road trip – Riveted

Last Day in Victoria

Laura Domela — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 21:46:24 +0000

We had some breakfast and did some work this morning before it was checkout time at Westbay Marine Village in Victoria. Since we're on the 7:30pm ferry tonight to Port Angeles, we had a bit of time to kill. (Long story, but the basic deal is: make reservations more than a day ahead of time for the ferry when you are 48.1 feet long and it's the middle of summer.)

We headed over to Thetis Lake Provincial Park because they had a day use area and we figured we'd be able to park there for the rest of the day and hike or ride bikes out from there if we wanted. We paid for the two parking spaces we were taking up and headed off to hike around the lake.

It turned out to be a beautiful hike, with some fun signage along the way:

We decided to head over to the ferry terminal early to see if there was any chance of getting on the 3pm ferry. There wasn't. So we parked and walked over to grab some lunch and sightsee a bit more. The ferry was just arriving as we walked past and we noticed the different configuration of the Coho (compared to the other more recent ferries we'd been on) so we stopped to see how the side door loading and unloading worked.

So they must load them from the other side, or the back? They got these guys on somehow, so I think we're fine.

We walked up the road a bit and grabbed some lunch and did a bit more sightseeing. Here's our view from lunch today:

Which way should we go? Oh I guess we'll head back toward home.

We're in line for the ferry now, with about an hour and half to go. We're working back in the Airstream with free ferry internet (well, "free" meaning it came with our $250 fare to get ourselves, our truck, and our Airstream back to the US). Next stop: Hood Canal!

Highline Panorama (Glacier N.P.)

Laura Domela — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 14:28:55 +0000

Kevin took this gorgeous panorama while we were hiking the Highline trail in Glacier National Park:

Click here for full size version.

Hiking Maligne Canyon

Laura Domela — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 20:12:00 +0000

This morning Kevin and I headed over to do the Maligne Canyon hike (pronounced mah-leen). We started down at the trailhead at the Sixth Bridge and hiked up to the main trailhead (about 4.5 miles round trip).

Somewhere around the Fifth Bridge the canyon starts to get all canyoney and the trail is rocky and sometimes a little steep. Gorgeous hike.

It's tough to get a photograph of the depth of the canyon that conveys how it feels to stand on one of the six bridges over it. It's super deep (160 feet at some places) and it's bright outside and dark in the canyon. Even HDR is tough. You'll just have to go there.

Canyon shadow self portrait:

We took a slightly different path back to the Sixth Bridge trailhead. Nice view:

Tree bark art:

Tonight is our last night in Jasper. I think we're all going out to dinner in town, and Kevin and I are trying to figure out which path we'll take back to Portland tomorrow (we've got a week). I think we may follow Kyle South and take a quick tour through Glacier National Park before heading home.

Our Awesome Group of Airstream Friends

Laura Domela — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 12:58:40 +0000

I know, this has been all over facebook already, but I'm still going to post it here. John of The Democratic Travelers, took this fabulous group photo of us the night before we left Leigh & Brian's at Aluminogan. I love it.

L to R: The Works (Josh, Jack, Jessa), The Watsons (Amanda and Tim), Mali Mish (Luca, Ava, Mila, Marlene, Dan), The Democratic Travelers (John and Laura), Weaselmouth (Tiffani and Deke), Aluminarium (Leigh and Brian), Riveted (us), Advodna (Dave and Ann — Wynne was napping and they voted it was not worth waking her for this photo. Gotta trust the parents there.)

Yesterday we just got settled here at our new spot and explored the beach a little. We all made whatever for dinner and gathered at our long long picnic table for more fun conversation and food. After dinner was just chill. Some wine, some beer, and then the Works brought out this crazy bottle of "Iceland's signature distilled beverage" that they brought back from their trip to Iceland, called Brennevin.

Today is Brian's birthday and part of the group will go help him celebrate with some lunch and some wine tasting, and then I think tonight will be just a repeat of last night (perhaps without the Icelandic liquor) before we head to Glacier tomorrow.

117 Nights and 25 States

Laura Domela — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:18:39 +0000

After four months, 117 nights, 25 states (!!!), 13,000 road miles, 1 auto accident, 2 F150 trucks, 7 business trips, and an unmeasurable amount of fun and adventure (plus a ton of work, as usual), we are back home in Portland. In a house. A house with rooms, where it takes more than 5 steps to get from bed to the espresso maker.

