And so it ends....

So its Sunday and I'm just finishing my last official day of vacation. It never turned out to be the vacation I had planned, but it was well worth it. Thanks for following along....sorry I didn't get more posts up. Ciao.

Vacation....turned on its head.

Well, as well as my vacation seems to have started....it turned around rather drastically late in the week. Wednesday morning, I started feeling a little congestion in my throat. I was hoping that it was just a small thing but over the next few days, I started feeling worse. By the time Friday came around, it was a full fledged cold. I kept on with some of my plans through Friday. I took a 25 mile Biker ride on Thursday, went to a great play in an outdoor theatre, hung out at Powell's book store for a few hours.....but I just kept feeling worse.

I finally gave in and came back home and crashed in my own bed for a couple days. There is no place like your own bed to try to get over a sickness! The good news is that I am finally feeling significantly better. I am heading out today to house sit for my good friend Joe until Thursday, at which point I'll head out and start getting some more of the "real" vacation thing going again!

This vacation has not been even close to what I had expected, outside of the first three days! On the other hand, it has still been good, other than being sick. The rest of my vacation probably won't be as exciting as expected, but I'll keep the blog updated every couple days.

New Pictures....sorry no Beautiful Ladies this time.

Conversations with strangers.....

.....are always fascinating things. During the first few hours of my first evening in Seattle, I had a few of the "Hey, I'm _____. Whats up?" type conversations you always have in groups of new people. The kind of conversation that lasts for 3 1/2 minutes but never really gets anywhere. They are usually marginally interesting, especially in a hostel in a new city, because you can later say "Hey, I met this beautiful girl from...(fill in the blank here....most recently France for me!) and it was cool!" But the conversations never really go anywhere.

That is where this story of mine deviates from the usual give and take of "normal" conversations. I was chatting with the hostess of the hostel, another beautiful woman I might add, and she introduced me to the hostel's night watch guy. He asked what I did for a job and I mentioned I was applying for jobs as a teacher. This seemed to pique his interest and we started chatting about education. This guy, Brian, turned out to me one of the most well read and largely self educated people I have ever met. We sat at at table in the main room and chatted til after midnight about anything from education, to mysticism, to family differences, to philosophy, to local economy. What made it even more interesting is the added dimension of having random people stop and sit down for awhile and join in the conversation. It was fascinating to hear the perspectives of a remarkably wide cross section of people and backgrounds. We had people from England, Ireland, France, Australia, Korea, China and the US coming in and out of the conversation. It was rather remarkable. This is another of the things I enjoy about traveling! Being able to compare and contrast my own perspectives on a given subject with people from such varying backgrounds pretty much rocks!

Splash

So I saw this dog playing in the fountain after I got of a ferry on some island or another. He was just goin crazy for at least a half hour. It might not be so humorous now....maybe you just had to be there.

On the road again....

...its nice to be back on the road again!! I really did forget how much I love traveling! And I always knew that I loved to travel! Its been several years since I've gone on any really decent trips and I am remembering again what I love about it!! How was it again that I went so long between trips?? It makes no sense!

I left this morning at 9:30 with my boss John, who agreed to ferry me to the train station. Of course, like a good boss, he found a way to make me work on the way there! My train didn't leave until 12:15 so he made sure that I had an inspection to do with him at a furniture place on the way down. Man, what a way to vacation, huh? However, I have decided to find it in my heart to forgive him!

The train ride up to Seattle was uneventful enough, other than the fact that it took over an hour longer than expected! The weather is absolutely flawless, clear and warm......well typical Northwest weather....right? Well, lets at least hope so!

Upon arriving in downtown Seattle, I proceeded to jog to the closest bus that would take me on up to my hostel. I must say that the trip so far is charmed in that I am getting to all my stops at the perfect time. The perfect time means stepping on the bus and having the doors close a scant three seconds later! The perfect time also means walking up to the hostel at the same time as three Stunning English blondes! To say charmed is an accurate description, its safe to say.

