And a Pitcher To Go – Portland, Oregon

Portland’s the last stop for us. Yep, you read that right. Starting Wednesday, Team LaRoche is making the 2600 mile trip from Portland to Atlanta. We’re not sure if it’s going to take 3 or 4 days, it kind of depends on how hard we want to push it. But this is it. And you know what?

We’re freaking exhausted.

Yesterday was a pathetic travel day. It was a blast, but as far as “we’re on vacation” traveling goes, it was about as entertaining as a reality TV competition.

We woke up in Edgewood and said our goodbyes to the Baker family, who put on an MVP performance as weekend hosts, and headed down 150 miles to Portland. We moved slow because of traffic and general fatigue, arriving in Portland three hours later at a place called Otto’s – a German sausage house we’d seen on Triple D.

Expectations were somewhat high, only because we come from Chicago, which houses the best sausage restaurant on the planet, Hot Dougs, and we were excited to see if Otto could give the boys back in Chi-town a little competition.

They didn’t.

It wasn’t bad or anything, but a week before the wedding we got a smoked sausage in a grocery store parking lot near Austin’s parents’ house in Atlanta that was better. Regardless, there was a nice jalapeno mustard we soaked our sausages with, and slowly moved to the car to check out downtown Portland, a city we’d been really interested to check out but really did zero research on before arriving.

Rachael looked up some stuff on TripAdvisor – some bookstore, some gardens, walking tours, Ripley’s Believe it or Not (kidding), and general tourist stuff. We decided to walk around, and found a nice riverfront park to walk along for awhile until Austin got too hot and Rachael wanted to stop walking. Yes, we were definitely at the point where we just didn’t even want to move our legs or do anything anymore, and luckily, we’ll be able to do nothing for the 40 hours it’ll take to move across the country in the car.

We came up to a movie theater, and the idea of seeing a movie at a normal downtown Cineplex, an activity we’d never have done even days prior, somehow seemed like the greatest idea in the world. Air conditioning, overpriced snacks, mindless entertainment, and not having to move for two hours is the new utopian ideal for us tired travelers.

Anyway, we saw Bruno, which is one of those controversial movies you know everyone has a heated opinion on, and anyway, we’ll just say we’re amazed Sasha Baron Cohen wasn’t killed while taping this, which I suspect is something we feel anytime we watch Cohen in action, and it had its ups and downs. How’s that for neutrality? Your move, Sweden…

Surprisingly, we were rejuvenated at this point. People were finally walking the streets (downtown Portland on a Monday afternoon was a ghost town), and we went to the Pearl District which houses all the breweries.

We walked up to the Rogue Ale House, named after the beer company with dozens of beers seen in liquor stores across the country and took a seat at the bar. We’d gotten a couple Rogue’s over the years, and their Dead Guy Ale is a fun brew we’d enjoyed before.

Fortunately for us, they had one of these cool sampler options where we got to try 8 different beers. We tried an array of beers – from honey wheats to chocolate stouts, and their high fermented Glen beer (10% alc) was our walk away favorite. One of the interesting beers they had was a Smoke Ale which was a smoked beer that was supposed to taste like beef jerky. Here’s the thing about “smoking” things, the right things to smoke – chicken, fish, turkey, jerky – taste amazing smoked. But when you try to smoke things like beer, it just tastes like crap.

Rach also enjoyed the Hazelnut Ale, which could be sold at Starbucks if they were to get a liquor license, and Austin thought the Double Dead Guy Ale (basically the Dead Guy had he been on a steroid cycle) was a tasty choice, as was the American Amber, a simple but wonderful tasting lager.

One retired beer we couldn’t find anywhere but in an old bottle above the bar was the “Warrior,” which housed a lumberjack looking guy that could talk you into buying a Sham-Wow. Rest in peace, Billy Mays, you Rogue Warrior.

Hungry, we looked up a cool pizza joint in town, ordered a white NY pie for carryout, and headed to the Howard Johnson to sit on our asses and do nothing, which is precisely what we did.

This morning, we awoke and went to the last stop on the Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives tour – a biscuit place called Pine State Biscuits. It was started by 3 buddies from North Carolina, and may just be the only place in the northwest that serves sweet tea.

We got a biscuit sandwich they call the Reggie – fried chicken, bacon, cheese, and gravy, as well as their grit cake sampler, three grit cakes – one topped with fried green tomatoes and pimento cheese, one topped with country ham and white cheddar, and one topped with chicken and honey. And oh yeah, we also got a side of loaded hash browns with that, as well as a side of biscuits topped with the house sausage gravy for good measure.

What a gem of a restaurant. We may have to get some more on our way out of town tomorrow, but it was a great way to end our Triple D adventures.

Alright, faithful readers, here’s the plan – we’ve got to get our tires rotated and balanced and our oil change before the big drive home. We’re not really going to want to waste any time blogging or doing anything but driving from here until the weekend. Considering you guys will all be enjoying your weekends out and about, we’ll probably blog the trip home and do a recap/de-brief of the entire adventure Saturday and Sunday and post links Monday morning for you all to enjoy at work. The last few posts will be a lot of fun (the exact opposite of this post) and it’ll be great to create fun top 5 lists and go over everything we’ve done.

We will see you next week…can’t wait to get home!

Listening to that Puget Sound

The Sunday plan was set – go up to the Ballard area of Seattle for Mike’s Chili (as seen on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives), cross the Puget Sound by ferry, then drive to the Baker’s beach house on the sound and if the tide was right, handpick some fresh oysters and clams.

We drove into Seattle and got a nice driving tour from Doug, who showed us where UPS began, Paul Allen’s jet, upcoming neighborhoods like Belltown, historic areas such as Pioneer Square, the Republic Sovereign of Fremont (home of Seattle’s radicals), and a bunch of cool little spots along the way.

We pulled into Mike’s Chili Parlor, ordered a couple local microbrews, and awaited the meaty chili we’d seen on TV months prior.

