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As planned-out as we were for the destinations on our way to Seattle, we were just as much un-organized for the final destination. We started out at the visitor’s center (i.e. Seattle Visitor’s and Convention Bureau) which was hosting the Penny Arcade 2010 Expo at the time. Thankfully, it wasn’t hard to into the convention’s lobby and get some vital information toward Pike Place, the Space Needle and other such touristy areas. Though both tourist spots were like any other regular tourist spot: pricy and over-glamorized, they did open up the opportunity for several really great scenic and people-watching pictures around the 1st Starbucks, downtown Seattle, and the food/flower market.

After that, we ate some fantastic brunch at Tillikum Cafe. The egg and potato plate I got was particularly great. It came with seasoned eggs with some light cilantro, the potatoes were crisped, the ketchup was home-made, a thin sausage pattie, sun-dried tomato pesto on the side and italian bread. The next time I’m in Seattle, this is definitely going to be a stop.

The rest of the day consisted of going to the highest point in Seattle, the Columbia Center. Unfortunately, as the tourists we are, we ended up in the wrong building (trust me its confusing as it’s part of a number of buildings connected together!). Though the shots still ended up great of Qwest Field.

Lastly, don’t go to Aura nightclub.

Gotta say, that town is something else. I don’t think I can fit all the stuff we did into one tidy blog post, but here’s the laundry list of places worthwhile to check out (and the reasons associated to why its worth a visit):

• Food Carts: We stopped by the ones on 3rd and Washington and ate at “Built to Grill”. Best chicken panini I’ve ever had (they use home-made sun-dried tomatoes with a special set of spices to them too). I really wish
• Japanese Garden: If you’re going to be a tourist, you might as well go all the way and end up here. There’s some great picture taking opportunities all over the place.
• Voodoo Doughnuts: Just pure ridiculousness. I’m pretty sure I got diabetes after one visit there and don’t regret it. One thing to remember, don’t order the $4 doughnuts unless you know what you see what it is. Oh, also, there’s something to be said for the place to have a line out their door at 4pm on a Thursday.
• Powell’s Bookstore: Tourist stop! Largest bookstore in the world with micro-cultures within each floor (there’s 5 floors where each could be its own bookstore really).
• 3D Art History Museum: You’re going to think it’s some lame place when you first get in there, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised once you start looking a lot more into it. The people who take care of it are incredibly passionate about the art and it carries over to their museum. Did you know the ViewMaster was headquartered in Portland before it got shipped overseas.

Oh, and we got to Seattle (3 hour drive from Portland). 2 days! Good times.

We drove a little over 550 miles today and got to Mount Shasta, Medford and Eugene (Oregon). Mount Shasta was worth the stop! Not only was it close to the I-5, but the people there are really courteous. We hopped by the visitor’s center to got some hints on trails to hike around the area (ultimately choosing the Bunny Flat Trail) and took the 11 mile drive up the mountain (we got to an elevation of about 11,300 feet). For a really easy trail, the thin air was really rough and we didn’t go too far. Nevertheless, the mountain really offers some great picture taking opportunities and we got several. I’d recommend the trail to anyone that ends up in Mount Shasta for a bit because the view is well worth it. Past that though, there isn’t much else around Mount Shasta. The town has a few lunch and bar spots, but it’s mostly for out-of-towners rather than local folk. We booked it out of town and made it to Medford, Oregon for dinner.

The AAA tour book offered us Porter’s Dining at the Depot as a primo destination for dinner and boy…that book disappointed. The place was a “historic landmark”, but its food wasn’t so great. Our waiter was a good guy, but we just got tired of the flies and decently-prepared-but-not-for-their-price steaks and wine. On a side note, Yelp did give it a 3 star review which means that the sentiment is shared (I mean we are talking about a $50-a-meal restaurant here). Medford didn’t seem like the right place to stop, so we continued on another 3 hours to Medford and stayed at a Best Western there in order to get extra time in Portland (only an hour and half away!) tomorrow.

Missed Opportunities:
* The Olive Hut
* Jacksonville, OR – Home of Bruce Campbell

One line review: Worth a stop if it’s a short hop on your way to do other things in Santa Cruz.

The trip took 45 minutes around the SC Hills and through some criss-crossing roads after the entrance. The tour lasted 30-45 minutes around a wooden house up a slope that was worth the $5 we spent on ticket price. There were some pictures taken, a bumper sticker and a fun little day trip to SC. I’d suggest to anyone going there to plan out some other things to do in Santa Cruz because there’s definitely not enough content there to spend a full day on.

With that said, the tour was fun and definitely enjoyable as the tour guide tried her best to crack some well-timed and terribly lame (which made it better) humor to keep the audience interested during the lulls. We went up a steep slope and into a shack that was at the center of the magnetic powers of the area and then back down the slope. Past the made-for-children stories, there wasn’t much else to do other than take pictures with the oddity of surrounding area on your visual senses. Here’s some pics from the trip and with out cool bumper stickers (mine now resides on my work laptop…you know all appropriately and everything).

A detox from a trip to Mexico really only consists of three things: getting acclimated to non-meat engorged food, souvenirs and lots of rest; and that’s what we did on our last day on the trip. Vy and I checked out the local wafflehouse to get our brunch on. Most of it was good, but the best part about the restaurant was probably the fact that, dare I say it, it wasn’t classic Mexican food. That’s not to say waffles are anywhere near healthy, especially the ones made in Mexico, but it was definitely better than the Meat-fest we’d been pigging out on for the past week.

The second part of the detox had us going back to the ever-infamous “Artisan Market” where to make a boring story short, resulted in 14 shot glasses for each of us and an elated Vy. I say elated because the poor guy spent a 1/2 hour trying to barter for the first time and ended up paying close to the original amount he started bartering with. The day got a lot more eventful from then on though.

The flight over was definitely rough between Puerto Vallarta and Dallas Fort Worth as it took as 1/2 an hour to get to the airport (it had taken us way less than that to leave it at the beginning of the trip) and it would have been more if it wasn’t for our taxi cab driver who was apparently training to become a driver in the next Transporter movie. There was one specific moment where he blatantly ran through a red light (the cars had just finished going through the intersection from our sides) and zoomed past a pedestrian on that same intersection. The fun times didn’t stop there as even at the airport, boarding ended up becoming a problem as customs and security were even worse than the US’ post 9/11. Each luggage bag, even the ones being checked in, were opened and inspected very thoroughly for every person in line.Not to sound redundant, but it didn’t end there.

The worst part about the flight over was actually when we got into Dallas Forth Worth. Our flight had been a 1/2 hour late and most of the people on the plane had connecting flights departing 40 minutes after we had landed, including ourselves. Unfortunately, American Airlines didn’t do any of us any favors as everyone had to rush out of the plane, grab their checked in luggage, drop them off to a check-in spot again and then run over to a gate whose whereabouts were unknown. Vy and I literally ran our ourselves between two terminals for a good 20 minutes, stopped at a McDonalds since we hadn’t had any food since brunch [it was 9:30pm at this point], and got to the terminal right when boarding had begun. You gotta laugh about the state of the airline industry including the recession when stuff like this happens. Anyways, a really fun trip. I’d love to go back again, just not until my stomach settles from all those tacos.