In the past 2 weeks or so, we’ve had a fantastic time and made no progress north – we’re still in Seattle. Actually, we did make it up to Bellingham for a while – which is pretty much on the border with Canada – but then we came back.
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If you remember, or even if you don’t, Jess lives in Seattle and so when we arrived here we went to stay with her and her housemates. It is a politically unstable house and by default we allied with Jessie and her friend, Alys. Not that there were actually any hostilities that we could detect, we just heard rumours. In fact I think it’s more on the scale of a golf club committee disagreement on dress code than a ‘George Dubbya vs anyone with oil’ disagreement. Oops, am I meant to be apolitical in my blog?
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After a few days well spent with Jess and Alys, we headed up to Bellingham and stayed with my friend Katie (who I also met in Costa Rica), her boyfriend Khale and their respective housemates. Seattle is a cool city but it’s still a city, whereas Bellingham is just cool and we had a great week up there. While the days were always fun, most mornings were less so and typically it took until 4:20 to feel better again. On the morning of the 15th, Katie, Khale, Tom and I woke up on a beach on Lummi Island, Tom and I had snow in our beards. On the night of the 15th, we played frisbee in the street until 3am. On the afternoon of the 16th, Mike, Courtney, Tom and I played disc golf (it’s harder than it looks). On the morning of the 17th, Khale, Lars and I jumped off Madrona Point in to the seasonally warm waters below. On the evening of the 18th we had a party at Katie’s house and I wouldn’t let anyone change the music so we listened to a Kings of Leon album 5 times in a row. On the 19th, Jessie came up, we visited a wildlife rehabilitation centre and then took a moonlit snow-walk.
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We then headed back to Seattle and again stayed with Jessie and Alys. Alys had a couple of days free and showed us some of the nicer spots in and around Seattle, in return for which we taught her how to rugby tackle. Jessie works 9-5 so she wasn’t able to take the lessons. We also practiced truisms such as ‘you look more sure of who you are, and where you are in your life, now than you were 5 years ago’. I’m considering a career as a psychic or perhaps in astrology. Jess and Alys were a lot of fun and generally great hosts but what with the politics and all we took up their friends, Mayme and Crystal, on their offer of somewhere to stay. So now we are living in their enormous studio flat, a little tired from a morning of table tennis in their games room. They are very easy going and fun to live with, at the moment Mayme is sleeping on the sofa, she should be going to work but called in to say she is stuck in the snow somewhere, it’s not true.
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A couple of nights ago we met up with Amanda through couchsurfing, she is soon traveling to the UK and wanted to ask us about it. So we went round and had dinner with her and her friends, drank some beers and an itsy bitsy bit of 140% proof rum. Apparently we then went to a bar, then went to another bar, then went to someone’s house and played Pacman and then went back to sleep on Amanda’s couches. Other than the Pacman I don’t remember anything, including the girl I allegedly kissed. On the 27th we watched DVDs with the volume low.
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So like I said we’ve been having fun but I am starting to feel restless and so depending a bit on the road conditions I will be leaving Seattle tomorrow to cycle back up to Bellingham. I am pretty skint right now so work is rather critical. The plan from Bellingham is to head for Whistler, where there may or may not be work. Tom has decided to stay in Seattle, which is less of a gamble as he’s been offered work for room and board at a hostel.
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We had wanted to head up to Anchorage now and find work there but the ferries don’t go that far until spring, there’s no trains and the roads are un-cyclable. So it won’t be until April that we will to be able to get the ferry up there. If you’re lucky Tom will write a blog or two in the meantime so that you, and I, know what’s going on. So this is another interlude from the trip, in April we will begin the long ride south from Anchorage.