Rach went the Cincinnati way – throwing her chili atop a bowl of spaghetti, Doug got a straight up chili bowl, and Austin got the chili cheeseburger with jalapenos. Unlike most chili cheeseburgers, the cheese and chili are poured ON TOP of the burger as seen here:

Because eating a burger with your hands is the normal way to eat a burger, Austin scooped up the burger drenched in chili and the waitress stunningly said to him, “I’ve worked here for 5 years and you’re the FIRST person to ever to pick the burger up with your hands.” A true original, that Austin.

Our lunch was great and it was satisfying for a meal with high expectations to come through. We needed to get across the sound, so we drove through West Seattle to the Fauntleroy ferry line and drove onto the massive boat.

Rach and Austin had been on a ferry once in New Orleans and will probably be ferry pros in the near future, but for now, they were novices, and the resident veteran, Mr. Baker, showed us around and we enjoyed an array of picture taking opportunities…

Sure enough, as we were moving across the water first to the island of Vashon and then to our destination, Southworth, we looked to the southeast and guess who came back into the spotlight – our old pal, Mt. Rainier.

We got off the ferry and drove 15 minutes to the Baker’s beach home to meet daughter Kristen and her fiancé Mike, who will be getting married at the property next July. After going through so many wedding things the past year, it was so neat to see them talk about all the brush they needed to clear, where the beer would be at the reception, etc. They’ve got a fun year-long project to get the place looking good and from the looks of things, they’re going to have a blast doing it.

Unfortunately for our oyster picking dreams, the tide was high, which simply meant that the cove the house sits had water in it. Apparently, twice every 12 hours, the water completely drains from the area and it is a mud pit housing thousands of clams and oysters for the taking. Many commercial farms are the in the area, but locals and their out-of-town friends can still throw their arms down in the mud to pick up fresh clams and oysters. Luckily, while the tide was low in the morning, Kristen got a bucket of clams for us, so we’d at least get to try fresh clams later in the evening.

We sat on the porch and watched the birds dive into the water hoping to pry a fish or two for dinner. A lonely sea lion kept swimming in our area and we relaxed as canoes, boats, swimmers, skiers, and others came in and out of the cove. It was peaceful and serene and the perfect compliment to the crowded downtown tourist activities we’d partaken in the day prior.

As the sun began to fade, it was time to head back to Edgewood for a northwest treat – fresh salmon. Salmon seemed to be prepared and cooked as regularly and with the same detail as steak is cooked in the LaRoche house (Austin’s parents). They had perfected many ways to cook the upstream swimmers, and we were the lucky benefactors of their salmon cooking expertise.

While the fish was cooking on the grill, we ate the clams, which become “steamers” once we throw them in a pot and add a little garlic butter to them. They were as fresh as could be and a wonderful snack before dinner.

The fish had finally finished cooking and was totally worth the wait. Juicy, flavorful, and fresh, it did not take long for us to scarf it all down. They season it with Johnny’s seasoning salt, the northwest’s answer to Tony Chachere’s Cajun mix from New Orleans, which was an awesome add-on.

The warm sunny day turned into a cool breezy evening and since it was our last night there, Doug made a fire out back and we supplied the gang with cigars and enjoyed a nice smoke under the stars.

Three straight nights of staying up late with the Baker family over drinks had finally come to an end. We went to bed after a wonderful weekend, with a drive to Portland the only thing on the agenda the next morning…

Seattle City Limits, Come as You Are

Saturday was all about the city of Seattle for Team LaRoche. Team Baker had a family party to attend, so we were on our own, and the city of Seattle was hopping more than usual due to the following three events:

1. A soccer match that somehow got 65,000 fans to attend at Qwest Field
2. The Bite of Seattle Festival, where local restaurants set up booths and local patrons tried different eats from across the city
3. The launch of the first public transit train in Seattle, called the Light Rail, which goes from downtown to the airport

After fighting some traffic, we got to the Pike Place Market around noon-ish and it was a madhouse. People were everywhere, walking incredibly slow, stopping by the fish market in hopes of catching the guys throw a fish up to the counter. Of course, we indulged in this as well, strolling through the market and looking at all the fresh food in hopes for a great lunch.

But here’s the thing about the fish market – someone has to buy a giant fish for the employees to throw it across the room to the guy at the weigh scale, who tallies up how big it is, slaps the price tag on it, and gives it to customer. There’s only like 1 in 50 people there actually interested in anything other than snapping a pic of the toss, so everyone sits around waiting for that guy to show with both hands on their cameras, including us. Fascinating stuff.  Oh, and we did see a toss in time to snap a pic:

The market would be quite exceptional if not for the crowds, seeing as there is a ton of fresh food and nice vendors down that way. Also down that way? The first Starbucks, which is more fun to watch people gather around as if it were the Golden Gate bridge than anything else. Regardless, we played the role of tourist and took a picture of it, which was sufficient for us…

Rach grabbed some fresh raspberries and blueberries for her lunch treat, and Austin wanted some crab once more before leaving the coast. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a place selling steamed crab, but that didn’t phase our favorite crab fanatic – he simply went to the fish market, ordered a whole cooked Dungeness crab cracked and cleaned, and he and his bride walked over to the river to eat some lunch in the sun.

The crab needed a little garlic butter or Tabasco or just a hint of spice, but Austin fought through the whole thing, while Rach devoured the fresh fruit. It was a beautiful day and it was great to be relaxing by the water. Of course, the view from where we ate overlooked the river along with Safeco and Qwest Fields and a little something I like to call Mt Rainier in the distance.

We went back to the market to grab some wonderful smelling flowers for the Baker household, and decided it was time to jump from one madhouse to a new one – the Space Needle area.

As we approached, we were unsure exactly what we’d do there other than take pictures of the Space Needle. There was a local tour called Ride the Ducks, which was a land/water tour that used one extremely cool boat/car vehicle, but it was $25 a head and we couldn’t get on one until later that evening. We had discussed possibly going to the Experience Music Project, a sort of Rock n’ Roll museum in the area, and after walking into the lobby, we decided to do it.

