Retroblogging the megatrip: part 8b

So with the EMP in our rearview mirror, Holly reminded me that I had whipped us out of the downtown core without feeding the kids. D'oh! Now we were pushing into the afternoon and had a bit of a drive ahead of us. At the end of our time on Vancouver Island, we had done two things that affected our day: first, we decided that the best way to break up the trip back east would be to spend the first post-Seattle night in Spokane in NE Washington State. Second, we were tracking the progress of a pretty nasty forest fire across the northern edge of the state and making sure that none of the road closures and detours would affect our route (that's foreshadowing, by the way). In order to get as strong a push across the state as possible, we were hoping to get the kids fed and then squeeze a good nap out of them. We hopped on the I-90 and eventually found a Subway somewhere near Issaquah to get some fuel for the road. Strangely, Max didn't destroy his sandwich. He didn't touch it much at all, actually (more foreshadowing). We piled everyone back in the van and headed east toward Spokane.

The drive was absolutely gorgeous. I believe we passed through the southern edge of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest and it was stunning. We had good tunes, all three kids fell asleep, the view was amazing and then we hit a really slow patch of traffic trailing a pair of construction trucks that were driving side-by-side well under the speed limit on the two-lane highway. Pro: the traffic slowdown enabled us to spot our first Hawaii plate...con: the boys woke up and Henry, in particular, wasn't terribly happy. Eventually, the trucks pulled off and we realized that there was a small area of construction along the road and the trucks were in cahoots with the workers to try to calm traffic going through the area. There wasn't really any warning that this would happen so we were puzzled for some time. Henry fell back asleep and the big boys occupied themselves while we pressed onward.

Apologies, but these two van shots are the only pictures we took in the NW corner of the state. After having had enough of Holly's penchant for cranking the A/C while I was fairly comfortable, I fashioned a Snuggie out of one of the car blankets to allow me to drive in comfort while she froze herself in the passenger seat.

I think this picture is taken somewhere around Snoqualmie Pass, a place where the I-90 likes to split apart around huge ravines. In the background, you can see the other side of the highway. Definitely a cool aspect of the drive in this part of the state.
Once we got out of the forest, the landscape changed drastically. Farmland, no hills, few trees and a yellow-brown hue all around (probably due to the dryness that caused the forest fire conditions). Here's a picture of what we were driving through. You can sure tell there's something going on north of the road...

We were doing OK until somewhere around Thorp when we were forced off the main road and had to take the Vantage highway through a winding valley as a detour. We weren't sure what caused the detour - despite the fact that the air was thick with smoke and the smell of fire was everywhere, we were pretty sure that it was a major accident that bumped us onto the side road. This is roughly what the sky was looking like at that point:

After a bit of driving, we came to a pull-off where we stopped for a bathroom break and watermelon snack. The wind was absolutely whipping everything around here and it was pretty tough to catch your breath. We poked around and it turned out that we had pulled over here at the Gingko Petrified Forest. There was a Ranger station and some trails as well as some warning signs to watch out for rattlesnakes. Holly took the kids to look at some of the petrified wood specimens, but you couldn't touch them or see them very well as they were all in boxes beside the trail. It was a pretty neat stop though and we would have missed it entirely had we not been detoured. Here are some pictures:

I love Henry's squint against the wind and Leo's exposed belly.

Henry getting blown around a bit.

Checking out some petrified wood.

The boys on the path through the "forest".

It seems that spelling classes are not included in ranger training.

Another crazy shot of the sun.

Leo mugging in the parking lot.
We got back on the I-90 and I was looking forward to getting another good driving leg in, but after a few minutes we passed through Vantage, closed the Columbia River and then saw a sign saying that there was a Wild Horse Monument up on the nearby hill. Holly thought this was worth checking out so we pulled up the loop and parked while Holly wandered off to see it. Fact: this monument is called Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies. Another fact: Wild Horse Monuments on far-off hills are not closer than they appear. By the time Holly got there, took some pictures and came back, it had been about 30 minutes and she had just about fallen down a rocky slope (Holly adds: It didn't look that steep but it turned out to be a nasty grade with the "path" made of loose gravel. I was wearing flip flops and trying to rush. I'm very surprised I didn't end up really hurting myself. The view at the top was spectacular!). It was definitely time to hit the road. Here are a couple of the shots we got.

