I’m too tired to say much more than what Nathan has added already. Only this: as far as we can tell, there is not actually very much happening in the I-States. And Iowa is too fat for its own good.

Nathan Reflects:

What is there to say about this day? We had a nice hotel room, and a pretty comfy bed. And we drove almost 900 miles. Oh, and we crossed two more time zones.

Basically, we got up *early* and we drove. And we drove. And drove. Drove. D-r-o-v-e. We made fabulous progress today, and were happily tired when we stopped at a hotel at 11:15pm, South Bend, Indiana time.

Perhaps the best part about this day was that we were back in the eastern time zone, which meant that tomorrow, when we drive like mad once again, we won’t lose an hour to the vicissitudes of the oddly mapped time-zone boundaries that stripe the U.S. Instead, every hour we drive tomorrow will be an hour in the bank, and one more closer to Boston!

Nigel and Willis, here we come!

Waking up to the reservoir and campground in Utah was certainly splendid, but way too cold! I slept in a little, and by the time I woke up Nathan had made coffee and stared a fire to keep warm. It’s really amazing how quickly and far the temperature can drop in the mountains. Needless to say, we busted out of there pretty quickly! And I don’t think we warmed up until we hit Wyoming.

It was neat having seen parts of Wyoming already, and noticing that the sections along 80 were actually a little different from those along 90: mainly, flatter and drier. We stopped at a rest stop and read about the different types of sage brush that blanket Wyoming. Who knew there are (at least) 13 different species of sage brush!

Our only scheduled stop for the day was Fort Collins, Colorado. My sister, Lisa, and her fiance Eric both went to school at CSU, and I was lucky enough to visit them a few times when they were living in Fort Collins! But Nathan had never been to Colorado, and Eric talked up the beer scene so much that we couldn’t resist a little detour! Fort Collins itself is full of shops and restaurants catering to the CSU crowd. Unfortunately, we didn’t have tons of time to explore, but hopefully we’ll plan a couples-vacation with Lisa and Eric sometime in the future so we can really see more of Colorado! I mean, we didn’t even have a chance to go hiking. How could we visit Colorado and not go hiking? Oh well… next time!

After visiting Odell’s and New Belgium breweries, we hit the road and decided to drive for as long as we could. We both really wanted to try and get home a day early (Saturday instead of Sunday), to maximize the amount of time we had on Sunday for relaxing and reacclimating to our lives in Boston. At this point, our car was getting out of control, and Nathan had resorted to eating chocolate sandwiched between graham crackers for lunch because he was so tired. Note the charming photo Nate took of our backseat, which had become by this point quite full of food and junk (e.g., firewood, bison skull, etc.).

We ended up pulling into our campground in the middle of Nebraska at around 10pm! It’s always sort of an adventure to drive to a campground late at night. I love the feeling of not being able to see your surroundings until the morning after. It feels like Christmas, sort of, when you step out of your tent in the morning and get a feel for what’s around you for the first time! So, with that and the mid-west to look forward to, we pulled together a quick supper and jumped into bed.

Nathan Writes:

Today was the last day of our trip that included a planned destination, and it was one we were both looking forward to quite a bit: Fort Collins, Colorado. Yet, as a mark of our readiness to make miles and time, we were both considering our stop in Fort Collins in light of maximum brevity. How best could we see and do what we wanted to in the quickest amount of time?

It was pretty cold when we got up, not quite as cold as the Black Hills, but cold enough that while Erin slept late I started a fire and huddled by it. After a mildly hurried breakfast and a quick packing up, we were off. The rocky outcrops of Utah quickly gave way to Wyoming and its sage brush. Before long we dropped down into Colorado, where the landscape gave way to trees and mountains. It sometimes feels like these states have managed to each construct a unique landscape…never mind nature, history, and geological time. Print enough postcards and take enough photographs, and eventually things have to remain the same. Imagine if trees started to grow in Wyoming, would they have to cut them down to maintain the picture-perfect swaths of sage brush?

Anyhow, given our somewhat overriding desire to make it as far into Nebraska as possible, we stopped rather briefly in Fort Collins. This was decidedly unfair to Fort  Collins, as it appears to be a nice town to spend some time in. We kicked off our whirlwind stop at a Mexican restaurant that served up some excellent burritos and flautas.

After that came Odell’s Brewing Company. We sampled a handful of their beers, all of which were very good in an understated kind of way. Their IPA and Wry Rye Pale Ale, an experimental beer that was draft-only, both caught our attention.

