The final leg of our trip was to Portland, Oregon.  The ride was quick and scenic, a slight detour takes you to the Mt. St. Helen's visitor center, but the volcano was shrouded in heavy fog during our visit.






Our first stop was at the lively Saturday market, one of the largest open-air crafts market in the US.  "Elephant ears" are massive, flat pieces of fried dough, ours was slathered with apple butter and cinnamon.



Yes, the weather would alternate between heavy wind, sunshine, and rain.  Hardy Portland natives just rolled with it, whereas I was constantly adding and removing layers of clothing.



That night we ate at Jake's Crawfish, which had the fattest, tastiest mussels I had ever eaten.  So often we eagerly pry open those black shells only to find tiny, wizened mussels clinging to the inside.  But it was certainly not the case this time.  I'm getting a little hungry just thinking about it.



My morning wakeup call in the form of an almond croissant and a mocha from Stumptown coffee. 



A few shots of Pittock Mansion, a chateau built by the Oregonian mogul Henry Pittock on the west hills of Portland.  Not a huge place, but richly detailed with lovely views downtown.  I saw an engagement session and a bridal shoot during the brief time I was there.  Popular. :)





I'm not quite sure if the toiletries are in keeping with the era, but I would greatly appreciate having some "fairy soap" that is "daintily scented."









Afterward, we entertained ourselves at Finnegans for some time.  Don't we look cool?





I was very tempted to buy this.



We really liked Portland City Grill for two reasons: (1) happy hour and (2) amazing views of the city.  We had the papaya, avocado, and cucumber stack, the dungeness crab & bay shrimp bruschetta, and the calamari (devoured too quickly and thus not pictured).



And for a snack?  As if we hadn't eaten enough, we stopped by a quirky little landmark, Voodoo doughnut, frequented by tourists and locals alike.  Previously I thought sweet and salty should be separate flavors, and never the twain shall meet.  But their bacon and maple doughnut cured me of that notion.





Three excellent reasons why I like OSHU (from left to right): (1) wonderful facilities, (2) amazing views of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens, and (3) they have their very own farmer's market.



In case you wanted to go to the Great Wall of China, this helpful post will point you the right way.  Or perhaps you'd like to go to Timbuktu?  Only 6,726 miles away...



Heading back home

Our drive started out as serenely as it could possibly be from Seattle.  It was my first time driving a car in the ferry as we took it across Pudget Sound to Bainbridge Island, a mere half hour away.





We watched Seattle disappear into the horizon.





I can't for the life of me remember the name of this bakery (a local Seattle bakery), but it was at the ferry cafeteria and it was surprisingly good.  Or perhaps I was just ravenous, I'm not quite sure.  This is a picture of my morning almond poppy seed muffin.



Nothing can quite capture the sheer breadth and vastness of the Olympic National Park.  Certainly not our short forays in nor my camera.  We took advantage of the excellent weather and drove up to hurricane ridge, which affords gorgeous views of the Olympic mountains, including the Carrie glacier.





We also did a short hike to Marymere falls.





Tony demonstrated his literal definition of the word "tree hugger" in this picture.



Our pitstop was at Forks, Washington.  If the name rings a bell then that means you've read (or watched) Twilight (you know who you are).  The town is crawling with Twilight paraphernalia, even shops are named after the book.  There are two camps to this, the ones who have embraced the teenie bopper phenomena and the ones who wish that they could rename their town.  Regardless, it's the only decent town at the halfway point between our hikes, so in Forks we stayed.



We made a brief pit stop at Rialto beach for "sunset," or what we could sort of see through the ever-changing layer of clouds.  The beach is littered with the bones of old trees, swept white and bare by the ocean.









I actually really liked our bed-and-breakfast, Miller Tree Inn.  When they have a little library with sections that say "innkeeper favorites" and "to trade or borrow," you know that it's a homey place.  And by constantly having a plate of fresh-baked goodies by the nook, they easily won over Tony.







Tony "posing" with the bear found in our room, pretending to read the copy of Twilight they left in our room.



People put pins on a gigantic world map, detailing where they are from.  The United States map looks like a pincushion.



Our entry into Hoh rainforest was slightly foreboding.  Pardon the drops of rain on the windshield.  The first bouts of rain came our way to the rainforest, which was oddly fitting. 


Hiking seven miles with chilly, periodic showers is a muddy affair.  However, the views were definitely worth it. 

I'm talking about Seattle. :)

About a week ago we drove almost 400 miles, stayed in a private apartment, a bed and breakfast, and two hotels around the northwest.  The first leg of our trip was Seattle.  Navigating by car in Seattle was hectic, expensive, and highly not recommended. 



When we weren't hampered by parking time limits and (sometimes) lack of parking, Seattle was a really nice place to walk around.  The weather was lovely.





Here are a few Seattle highlights:

*  Pike's place market



We've been here before, but I love the festive bustle of markets.  The "original" Starbucks is located here.  We went to Starbucks and ordered... tea.  I appreciate the smell of coffee as much as the next person, but when it comes to drinking it, I douse mine with so much cream and sugar that I might as well be drinking, well, milk and sugar.  Enough admitted.





We tried the cheese, onion, and garlic roll at Piroshky Piroshky, a very tasty Russian Bakery at Pike's Place.