After we paid the student rate (you know it!) to get in, we walked into the museum and instantly became satisfied with our decision to check it out. We began in the Northwest Passage exhibit which detailed the popular music acts from the Seattle/Portland area throughout history – exploring bands like the Kingsmen (Louie, Louie), The Ventures, Heart, and of course, the grunge acts like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and those Nirvana fellas. It was fun to see the artifacts like cassette tapes Nirvana put out, a blown up picture of the TIME cover with Eddie Vedder, and a hand-written sheet of lyrics by Kurt Cobain.

The next exhibit was the Guitar Gallery, a musicians exhibit which was built for Rach’s Dad. From early 20^th century Spanish guitars, to Stratocasters, to slide guitars, to Bo Diddely’s square-shaped axe, we saw them all. We’re not big time guitar players, but we could appreciate the history in the awesome array of instruments.

Our next move was the Jimi Hendrix exhibit, which housed a ton of cool Hendrix documents – diary entries about hanging out with Joni Mitchell, his personal copy of Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 record, handwritten lyrics, and one of the Stratocasters he used to do the “Star-Spangled Banner.” A cool history of Hendrix’s career was explained, and video of Jimi playing at different festivals and concerts serenaded the whole thing. Cool stuff.

(Quick note on Jimi Hendrix – Austin has a theory that if 4 random guys are in a car and all are from different backgrounds, ages, or ethnicities, the one artist they can put on the car stereo and all enjoy is Jimi Hendrix. Not many people actively listen to just Hendrix (except high school stoners), but everyone enjoys his work. He’s the guy everyone likes collectively but no one who didn’t live in the era actually loves. There’s something to this theory…there is.)

The next two exhibits we saw were neat in a “not easy to explain why so they probably weren’t really THAT cool” kind of way. The “Sounds and Visions of the Artists” was a bunch of video of musicians and writers talking about different topics, and the Hatch Posters exhibit showed 100 years of work from a Nashville company that started by making advertisements for local rodeos and county fairs, and ended up doing work for the Grand Ole Opry and now creates gig posters for the likes of Bruce Springsteen, The Shins, and The White Stripes. Had we been able to legally snap shots, we’d share some of them with you all…

One neat thing about the Experience Music Project is that a couple years ago they created a Science Fiction Hall of Fame that’s adjoining and if patrons pay the fee to get in to one, they can go to both. Unfortunately, this is a terrible 2-for-1 museum combo for us. We’re not crazy Sci-fi people, but we decided to walk through the exhibits quickly, and gave some special attention to a traveling display of Jim Henson’s Fantastic World.

Everyone grew up with the Muppets and it was cool to see the original drawings and crazy work that Henson put into his creations. Rach grabbed a photo next to the legendary Kermit the Frog, the world’s most recognizable reptile (totally making that up):

And Austin snapped this inside joke picture for his buddies in Chicago:

Afterwards, we decided to go to another, wait for it, restaurant featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives called Slim’s Last Chance. Ironically, it was a chili joint, and we’d been salivating about another chili place in Seattle we’d seen on the show called Mike’s that we were waiting to enjoy on Sunday with Doug. Regardless, we showed up to this cool looking biker bar hungry and ready to eat some grub.

Because we knew our trip to Mike’s the next day would involve normal chili, we decided to go on a limb and try some fun types, so Rachael got a Turkey and White Bean chili and Austin indulged in a New Mexico-style Green Chili with Pork . Add some wonderful hand-cut French fries and jalapeno mac n’ cheese, and we had ourselves a delicious feast!

It was spicy and perfect and we indulged in our 5^th triple D restaurant. The night was beautiful, so we threw the top down in the convertible and headed back to Edgewood. The only Baker home when we arrived was Katie, the oldest of the three girls, and we sat up and shared fun travel stories for awhile.

Eventually, Doug and Diane got back and we all hung out and munched on a great fontina cheese-cracker combo, chatted some more, and laughed into the night…

Celebrity Beards, Fried Fish, and Old Friends

After posting the latest round of blogs, it was inevitable that the “Joaqin Phoenix” joke would be busted out in regards to Austin’s beard. Truth be told, he wanted to slip it in a blog post himself if it got long enough, but was beat to the chase by one of his best men, Troy Mutter. (Chris Koch was the heavy favorite to make the joke first, but he must have been buried in email or saving it for a few more days of growth). Anyway, it’s out there, it’s funny and this beard is driving Austin and Rachael crazy in two completely separate ways – one of us loves it, the other can’t wait to shave this itchy thing off his face.

Let’s get back to the trip before we get too off-topic and start trying to come up with every funny person to ever sport a beard that Rachael could be in the Northwest with…

We left you all in Astoria, Oregon, a town we realized was on the Columbia River, which begins in Canada and flows out to the Pacific Ocean, just a few miles west of where we were staying. We chose to walk around town for awhile, strolling up and down the beautiful riverwalk and checking out a new development constructed on the water. We took some cool pics of the moss-covered, well, everything, and decided to go to the town’s best reviewed restaurant, The Bowpicker, for lunch.

The Bowpicker isn’t really a “restaurant” per say. In fact, it’s just an old boat, set up in a parking lot, that cooks phenomenal fish and chips, sells them at a great price, and can’t be but 3 seasons away from landing on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. The fish was fried in a wonderful batter, served over steak fries, and we got ours to-go so we could enjoy lunch right on the river.

After chowing down our fish, we hopped in the car, drove over the big green bridge from Oregon to Washington, and began our journey to Seattle. We came up the Washington coast, which was a bit disappointing after what we’d seen in Oregon and California. The only neat place on our 3 and a half hour drive was the town of Aberdeen, which is where Kurt Cobain was born and grew up. The town is incredibly small and decaying and seems like the last place on earth that could spawn a musical icon. Then again, the worst town in America – Gary, Indiana – spawned the Jackson Five, so maybe there’s something to crappy towns with musical prodigies that contributes to an eventual madness in the artist’s life. Who really cares…

So we were on our way to a town outside Seattle called Edgewood that Austin’s old family friends, The Bakers, lived, as they were our hosts for the weekend. The patriarch of the Baker family, Doug, worked with Austin’s Dad in the early 90s and the families spent a couple vacations with one another, and they were nice enough to have as in their home for a few days.