In the few days that we've been home, we've been spending most of our time frantically getting rid of stuff, filling box after box to take to Goodwill. It's always like this when we get home. Living in a small space with exactly what you need (and a place to put those things you need) is so….well, it's peaceful. I'm never stressing about the mess in the (insert room here) and how long it will take to clean that up before dinner guests arrive. I completely cleaned out my closet and dresser and hardly kept anything that I haven't worn in the last year. This means now I have clothes that I actually wear IN my dresser, instead of on top, while the drawers serve as storage. It's amazing!

I went through the main kitchen cupboard and threw out everything that (a) was old, and (b) that I don't use, and now my cupboard is usable, with things I USE!!

We've got family coming to stay with us for the holidays and we're looking forward to enjoying the house for a bit. We plan to keep getting rid of things so hopefully, someday soon, our house can be as simple and elegant as our Airstream.

Oh yeah, and here are the states we visited, in order (duplicates in parentheses): Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado (where we'd originally planned to turn around and go home!), Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tenessee, Kenducky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, (Kansas), Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, (Idaho), Washington, (Oregon)

(Posted by Laura)

Houses Are Big

Laura Domela — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 22:55:03 +0000

Yesterday we headed to Portland from our last night's stay at Maryhill State Park. It was just a two hour drive and let us get into Portland with plenty of time to unpack, clean up the Airstream and get it ready for our next trip.

I love coming into Portland from the East, through the Columbia River Gorge on I-84. The change of the scenery is dramatic, as are the views of the Columbia River.

Plus, it goes from being very dry (brown, rocky) to lush green forest in what feels like no time at all. Turns out we've still got some fall colors here!

Hello green hills! See ya later, sun!

Actually yesterday alternated sun with rain and clouds…not too bad. Here's a view of downtown Portland from the Markham Bridge:

It's nice to be home for a bit. (The rooms here are enormous! And it takes forever just to get from bed to the kitchen!) I do think we need to work on our timing for the next road trip though. Getting back to Portland just in time for the worst weather of the year (and missing late summer and fall, when it's so gorgeous here) wasn't too bright (and also wasn't really our plan when we set out for Alumafandango in August!). Maybe we'll go South for a bit in January…skipping some of that lovely gray drizzle.

Home Stretch!

Laura Domela — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:08:01 +0000

We worked this morning for a while in Spokane and then hit the road. We figured we'd decide while we were on the road how far we wanted to go — whether we wanted to drive all the way home (just under 6 hours) or if we wanted to stop for one more night somewhere in the Columbia River Gorge and head home in the morning. We opted for one more night on the road. This gives us a chance to (a) have one more night on the road, and who wouldn't want that? and (b) get into town in the morning, giving us daylight and lots of time to unpack, clean up the Airstream, get home, unpack again…etc. You get the picture.

We are at Maryhill State Park, on the Washington side of the Columbia River.

Not a bad view! This place would be a fabulous spot for us to bring the Hobie! It's not too far from home, the wind is famously windy, and there's a great spot to beach the boat in front of the riverside campsites.

Ah, the benefits of camping in the winter. I bet this place is packed in the summer!

We have good AT&T service here (probably good Verizon too, but we haven't checked). There's only one other camper in the campground, and it's really beautiful here.

Tonight for dinner, I made us some grass-fed beef burgers (seasoned with fresh jalapeno, smoked paprika, and garlic), served open-faced on a sweet potato pancake topped with applewood smoked bacon, blue cheese, spinach and a slice of tomato. Yum!!

We opened a bottle of champagne to toast our last night on the road (I know, last night for what? three weeks or so? total bummer, huh?)

I think Kevin's going to fly the hexacopter in the morning to get some aerial shots of this gorgeous place.

It's been amazing to explore the country as we have been for the past four months, but it's also fun to return to the Pacific Northwest for a bit.

We stopped to get gas somewhere just after entering Oregon and next door there was a do-it-yourself car wash with big bays so we decided to get the top layer of grime off of the Airstream. I wish you could see how incredibly dirty it is in this photo:

It's amazing how dirty an Airstream can look when you get close, but how perfectly shiny and lovely it looks when you back up a bit. We'll do the full detail wax job when we get back to town but for now, the aluminum is quite a bit shinier (even close up!) than it was a few hours ago.

Exploring Spokane

Laura Domela — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:29:52 +0000

Okay well that might be a misleading title. We explored a very small area while we bolted into town for an hour and a half to have lunch and take some photos in between the pile of work we had/have to do today and between two of Kevin's conference calls. But we'll make it sound really like we were walking leisurely around downtown, taking pictures, having lunch at a little French restaurant, sipping cappuccinos on the corner….okay nevermind. I already told you the truth. (On a good note, it stopped raining for most of the time we were in town!)