We then packed up shop and headed over to the famed New Belgium Brewery. There we were met at the door by their greeter, the nicest guy, who chatted us up about Melrose, Mass., and gave us tokens for a couple of free beers. In fact, everyone we encountered who worked there was super-nice, as were the beers which were all very good. New Belgium started very small and is now a pretty big brewery with annual production of 450,000+ barrels. They have a deservedly great reputation for their beers, all of which are in the (no surprise) Belgian tradition. Most recently, they’ve branched out further afield with their Lips Of Faith series, a collection of beers that includes barrel-aged brown sour ale La Folie, the lambic-inspired Transatlantique Kriek, and other unique beers that don’t fit so comfortably in their regular lineup. We got to try a number of their beers, and all of them were very good, and particularly refreshing on what had turned out to be a warm day. The Tripel, Fleur Missuer, and Dandelion Ale (the last two part of the Lips Of Faith series) were especially good.

We left Fort Collins happy that we’d stopped, but realistically with our verve to get further east unabated. And so we trucked on into Nebraska where we found a campsite very late in the evening, and crashed in our tent, very tired at the end of our longest day yet (in fact, this was the first day that we had driven into the night!).

We made pretty good and uneventful progress through Sacramento and past Tahoe. The landscape turned mountainous again, as we drove through the Sierra Nevadas. It’s so neat to sit in the passenger seat and really get a good look at the rock outcrops and geology and landscape! On this trip, I have learned to love the signs of forest fires. Morbid in some senses, I guess, but I always have hope that the remnants I’m seeing are results of natural and not anthropogenic forest fires.

It’s funny to be driving over all of these mountains and through all of these forests and then suddenly come upon a real man-made wonder: Reno. Our friend Tom sent us all sorts of great suggestions for things to do in Reno, most of which we had to postpone to our next trip because of timing! As it turns out, most of the good stuff in Reno isn’t open at 9am! The one really special thing we saw on our trip follows:

Seriously, can you believe this guy?? I don’t want to pay too much attention to this truck modification, but SERIOUSLY CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS GUY? I have to admit, I’ve seen a pair of these once before in Boston. And I was sort of excited that Nathan had a chance to see them this time around because he thought I was making it up when I called him from Chestnut Hill to tell him someone had an electric yellow pair of balls hanging off of their pickup truck. Anyway, thought this photo might make some of our more crude/lewd friends smile. It sure did make me laugh!

We drove and drove through all of Nevada and almost all of Utah, staying overnight at the most peaceful campground in Rockport State Park. The campground was probably only peaceful because it was a Wednesday night, making us even more lucky to be one of the few campers enjoying this gorgeous and huge conservation area. In fact, there were so few people that the wild deer had decided it was safe to graze right along the campground! Arriving just as the sun set behind the mountains, over the reservoir, was pretty special. We lit a big fire and had dinner by candlelight and crawled into bed to rest up for another long day headed home.

Nathan Says:

Oof! Long days and short nights. Or rather, long days on the road and short nights of rest. This is what the remainder of the trip holds for Erin and I. Yes, we’re both looking forward to being home, sleeping in our own bed, not having to drive several hundred miles each day. But even still, given our druthers we’d rather take our time on the way back, much as we did on the way out: stopping in interesting towns, camping at night, etc. Unfortunately, we just don’t have enough time. We left California on Wednesday morning and only have 4-5 days to get back to the exact opposite side of the country.

So here we go. Leaving California in the morning was a bit sad, in some ways it felt like the end of the relaxing, just-for-fun part of the trip, and the beginning of its business-end. But we were ready too, and hit the road by 8. Next thing you knew, Nevada, the vast brown, scrub-brush and rock landscape that it was. Then Utah, which differed only in the swapping of scrub-brush and rock for a salt-ridden vista. Very neat though.

We stopped to camp just before dark at a remarkably bucolic Rockport State Park. When we pulled into the campsite it was very quiet, nearly deserted. Our site lay on the shores of the small lake and a couple of small groups of deer were munching on grass nearby and warily watching us set up our campsite.

It was a nice way to end the first of our several days of pushing on across the country, and it felt like a good start. We covered about 650 miles and crossed into a new time zone. Nothing feels so much like progress as losing an hour when crossing from one mile to the next…

3) The UC Davis Plant Pathology Department

4) Russian River Brewing

We started the day by visiting the UC Davis Plant Pathology department. Stephanie is starting her 4th year of the doctorate program, working with a pathogen I keep forgetting the name of, which affects pine trees. If anyone in the Northeast knows anyone else who might need an extremely capable, sarcastic, charming, and brilliant Plant Pathology PhD, let us know! Stephanie is basically stuck anywhere but New England because of job availability. The poor girl.

The funniest part about visiting the department was meeting a famous tree guy, who picked our brains for almost an hour about the art and science of blogging! In all seriousness, Mike Wingfield is sort of a big deal in the forest and agri biotech world. It was so fun to sit down with him and talk about blogs! It’s always fun to meet incredibly accomplished and smart people, and feel like they not only have something to teach you, but are willing to listen and learn from your own experiences.