We had trouble finding the place when we first got in, as Google Maps was getting confused by their address. Luckily, the matriarch of the Baker clan, Diane, came to where we’d been directed, and led us to their home atop the hill.

After setting our bags down, we walked to the back of the home and found a fantastic patio equipped with a pool, tons of space, a fire pit, and a wonderful view of the majestic Mt. Rainer.

(Quick note on Mt. Rainer – we were pulling into Olympia when we saw a giant snow-capped mountain which Austin said, “I think that’s Mt. Rainer.” If we had time to perfectly craft an essay about our Seattle trip, it would undoubtedly be around the fact that everywhere you go, Mt. Rainer shows up in the scenery. We’ll try to interject it into the next few posts, but if we don’t make it clear, if you’re anywhere in the Seattle area and look to the Southeast with little obstruction, Rainier will be right there to greet you. Also, the first 5 times we saw it on our drive up, Austin kept saying “I really think that’s Mt Rainier,” until Rach hassled him enough for repeating himself).

We spent the early evening out back with Diane, catching up on family activities, having a couple of beers/cocktails, and enjoying the beautiful weather of the Northwest. After awhile, the family members all came in – Kristin the engaged college Senior, Emily the lifeguard, Katie the manager of an upscale women’s clothing store, and of course, Doug, the retired UPS man turned fundraiser extraordinaire for the Boys and Girls Club.

It was great to hear Doug talk about the old stories with Austin’s Dad, repeatedly calling the two, “brothers from different mothers,” and reminiscing about the time Austin’s family made a trip to Washington. We spent the evening this way, with some beers, whiskey, and glasses of wine fueling it all.

Another awesome night that’s not easy to write about. Great conversation are harder to describe than a bad experience at a National Park or getting pulled over after a couple wine tastings. It’s just a fantastic thing to be a part of, and I think we’ll just leave it at that…

The Oregon Coast and Wedding Pictures

Neither of us slept well on our mostly empty stomachs, but we had to get moving early because we were driving up the entire coast of Oregon on Thursday, and the 350 mile adventure to Astoria was being advertised by Google Maps as an 8 hour drive, which meant we’d be traveling at an average of just over 40 MPH all day. Knowing how much we stopped for beautiful scenery on coastal drives, we needed to get out as quick as possible.

For us, that was 9:30 AM. We went across the street to the early-closing Chevron, got our coffee and hit the road…

15 miles later, we were covered in fog and entering Oregon. The morning stayed fogging throughout, and it wasn’t until about noon when we finally got a nice sky.

(Note: because of all the driving, this blog post is probably going to be less detail-oriented and more picture heavy, but then again, we always find a way to make these things long, so who knows).

Here’s a couple shots from along the way:

We pulled into Coos Bay around 1pm hungry as could be and found a little pizza joint called Abby’s. It looked like a nice local restaurant with a store owner and his teenage daughter working inside. We got mini pizzas and a salad bar and enjoyed our meal at this nice local restaurant.

From Coos Bay to Astoria, we probably drove through 15 other towns, and we’d have to estimate there was an Abby’s pizza in at least 8 of them. So much for the nice local restaurant. Apparently we just ate at Oregon’s version of CiCi’s. Oh well, it hit the spot.

The next part of the drive was the Dunes Recreational Area, a place we didn’t get to see too much of because they appeared to always be on the other side of the hill in state parks asking us to pay them. Regardless, we got a couple pics to give you an idea what the Dunes are.

Next was the coastal trip from Franklin to Lincoln City which had beautiful coastal views in-between what seemed like a thousand towns that were slowing the trip down. Again, some pics:

Once we got through Lincoln City, we chugged towards Tillamook and FINALLY got some open road across the farmland. We didn’t snap any photos because we were too enthralled to be actually moving and the scenery didn’t warrant any special attention.

Just 60 miles outside of Astoria on what had been a long day of driving, we were finally moving at a nice pace and really loving the scenery. The 101 comes up to two different bays – first the Tillamook and then the Nehalem, and the clouds sit right on the water but from the elevation of the road ,you’re looking over them. Not sure we nailed these pics, but hopefully it’ll give you an idea of the wonderful scenery:

Finally, we arrived in Astoria, checked into our hotel, and walked around the town a bit. Astoria sits on the bay that separates the state of Oregon and Washington. There’s a giant bridge that connects the two, so we walked down and checked it out. As we were walking along the river, we also stumbled on a really neat memorial to all the Astorians that have lost their lives at sea. It’s a wall with the names and life dates engraved into it, along with some poetry about the sea. A cool thing to see.

But we were hungry, so we were off to dinner. Traveling through Astoria, we found a neat coastal town with local shops and restaurants and it seems like a cool place to one day spend some more time. We decided to go to the Fort George Brewery for some seafood and beer, and it was awesome. It was a nice way to finish a long day, and it was nice to head back to the hotel and get an email from our wedding photographer letting us know our pictures were up.

We spent the night looking through the pictures, remembering our wedding night (which went by WAY too fast!), and reminiscing about how long we’ve been on the road.

If you want to see the wedding photos, go to this link:

http://matthewfosterphotography.exposuremanager.com/g/rachael_and_austin

Use some common sense from there, and if you can’t figure out how to access them, email us.

Alright, we’re off to Seattle!

A Turkey Feast in the Middle of Nowhere

After 4 great days in the Bay Area, it was time to begin what would be two long days on the road. Of course, once we finished the blogging process and got ready Wednesday morning, it was already noon. We grabbed a quick lunch (nothing worth writing about), and hit the road.

We had known what to expect on our drive from LA to San Francisco – a little wine country, a ton of coastline, mountains galore – but north of that we were pretty uncertain, especially because the 101 would not touch the coast for the first 215 miles of our trip that day.

While grabbing dinner the night prior, we also picked up some ginger chew tablets (my mom’s suggestion) to minimize any car sickness that would possibly arise. Austin’s stomach was feeling a bit off, so Rach took the wheel while Austin began chomping on ginger tablets.

Gross. Yuck. The taste of vomit might be a better alternative than these things.