We grabbed lunch at a restaurant on Main Street downtown called Santé and it was good. Window seat, cozy but airy cafe serving organic delicious food.

Around the corner from the café I spotted this amazing, um, parking structure. Really.

We walked around the block so I could get some better photos of this place. Would you just LOOK at all that 60's Jetson's design goodness!! LOVE!!

(The Parkade, Spokane, 1967)

On the corner near the Parkade we noticed a cool little map of downtown embedded into the sidewalk. Great idea!

I think this guy's streetside marketing strategy is pretty funny, don't you?

We drove around a bit planning to head over and check out the river but spotted this crazy ornate tower on the other side of the river and we needed to see what it was.

"I think the King and Queen of Spokane must live there."

"French Embassy of Spokane?"

"Um…?"

Turns out it's the Spokane County Courthouse.

Would you get a load of the detail on that tower??

The building was designed by 29-year old architect W. A. Ritchie and completed in 1895.

The courthouse is said to closely resemble two famous 16th century chateaux in the Loire Valley of France, the Chateau de Chambord, built in 1519 and the Chateau d'Azay Le Rideau built in 1516. Many architects through the years have commented on the masterly replica of a 16th century French Renaissance design, its fine lines of style and proportion with regard to the towers and turrets, the sculpture, iron and brickwork which excel in pattern and craftsmanship. Detailed exterior trim such as shell patterns with wreaths and festoons and decorative arches are a few of the outstanding features of its design. The beautiful center tower, now lighted at night, is a masterpiece of detail in itself. (Source, with more really interesting history of the place.)

There's quite a bit of interesting architecture in Spokane and when I have more time on some other visit, I'd love to just wander around for a few hours snapping photos of typefaces and textures.

Headed down to the Spokane River before heading back to the Airstream.

There are little purple gondolas hanging over the other side of the river.

I looked it up and it's the Spokane Falls Skyride!

For a spectacular view of Spokane Falls, ride our SkyRide. Enjoy a 15 minute ride in an “all weather” enclosed cabin. Each of the 15 cabins is ADA compliant and can hold 6 passengers.

You will travel past art deco City Hall, then gradually drop down 200 feet over the Huntington Park Natural Area. From there, you will continue across the Spokane River, under the historic Monroe Street bridge and return to Riverfront Park.

I wanna do that! I also want to ride the historic Looff Carousel they have here!

Riverfront Park’s 1909 Looff Carrousel is on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of America’s most beautiful and well preserved hand-carved wooden carrousels. Our Looff Carrousel proudly features 54 horses, 1 giraffe, 1 tiger, and 2 Chinese dragon chairs and still has a brass ring to catch.

Next time. It's really hard to be in a new place with so much work to do. Luckily, Spokane is not that far from Portland, so I'm sure we'll be passing through again.

We Made a Break for it!

Laura Domela — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:07:14 +0000

We were watching the weather pretty closely this morning to see if we might be able to make it over Lookout Pass safely to get to Spokane today. It was clearing up fast and at around 11am we decided we'd go for it.

See you later Missoula!

Weather when we started wasn't bad at all. There were even breaks with blue sky and everything!

Look! A plane on a train!

Starting to gray up a bit now:

This was our backup plan if the pass was too bad (a few miles before the pass): 50,000 Silver $ (whatever that means!) They have free RV parking in the back for self-contained RVs, which we are.

And not that it wouldn't have been lovely back there, but we happily made it over the pass with no issues over the pass. The roads were plowed and clear and just wet but that was it. Oh, and it was gorgeous.

One mile from Lookout Pass:

Now we're in Spokane, where there's no snow at all. The weather's quite nice, actually. I'm taking Kevin out to dinner tonight for his second birthday dinner, at a spot called Clinkerdagger (voted #1 most romatic restaurant in Spokane…not sure what their scale is like, but we'll let you know).

We got a spot at the Ponderosa Falls RV Resort and it's pretty here (and we gained an hour). The follk in the office were super fun and nice…lots of trees, about 10 miles from downtown Spokane. They've got Wi-Fi, but either it's not working or you have to pay extra for it and we didn't, so we're using our AT&T data card.

Gotta get some more work done now. Later.

Webcam View of Lookout Pass

Laura Domela — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 14:13:17 +0000

Here's the pass at 8am this morning (eastbound):

Here's what it looks like now (westbound, 10am):

Improving. Not "go" but improving.