So, we showed Mike around WordPress, and he showed us around the galleries of the FABINET website, and taught us about this crazy bar trick that his friend invented when he was in Madison, wherein someone balances a beer bottle on their forehead and then proceeds to do a somersault and drink the bottle of beer without ever touching it with his hands. Photos are available here. Thanks for spending some time with us Mike! We didn’t have a chance to practice the beer trick with Stephanie, but we’ll definitely make sure to find you next time we’re in Davis so you can give us a demonstration!

After spending way too much time in the Plant Pathology Department, we jumped in the car and hit the road for Santa Rosa, a funny little town north of San Francisco without much of a reputation. Why would we visit then, you ask? Four words: Russian River Brewing Company. Actually, by the time reached California I was sort of beered-out (i.e., done drinking beer), and Stephanie is more of a wine connoisseur. But last time we visited Davis we went to the brewery, and we thought it would be fun to revisit and see what had changed!

On our way to the brewery we stopped at Cline vineyards, a pretty well-known maker of zinfandels. The tasting room itself, like most of the large Napa and Sonoma tasting rooms, was full of all sorts of people we didn’t care for! But the guy who was serving us wine had a good sense of humor and liked that we’d drive all the way from Boston, which made the experience much more pleasurable. The gardens around Cline are pretty gorgeous, and they keep these giant, murky pools of water full of mud sharks and turtles. Fun! They also have the most incredible collection of pheasants! There must have been 10 cages full of different species of rare and beautiful pheasants, all kept in the company of doves that made the funniest giggling noises I’ve ever heard. It wasn’t really clear how pheasants were connected to zinfandel, but we didn’t ask too many questions! Rather, we just strolled the gardens and enjoyed the sun. PS: Who is this creepy dude outside the tasting room?

After Cline, we arrived in Santa Rosa, and had lunch at the Russian River Brewing Company Nathan will probably talk ad nauseum about how awesome this place is, so I won’t say too much here. Only that they serve these little “beer bites,” which are pieces of leftover pizza dough baked with cheese and served with a marinara dipping sauce. Perfect beer food! Yum!! Our server was pretty aloof, which is disconcerting because I couldn’t figure out how to talk with him, and the giant ponytail he had stuffed up his ball cap made me feel like he was definitely interesting enough to converse with. Eventually, almost an hour after we arrived, he engaged in the slightest display of socializing. He heard us talking about Wall Drug and walked by the table and murmered sarcastically, while walking, “Wall Drugggg…” Later I asked him if he’d been and we had a brief interaction, and I said when he walked away, “Rock and Roll.” Steph looked at me and asked, “Rock and roll?” My excuse for saying that to the waiter was that I couldn’t figure out how else to interact with him so wtf! For all I know “Rock and Roll” is the only english phrase he really understands! But alas, he just kept walking. I love strange and shy people!

We swung through a few bookshops in Santa Rosa, but there doesn’t seem to be much else going on in that town. So we decided to begin making our way back to Davis, stopping in Sonoma for a little wine tasting at Roche and a walk through the farmer’s market. Roche makes a selection of pretty enticing chardonnay wines, and also some of the grossest “sweet” wines I’ve ever tasted, including a “blush” that tasted like kool aid! The winery used to be out closer to Davis, on a giant hill down the road from Cline, but they recently moved to Sonoma Center. I have a feeling that since the move their wines have become increasingly geared toward the general wine-drinking public, and less towards critical/careful wine drinkers. The three employees we interacted with were pretty hoakey, but really sociable, which is a perfect fit for the Sonoma tourist crowd, I bet. My favorite part of this visit was when the woman hosting the tasting tried to tell us about the purpose of rose bushes on the end of the rows of grape vines, a topic Stephanie and Nathan and I had been discussing earlier as we drove by all of the vineyards! Stephanie, with all of her plant pathology/disease wisdom, informed us that rose bushes were historically used as a canary plant to detect disease that could affect the grape vines. But science proved, ages ago, that roses are actually affect by a totally different mildew than the grapes! Meaning that they are useless as an indicator for disease. The poor woman didn’t know what to say when we disproved her token science story, and after that sort of ignored us–especially, I think, when I gave Stephanie a funny face upon drinking the kool-aid wine. I have to note that Steph didn’t willingly engage in any of this urban-legend debunking, but rather nodded her head and clarified as I tried to explain to the lady why roses are useless in vineyards. I am the one who was being arrogant/rude. Stephanie is an angel. Nonetheless, we bought a bottle of their french oak reserve chardonnay anyway–which was one of the first chardonnays I’ve had that I could actually stomach! It was only slightly buttery/oakey, and quite crisp. Yum!
After Roche, we walked through the Sonoma farmers’ market and bought some goodies for dinner. I was desperately looking for this guy who visits the Davis market, and sells the most incredible Afghani food! But alas, again, he doesn’t travel to Sonoma. So sad.