A look at the bridge over Wanapum Lake. That's Holly in the foreground.

This is a look at the monument from the parking lot. It actually looked really cool, a bunch of horse sculptures silhouetted up on the ridge.

This is Holly's best picture of the horses from up close.

Although this one shows the van in the parking lot (the second visible vehicle).

Holly remarked that it was a bit of a bummer that most of the horses were covered in graffiti.
After hours of driving in a smelly smokescreen, it was time to pull off the road for dinner. We decided to hit up a pizzeria in Moses Lake where they just happened to be showing a CFL game on some sub network of ESPN. And not just any CFL game, but a WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS home game!!

Kismet.
We ordered a giant olive/mushroom/meat pizza (one of the kids' faves) and both Leo and Henry picked at their food while Max didn't really eat anything again. Hmmmm. After dinner, we just had to blast through to Spokane, another 90 minutes up the road. The kids got their "driving after dark" iPad time and then conked out. On the outskirts of Spokane, Holly Hotwired us a deal at the Ruby2 Motel, a funky little place that was way too close to some major train tracks, but was otherwise perfect for our needs (sleep, wake up, leave).
Except that we couldn't leave in the morning because Max decided he wasn't feeling well at all and was now running a fever. I went to the office to get a recommendation for a clinic, popped Max in the van, got lost twice due to strange street renaming issues but then eventually tracked it down. It took about 90 minutes to be seen, score a prescription and have it filled. The scrip itself was shockingly expensive, but the rest of the process was pretty painless. I especially liked how the visit cost a certain amount of money but, because we were willing to pay the fee in a lump sum, the visit was discounted by almost 50%. I didn't quite get that part, but I accepted it.
We grabbed Max a smoothie, returned to the motel to pick up the rest of the family and then got ready to go. But first, we had a couple of stops to make. Stop 1 wasn't really a stop, but more of a drive-by. In hustling Max around town, I spotted one of the most magnificent things ever and had to show Holly. We didn't get a picture but it just so happens that there are a few online. Check it out:

Yes. Guy. That is some magnificent hat signage. After basking in the glory of the hat, we sought out a place to finally change the oil and transmission fluid in the van. They were pretty quick, but we still had time to grab a bagel. After that pit stop, we set out to pick up some Gonzaga gear (we support the Bulldogs every year during March Madness) and hit up a couple of sports clothing stores...but came up short each time. It turns out that you actually had to go on campus to get some swag so we took the opportunity to snap a couple of pictures in a campus courtyard before taking off.

We were hoping to leave Spokane by about 9 or 10 in the morning, but with all of the stuff going on that morning, it was about 1 pm when we left. We were trying to get to Idaho Falls, ID that night so we had a seriously long drive ahead of us (over 500 miles). The drive from Coeur d'Alene east through the panhandle of Idaho was gorgeous. Lots of greenery and elevation changes made the drive memorable. It was also notable that there are a lot of attractions in that part of the state involving mining and precious metals. The boys' grandpa would have a field day there. We pulled off the road for a break in St. Regis, MT where we picked up Coke, ice cream and blue liquorice at a massive gift shop. We also learned, via billboards, about Testy Festy...wow, Montana. Classy. The only other take-away from the drive to Butte was our 140+ km/h race down a hill to catch up with a car because its license plate looked strange. Sure enough - New Hampshire. Another tricky one off the list!

The kids were really, really, really good in the van most of the time. And almost entirely without electronics. I am eternally grateful that we seem to have some serious road trippers on our hands.

This was right as Coke launched its "Share a Coke with..." campaign so I thought this was a pretty big score in St. Regis.
We hit Butte for a late dinner, but the sun was still up enough (unfortunately) for us to get a look at the town on our way to a restaurant. Butte was pretty run-down and had seen better decades. Our restaurant (The Hanging 5) reminded me of some of the places I'd eat at on the road in the U.S. with my folks back in the 80s...and they had a retro feel back then, I'm sure! The food was alright, but the kids were really squirrelly from being in the van for such a long stretch. And we still had 200 miles to drive. Ugh. We eventually got out of town, threw on some cartoons, got the kids to fall asleep, then I put on a cool Grantland podcast with Julia Collins, the woman who ran up the second longest winning streak in Jeopardy! history. FINALLY, we pulled into Idaho Falls at roughly 1:00 a.m. and the dude at the front desk sent us to the wrong wing of the hotel. Then we found out that our room was on the second floor of the motel wing so, by the time we got everybody squared away, the kids were nice and awake and it was 1:30. Frustrating, as we were supposed to get an early start for Yellowstone in the morning. Oh well. It was what it was. We finally drifted off to sleep, thinking about what the next day would bring.

