# Cross Country Trip: Flagstaff to Vancouver to Chicago and back



## Rob Sehl (Jul 15, 2013)

*Pre- Trip Reflection*: June 23rd, 2013
So another summer has arrived, and another epic train trip has been planned for the next 17 days. The idea for this trip was born about .5 minutes after I landed after my previous one, but due to a couple financial quandaries and an awesome wedding in Chicago, I had to put if off for a summer. There will be some other people coming with me this time, my brother Reilly now that he is done with his bachelor’s degree, my roommate Kenny, and my buddy Josh Yoder will be meeting up with us part way through the trip as well. Which brings us to the summer of 2013 and the “stats” portion of the trip:

Trains Taken: 8 (2 buses)
States Crossed: 14 (of the big ones)
Travel Distance: (approx.): 7,322 miles
Major Cities (stops): 6 (Cities I Haven’t Visited Before: 5)
Nights in a Hostel / Hotel: 7

Cities we will be visiting (in order):
Flagstaff, Az :: San Francisco, CA :: Portland, OR :: Seattle, WA :: Vancouver, BC :: Chicago, IL :: Flagstaff, AZ

As it states above I have not been to all of these cities except for Chicago and Flagstaff, so this trip is just as exciting despite being a little shorter time wise than the other one. Another great part of the trip is we are going to catch multiple soccer games on some legs of the trip. In Seattle we will watch the Sounders play the hapless DC United at the CLink, then 3 days later we will see them take on their Cascadia rivals the Vancouver Whitecaps in brand new BC Place. To cap off the trip there is also a possibility of seeing the Chicago Fire play a friendly against one of the Mexican league teams, Club Americá at the Toyota Center.

One nice surprise from the last trip was how many people seemed to be reading over my travelogues on facebook or forwarded by email from my Uncle Larry. Originally I wrote them to show my mom that I wasn’t dead and to have a short record of what I did, but once I realized people were reading them I tried to make them more detailed and entertaining. I had a great time writing it all up, as well as reading and hearing the feedback on what I had posted from friends and family. I plan on doing similar write-ups for each day so check back for updates about what we have done / eaten / drank (this did start off as a brewery tour) / saw / experienced in the Pacific Northwest and beyond, and enjoy it. Your feedback adds a whole different dimension of enjoyment on the trip!

It needs to be noted again that the number of nights in a hostel is still minute and a massive majority of the trip we will be staying with family and friends around the country so a huge *THANK YOU* is due to Beck and Keily and Zach. They are allowing us to crash on their couches so a huge *THANK YOU* is due to them.

Obviously, if you read my last train travelogue, I went on a long rant toward the end about how flying sucked and train travel was the answer to all of our problems ect ect. Since then I have flown multiple times to other places around the country, and while I thought this opinion would degrade into the background, it really hasn’t. Every time I sit in the cramped seats on an airplane, I remember just how spacious the train seats were on the train. When I have to beg the frantic airline stewardess for a drink and she says the beverage cart will be coming around later (as in an hour later), I remember the open fountain on the train. I remember the camaraderie of the passengers and the colorful characters every time I silently sit 3.25 inches away from another victim of the airline drudgery. All of these inconveniences have kept the memory of my train trip alive and continued to make getting back on one has been a priority for me.


*June 25th: Flagstaff to San Francisco*

The trip started off smoothly enough despite Reilly having and interview in Chandler at 2:30 and myself having to work until noon. This gave Kenny and I a chance to think over what we had packed and do a last minute check on anything that
we may need to add to our luggage.

Without this time I would have been without my camera and Reilly would have forgotten his passport. Only semi important stuff I guess.

Once we had all that packed up we started the couple hour drive up to Flagstaff and made relatively good time coming up the hill. My Aunt Barb and Uncle Brent were nice enough to grill up some burgers for dinner and it gave us some time to visit and catch up with our cousins from the north. Doug and Kelly brought their two kids over as well which made for some entertaining dinner conversations and antics.

Around 7:30 we rolled back toward downtown to check our luggage in and change our San Francisco departure tickets because of some changes we made. We decided to forgo the ticket changes because the lady at the train station seemed to be a bit overwhelmed, and maybe a little crazy when checking our bags in. So that assignment was pushed off until we land ourselves in Los Angeles.

Before we boarded the train we walked around Flagstaff’s downtown, reminisced about college and enjoyed the beautiful weather compared to the blazing heat of Phoenix. We stopped off at Flag Brew, one of Flagstaff’s original breweries, for a celebratory pint before we left. We all ordered their Blackbird Porter which was one of my favorites from my time in college.

The departure time was creeping up on us so we downed the last of our pints and rushed out the door toward the tracks to catch the first leg of our adventure. Unfortunately, as the trains in the west generally are, the train was running late and got there about 45 minutes after its scheduled departure time. This left Reilly and Kenny guessing at which trains were going to be ours while I kept telling them that Amtrak trains are never really early.

Despite the delay we were no worse for wear and were lucky enough to get seats that were near each other on the train. We were located near the stairs so there was a light on the entire night, but that didn’t stop us from drifting off to sleep.
At about 11:30 I decided to try my luck down in the café car so I could lay out on the bench and sleep that way. I am a habitual stomach sleeper and the coach seat just wasn’t doing it for me. As I wandered forward there were numerous people in the observation car that were sleeping as well, which made me cross my fingers that there was still a bench open. I walked down into the car and there was already another gentleman fast asleep on one of the benches, leaving me my own on the other side of the car. I quickly laid down, threw my sweatshirt over my head, and crashed out.

*June 26th: San Bernardino to San Francisco*

As I slept off and on in the café car I heard people coming and going especially because there was a restroom not 10 feet away from where I was sleeping. At about 5:45 I was woken up by a group of people waiting for the café car to open so they could get their morning coffee. I decided it was as good a time as any to get up, so I gathered myself and my stuff and wandered back toward our seats.

Reilly and Kenny were already awake and we quickly discussed what we had to get done once we got to Union Station in Los Angeles due to our train being 45 minutes late. We decided to play it by ear because we weren’t able to get our tickets from San Francisco to Portland changed over in Flagstaff, and its lucky we did.

Once we disembarked from Train 3 in Los Angeles we made a b-line for the Ticketing counter in Union Station. Kenny made a comment that it reminded him of the European train stations because of how busy it was and how many different languages we heard. As we passed a Famima mart (family mart chain from Asia) we saw the line snaking between a couple pillar in the Union Station lobby. I quickly jumped in line and waited patiently for the one attendant to work her way through the throng of customers.

It did not take very long to get through the line and get our tickets changed, however it did take enough of our precious time that we decided to hit Subway for break/lunch meal instead. We grabbed our sandwiches, checked in for our train and got our seats before heading into the court yard to enjoy our meal.

It was a beautiful 75 degrees while we sat inside which we soaked us like salamanders in the sun. After annihilating my sandwich (that I originally planned on saving half of) we made our way back inside and to platform 10 to jump on the train. Once on the train we immediately dropped our stuff at our seats and made our way to the observation car.

Through the lady’s ramblings at the Flagstaff Amtrak Station she did say that we would want to be on the left side of the train from LA to San Francisco, hence our haste in going to the observation car. We staked our claim over a group of three seats and settled ourselves in for the 12 hour ride ahead.

An hour after our 10 am departure I went back to the seat to charge my phone and started listening to the World War Z audiobook I had just gotten. Unfortunately I semi dozed off about an hour later and I woke up to a view of the Pacific coastline outside my window.

It was a foggy scene full of people on surfboards and picturesque views that a small amount of the American population has witnessed. I quickly snapped some pictures and half walked / mostly ran to the observation car. Over the next two or three hours Kenny, Reilly and I snapped pictures incessantly trying to capture the beauty we were fortunate enough to see.

We gave the cameras a break once the train took a turn inland where we were entertained with livestock and wineries on all sides. My eyes were glued to the windows trying to take in the environment because this is by far the furthest north I had been in California. While I was scanning the scenery a woman and her son asked if they could sit in the vacant seats next to me. We talked for about 45 minutes about our respective trips, her and her son just coming back from Washington DC. She was also a teacher and loved to look at the wildlife that we saw passing us by like deer, quail, and the condors. She was very nice and her son was quiet, but it was cool to talk to another passenger on the trip. They both left and we continued to watch the background slide by.

The afternoon wore on with me listening to more of my World War Z audiobook until our dinner reservation for 7:30 rolled around. I was so hungry by the time they called us in we were pretty much the first ones to cross that threshold. We were sat with a lady from LA who was very friendly and nice. She was an administrator from the LA Unified School District and was meeting back up with her family after she had some training that had interrupted her camping trip. All three of us ordered the roasted chicken and she ordered the light meal consisting of a chicken tender sized piece with some vegetables.

She was a seasoned traveler and talked to us about her time in China, Japan, Europe and other places that she had visited. Kenny and her reminisced about their time in Amsterdam and she informed us about all the interesting places that you could go with a travel agency. Toward the end of dinner it was obvious that we were all in need of a little respite after our meal so we paid our bills and retired back to our spot in the observation car. I knocked out the last part of World War Z before we rolled into the bay area with a beautiful sunset to greet us.

As we disembarked from the train we realized it had arrived a little late (as usual) and we hurried to figure out our luggage situation. We identified where the buses were leaving from but the train staff were taking a little longer than normal taking the checked baggage off the train and lo and behold, the buses left as soon as we got our luggage. Awesome.

After waiting in line for a solid 20 minutes the gentleman at the counter was nice enough to give us a couple different options, but luckily Will was nice enough to come pick us up and take us straight to the hostel. We decided to pay him in beer (as is a rugby tradition) and started looking up dog friendly bars around the Adelaide. Will also informed us that it is Pride weekend so we have another piece of the San Francisco puzzle that we have to put together before we go. As I am writing this we are sitting at the train station in Oakland waiting for Will and it is oddly reminiscent of the first night on my last train trip waiting incessantly for the taxi in San Antonio. At least this time its not 1 am and I have some company.

Once Will was nice enough to drop us off at our hostel, we dropped our stuff and walked around for the nearest bar that was dog friendly. We had to ask around a little bit but we found the R Bar a couple blocks from the hostel. It was pretty small but it was blasting old school Reel Big Fish which scored major points in my book.

As we walked in Will’s dogs were instantly surrounded by a couple of the girls who were already in the bar. Being exhausted and over cooked for a beer the rest of us left Will and sat at the bar. Kenny and I ordered a Palm, a Belgian beer that Kenny remembered from his trip last summer, and Reilly ordered Red Hook pilsner. The Palm was so good I ordered a second while we relaxed and bsed until about 1 am.

As we walked back to the hostel there was a confrontation between a couple men in the street which had me secretly rooting for a show, but it ended up being a lot of posturing and nothing of the sort. The rest of the walk was eventless and ended with us passing out before we hit the pillows.

*June 27th: San Francisco*

I slept like a rock and woke up to Reilly grinning like a madman at the side of the bunk. He looked at me and exclaimed “I got the job!” Normally I wouldn’t have been stoked, but coupled with just waking up and being in the room with 4 other sleeping people I fist bumped him and politely told him to shut the hell up.

Fortunately they had to be roused early because they were leaving so it wasn’t a problem, which meant it was about time for us to get up as well. There were only 2 bathrooms available on our floor so I had plenty of time to get my stuff organized and ready to go. At about 9 am we rolled downstairs to meet Kenny, but he was nowhere to be found. Reilly text him and we got impatient so we headed downstairs for the free breakfast. There was quite the spread and we enjoyed ourselves but still there was no sign of Kenny.

When we walked back to the main floor we found Kenny waiting for us on the front couch. He had no service so he hadn’t gotten the multiple text messages that we had sent him. We gave him time to go get his breakfast while we got some water and in about 25 minutes we were rolling out for our first day on the town.

We went straight toward Union Square because that was by far the closest place to our hostel. It wasn’t really anything special but we took a couple pictures and made our way to the next stop. On the way we stopped in a Chase to grab some cash and when I opened the glass door I took a quick look around and said “I don’t think there are any ATMs”. As I turned away the lady inside laughed at me and pointed toward what looked like a giant iPad with a keyboard, that apparently doubled as an ATM. Sheepishly I stepped up and went about my business. About a block away I stopped in my tracks and said “crap”. I had forgotten to grab the Alcatraz tickets for later that afternoon so we had to make a u turn and head back to the hostel.

After power walking to make up some time that I had lost we made it to the gate to Chinatown. It wasn’t quite as big as I had expected but it was cool nonetheless. As we continued through the gate and started our way toward downtown the roads began to get steeper and steeper. When people talk about the “hills” of San Francisco, they are completely undersold. Flashbacks on A Mountiain and the Grand Canyon came to mind and even as I type this my calves are aching.
The next stop on our winding game plan was Grace Cathedral, which just so happened to be on top of, what I like to think, was the tallest of all the San Francisco hills. We were all oozing sweat as we got to the front door and the A/C inside the church was magnificent. We wandered around and checked out the murals on the wall, soaked up as much of A/C as we possibly could, and rolled out.

The next waypoint on the map lead us to Coit Tower which happened to be a solid 15 or 20 blocks away, on top of yet another hill. There were some great views from the walk toward Coit Tower and we took full advantage of our viewpoints all the way there. As we walked up to the base of the tower we decided to take it slow and it worked out well because I had to diffuse a situation with my substitute teacher back in Phoenix. When we got to the top of the hill we caught our first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge barely poking out of the heavy fog that was surrounding that side of the bay. As we walked in to the tower we realized it cost money to go all the way up in the tower, and decided it was better spent elsewhere.

The walk after Coit Tower was everyone’s favorite because it was all downhill and we were heading towards Alcatraz and the bay. We had enough time to grab something to eat for lunch so we headed toward Fisherman’s wharf for some seafood of some kind. I ordered fried fish and chips with a crab cake and Kenny and Reilly decided that clam chowder was the best option. As you can imagine there were a million seagulls sitting around begging for scraps and as we left our bench the unthinkable happened. Out of nowhere Kenny stopped and exclaimed “What the hell?!” then realized that he had been slurry bombed by the white devils. I apologized because I was sure it was the one I had been taunting all lunch and he had just missed. Kenny bolted for the restroom while Reilly and I tried to keep our snickering to a minimum.

Once the crisis was taken care of we had to power walk straight toward the Alcatraz ferry to catch it for our 1:30 time frame. As we strolled up, to what I thought was early, we realized that the line was for our ticket times. So we quickly got in line and secured our spots. While we were waiting in the sun (which I will blame for our sun burns but it was a beautiful 75 degrees) we met a mother and daughter from Chicago on their own grad trip. It helped the time pass and before we knew it we were on the ferry.

On our way over there were great vantage points of the city and the bridges and everyone was scrambling for pictures of the scene. As we disembarked from the ship we got a quick lecture on the rules of the island and then were set loose to check out the former maximum security prison. I will say that the audio tour was by far the most informative and best one that I had ever been on and really gave you a feel for the area. The primary sources and direct quotes throughout the prison made it really come alive and I recommend it for anyone who is in the area.

On the way back to the mainland there was a calmer sense about the crowd and everyone seemed to be enjoying the relaxing roll of the boat as well as resting their tired legs.

By this time our legs were getting tired so we tried to make out the best route we possibly could to get back to the hostel to relax with a beer and maybe some aloe. We determined that since we were on that part of town anyhow we were going to hit Ghirardelli Square and then Lombard street before heading all the way back home.

In the square we were told that we had to order a sundae and the brownie one seemed to catch everyone’s eye. Personally, I couldn’t handle the richness of the brownie coupled with the hot fudge and ice cream but we all enjoyed our little bit of sugar high heaven.

The next step was to walk to Lombard Street, which was near the top of something that I bet you could guess at this point. If you said a mound of free beers, no, but I like where your head is at. I don’t know if it was the fatigue from walking all day or an actual fact, but I swore up and down this road was at a 45 degree angle. After attempting everything we could to make it up we arrived at the weirdest yet most unique road in the world in Lombard Street. Not only was it probably the most popular street in town with constant traffic, but people had personal driveways stemming off the serpentine street. After watching a handful of people try it out, and some more than once, we popped over to the trolley station and waited for a trolley to take us home.

In a stem of poor planning on our part we took the trolley form Lombard St. (near the top of the hill / mountain, I can’t decide) back to the hostel which was downhill pretty much the ENTIRE way. It was fun to ride on these iconic trolleys but the planning was definitely lacking on that front.

The entire ride back the trolley driver had an attitude, cracked some pretty awesome jokes, and gave the death stare to every driver that didn’t realize we were the most important vehicle on the roads, bar none. As we jumped off at the Union Square stop we walked, slowly, back toward the hostel where we took care of the necessities and took it easy in the living room of the stout building.

As I wrapped up writing down the last of our adventures that day, Reilly headed up to the room to lay down for a bit. When I arrived he was having a lively chat with a young man from Australia. He explained to us that he was meeting some friends here from back home and while he was waiting had already done a 1300 mile loop through northern California in his prius. We hung out in the dorm room and gave him advice on where he should go and what he should see on his expansive trip across the United States.

Once we realized what time it was we decided that we should probably grab something to eat before it got too late. This meant rallying Kenny despite the fact that his phone had no service. Our texts and phone calls were useless and after waiting about 20 minutes for him to emerge we decided to go on without him.

Directly across the street from the alley where the hostel is situated was a Korean barbeque place that we had spied earlier that day. It was a small place with no more than 25 seats and a couple half finished booths. Reilly and I sat down and reserved a spot for Kenny if he should hear our psychic calls for him to grab some dinner. Reilly ordered the pork chops with special sauce and I got the kim chi ramen noodle bowl. Both of them were excellent and a huge portion for the prices.

