driving. After dinner we sat around and Lisl and Chris caught up and we all exchanged crazy stories of our travels and aspirations of further adventures. We discussed what our plans were going to be moving forward with our week in Alaska, but exhausted ended up passing out relatively early. We finally made it into the final state of our trip and had big plans for the days to come.

Camping at Pike Lake in British Columbia. Notice how light outside it was - it was 12:30A.M.

Driving in British Columbia.

A huge Santa Clause welcoming us into North Pole, Alaska. We are in his sleigh at the bottom if you look closely.

Unpacking the Hotel Jetta at Peter's gas station in the middle of no-where British Columbia.

Somehow I got the job of watching over the stuff at Peter's gas station in the middle of no-where British Columbia while Lisl and Dan test drove to see if the noise was gone. I know they were thinking about leaving me there for a laugh.

Road Trip Adventure: Days 11-12, Monday, June 2nd – Tuesday, June 3rd 2008

Locations Hit:
Seattle, Washington
British Columbia, Canada

Leaving Seattle around noon Monday we knew we had a long haul ahead of us. Essentially what we needed to do at this point was drive the whole way through Canada and up and around into Alaska. Undoubtedly this was the longest stretch of driving in our trip and we wanted to do it as quickly as possible to maximize our time in Alaska.

I’m writing this entry around 10:00P.M. Tuesday night, some 36 hours after our departure from Seattle, and we have yet to stop for anything besides gas, coffee, a meal, a tourist stop, and a few photo ops. None of the stops was longer than an hour. Between the three of us rotating driving and sleeping we have driven about 2,000 miles in this period.

It has been a beautiful drive through British Columbia so far, however, and it makes it much easier to do one’s shift behind the wheel. Never before have I had to be so alert while driving though, as you never know what to expect in terms of wildlife wandering onto the road in front of you at little notice. So far we have seen countless dear, caribou, elk, black bear, brown bear, coyotes, mountain goats, moose, reindeer, bald eagles, wild horses, fox, and bison to keep things interesting. Below are some pictures.

We’ve stopped at three notable stops. One is called Watson’s Lake and for whatever reason it is home to the license plate forest. Here, there are just thousands and thousands of license plates and signs people have hung on trees and posts in one area. It is neat to see the variety of places people have come from. I knew we’d be passing through and happened to have an old tag laying around so we all signed and added a Pennsylvania plate to the collection.

The second stop was at the beginning of the Alaskan Highway, which commences in Dawson’s Creek (yes there is an actual place in the middle of Canada with this familiar title). In accordance with the rest of our trip we stopped for a picture. Unfortunately for me it was at 3:30A.M. and in the middle of my sleeping shift so I was less than thrilled to be taking pictures in the cold. This disgust can be noted in my pleasant face.

The third stop was tonight for dinner; we stopped in White Horse at a place we’d heard about in multiple travel guides and books – Klondike’s Ribs & Salmon. Once again my passion for food was shining through. After 34 hours on the road we had been looking forward to a good meal and I can officially say 2 hours later and still stuffed we had it. I recommend it to anyone passing through. Were all exhausted and are searching for a campsite for the night before finishing our journey out tomorrow morning. We should be in Fairbanks, Alaska by early afternoon. Until then…cheers.

Black Bears

Brown Bears

Porcupine

Mountain Goats

Moose

Owls

American Bison

The signpost forest at Watson's Lake.

The beginning of the Alaskan Highway.

Road Trip Adventure: Day 10, Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Locations Hit:
Seattle, Washington

Nearing the top of my list of things I love to delve into while traveling is food. Anyone that has ever traveled with me can attest. Dan and Lisl especially, as it is the primary topic of most of my conversations and thought processes on this very road trip.

In France and even in Philadelphia and home in York, Pennsylvania I gained a deep love of markets. I don’t think there are many more places you can see so much of a culture in such a small place. Here you can observe people in their raw forms and see what types of culinary specialties drive their differentiation.

We started the day at the Pike’s Place Market, a world-renowned daily market in downtown Seattle. Known for housing the very first Starbucks, its charismatic fish tossing seafood stands, and various coffee shops, the market was a highly enjoyable experience. From there Sara and Frank took the three of us to the Seattle public library, and architectural masterpiece that Lisl and Dan had both studied. Designed by Rem Koolhaas, the library opened 4 years ago and boasted some of the most efficient library systems and environmentally friendly designs around. We joined an impromptu tour that was highly enjoyable, even for a design illiterate former-business student like myself.

We then went down to Seattle’s Chinatown and ate one of Sara and Frank’s favorite Pho restaurants, Pho Bak (yes…it is supposed to be funny). Pho is a Vietnamese meat and noodle dish in a steaming hot broth. It was the first time us three had ever tried it but it was delicious and I’d recommend it, especially for someone sick as it really opens your head.

Exhausted from the long day we headed back to the house. We tried to do a little more touring that night but called it quits early to lounge in our robes and absorb the beauty of the house we could call home for yet another night.

Part of the outside of Pikes Place Market

Frank, Sara, Lisl, Me, & Dan on the lookout of the Seattle skyline. Apparently, if Frasier had really had a real apartment, this was the view from the window.

The famous Space Needle.

Pho from Pho Bak.