Anyway, the drive began with our friends, the amber rolling hills, lining the highway, with some crappy vineyards placed here and there. About 50 miles up the road, some rivers and streams made us think the area could possibly be a fishing getaway for Bay Area residents.

We came upon the town Willits, which called itself the “Gateway to the Redwoods.” Now we were talking!

Slowly but surely, we embarked on a giant mountainous terrain, with large redwood trees (not the crazy big ones, but massive nonetheless) all over the place. Lucky for us, Rachael Andretti was chugging through these mountains at a rapid pace, while Austin was forcing ginger tablets down his throat, and our “best of the 60s and 70s” playlist was serenading the entire drive.

Knowing we were staying at a motel in the middle of the woods and wanting to get there while it was still light, we didn’t stop for many photos so the pictures are mostly from the car (this should explain the glare).

About 2 miles before we got to Eureka (where the road met back up with the coast), the fog came in and cast over the town, making a decent looking California beach town a crappy and decadent spot. We grabbed some snacks (which included some Diet Pepsi tallboys, a product we can’t believe hasn’t come out sooner and can’t wait to grab more of) here and moved forward up the coast.

The drive from Eureka to our motel outside Crescent City was fantastic. It was through the Redwoods National Park, which in reality is like a combination of 5-6 different State Parks with Redwoods in them. We stopped at two different of these parks on the beach and snapped some pretty cool photos in the foggy conditions:

What was really neat was the constant changing sky from fogging overcast to a beautiful blue hue. One minute, you looked outside the car and the cloudy sky made it feel like it would be dark in 10 minutes, and as we passed around the next curve, it looked as if we were in a gorgeous painting.

This changing light gave us a couple good photo ops, but again, we were trying to get to our motel, so all shots were taken from the passenger seat:

Eventually we pulled into Crescent City, another town that had been dominated by the fog and groaned that we’d be staying in such a crappy town. We were staying 6 miles outside Crescent City in a place called Hiouchi, so we trekked up the mountain to find the night’s resting place.

After Andretti pushed through the windy 25 mph sharp turns, the fog faded and we pulled into a quaint mountain town that housed a hotel, a Chevron with a market attached, a café, and an RV park. That’s it. That’s the town. No more than 100 people could possibly live there. In fact, let’s look at the stats.

Here’s the census page for Hiouchi – http://www.roadsidethoughts.com/ca/hiouchi-census.htm

Sure enough, not enough information to compile a population stat! I introduce to you the wonderful town of Hiouchi, folks…

We checked in, got our room, and decided to hit up a state park before sundown. It was about 7:30 at this point and we figured the sun went down around 8:30pm, so we had an hour to get back, grab something from the market across the street and then we’d stay in our hotel for the night.

Because of all the crazy turns in the car all day, we had that seasick feel as if we were still swaying as we stood on the ground. Needless to say, we didn’t feel like moving far in the car. So we went up the road to the local Smith River in hopes of some nice river pics and a few redwood trees.

We stumbled on this area with 2 billion rocks covering the ground and walked over them to get to the river. It seemed like the sun was setting on the river just around the bend, which is why we made the trek, and it was a pretty sight, however, no redwoods were really around, we were tired and hungry, so we just went back to the market to get some food before bed.

Only problem? The market closed at 8 and it was 8:05. The manager wouldn’t let us in, and if we were going to eat dinner that night, we had to drive 15 minutes into town to do so. No one in Crescent City would deliver that far, so we were stuck.

Not wanting to get back in the car, we dumped out our snack bag on the bed. Inside was two pieces of turkey, half a bag of baby carrots, a quarter bag of peanuts, half a bag of lime chile almonds, a chocolate chip cookie, sunflower seeds, and of course, ginger tablets.

This wasn’t exactly the feast we’d had the day before in Sonoma, but it would have to do. We downed it all slowly remembering we had eaten meals like this when we were fasting, er, dieting before the wedding. After catching up on True Blood and watching HBO’s new documentary on Ted Williams, we tossed and turned until we finally fell asleep…

Adventures with Wine and the California Authorities

Saying goodbye to a great town like San Francisco isn’t easy, but we needed to get out of there and move forward with our trip.

The first stop of the day was Berkeley, California, home to the University of Cal-Berkeley and the first Amoeba Records store. We started in Amoeba, where we told the cashier we had been to the other two stores already and he congratulated us for completing the “Amoeba pilgrimage.” Unlike our prior visits, we decided to read some of the staff recommendations and buy a couple CDs from local artists to enjoy in the afternoon.

(We’ll get back to you if any of them pan out and we’d recommend them, but so far, the only reward we got for our purchase was feeling good about supporting local music and independent record stores, but “the next great music discovery” of our lives probably wasn’t in those four CDs.)

Anyway, we left the record store to find our first parking ticket of the trip, which was shocking because we put 24 minutes in the meter before walking into the record store. Oops. Never underestimate how much time music fanatics can spend in a great record store. Lesson learned.

Next up was a trip to the grocery store to pack a picnic for our journey to wine country. We toned down the spread (not nearly as extravagant as our trip to the Santa Ynez Valley with Team Pangle) and just grabbed some strawberries, hummus, sourdough, cheese, prosciutto, and turkey (Rach isn’t as into the salty/fatty Italian meats as her husband).

On our way to wine country we wanted to stop at the Infineon Raceway, an incredible racetrack Austin had seen five years prior when his Dad took the family to see the track. We wanted to snap a bunch of cool pics for our buddy Troy, who loves the track and racing in general. It’s a super neat set up in the hills of wine country and so unconventional a track that it’s hard to truly capture in photos how neat it really looks. As Rach said as we pulled up, “I could care less about racing, but it would be awesome to watch a race here.”

Anyway, here are a few unedited shots we got, although we’re not sure it does the track justice:

We were starving at this point and needed to put that picnic in our stomachs, but we needed to find a winery to do so. The first place we tried to stop at had a sign that said, “Picnics allowed with purchase of two bottles of wine.” Um…not going there. The second place we tried looked nice, but their picnic area was in the sun, and it is HOT up in Sonoma. So we tried a place across the street, a winery called Cline.