As we inhaled the food I got a call from Kenny although I couldn’t hear him and he couldn’t hear me on the other end. I hung up and decided to give him another call, again to no avail. Then we saw him emerge from the hostel and stand directly on the other side of the street. Again, I dialed his phone number and stared at him to see if he would answer. It went to voicemail and he didn’t even flinch. Luckily he called me and we could communicate successfully and he was able to finish off the plates.

As pay back for giving him a little bit of our dinner Kenny offered to buy the beers that we got from the corner store. I grabbed one from Eugene Oregon, a double red ale, Kenny got one from Alaska brew and Reilly one from Magic Hat. We rounded out the night sipping on our beverages and watching a little of Americas Got Talent down in the kitchen of the hostel. At one of the back tables some kids started a game of kings cup, and before we could even think about joining in we all lumbered upstairs and crawled into bed.

*June 28th: San Francisco*

In the middle of the night I was woken up by a familiar sound that resonated through the dorm room. Sometime during the night the last couple of beds had been filled in and one of them snored like a beast. I could hear the other roommates shuffling in their beds as well and in the morning it was summed up well by our Australian friend, “There’s always one.”

There was a lot less hustle and bustle in the room because no one was leaving so the morning went smoothly except we again missed our meeting with Kenny. Reilly and I headed to breakfast around 9:25 am and he was nowhere to be found. Grabbed our breakfast of toasted bagels and peanut butter with fruit and enjoyed the general buzz around the kitchen. As we walked back up the stairs we found the long lost traveler in the front room.

He had straightened out his reservations for the next night but again we waited until he went to grab breakfast. I utilized this time to go grab some Gatorades and water due to just how dehydrated we had gotten the day before. We all met up, applied some sun screen to aid with our sun burns, and set off from the Adelaide.

We had garnered some directions on the best route to the Golden Gate Bridge from the hostel which required a couple different buses. We also wanted to hit the Golden Gate Park directly south so on our walk to the bus station we mapped out just how we were going to make it there.We jumped on the bus without an issue, other than trying to go the wrong way initially, and rode it all the way through Chinatown and about 2 stops short of where we changed buses. As the bus emptied we were told this was the last stop and had to scurry out the back door. Another bus picked us up and got us to the correct stop where we switched to the 28 bus.

We rode the 28 bus all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge but mother nature and the bay thwarted our plans by hanging the fog directly around the bridge. It was kind of cool to see the bridge immersed in the low lying clouds, but it made for terrible pictures. We determined that switching up our plans and heading to the park first and letting some of the fog burn off sounded like a plan. As we headed back to the bus stop we saw a 28 bus approaching and quickly jumped on it, to our dismay.

As we got back on the road we quickly realized we were going to wrong direction and pulled the wire to get off at the next stop. Unfortunately it was about 10 minutes down the road. As we jumped off the bus and tried to figure out how to right our mistake we turned around and were greeted by a beautiful scene. Directly behind us was a garden of some sort, with Greek style architecture and a huge promenade as the center piece. We decided to make the most of our mistake and wandered down toward the structures. It was called the Palace of the Arts and as we walked around its patch we were glad we did not skip it. There were all kinds of plants and birds that enhanced the scenery and looks almost out of place in the middle of a big city. We snapped a million pictures than really opened up the map and our phones to figure out what we needed to do.

We finally made it on the correct bus and took it all the way down to the Golden Gate Park that we had tried to do a couple hours earlier. It dropped us off on the south side of the park and we wandered toward its core and the Japanese gardens. We walked past a big pond with an island in the middle that had a beautiful waterfall that many people were enjoying. We then continued down the hill (another one, I know) to the Japanese gardens, our main goal.
After being prompted to head to the next gate a couple times we eventually learned that we needed to pay to enter the gardens. Our threshold was set at $5.00 and it came it at about $7.00. After some careful consideration we decided to skip it, saw what we could from the gate, and bounced.

It being around lunch time we were kind of hungry and the hot dog stands down the way looked pretty appealing. Fortunately just on the other side of the hot dog stands there was an Indian food cart and we quickly shuffled their direction. They had all kinds of food and the Paratha Wraps were what caught my eye. Kenny and Reilly both ordered the chicken curry and all of the food was amazing. Mine was kind of like an Indian taco and the jasmine rice was excellent while the curry was extremely tender and flavorful. We scarfed our food down and decided to walk around the small square we happened upon.

On the opposite side of the square there was a statue commemorating Francis Scott Key that was erected for his work on the Star Spangled Banner. This square was also the site for the World’s Fair that was held in San Francisco in the early 20th century and there were plaques all over mapping it out and showing pictures from the time. After a couple pictures we decided it was time to head back to the bridge and we walked to the northern border of the park.

As we rolled up to the Golden Gate Bridge we were a little disappointed because she was still draped in the fog. It wasn’t quite as thick as it had been earlier but again, it didn’t help out with the spectacular views we were expected. Nonetheless we soldiered on and snapped as many pictures as we could. There was a large barge (ha see what I did there) passing below it and it was interesting to see it adjust its course according to the fog horn. There was also a small Civil War for at the base of the bridge on the San Francisco side that was neat to look down on and see the old cannon mounts and such. We walked out to the first big landing and decided that was far enough and headed back. There weren’t any flat surfaces to plank on so the bridge was safe.

After another long day of running around we jumped back on the bus and headed back toward the hostel. We decided that a beer then a nap sounded like a good idea, especially before the pub crawl that the hostel had planned later that night. We ducked into a creperie near the hostel and ordered a couple $3.50 drafts that they had, Kenny and Reilly opting for the local Anchor Stead and myself ordering a Negro Modelo. We relaxed and enjoyed the refreshments and decided just where we were going to eat dinner that night.Once the plan was set we headed back to the hostel and laid down for a couple hours to rest.

After a short nap we called will and he was about 30 minutes outside of town, so we rallied the troops and headed toward the parking garage that he had parked in before. Unfortunately he was caught up in some traffic but while we were waiting a homeless guy came up and wanted to play a song for us. We told him we didn’t have cash but he was determined, and after about 15 minutes he meandered off. He walked a short distance around the corner and started playing a song. After a couple of minutes we realized he was singing about us “These guys are waitin on a corner for their friend, too cheap to tip and old man…” its was hilarious.

Will rolled up a couple minutes later and we started walking to a thai place nearby. We waiting in the cramped doorway for about 10 minutes while a table opened up and all the while our nostrils were assaulted by the smells. I wasn’t all that hungry when we first showed up, but by the time we got seated I was starving. The food was excellent and extremely cheap considering the portions so we were all very pleased with our dinner .As we exited the restaurant to the hails of “thank you!” from all the staff we headed back to the hostel to get a quick shower in before the bar crawl.

We started making a group in front of the hostel for the pub crawl and we started to talking to the other people that gathered with us. There were a couple aussies, a brit and another gentleman who was from Scottsdale! The gentleman that leading the group showed up with a beatnik hat on and a tie dye shirt, perfect for a pub crawl master. He explained all the stops from the pub crawl including live music, a whiskey bar, and a place where he djs on Tuesdays. It all sounded pretty good especially when he coupled it with the drink specials we would get as members of the pub crawl.

The first pub that we hit had a live jazz band playing and a great selection of craft beers on tap. The first round was picked up by will and I grabbed Hoppy Feet from the Clown Shoes Brewery. The music swirled around us and we conversed with another guy from Seattle and he gave us ideas of things to do and was stoked that we were going to watch the Sounders.

We left after about 45 minutes and rolled on to the next bar which ended up being the whiskey bar. Will was in heaven and so were the rest of us because they gave us $3.50 Heinekens all night. We relaxed in the back of the bar and talked about rugby and the rest of the trip before we left.

We departed from the whiskey bar around 12:15 am and we were all feeling pretty good at this point. We were all laughing and having a good time as we followed our guide down the sidewalk to the final stop. It was a little further away than the last couple bars and slowly we started to realize the neighborhood we were going in to was not the best. Everyone in the group realized this and our laughter and conversation got quieter. There were some shady characters about but we were in a large group and nothing was going to happen to us.

It was a consensus from the group that this bar was the weakest and the neighborhood did not really help our decision as well. We all sat at the bar to relax and I ordered a Lagunitas IPA to keep me company. As I was drinking my beer I realized, along with the rest of the group, that it was probably a better idea to finish our beverages and head out before too late, so we did.

We got back to the hostel around 1:30 am and quickly headed to the beds before we all fell asleep from another long day of being tourists and a long night of drinking.

*June 29th: San Francisco*

I woke up around 6:45 am to our friend from Scottsdale snoring like a beast in the nearby bunk, so I rolled over and did my best to get some more sleep, but it was useless. Reilly had already gotten up and was packing up, so I decided to go along with him and get my stuff together. Everyone in the room did their best to sleep through the noise we were making so its safe to say that they were probably a little worse off than we were that morning. After a shower we went and checked out around 9:20 am and put our suitcases in storage since we weren’t leaving until 9 pm.

As we grabbed breakfast in the kitchen downstairs the gentleman from Scottsdale came down, still rocking his shades and complaining of a hangover. We talked over breakfast when a couple of the girls that had come out the night before joined us at the table as well. We recapped the night and talked about what we were going to do when a walking tour guide came down the stairs to invite us to join him on a tour of some of the back alleys of San Fran. We decided it sounded like a good idea, especially when the brit told us she had done it and it was awesome.

We met up in the front of the hostel with Mel (the aussie) and walked toward Union Square with just us. She was from Australia but living in Vancouver so that was a running conversation that we had with her all afternoon. As we arrived we joined about 3 other people who were waiting to start the tour with us. Fortunately we had a small group for that day and we had a couple people from Germany, and kid from Hawaii, and a Canadian to join us four. J-Jo was the host and he did a great job introducing all of us to each other and making it as lighthearted and fun as he could. Ironically we found out that J-Jo was actually from Phoenix himself and was a big fan of pho, so he scored major points in my book.

From Union Square we headed to the Westin where he gave us a little background information on the city and the major events that a lot of the tour was going to focus around, the gold rush of 1848 and the fire of 1906. The first stop was a quick tour of the inside where he showed us the first gay bar in the basement as well as some picture from the 1906 fire that destroyed 80% of the city. We weaved in and out of the large crowd checking in and out and it was very obvious that J-Jo really knew his history.

From the Westin we moved back to Union Square where J-Jo explained to us the history behind the lady of top of the statue in the center. She was a poor woman who fell in love with a sugar baron from the 19th century and that is actually where we get the phrase “sugar daddy” from, definitely put that one in as a mental note. We also ran into someone known as the “Emperor” of San Fran. Apparently, a long time ago, one of the aristocrats of San Fran invested heavily in rice and subsequently lost it all. He disappeared for a few years, probably back to his homeland of South Africa, where he lost more than just his money. When he arrived back in San Fran he started calling himself “The First Emperor of America” and wore dapper clothing and walked around the city with some swagger. The only problem with this was that he was completely broke and homeless. Despite his shortfalls the city took him in and people greeted him on the street as “The Emperor” and restaurants even reserved specials seats and tables in their restaurants. Due to the fact that he was completely broke he would write his own currency and pay for his meals that way. He really because so much a part of the city that 30,000 people showed up to his funeral when he died. The man that J-Jo was conversing with in front of us was a new reincarnation of the original Emperor.

From Union Square we went directly across from the Westin and walked down an unassuming alley. J-Jo explained that this was the first red light district in San Francisco, and was a major commodity due to the fact that out of 30,000 residents at the time, there were about 300 women. He said it was a coincidence that it was across from where the diplomats stayed, but I digress. On the other end of the alley there was a man who was singing opera for the entire street to hear. It was amazing to hear his voice resonate off the sides of the buildings and he apparently was there every weekend. I tossed him a buck and we continued on.

The next major stop of the tour was Chinatown. This was the part of the tour that I thought we had pretty much covered but to my excitement J-Jo promised opium dens and brothels. We stopped at the gate where J-Jo explained the Sun Yat-Sen quote above the doorway preaching democracy for all. As we walked down the street he also pointed out that the fire of 1906 really helped out Chinatown in a couple different ways. #1: When City Hall burned down they no longer had immigration records and a majority of the Chinese from this time were staying illegally in the US. This generation was able to get their citizenship because the city couldn’t prove that they were not, so they were called the Paper Boys generation. #2 It also kept them from getting evicted from the very valuable area they occupied. The city wanted to utilize the high property values for the city but the Chinese had already begun rebuilding their neighborhood and made it a point to make every building look extremely “Chinese-ish”.

We continued down the streets and alleyways and the next stop was at a church that had a sign on it that read “Son: Observe the time and fly from evil”. It was basically a warning to the “foreigners” in the area that they should be careful and stay out of the neighborhood before causing trouble. He also talked about the supposed tunnels under Chinatown that connect all the buildings and how this lent itself to shady dealings. We continued down the path and down an alley to a tight street where a very independent and eccentric “working girl” bought her freedom and in turn made a name for herself as a brothel owner. Further down the road J-Jo brought us to the first Dhaoist temple in America. We climbed 3 flights of stairs to a stuffy room with incense burning and a small Chinese woman sitting behind the table. We all looked around at the beautiful statues and lamps lining the walls like a bunch of children in a museum. She then got up and gave us a great explanation of the temple and how it had to be rebuilt after the fire, explained how Dhaoism works, how people prayed and she was great. We all loved every minute of it and eventually walked back down to the street levels once she was done.

Continuing through Chinatown J-Jo explained that there are about 100,000 people living in Chinatown and it is about 14 square blocks! I couldn’t believe it but looking at the foot traffic it all made sense. Our guide took us down another tight alley and introduced us to a musician who played an ancient Chinese instrument (I cant remember it for the life of me but it is like a one stringed guitar) who apparently was a well know barber as well. Two doors down from that there was the last fortune cookie factory that did it all by hand called the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory. We weren’t able to get in and get a taste but it smelled awesome.

Around this time I realized that this tour was amazing and I couldn’t wait to get to the next stop. The next place we were lead was to a small alleyway (another running theme) that connected Chinatown with Little Italy. Apparently it was ground zero for the beatnik revolution and there were quotes and murals adorning the walls and ground everywhere you looked. The door to the Vestuvius Café was at the end of the alley and if we were going to stay a bit longer we would have gone there for a drink.

It was becoming obvious that we were all pretty beat and I hadn’t had a drink since we started so J-Jo took us to a small café that had good espresso and cold lemonade for us to sip on while we talked. The group we were in was pretty amazing and it was great having a chance to talk to everyone. We mostly talked to J-Jo about Phoenix and we tried to figure out a time where we could hang out when he went back, but to no avail. We quickly finished our drinks and we headed to the next destination.

J-Jo had shown us brothels, talked about the opium dens, but we were all itching to see the underground tunnels and that is exactly what he delivered at the next place. It had been abandoned but when an art supply shop moved in to the building and building, they found a section of the tunnel in their basement. It had been walled off on either side but it was no coincidence that one end went to Chinatown, and one end went to the docks. He also explained where the phrase “To Shanghai” came from in the way that sailors would abandon their captains and contracts once they got back to dry land. To remedy this the captains would employ local bar owners to get them any number of sailors back, get them on the ship, and force them into service. By serving them opium laced drinks, the sailors were dropped into these tunnels, taken to the docks, and when they woke up would be at sea sailing to any of the ports in the Pacific, the worst being Shanhai. He explained all of this while we were in the tunnel which was very cool and you could almost hear the men talking and being dragged when he explained it.

Once we emerged from the art supply shop we headed toward an older looking building with a weird serpentine pattern in the concrete. He explained that the building there was owned by a wealthy real estate agent who moonlighted as a whiskey distillery in the basement. During the fire of 1906 the townspeople took a mile long hose from a ship in the bay and defended the building from the flames, in part to save the whiskey, and also to prevent the inevitable explosion that would be catastrophic for the neighborhood. They were successful and that neighborhood was one of the few to boast original architecture. He also pointed out the pattern on the ground that depicted exactly where the actual land used to end before excavation and ships added to the land portion. It was interesting to see that this marker lead directly to the tallest building in San Fran, the Transamerica Buidling.

This building brought us one step away from the end of the tour, to most of our dismay. As we passed the Transamerica Building we walked toward an ornate white building that boasted a “Scientology” sign. We all pointed it out and J-Jo joked he was going to convert us all. He gave us one final story about competing banks down the block and how this white building was the final nail in the “evil” coffin. The man that won that battle went on to create the bank that we know as Bank of America.

That marked the end of the tour and a bunch of us had different plans for the evening, but J-Jo said he was eventually going to end up at a park in the Mission District where a lot of people were going to celebrate the Pride Weekend. We made plans to meet up and we all went our separate ways.

Mel joined Reilly, Kenny and I as we decided to hit up a dim sum joint that Yoder had suggested. We had quite a bit of a walk to get there but we filled the time getting to know Mel a little bit better, a conversation that centered on nutella and vegemite for some reason. Once we got close to the restaurant we could smell the food and we quickly headed inside and got a table. Mel was a huge dumpling fan and luckily that was the first cart to come by. We all grabbed a bunch of food to fill our empty stomachs and reenergize ourselves for the afternoon. We all ate to our hearts content at the restaurant, and once the food babies were in full swing we paid the tab and headed out.

Luckily AT & T Park was nearby so we decided to head there and see if we could get inside and get a couple pictures even though the Giants weren’t in town for the weekend. We knew we were getting close when we saw the giant Coke bottle poking out of the brick and we quickly shuffled to the front of the stadium. Unfortunately the tours had ended for the day so we stuck around the front and took a couple pictures of the statues and monuments we could see.