The hostel here is not near to downtown as I had hoped it was. I hopped on the bus and all I knew was the name of the stop I was to get off at. I was expecting it to be a dozen or so blocks out, but I was dead wrong. 5 miles later (well at least it seemed that way) I finally decided to get off. Luckily enough, did I mention "charmed"?, the stop I picked just happened to be the exact one I needed. Other than being further away from the downtown area, this hostel is rather cool! It is different than any other hostel that I've been in, but than again, isn't that the point? Its newer than most hostels that I've seen and is five, yes 5, stories tall. It has a great rooftop porch to watch the sunset from, a downstairs game room and middle level where everyone hangs out, oh and a ridiculously attractive and vivacious hostess! Some sort of combination!!

Well, this is all you get for today. I'm gonna write for a bit and then figure out what to do tomorrow. I'm thinking I'm going to like this traveling at the spur of the moment thing!

The Night Before......

So here it is the night before I leave, and I'm more tired than anything. So it was a bit of a crazy weekend...but I was hoping to at least feel some relief or relaxation. No such luck so far. I don't think that the whole idea of my leaving has really sunk in. It still feels like I have to get up in the morning and go to work just like any other day. I'm pretty much packed, just need to put the last couple things in the pack before heading out the door. I'm taking it pretty light. Couple socks, shirts, jeans, a book or two, coat, camera, computer, water, sketch book. Not to bad. I'm ready now!!

The train I'm booked on leaves at 12:15. No luck on the "Leaving on a Jet Plane" for me, and "Leaving on a Jet Train" just doesn't sound right!!!

Yay! Work for the week is officially over and now I can actually start getting ready to leave! I am leaning towards not bringing my bike along after all. Part of me definitely wants to bring it with me but I can just imagine getting sick and tired of moving around on buses or ferries etc. I'd rather have a bit smaller exploratory radius then get sick of dealing with the bike. Not sure if this is a good idea or not. Anyone have an opinion?

I started reading a facinating book yesterday to get me back in the mode of reading again. I've been working back towards reading more often and I just picked this book up as it piqued my interest in passing. There is a part of my personality that makes my interests seem to go in cycles. I will sit down with a book one day, and for the next three weeks or so reading is what I do with a good portion of my free time. After a few weeks go by, I seem to just tire of reading and I'll start up, say, bike riding. I'll do that for a few weeks and then start up painting. Reading, to biking, to painting, to writing poetry, to watching movies, back to reading and on and on. I seem to have so many interests that it is often hard to stick with one when there are so many other interesting things to do! This just seems odd to me. Anyway.

So I'm reading this facinating book....I think thats where I was....that is called "How I Became Stupid" by Martin Page. There was a quote in it that made a lot of sense to me. I can't seem to remember it exactly so I will add it when I have it in front of me. However I highly recommend the book.

Enough rambling.....more to come later.

Ferries

Ferries are annoying....or at least the online booking is. I am starting to think that this whole trip would be easier in the car....but that just defeats the whole idea of my trip. It seems that the particular ferry that I need is always on the opposite side of the sound from where I am planning to be. Tomorrow (Wed) is going to be my big research and planning day for ferries...that is the plan anyway. I'm planning, at this point to spend the first few days in Seattle, so the worst case scenario would be that I make the actual plans once I can actually go down to the ferry terminal, which is probably a better idea anyway. So the question now is.....Do I start to book hostels and ferries now? or do I wait and do things more on the spur of the moment? Hmmmmmm.......ideas?

Test II

Still Testing.....

.....as this is my first blog, its taking some time to figure things out. Hopefully, by the time I leave on Monday, I'll have this down a bit better than I do now. That picture below this post is supposed to be a Slideshow....and that obviously didn't work out as planned.

Working on figuring how to place pictures in a way I like.....Tune in later!

Random pics - testing

Photobucket Album

One week and one day before my departure. I'm starting my research to figure out where I'll stay and what exactly I'm going to be doing. The plan is to take the train up to Seattle and then stay in hostels and camp out for at least two weeks in Seattle, the San Juan Islands, and Victoria BC. I have bookmarked a half dozen sites about ferrrys and hostels.....so so far so good!!! We'll see how long I can manage to make my $$ last....