What's hot: Mt. St. Helens What's not: The Search for Mt. Ranier Travel lesson of the day: The difference between trips and guilt trips. from Kathy: What happens when the happy trippers have different destinations? Parental Destination: Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier Kid Destination: Sleep in the back seat, occasional text messaging with friends back home. The trip to Mt. St. Helens is a long drive through hills and plains—nothing like the jaw-dropping scenery to which we’ve become accustomed. Travel coo [View Full Entry]

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What's hot: The boat--The Golden Princess What's not: The weather. Travel lesson of the day: Sometimes you just have to go where the road takes you. from Kathy: The Golden Princess A friend of ours pointed out that cruising to Alaska was hardly anything new and different. “Every retiree in the state of Florida has taken an Alaskan cruise,” he said. Pulling in to Seattle’s Pier 30, we find out what he meant. We and 2800 of our new best friends are heading north. The Golden Princess i [View Full Entry]

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We finally go out of Canada after we picked up our passports from the Indian High Commission. We have had to rearrange our "meticulously planned" holiday because of the extension in Vancouver area. Oregon has now been removed from ther itinery but it did allow us to spend a little time in Olympic National Park which was not orignally planned. This was a bit hit and miss as when we arrived at the small ferry terminal we did not have a reservation and this was the last ferry that night. Luck was on our side though and made it to Port [View Full Entry]

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What does it mean to be a master-advance-planner who's nonetheless likely to adapt, improve, or otherwise drastically change at nearly every phase of a decision? Several months ago, I was driving around a back road in north SeaTac when I came upon a fancy new-ish pet boarding facility. I went home and mentioned to the family: "hey, there's a swanky new boarding place in north SeaTac, up on 140-somethingth, but I don't remember what it's called." The family replied: "oh, yes, '! Up on 140-somethingth! We've boarded our dog there and they're fantastic! Yes, we're pret [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Seattle after a mere 4 hour journey up from Portland. We caught a free bus (always a winner) to near our hotel and then headed out to dinner in another microbrewery/pub. Alex had a sampler of all of their 6 beers and the best of a bad lot (in my humble opinion) was the Kilt Lifter - one made with scotch. They also had a whisky bar that sold over 200 different whiskies, we went in there and had a look but didn't stay for a drink! In Seattle, we went to see the Space Needle, went on [View Full Entry]

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The trip into the city took about 40 minutes. It was very weird driving on the right hand side of the road with the steering wheel in the car on the left side. Every time the driver made a turn I flinched thinking we were about to go into incoming traffic. I arrived at the Green Tortoise Hostel about 8:30pm, it was right in the centre of the city and just across the street from the Pike Place Markets. It was the perfect location. For $33 a night I got a very comfy bed in a six bed dorm which had [View Full Entry]

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The Nintendo DS Lite appears to be the only one of my many rechargeable gadgets whose charger is NOT dual-voltage. This means a simple plug adapter won't cut it... a step-down transformer is necessary to prevent DS fryage. Step-down transformers are almost literally bricks to carry around. They suck. And for one appliance? Some posters in online fora say that buying the European adapter from Nintendo works absolutely fine for charging a US DS Lite, but Nintendo's support website actually says you'd be better off buying a whole 'nother DS Lite game console in Europe. I can [View Full Entry]

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It was only two weeks before our scheduled departure. Sara and I drove up to Squamish, BC with Justin, a friend of ours, for a quick bouldering excursion. The weather, however, was not on our side. We sat disheartened to see the beautiful Squamish boulders soaking in the rain, rendering them unclimbable. Our last day in Canada began with an incredible sunrise and a wonderfully dry day. We set out to the boulders to find only a few with enough sun exposure to be dry. The others still soaked in the dark of the forest. It happened around mid-day. Sara started [View Full Entry]

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Updates to the tool* report: * Guitar Hero: On Tour for Nintendo DS * Nintendo DS (borrowed) * BUILT NY neoprene Electric Pocket #8 (stripe) for camera * BUILT NY neoprene charger caddy (stripe) * Bunch of lightweight shirts & a cardigan * Ziploc bags Still considering acquisition of Eagle Creek packing cubes. Still developing toiletries plan. Hey, cool: -- * Hmm, is that "tools I'm buying for trip", or "stuff I'm buying that proves I'm a tool"? [View Full Entry]

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The day started with a visit to the Washington capitol in Olympia. It was a traditional capitol with a Tiffany chandelier in the rotunda. The seal is a large relief of George Washington. From the capitol we went to Karpeles in Tacoma. There are 8 different locations and they specialize in original manuscripts. We just missed Einstein's original E=MC. The current exhibit was ancient maps including some of the original maps from the new world and original maps from the Ottoman Empire. Very interesting to see how they changed as empires expanded and more was learned about the new world. [View Full Entry]

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