After exhausting all of the things we were focused on for the afternoon we pulled out the old map and figured out how we could quickly get to the park that J-Jo had suggested earlier. Utilizing our old map technology and the new age Google technology, it was determined that we needed to jump on the lightrail that happened to run right in front of the station.
As we waited on the platform for a good 20 ish minutes, we saw 3 cars come for the opposite directions while we were still left waiting. Some ideas were thrown around that the drivers really did go on strike, but that didn’t really stick along with maybe they just hate us. Becoming impatient we decided to hoof it the 2.5 miles and we headed out. Lo and behold when we were 5 steps away a train emerged going to correct way, but Kenny exclaimed “We’ve gone too far!” and we decided to just walk.

It was quite the trek across town that took us through some interesting neighborhoods. We saw a lot of tech company’s office buildings in the warehouse district and even walked through a very Latin American neighborhood before we finally made it to the Mission area of San Francisco.

As we got closer to the park we began to see more and more people all heading the in the same direction we were. Young people, old people, everyone was coming out to see just what was happening on the Saturday of Pride Week. As we finally arrived at the corner of the park I was absolutely blown away by just how many people were there. Literally the entire park was covered with people just hanging out and having a good time. The open container laws were being ignored and there was a pungent smell of the wacky tabacky in air as we strolled through the park. It was for Pride Weekend but there were plenty of straight couples walking around and it was amazing that this many people gathered for something that didn’t even have a central event. We wandered around the park and sort of just soaked in exactly what we were experiencing. Seeing just how pumped everyone was for something that really wasn’t even an “event” made me a bit bummed that we couldn’t be there for the actual Pride Parade.

We decided that it was about time to head back to the hostel to make sure that we caught the bus to Emeryville so we started to walk toward Market St. Our phones were lagging due to the towers being overloaded with a million people using them simultaneously, so getting a route where we didn’t have to walk a million miles was difficult. Due to some of the streets being close we were extremely limited bus wise and once we got to Market St. we were faced with a quandary.
The BART stop at ground level was closed because that was the route the parade was going to be running the next day, and we were SOL when it came to bus options. Luckily while we were staring around the intersection like lost puppies Reilly spied an escalator that disappeared underground and we quickly realized it was the underground BART. This was our saving grace and we quickly got our tickets and boarded the train.

We all joked just how much easier this was than carrying on our Bataan Death March and we quickly arrived at Powell Station where we got off. This put us a couple blocks from the hostel and we emerged into downtown where it was way busier than it had been the entire last week. Pride Week was in full effect and when we hit Union Square it was a zoo. Mel was going to hang out downtown for the night so we said our goodbyes and we headed back to the hostel.

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful and we hailed a cab that got us to the Ferry building in one piece despite the crazy traffic. We sat around some tacos and chips and salsa and kind of decompressed after our whirlwind of a couple days. It was nice to be able to kick back and relax for about an hour before we had to get on the bus and subsequent train.

Once Kenny and I got our tickets out of Chicago pushed back a couple days (hell yeah) we relaxed, took the bus back to Emeryville and waited for the train to depart. As I was sitting in the train station a gentleman walked up and asked me if I knew when the train was arriving. I told him I didn’t but that I had heard 10:45. He sat down and we had an interesting conversation about how he worked with mentally challenged adults and was a volunteer police officer. It was apparent that he also had some difficulties mentally but he was very nice and he really got excited when he talked about the shooting range that he had recently been to. I informed him that I had been a hunter for a long time so we had a good time discussing guns.

Just as the train was arriving we saw a slew of kids run in front of us to the same car we were on. I wasn’t excited about sharing a car with 15 young girls overnight but luckily they were moved to a different car. As soon as we hit the seats Reilly passed out and we all kicked back for the night.

*June 30th: Portland*

Kenny and I decided to see if we could snag a couple benches down in the café car to sleep on. Unfortunately they had it blocked off so we just stuck around in the observation car and curled up on a couple of the clusters of seats on either side.

The morning sun came up earlier than I expected and I decided to be nice and vacate the observation car so people could enjoy it more than my half conscious self. As soon as I got back to the seat Reilly scooted over and we both crashed out faster than you could say “Sh”.

The ride to Portland was going to take most of the day and the fact that our train was running about an hour late meant it would extend further than that so we all took advantage and vegged out. I listened to some toons for the first 3 or 4 hours we were on the train, then decided to start on one of the books I had brought with. I chose Dante’s Inferno and I knew that my junior English teacher would be aghast due to the fact that I slept through 90% of his book when I had to read it. Despite the extended intro and the constant references to the endnotes I was amazed at the amount of research and depth that the text accomplished. Considering it has been under scrutiny and research for over 800 years, it really is amazing that there is still an amount of the unknown about the work.

We had a reservation for the dining car for around 2:15 pm and we hurried from our caboose to the observation car (a journey of about 6 cars) and waited patiently for our reservation to be called. While we were in the observation car we met a nice older lady who was traveling from northern California to Washington to visit some family. She asked about our trip and where we worked and stuff and was extremely nice to three guys taking over her booth. As talked the inland Oregon swept by and I was amazed at the farmland that we were passing. Even Kenny, who had been here before, didn’t realize just how much of it there was.

Over the crackling loudspeaker we heard an unfamiliar announcement that the dining car had a vital piece of equipment malfunction and would not be able to serve any more customers for the lunch reservations. All of this 20 minutes before we were supposed to eat! Disappointed we decided that we would just grab something near the hostel once we arrived and went back to vegging out in the seats.

I continued reading Dante’s Inferno and we quickly approached the Portland Union Station. Randomly we decided to check the weather and it was 92 with about 40% humidity. We were in for a treat. As soon as we walked off the train we were hit by a wall of humidity, it was foreign and uncomfortable. We quickly gathered up our bags and walked out front to find a taxi to our hostel.

We hailed a green cab from the front of the station and there was a small Hawaiian gentleman at the wheel. We should
have known we were in for a ride when he asked for the address about 12 different times, and after a small tour of downtown and a warning about naked bike riders he dropped us off a block away.

We walked toward a building that looked like a hotel and when we asked the small Indian man if we were at the right place, he confirmed it. Now once we got the keys to our room we walked up the stairs that he directed us to and looked at the sign that said “Rooms 30 – 49 to the right / 50 – 69 to the left”. Unfortunately we were in room 34 and after some wandering around we went back down to ask him where we needed to be. He apologized and took us to another door on the other side of the lobby. We quickly climbed the stairs and took a shower that we all had been missing for the past 38 hours.

Once we became human again we headed to the pizza joint directly below the hotel called “Pizza Schmitza” that had cheap pizza and local beer. I ordered a large of the Boneyard Red and a pint of their Oakshire IPA and the red was excellent. Definitely a beer that went well with the $2 Hawaiian pizza they were offering as a special. After about 3 pieces of pizza we decided to regroup and decide where we were going to head first.

We checked out the plans that we had established and using the googles we decided that we were going to take it easy and just stroll down the river and find a bar to chill out at. We walked down to the river, snapped a couple pictures and tried to hit the Full Sail Brewery tap room. Unfortunately it was closed so we scrambled to find another brewery/taproom that we could get to quickly.

It being a Sunday a majority of them were closed so we eventually ended up on going to a bar called Paddy’s a block off the river. It was an Irish Pub (if you didn’t discern that already) and had a giant wall of liquor behind the bar. We walked in and all ordered a beer, Kenny and Reilly getting a double red ale from Bridgeport Brewery and I ordered an IPA from Dechutes Brewery. We sat at the wooden bar and marveled at the liquor selection that annihilated our pantry and decided what we were going to get next. I ordered a Black and Tan with a Powers whiskey sidecar and Reilly got an upscale bourbon that the bartender suggested.

We asked the bartender what exactly Portland had that we should go see before we moved on the Seattle and he said that, and a I quote, “There really isn’t one thing to see in Portland.” He then went on to say that there were a lot of places to eat , drink and generally have a good time which in turn lined up exactly with what we wanted to do while we were here. However I did hear a hint of jealousy when he talked about the only difference between Portland and Seattle was the touristy attractions. They had the gum wall, space needle, pikes place, ect. We paid our tab and rolled out around 10:30.
We decided that tearing it up on a Sunday night was probably not a good call so we decided to head back to the hotel and rested before our intense day of enjoying the food and beer Portland had to offer.

*July 1st: Portland, OR*

After out festivities of the night before we all slept in to around 10:30 before we all were ready to roll out and see exactly what Portland had to offer. We got our bags put away in the room that we had to change to and were finally ready to head to Jeld Wen Stadium around 11:00.

Looking at the map we thought that Jeld Wen was going to be really far away from the hostel, but once we got started we realized not only did Portland have smaller blocks than San Francisco, but their hills were absolutely weak sauce. We walked by a café off the university and walked inside to grab some sustenance for the day.

I ordered a breakfast wrap but Reilly decided to get a croissant AND some lox. We all ate in pretty much complete silence and I think our hunger from the day before was still in effect, but once we were done we talked about where else we wanted to go once we hit the Timbers’ stadium. We decided that we were going to hit as many breweries as possible in the full day that we had in Portland and started mapping them out.

The walk to Jeld Wen was fairly short and we snapped a couple pictures out in front of the gate. There was a weird clown / baby mask thing out in front that we brainstormed some ideas of what exactly it was before asking if we could take a tour of the enemy territory. The lady at this ticket counter informed us that we would have to make a special appointment to do so. The effort required didn’t really match our interest level so we looked back to the gps to find our next stop. As we walked away from the stadium Reilly noticed that the team was practicing on the field which made perfect sense why they wouldn’t let us head inside.

The next place on our tour was the Rogue Ale and Distillery down the street. As we walked in the place was pretty small and only a couple of the tables had people seated at them. We all ordered a flight off their menu which allowed us to choose any four beers that we wanted save for a couple of their special brews. I ordered the Mogul Madness, St. Rogue Red, Chipotle Ale, and the Ditoir Black Ale. Of all of them the chipotle was really interesting, it had a hint of chipotle but not too much that it was overpowering. Really a solid beer. They were all pretty tasty but the Mogul Madness which had a special kind of hops that was infused in it also caught my attention. As we finished up our beers we looked around the walls and realized that Rogue Brewery had an extensive history and awards that they had won at national and international awards around the world.

The next brewery that we headed towards was the Dechutes Brewery. This brewpub was huge and was extremely busy compared to the Rogue Ale House we had just left. There were huge wooden archways with carvings of elk and deer adorning them and it was really sweet. We were seated in the back of the brewpub and we all ordered the flights of their “Brewmaster’s Choice” beers. There were a lot of IPAs on the 6 beer flight but a handful really stood out. They were the We’ve Gone Awry Rye Ale, Mussel Relaxer Belgian Brown, Armory XPA, Fresh Squeezed IPA, Hard Target Belgian IPA, and Ale for ALS. The biggest surprise was the Mussel Relaxer that was brewed with shellfish clam shells and it added a whole different taste to the beer. It was also very drinkable.

We also ordered a small amount of food because we wanted to have something in our stomachs with all the beer we were eating. This lead us to stumble upon something amazing. The French fry plate that I ordered came with what they called “fry sauce”. This sauce was probably the greatest thing I had ever eaten on a French fry. It was sweet but had a small amount of heat to go along with it. We asked the server what exactly was in it and when she came back what she told us wasn’t that surprising. Roasted bell peppers, mayonnaise, sweet chili oil, and the best part by far, siracha. We drank the rest of our beers, scarfed the food and moved on to the next brewery.

As we walked further into the heart of downtown we headed toward the Tugboat Brewery. Unfortunately the windows were dark when we rolled up and realized that they didn’t open until 5pm, those are some sweet hours. Luckily for us there was a taproom right across the street from Tugboat we went inside Bailey’s Taproom. On the wall they had a giant tv that not only showed you the beers that they had on top, it also showed you the prices for the different sized AND the levels of the kegs. It was probably the single greatest invention I had seen the entire trip and we walked up to the bar with our eyes wide. We ordered flights of beer with 6 of any that we wanted, and we settled into a booth on the side of the bar. I ordered the Mazama Brewing Belgian Dubbel, Commons Walnut Porter, Two Kills Cocoa Porter, El Toto Poppy Jasper, and the Solera French Tickler. About this time we weren’t feeling any pain and we were really enjoying the exquisite beers that we had chosen. As we drank our beers a lot of people came in and out of the bar and one guy even broke a bottle of beer he had bought trying to get a seat.

The next stop on our tour was probably the most famous stop in Portland, Voodoo Donut. Walking up to the store we saw a line of probably 15 people waiting outside to get one of their weird and unique donuts. We jumped in line after a couple pictures and talked excitedly about which one of the weird flavor combos we were going to get once we got in. We all decided that we were going to get the original Maple Bacon Bar and once we ordered them we quickly called dibs on the ones with the biggest pieces of bacon. Opening the box that said “Good things come in pink boxes” we ate the savory and slightly sweet donuts and were amazed at just how good they were. I was definitely a convert with the first bite of bacon I took.

Coming down from our sugar high we decided to go on a little bit of a trek across the bridge (one of the seven) to get to the Hair of the Dog Brewery. It was beginning to get extremely hot so this walk was promising to be extremely hot and sweaty. Halfway across the bridge we got a cool perspective of the city and we all snapped a bunch of pictures like we were professionals. As we got close to the promise of some more ice cold beer we came to a terrible realization. The place looked empty from the outside, and as we tried the door it was locked. Apparently they weren’t open on Mondays and we all slumped our shoulders. It was a long walk back across another one of the bridges, but it gave us a chance to go see the most iconic statue in all of Portland.

This statue was called “Portlandia” and apparently was erected to welcome people to Portland at the “Portland Building”. We weren’t sure exactly what the Portland Building was supposed to do but apparently it was important for the city so we snapped a couple pictures of the 30 ft statue and decided to head back to the hostel.

Once we got back to the hostel we checked in to the dorm rooms and jumped into the bunks to grab some shut eye
before we went back out for dinner. The heat and humidity had really taken it out of us in the afternoon and it was just what the doctor ordered. There were a couple kids from the Czech Republic in our dorm that night and Reilly talked to them about what they were planning on doing and such.

When we woke up the sun was just barely going down, so it was around 8:30. We looked around on our phones for a place to eat and a lot of them were closed due to it being pretty late on a Monday. We decided to go to a Vietnamese place a little further downtown, and we walked out of the hostel.

It was a pretty small restaurant but the food was excellent and pretty cheap. We all were still feeling pretty worn out so we ate our food and enjoyed the bustling atmosphere around us. After deciding that it was a good idea to take it easy tonight we stopped by a corner store on the way home. I grabbed a cold mountain dew to offset the heat that was still in the air and we joked all the way back to the hostel.

Unfortunately we looked at the tickets and something happened to Kenny’s Portland to Seattle ticket so we made a mental note to get to the station early the next morning.

*July 2nd: Portland, OR to Seattle, WA*

We all took full advantage of the lazy morning that we had ahead of us and didn’t really rouse ourselves until about 9:30 to find some food. We left the map that I had created of breweries and tap rooms around Portland for the two gentleman from the Czech Republic and they took their time looking it over as we left for breakfast.

Our initial plan was to go to the café across the street for breakfast, but the familiar dark restaurant and empty tables greeted us and we walked up. It didn’t open until 11 am (what café doesn’t open until 11 am??) and we again had to scramble for a place to eat using the internets.

We found another café that boasted some good reviews about the food however there were some disturbing reviews about the employees and ownership. One of them said, and I quote, “I saw the owner of the café physically assault a customer, I was in shock and will not be going back. Ever.” Kenny then responded with “That sounds like a lot of weird!” and we all decided to risk it anyhow.

Luckily for us we avoided physical assault when we walked passed a small food truck that boasted a menu that we were all familiar with and our mouths watered at the sight. We all decided on the breakfast chorizo burrito to start with and Reilly and I coupled it with a coke to start the morning off. There was even rojo and verde sauce to go with and a habanero salsa that burned once it hit your mouth. We all enjoyed this little bite of home and there wasn’t a whole lot of conversation around the table.

As we wrapped up breakfast and got back to the hostel Kenny jumped in the shower and I took advantage of the downtime to read some more of Dante’s Inferno. The guys from the Czech Republic were still in the room and as I was finishing the latest Canto in my book one of them jumped in the shower after Kenny. This normally wouldn’t be an issue but we were running a little short on time so I impatiently waited for my turn. Luckily he didn’t take an hour long shower and we were able to head out just in time.

After our strange encounter with the Hawaiian taxi driver on our first day in Portland we decided to utilize their mass transit and jumped on their light rail called the MAX. As soon as we got to the station the yellow line was just about to pull out of the station, so we were forced to wait for the next one lest we break the law and stow away. We waited for about 10 minutes and jumped on the next green line that came through.

We got to the Amtrak Station with about 30 minutes before our train headed out we were able to get our ticket situation taken care of and our bags all checked with time to spare. We talked to a guy who was traveling up the coast like us from New Zealand and he told us he got a mustang in San Fran and joked about how he didn’t even have a driver’s license in the states. The line began moving and before we knew it we were at the gate and on the train.

Just like our train the long distance train from Eugene was running late so we lounged about in the short distance train waiting for its arrival. Once the train was underway the car pretty much went silent. Kenny, Reilly and I all relaxed listening to music, me reading Inferno, and taking a nap. The trip was fairly uneventful until we hit the lakes and sound on the southern end where we snapped a bunch of pictures.

Becky was waiting at the station when we rolled in so we dropped our backpacks in the car while we waited for our bags to come out. This is the third station that we stopped at and ended up being the first one where they actually checked our baggage claim tickets. So we had to run back outside, grab our tickets out of the backpacks, and run back in to grab our packs. With all of our gear in tow we were able to peace out from the station and into the Emerald City.

