Our 3 month cross country adventure.

[Megan and Tony]

Thanks for the comments. Also thanks for making this a sticky thread. Many more updates to come.

[Megan and Tony]

Day 64

We spent the night in Bakersfield, CA at a couch surfers house. She recommended we drive up and visit Sequoia National Park, so we did. I feel like this is redundant but, this is another place like no where else.

You drive up a very steep narrow road to get to the top of the mountain where all the trees are. When you first start seeing the giant trees it is unreal, almost hard to take it all in. We visited a few groves and saw the biggest tree in the world(don't quote me on that) General Sherman. The photos do not do these trees justice, they are un-believably big.

















Map of the last few days:

http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=268403

Day 65
We drove west to San Francisco. We arrived in the evening and met our new couch surfing host. No photos for today.

Next update: our first view of the Pacific and our time in San Francisco.

[Megan and Tony]

Day 66

We both really were excited about San Fran and we were not disappointed. We started the day as any 2 traveling hippies would, at Haight Ashbury. We had a few beers and went into a bunch of head shops.










the Grateful Dead house




one of the biggest goals of our trip, touch the Pacific Ocean











Day 67




"The Rock" in the background




riding the trolley


Jack Kerouac Alley


we spent a few hours in the Beat Museum

Not pictured: Delicious Vegan Food, lots of alcohol, twisty/hilly roads, and the most fog we've ever seen.
We also spent some time in Berkeley, where our couch surfer host lives.

[Megan and Tony]

Day 68, 69, 70

We left San Francisco and drove up to Arcata, CA to meet our new couch surfing hosts. They were a couple who were a month away from their own 3 month road trip around Europe. They were awesome and showed us a terrific time over these 3 days. We drank great local beer, ate German vegan food, watched some Harry Potter movies, and toured an amazing part of norther California.

When people ask us what our favorite stop of the trip was, Arcata is always near the top.

Our cs host, Ross, led us on a hike that went through a redwood forest to the beach, and back up to an island that gave a top down view of the whole fishing village. We also toured the actual town of Arcata where no franchises are allowed to set up shop, so it's mostly food trucks, mom and pop shops, co-op groceries, and weed dispensaries. It is a town full of travelers, hitchhikers, and vagrants so we felt at home.

These photos were taken on our hike day, I may have went a little camera happy, I took 400 or so pictures. Here are a few of them:



































Being from the east coast you don't realize until you see it for yourself, how different the trees, beaches, insects, birds, mountains, and everything else really is.

[Megan and Tony]

Day 71

My favorite thing about posting our travels to this site is reliving these memories. Day 71 is a day I haven't thought about until right now, and it was a great day. We left Arcata and headed north through Red Wood National Park. On the way we stopped at a very touristy "Mystery Spot" We did not go into the park, we just saw a giant Paul Bunyan and Babe. We also saw a whale that turned the wrong way and is stuck under a bridge in the river.(I hope she got back home)

We could not find a couch surfing host on the way to Crater Lake so we found a Walmart parking lot in Medford, OR and spent our first night in the back of my Xterra. Actually quite comfortable and its a unique experience to walk into a Walmart at 4am just to pee. Also since we could find nothing to do in Medford we went to a local movie theater and saw "Cowboys v Aliens" (it was ok)
















There wasn't much touristy stuff going on today but it was the kind of day where it was just nice to be somewhere new.

Our GPS map of these couple days:
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=270549

Next post: Crater lake

Thanks for reading

[Lifemagician]

My favorite thing about posting our travels to this site is reliving these memories.

Not only that, but you will relive them, everytime you come back here, and quickly skip through them again. Can't tell you how often I have done that with my trip... the experience is still fresh in my mind... two years later. As well as that, you might like to set the photo file as your screen saver. It is just wonderful, each time you look at the computer and go... yeah! I remember that.

Of course your experiences are invaluable to future roadtrippers who will no doubt hang on every word you write. I for one am enjoying all of it... and you have given me a couple of good ideas for next year. Thanks.

Lifey

[Megan and Tony]

Not only that, but you will relive them, everytime you come back here, and quickly skip through them again. Can't tell you how often I have done that with my trip... the experience is still fresh in my mind... two years later. As well as that, you might like to set the photo file as your screen saver. It is just wonderful, each time you look at the computer and go... yeah! I remember that.

Of course your experiences are invaluable to future roadtrippers who will no doubt hang on every word you write. I for one am enjoying all of it... and you have given me a couple of good ideas for next year. Thanks.

Lifey

We do have our photos as screen savers and it is great.

Thanks everyone for reading, we have been busy the last few days. We took a one tank road trip this weekend.

About 20 days left to go on our trip report. (next post, Crater Lake)

[Megan and Tony]

Day 72 Crater Lake NP

We woke up early from our the back of our car in the Walmart parking lot and headed north. Not far into Crater Lake NP we saw our first snow of the summer. A little farther into the park we saw the bluest water we've ever seen.(and a lot more snow)

























After the park we drove to Portland and hung out with our couch surfing hosts for the night.






Day 73 Portland

We made a decision not to spend much time in Portland today because visiting cities quickly eats our money up and we were quickly running out of it. So we stopped at Voodoo donuts for breakfast and then took a tour of a very hilly park. Portland seems like our kind of city and one day we want to go and really visit it.





We also saw the biggest waterfall in America (don't quote me on that) It was big.






We left Portland and drove to Megan's dad's home in Anacortes Washington to spend a week there.

[Megan and Tony]

Day 74-80 Northwest Washington (a week with Megan's dad)


On a hike around Anacortes Island a tree that grows horizontally




Megan finally got to fly her kite


my favorite picture of me on the trip


We saw the sun set a lot








beer pictures


We spent a day on the top of Mt Baker; snow ball fighting and sledding














we finished the day sampling some beer at a fishermans bar(i think)




We took a fairy ride to an island you can only reach by boat


the island




before we left the west we spent some time picking golden rasberries which you cannot get where we are from




I'm sorry this travel story is taking so long(almost as long as the actual trip) I have about 10 days left and I'll try to get those up soon. Thanks for reading.

[Megan and Tony]

Here is our spot map for the last week or so

http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=271757