A little weary at this point of spending too much on wine tastings (they were $10 bucks a person in Santa Ynez), we decided we’d buy a cheap bottle and forego the tasting process. But once we met Joe and he let us know the tastings were complimentary, we began tasting away! There was a free list for us to try and then a reserve list that cost a little. However, once we told them we were on our honeymoon, they started forcing wine down our throats, free of charge.  (And if you couldn’t tell, it was quite warm in the tasting room!)

Eventually, we got our spread and enjoyed a picnic next to the pond that sat alongside the Tasting Room. Our buddy Joe came out and gave us a complimentary glass to go with our food, and we enjoyed our grub.

Cline made us realize a few things about us as “wine people.” We like wine. But we also know from these tastings that many bottles under 10 bucks taste far superior to some of the $40 – $50 a bottle selections we indulged in. So wineries like Cline were really all we wanted out of wine country – trying a bunch of wines for cheap, give us great service and conversation amongst the staff, and making the wine tasting experience inexpensive and fun. It’s not a coincidence the only bottle we bought all day was at Cline. They had the model that fit what we were looking for.

As we drove further into Sonoma, we began recognizing wineries that were being advertised from all the grocery store wines. After turning around a bend, we saw an advertisement for the Larson Family Winery, a brand that we knew we had heard of before and quickly realized that they were the winery that donated their selections to The Next Stop golf tournament each year. We had to go!

Austin called his Dad to see who he should ask for, and a man named Big Mike was the guy we needed to speak to, as he was an old friend of Austin’s Dad. We asked for him, but he was not around, and we went ahead with a tasting anyway. The staff was super-nice here as well, and the rustic barn feel was much more fun to be around than some of the snobby looking wineries we’d been passing on the road. The wines were fairly expensive so we didn’t buy one from there, but we got another “honeymoon discount” in the form of a free tasting (five bucks saved, every dollar counts at this point).

We decided to drive into the town of Sonoma to look for more wineries and because it was 4:15, we knew most wineries would only be open for another 45 minutes. As we drove into town, we didn’t see any new wineries (they were all north of town), so we pulled up to a stop light on a four-lane road with a left turn light, with zero “no U-turn” signs around. We made a u-turn and of course, the sirens of a police car came following and we were pulled over.

Nothing like getting pulled over after tasting 15 different wines in a two hour span!

The first thing Austin said to the cop (and very nicely we should add) was “I looked everywhere for the no U-turn sign and didn’t see it” to which the cop replied, “the law states there has to be a median in an intersection for a U-turn. I take you guys aren’t from around here.” We apologized profusely, and he could tell we were not drunk. We told him we were on our honeymoon and we were trying to get back and head over to Napa and he said, “we’ll see if we can give you a honeymoon favor.” He took Austin’s ID and proof of insurance, all which checked out and let us on our way.

So on the day we got our first parking ticket, we almost also got our first traffic ticket, too. But alas, we got away free!

With 5pm coming quickly, we wanted to stop in one last winery, so we chose the Nicholson Ranch, just on the outskirts of Sonoma, about 10 minutes from Napa. This one was a little ritzy and we did just one tasting at their 10 bucks a pop rate, and while the wines were crazy expensive and unmemorable, the winery was beautiful, so we walked around and took pics for a long time to sober back up (those wine country cops can be sticklers we learned), where Rachael befriended the dog of the ranch’s owners and played fetch for awhile was Austin snapped some pics. Here’s a few of them:

As the wineries closed, we decided to drive through Napa because we wanted to see all the wineries but didn’t want to run into the insane traffic of Napa crowds or pay Napa prices. Being spectators to Napa was great and we got some nice pictures of the area and an appreciation for all that goes into the $6 bottles of wine we walk by every time we stroll through a grocery store.

Our hotel was in Santa Rosa, so we made the 30 minute drive to our bed for the night, found a Trader Joes nearby and bought salads and carrots (to dip into our leftover hummus) for a healthy meal, which of course concluded with chocolate chip cookies that had three different types of chocolate in them. Apparently we just can’t do completely healthy meals on this trip.

We spent the evening catching up on our email and internet activities, began the blogging process, and went to bed.

The plan for the REST of the trip. Yes, you read that right, we’re at the point where we know how this thing is going to end – Redwoods today, Oregon coast tomorrow, Seattle Friday and Saturday nights, Portland Sunday and Monday nights, then we begin the 4 day hike back east. This should put us in Atlanta on the evening of Friday July 24^th. Wow, can’t believe this thing has to end soon.

Speaking of Atlanta, while our day was quite fun here, Austin’s mother had quite a neat day, too. Monday night she got an email from Oprah’s radio programming asking her if she’d be willing to talk to Dr. Maya Angelou about the family’s organization, The Next Stop. Everything happened quickly, and before she knew it, she took a break from The Next Stop’s bowling day to talk to Dr. Angelou about the organization, what we do, and where our program is heading. The interview will air on Oprah radio sometime in the next few weeks, if she’s so inclined to do so, I’m sure Austin’s mom will put in the comments section when we’ll be able to hear the broadcast. Awesome stuff!

Tourists in the Morning, Locals by Sundown

Our married protagonists awoke Monday morning in their hotel room alone, as the Magamols had escaped at 4:30 that AM to catch a flight, a feat that deserves recognition seeing as Mr. Magamol was downing his 9^th beer just four hours prior. We checked out and paid the $45 overnight parking fee (not a typo, WELCOME TO SAN FRANCISCO!).

Not wanting to run into any coffee problems again, we went out of our way to find the 7-Eleven and get a good cup of Joe. Before we could check out the “what do people who live here do?” stuff out, we had to finish the tourist activities, namely, the Golden Gate Bridge and the drive down Lombard Street.

The Golden Gate Bridge, much like the Grand Canyon and Hollywood Blvd was a tourist trap we knew would be a necessary evil. We decided to do the G-G-B on Monday because we figured it’d be less of a mad house than on the weekend. Ultimately, we realized it was a mad house whenever you went, but at least or intentions were good.

