August 20, 2014 9:45pm
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| The last leg! |
I made it to Seattle everyone! Still alive and kicking!
On the morning of the 18th I said good-bye to decay and his family. Portland was awesome and I could not have had better hosts! I moved into my apartment later on the 18th and my roommates/neighbors/whoever are great. I transferred my Georgia license to a Washington one, and my license plates are Washington now too. I'm officially a Seattleite now!
I don't have much else to say, so here are a list of things I've learned and other thoughts over my first few days.
Things I've learned (or relearned) about Seattle thus far:
-The tap water is delicious
-9.5% sales tax is absolutely absurd
-But at least there's no state income tax
-grocery stores do not provide plastic grocery bags, and charge 5 cents for every paper bag
-It is very hilly, almost as hilly as San Fransisco
-Bicycling is definitely a thing. Running too. Can't wait to explore the areas!
-Washington is known for its apples
-This summer weather is great!
-The Seattle Public Library is definitely the coolest (looking) library and also one of the coolest buildings in general
-The Seared Scallop Chowder from Pike Place Chowder is in the top 5 of my all-time favorite meals. Don't listen to their menu, it tells you to get the other chowders but trust me, the Scallop is the best!
-Gas Works Park provides one of the best skyline views of any city
-Jaywalking is frowned upon
-Many roads/traffic intersections make little to no sense
-It actually rains less (in inches) annually in Seattle than in other major cities such as New York, Boston, and Atlanta, largely because Thunderstorms and downpours don't happen
-People don't usually use umbrellas
-There is an incredibly high percentage of Asians
-It's funny how several months ago how much I wanted the Sacramento Kings to stay in Sac-town, as opposed to moving to Seattle. And now I'm a little disappointed there is no NBA team...
Anyways, this is the my last entry on this blog post. Til next time, hopefully a new post will be up sooner rather than later! Come visit!
-JTF
August 18, 2014 9:30 am
Saturday night we went to a place called Bagdad's, a 21+ movie theater that serves alcohol. Why aren't there more places like this, everywhere?
Yesterday, we went to Downtown Portland, on the west side of the river.
We began by visiting the Portland Japanese Gardens, apparently the most accurate representations of Japanese gardens in America. The place was pretty cool, with various small water ponds/streams and Japanese architecture. I was most amazed by the koi fish, some of which must have been close to 30 lbs! Yum! Overall a good, but not great experience. the admission is a bit pricey for the size of the park but it's not a terrible place to go to if you have the money and time.
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| waterfall. |
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| the size of these koi fish! Yum! |
Across the street from the Japanese Garden is the International Rose Garden (Portland is the city of roses, for those who don't know), which has free admission. This place is awesome. There are a ton of roses of all different colors and they look great. highly recommended.
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| Roses on roses on roses. |
We followed up the rose garden with a quick trip to Pittock Mansion, a mansion some old famous dude built. While we weren't going to pay $9.50 to go into some guy's house for 20 minutes, his backyard (which is free) offers an incredible view of Portland from the west.
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| The view from Pittock Mansion. |
After viewing the city from Pittock, we went back downtown for lunch, where we grabbed some food at a couple of blocks peppered with food carts. The food carts on this block (and the city overall) are simply amazing. The variety is good (varying from Indian, Egyptian, Indonesia, American, Korean, etc.), prices are great (we're talking $3 for two huge samosas and an Indian place), and the food quality sure as hell beats Viet Nomies $7 mediocre Bah minh.
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| Food carts. |
From there, we had a quick visit to the waterfront, as well as Mill Ends park, the smallest park in the world. We followed that up with a trip to a nike factory store, which, as I somewhat predicted, was still incredibly out of my price range.
After a nap and dinner, we went to Avalon Theatre and Wunderland, which is a place to play arcade games, where the only currency accepted are nickels. It was a great an cost friendly place, as we spent maybe $5 playing games for about an hour and a half. It had the classics like skeeball, pacman, pinball, as well as a really good Japanese (fighting?) game and various car and shooting games. I recommend the place, it was super fun.
Following the arcade, we went on a romantic midnight date to a hill (Mount Tabor?) on the east side of the city, which, to no surprise, had stunning night views of the city skyline from the east side. Apparently decay ran up this hill from his house several times.
In conclusion, Portland is an incredible city. The trees are enormous, the sales tax nonexistent, the scenery incredible. There was good reason for me to always want to visit it growing up, and Portland matched my lofty expectations of it and more. While I am sad to be leaving what has been arguably my favorite city, apparently Seattle is "a better version" of Portland so I cannot wait to get there.
So now I'm off to complete the trip, I'm moving into my new apartment in Seattle!