*  Crab pot with Sean



From this picture it looks like Tony is planning on tackling the mess on our table with his bare hands, while Sean takes a slightly more civilized route with his mallet. :)  I'm ashamed to say that we couldn't finish it, I blame the baked rolls we had right before this.

*  We explored our Queen Anne neighborhood and found Kerry Park, which offers a lovely view of downtown Seattle.  Along the way we ran into a brightly lit house surrounded by several trucks.  A neighbor whispered to me that it was a new Toby Maguire film.  We were a little too tired to linger too long though.



*  Tea at the historic Panama Hotel
It was built by a Japanese American architect and is perfectly preserved in its original state from the 1950s.  Supposedly it also contains some unclaimed furniture that previously belonged to some Japanese families that went into internment camps during WWII.



*  Underground tour

This quirky, humorous tour takes you through the dark subterranean passages of what was once the storefronts and streets of old Seattle.









I totally should've thought of a headlamp!  Now if only my husband would be willing to walk around with me wearing it...

*  Tasty sandwiches at Salumi's roughly breaks even with the painfully long line it takes to get to that cramped counter to gasp out your order.  It certainly does make you appreciate it more though.  This is a picture of the Porchetta, we also ordered a platter of assorted meats and cheeses.  Don't get me wrong, it was really, really good.. but it was also a really, really long line.  Catch it at an off hour or order ahead and pick it up.



*  The duck tour was definitely a highlight, albeit I was originally very resistant to it.  But how often do you get to ride an amphibious vehicle that drives you along the freeway one minute then dives headlong into the Lake Union in another minute...?



Our driver, self-named "Cueball," donned many hats... and my favorite is the very last one, which he wore right before he drove us off the ramp straight into the water.



I kid you not when I said that we went into Lake Union, for at least 20 minutes.  We could see the house that Tom Hanks paced around in in the film Sleepless in Seattle.





Some locals thought to entertain the camera-laden tourists (the other folks, certainly not me) by waving at us then jumping straight into water.

*  Free museum Thursdays at the Frank Gehry designed museum, the Experience Music Project, is a concert and a sci-fi-fest all in one.  A local band was blasting music and I got to ogle my favorite section, the Science Fiction Museum.





Bathroom, anyone?



*  Visiting the Chens was a definite highlight.  Their kids are adorable, especially Noelle.  In this picture she is demonstrating her multi-tasking skills, how to drink water and wash your hands.  Impressive.  Her parents understandably did not think so.



Peek-a-boo with my camera.



And when she was instructed to bid me good night said, "G'nite camera."  Sigh.  I'm more than just a pretty black box, people!

All in all a good (packed) few days in Seattle.  Just a teeny, tiny drop of all the things that this beautiful city has to offer.

I have a love-hate relationship with running.  I am by no means a runner, and though I've been told that after the second mile everything starts to feel the same... for me each agonizing breath says otherwise.  But after a few miles on the lovely UCLA track... it is hard to say that  I hate it.  The lights were out so the track was only dimly lit, and the night air and fog made it feel oddly intimate despite the fact that I was sharing the track with several other runners.

The flip side of a late night run is that it made us really ravenous.  After being thwarted by a few nearby west LA eateries, we drove down (traffic free!) to "Korea town" for some 24 hour grub.  In the midst of shoveling soondobu and spicy rice cakes at Hodori, I was struck with the realization that after this week... these moments will be few and far between.

The post title is technically incorrect but oddly appropriate.  We are moving, though not very far.  We are bidding farewell to the overgrown suburban sprawl that is Los Angeles for the slightly more organized suburban sprawl of Orange County.  I am definitely going to miss so many aspects of LA life (like food!), as well as the friends we've made here.  I know it's only fifty miles, but in LA miles... that makes it seem like forever. 

The second reason for the title is that a little vacation is on the horizon, which makes me almost giddy with excitement.  I am the poster child for those "wanna get away" commercials, the only exception being that I haven't done anything completely mortifying.  I would just appreciate a change of pace.

And of course, what post is complete without at least a few pictures?  The ones below are from the OC Super Fair, where Socalers trade flip flops for cowboy boots.  The last day was just this past weekend.  Of course my friends and I were only there for the ridiculous food, oversized turkey legs and deep-fried.. well, everything!

Deep fried snickers



Interesting livestock (I am demonstrating my ignorance of animal husbandry by naming them the Admiral chicken and the Yeti chicken)



A few rides



We went down the European slide (left).  It even beats that really long slide at the monkey park in Arashiyama in Japan.

... and a more barf-worthy ride (below).  You can see my friends highlighted in this picture, whether smiling from happiness or in terror I am not quite sure.  Anyway... all in all, good times.

Every year, in the wee hours of the morning, little fish flock southern California beaches to spawn in what is known as the Grunion run.  My first (and until recently, only) experience was spent shivering on the beach at night scouring the beaches with a flashlight, only to walk away sleepy and tired with an empty bucket.



This time around I still ended up with an empty bucket, but that was because we gave up our catch to a family.  We hit a relatively desolate stretch of beach about ten minutes before midnight, and waited, finally following the birds to the end of the beach where our flashlights revealed lightning quick flashes of silver.  Many of them are ridiculously quick, I can't tell you how often I attempted to chase one down only to be smacked by a cold Pacific ocean wave for my troubles.  They are also small and squirmy, and I was very leery of squishing them.



The videos below are courtesy of Vivian's camera, starring Ricky (with commentary by Vivian) and the Grunions. :)