Becky took us into Seattle and took us to the top of one of the hills that overlooked the entire sound of Seattle. It had a beautiful view of the downtown buildings with Mount Reiner adorning the background. We grabbed a bunch of pictures, had a bunch of tourists take our picture in front of the railing and we jumped back in the car to meet up with her sister for dinner.

Unfortunately we got caught in traffic on our way to the I-5 and literally watched 6 or 7 lights change before we were able to get through 1 traffic light. It was a long wait while we trudged our way through the traffic, but once on the I-5 south we cruised straight to the first brewery, Red Hook.

As we pulled in to the parking lot it was sort of hidden off the road. It looked more like a country club than a brewery but once we saw the building with its brewery tanks on the outside of the building, we knew exactly where we were at. It was extremely similar to the Dechutes Brewery with a lot of wooden works around the inside of the building. We sat inside due to the wait to sit on the porch (enjoying the apparently rare summer sun they got) but we quickly ordered our meals. I grabbed the sampler platter that consisted of the ESB (Extra Special Bitter), Long Hammer IPA, Pilsner, Blackhook, Audible Ale, ECS No Equal Amber (brewed by the largest Sounders support group). The ESB and ECS beer were probably my favorites but the Blackhook was also a really solid beer as well. I also ordered the Rueben sandwich and there wasn’t a whole lot of conversation while the food was out.

Becky’s sister suggested another brewery that was just down the road and considering the sun was still high in the sky (despite it being about 8 pm) we decided it was a good call to head straight there. It was called the Black Raven and was located in an Industrial Park by a gold course. I know, it was a strange part of town. As was the normal practice around our group we all ordered a sampler flight which included Sunthief Kristallweizen, Totem Pale Ale, Trickster Northwest IPA, Tamerlane Brown Porter, Second Sight Strong Scotch Ale, Morringham Nitro Stout. The ale and IPA were pretty solid and rocked a lot of hops but the brown porter was definitely the best one of the bunch. We all sat around and started reminiscing and having a good time.

When the sun started falling in the sky (around 9 pm. WHAT THE HELL) we all paid the tab and decided to roll out and
back to Becky’s apartment. We still had to get all of our stuff out of her car but once we got there it was pretty easy to spread out and relax. We settled in to her living room and I threw in a load of laundry before fully crashing before the big soccer day tomorrow.

*July 3rd: Seattle, WA*

I crashed in the recliner in Becky’s living room while Kenny rocked the sleeping bag and somehow Smalls commandeered the couch. Around 9 Becky came in and woke us all up so we could cycle through the shower and make it downtown at a decent time. We threw Smalls in first because he isn’t called Slow Mo for nothing and started getting our bags and such organized because Yoder was coming in to town tonight and it was about to look like a refugee camp in Becky’s one bedroom apartment.

Becky made chocolate crescent rolls which were bomb while we all cleaned up for our jaunt in downtown Seattle. We left for downtown about 10:30 and drove down the I-5 toward the city center. We parked off of 1st avenue and decided that we were going to head down to the water for the first stop. We saw the ferris wheel on the water snapped a couple pictures and walked down the boardwalk to Olympic Sculpture Park. All of our art levels were way too low to understand what was happening around us so we spotted the Space Needle.

Becky warned us about the hills in Seattle but they were nothing compared to the mountains of downtown San Fran. As we got closer to the space needle we started to see the line to get tickets zig sagging from the base. We jumped in line and prepared to wait for half an hour to overpay for some tickets to the top. Fortunately for us there was a lady with a hand held register and we were able to buy our tickets and wander around the gift shop in less than 5 minutes.

We spied some Sounders gear at the gift shop and Kenny and Reilly checked it out while Yoder called and I attempted to steer him from the airport to downtown with my limited knowledge of everything. Eventually our time came up and we rode the elevator up to the top and got a beautiful view of the city skyline. There weren’t that many people up at the top so we were able to walk completely around and see the awesome view that Seattle has over the Sound with Olympic Park in the background, Mount Reiner in the back, and the stadium that we would eventually be going to.

We spent about 25 minutes up at the top, snapping pictures, and then got back in line to head back down on the elevator. Once we got to the bottom we decided the next stop would be Pike’s Place, back toward downtown. We jumped on the monorail to get back downtown quicker and it dropped us off at a mall of sorts. Considering we hadn’t eaten since breakfast we all decided a smoothie sounded really good so we stopped. 3 / 4 of us got a peanut butter, banana, and strawberry smoothie while Kenny got some tropical crap. We walked a couple blocks toward the water and hit all the tourists that we had apparently been missing.

There were a million people meandering around Pikes Place and the stalls all aligned in a straight line off the street. We passed by the original Starbucks coffee place, saw the line (longer than the Space Needle) and rolled on. We started on one end and moved to the other admiring all of the goods and fresh foods that they were selling. The amazing part was a bunch of flowers that back in Phoenix would cost probably $40, they were selling for all of $10. The fruits were crazy fresh and we saw a couple little kids sampling as much as they could get their small hands on to. We were offered some jellys, a pepper one, beer one, wine, and they were all really good.

Eventually we were hit with the smell of seafood and Reilly exclaimed, “I want to see a fish fly through the air!” Unfortunately it requires someone to buy the fish for that to happen and we were not lucky enough to see that go down while we were there. I will say the crab they had on ice were bigger than my face and if I had to face one in the wild? Scary.

Underneath Pikes Place is where the second most unsanitary attraction in the world is located (only behind the Blarney Stone) which was the next place we went to. There weren’t as many tourists to see the giant wall covered in gum but it was just about as impressive as anything else we had seen. Some people had made faces in the gum, words, or even made it look like icicles hanging from the window sills. Ironically there was a sign across on the other wall that said “No Gum on This Side” which people were definitely not following. After we added our own pieces of gum to the monument, we walked back through the underground part of the Pikes Place back toward the water.

There was a small park with some totem poles that overlooked the sound that we hit, before trying to map out a way to get back down to the water for some food. We walked along 1st Ave. and saw a small staircase that led down under the highway to the water. There were a couple homeless people walking down it as well and we decided to follow. In retrospect we decided it was a bad call when the homeless guys started screaming about someone snitching and how they weren’t the ones and such, so we quickly shuffled down the stairs and warned some other tourists not to follow our path.

Anthony’s was a place that we had spied on our walk before so we stepped up to the counter and most of us ordered fish and chips. It came out pretty quickly but instead of having 2 salmon and 1 cod fish and chips, we had 2 cod and 1 salmon. Reilly went up and pointed out the mistake, and he thought they were remaking it but nothing was happening. We were pretty much done with our food and Reilly went back up to ask what the deal was. He finally received his food but they had thrown a bunch of extra stuff on there, extra salmon, prawns, some clam strips. It was a heap of food.

We had pretty much hit most of the places that we wanted to go to so we walked toward Pioneer Square and decided to grab a couple cold ones before the March to the Match started at 5:30. Reilly was doing the potty dance so once we got down there he stepped into a New Orleans pub. After a homeless guy gave us his sob story we followed him in and sat down in the back bar to relax. We began seeing a lot more Sounders jerseys and gear around us and we all started to get pumped for the game.

After some reminiscing and stories of Cambodia from Becky we paid the tab and walked toward Occidental Park, where the March to the Match was set to begin. There wasn’t a whole lot of people around the park, but those who were there were decked out in rave green and packed into a bar on the water side of the square. There was also an interesting homeless brood off to one side that set a pretty interesting contrast to the whole thing.

The square started filling up with people and suddenly there was an entire band and a guy on a mike enticing people to do the Sounders chants. They gave away a bunch of stuff to people, made some guys put pedometers on their heads and do the most “headers” and generally made a great atmosphere before the match. Chipotle had a tent set up giving out free chips and guac to people going to the match and the band played a couple rounds (even a rendition of “Cinema”, the Skrillex remix) which had everyone feeling good before the march even started.

Then the March to the Match started, and it got real. The ECS (Emerald City Supporters) started the march off with a couple chants that resonated off the walls of the buildings, and you could feel the energy rising. People seemed to come out of the woodwork as we made our way around some construction and toward the Century Link Stadium. People at the stadium and along the streets were snapping pictures (much like us) because this is an environment that is foreign to the American sports world. The chants continued, the band continued to play behind us all the way until we reached the north gate of the stadium. I couldn’t have been more excited for a sporting event in my life and no one could have wiped the grin that was adorning my grill at that moment. It was sick.

We walked in the gates and didn’t have too much trouble getting through the gates to our destination. There was a pro shop at the entrance and for the first time in my life I purchased a piece of merchandise at a sporting event. I got a Seattle Sounders scarf which I had wanted for a long time and it was to be my only souvenir from the trip, totally worth it. With my signed jersey on and my brand new scarf, we scored some green spikey hair from a giveaway and before we knew it were sitting in the hawks nest looking over the stadium 10 minutes before the start of the game.

Something to keep in mind is that this is a Wednesday night. Most regular people had work that day and even when the match started the stadium wasn’t that full. At first kick we all tossed our streamers toward the stadium and excitedly watched the Sounders work their magic against the United. In about the 20th minute was the first goal by Obafemi Martins, and the stadium exploded. By this time it was a packed house and everyone was screaming. The flamethrowers were on and it was time to party.

The entire match was enjoyable and the people behind us were taking full advantage of the festivities during the match. There were quite a few chances put together by the Sounders but in the end, sealed with a 91st minute goal again by Martins, it was an excellent game to be a part of. I can honestly say that it was by far the most electric and exciting environment at a sporting event that I had ever been to. It was absolutely amazing.

As we left the stadium we were serenaded by the band playing “F*** You” by Cee Lo and headed toward downtown. We sat at the Sounders bar on Occidental Park we had seen earlier for a couple celebratory beers and shared some fist pumps and cheers with fellow Sounders fans for the 3 points they earned. We decided to be nice and go pick up Yoder from the airport that night, so we downed our beers and headed back toward the car in the parking garage.

We had to make a couple passes to pick up Yoder and Reilly had to make another pit stop, but eventually we were all in the Subaru and heading back north toward Becky’s place. Especially with the sun going down around 9:15 it totally threw us off for dinner, so we had to quickly scramble and find somewhere to go on a Wednesday night before July 4th.
There was a McMenamens near Becky’s place that we walked to and the internets lied to us because they closed at midnight, and it being 11:40 we were out of time. We settled with heading to the Bashas in the same intersection and perused the meals aisle. Kenny and I grabbed a 6 dollar sub sandwich that was huge and Yoder chose some hot wings and a six pack.

Once we got home you could see everyone slowing down and we all relaxed and talked while we finished the food we had just purchased. We eventually set up the living room to house four of us and turned it into a refugee camp for couch surfers. Around 12:45 am we all sat down and there was no getting us up before we all crashed out.

*July 4th: Seattle, WA and ‘Murica*

After the festivities of the night before we all slept in for a couple extra hours in the morning, but eventually Becky came in and roused up the refugee camp to action. The party that we were going to for the fourth of July wasn’t until about 4 pm that day, and we only had a couple places that we wanted to go check out so we weren’t exactly in a rush to get our stuff together.

The sky was a little cloudy that morning, and being the desert dwellers we are, all of us grabbed jackets like it was 50 degrees outside. We went to Safeway to grab some beer and some more chips for the party where it took us about 20 minutes to get all of our beer snobbery in order. Eventually we left with a couple cases that we knew wouldn’t be enough for the entire afternoon.

We dropped all the food and beer at Becky’s sister’s place and our first stop was Green Lake which apparently was a nice lake toward the city and happened to have a really good restaurant by it called Dukes. They were known for their chowder and they were not joking when they said it was award winning. It was made with super fresh ingredients and I was willing to brave the third degree burns to eat the chowder right away. I also ordered a crab cake think that was served with a tomato and some sort of sauce on top. Needless to say I wasn’t talking a whole lot during lunch, especially because the conversation was a little too nerdy for me anyhow.

Immediately after lunch we walked across the street to Green Lake which was absolutely rocking due to the beautiful weather that they had been having lately. Joggers, walkers, dogs everywhere, and even some roller skaters that we were convinced were roller derby girls. We did an entire lap on the inside track and really soaked up the sun as much as we could once it started to peek out of the clouds. Passing the hippie drum circle on the other side of the lake marked the end of our lap, so we jumped back in the car, rolled the windows down and cruised.

The next stop was one of the places I was looking forward to (obviously not as much as the gum wall), the Fremont Troll. This was a troll that the city commissioned it so that people would have more a more “community” feel. It was literally a troll that was carved out from the stone underneath on of the large bridges in Fremont. As we rolled up it was literally a giant troll, hand crushing a VW bug, looking a little grumpy. It was perfect. There were kids climbing all over it while their parents snapped pictures and I couldn’t help but feel like they were successful. The best part was that they apparently dress him up throughout the year, like putting sunglasses on him for solstice in the summer and I think we even saw his nails painted which probably marked the Pride Parade. It was sweet.

After a couple pictures (one of Yoder elbow deep in his nose) and a donation we jumped in the car and decided it was time to head downtown and get up on the roof for the festivities. I was pretty pumped for this party because it was on a rooftop in downtown Seattle, but I was not prepared for the view that we saw once we got up there. There was a sand pit where a group of guys were playing cornhole (really close the to the edge of the roof) but the 360 view was amazing. To our left we had downtown Seattle with Mount Reiner adorning the background, straight ahead from our corner seats we had the expensive housing and the Space Needle stabbing the sky, and to our right we could see Gasworks Park where the fireworks were going to be shot off. Absolutely amazing. We could see the Park itself from the rooftop and you couldn’t see the grass with how many people were sitting there, crowded like ants on a disregarded cookie.

The sun was out and the beer was cold so we all settled in and cracked em open. Becky’s friends that put on the party had just moved in and everyone that was there was a lot of fun. There was food covering all of the tables and if we hadn’t just eaten I wouldn’t have had to worry about a meal for days. You had to use a key from the building to head down to the restroom so we had to go in waves which also gave us a good chance to refill the beer and food when it started to get low.
The conversations were burgeoning around us and throughout the day the rooftop started getting more and more packed as the sun started to dip (slowly) in the sky. Everyone was enjoying the holiday and taking full advantage of the day off of work, and we weren’t being slouches in killing the beer either. After a beer run about halfway through (the fireworks weren’t until 10:30, when it was finally dark enough) everyone was able to relax. A lot of the guys had dogs that they had brought with them, and we were sitting by the small dog area on the roof so they got to play/see all the dogs that were up there throughout the afternoon.

At one point Kenny and a couple of the other people went down to hit the restroom and were gone for awhile. Then Kenny called me and said “Dude what is happening up there???” and sounded concerned. I responded with “Uh, we are just eating and drinking, what is going on?” “Dude, the fire alarms are going off in the building, we had to go down to the lobby and they wont let us back up!” My eyes got wide and I looked around. When I responded with “Well if you see some smoke or flames give me a call, otherwise we are gonna continue to party.” Everyone around me turned and looked confused. After about 30 minutes they were allowed to come back up and the party continued without a hitch.

As the time for the show crept closer there were more and more people crowding around our prime sitting at the corner of the building and we waited excitedly for the show to start. We could see dozens of other fireworks show going on around us in other parts of the city, some far away and even someone shooting some off between us and Gasworks. As soon as the first set of fireworks went off from the barge everyone’s attention was focused on the show and chants of “U-S-A” and I think someone even started singing “America the Beautiful” and got about halfway through it before they didn’t know the words anymore. It was a cool show and with my arm around Reilly’s shoulder in a bro hug this made me realize this is exactly what this trip is about. Who would have ever thought that I would spend a 4th of July in downtown Seattle, watching fireworks from the rooftop of a giant apartment building. Experiencing these things in other places is exactly the point of this trip and I couldn’t stop grinning the entire time.

It was a pretty long show and once it was finished we gathered up the massive amount of trash and threw it down the trash shoot (which was crazy). Clean up took almost no time because of how many people we had up there and we got in the elevator to head out. We took the elevator to the 1st floor, but for some reason we thought there was a “basement” floor, so we stayed in. Immediately the elevator shot us back up toward the roof and we had to ride it all the way up again before getting off at the ground level.

On the ride home we had an intense sing along to some country music, and Kenny had no clue about any of the lyrics or songs that we were all singing so passionately. We got home around 11:45ish, remade the refugee camp, packed up a bit and crashed out really hard. The plan was to wake up around 5:30 and head out by 6:15 which was going to be nip tuck at best.

*July 5th: Seattle, WA to Vancouver, BC*

Around 4 am I woke up and infomercials were playing, so I groped around for the remote control and turned it off to salvage as much of the last hour of sleep I could get. When 5:15 rolled around and Becky woke us up with Whitney Houston we were all pretty slow moving. Despite the zombie status we were all rocking we were in the car by 6:02 and heading to Becky’s sister’s place to get a ride to the Amtrak station so she didn’t have to leave her car downtown for the next couple days.

We packed the car as best as we could, which involved Reilly being tetrised into the bags in the back of the Forrester, we set out toward downtown. He was facing backward with Kenny and my suitcase wedged in around him, he had his own trip and conversations. His only request was “Don’t get rear ended please.” Judging by the amount of traffic on the last work day of the week we weren’t the only ones feeling the festivities of the day before and we got to the station without a hitch.

We got our bags checked, got our seat assignments and it was very obvious that we were all really tired from the day before because we were all nodding off waiting for the train to show up. When Reilly and I stepped outside we got confronted by a homeless man who, after a long story and not believing we weren’t twins, got about 60 cents out of us. Unfortunately the train due to a train derailment (yeah apparently it wasn’t that big of a deal???) so we had to keep each other awake a little longer and finally we boarded the train.