-JTF
August 16, 2014 8:15 pm
Today, as part of my sightseeing tour of Portland, our grorious reader graciously took me to Multnomah Falls, part of the Columbia River Gorge, about 45 minutes east of Portland.
Some background information: First, I've always wanted to visit Portland, and specifically these renowned waterfalls on the Columbia River Gorge. Second, growing up as a kid, I've always had a unique interest in rivers growing up. But actually. I can strangely name most of the prominent rivers in the U.S.--where their source is, what cities/states they run through, why they're important, etc. From my days of the Ipswich River in NR, to the Merrimack, to the Chattahoochee in Georgia, I've always had a weird thing for rivers. Exploring, touching, swimming in, rafting, and of course, beer-tubing in rivers has always been of great interest to me.
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| The last time I explored a river. |
Anyways, as we were heading out there, the weather was pretty ominous: Overcast, looking like it was going to rain. Which was confusing since it said on the weather app that Portland was going to be sunny and in the 80s. Oh well, I figured, better get used to the rain!
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| The Ominous Weather en route. |
But as we turned a corner around a mountain, all of a sudden, the clouds disappeared. I was so confused.
We got to Multnomah Falls at about 10:00am*. The view was absolutely gorgeous (see what I did there?). The falls were over 640 feet high, with a well place bridge a bit of the way up. Awesome.
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| Mulnomah Falls |
We then decided to hike the one mile trail or so to the top of the waterfall. This part of the hike itself was okay. But once we got to the top of the waterfall was where the fun began. The view from top was great, but the better part was that, as is the case with many waterfalls, a river turns into the waterfall, meaning there was a river/creek at the top of the mountain.
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| My model wading through the mountain river/creek. |
Naturally, my instinct was to go near the river. Then we decide to hike up the river (not the trail) via stone stepping and long climbing to see where it it led us. This, as a river lover, was super fun for me, everything I've ever wanted to do as a kid.
The best part was actually going into the water. the temperature had to be around 40-50 degrees. The water was delicious, too! But it was so fun, jumping in, squealing like a bitch, getting out, then wanting to go back for more. I can only imagine that must be what drug addicts feel (I wouldn't know). It was pretty exhilarating.
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| This guy went in. |
We ended the day by hiking back down to the base of the waterfall and enjoying another great view of the gorge at the vista house, which had some pretty breathtaking views of the Columbia River. Another place I definitely recommend!
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| Dat view though. |
All in all, a great day. Getting ready to hit up a microbrewery for the nightcap. Downtown Portland tomorrow.
-JTF
August 15, 2014 10:40pm
Today I continued my trip up Oregon. It was a pretty uneventful drive overall, but there are definitely a few thoughts to point out:
- Oregon, specifically Portland, is gorgeous. Lots of mountains in South Oregon. Portland is nicely situated on some sweet hills and rivers, making for some great scenery and architecture.
- Trees out here are enormous.
- The progression of the weather was interesting: In Medford it was sunny, in Eugene it was partly cloudy, and I was driving into Portland I was pretty much driving into clouds. Well, goodbye sun, see you never!
- I grabbed lunch in Eugene at a place called Burrito Boy, recommended by Eugene-native and my favorite red-haired captain of Luna. It was really good, I had a wet burrito (drenched in enchilada sauce) that was so delicious I didn't even notice it didn't have meat in it.
-"So [DK] got home [from Korea] in middle of the day and passes out [due to jetlag]. Slept for 12 hours. Wakes up in the middle of the night. And starts playing the piano."--Mr. Kim (Classic decay).
A quick tidbit on gas prices on my trip. Prices suck out west. Everything is over $3.75 and it's awful. The worst part about this is that unlike on the east coast, where in general the farther away you get from a city the cheaper the gas (i.e. the middle of nowhere bumfuck virginia or south carolina might yeild prices of $3.07), out west I've actually found prices expensive when you get in the middle of nowhere because there are mountains and there's usually like on only gas station in each town. I passed a gas station in a small town selling gas at $4.68. $4.68! What, is this what 2020 will be like?
Since I haven't actually said anything of use in this blog post, here's my take on the radio (Top 40, yeah yeah, I get lazy when traveling in regards to music) right now:
- songs I like: Rather Be (Clean Bandit), Problem (Arianna Grande), Summer (Calvin Harris)
- songs that are souring on me: Am I Wrong (Nico and Vinz), Stay With Me (Sam Smith).
- songs that I cannot stand: Fancy (Iggy Azalea) and Rude (Magic)
Analysis: The songs I like are all so catchy and awesome. That's all. These are my jams right now. I may or may not be starting to have a celeb crush on Arianna Grande (it's okay Katy, you have nothing to worry about ). The second batch was okay at first, but they're starting to get overplayed and are pretty annoying. But those last two are legit the worst songs I have listened to, probably because one of those two songs were on the entire summer. literally. those songs suck.