Once we got back to Davis, we cleaned up and cooked dinner! Sitting in the front yard during dusk was so wonderful, and the weather cooperated with us (surprise!). We spent a good part of the night eating and drinking wine and hanging out with Steph and her awesome roommate and fellow PhD student, Marlena. During the conversation, someone asked what our favorite part of the day was. Nathan and I both agreed that the one thing that was really special about being in Davis was that one evening, cooking and catching up with Steph, meeting new friends, and taking some time off the road with some of our favorite people! Even though we were as far from home as we’d get on this trip, and exhausted from driving, the saying “the home is where the heart is” really rang true with us that night. Leaving in the morning was going to be hard.

Nathan’s Addendum

What a fun day. In fact, visiting Stephanie in California is always fun, and we’ve been looking forward to going back ever since the last time we visited. This time we went without much of a plan of where to go and what to do, and so the day started lazily. It was great fun watching Erin instruct Mike Wingfield in how to setup a blog, and reminded me yet again of the reality that we can’t all be experts in everything. Here was a brilliant scientist receiving guidance on something that folks such as Erin and I take for granted. It was much fun, and now you have to go visit his blog (you better start updating, Mike!).

The three of us ended up deciding to go to Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, and while en route followed our inspiration (or really, Stephanie’s good idea) and stopped at the Cline winery. Cline produces a wide range of wines, including several single-vineyard zinfandels, and it was great fun tasting through their selection and visiting their zoo of brightly-colored pheasants. After this, it was on to Russian River Brewing.
We’d actually gone to Russian River during our last visit. But back then I only knew enough to know that we should stop since we were nearby, but not why. Now, being deeply stewed in beer knowledge I knew the why as well, and so the visited was rather highly anticipated. And RRBC did not let us down. Stephanie and I sampled our way through the 13 or so beers that they had on tap. They basically had two groups of offerings: Americans and Belgians. The Americans selections featured 3 IPAs (including Blind Pig and Pliny The Elder), alongside a stout, a steam beer, and a couple of others. The Belgian side featured several of their Brettanomyces inflected beers, including Consecration (which was delicious), Temptation, Sanctification, and a handful of their Belgian abbey-style ales. All of them were fabulous beers, and it was great fun to be able to sample so many of the beers that I had read so much about in the couple of years since we’d last visited.

After this we swung through Sonoma to taste some wines at the Roche winery (or really, their outpost in downtown Sonoma). After their selection of chardonnays and pinot noirs, we were looking forward to returning home to Stephanie’s and a quiet evening making dinner and hanging out on their patio. This is the sort of evening that Erin and I have enjoyed so much during the last couple of days, beginning with our stay in La Conner, and our quiet evening “at home” in Portland. It was so relaxing and fun to sit on the patio, grill up some sausages, and just take it easy.

And darnit there was a lot of roads! It was so exciting to see the landscape change so much between the Pacific Northwest and Davis CA. Coniferous forests and lush mountains quickly changed to shrubs, grassland and dry hills. Needless to say, not much attracts Nathan and me to California–except for friends!

Our trip took a little longer than planned because of some traffic we hit along the way. But we eventually arrived at Stephanie’s abode, where she was cooking us the most wonderful, vegetable-laden dinner! Actually, I’m going to revise my earlier statement. Not much attracts us to California except for friends and produce.

Have we told you yet that our car is a total ‘effin mess? Since we haven’t been camping, there’s been less reason to take all of the stuff out of our back seat and rearrange. Furthermore, we have decided not to wash the thing until we get back to MA (although the guys at Jiffylube sweetly vacuumed the front seat for us). I can’t wait to see how much grosser it gets when we get home!

After spending a few hours catching up over dinner, we walked into downtown Davis to get frozen yogurt and people watch. It got cold pretty quickly overnight, but still, the weather in Davis is pretty surreal. Sunny and cloudless almost every day! Stephanie said if you’re planning a party anytime after May you basically never have to worry about scheduling a rain date. I’m bitter, of course. Not much more to say! Let me jump and catch up on Day 13, which was definitely more eventful and fun! Plus I’ve run out of photos to post about today!

Upon arriving in Portland, we went straight to Hopworks Urban Brewery, this great little bar on the east side of the city. For lunch I had this amazing sandwich, called the Vegisaurus–which included tofu and all sorts of Mediterranean fixins, reminding me of lunches I’ve had with Adrianna and Rachel. I miss those girls!

We played a little pool at HUB–it was nice to stand still for a while! I lost twice, which was sort of sad. I did rally a few times and almost win both of the games we played, but alas–I don’t have enough practice yet to really be decent at pool!

I guess HUB just moved into a new venue, and they’ve decorated the bar with a zillion old bike frames. Very cool!

