long overdue... entry started November 20, 12:40pm.
Herein lies the travel log i never got around to finishing. It was a lot of work, and i've been very busy, it seems.
I'll finish up the blank spaces as quickly as i can... I want to go back. I didn't want to leave.
I love the mouse dearly, and being away from him aches... but ... I'm keeping my chin up as best i can. We'll be together again before i can forget the little things.
The trip, in short, was wonderful, we did things i could never do at home, i met some great people and faced some fears, and feel closer to my mouse now than i did before.
========================================
Thursday 13th - arrival and dinner -
Something i never said about this place - it's much cooler here than it is at home in winter. To some, that might be stating the obvious, but anywhere that you can see every breath on the cool, dry air is okay in weasel books :)
Friday 14th - Bainbridge Island and visiting Nicodemus, Kit and Timothy.
Saturday 15th-
We went out from Bainbridge Island onto the ferry to Seattle. Got some decent photos along the way, which you may have seen in the picasa album. this was pretty cool, since i'd seen the mouse boarding this ferry before with their webcams they have set up :P Got to glimpse some of the selection of mountains around the area from there too, and the wind was quite sharp. I didn't feel it so much, and it was at this point that i caught my cold :P (or twig's cold, perhaps.)
Once in the city we went straight to the pikes' place market... poked around in a number of shops and stopped by in a magic store, a cheese shop, generally wandered around getting a feel of the vibe of the place. I managed to really piss off some bikers too, by taking photos around them. I got paranoid after that point since one of 'em was following me around, i think :P got really claustrophobic and panicky just like i used to back int he anxiety days, and had to flee. *squeezes the mouse*
We went to the Woodland park zoo from there. Photos of zoo animals is just far too easy, and yet i don't have the lens for it :p
So that summed up our trip to seattle i suppose! It was a good day, and nice to travel around a little :)
Sunday 16th -
We decided that today was a good day to hunt cheese! and see the coastline too. We drove out to Tillamook with the intent of going to the cheese factory there! The drive out was amazing - the forests and streams here are gorgeous! i really regret not getting some photos along the way...
The cheese factory was a self guided tour with some cheese samples, and gift store.. we didn't get to see cheese being made, but there was some being packaged. We got some icecream and continued on our way where pthoto-ops presented themselves more commonly. (you can see some of that in the picasa album too.)
Monday 17th-
Mondaymondaymonday! You bought your seat but you'll only need THE EDGE.
well, no actually... we spent the entire day relaxing, lounging, sleeping and being lazy! we went out on our date in the evening to The Melting Pot. The cocktails were good, but since we'd not eaten much in the day, my poor mouse got a little ill after eating the cheese fondue mixed with cocktails on an empty stomach. we left fairly promptly after that, but we did go out and get soe nighttime photography of the city :3
Tuesday 18th-
we slept in late again :P
We didn't really do a lot! We went out shopping for some stuff, looking for camera stores. I got a wonky rubber eyepiece, a UV filter, and a neckstrap... if there was a good lens within my price range, i was pretty willing to buy it.
Still keeping my eye out for that 50mm f1.4 prime lens...
We went to a very nifty cinema in the afternoon/evening to see The Quantum of Solace. The theatre was outstanding! very cosy seats and footrests and sunken pillow pits and alchahol and dinner served and wine tasting and super-hi-definition screen, noticably sweet as heck. :) the movie was pretty okay too.
Wednesday 19th-
We slept in once more, then went out to the Ape Cave. The Ape Cave is a lavatube at the foot of Mount St Helens, which is a still active volcano. The lavatube is a cave that has been formed a short ways beneath the ground from the flow of lava, melting its way into the earth. Its just inside the forests at the foot of the mountain. Once you enter into the mouth of the cave down a breif metal stairway, its a fairly direct route through, walking across porous rubble and obvious lava-flow. There's a good bit of climbing over sizeable rock piles and one vertical lava-fall that you need to climb up thats about 8 feet tall, and some areas with crawlspaces and wriggles holes, but there's ways around those that just involve just a little bit more of climbing.
It was fairly cold out towards the mountain, and being below the ground with constant water dripping made it just a touch more degrees cooler. It took us a couple of hours (?) to get through the uphill climb in the lavatube, stopping a few times for snuggling in the pitch black. (did i mention that we had to supply our own lighting?) And no, we didn't. It was too cold :P not to mention that we weren't the only people going through the cave, met up with at least one couple 1/4 of the way through who were coming in the opposite direction.