Anyways, staying in Portland for a few nights, can't wait to see what the city has to offer! I'll give the four and a half of you paying attention an update on my Portland travels in a few days. Apparently Portland is known for strip clubs, microbreweries, food carts, waterfalls, and gardens. I'll add in some pics, I've been slacking in this department.
-JTF
August 15, 2014 10:15am
Last night I arrived in Medford, OR. First time in Oregon! Wooo! That's state number 29 for those counting. This was also my first time driving my new (used) car long distance. I certainly miss DW and her sunroof (my old car), it sure is nice driving with A/C and not having my engine overheating the entire ride.
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| Oh how I miss you, DW. |
My first stop on the trip was to my grandparents' apartment in downtown Sacramento. They made me lunch. If you've ever been there, you know how good the food is. Yum!
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| That pork though... so good. |
From there, my trip was divided up into two parts. The first part of the trip was from Sacramento to Redding, CA, a small city on the northern part of California's Central Valley. This drive was rather uneventful, as there was just dry land on both sides of the highway for the 150 mile or so part of the trip. The most exciting part is that there is a town (and county) called Yolo in California, the "Yolo, exit in 3/4 mile" was pretty funny.
I stopped in Reading for two reasons. First, there is the Sundial Bridge in Redding, a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Sacramento River and, as the name suggests, is shaped like (and actually serves as) a giant sundial, unlike the Sundial Restaurant Bar and View in Atlanta. The Sundial Bridge is truly an architectural phenomenon; those cables actually hold the bridge up! Arguably my favorite bridge ever. It's good looking, environmentally friendly, and add in the fact that it is surrounded by bike paths, flower gardens, rivers, and creeks, and wildlife, it is a sweet place. Definitely recommend visiting if you are, for some odd reason, ever in that area.
Anyways, the second part of the trip--from Redding, CA to Medford, OR--was a completely different part of the trip, as suddenly the highway shifted from boring valley turned to the middle of nowhere weaving through mountains. There were legitimately zero working radio stations in this area for about 1.5 hours of this part of the drive. Driving with no music sucks. There is also a HUGE mountain, Mt. Shasta, in the Northernmost part of California, it was like 4 times the size of the next highest mountain. I think it's a volcano. There is a town called "Weed" nestled in these mountains. The "Weed Peace Highway" sign (or something like that) was particularly amusing.
Off to Portland now! It's probably the U.S. city I have most wanted to visit, so I can't wait. Also it wil be great to see my favorite decaying most promiscuous former roommate. See you then!
-JTF
August 14, 2014 12:30pm
Today I begin my road trip up the West Coast with a final destination of Seattle! My entire life is packed into my (new used) car and I'm ready to go. The trip holds extra importance because it marks the end of summer (and college) and the beginning of a new (professional) life.
What a summer it has been. It's been a roller coaster of a ride professionally, personally, athletically, emotionally. It's been one hell of a transitional summer, with much more change than I could have ever expected. I didn't get my teaching job in Seattle until mid-June (which is extremely late) so I've only known whereabouts life was taking me for a couple of months. Add in the whole transition from Emory and the fact my dad is selling his Elk Grove house, it has been a lot to adjust to. While I'm certainly grateful of the summer that I've had and the people I was able to see--from road tripping from Atlanta to USA Ultimate College Nationals in Cincinnati, to DC, to hanging in Cali, to the Loomis Chaffee Summer Program, to trips to NR and Boston, to Wildwood, and back to California--it surely has been an exhausting summer and I'm as ready as ever to start this new chapter of my life!
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| A look back at summer. |
It's crazy to think that a year ago today, I was blogging about my road trip from Boston to Atlanta and preparing for my senior year at Emory. It was an awesome year, thanks everyone. It's weird, both figuratively and literally, that I'm in a completely different place in my life and going in the opposite direction. It's crazy how quickly things change, and sometimes it's difficult to accept that life doesn't slow down and there's no option to pause or rewind your life when it's going so fast. To my rising seniors at Emory (and everywhere else), live it up, and realize that you've got it real good*.
Anyways, Medford, OR is the destination today, about 5 hours north of Sac-town. I do have a few stops planned along the way: Downtown Sacramento for one last lunch with the grandparents, and then the Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA. Then it's off to Oregon (for the first time!) and I'll be a Pacific Northwesterner!
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| See you next time, Baby Matthew. |
-JTF
*this is my favorite blog post ever, the pilot episode of my blog posting career. it's a good read.
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