As soon as we sat down we tossed our headphones on and crashed out about as hard as anyone could. Everyone else on the train was having a good time talking and laughing but that did not affect us going to sleep in the least bit.
The train into Vancouver seemed to be moving at a snail’s pace and by the time we woke up from our naps we were still in the United States. We were all rocking our headphones but once we neared the Canadian border we had to fill out our customs cards and get our stuff together for the detraining. The car attendant was very serious about how they were going to organize us getting off the train and felt the need to explain it to everyone about 14 times. A lady across t he aisle literally said “I can’t take this anymore” got up and walked out of our train car. Pretty freakin hilarious.

When it was eventually our turn to get off the train our checked bags lined the terminal so we grabbed them and waited in the line to get through customs. Somehow they haven’t streamlined the customs process so we had a long time to check out the great view of the Greyhound Station and railroad switch that surrounded us before we were finally allowed inside.
Once the weird questions and the stamps were done we walked out in front of the station and looked around at what the best option to get to the hostel might be. Now, because we were in another country (I know, its Canada but Verizon still deems it another one) we all turned our phones off and went off the grid. This caused a little problem because we relied on Google maps to help us with public transit, so we had to revert back to 1976 and try to navigate the foreign land without or crutch. We decided that the Skytrain was our best bet because the bus station didn’t have a map to show us where the routes were and such. We jumped in line to purchase our tickets and a nice kid came to help Reilly, Yoder, and myself because it wasn’t taking our cards. Even the employee was baffled so he wrote a free ticket and we headed up to the Skytrain to take us in to downtown.

The nearest stop we could use was Granville St. so we got off, walked up and out on to the street to try and get our bearings. Yoder was overly enthusiastic and once we got the directions he led us from the front toward our hostel. Unfortunately our decision to use the Skytrain had left us about 5 ½ blocks away from the hostel so we had to hoof it suitcases and all. Despite almost seeing a homeless woman go all GTA IV style on a car the walk was pretty uneventful once we actually found the hostel.

As we walked in the Irish lady at the front desk was helping another gentleman so we got a chance to check out the digs and I have to say it was pretty sweet. There was a large bar on the first floor with a restaurant attached to it, a bakery next door where our breakfasts would come from. We all got our rooms paid for except Yoder had to pay for a new room because he reserved his for June and Reilly’s card wasn’t working, but we all eventually got our keys and headed to drop our stuff.

After traveling most of the day and not having anything to eat most of us were about to start gnawing on our backpacks by the time we got to eat. We met a couple of our roommates as soon as we walked in Victor from Indiana and Tim who was an Englishman. They were really nice and not to be rude we told them we wanted to talk more, but we were also starving so they headed down with us and we all finally ate the long awaited meal. Most of us ordered a bacon cheeseburger after realizing their Mexican burger wasn’t really Mexican. We also ordered a couple pitchers of local beer, one of Pale Ale and one of the Porter.

Yoder decided that we were going to bar hop from bar to bar for the afternoon by asking waitresses and waiters where they would go in Gastown. We asked one of the busboys at the Cambie and he told us about a place just down the road called The Bourbon that was a country esque bar. This peaked Yoders interest and once our plates were licked clean and the pitchers empty we headed out toward the bar. We found the bar just a couple blocks from the hostel and we walked in.

Tim was a really nice guy and when we all grabbed just a pint (because it was pretty empty and mostly old people) and we talked about baseball and England and what he was doing in Vancouver. We exchanged explanations of cricket and baseball and how holidays differ across the pond. The boys jumped on the only pool table in the place, and after a couple rounds Tim got a grin on his face and said he would own everyone. Apparently England is big on pool. Because the bar looked more like a retirement home and wasn’t exactly the social center we were looking for we decided to ask the bartender where she would go, and she suggested a bar called The Pint that was another couple of blocks down the road.

As we walked we knew this was the kind of place we were looking for, and when a guy at the bar told us that for every pint you get a free pound of wings, we were sold. Yoder, Tim and I bellied up to the bar and got our pints and the wings delivered to a table we snagged in the back. It was obvious that the traveling and walking of the day had taken a toll on us so there was a consensus made that we should head back to the hostel once the wings disappeared. Before we left Yoder employed his strategy on a couple of the waitresses and she suggested a nerd bar called the Storm Crow that was definitely nerdy themed. Yoder was instantly in love and we had to convince him that we needed to relax before we headed out again.

One thing that was a running theme was every time we told the waiters and waitresses that we were staying at the Cambie, they said that we should just stay there. Apparently we landed the hostel with the most popular bar in Gastown. Sweet.

We all got up from our nap around 8 pm and gathered the troops up to head to Storm Crow. Unfortunately this bar wasn’t in downtown and required a lengthy bus ride to get to. We were going on half directions and after asking a lot of people along the road we eventually rolled up to it. It was packed and there wasn’t an open seat in the entire place. We were told it was more of a restaurant and if we wanted to sit down it would probably be about 30 or 40 minutes. Obviously this was a bit too long and again, when we talked to a hostess about what bar she would go to she said, “You guys are in the Cambie?? Why are you here, just stay there!” So we obliged.

One the way back we stopped into a place across the intersection from the hostel that had a sign outside that read “All Food $4.95”, and it wasn’t a joke. Their entire menu was $5 including their pints. We weren’t sure how they made money because the portions that they served were not small in any case and the food was actually really good. They played some awesome music over the speakers and we relaxed and rocked out for a bit before heading to the Cambie Pub we heard so much about.

So we pretty much wasted $2.75 getting out to the bar, but as soon as we got back to our hostel we realized what everyone was talking about. The massive bar was absolutely packed with people, from the hostel or from the surrounding neighborhoods. We walked up to the bar and started getting the pitchers flowing. We met up with Victor at the bar and also talked to a couple chicks from Scotland, France, and some guys from the Coov itself. Toward the end of the night there were some extra curriculars going on around the bar and it was more than entertaining to watch. All we know is that Canada goes hard. We stuck around there for awhile before turning in a little early because Yoder and I wanted to head by Stanley Park and possibly get in a game of touch if there was one going on.

Crashing out and getting to sleep was extremely easy because this hostel had by far the largest beds and nicest pillows of any hostel I had stayed in. Totally killed it.

*July 6th: Vancouver, BC*

The plan was to wake up around 8 am and start walking toward Stanley Park, but throughout the night I had knocked my pillow off the top bunk as well as my phone. So when the alarm went off Becky tossed me my phone, I looked around the room, and decided sleep was a way better option. Apparently everyone else thought that was just as good of an idea because they weren’t moving either.

Around 10:15 am we all started coming back to the land of the living and we realized that we had to catch the walking tour in a half hour. So Reilly and Kenny showered, while the rest of us decided to go down and enjoy our breakfast and just shower once the walking tour was finished. Our meal tickets got us a muffin and some tea at the bakery next door and it ended up being exactly what we needed to kick start the day.

The walking tour met up in front of the Art Gallery, formerly the court building. As we walked up just in the nick of time there were steam punk inventions scattered across the square. We saw our tour group gathered on the other side of the fountain and we joined up just as the tour guides were counting off everyone.

We got lumped in to Lenny’s group for the tour, she was an Aussie that had lived in Vancouver for a number of years and was converted. Our first stop on the tour was the Art Gallery itself and as we walked around the back she explained all the different uses that it served, and how Vancouver was actually the only city in North America where city hall is outside of downtown. Therefore the Art Gallery was the sites of many protests and meet ups because of its central location. On the backside of the building she explained how Vancouver had a limit of 40 stories for all the buildings in downtown. This led them to take their plan for an 80 story court building, and literally lay it on its side. A majority of the building was underground and not surprisingly, it was also equipped with an ice rink. No seriously.

We then meandered over to Granville Street that apparently has a summer long festival called Viva Vancouver that people can sponsor tents all along the busy street. Despite it being a key thorough fare for the city, they close down the streets so it had a real open market type feel with some tents for Latin American food and some even for vegan food, right next to each other. Granville was also the main road for logging early on in the city’s history, so she explained the origin of skid road as well as skid row. All taking place on or around Granville St and being a key component to the expansion of Vancouver.

The cool thing about the tour was that it sort of took us through time in reverse. Down Granville there were high end shops and shopping malls lining the street, but the closer we got to the water, the older the buildings got. At the end of Granville we stopped at a building that they were renovating. Apparently Vancouverites had called “The Great Urinal” because it was lined with the porcelain colored tile on the entire outside with absolutely no windows. Fortunately Nordstroms had bought the building and were changing the entire façade and erasing the memory of that building.

Our next stop took us to a darker time in Vancouver’s history, at the Post Office building. It was a cool old stone building and they had completely enclosed the alley between the two buildings in glass and turned it into a mall. Apparently it’s never busy but It was a good way to keep it from being overrun with homeless people and it looked great. Lenny told us a story about communist protestors during the economic downturn in the 40s (10 years behind right?) for Vancouver, and how they had a huge sit-in in the post office. The way the Mounties dispersed them by throwing tear gas in through the windows at 5 am on a Sunday and hoped it would go unnoticed. It didn’t and the people of Vancouver defended “their boys” with protests. It was obvious this time was not a good one for Vancouver, but World War II was able to drag them out of the dark times and return Vancouver to a booming economy.

This was shown to us when we stepped outside and saw a 10,000 passenger cruise ship parked in the harbor. Lenny said the port itself could hold up to 8 cruise ships at a time (80,000 tourists, insane) and on top of that was as huge industrial center as well. It was a great view of the north shoe with the ski runs and mountains, and the trains meeting up with the port. Sort of summarized what had made the city so powerful. She also explained that Vancouver is one of the few “modern” cities without a downtown freeway system. It was so close to being put in that the slab of concrete we were on was actually supposed to be the origin of the freeway in downtown, and would have meandered through Gastown basically destroying the neighborhood we were staying in. It also had an admin building nicknamed the big waffle towering over us, and if it had gone in there would have been a dozen of them.

We walked in to the next building which was called Waterfront Station which originally was supposed to rival Grand Central Station. Unfortunately the rail roads ran out of money so they had to skim and one of the funniest ways was the paintings on the wall. These paintings weren’t done by a noteworthy artist, but by the owner of the Pacific Union railroad’s wife.

They weren’t bad but we a little monotone with the colors they used, a lot of grays that gave a bit of a bleak outlook.
Here was also the first international Starbucks which we all chuckled at just coming from Seattle, and we walked out the opposite doors of the station. We walked by one of the breweries that I had tossed on our map called Steamworks Brewery, so we made a mental note to come back for some lunch. The next stop we made was on the edge of Gastown where Lenny had us play a game of whether the buildings were r1860s old, or 1960s new because it had completely burned down at one point and the city wanted it refurbished.. I did absolutely terrible but it was cool to hear all the ways to differentiate the building by certain features and styles of building.

Als we walked down the sidewalk, past all of the gas powered lamps lining the street we arrived at one of Vancouver’s “things”. It was the steam powered clock and it was surrounded by tourists much like us snapping pictures. Before we walked up to it Lenny explained a couple things about the Old Steam Clock: A. One of the 1960s new things, and B. No longer ran on steam because the clock never stayed on time. So it was neither old, nor did it run on steam, awesome.
As we neared the center and the end of the tour Lenny explained that all of these buildings were heritage buildings and couldn’t be knocked down, so a lot of architects figured out ways to build “temporary” buildings to add to it. One of them was a space between two buildings enclosed in glass, the only requirement was that it had to be able to be taken down in less than 48 hours. Im not sure how that was possible but it was sweet none the less.

We turned down a tight alley and the tour guide pointed to a sign on the wall. It read “Gaoler’s Mews”. None of us had any idea what this meant, but it was the site of the first jail cell in Gastown. Originally the criminals and drunks who were rounded up were just tied to stumps (being a logging town there was no shortage), the only problem was they ran out of rope. So they built the drunk tank and made it an honor system. If you were sober enough to open the unlocked door, you were sober enough to go home. Freakin Canadians.

Our last stop on the tour was a statue for the man who started Gastown. His nickname was Gassy Jack and he was the first man to set up a saloon in Gastown. He came with a barrel of whiskey and convinced the logging men that as soon as they built his saloon they could drink the whiskey for free. It took them less than 24 hours to build the saloon, and an even shorter amount of time to kill the barrel. Gassy made a killing at his saloon and pretty soon others started popping up around him, starting the neighborhood of Gastown.

The tour was great and Lenny did a great job leading us around her supplanted home. We snapped picture with her before we left and when we heard the food at Steamworks wasn’t good, her coworker suggested the Alibi Room a little further down. They had beer and breakfast so we didn’t even think twice.

We sat down at the Alibi Room and saw that their beer list was not only two sided, but was organized by darkness and had
a hoppiness meter for each beer. It was so cool. I ordered a whiskey barrel aged Scottish ale and I couldn’t have made a better choice. The food was also excellent and we all had some combo of eggs and potatoes. As was our strategy we asked the waitress what there was to do before the soccer match that night and she said that there wasn’t a whole lot going on, but anything around the stadium would be hopping.

After we paid the bill we headed back to the hostel for showers and to change into our match gear. I tossed on my Alonso jersey and scarf and we headed toward Stanley Park. We were told it was about a 45 minute walk to Stanley Park, but we kept getting distracted on our way there so it took up more like an hour and a half. On the way there were stunning views of the north shore with the mountains towering above capped with snow. We also saw the Olympic torch from a couple winter Olympics ago and Reilly was grinning and giggling pretty much the entire time. After snapping a boatload of pictures we headed back on our waterfront pathway and continued toward Stanley Park.

On our way to Stanley Park we saw a million different Sounders fans around downtown, all of them giving a cheer or thumbs up when they saw we were sporting the same gear. One of the guys even told us that a lot of the fans were going to meet up at a bar called the Blarney Stone before the game. That sounded pretty sweet and we decided to do that an hour or so before the match.

Stanley Park reminded me of a sort of Central Park surrounded by the port of Vancouver and it was beautiful. Huge trees lines the peninsula and it gave you a sense of what it probably looked like before all the high rises and buildings were put in. As we entered the park our main goal was to go check out the totem poles that were pretty close to the end of the park. We took a shortcut and walked across a giant lawn before we got there. On one of the large open spaces there were two teams playing cricket and it was pretty cool. I had never seen a live match and none of us had any idea what was happening, but it was cool to see it “in the wild” as Reilly would refer to it. We only stayed a couple minutes and walked toward the totem poles on the other side of the park.

The totem poles were tucked away in a thicket of trees and were all bunched together to make it easier for you to compare them and look at them all. They were extremely colorful and it was cool to see the different animals that had been used. Then Yoder had the idea we should make our own, and after realizing me on his shoulders or vice versa could end badly, we grabbed Kenny and put him on my shoulders. I walked over to the totem poles and Yoder knelt in the front to make our three stack complete. People were laughing all around us and I think some were even snapping their own photos.

We looked at the clock and realized that we needed to get back to the Blarney Stone if we wanted a couple pints before the match so our epic search for a ride began. We went to an information booth and asked them to call us a cab because we wanted to get back quick to grab some beers. She called us over and said it would be like 30 minutes before they could get there, so we abandoned that idea and walked to the Aquarium on the backside of the park. We ran into a couple taxis in front, but we couldn’t fit in them because we had 5 people and they could only take 4 and no amount of bribery would make them take us all.

We moved on to plan B and wandered around the park for the bus stop, and after asking a bunch of people, we ended up on the north side of the park still lost. Finally we asked a lady at the coffee shop and we were just around the corner from the stop. Fortunately the #19 bus would take us almost right to the bar and we didn’t have to wait long before one pulled up.

We paid our $2.75 and headed back toward the bar and hostel. At the hostel Kenny went and put on sunscreen while Yoder and Reilly changed their shirts. Finally we were ready to roll to the Blarney Stone and when we walked it in was actually pretty empty. We were a little late and we figured they had all left to go to the stadium already. We still sat and grabbed a pint or two, Kenny and Yoder ordered some food. Kenny ordered a Canadian dish called poutine which was gravy and cheese curd covered French fries. Super heavy and obviously meant to fortify you for the winter.

About an hour before the match we paid our tabs and walked toward the stadium. Unfortunately our route took us through the poorest neighborhood in Vancouver but luckily it was light enough out and there was enough of us there wasn’t an issue. In the distance we saw BC place looming and before we knew it we were walking up the ramp to walk ourselves in.
We ended up walking clear around the entire stadium to get to our proper gate which, ironically, ended up being Gate A. (Yoder claimed that there probably wasn’t a Gate A because it would confuse all the Canadians. Eh) As we descended to our seats we could hear the booming chants from the Sounders supporters groups who had driven all the way from Seattle for the match. It wasn’t nearly as invigorating as the Seattle match because there wasn’t a march to the match, but after seeing that it was sold out and the passion of the fans, the atmosphere was electric. We all joined into the chants and even Yoder, who never watched soccer or the Sounders, was feeling the energy. The Sounders didn’t play all that well and lost 2 – 0, but it was a great rivalry atmosphere in a beautiful stadium. It was really cool.

One thing I will say about the fans is they were extremely nice. Despite the fact that the Whitecaps out played the Sounders pretty much they were never derogatory or mean, but they were passionate. At one point there was a young woman behind me with her daughter, and her daughter started to boo. Her mom turned to her and said “Stop, that isn’t nice.” So weird after all the American sporting events with jeering and fighting. The atmosphere that we experienced at these sporting events was by and large the best environments I’ve ever experienced at a sporting event and you can guarantee that I will be seeing more soccer matches at every chance I get.

Despite the disappointing loss we walked back to the Cambie and met up with Victor, Tim and most of the people we had met the night before. Before too long the pitchers were flowing as we were trying to use up as much of our Canadian coinage as possible before our super early ride out of town in the morning. I was still dawning my Sounders jersey and scarf and every Caps fan greeted me with a “That was a tough match mate” and a cheers. I wanted to get mad and hate them, but they were just so freakin nice.