After pool and lunch, we made our way downtown and spent a little bit of time in Powell’s–arguably the most crazy bookstore, ever. I gave a homeless guy some Starburst fruit candies because we didn’t have any other food. Lettme tell ya, there are lots of homeless people around Powell’s. I should have brought more candy to hand out!

We made sure to hit up a Stumptown and spend some time writing postcards and imbibing on yummy coffee. The food and beverage culture in Portland is so special. It feels like you can’t turn a corner without finding a nice restaurant or coffee shop or bar. Needless to say, Portland is a lot cooler than Boston in that (and other) respect.

Staying at Hillary and Kjell’s was such a blessing! We went to the Whole Foods in town and bought some Columbia River salmon, and went back to Hillary and Kjell’s home and cooked dinner together! I’ve gotta say that one of the things I dislike most about being on the road is eating out all of the time. Cooking is one of my favorite, most relaxing hobbies, and being away from the kitchen for so long is sort of painful. Fortunately, we’re heading down to Davis California to visit Stephanie for a few days! And damn! that woman can cook.

Nathan’s Write-Up:

It’s a sign of how worn down I’ve become that when I woke up on the morning that we were heading to Portland I wasn’t even feeling very excited. Not much sense of anticipation, not much building excitement for the beery adventures that awaited us in our favorite-city-away-from-home. Because we had a 4-hour drive in front of us, I/we dragged ourselves out of bed early, stumbled through breakfast, packed the car, and hit the road.

In fact, I even slept a bit on the ride down! The shame of it…

Our first stop in Portland was Hopworks Urban Brewery, a small, 20-barrel brewery on the East side, and one of the three beer-related destinations on our itinerary. Here we began by grabbing a sampler of the 10 beers that they had on tap (all of which were very good), and then moved on to lunch, afterwards I indulged in one additional pint: the single-barrel, bourbon-barrel-aged Deluxe Organic Ale. This is their strong ale aged in Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels, and was very good. A couple of games of pool later and we were on to our second destination of the day: Jiffy Lube. After nearly 4,000 miles, our car was very happy for an oil change!

Next up: Belmont Station, a beer store and beer bar also on the East side. This place is renowned for a great selection of bottled beer and a tap selection of about 10 “uncommon” beers. We picked up a pint and wandered the shelves, where I selected a few bottles of beer that I had been hoping to find during our trip.

So far, so good. Fatigue aside, our day in Portland was going quite nicely, and the next stop was none other than Powell’s City Of Books. We wandered and got lost in the room upon room of books, and after picking up a book or two and a handful of postcards, we began to think about our dinner plans.

Hillary and Kjell had been gracious enough to let us stay at their apartment while they were away, and so we leapt at the chance to cook a dinner at “home”. And so, after stopping by the Full Sail Brewery along the riverfront, we hit up a Whole Foods, and Erin proceeded to cook a delicious poached salmon.

We finished it all up with a Cary Grant movie (Alfred Hitchock’s Suspicion), and hit the hay. Tired as we were, Portland had been good to us once again. Lots of amazing beer, Powell’s fabulous books, and an oil change(!). Now all we need is a car wash…

I gotta tell you, waking up in the morning and not having to drive anywhere–after 9 consecutive days and 3,800 miles of driving–was a hard adjustment. Nathan and I were both sort of confused about what to do with ourselves and a full morning all to ourselves. We walked around and visited some antique shops, and this wild vintage lighting store. Then we remembered something really fun that we wanted to do: laundry! It was great to sit outside of the little La Conner laundromat and play backgammon while we waited for our clothes to dry. What a sleepy little tourist town, very reminiscent of the Vineyard or Rockport, MA.

Our afternoon was so relaxing. We had time to take a nap (what a luxury), and grab lunch at a little Thai restaurant in town. Then we got ourselves beautified for the wedding and headed up to Anacortes. I was desperately on the hunt for a fireworks store, so I could bring 500 sparklers to the party, but alas: the city of Anacortes doesn’t appear to permit fireworks sold anywhere, especially on a Saturday night! I’m so sorry Hillary and Kjell! Make sure to have another big fun party soon and I’ll bring the sparklers.

The wedding itself was so gorgeous. Held on a point in Anacortes, at Kjell’s dad’s house, all of Hillary and Kjell’s closest family and friends spent the afternoon drinking beer and eating food and play crazy lawn games, like bongo ball. After cocktails and dinner, Kjell and Hillary walked down the aisle/porch and had a wonderful little marriage ceremony overlooking the water and sunset. A giant sailboat sailed by as they said their vows and family members gave speeches. Later in the night we kicked off the wild and crazy dance party in the barn, including a smoke machine and trippy lights! We were so sad to leave the party at the end of the night, but hopeful that we’ll be back to visit again soon. The Pacific Northwest is so gorgeous, how could we stay away??

