West Coast Vaca

Welcome to our Blog!
We started this as a journal for us to have a memory of our west coast trip. But, then we decided we would share it with friends and family. The following is account of what we did on our coast exploration from Los Angeles, CA to Whistler, BC. Enjoy!

Sunday, June 6, 2010
After some delays for our flights, we made it to LAX and met up with Daron and Rachael. They will be traveling with us from LA to Seattle. It took awhile to get out of the traffic in L.A. even though it was a Sunday afternoon. We stopped to eat at In-N-Out Burger, where Ryan ate 3 double cheeseburgers, fries and a milkshake. Way to start out the digestion system for the trip huh. It was our first real meal of the day and it was almost 6pm our time (there’s a 3 hour difference)-- we were starved! The coastline was beautiful, but we only allowed ourselves a few short stops because we had such a long drive that day and we got a late start. One stop was a huge pack of elephant seals lying on the beach. I am not exaggerating when I say that I think they are the most disgusting animals I have ever seen. They just lay there and make these gross burping/farting sounds. We looked like middle schoolers because we couldn’t stop laughing as we looked at them. We barely made it to Big Sur with the gas we had, so we ended up paying $4.19/gallon there because it was in the middle of nowhere. Oops. Once we got to our campground, it was dark, so we quietly and quickly set up our tents with our headlamps. Ryan and I had been up for almost 24 hours, so we crashed!

Elephant seals. You really need to see a close-up to fully understand.

Monday, June 7, 2010

We woke up around 7:30am and surprisingly rested. Ryan and I went for a short, but very hilly run around the campground since we didn’t get to see it in daylight. Once on the road, we stopped in Santa Cruz for lunch and walked around the amusement park that was right on the beach. Then we headed for San Francisco. We both have been there before and were excited to go back. This time, we rented bikes and headed down to the Golden Gate Bridge. We really enjoyed riding across the bridge and seeing the city on bikes. Then we headed down to Fisherman’s Warf and took a ride on the historic cable car to China Town. We had an amazing and authentic Chinese dinner in the middle of China Town. As we walked back to our car, we decided to walk up Lombard street, the most windy street in the US. We were glad to see so much of the city in such a short amount of time! We headed across the bridge to get to Olema Campground by Point Reyes National Seashore. Of course, it was dark when we got there so we set up our tents with headlamps.

Bridge on the way to San Fran.

Daron, taking a much better pic than us!

Biking to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Cable car ride. Watch how close the one coming the other way gets!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

We woke up tired at about 7:15am this morning and went for a run. It felt great to get out and run again this morning. We decided to drive to Point Reyes National Seashore which was about 20 miles from our campsite. We stopped at this cute, little deli on the way and we got egg, ham, and cheese bagels. They really hit the spot. Point Reyes is a jut out into the Pacific, kind of like a peninsula. There’s a lighthouse on the tip. We walked about a half mile from the parking lot to the tip. It was freezing. They say it’s the windiest point on the Pacific Coast, and I believe it. The normal wind speed is 40 mph and gusts up to 130 mph have been recorded. We didn’t see many humans out there, but we saw lots of animals on this stretch – cows on the road, deer on the mountainside, a few sea lions down on the shore and more of our new favorite animal, elephant seals. As we headed north, we stopped at a little place where we could drive thru a redwood tree. We slightly scraped the side of the van mirror, but no extreme harm done. The windy and hilly road got to us a little bit and by the end of the day we were definitely ready to get out of the car and stop turning. We made our way down to Shelter Cove campground and got to set up our tents in daylight! We enjoyed some pizza sandwiches and s’mores over the fire. We were practically the only ones in the campground, which was right next to the ocean, but the owner was really nice and even gave us more firewood because he thought our fire looked a little small. He was right because we were trying to conserve firewood. It started to sprinkle as we headed for bed and continued to rain throughout the night.