We were sure to throw the top down on the convertible, blast a little Bob Dylan (the only 60s music we both love profusely), and drive across one of America’s most recognizable monuments. After crossing over the bridge, we pulled into the vista point parking lot and waited a good five minutes as morons waited for other cars to leave parking spots instead of driving around to the area where there were a good 20 open spaces.

The consensus was we had to walk a little bit across the bridge, but not all the way because the overwhelming amount of international families taking pictures everywhere was a bit too much. Anyway, we snapped a bunch of neat photos from the bridge…

We saw a cool road leading to a more secluded hill (which also included a much better view) and trekked up that way to get some better scenic pictures of the bridge without accidentally bumping into a Chinese/Japanese/Indian/British/Finnish/German/Saudi Arabian/Kenyan/Swedish/Korean/Caucasian family.

With a little space, we got a few good pics of the bridge then paid the ungodly $6 to cross back to San Fran. Seriously, $6? What happened to your run-of-the-mill $1.25 toll road? Damn California, you are the biggest nickel and dimers in the country!

Team LaRoche was starving and after reading about this chicken wing place in Chinatown on Yelp, we had to get our fingers on them. We grabbed 3 lbs for under $10 and start working on those wings like Joey Chestnut on a 4^th of July frankfurter.

We walked around Chinatown for a few minutes and snapped some pics of the hustle and bustle, but really wanted to get the hell out of there and to a place where we could walk down the street without bumping into 100 people. Chinatown was a little too happening for us slow pokes.

One last tourist spot remained, so we chugged the car up the hill and made the very fun drive down Lombard street. Austin wanted to take pics, so he sat in the back while Rach drove, and although the pics weren’t everything Mr. LaRoche was hoping for, they produced some solid shots:

Once the last pic of the Lombard experience was snapped, it was time to see the neighborhoods where the real San Franciscans live. We started in Fillmore, which seemed like a place for people who need to think they’re living a cultural area of SF, but still have the comforts (Panda Express, Starbucks, conventional grocery stores) of their prior suburban existence. We were excited to see the music venue, Fillmore East, but apparently, it’s one of those “cool from the inside” places because this was the outer view of a supposed “great” music venue.

Next up was Haight Asbury, the former hangout of the real hippies and now the current hangout of individuals wishing to follow the movement as well as shitty corporate establishments like American Apparel trying to sell themselves in “alternative” areas. For the most part, it was really cool. The SF store of Amoeba Records was just as grandiose as its LA establishment. The “live free” spirit was still there – hell, we were offered drugs twice, first in the form of “funny cookies” and second from a guy asking for a lighter, and once we let him know we didn’t have one, his next inclination was to wonder if we had yet to be hooked up by another street dealer and asked us what we needed.

It was great to drive by the nearby parks and see everyone sitting around, presumably eating their funny cookies, but ultimately, just feeling free and enjoying the spirit of a town that was hell bent on having a blast the right way. Luckily, Rach got in a picture with one of these hippies, check out this crazy looking bearded man:

We took a drive through the Mission next, a neighborhood we didn’t understand much, but eventually came to realize was a large area with an array of original restaurants, boutiques, bars, etc. After a stroll through the Mission, we had to check out the Castro, where Harvey Milk worked to become the first openly homosexual on San Francisco’s City Council. We know it’s not everyone’s thing, but we thought it was neat that there was a bar/restaurant called Harvey’s on the corner of Castro and 18^th street, and we wanted to see the area.

With much of the city seen, we knew we had to look past being in such a great town and needed to do a few housecleaning items – aka – find places to stay Monday and Tuesday nights along the California coast. Luckily, we found a Crepe store with free wi-fi, grabbed a snack, and used the net for about an hour to further set up our trip.

An old friend of Rach’s named Amy offered us a place to stay in the aforementioned Mission neighborhood, and we headed out to spend the evening with her and her boyfriend. She claimed the best burrito she’d ever had was around the corner, so Austin and Rach had to try it out. Because it may have been the first place we’d eaten at where someone else picked it out and we completely went along with it, the name of the joint is escaping our minds, but low and behold, it delivered! Awesome burrito, amazing quesadilla, probably our last great meal from a town with Mexican residents we trust to cook for us (once we cross the border to Oregon, Mexican food is off-limits).

The rest of the night was your classic “Austin and Rach hanging with a friend and loving it, yet having a hard time explaining it to the general blog audience.” You all know the drill by now. We drank good wine, caught up on past friends, had great laughs, and disappeared into the evening, with wine country on our minds for Tuesday…

Flowers in the Hair All the Way to San Fran

We awoke Sunday morning 40 minutes south of San Francisco, a town Austin had visited once with his family five years prior and Rach was experiencing for the first time in her life. The drive was nothing to write about, unless you want to hear a story about not being able to find decent coffee in 3 different gas stations before we found the local 7-Eleven. Is this what you want to read here on These Two Lanes? Didn’t think so…

One of our maids of honor in the wedding was Danielle Magamoll, or as those of you at the wedding may refer to her, “the girl who read The Giving Tree during the ceremony.” Anyway, she and her husband, along with her parents, sister and brother-in-law were in SF for the last day of a long family vacation and we were lucky enough to stay with them for a night at the Stanford Court hotel in Chinatown.

We pulled into town, met up with Danielle’s family, and walked a good ¾ mile to the Fisherman’s Wharf to kick off a great day of being tacky tourists. We were all hungry and knew that since we were in San Fran, we needed to down some local food, so we bought some Rice-a-Roni on the street and dove into its deliciousness. Alright, that’s a lie, we actually grabbed soup in sourdough bread bowls, and Austin made a little side trip to a nearby seafood stand to indulge in more wonderful Dungeness crab to go with his chowder/sourdough combo.

The lunch was fantastic, and we were lucky to have some gorgeous 75 degree weather right down on the water, which the locals declared “very hot” for July. We kinda wish these locals spent a summer day in Austin, Texas so they’d stop acting like buffoons over the weather. I mean, Chicago is cold 2/3 of the year and reacts to warm weather better than these guys.