By the time we got to the end of the lavatube it was quite dark out. We clearly hadn't timed our little treck well, since now we had to walk back through the pine forest at the foot of a live volcano at night. We started to worry about wildlife since it was pitch black, and we only had our flashlights and headlamps to light our way, and twig was worried about how poorly the trail back was marked. So we made loud noises and traipsed along (fortunately the trail was marked by ribbons in thr trees and reflectors here and there). Seemed like the trip back only took a few minutes, not the hours it took to get up the mountain by climbing over rockpiles :P
Certainly not something i can say i've done every day! :)
Went back to thumper's that evening, hung out... i think we watched 'Real Genius' then, which was a decent if dated movie. It's one of the rabbit's favourites :P
Thursday 20th - Monday 24th. Midwest FurFest.
I'm going to have to sum up the whole of the con in one go i think...
Today was the day we took off for chicago. we made sure to be organised and on time, since our flight was in the afternoon and we'd been sleeping in so much latley :P
The flight is 4 hours from Portland to Chicago, and we played the origional scorched earth a good portion of the way :P hehehe. Still an awesome game.
On arrival, i was getting the taste of what cold is actually like. The temperature is very similar to canberra in winter at night - cold enough to sting when in the full brunt of the wind, but when its still its quite bareable. It wasn't snowing, but it was below freezing for the most part. was around 30-35 F the first few days, there and down to 23F at the lowest point, maybe a little below...
---Snip---
The con was awesome. I want to go to a bigger one. And i want a fucking weasel suit, god dammit.
---Snip---
After this we hung around a little for a few days, i had thanksgiving with a few friends i'd been introduced to, north and croc, thumper, and my mouse of course all went to thump's parent's house for a very traditional thanksgiving meal and company, which i adored. never done anything like it. His parents are charming. We helped put up his mother's christmas tree while his father played piano like a lounge musician, which i suppose he sort've is.
After that we went back to thumper's for poker and cocktails, a very sound finish to a nice day, and indeed, a trip i won't ever forget.
---Snip---
I miss you, mouse. Hope we can be together again soon.
I'll finish up the blank spaces as quickly as i can... I want to go back. I didn't want to leave.
I love the mouse dearly, and being away from him aches... but ... I'm keeping my chin up as best i can. We'll be together again before i can forget the little things.
The trip, in short, was wonderful, we did things i could never do at home, i met some great people and faced some fears, and feel closer to my mouse now than i did before.
========================================
Thursday 13th - arrival and dinner -
Something i never said about this place - it's much cooler here than it is at home in winter. To some, that might be stating the obvious, but anywhere that you can see every breath on the cool, dry air is okay in weasel books :)
Friday 14th - Bainbridge Island and visiting Nicodemus, Kit and Timothy.
Saturday 15th-
We went out from Bainbridge Island onto the ferry to Seattle. Got some decent photos along the way, which you may have seen in the picasa album. this was pretty cool, since i'd seen the mouse boarding this ferry before with their webcams they have set up :P Got to glimpse some of the selection of mountains around the area from there too, and the wind was quite sharp. I didn't feel it so much, and it was at this point that i caught my cold :P (or twig's cold, perhaps.)
Once in the city we went straight to the pikes' place market... poked around in a number of shops and stopped by in a magic store, a cheese shop, generally wandered around getting a feel of the vibe of the place. I managed to really piss off some bikers too, by taking photos around them. I got paranoid after that point since one of 'em was following me around, i think :P got really claustrophobic and panicky just like i used to back int he anxiety days, and had to flee. *squeezes the mouse*
We went to the Woodland park zoo from there. Photos of zoo animals is just far too easy, and yet i don't have the lens for it :p
So that summed up our trip to seattle i suppose! It was a good day, and nice to travel around a little :)
Sunday 16th -
We decided that today was a good day to hunt cheese! and see the coastline too. We drove out to Tillamook with the intent of going to the cheese factory there! The drive out was amazing - the forests and streams here are gorgeous! i really regret not getting some photos along the way...
The cheese factory was a self guided tour with some cheese samples, and gift store.. we didn't get to see cheese being made, but there was some being packaged. We got some icecream and continued on our way where pthoto-ops presented themselves more commonly. (you can see some of that in the picasa album too.)