For some reason, we didn't take pics this day... check out Daron's drive through redwood tree and Point Reyes pics in his album. http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2020115&id=153800542&ref=mf

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Today we woke up to a slightly wet tent and rainy weather. It was hard to get up hearing the rain on the tent and knowing we would have to pack all of the wet gear up. We checked out the cove right by the campground on our way out and it was really pretty. We drove the "Avenue of Giants" in Humboldt Redwoods State Park and roamed around in the huge redwoods. Highway 101 also brings you right through Redwoods National Park in northern California. We stopped at Harris Beach State Park and Port Orfords Heads State Park. We also crossed the Oregon state line today! The weather was typical Oregon weather- gray with intermittent mists and sunshine. Everything was lush and incredibly green because of it. We camped at Sunset Bay State Park near Coos Bay. It was one of our favorite places to camp because it was almost like camping in a rainforest and the shore line was amazing. We headed to Fisherman’s Grotto for a family dinner of clam chowder, beer-battered shrimp, fish, and fries. We thought it was only fitting to have a dinner like this since we were on the coast of Oregon. We were the only people at the restaurant, so they started to close the place down as we were leaving. On our way out, we had a problem with the remote car opener and we were locked out. We were basically stranded in a tiny town with no car or supplies. Plus, all of our cell phones were in the car and none of us even had a coat on us. It was raining, windy, and cold. The restaurant owner graciously let us stay in the restaurant with her while we waited for a locksmith to come and bail us out of our dilemma, which took about 1.5 hours. We never locked all the doors of the van again because we did not want to spend the majority of our trip waiting for AAA! Again, we set up our campsite in the dark but this time you have to add pouring rain to the mix. It was tough, so we had to remind ourselves how much we actually do like to camp and how much $$ we were saving.

Why didn't we take pictures? Oh yeah, cause we are leaving that to Daron!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

We woke up from spending the night in the pouring rain to find our tent wasn’t that wet inside. Whew! Neither of us slept well – we were freezing and fighting over the blankets and sleeping bag. The campsite ended up being the nicest and best-maintained one so far. The trees and shrubs and landscaping looked like a rainforest again. After some driving we stopped and took some pics at Heceta Head Lighthouse which is apparently one of the most photographed spots in Oregon. We then stopped at Cape Lookout State Park and hiked the Three Cape Scenic Loop which is a 5-mile round trip trail to the coast. It was great to get out of the van and do some hiking. It was really muddy in parts, nearly impassable, but it turned out to be well-worth the trouble. It was a semi-challenging hike with lots of ups and downs (at least for us because we are used to flat). There were plenty of incredible vistas, and when we got to the end, we really felt like we had accomplished something. After we stopped at Safeway to pick up dinner, we headed to our campsite. It was a family-owned campground in Cannon Beach, OR. It was a cute little place with tall trees and we ended up being the only campers in the whole place. We cooked a dinner of hot dogs (Ballpark, all beef, yummy), brats (no good), baked beans and chips.

View from the hike.

Friday, June 11, 2010

We woke up to another cloudy morning, but were happy it was not raining. We got out of our campsite in record time (8:00am) and headed down to Cannon Beach. There is a protected marine garden that was really cool to see in low tide. We saw tons of sea anemone and starfish and learned that starfish eat by pushing their stomachs into muscles and digesting the food while their stomach is out of their bodies. It was fascinating to see. Our next stop was Olympic National Park, which was a huge park—nearly 1600 square miles! Olympic National Park is incredible because it hosts three different types of ecosystems- coastal, rainforest, and mountain. We wanted to make sure to see all 3, so we first stopped at Ruby Beach which was a pebble beach. From there we went to the Hoh rainforest and did some hiking on the Hall of Mosses trail. It was almost surreal to be in the rainforest- everything was blanketed in green with ferns shooting up all over. The river was crystal clear with lots of plants growing in it too. The rainforest has an annual average of 142 inches of rain (in comparison, Seattle has 32 inches). Think about that- it’s crazy! Next we headed across the park (almost 3 hours) to Hurricane Ridge to see some mountain views. We were pleasantly surprised at the beauty of the mountains and the amount of snow that was still on them. On the way up, I started to talk about my fear of bears at night and how I didn’t want to get the food out for dinner because it would attract them. They were all telling me to chill out, when I looked to my right and saw a bear about 50 yards from our van! We slammed on the brakes and watched it for awhile—mark it in the books folks, we’ve seen a bear in real-life! By the time we got back to the campground which was in the middle of the forest, it was dark. We did still have another blazing fire with hotdogs, beans, and s'mores. I made sure to shine the flashlight all around as we were eating to make sure we weren’t being hunted.