Nathan’s Word

I woke up in the morning with Hank Williams’ “Ramblin’ Man” in my head, and for obvious reasons. This day was a lull in our travels, when we would be staying in La Conner for the day and going to Hillary and Kjell’s wedding in nearby Anacortes. Both my brain and body were used to the rhythm of waking, packing, starting the car and rolling out of town, en route to Somewhere-Else, USA.

While the break from driving several hours a day was welcome, it definitely took some getting used to. And so I hummed the words to “Ramblin’ Man” as we made our way down to breakfast, where we languidly drank cups of coffee and perused the morning paper.

La Conner is a bucolic little town on the coast of Washington, a weekend-getaway kind of place for folks from Seattle. We spent the day walking around town, doing laundry (so nice to have clean clothes again!), and napping. The wedding itself was great fun. Hillary and Kjell are awesome people, and a great couple, and seeing them get married was super. Erin’s and my batteries were both pretty drained by this point, and so it was nice to sit on the lawn, chat a bit with folks we’d just met, and stare at the beautiful water in the bay. We even saw a seal swimming in the water!

I went to bed at the end of the day, and was honestly ready to hit the road again. At this point, it just felt weird to be in one place so long! Plus, I was full of anticipation for the day of rollicking fun that we had planned for Portland the next day!

Eastern Washington is really quite beautiful, although much more dry than I’d imagined. The land was sand-colored and dusty almost the entire drive out, until we hit the Cascade Mountains! I’m pretty sure we caught a glimpse of Mt. Rainier en route, and got out at the Columbia River to check out the view. Gosh dangit, it was windy up there!

We rolled into La Conner around 3pm, and checked into our dreamy little hotel called the La Conner Country Inn. We grabbed some of the most delicious fried oysters at the neighboring pub, and went over to La Conner Brewing to meet Hillary and Kjell and all of their closest friends and family for the rehearsal dinner.

First off, Hillary and Kjell are basically two of the most awesome people ever. They’ve been together for about 10 years now, and they’re *finally* tying the knot. When I found out that Kjell proposed I told Hillary to punch him in the arm and say, “You sunofagun!” It was so great to see him at the brewery and be able to punch him in the arm myself. What a welcome, huh! “Hey Kjell! I haven’t seen you in over a year, how are you? Come closer I want to punch you in the arm!” I was astounded at how seemingly relaxed and laid-back they both were, especially considering they were hosting a 130+ wedding party the next day. I guess that’s one of the reasons they’re so awesome.

It was such a pleasure to get to know some of their friends a little better, many of whom live in or around the Portland area. Nathan and I keep trying to build up the cojones to move to the Pacific Northwest, and the more awesome people we meet out there the easier it is to imagine living in the area. Plus, all of Hillary and Kjell’s friends have the greatest names, including but not limited to: Tyson and Laila. I asked Tyson where he got his name from, and he said his parents picked it because it’s the Greek god of wine. His wife Rachel and I looked at each other skeptically, because isn’t Dionysus the Greek god of wine? Tyson reminds me of chicken. Needless to say, I think there needs to be a little etymological investigation around here! Or we can just roll with it and interpret the meaning of the name Tyson however his parents deemed fit and move on because a) this is sort of a boring discussion and b) it doesn’t really matter.

Dinner at La Conner Brewery was fabulous! There was no shortage of pitchers of yummy beer and plates of pizza, nor laughter or the making of new friends. I already have a date with Hillary’s mom (and at least 7 other people) to party on the dance floor tomorrow night! This weekend is so exciting, and we’re so happy for Hillary and Kjell. Congratulation, you guys!!

Nathan’s Addendum:

Rolling into La Conner, a charming little weekend getaway kind of place in northwest Washington, felt remarkable. We’d made it! This was the terminus point of our westward expansion, and here we were. 8 days and 3800 miles had passed, and it felt like it had gone by so fast. Here we were, settling into a quaint little inn where we would stay for the next two nights.

The adjustment will be hard, I’m sure. We’re so used to getting up, eating breakfast, and rolling out of town, that sitting tight for a whole day and not driving to another city will be an odd feeling. But we can also tell that we’re ready for the break. Our bodies and minds are a bit worn out from having so much fun so far.

But the wedding will prove to be a whole different brand of fun than what we’ve experienced on our trip thus far! The rehearsal dinner was at the La Conner Brewing Company, where we met and got to know some of Hillary and Kjell’s fabulous friends and family. Like Erin said, we harbor a small dream of perhaps one day moving out to Portland, and the more folks we meet from there the more enticing that dream becomes.

One of the remarkable things that I’ve discovered out here, is that it seems as though nearly every town, whatever size, has a brewery! La Conner, Anacortes, Bellingham, the list goes on. And they all produce quite good beer. The IPA at La Conner Brewing was especially tasty.