We hung out with a handful of the South Side Supporters (Whitecaps supporters group) and seemed to forget that we had to get up at 5 am the next morning. Around 1 am Becky, Kenny and I ended up at the $5 food place and Kenny got his poutine, Becky got the nachos, and I the mac n cheese. We killed our food and around 2 am wandered back to the Cambie. We all knew we were going to pay for our choices in the morning, so we set our alarms, climbed into bed and hoped for the best.

*July 7th: Vancouver, BC to Chicago, Il (kinda)*

Getting out of bed was not an easy thing to do but surprisingly we all were up and ready to go on time. The bakery next door didn’t open until 7 am so we would have to forage for ourselves once we had a chance. We all trudged to the closest bus stop and were the only passengers to take it for a couple stops before Chinatown. We realized how much easier this route was than the Skytrain, but running on 3 hours of sleep we didn’t even have time to brood over it.

For 6 am the train station had way too many people who all looked way too happy to be there at the crazy time of day. We all must of looked like zombies standing in line for our seat assignments and I’m pretty sure we got a couple of stares for our troubles. We were assigned to 4 seats facing one another and one straggler off by themselves again, and once we were in our seats there was absolutely nothing that was going to stop us from passing out. The headphones were on, music turned up to tune out the crying baby, and it was done.

I crashed so hard I had to be woken up at the border, and again about 15 minutes outside of Seattle to get off the train. We gathered up our things and tried to look as presentable as possible before we went in to get our bags. Becky’s sister was there to pick her up so we all hugged her goodbye and she went home to enjoy what we had to wait 5 or 6 hours for. Her sister suggested we stick around the station because there was a good Asian food court around the corner that we decided to hit up for lunch.

We all dug into the food like we hadn’t eaten in weeks and it was pretty much gone in no time flat. We wandered around the market for awhile to resupply for our 40 hour train ride to Chicago but didn’t really find a whole lot.

We still had about 3 ½ hours before we had to be back at the train station so we spied a Starbucks (which are never far in Seattle) and decided to squat in there until we had to leave. We got a couple tables and more importantly a couple plugs in the back and took it easy after our whirlwind of the last couple days.

The time crawled by but eventually 3:45 rolled around and we grabbed our stuff to go. Because Reilly had to leave the next day we said our goodbyes and good lucks to him outside the Starbucks because he was taking the light rail to the airport and it was a different station. We used a set of stairs that Yoder found behind the building that turned a 10 minute walk into about 30 seconds and before we knew it we were in the lobby waiting for our train.

There wasn’t a whole lot of preparation that we had to do before we boarded about 15 minutes later but we made sure we had everything and crossed our fingers that the train wasn’t completely sold out. The line died down a little bit so we grabbed our gear and headed toward the train car we were going to call home until Tuesday afternoon when we rolled into Chicago.

As we left the Seattle station it wasn’t a full car, but the conductor told us that it was going to be a full train and warned us to “not build a fort in the empty seat next to us because there will most likely be someone on the next couple stops who needs it.” On a 40 hour train a seat mate is pretty much the last thing I wanted to deal with, so I kept my fingers crossed.
Luckily for myself not everyone showed up or I just lucked out because I never ended up getting a seat mate. I was able to spread my stuff out and lounge around while reading Dante’s Inferno and enjoying the emerald environment that surrounded us.

The next couple hours were passed with some music, snapping some pictures as we passed through the mountains of Cascadia. We also passed through the second longest tunnel in North America, second only to one in northern Canada. The scenery was beautiful but the thick foliage proved tough to capture with the camera because of the speed that they train was jetting through it. It was a great way to end our Pacific Northwest portion of the trip.

We had dinner reservations at 7:45 pm and we were sat with a young kid who was heading back home to eastern Washington. He worked for Amazon.com and Microsoft doing a lot of their fiber optic work so we talked about work, beer, and hunting with him. As we were enjoying our meal the backdrop that was passing by us was quickly changing from the lush forest into something we were all more familiar with. The hills looked dry and surprisingly enough we saw vineyards popping up all around us. Apparently eastern Washington is second only to California in wine exports in the United States. I had no idea.

Unfortunately Yoder’s meal was mistaken at first, and I believe in their haste to get his meal out, did not heat up his turkey as much as they should have. It was sad that his dining experience had to start that way, especially because I hadn’t had trouble with any of the meals I had on the train the entire time. It didn’t phase him however and we all quickly finished our meals. We saw and talked a little longer before the car attendant told us that we had to vacate in about 5 minutes so they could clean the car. We quickly finished our drinks and headed back to the car.

Again it wasn’t the most exciting time on the car, I continued working my way through Dante’s Inferno and Yoder and Kenny played some games on their phones. It was beginning to get pretty dark outside so people in the car started going to sleep making it almost dead silent except for the subtle grind of the wheels. I finished up as much of the Inferno as I could before I allowed the train to lull me into a deep sleep that I sorely needed.

*July 8th: Montana to Minnesota?*

After a little bit of restless sleep throughout the night, the sun started to come up around 5:45 (not nearly as crazy as Vancouver, but still a bit crazy) which signaled wakey wakey time for me. Realizing that my torso was just too long to fit comfortable between the arm rests my back reported just how much it wasn’t into it as a straightened myself up.

I realized that we should be approaching the western portion of Glacier National Park and quickly gathered my stuff so I could squat on a table in the observation car, that they had added during the night, to get some good views. Yoder and Kenny were still fast asleep so I left them snoozing and headed toward my target.

Considering we were all of 20 minutes from the park the observation car was relatively empty. I was able to commandeer an entire table to myself and quietly hoped that Yoder and Kenny would show up to help me hold it throughout the ride. Even before we reached Glacier National Park the scenery was gorgeous, leaving the brittle and dry landscape of eastern Washington behind and blooming into another sea of emerald with peaks protruding more and more often. Rocking out to some tunes I snapped some pictures and enjoyed the early morning light.

Once the “National Parks Guy” walked into the train I turned the music off because I knew we had to be getting close. An ever increasing crowd was gathering in the observation car as well with the anticipation of the views we were about to have. Luckily Yoder walked in just before the grand tour began and in the pictures you can tell because his yellow Australia jersey reflects off the windows of the observation car.

As we entered the park we followed the Flathead River for a long ways which gave way to beautiful views of the mountains with small windows to the glaciers revealing themselves. About 20 minutes in the battery on my camera began flashing red and I cursed myself for not charging it after Vancouver and hoped that it would last through the park. I used every trick I knew to efficiently utilize the battery in my camera as the views that we were seeing were absolutely stunning. There was a couple that took up the next couple seats (somehow we had successfully staved off anyone else from sitting by us, I blame Yoder) and it was a pretty tight fit. The wife was video taping the entire trip, and the audio commentary that Yoder and I were providing was priceless. Yoder and I were glued to the window and with the National Parks Guy (who will now be referred to as NPG) was giving us awesome information at just what we were seeing.

Eventually one of the tables across the aisle was vacated and the couple quickly jumped to that one, apparently so they could play UNO? Didn’t quite understand the card game in the middle of one of the most beautiful places in the United States, but to each their own. We continued to gently pull through the park and it wasn’t long before we were joined by an Amish mother and her daughter. They were extremely quiet and shy so there wasn’t a whole lot of dialogue done between them, but they seemed to be enjoying the ride as much as we were.

As we passed by an exposed mountainside there was a herd of mountain goats hanging out and the crowd that had gathered in the observation car cheered and strained against the glass to get a view. You could hear shutters clocking and cameras beeping on for a photo opportunity. We had parked on the left side (north side) of the train, but the landscape on either side of the train was equally as beautiful.

We made a steep climb to the highest altitude on the entire Empire Builder Line (around a mile in elevation) and started our gradual descent into a wholly different environment than the national park. Just as we were pulling out the eastern end of Glacier, I snapped a couple pictures of the Glacial Ramparts, and my camera finally surrendered. Luckily we were just leaving the post card esque views so I didn’t feel so bad about plugging it in and forgetting about it.

Quickly the mountains and glacier filled crevices gave way to the rolling hills and silky smooth fields of agriculture as we pulled into the Blackfoot Reservation. Equally beautiful in its own right but after the high intensity of the previous area the farm lands and wheat fields didn’t quite awaken the senses. Kenny had joined me just before we left Glacier and we sat back and relaxed for the next portion of the trip.

Relaxed so much in fact that I took a nap at our squatters paradise and I woke up alone at the table. Realizing it was about lunch time I gathered together my stuff and headed back to the seats. Apparently Yoder was in the same boat and had fallen asleep in Glacier, and woken up in the reservation, he was all kinds of confused.

Our reservation was called over the loudspeaker and we headed to the dining car to grab some lunch. After dinner left us all a little wonting we surmised that the cheaper lunch time was a better called, not to mention the burger was drawing us in. We were given our own table as the dining room wasn’t all that busy, and we quickly got our food. Because it was kind of raining outside Kenny and I ordered hot tea with our burgers which was an excellent choice. The burgers were pretty good for train food and we lounged about because we were the last meal time.

Sensing it was time to head out we paid the bills and walked back to the seats. Yoder had an idea to take care of our dinner service problems from the night before. He was convinced that he could talk to the conductor, and before the next smoke stop call a pizzeria, get it delivered to the platform, and take it on board. I thought it sounded like a great idea but there were a lot of variables that had to go into it.

I cracked open Dante’s Inferno and Yoder went between reading and napping as well. The scenery was pretty un-stimulating and lent itself well to our activities for the time being. I was able to kill the rest of Dante’s Inferno (no pun intended) which was much better than I remembered. Yoder called around to a couple places to see if he could execute Operation Feed Coach Passengers but the local places didn’t deliver and national chains didn’t sound good. A little bummed we went back to our leisure activities and relaxed.

I took another couple hour nap and woke up to Kenny and Yoder munching on some fried chicken they had bought at the café car. I decided that dinner wasn’t a bad idea and I headed for the café car. I got myself a $6 turkey sandwich that wasn’t quite worth that much, but I ate most of it anyhow and drank the Mountain Dew at my seat.

The sun began going down and the clouds that had hung over the train all day began to look a bit ominous. As it got darker we began to see a lightening all over the horizon (it also helped that it was as flat as could be) and rain began to fall pretty heavily. With the help of the rain people in the car began to fall asleep, and Kenny and Yoder followed suit. I grabbed my phone and my sweatshirt and headed to the observation car.

The storm began to get intense once I got to the observation car and it was necessary to wrap my face in my sweatshirt because the lighting was like a strobe light. Also the train car must have been hit or something because the car where our seats were was way hotter than the observation car. Now with more impromptu eye shade I was without a sweatshirt, but I manned up and lay across the seats.

Around 1 am a woman came into the car with a dog and was talking on the phone loudly. Now I get that it’s the observation car and not technically la quiet car, but there are literally 20 people crashed out in there and no one else is talking. Not to mention it wasn’t even an important phone call like business, or who is going to pick you up or anything, just dumb conversation. After a couple other people told her to be quiet (and one person even yelled “Shut Up”) she was much more reasonable and talked quieter.

I stuck around in the observation car, woke up around 5:30 am and decided to try my luck back at the seats. The car was still pretty warm but I had practically turned into a popsicle in the observation car so it was a welcomed convenience. I felt bad making Kenny move over to one of the seats, but almost before I could sit down I was completely asleep as was he.

*July 9th: Minnesota to Chicago, Il*

All three of us apparently slept like crap because we slept off and on until we got into the Minneapolis / St. Paul stop
around 11:30. It was supposed to be one of the longer stops (like 15 min) but it ended up being more like 35 min because they were getting the power turned back on in our car. As we crossed into Minneapolis and the report was that we were around 3 hours late. The nice part about this portion of the trip was the scenery changed and we finally hit the mighty Mississippi River. Kenny had never seen it and we all snapped some pictures before resuming our activities. Everyone in the car began to wake up and it seemed like no one really slept all that well through the storm.

The morning was extremely uneventful, the landscape rushed by the train filled with fields and barns so napping and reading books (or listening to the audiobooks) was what a majority of us did. Around 1:15 we decided to grab some lunch and we headed to the dining car to put in our order.

We actually had the dining car manager Timmy as our waiter and he was really nice because he recognized us from the past couple days. Kenny and Yoder stuck with the burgers and I decided to go adventurous and order the specialty sandwich. It said it was a bratwurst sandwich so it had potential to be good, or to be terrible, so I held my breath and waited for it to arrive. I can honestly say it was by far the best meal I had ever had on the train. The pretzel bun was buttered and toasted, the bratwurst split in the middle and the tomato slaw was placed in the gap. I tossed a little mustard in the middle and was a fan as soon as I bit down. I practically inhaled the whole thing before the other two were finished and we sat and chatted before a turtle on a log that distracted the waiters signaled our leave.

Once we got back to the seats we went right back to the normal activities of the day and I put in my audiobook for the long haul. Yoder and Kenny went right back to napping and the entire car glided along the tracks toward our ultimate goal. I was in and out of sleep which made it interesting trying to find that last portion of the audiobook I remembered along the way.

Around the time that we were originally scheduled to get into Chicago (4 pm) we were still hurtling toward the Great Lakes in an attempt to make up time. Due to the delay that we had going through the northern plains the crew did their best to make up time and it was really cool to see the car ahead of us pivot and turn on the tracks.

Despite the increased speed we still weren’t going to make Chicago even relatively close to our scheduled arrival time,
and around 6 pm we pulled into Milwaukee. As we passed by the Miller Brewing Company building Yoder, Kenny and I scrambled to get pictures and to say thank you for the money and beer they have donated to our rugby team. The sun was dipping in the sky and it was funny because we had finally gotten used to the extremely late twilight periods of the Pacific Northwest that this revelation was almost surprising.

Eventually we pulled into Chicago and everyone was obviously feeling the cabin fever because they immediately got up and headed to the stairs. Because I had come in to the train station before I knew that it was easily going to take us another 25 / 30 min to actually get off the train so we were able to get some cool pictures before we pulled into the tunnel and eventually Union Station.

As soon as we got off the train we were hit with a wall of humidity that confirmed we had actually arrived in Chicago during the summer. We got inside as quickly as we could where we met up with Yoder’s friend who was named Patrick. We all headed toward the baggage claim office so we could grab our stuff and get out of there as quick as possible.

Luckily the bags didn’t take too long to get out of baggage claim so we met up outside with Zach and Keily before too long.

Luckily they had brought their big car, but on the other hand we had 4 people to add to their already 2. It was a bit of a squeeze and with the bags there wasn’t a whole lot of room left. Portillos was just down the street so we all held our breath until Zach found a parking spot and we were able to open the doors and fall out. I had been waiting for Portillos for awhile and before anyone says “But you can get it in Arizona now!” I know, but it’s not the same.

I ordered a chili cheese dog, Italian beef sandwich and a beer from Germany for dinner (give me a break, 50 hours on the
train!). We all scarfed down our food and as usual there wasn’t a whole lot of talking going on. It was absolutely delicious and when we were finished we sat back and talked. We made some tentative plans revolving around the Cubs game the next night then decided to head to the house and get a shower in.

Pat and Yoder were going to take the bus home by Zach and Keily insisted they would give them a ride so we once again crammed into the car for the ride home. I had mentioned to the guys about the observatory out in Lake Michigan and Zach decided to try and go out there so everyone could check it out at once. Unfortunately it was closed down because Bieber or someone was in town so we got back on the highway and headed south.

Pat’s place was down in Hyde Park and I knew it rung a bell for some reason. Hyde park itself was really nice and his apartment was great, but the surrounding neighborhoods? Sketch ville, USA. It reminded me of when we got lost last summer looking for Keily and Zach’s new house in south Chicago, not really that great. But we dropped the boys off and headed north towards their house.

I hadn’t seen the house finished with all the furniture in it but when they took us around it looks great. It actually was a lot bigger than I remember minus the low basement ceiling which I promptly found with my forehead. It looked awesome but Kenny and I were itching for a real shower after being on the train for over 2 days straight. We both took one while Keily headed to bed (because she had to work, someone had to around here) and we hit the basement.

When we got down there Zach pretty much had the basement already set up. He had two sniper airsoft rifles set up and a firing line of army men across the basement. The first round was Zach and I and he totally smoked me. I may have hit 3 or 4 before his 10 were done. He then handed reigns over to Kenny and we sat there for probably 2 hours plinking away at the army men. It was surprisingly entertaining and my Sehl arrogance came out every time I blasted one of them back into the comforter.

We turned toward the projector and decided a movie was in order. After looking at his giant stack of movies we chose Total Recall because I had only seen a crappy pirated version and wanted to see what it really looked like. He had 13 speakers set up around the room and the projector was probably made a 100 in. screen, it was awesome. We enjoyed the movie and Zach made some exquisite popcorn (truffle salt and parmesan, weird but good) before we crashed out for the night. The plan was to wake up at 7 ish to get downtown and meet Yoder and like 9. Yeah…….

*July 10th: Chicago, IL*

So originally the plan was to wake up early, get a ride into the city with Keily and Zach and meet Yoder at Millenium Park at 9. That didn’t happen. Apparently I missed out on more sleep than I thought because I was unconscious until 11 in the morning. I had 15 missed calls from Yoder and some not so stoked text messages. I ran downstairs to get Kenny who was also still passed out and called Yoder to apologize. He didn’t seem too upset once he realized it all wasn’t a conspiracy. Kenny jumped in the shower first and I played a little Halo with Zach. Once Kenny was out I finished getting ready and we were ready.

There wasn’t a station too far from their house but Zach insisted that he drive us to the other stop because it was a way quicker way and we were super grateful. One the way to the station we were driving down a residential road and there was a huge plume of smoke from this van up ahead. As we drove my there weren’t any flames but something was definitely not right with the car. We sped past to the train station.