Canon Beach at low tide.

For Twilight Fans.....even though I haven't read or watched them! I had to wait for a group of really excited high school girls to move before I took the pic.

Ruby Beach. This was the "sand."

Hoh Rainforrest.

Hurricane Ridge.

Saturday, June 12, 2010
We woke up to an absolutely beautiful and clear day. It was a good thing, because today we were going to be out of the car and exploring Seattle. We packed up our camping stuff for the last time, which by the way, after a week of setting up and tearing down every day, we were professionals. We started the day at the Olympic Bagel Company which we fell in love with! Since Olympic National Park is a peninsula, we decided to take the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry across the water to save some driving time. You drive your car right in the ferry which was pretty cool. Once in Seattle, we made our way through Pike Place Market, which was insane! There were so many people out and about because of the nice weather. There were also a lot of musicians lining the streets for entertainment. We stopped at the original Starbucks and enjoyed the culture of the city. We even visited the famous gum wall on Post Alley known as one of the top 10 germiest places to visit in the U.S. We strolled down by the bay and watched all of the sailboats. Daron and Rachael went up into the Space Needle while we continued roaming the streets. I didn’t really have an idea as to what Seattle would be like. I love San Francisco and didn’t expect to love Seattle as much as I did. It’s a beautiful area with the water and mountains surrounding it, plus it’s very artsy and modern. The people there are a little out there, but we absolutely loved our visit. We finished our tour of the city with dinner out on the dock. We decided to stay in a hotel because Daron and Rachael had a very early flight the next morning. It ended up being a nice hotel and we were all really excited when we got to the room. We enjoyed our final hours with Daron and Rachael—they would be leaving us at 4am.

On the ferry heading to Seattle...

Pike Place Market.

Ryan adding his piece to the huge gum wall. We dedicate this picture to Joel Penton who once questioned our love for Jesus after we threw a piece of gum out the car window.

Space Needle.

Sunday, June 13, 2010
Waking up in a bed feels awesome. We headed to Mars Hill Church in Seattle where Mark Driscoll is the pastor. He is the preaching pastor for this well-known church in Seattle and we have listened to a lot of his sermons online. You can check his teachings out here: www.marshillchurch.org. We were bummed to find out that the sermon was actually a video. But, it was neat because he was preaching on the book of Luke when Jesus calmed the storm in the middle of the sea and he was actually standing in front of the Sea of Galilee. He led a trip and did a bunch of preaching at the different places. After church, we headed on to Vancouver, BC. It was only a 2.5 hour trip. We ate lunch and then rented bikes to bike around Stanley Park- a world renowned park. A bike/pedestrian trail takes you all the way around a peninsula right along the water. The weather was gorgeous so there were literally thousands of people and bikers everywhere. It was nuts. We saw the Olympic torch, which was awesome. I’m kind of obsessed with the Olympics so I just kept visualizing the Olympics being held there. We drove around a little and then headed to our hotel in North Vancouver. It was called the Lonsdale Quay and it was above this indoor market/mall--- pretty cool.

Biking in Vancouver. Blue shirts, gray bottoms, and blue helmets.

Olympic Torch!

Monday, June 14, 2010
This morning we didn’t get up until 9:30am. Now this may not seem that late, but we went to bed at 10:30pm. I knew I was exhausted, but I didn’t think I could sleep hard for 11 hours. We had forgotten what it was like to feel rested, but now we remembered! We were excited to head north to Whistler, BC. We took the Sea to Sky Hwy up to Whistler which we had heard to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world. That was hard to imagine because we had just driven up the west coast and seen some unbelievably beautiful views. But they were right--this topped it all. We thought we were just going to drive straight to Whistler but we ended up making several stops at provincial parks. Two of our favorite stops were Shannon Falls and Brandywine Falls. They both had trails that led back to these amazing waterfalls. Once we got to Whistler, we checked into our hotel that we would be staying at for the next 3 days. Whistler Village is SO cute. It is this little resort village tucked in the valley of the Blackholm and Whistler mountains. Mountains are literally all around you. We walked around and then ate a Mongolian restaurant.

Shannon Falls.

Brandywine Falls..... loved it.

Ry and I.