So here we are, catching up on sleep, rest, and generally catching our breath before heading down to Portland on Sunday. Or rather, before the great party that is to be Hillary and Kjell’s wedding on Saturday night. Best of all, they don’t have dance floor…they have a dance barn. I don’t really know what that means, but it sounds awesome! Dance floor here we come!!

Over the past week we’ve become what I like to think of as expert/amateur campers. Meaning, we can set up and break down camp really quickly, but still can’t cook anything yummier than hot dogs. Trish was sweet enough to remind us that there are nitrates in hot dogs. I can’t remember why that’s bad for us, but I trust her research because now that she’s a mom she’s in touch with all of the nutrition and health stuff Nathan and I generally ignore. Thanks for the health tip, Trish!

Anyway, we blew the figurative popsicle stand (i.e., campground) as soon as we were able, and drove, drove, drove like madmen to Spokane. We stopped at Big Sky Brewing in Missoula, which is this company that makes beer with great names like “Trout Slayer” and “Moose Drool.” On our way out of Missoula, we went to a grocery/deli store called Worden’s to pick up lunch. So cute that they labeled our sandwiches “his” and “hers,” right? LOVE IT.

Crossing the border to Idaho was pretty uneventful. We drove through yet another national forest and over the Bitterroot mountain range. Nathan recalls having taken this route on his first cross country road trip (which took place more than a decade ago, which is crazy because more than a decade ago I was in middle school-creepy?), driving down the mountains late at night, in the rain, and getting passed by giant semi trucks flying down the mountain. Driving down the mountains in the middle of a gorgeous summer day was less intimidating and almost boring, for sure.

We arrived in Spokane at a reasonable hour, and checked into the Davenport Hotel. Nathan’s father travels out to Spokane for business a few times a year, and insisted that we stay here–and was generous enough to treat us to a night in one of these luxurious hotel rooms! (Thanks Kevin!) Let me tell you, after four nights of camping (and two consecutive nights without showering) I probably would have felt that just about any hotel was luxurious. Seriously, though, the Davenport is truly one of Spokane’s gems, and we’re so lucky to be able to stay here!

Upon arriving at the hotel, I took a 20-minute shower, and Nathan and I spent some time catching up on the news and relaxing. Then we took a walk over to some of the downtown shops. We had decided to eat at the Elk Public House, which is a pub about a mile outside of downtown. The walk was pretty comfortable, despite the fact that the temperatures in Spokane were bordering on 100F.

The Elk Public House was everything we needed it to be. Not only did they have a great selection of regional beers on draught, but they also had West-Mex food! Yum!

We returned to the hotel in early evening, where we were excited to see that they had turned down our room, turned on the classical music, and left a bar of peanut brittle on our end table. They’d also closed the heavy drapes, which tricked Nathan and me into thinking that it was 11pm. Already exhausted, our melatonin receptors kicked in, and we were in bed at 9:30pm. I’m pretty sure I passed out right around that time, after I was sure to take a second shower just for good measure!

Nathan’s Word:

This day felt much like a day of transition. We’re wrapping up the first leg of our journey, the westward phase, and were in pretty desperate need of a hot shower and a good night’s sleep. After sleeping on the ground for 4 days in a row, and not being able to shower for 2 of those, our bodies felt a bit bruised, and our heads a bit cloudy and sleep-addled.

I woke up at about 6 or 6:30 and puttered around the campground trying desperately to wake up and get everything ready for when Erin awoke. Not too much later we were on the road to Missoula, which was about 2.5 hours away.

At this point in the trip, 2.5 hours is a drop in the bucket, and so the first part of the day felt like a trip down the street. Our first stop was Big Sky Brewing in Missoula, where we had a chance to sample their 8 offerings on draft. Good stuff that whetted our appetite for lunch at Worden’s. And then, back on the road, our excitement at the prospect of showering mounting by the mile.

The Davenport is a pretty remarkable hotel, luxurious in a gilded-era kind of way. Ornate furniture, chandeliers, and rooms, and maids that turn down your room at night and leave peanut brittle on your bedside table. After camping for several days, you just can’t ask for more.

And so the Davenport really marks our transition into the middle part of our trip, where we’ll be visiting with friends, going to Kjell and Hillary’s wedding(!), and not camping for a few days. The first part of our trip has been exhausting, but in a good way. Camping’s been a load of fun, we’ve seen tons of amazing places, and are very ready for the next part of our trip to begin. Hello West Coast!

Waking up in our (very) rustic campsite in Wyoming was pretty spectacular. Over the course of the evening, a handful of other campers had drifted into the grounds (maybe they were turned away from the full Yellowstone campgrounds?), but we were among the first to unzip our tent and greet the day. Amazingly, the coals from the night’s fire were still warm! I guess we didn’t practice good fire prevention technique, since rather than douse the smothering coals with what little water we had, we just threw some leftover hot chocolate on it and called it a night. I was excited to see that the hot chocolate didn’t work to kill the heat, though, because it meant I could turn over some of the leftover logs and restart the fire first thing! Incredible!! (Don’t worry, we definitely doused the fire proper before we left.)