Monday 17th-
Mondaymondaymonday! You bought your seat but you'll only need THE EDGE.
well, no actually... we spent the entire day relaxing, lounging, sleeping and being lazy! we went out on our date in the evening to The Melting Pot. The cocktails were good, but since we'd not eaten much in the day, my poor mouse got a little ill after eating the cheese fondue mixed with cocktails on an empty stomach. we left fairly promptly after that, but we did go out and get soe nighttime photography of the city :3
Tuesday 18th-
we slept in late again :P
We didn't really do a lot! We went out shopping for some stuff, looking for camera stores. I got a wonky rubber eyepiece, a UV filter, and a neckstrap... if there was a good lens within my price range, i was pretty willing to buy it.
Still keeping my eye out for that 50mm f1.4 prime lens...
We went to a very nifty cinema in the afternoon/evening to see The Quantum of Solace. The theatre was outstanding! very cosy seats and footrests and sunken pillow pits and alchahol and dinner served and wine tasting and super-hi-definition screen, noticably sweet as heck. :) the movie was pretty okay too.
Wednesday 19th-
We slept in once more, then went out to the Ape Cave. The Ape Cave is a lavatube at the foot of Mount St Helens, which is a still active volcano. The lavatube is a cave that has been formed a short ways beneath the ground from the flow of lava, melting its way into the earth. Its just inside the forests at the foot of the mountain. Once you enter into the mouth of the cave down a breif metal stairway, its a fairly direct route through, walking across porous rubble and obvious lava-flow. There's a good bit of climbing over sizeable rock piles and one vertical lava-fall that you need to climb up thats about 8 feet tall, and some areas with crawlspaces and wriggles holes, but there's ways around those that just involve just a little bit more of climbing.
It was fairly cold out towards the mountain, and being below the ground with constant water dripping made it just a touch more degrees cooler. It took us a couple of hours (?) to get through the uphill climb in the lavatube, stopping a few times for snuggling in the pitch black. (did i mention that we had to supply our own lighting?) And no, we didn't. It was too cold :P not to mention that we weren't the only people going through the cave, met up with at least one couple 1/4 of the way through who were coming in the opposite direction.
By the time we got to the end of the lavatube it was quite dark out. We clearly hadn't timed our little treck well, since now we had to walk back through the pine forest at the foot of a live volcano at night. We started to worry about wildlife since it was pitch black, and we only had our flashlights and headlamps to light our way, and twig was worried about how poorly the trail back was marked. So we made loud noises and traipsed along (fortunately the trail was marked by ribbons in thr trees and reflectors here and there). Seemed like the trip back only took a few minutes, not the hours it took to get up the mountain by climbing over rockpiles :P
Certainly not something i can say i've done every day! :)
Went back to thumper's that evening, hung out... i think we watched 'Real Genius' then, which was a decent if dated movie. It's one of the rabbit's favourites :P
Thursday 20th - Monday 24th. Midwest FurFest.
I'm going to have to sum up the whole of the con in one go i think...
Today was the day we took off for chicago. we made sure to be organised and on time, since our flight was in the afternoon and we'd been sleeping in so much latley :P
The flight is 4 hours from Portland to Chicago, and we played the origional scorched earth a good portion of the way :P hehehe. Still an awesome game.
On arrival, i was getting the taste of what cold is actually like. The temperature is very similar to canberra in winter at night - cold enough to sting when in the full brunt of the wind, but when its still its quite bareable. It wasn't snowing, but it was below freezing for the most part. was around 30-35 F the first few days, there and down to 23F at the lowest point, maybe a little below...
---Snip---
The con was awesome. I want to go to a bigger one. And i want a fucking weasel suit, god dammit.
---Snip---
After this we hung around a little for a few days, i had thanksgiving with a few friends i'd been introduced to, north and croc, thumper, and my mouse of course all went to thump's parent's house for a very traditional thanksgiving meal and company, which i adored. never done anything like it. His parents are charming. We helped put up his mother's christmas tree while his father played piano like a lounge musician, which i suppose he sort've is.
After that we went back to thumper's for poker and cocktails, a very sound finish to a nice day, and indeed, a trip i won't ever forget.
---Snip---
I miss you, mouse. Hope we can be together again soon.
-
-
lonely
-
thankful