Had a Slight Change in Plans

Hola compadres,

Had a slight change in plans this week. The last time I wrote, we were planning on camping in Olympic Park. Well, that didn't happen. When we woke up on Wednesday it was pouring down rain, and I don't camp in the rain very well. Peter and I picked up another passenger, Stephanie. She's travelling alone too and decided to jump in with us for a few days. Since it was raining, we had to come up with an alternate plan. We eventually decided to go to Seattle for a few days instead. I was originally supposed to be in Seattle next week before making my way home. Instead, I came here now and will then head to Vancouver this afternoon. I decided I'm going to spend my last couple weeks in Canada instead of driving back east through the U.S. I guess Yellowstone will have to be on my next trip.

Our last night in Seaside was fun. After my last post, we got a canoe and paddled up the river to the ocean. It was fun until it started sucking us out into the ocean, we had to paddle like crazy to get out of it. That evening, I introduced Peter and Stephanie to some cajun food. Seaside had a nice little Bayou restaurant. They liked it. After dinner, we went to Funland. It's a really really big Chucky Cheese. They had never played skeeball, so of course I had to show them how to play...yeah, they beat me.

The next day we got up, saw the rain and adjusted our schedule. We arrived in Seattle about 4:00 and got checked in. When we got here, we checked the Mariners schedule and saw this was their last game at home for a couple weeks. We made our way to the stadium and bought some tickets on the street. It was a good game, tied up at 5-5 until the bottom of the 8th when the Mariners scored the go ahead run. Peter and Stephanie had a great time, better than they were expecting. Safeco Field is very nice, we got to see it with the roof open and closed. After the game we made our way back to the hostel where we ran into Adam, the Aussie, and Elisa, the girl from Milan we met in Portland. We sat around and chatted awhile before calling it an evening.

Thursday, Peter, Adam, Elisa and I went to the Freemont district. It was supposed to be a cool little neighborhood with shops, cafes, etc... I guess I've seen enough of these on my trip, I wasn't too impressed. I then left the group and went to the Experienced Music Project. I'm glad I did, it was pretty good. They had so much Jimi Hendrix memorabilia, it was cool. He really was a prodigy, they had artwork he did when he was in school and it's very good. He was talented in so many ways. I came back and met the gang to see Elisa off, she's heading to San Francisco. The hostel provided dinner last night, I was impressed. They had pasta, meatballs, green salad, many vegetables and bread. It was great for free. The breakfast they have here is great too. You can cook your own eggs, waffles, toast and they even have fresh fruit....all free. Last night, we went up in the Space Needle. The Seattle skyline is great at night, it really is a beautiful city.

We leave here in a little bit to go to Vancouver, BC. I'm gonna lose my travel buddies after Monday, Peter and Stephanie are renting a car and heading to Yellowstone. I'll be sad to see them go, but it will be nice being by myself for awhile. I'm sure I'll meet plenty more people along the way.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Dough