Anyway, we got our tourist on and saw the sea lions over at Pier 39, where we were delighted to watch two rich idiots bring their sailboat in the harbor, drop some friends off, and find themselves unable to get out because the wind kept pushing them into the docks. They brought the Marine Patrol in to save them, although the best part was the look on these guys in their 50s faces, which pretty much said, “all hope we had of looking cool here and possibly picking up some young gold digging touristas has now been thrown completely out the window and we really just need to leave.”

We walked along the water, checking out the old Navy ships and wondering why we hadn’t reserved a spot on the Alcatraz tour. It was great to walk in such perfect weather, and great catching up with friends and enjoying a new place with them.

The girls grabbed some chocolate at the original Ghiradelli’s, while the guys enjoyed a nice Anchor Steam, a local beer that’s everywhere in SF. Then Rachael stole Austin’s beer and unexplainably started chugging it (or he asked her nicely to set up a nice photo with the city in the background).

Then Danielle’s husband, Karson, led a charge to the Golden Gate Bridge, a trip that last only an hour as 30 minutes into the walk through the Golden Gate National Recreation Area we realized the bridge was like 5 miles away. So we turned our sunburned bodies back around and decided it was time for another snack.

Luckily…

San Francisco now has In-N-Out Burger. That’s right, blog readers, it was time for our 4^th trip to In-N-Out, grabbing a couple milkshakes (and one fat ass bearded gentleman may have grabbed a double cheeseburger, too) and getting rejuvenated for the evening.

But we couldn’t walk back to the hotel up those treacherous hills. No, we had to do the trolley. It’s touristy and silly, but damnit, it’s part of the San Fran experience! After waiting an hour (all because of how slow the workers moved, not because there was a long wait for trolleys or anything), we hopped on a trolley. Rach and Austin stood on the outside, at the front of the trolley, and of course, Austin couldn’t stop singing “Everywhere You Look,” or as it’s known to the mainstream, “the Full House theme song.”

Dinner was all about Chinatown. We were staying there, it’s the biggest Chinatown in the country (completely pulling that out of the wazoo, but doubt there’s a larger Chinatown because that thing is huge), and we were hungry.

(Note: I realize the blog makes it sound like all we did was eat 3 times in SF, but walking around took forever and was burning massive amounts of calories. I swear, we weren’t just eating all day. I swear, not this day, at least…)

Anyway, the food was great (Rachel Ray had been there, of course it’d be great!) and we had a blast joking around throughout the meal. The best part was when the fortune cookies came out and we were told about a funny little thing to do when reading a fortune cookie. After you read whatever is put on the paper inside the cookie, add “…in bed.” We were rolling around laughing once we started adding it to each fortune.

“You will find an inner peace this weekend with a longtime friend.”

“…IN BED!”

Admit it, you can’t wait to get Chinese and try it out yourself! Or you’ve been doing it your whole life and we are crazy late to this…

Regardless, we smoked some fantastic cigars, drank some beer/wine/whiskey, and laughed the night away after dinner. It was another awesome day in an awesome city, with awesome friends.

News and Notes from the Road

Before this post, each blog entry was devoted to a day.  However, there’s little anecdotes about traveling that just don’t seem to make it on the blog that should.  Also, I have a group of friends sending the “what type of snacks are you eating” comments, which are 75% sarcastic, but are becoming too consistent not to make some mention of.

So we’ve decided to add a no pics, no nonsense post of the little ins and outs you wouldn’t know otherwise about road tripping across the country…

1.    The iPhone is a saving grace.  It handles all of our directions, finds the best tasting, cheapest costing food in the towns we’re traveling to.  We have to charge the thing in the car because it gets used so many hours in a day, regardless of whether we’re chilling in LA or traveling 600 miles.

2.    Hotwire is awesome!  About a day or two before we know where we’ll be staying, we hop onto Hotwire’s webpage and find crazy cheap deals.  After we got screwed paying $75 in a Motel 6 in Las Cruces, New Mexico, we decided that was the last time we got one pulled over on us.  And it has been…

3.    Snacks are as follows – Rach is into Haribo Gold Bears gummy bears, fresh fruit, Chex Mix, and Emerald Cocoa Roast Almonds, and Austin tries a new beef jerky in every town, eats David’s sunflower seeds (much better than Planter’s), and if he can get his hands on a Kettle brand potato chip, he goes after it, especially if they have the 3-Cheese Tuscan option.

4.    Weekends are lame for us.  Everything is expensive on the weekends – hotels, bars, restaurants, etc.  We’ve become that college kid that stays in on the weekend and takes advantage of the $0.25 beer nights on a Tuesday.  Thus, how we wrote 6 blog posts over a nice Friday-Saturday period.

5.    The convertible is loud as hell – even with the top up – but it was made for the PCH.  All the shit we’ve gone through with it, well worth it along Hwy 1.

6.    Cheap hotels have shitty “continental” breakfasts.  We’ve been nailing gas station coffee, mostly because they attempt to be gourmet for cheap, and Austin has an easy time sneaking his coffee into a 32 inch fountain drink so he can enjoy it on ice.

7.    Sportscenter on the west coast ends at 12 pacific time.  This would really suck if it wasn’t July and there was actually something worth watching on ESPN.

8.    The honeymoon beard is an interesting concept for Austin.  On one hand, it itches and is a huge pain in the ass.  On the other, it is a fun idea that cannot be stopped.  Did (insert tough NHL defensemen whose won a Stanley Cup) stop growing his beard because it itched on his way to the championship?  No f-ing way, which is why Austin will persevere in his quest to offer his wife her dream wedding present – him with unlimited facial hair!

9.    Wi-fi is such an interesting concept. Every hotel has a small problem with theirs, yet all the small crappy hotels in the less populated towns offer it for free and the big town spots either make you pay or use it in the lobby.  Just crappy.

10.    The death of Austin’s phone has resulted in a super-lame twitter page.  We’re trying to change this and get his account on Rach’s phone so we can continue with the great one-liners throughout the trip, but we’re not there yet.

Alright, that’s the current “notes from the road” post, although any questions you may have can be answered on the next “notes from the road” post, which will probably come on our journey back east.