Zach dropped us off across the street and we quickly jogged into the lobby to get our tickets. A lady saw us staring cluelessly into the ticketing machine and told us that we could get day passes at a Walgreens or CVS (we all know which one I went to) when we got downtown. And while I was getting a $5 pass Zach text me and said there were now 3 police cars, 2 fire trucks and an ambulance by the van that exploded on the road earlier, so crazy. With our pass in hand we ran
up the stairs to catch the L.

Unfortunately we missed the train so we sat down and waited for the next one to come by. It didn’t take very long and we were on our way toward the loop. We had to take the loop pretty much all around to get as close to Millennium Park as we could so we had a long ride ahead of us. It wasn’t all that busy but it was cool to see it turn from suburbs to urban housing, then to the towering buildings of downtown as we rolled in. Our stop was the last one before it headed back north and we jumped off and headed toward the park.

Yoder called and I told him we would meet at the bean. Luckily I called when I did because he had just sat down to lunch and one of my favorite festivals was happening, The Taste of Chicago. Kenny and I got our passes and met up with Yoder at the bean. After taking some pictures we headed toward the Taste of Chicago (ToC) with a giant crowd. We could smell the food grilling and frying and my stomach was grumbling.

Just inside the gate we hurried to grab our tickets and partake in some of the grub that was available. There was every kind of food imaginable from Chinese dumplings to jerk fried rice to empanadas; it was a fat kid’s paradise. We started out with some jerk chicken and red beans and rice and Yoder got a chicken skewer from a Japanese booth. While we munched on those we saw some beef dumplings and grabbed those as the next round. There was also a pierogi stand just down the way and we grabbed a big plate of those and split them. Yoder wandered off for a beer and I grabbed a Mountain Dew to quench my thirst while we went and checked out the Centennial Fountain. We got some great pictures before headed off toward the other side of the food carnival.

I could smell the empanadas frying in one of the stands so we munched on a couple chorizo and refried bean empanadas and grabbed some free samples of a new Mountain Dew energy drink. Running low on tickets I had to go pick up some more before I went to go grab a beer. I had 2 extra tickets and I saw exactly what I wanted to use them on, giant slices of watermelon. As most of you know I absolutely love watermelon and this was the juiciest and tastiest watermelon I had ever had. Coupled with a humid day in Chicago it was perfect.

There was a beer tent that served the better beers (albeit at higher ticket prices) and that was where I went and got my Leffe blonde. Not quite the brown but it was still a solid beer and I sipped on that as we wandered around the park. As we walked away from the Lincoln statue yoder stubbed his toe (while he was “distracted”) and sliced it open so he had to hobble his way to the first aid tent. We took this as a good indication that we should relax and we grabbed a patch of grass once he was all bandaged up. Sitting down you really got a sense for just how many people were at the park and it was pretty amazing, we even saw a group of kids with a robot that had basketballs in it walking around controlling it. We were waiting for Pat to meet up with us, but we got impatient and decided to go get some cash for the game that night. Lucky for us we did.

As we walked down the side walk a group of people were handing out free buttons that said “I saved the twinkie!” so obviously we grabbed some. As we went further they were giving out free shirts, on one condition. We had to make our best “cake face”. Now we had next to no instructions on how to do it or even what the hell it was so we went 110% anyhow. We made a 6 sec video of us high fiving, eating fake cake (that was a lie) and jumping in a circle like idiots. Feeling accomplished we got our Prepare Your Cake Face shirts and went to walk away.

Before we could a man in a nice dress shirt came up with a microphone and a camera man and said “We are with the today show, can we interview you about twinkies?” Now, there really was only one proper response to this, “Um, hell yeah.” Despite the fact that I don’t actually like twinkies I winged my way through it and he moved on to Kenny. Yoder was kind of hiding in the back but before we knew it we were challenged to a Cake Face – Off. It was us against a group of the guys giving out the free stuff. The camera man backed up to get the shot and we decided to do what we had already done. One we heard 3, the flipped around and did our routine. I don’t want to toot our horn but we smoked those guys because all they did was make a dumb face and jazz hands. Weak. We were pronounced champions and walked away with huge grins.

So if you happen to watch the Today Show anytime soon, keep an ear out for twinkies because you may see us making fools of ourselves.

Pat happened to show up just in time and we regaled him with our epic accomplishments. After we got some money we tried to squeeze Navy Pier in before heading to the game, but after reconsidering it we decided to forgo it until later. We had to meet some of Pat’s friends at the Goose Island Brewery before the game and god knows we cant be late for drinking.

The subway was absolutely packed with people and we had to wait until another one came to squeeze ourselves on. It took up practically straight to the stadium and the brewery was right across the street, it was pretty much a win win. Pat’s friend had already saved us a table on the porch so we joined her and quickly checked out the beer menu. I had had most of them before but I decided to stick with the beer sampler as is tradition. We all decided that the fruity beer on the end was terrible, so we chugged it as quick as we could and enjoyed the other 3. A couple of Pat’s friends ended up joining us and we all kind of hung out until the game started. We actually heard the National Anthem from the brewery so we got our bill paid and headed to the game.

We were in the bleacher seats in the outfield so we had to walk all the way around the stadium to get there and as we walked I enjoyed looking at the bleachers people had built across the street on the tops of buildings. They looked like good seats and we all joked that we should have gotten those because some were all you could eat/drink. By the time we got our beer and got to our seats the Cubs were already down 5 runs and it was barely the top of the 2nd. I now knew why Yoder had a great time at the soccer games because I had nothing invested in this game at all, so we all say back, enjoyed our $8 beer and watched the game. One of the beer ladies that I bought a guiness from was actually from Scottsdale and when she saw my id we chatted about Arizona until the other patrons started fuming.

It really wasn’t even close and we left in the top of the 9th when it was 11 – 1. We headed to a nearby Irish bar that one of the guys knew about and they had $3 Coors which was right up our alley. The beer wasn’t good but after $8 ones across the street it was awesome. We hung out for a little while and some of the guys got sliders but we headed out a little afterward.

Yoder heard about a country bar so we headed down the street to see what it was all about. Unfortunately they weren’t playing country music, but they are the only bar I have ever seen serve 40s to their customer. And seeing as how I owed a beer to a couple guys I bought 2 and a regular for Pat’s friend. I will say holding a Mickeys in a bar with hip hop and rap playing around you is a strange experience and it will probably never happen again but it was totally worth it.
Once we trudged our way through those terrible decisions we walked around and hit a couple other places before deciding it was time to turn in. I was hungry because I really hadn’t eaten so we hit a taco bell and ate some terrible drunk food. It was pretty bad but did the job and we grabbed a taxi back toward the house.

Kenny had gotten the address the day before but he unfortunately typed it in wrong so the taxi dropped us off about 10 blocks away from their house. Once we realized the mistake we decided to hoof it and headed toward Zach and Keily’s house. Zach was still awake and let us in before we headed downstairs and told him about the night. We watched a little South Park and we all quickly fell asleep after our fairly busy day.

*July 11th: Chicago, IL*

It’s safe to say the next morning did not start off quickly as we all slept in until 12:30ish before rousing ourselves. There wasn’t a lot of stuff going on and when I went downstairs to see if Kenny and Yoder were up, they were feeling exactly the same. Yoder had to head to his buddy’s place to head to New Orleans. Once he got his stuff together, Zach offered to drive him to the train station and they headed out.

Kenny and I weren’t making too much headway on the whole getting out of the house, and I still had to do laundry. I grabbed my pile of dirty clothes, threw them in the washer and I put on my free “Show Me Your Cakeface” shirt. It was going to take awhile before I could take a shower and get ready, so I talked to Zach about places nearby that would be good to grab some food. He suggested we head to a place a couple blocks away called Hot Doug’s. When he said it was the best hot dog place in Chicago, I knew it was a place we needed to go.

When Kenny was good to go I threw my laundry into the dryer, grabbed my flip flops, and we headed down the street. To keep the prices low they only take cash so we headed to target and picked up a soda and cash before heading toward the dog place.

The Fanta I grabbed was exactly what I needed on the humid day and as we walked up we saw the line snaking out of the front door. Considering this place was only open until 4 and it was 2:30 on a Thursday it was pretty impressive already. The next part to impress up was what we saw as soon as we got inside. We saw the menu as we walked inside and we couldn’t believe the combination of ingredients on the hot dogs. jerk pork sausage with goat cheese fried plantains and a prickly pear aioli, duck Foie Gras sausage, bacon jalapeno duck sausage with cheddar cheese curds, it was amazing. They still had regular hot dogs like beer brats, Chicago style, and polish sausage. And to top it all off you could get your hot dog steamed, char grilled, deep fried, or grilled and fried. Where have you been all my life…. Despite the 25 minutes or so we stood in line by the time we were next I had no idea what I wanted. I frantically scanned the menu one last time before my turn and stepped up.

The gentleman running the front desk was the owner of the place and was really friendly when we ordered. It wasn’t a very large place and you could see them churning out the hot dogs right behind him. While we waited for our dogs to be delivered we scanned the walls and the memorabilia was amazing. Everything had to do with a hot dog and if it didn’t, it was old school photoshopped to (cut and paste a picture of a hot dog in the best position).

As the guy delivered our hot dogs to us they looked even better than they sounded and the smells made my mouth immediately water. We were almost speechless and we didn’t want to waste any time before enjoying them. I ordered the jerk sausage and a regular char grilled Chicago dog. Kenny got the bacon jalapeno duck sausage topped with Wisconsin cheddar and a char grilled polish sausage. We both took bites of both of them, then there was silence. We couldn’t even accurately describe the hot dogs and they were by far the best I had ever had in my life.

Once we were done in about 2.5 minutes I wanted to shake the owners hand and thank him for this mecca of hot dogs. Unfortunately they were about 15 minutes from closing and the line was still hanging out the door. We decided to skip the hand shake and settled for a telepathic message instead.

Slightly leaning back due to the food baby we were now rocking we were thankful for the walk back to the house. It was necessary just to allow us to bend over anymore. We got home and I folded my laundry before jumping in the shower. Despite being ready to go we were still feeling lazy and decided to hang out at the house instead.
Zach’s cousin had come over to hang out and we all played some video games in the afternoon. It was like going back to junior high with Star Craft and Halo adorning the screens, but it was nice to have some respite from the constant run we had been on the last 2 and a half weeks.

To break our lazy streak Zach suggested we head to the park and kick the soccer ball around before grabbing some dinner. He knew how to get me motivated because he said Kuma’s Burgers was in store so I was down to burn a couple calories before hand.

The park was huge and had this long, stringy green stuff that I had never seen before. It made it feel soft and I couldn’t help but think, “Man, this would be awesome to play rugby on.” Someone should look into that. There was also a field hockey team playing on one part of the park and it was pretty entertaining to watch. We kicked the ball around for about an hour and a half, just enough to remind me just how long it had been since I had kicked a soccer ball. The sun went down and we headed toward Kumas.

Once we walked around the corners we saw people sitting outside on the curb which was a bad omen. The wait was over a half an hour which would have taken up well past 10 pm, so we decided to abandon that idea. Walking back to the house Zach ordered some pizza that Keily was going to pick up on the way home. Thinking that we had been in Chicago for a couple days now at this point it was about time we got some pizza.

We headed down to the movie room and played some Mario cart before the pizza arrived. It was totally worth the wait despite the fact that the sauce was absolutely lava temperature when it got to us. The real sausage and pepperoni were by far the best part and we all tore into it as soon as it hit the floor.

To cap off the night we tossed a movie in the dvd player and capped off another relaxing day before crashing out for the night.

*July 12th: Chicago, IL to Flagstaff, AZ (Maybe?)*

As was the usual M.O. with us in Chicago we were not able to wake up before about 11:30. It wasnt a big deal because our train was going to be leaving at 3 pm and we didnt have any plans to really do anything before we left anyhow.

I went and got Kenny up from the basement (he was also subjued by the Chicago trance) and we decided to get ready and get all of our bags packed up. We were moving extremely slowly and we semi meandered around the house getting our stuff done.

Zach and Keily were getting ready to head out for a camping trip that afternoon and Zach was getting everything ready around the house as well. The only person who wasnt awake and moving around was his cousin who utilized the last couple hours for some extra sleep.

While Kenny was taking a shower Zach and I put up his brand new tent that he had just bought to make sure everything was there and that he knew what went where. It was a nice tend and brought back some memories of boyscouts and backpacking through the wilderness of Arizona. After some difficulties with the poles and honestly trying to figure out which one was the tent and which one was the rain fly, we successfully assembled it on the lawn in the back yard, and it looked damn good. Quickly we dissasembled it and put it with the rest of the stuff to be packed.

Around 12:15 pm we were pretty much good to go but Zach still had a couple things he had to get put together before we left but we had one large issue to deal with, his cousin. He still needed to get home on the north side before we did much of anything, so quickly Zach tossed together a plan to get him home, lunch, and possibly Kenny a bottle of Malort. It was on.

The drive to his cousin’s house was much longer than I remembered it being and it took up about a half hour to get to the lunch place. Kenny and I jumped out and went to a bar across the street that Zach was pretty sure had Malort while they went to pick up our gyro sandwiches across the street. As Kenny and I walked up to the bar we realized that the windows were pretty dar for a place that was supposed to be open and it was only confirmed when we tried the door. Luckily we saw a liquor store across the street (and right next to the gyro place) and we decided to try our luck there.

As we walked in we realized it was more of a mart with some booze rather than a liquor store and we had no luck finding the Malort. With our shoulders slumped we walked next door to meet up with Zach and his cousin. The food had just come out and it smelled glorious. We grabbed the bags and headed back to the car to get his cousin to his house.

Zach realized it was getting pretty late so he swung the car down a couple alleys to cut down on our time and soon enough we popped out practically next door to his cousin’s place. I tossed him a bag of the french fries and a sandwich, we exchanged good byes and we were off.

Now at this point time was not being our friend and it was well after 1:30 pm at this point. I figured that we would be fine and decided not to worry about it too much on the drive home. Kenny and I were packed up already so all we had to do was get the bags, toss them in the car, and we would be on our way downtown.

Once we got home we helped Zach throw the last couple things off his list in the back of the car and we were finally ready to go. Unfortunately time had continued to play us for the fool and it was almost 2 pm. This is the first time that I realized we may have a problem on our hands.

The next part that made me concerned was when we jumped on highway 90 and after about 5 minutes of clear sailing we were slammed into the back end of traffic. Zach even cut across the highway to try our luck in the express lane meant exactly for procrastinators like us, but again we were plagued by the traffic. I nervously kept looking at the clock and tried to do the mental math of just how fast this train would have to go to catch that train going the opposite direction, the outlook was not good.

The last piece to the nervous puzzle was when Zach told us a story about batching the train just as it was leaving once. If Zach was getting nervous about the time I was ready to freak out. Even with all of Zach’s driving skills, darting around the construction (and potholes ironically), pedestrians and his knowledge of the back streets we managed to get to the stations with about 8 minutes to spare.

This wasnt the end of the world but the fat lady was definitely singing so we said out goodbyes practically over our shoujlders as Kenny and I ran inside. Kenny’s back was all jacked up too and he was going as fast as he could, so if we were going to make it, it would have been by the skin on our teeth.

We finally found the board with arrivals and departures and scanned it quickly for Train 3 leaving toward Los Angeles. After going over it a couple times we didnt see it and my heart sank. I ran to the guy behind passenger services and after a lady who was somehow confused on how Sacajawea dollar coins worked, I asked him what gate we were at. He glanced at the ticket and said “Oh, thats Gate F”. Dude, we had made it awesome. Half jog back to Kenny and we were in like flint.

We rounded the corner to Gate F and there were a lot of people seated and in no hurry at all. Hm, thats weird, either the train is late and everyone is waiting for its arrival or we got a bigger problem in our hands. We dropped our bags that were taking a toll on us with all the running and I wandered around to find someone and confirm we were in the right place. Finally I found a nice lady behind Gate D that looked at my tickets and said “Oh yeah thats at Gate F..... Wait, no, let me see those again.” My heart absolutely sank. Then the words I didnt ever want to hear, especially on one of the longest segments of our train, “That train left 5 minutes ago.”

Choice words swirled in my head and I quickly walked back to Kenny and filled him in. We both got real quiet and focused, which is a bad sign. Then we started rattling off all the options that we had in front of us to get us home. Some of which were practical, some not so much:

Solution #1: Immendiately I said that we need to figure out a way to intercept the train. I mean we had paid for our tickets and I wasnt about to reschedule our trip for who knows what kind of upcharge if that was possible at all. Taxis, shuttles, nascar drivers, it all shot through my mind as I walked up to the ticket counter. I asked the guy what the next 3 stops were for our train and if it was possible at all to catch up with it. After giving me a look like “Are you absolutely insane?” he informed me that it was extremely unlikely. Even if I was willing to drop the cash for a taxi the chance that we would get there with time to jump on at the station was slim if at all. Shot down.

Solution #2: We then walked back to the passenger information counter because the ticket counter was busy and was limited with him additional information. Pissed that we were losing valuable time I stormed to the gentleman I had talked to and told him about our situation. He immediately gave us information about staying another night and said we could change our tickets right there if we wanted to. This seemed like a logical step, we could stay downtown and just leave the next afternoon, getting in late on Sunday night instead of Saturday. The only issue with that was Kenny’s mom was unavailable Saturday night and our ride options from Flagstaff was extremely limited. It seemed like the best option, so we grabbed the papers he gave us and told him we might be back to get our tickets switched.