Driving through Yellowstone was everything you would expect! The landscape is diverse and, obviously, beautiful. There’s a reason they turned the region into a National Park, after all! We were lucky to see some bison close-up, along with wolves, ducks, chipmunks, etc. I was sad that we didn’t see any bears!

One thing that was disappointing about Yellowstone was the crowds! I’m not sure why I didn’t anticipate that the bundles of people would put a damper on the drive through the park. But sitting in a line of traffic taking photos of the bison blocking the roads really detracted from the communion with nature. Anyway, as soon as we got past some of the major sites, the roads quieted down a little. We learned to stop at some of the quieter points of interest in the park, like the Canyon! We skipped classics like Old Faithful and Mammoth Hot Springs, but neither of us feels worse off for it because we got to spend time seeing things others would normally skip.

After leaving Yellowstone, we made one stop, to pick up the only souvenir I absolutely needed: a bison skull from a local artisan. Tom Mosher is this crazy mountain man who works with steel and bison skins and skulls and bones, creating some really incredible artwork. We ended up spending almost an hour talking with him about his art and his history as “one of the most renowned bikers in Chicago” or something equally weird and supposedly impressive.

Anyway: Bozeman. Wow! What a great town! Our friend Rachel has told us we’d love the area, and I think she was right. Nathan and I spent some time in their awesome public library, responding to e-mails and updating the blog, then wandered around town to visit the bookstores and post office. A highlight of our experience was spending some time in the Bozeman Brewing Company, where we met a guy who’s brother-in-law lives in Malden! What a small world! We both agreed that if we ever decide to move out west, Bozeman would be at the top of our lists (along with Portland). The vibe there is so laid back, and a little more reflective of how Nathan and I prefer to approach life: in a relaxed, albeit serious and intellectual, manner. Groovy!

We camped again at another rustic campsite, the quietest yet. Nathan went into the woods behind our site to grab some kindling (i.e., pee) and almost stepped on a pair of mourning doves! We heard the yowling of wild dogs or coyotes late at night, too. We stayed up late in front of the fire drinking a growler of Bozeman Brewing Company IPA, and talking about life, history, our dreams for warm showers, etc.

All in all, Day 7 was a really special day. Not only did we get to see some of the most beautiful sections of the country, and revisit some of our geological knowledge, but we also spent a lot of time talking and being together! Over the course of the day, we both realized that there are not a lot of people in this world that you could take a 2.5 week car drive with, let alone spouses! All of this time on the road has really reassured our understanding and appreciation for one another (and our appreciation for our friends and family too). How grateful we are for one another and all of you in our lives!

Nathan’s Part:

Up to this point, this has been my favorite day of the trip. I woke up early, before sleeping beauty, and proceeded to get coffee ready, warm up water for washing (remember, no showers or running water at the campground), and get things ready for us to roll. Erin was really looking forward to seeing Yellowstone, and so we had planned to spend the first part of the day there, before rolling up to Bozeman.

Yellowstone was impressive, but in the context of seeing the other places we’d been already (Black Hills, Badlands, Big Horn National Forest), it didn’t stand out as a completely singular landscape. The opportunity to be within 20 feet of bison, or to see wolves bounding in the woods, and to see the bubbling geysers and high waterfalls, was very neat. But as Erin said, this takes place against a backdrop of traffic and loads of people. Yellowstone is a must-see if you’re out this way, but the moral of the story is to not miss the other fabulous places and things out here (and I don’t mean the Corn Palace)!

After working our way through Yellowstone we tore off for Bozeman, first stopping to get the bison skull (photos to follow). Bozeman was great, a cool little town situated right amidst mountains and plains. The downtown was eclectic with good shops and places to eat, while at the same time not being overly busy or loud. We stopped in at Bozeman Brewing Company for a beer before heading to our campsite. A great little, 1-barrel brewery located a 5 minute walk from Main St., this brewing company was a real find. Good beer, and the coincidence of running into someday who’s heard of Malden!

The campsite was totally rustic, even more so than the previous night’s. We built up a nice big fire, ate some more hot dogs and beans, and grabbed one last night of camping before we’d head into Spokane and a hotel. The best thing about the campsite was how quiet it was. Similar to the night before, we were able to listen to birds and moose cooing at dusk and dawn, their seductive mating cries teasing our ears. Who would have known that the moose’s mating call would be so sonorous?

So why was this my favorite day thus far? It was just so relaxing and fun. We basically puttered in the morning and drank coffee; moseyed through Yellowstone; enjoyed a fun, relaxing time in the cool city of Bozeman; and found a great, out-of-the-way campsite to end the day at. When traveling cross country, what more could you ask for?