Port Townsend with a quick jaunt to Seattle

Saturday in PT was the uptown street fair which we stumbled across when we were going for the farmer's market. It was pretty awesome. The Uptown Pub had set up a beer garden in the closed off street by stacking hay bales and pulling all their tables and chairs out front. We ended up hanging out at the beer garden for the whole afternoon then went to see our buddy Ben in the Shakespeare in the Park production of Hamlet. He was awesome, as usual :) After the play we went back to the Uptown cause Ben's dad's band was playing. We didn't stay too late because we were going to Seattle Sunday morning.

We caught the 8:40am ferry on Sunday morning after picking up Sam in PT. I dropped the boys off in Ballard and went to brunch with a friend. After brunch we watched The Social Network, it was a good movie but Justin Timberlake's character, Sean something, weirded me out. What was his deal!? After the movie and some Futurama episodes, I met up with a friend who happened to live nearby. We met at a pub with like the slowest beer pouring service ever (granted there were like 10 other people there including like 4 kids)... I'm not bitter :P Then BBQ in Queen Anne with my friend from NY who moved to Seattle about a year ago, then up to Ballard and met up with the boys for a little house warming party. The house was awesome, with a hot tub! We played Beirut (Beer Pong's official name) and I was decidely the MVP, it was awesome cause I'm not always awesome at it but that night I was! Joss and I finally won the game (when there was only one cup left on each side and Sam got our cup, I got his cup and we had a 3 cup showdown and I got all 3 of 'em!) then we went in the hot tub. Hot tub! Such a sweet place! We stayed the night there and in the morning slowly, groggily got up and headed back to PT. I slept for like 12 hours last night, it was great and now we're getting ready to head to the coast! I think if Colorado doesn't pan out for the long term I'll move to Seattle... the list of people I know there is growing
and the city is growing on me the more I visit it! On Friday I'm heading to Vancouver BC... funny how there is never enough time to do everything in a town even when you go for 2 weeks!!
Off to the coast!

What a great week

Church camp was great. It was great after not having been since 2006, to reconnect with friends and make new ones. Now I am back in Seattle, going sailing with a buddy tomorrow then heading over to Port Townsend for the next couple weeks where I will be hiking and helping my buddy with some construction on his cabin. After PT I'm going up to Vancouver BC, to see some old friends I haven't seen in YEARS and hang out more with some of my buddies from camp :)

After a week or so in BC I'll head to Portland and see friends, meet babies, like you do when you go home... high school reunion on the 10th, then drive down to hang out with my brother for a couple days and then off to Colorado! Planning to arrive in Vail around maybe Sept 15th.

My road trip is taking a turn to be less road-trip and now it's more like visiting people back in my home region before I move to a new place. Not so much touristy, more, hanging out with friends :)

Missoula > Seattle

I stayed at the only hostel in Missoula, Hutchins Hostel, where I met Michael from London who is biking across America (his blog)! I also met a couple from Clinton Hill, Brooklyn (the neighborhood I lived in for close to 7 years) and they were biking from Missoula to Glacier then over to Washington and down to Portland. I had no idea Missoula was such a biking destination! Michael and I went to a pub trivia night (team name Mustard), we did alright in the first two rounds but not so hot in the end. It was fun though, I will totally do another trivia night!

Thursday morning I started driving, heading to Seattle. I was super tired so pulled off the road somewhere in that sliver of Idaho and took a nap. I think I only napped for 15 minutes but it was like a quick recharge for my batteries and I continued on feeling much better!

BB up on the lift

I stopped to get gas in Eastern Washington and when I got back on the road, I noticed the Check Engine light was on. I pulled off I-90 to Moses Lake and did a quick google search for car repair shops. I found Woodward Auto & Truck and called to see fi they were open because my clock said 6:17. The guy who answered said, of course we're open, where are you? You are calling from New York? I explained that I'm on a road trip and my check engine light just came on and I just got off the freeway in this town. I headed over to their shop and the mechanic (whose name I didn't catch, I'm terrible at remembering to catch people's names!) plugged in the digital diagnostic machine. It was an o2 sensor that needed to be replaced (he showed me on the diagnostic). I asked if I could make it to Seattle and was told yes, but it will burn more fuel so you should get it replaced asap... and you'll pay more in Seattle! So I asked how long it would take them to fix it. Bill, the guy in the office, said it was more about hte part and then about 30 minutes of labor. So Bill called up some place with parts, they had it in stock, drove it over, the mechanic (who I had a nice conversation with about design, he's an aspiring Industrial Designer) replaced the part, cleared the warning, test drove it to make sure it was still good and I was done! I was in, diagnosed, fixed and out within an hour! I arrived in Seattle at 9pm! As far as car trouble go, that was a pretty lucky situation!

I'll be spending today in Seattle, hopefully catching up with one of my old roommates from Brooklyn who lives here now, and tomorrow heading to my Unitarian church camp at Seabeck, WA... arriving in time for the 2pm all staff meeting. This means taking the ferry to Bremerton! Yay ferries! I think today I'll go for a bike ride, my friend lent me her awesome bike map of Seattle and there are a few paths nearby, she lives on the West side of Green Lake for those of you familiar with Seattle.


Oh, I forgot to post a final picture of the finished root cellar! (Well, it needs a little paint and more soil on top and around it, but I had to go West, so hopefully my uncle can sort that out!)

Isn't she lovely :)