Solution #3: As we sat down by the fountain by the ticket counters Kenny had an idea that woulg get us out of Chicago that night and possibly into Arizona earlier than expected. Long distance car rental, one way to the airport. At first I thought it was crazy, but then I thought more about it and it started to sound pretty decent. We would still be able to see the country we had traveled the last 3 weeks as well as get home early if not on time. We quickly busted out our smart phones and called rental car companies in the area because the table at the station was absolutely packed.
After a 30 minute conversation with a couple companies we realized this option really wasnt viable and was going to be more expesive than we wanted it to be. Not to mention a major hassle with gas and having to split driving 27 hours between the 2 of us. Show down again.

Solution #4: Our fourth and last option was the obvious choice, but had the opportunity to hurt us the most where it counted, the pocket book. We used our smart phones to look up flights from O’Hare to Sky Harbor and I couldnt believe just how expensive the one way tickets were. Granted I have never bought a place ticket the day of but $450 for a one way ticket seemed a bit more than insane. We scanned all the websites we could think of and that was about the best we could do. Frustrated we turned our phones off and sat in silence for awhile.

The entire time we were frantically searching for what we could do Keily and Zach were appologizing and texting us over and over. Despite the fact that it wasnt any one person’s fault I couldnt convince them of it and Zach eventually headed back to the station. While we were still looking through the plane tickets we walked outside to meet Zach, tossed the bags in the car and headed back to the house.

Kenny and I silently agreed that we were just going to reschedule our train tickets for the following day and we would just take the extra time and go around Chicago. With a plan in place we were feeling a little better and we joked that now we shouldnt be so damn lazy and see some more of Chicago before we go.

Zach dropped us off at the house and gave me the key inbetween appologies and he headed back to get Keily and go camping. Kenny and I, since we hadnt eaten really at all that day due to the craziness, walked to Target to get some soda and munch out. We picked up a Coke Zero and Dr. Pepper, plopped in front of the projector screen and absolutely inhaled our lunches that had gotten pretty cold. Despite the temperature the food was excellent and the taziki sauce it was coupled with it couldnt have been better (if it had been hot). We sat with full stomachs and watched a little more Tv before deciding to call Amtrak and get our tickets changed.

I called the familiar number and was on hold for about 15 minutes. Just when I thought I was never going to talk to someone a lady chimed in on the other end and I informed her of what had happened. After some difficulty finding our reservations she said we had 2 major issues. #1 Our travel (on the USA Rail Pass) had to be completed by midnight on the 13th. If we changed our tickets it would take us into the 14th and thur not be covered on the pass. So basically we would have to eat the cost, awesome. Issue #2 The train on the following day was completely booked and we wouldnt get on it even if we did fork over the money. Double awesome. Feeling the frustration boil up again I said thanks and hung up my phone.

Again after a little pouting Kenny and I started to weigh our options. The only logical one that we could find was a plane ticket, and after making sure we both could eat those prices, we started scanning the internets. On my second or third scan through I saw a listing for Spirit Airlines at $250. And it flew into Mesa. Oh. My. God. Where was this the entire time?? It didnt leave until the following day but that didnt matter because we still got in Saturday night. It was perfect. We talked it over and decided not to waste more time before we bought the tickets.

Now everyone is frustrated by paying for baggage but this one was crazy. $30 bucks for checked baggage, and $25 for carry on bags. We both had one of each which sparked an idea. We both put one checked bag on our tickets and we emptied Kenny’s backpack as much as we could / wanted to. That left us with exactly waht we needed to pack in the duffels in our checked baggage to keep our prices down. We had a lot of crap and the bags couldnt be more than 40 lbs, I would be lying if I said I wasnt worried.

Keily was nice enough to text her friend Rachel to come pick us up and take us to the airport “Extra freakin early”. She continued to apologize and even at one point called to make sure everything was alright. I joked that it was only money and thanked her for setting up the ride.

Putting our tetris skills (Reilly can vouch) to work as well as our cramming skills we were able to get my backpack and all the crap jammed into our two duffels. Kenny’s bag was like a mansion and a majority of it went in there. We felt pretty satisfied with ourselves and we decided a reward was in order, and I knew the place, Kumas.

Those of you that have had the priveledge of eating at Kumas know what I’m talking about. This place is definitely my favorite burger place on the planet and I was a little bummed we werent able to hit it the night before after kicking around the soccer ball. We left the house at about 10 pm to go grab some food and a beer at the burger Mecca.

We walked in the door and despite it being a Friday night there were a couple seats open at the bar and we sat ourselves down. With the metal music a little bit too loud and the smell of burger and mac n cheese in the air I knew we had come to the right place. We both ordered a beer to start and we looked at the menu.

Its not a huge menu but there rare a lot of crazy combinations so it took us a little time to decided exacly what we wanted. Because we had eaten late we had decided on sharing the mac n cheese as well as a burger plate to prevent a coma of aweomse. The ingredients we put in our mac n cheese was bacon and jalapenos (best. combo. ever.) and our burger we decided on the special which had homemade jerk sauce, plantain hash, deep fried avocado, and a pretzel bun. Even typing this up a day later my mind thinks back to it and my mouth instantly begins watering.

The mac n cheese came out first and we both hit it like it owed us money. It was just as good as I remembered and we didnt speak for the first helping. After about half the plate disappearing in 5 seconds the burger came out. Somehow they seemed to have gotten bigger and I thanked our lucky stars that we split it. I cut the behemoth in half and dug in. It was beautiful, the jerk sauce was so good, and coupled wtih the avocado (which had crunch since it was deep fried, so good) and the plantain hash it was perfect. A great balance of heat and spices that were mellowed out and complimented the beef. Fat kid heaven.

Even though we split the two plates we still didnt finish them and we grabbed a couple to go boxes. While we were sitting at the bar we had heard from the bartended about a liquor store that might have the malor as well as a brewery that was close to it. Sounds like our kind of intersection. She gave us directions but informed us the busses stopped running at 11L30. Considering it was 11:05 we could get down there, then be stuck with a cab or hoofing it. We thanked her and our neighbors at the bar and walked outside.

I had a headache flare up toward the end of the meal and we decided to forgo our venture south. We walked back to the house with our prizes and tossed them in the fridge. Armed with my 2 liter of Dr. Pepper we sat down in the movie room and scanned through the movies. During our search we decided that instead of wasting our extra day in Chicago, we would go down to Navy Pier and at least see what we could see down there before we had to go. If we could just wake up at a decent time we would be fine. The only movie that neither of us had seen that looked decent was called “Deadfall”. We tossed it in and hit play.

The movie wasnt too bad but not all that great, lots of action, snow mobiles, and guns. Kenny and I vowed to wake up on time the following day and we both set our alarms to warn us of the time. Once the movie was through I went upstairs and sprawled out in the bed.

*July 13th: Chicago, IL (Extra Innings)*

Just so we didnt break the habit our alarms failed us and again we were woken up around 11:30 am in the Ringo house. How it happened I’m not quite sure but I bet there is a curse or force field around it of some kind. Kenny was the one who came and got me up this time, and we both jumped in the shower to get ready for the day.

I was done first and decided that I would tear into the left over mac n cheese in the fridge and a weird kind of brunch at 12pm. I sat in the front room watching Chopped while I waited for Kenny to finish up. With all of the toiletries used and not needed any more we were able to pack every single thing that we needed to and smashed and tetrised our heads off. They may have been a bit stretched but it all fit and we finished our breakfast before we planned out the day.

Our final plan consisted of Navy Pier and a trip to Zach’s old bar off the river before heading back “Extra freakin early” to get to the airport. We realized that our 3 day passes wouldnt work, cursed our wasted $20 bucks, and had to head back to the ATM of Target. We grabbed our sodas, cash, and headed to the bus stop.

We took the bus to the red line which would take us almost straight to Illinois St. As we exited the station I got turned around and literally had us heading the wrong direction. We quickly consulted Google maps and righteed our course toward the pier.

It wasnt a bad walk from the station so we saved a couple bucks and just decided to walk it. As we got closer to the pier itself the crowd around us grew, more people were wearing hawaiian shirts and sun glasses, and there was a lot less English being spoken. As we walked under the archway we were packed together and I quietly cursed that we had come on a Saturday.

To make it busier there was some sort of boat rally going on, so people were taking pictures with the boats and making general chaos as we walked toward the end. I kept promising Kenny a cool view of the skyline once we got to the end and when we finally got there he realized why. Its a great view of the skyscrapers downtown as well as the lake with its beaches and harbors along the shoreline. We did the touristy thing, got some pictures as well as panoramas and took a seat at the bench.It wasnt too hot of a day so we relaxed a bit before heading back toward the towering structures.

As we turned to leave we realized there were barriers barring the path that we had just taken. We were forced to snake around them to get out and we were finally off. The walk back to downtown was markedly clearer and we made it back in way less time than it took us to head to the end. We checked our watched (we had gotten paranoid) and made a course toward the river to hit Zach’s bar before we headed back to the house.

The bar was a 5 minute walk from the pier, so we walked past a 5k finish line with some strangely clad people, and took a couple seats at the bar. We realized the U-20s World Cup between France and Uruguay was on Tv and we watched it while we sipped on our beers. Toward the end of the first a gentleman came in and got the Tvs changed to the USA Gold Cup match. I didnt realize it was televised so we gave us until half time to enjoy the match.

I waited for awhile for a second beer but couldnt get a bartenders eye, which actually worked out well because there wasnt too much time left in thefirst half. Cuba scored a goal on terrible defense and I was actually a little worried. With a PK equalizer right before half from Donovan I felt a little better leaving the boys to finish the game out and we left the bar.

We had wanted to be at the station at 3:30 pm, but with our change of plans we were leaving the bar at 3:30 pm. We power walked (even Kenny) and got to the station at Grand St. about 15 minutes later than we had hoped. We got to the bottom of the stairs, and our fear was realized. The Cubs were playing the Cardinals and the station was a sea of royal blue and red. Lines for the fare lines were massive and the touristic confusion was palpable. Eff.

Kenny jumped in line to get a ticket for both of us (I had covered the first) and after about 15 minutes he finally got to the front. Unfortunately he couldnt find where it took cards so he put $2.75 on a card and came towards me. During his report he realized he forgot to put enough on it for me and his mouth fell open. I could feel the frustration coming up again and he turned back to put more money on it.

Luckily for us there as a machine that had been hiding inbetween the turnstiles that was not really being utilized. Not 10 ft away from the throng of tourists waiting 20 minutes to get tickets. We shrugged, Kenny loaded the ticket properly this time, and we went to the station.

The platform was packed, but we walked away from the stairs and the crowd thinned out so we should have enough space on the car for us. In a minute or so the L car showed up and we jumped on. There was a lot of room toward the front so I instinctively went there and Kenny followed. When I stook in the doorway to a small sitting area I realized why there was a lot of room, there was an empty Bud Light and Arizona Iced tea, with a puddle of vomit on the ground. Totally sweet. With not a lot of other options, I turned my back to it and help my breath.

Many stops later and some mental meditation we got off with the crowd at Wrigley. Another slight oversight on our part was trying to catch a bus right outside the stadium with the massive amount of fans swirling around us. We waited for what seemed like forever before a bus pulled up and we jumped on.

We checked on our time and realized that we had planty of time to spare. With some breathing room frinally we relaxed and I called my parents back to the tune of “You’re an idiot.” After going through the whole situation with my parents we were at our stop and got off the bus. We double checked our bags and when we were satisfied we were ready to go we sat on the couch and relaxed.

A little before our 5:30 time we had set up Rachel arrived at the house. We introduced ourselves and we quickly grabbed our bags to head out. We werent sure how long it would take or what the traffic would be like so we didnt want to waste any time.

Rachel was a nurse as well so her and Kenny discussed all the hardships of getting that first job on our way to the airport. She had just moved to Chicago so it was a group effort navigating the confusing entrance to O’Hare.

First we missed the regular terminals and were forced to go to the international terminal. Once we swung back around, we cut across some lanes to get to the terminal exit, and somehow missed a key left to get there. We went further up and flipped a U and got back on track. The rest of it was easy and she was able to drop us off at the Terminal 3 curb. We thnksed her for everything and grabbed our bags to head inside.

This was the part of the trip that I wasnt stoked for, security and the never ending frustration. We grabbed our boarding passes, checked the bags, and acrually got through security fairly quickly. We go to the gate, made sure everything was on time and good to go before we discussed what to do wtth the next hour.

We saw a Goose Island Brewpub on the way in so we went back there to grab a beer or two before jumping on the plane. I knew it was going to be a long night and I had a class in the morning so I wanted to sleep as much as I could on the cramped flights. I hd a matilda and 312 before we paid our tab and headed to the gate.

When we got there people were still standing around when we should have been boarding. We were one of the later zones but still they hadnt even called the first. About 25 minutes after our scheduled departure time they started boarding passengers and we all filed onto the plane.

We had an open seat for a lot time until just before the doors closed and the last guy on took the empty seat next to us. We all settled into the flight and waited on the tarmac. We waited for what seemed like an eternity and everyone on board was getting restless. We began looking around and the pilot assured us we were just waiting for a taxi onto the runway.

When we finally got towed away from the gate we lined ourselves up on the runway and after ome short starts and stops I looked out the window. When I realized that we were actually waiting in line of about 16 airplanes waiting to take off my heart sank. Our layover in Dallas was all of 40 minutes and with the delay of boarding the plane and now waiting in line to take off, we were going to be well past that time. I showed Kenny and we both figured it was really out of our hands at this point. The pilot pulled us around the runway which gave us hope for a quicker departure, but we jumped back into line and finally took off about 55 minutes late.

Despite being frustrated we settled back in and I tried to sleep but wasnt able to. The beers were not doing their job so I put Game of Thrones on and closed my eyes. The flight was only an hour and forty minutes and it was actually over pretty quickly. Looking at the time Kenny and I knew we were never going to make our original departure time so we grabbed the stewardess and asked what to do. She said there were about 20 passengers on that flight and they had already called the plane to hold on and wait until we had landed. Thank God.

With that relief out of the way the delay in departure time seemed minimal so we just waited to land and get to our gate as quickly as possible. The pilot came over the intercom and said that everyone going to Mesa, Az needed to get off first to quicken the process. Suddenly everyone on the plane was on that connecting flight.

We finally pulled up to the gate in Dallas and when the seat belt sign went off everyone popped out of their seats to grab their bags. Kenny and I got up as quick as we could but the aisle was jammed with Mesa and non Mesa people. Pretty inconsiderate. Before long the line was moving off the plane and Kenny and I did the best we could to get to our new terminal as possible.

I had completely forgotten about the baggage needing to be transferred and thought the entire plane was going to be waiting for us in their seats. When we arrived at the gate there were a lot of poeple waiting in their seats for the flight to board. Sensing some down time I ran to the restroom and grabbed something to drink and eat realy quick. Kenny stayed back to keep watch. We waited for a long time at the gate and people were still deplaning before we realized what was happening.

Finally we boarded the plan a little over an hour late and we settled into our seats. There wasnt nearly as much traffic going out of Dallas and we were on the runway and taking off before we left. Glad to be on the last leg of this trip and to be finally getting back to Arizona (pretty much at the same time as we would have on the train) I was able to relax. The flight went by quickly despite it being about 2 hours and we landed in Mesa.


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## NS VIA Fan (Jul 15, 2013)

Wow!......That was a book and a great read......Thanks for posting!


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## trainman74 (Jul 15, 2013)

What an epic!


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## bobnjulie (Jul 15, 2013)

Great read... great trip.... but.... where's the pictures? Glad you enjoyed San Francisco's mountains!


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## Rob Sehl (Jul 16, 2013)

Sorry! Meant to get these shared earlier but here they are!

*San Francisco - 2013*: https://plus.google.com/photos/102678044766161750054/albums/5901348850631291665?authkey=CIaOo6j2s5fGNw

- First handful of pictures are of LA and between LA and San Francisco

*Portland - 2013*: https://plus.google.com/photos/102678044766161750054/albums/5901347684713886033?authkey=CKiT2tHGsp305wE

- First handful of pictures are of Mt. Shasta in northern California

*Seattle - 2013*: https://plus.google.com/photos/102678044766161750054/albums/5901352725830233201?authkey=CLTjmKvfyJ3NugE

- First handful of pictures are from the Puget Sound and on the way through Tacoma

*Vancouver - 2013*: https://plus.google.com/photos/102678044766161750054/albums/5901354610144898417?authkey=CM2lv4XbtMrJGg

- Some pictures from northern Washington

Glacier N.P. - 2013: ***having trouble uploading them, I will get them up as soon as possible***

- First handful are the Cascade Mountains, as well as the plains east of Glacier

*Chicago - 2013*: https://plus.google.com/photos/102678044766161750054/albums/5901343931096738817?authkey=CNT3oYCtkYWQowE

- First handful of pictures are from Minnesota of the Mississippi River and Wisconsin (Miller building)

Thanks for reading it and let me know what you think


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## bobnjulie (Jul 16, 2013)

AWESOME PICTURES!!!!! You know I couldn't stop reading your post. You completely cracked me up! I was right there with you on your adventures and yes,,,I must agree, it was epic but the pictures.... May I relapse into 80s slang and say DUDE! The gum wall was the freaking ickiest thing EVER! and yet really kinda beautiful in the most ickest way and the pictures illustrated it perfectly! I know it took you a long time to pull this together since it took me forever to read but I am really honored to have been a ride-along. One thing kinda bummed me out was missing some pictures of the hostels... especially the bar in Vancouver. I really will have to go in person to Vancouver now that you've inspired me.


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## Rob Sehl (Jul 17, 2013)

Glad you were able to make through the entire story and you enjoyed the pictures!

Here's the Glacier pictures I was finally able to upload

*Glacier*: https://plus.google.com/photos/102678044766161750054/albums/5901692371710625409?authkey=CP-Cx5Tfyp-j0AE

Enjoy!


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