Retroblogging the megatrip: part 8a

So by the time we were rolling into Sidney for our ferry ride on July 16th, I was ready to hit the road again. Not that I didn't have a fantastic time visiting in BC, but it had been almost three weeks since we'd been out on the open road fending for ourselves and it was a part of the trip that I was looking forward to doing more of.

The last day that we had spent roaring around Sidney and Victoria didn't quite go as scheduled. We ended up spending a bit more time than planned doing pretty much everything so we were in a bit of a rush to get to the terminal. We picked up some drive-through for the kids and got in line. Someone immediately dumped a ketchup-laden burger all over themselves and the van and I just about lost it. Or I lost it and just about really lost it. Regardless, everyone eventually got fed, we hit the ferry shop for some ice cream, got out of the van for some fresh air and waited. Eventually, we got on the boat (it was not even close to full - the side ramps loaded cars up onto the second deck but the bottom car deck was almost completely empty) and set up camp. The kids were spazzing out because we had taken away their Pokémon cards on our way into Grand Forks (the boys were fighting over them all the time and it was distracting them from having good visits) and we had told them that we'd give them back on the boat. We figured it would help keep them busy for most of the sailing, but they started fighting again after a short time and gave up on the cards. We took to wandering around the boat even though there wasn't much boat to explore - there was certainly no awesome Passages Gift Shop to explore or White Spot diner à la BC Ferries. After that, Max and I played some Crazy 8s while Leo and Henry coloured.

A few of the highlights of the trip were seeing a yacht along the way that the kids thought was a pirate ship (a picture is below), stopping off at Friday Harbour on San Juan Island - it seems like so many of the other Gulf Islands, it's a haven for artisans and enthusiasts of the outdoors - and checking out the main car deck, where the wind was whipping through hard enough to just about knock the kids over.

This picture is taken in Anacortes, where we took a wrong turn down the main drag and ended up here at a sort of dry dock/shipyard with some massive ships being fixed up or something. A pretty impressive sight to see them out of the water and up in the air like that.

After we got on the road, we knew it would be a long haul into the Seattle area and it had already been a pretty long day so we had a gas station pit stop before hitting the interstate and then the kids all conked out right away. Holly wanted to grab some Zs too but before nodding off, asked me to wake her up when we were getting close so that we could do some Hotwiring on the way into town. So my Spitz, my iPod and I got all the way down to the 405 split-off before we got online and found a nice cheap option in Auburn, a little bit southeast of Seattle. The price was definitely right so we bit. Another pro: we found our first North Carolina plate in the parking lot. Con: they gave us a room with a single bed so Holly had to argue over the booking while someone else was trying (with their "friend") to get an hourly rate. The room had almost 0 amenities...actually 0 if you didn't count everything bolted to a floor or wall. This was the hotel room that duked it out with that hole in Drumheller for the worst place we stayed on the whole trip. Thanks a lot, Cedars Inn Auburn.

The next morning, we helped ourselves to everything the lobby had to offer in way of a "continental breakfast" (let's just say that the free "breakfast" was the same quality as the room) and we scrammed into Seattle. The 5 is such a tease - so much traffic and you're always so close to that beautiful city. It beckons "come visit, it's only 3 miles to the next exit...how long could that possibly take?" (answer: 30 minutes). We eventually got into the Seattle Centre area where most of the tourist attractions are conveniently located. Our first stop was supposed to be the EMP Museum before we moved on to maybe the Space Needle or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor Centre. The EMP is a museum "dedicated to the ideas and risk-taking that fuel contemporary popular culture" and probably one of my happiest places in the whole world. It was very kind of Holly to suggest scheduling this first so that I could be adrenalized by whatever was inside. I'd say that if we were to guess, I would have been 100% satisfied by whatever was going on, the kids maybe 40-60% and Holly in the same range. After going in, here's what they had to offer:

Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic, an exhibit on the inspiration behind fantasy’s most magnificent creations, including maps, costumes, and manuscript pages.