Amazingly clear river.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Today we slept in and then headed out to mountain bike. Let me preface this by saying that Whistler is one of the premier skiing destinations in the world—as I look out of the hotel window, I can see the Whistler mountain that has the ski slopes for the 2010 Olympics Alpine Skiing. Since there is only a little bit of snow left at the tops of the mountain, they turn the mountain into a mountain biking park—said by many to be the best in the world. The lifts take you up to the top of the mountain bike trails. There are bike rental places everywhere and serious mountain bikers are here. We decided to rent bikes and go to some trails that were near Whistler village instead of pay for the lift tickets. There are endless miles of hiking and biking trails—you could spend days out there! We started out on easy trails, which were doable but not easy. They were gravel travels but we were going up and down and winding around. Then we decided that since we were such pros, we would hit up the intermediate trails. Intermediate for them= extremely hard for us! We were literally biking on the sides of mountains (sorry, mom and dad) and over huge rocks, roots, and skinny bridges. We were winding all around too. I wiped out 3 or 4 times and have the scrapes and bruises to show for it. As if there couldn’t be anymore “firsts” on this trip, I had another first. We had been biking hard for over 3 hours and we went back out to do some easy trails for a little bit before we turned the bikes back in. We were already really tired, but we thought if we just stayed on easy trials, it would be hard, but we would be ok. Well, we ended up getting a little lost and got back on the intermediate trails. For the first time in my life, my legs completely ran out of juice. They were worthless. When we had to walk our bikes up a really difficult part, I could hardly do it. It was one of the weirdest and most challenging experiences of my life. Funny thing is, I really liked it. On our way back, Ryan’s bike chain snapped. Good thing we were at the top of the mountain! He rode it down without pedaling and just using his brakes. Ryan absolutely loved the mountain biking. He would yell when he went all out down the hills and around the curves. I can’t believe how fast he went! We ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory and then watched cable tv in bed....... which is serious vacation for us!

A peak at what the mountain biking was like.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010
We woke up sore. Real sore. But, we remembered our biking from yesterday and felt hard-core. I told Ryan how I couldn’t get to sleep last night because I felt like I was mountain biking. He said he was the same way! Ha. We decided to do some hiking around Whistler first thing today. We were hiking on a trail when a lady on a bike came from the other way and said “watch out, a mom and it’s cub are on the trail a little ways back.” You don’t mess with a mom and it’s cub, so we turned around. We had learned that because of how many black bears there are in Whistler, there are actually 1 per square kilometer. Yikes! In the afternoon, we went ziplining. We hiked over bridges and then ziplined across beautiful vistas. One was 2000m long! It was awesome. Sidenote: If anyone watched the Bachelorette with Jillian last year, it was one of the things she did with one of her dates. Crazy thing is, I actually saw that episode and remembered it. It was neat to talk to the tour guides about Whistler because they were locals. We ate at the Longhorn Saloon and had the best chicken fajitas of our lives. Then it was back to the room to watch cable tv in bed!

Beautiful. The sky was SO blue.

Zip-Lining..

Crazy Ry!

Whistler Village from the last Zip-Line.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Slept in. We woke up to a cloudy day in Whistler. We took our time packing up and headed out about 12pm. About 20 min. in, we had someone honk at us and tell us we had a flight tire. Great. We ALWAYS get flat tires. Honestly, we’ve had almost 10 since we’ve been married. We call it the Sealscott curse because my family always gets them too. Luckily, the cap was missing so we bought a new one, pumped up the tire and we were good to go. We had a 4.5 hour drive back to Seattle where we stayed the night. Traffic ended up being pretty bad the whole way back which was weird. We were lucky to have hardly any traffic the whole time. Flight home is at 6:15am in the morning. Sad to be leaving, but excited to go home too.

Ok, this is EMBARASSING. On our way back, we stopped to take one last hike. For some reason, my fear of bears and mountain lions took over and well, you'll see...........

IN SUMMARY....

This trip was really special to us and we are very thankful we were able to do it. We got to spend some quality time with our good friends, Daron and Rachael, who we don’t get to see very much. We got to spend some quality time together as a couple without the distractions of daily life. We learned a lot about other parts of the country and have a greater appreciation for untouched nature. And, if you made it to the very end and read of all of this....... you rock!