An exhibit on Nirvana bringing punk music to the masses

Block By Block: Inventing Amazing Architecture, an exhibit on some of the world's greatest buildings built to scale using LEGO bricks

Spectacle: The Music Video, a sprawling exhibit on the history of music videos "as an important and influential art form in contemporary culture"

and all the rest of the standard awesome music stuff that's on display year-round.
Needless to say, our satisfaction levels all reached 100% within the first hour or so. We spent the rest of our day there and never made it anywhere else! I almost started weeping; it was all so beautiful. Here's what we got up to:

Leo hamming it up outside the EMP. The building itself was designed by famed architect Frank O. Gehry. The grounds around it have lovely public art everywhere.

In the Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic exhibit, they had some very cool interactive games - one gave you the opportunity to determine which fantasy archetype you embodied and another gave users the chance to design a map of their own fantasy world. All of the boys' maps were awesome.

Here are some of the cool costumes and artifacts they had on display: this is from The Wizard of Oz

Prototypes of cards from Magic: The Gathering

Cersei Lannister's gown from GoT

Tyrion Lannister's doublet from GoT

And the pièces de resistance for Holly: a trove of goodies from The Princess Bride

The boys in the Sky Church, taking in some performances on the insanely large screen.

Yep, that's a scale model of the Space Needle made of LEGO. Some of the buildings on display were stunning.

Not only did they have all sorts of buildings constructed by a professional designer, but they had bins and bins of LEGO for anyone to use to make their own buildings and put on display.

It's possible Leo enjoyed himself in the Lego room

Henry was definitely getting in on the action too.

The boys kicked back and watched a documentary about Dan Parker, the guy who built the scale models, and his passion for LEGO in general and how he built it into his livelihood as a LEGO artist.

Leo listening to the art piece "If VI Was IX"

A close up of the crazy tower of instruments

The boys loved all of the guitars.

Leo, getting exposed to some of the greatest music videos of all time. This is the display for a-ha's "Take on Me".

Leo and Henry, mesmerized by their tenth viewing of "This Too Shall Pass" by Ok Go!.

Naturally, they had a whole shrine dedicated to local boys Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

This is a map of all the places around the state where they filmed their videos.

One of the LEGO constructions used in the White Stripes' "Fell in Love With a Girl" video.

Henry rocking out under shots from the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" video.

On the top floor of the EMP, there are a bunch of sound stages where visitors can try their hands at playing guitars, keyboards and drums. There was also this giant table in the middle of the floor where if you passed your hands in the various lit spots around the table, different sorts of percussion would play. Henry spent almost half an hour playing here.

And then there was Max.  The poor guy spent something like 20-30 minutes for his turn in one of the private drumming rooms.  I'm not sure what the hold-up was, but he was desperate to play.  Eventually, he got his chance (while I took the other boys to do the thing pictured below) and Holly captured him in all his Whiplash glory.  You tell me, IS HE RUSHING OR DRAGGING???

There was a giant computer station set up in the hallway on the top floor where visitors could select a category (like "Best song to wake up to") and search through a massive database to nominate a song. The nominated song would get posted on the screen along with your name for other people to see (and maybe vote along with). I think the system tallied votes over the course of a day and then reset in the morning. When we stopped by, "The Pokemon Theme Song" was killing it in the "Best Breakup Song" category (huh?) The above pictures show the four songs we threw up on the big board.

The boys' first official viewing of "Gangnam Style".

Leo, watching Bjork's stereoscopic 3-D video for "Wanderlust"

The big boys, popping' tags with only $20 in their pockets.

Hmm. I bet this smelled like R. Kelly's sheets...but it was 99 cents!

Well, Seattle, it was short (way too short), but it was so sweet. I can't wait to come back again. Next time, on top of spending a day at EMP, I'll be sure to schedule in a few more days to see the rest of the beautiful city.

Holly adds: John could easily have spent a full day taking in all of the music videos. I think Kerry's mind would also have been blown by that exhibit. It was one of those days that we just needed more time without those pesky things like eating and napping. Definitely a highlight of the trip for all of us!

Next up: eastern Washington!