Glacier National Park

Aug 10
We spent Monday driving – a lot. We got up super early to drive the Road-to-the-Sun in Glacier National Park – and afterwards to do the Iceberg Lake hike. The Road-to-the-Sun was a bit disappointing to be honest. The glaciers in GNP are almost completely melted, and there were a lot of roadworks in the park so it took us about 2 hours to drive 50 miles and spent a lot of time sitting at roadwork stops.
The Iceberg Lake hike was nice. So nice in fact that I cant really call it a hike J more like a long walk. And long it was, 5 miles each way! But the path had only a slight incline, not strenuous at all, and plenty of flora to see as you walked along. The walk was made more exciting by the fact that we were in Bear Country and both Black and Grizzly bears frequent the area we were walking through. Everytime I heard a rustle in the undergrowth I wondered was it a bear! And our nervousness was rewarded! About 2 miles along, we met a couple who had turned back because there were reports of a bear with 3 cubs in the area. But we were told there were also plenty of rangers in the vicinity so we pressed on hoping to get a glimpse of them. And we did! Well, we saw the mother bear but not the cubs – see pic below – only about 50ft from her!
We hiked on to Iceberg lake – which was very sad looking indeed. Only a few small pieces of ice on the walls surrounding the lake and some dirty looking ice in the water. My guidebook estimates that all the glaciers in GNP will have melted by 2030 – from what we saw I don't think it will take even that long L.

Washington

Aug 6 -8
We headed for Washington after lunch with Hillary, and arrived at Melissa's friends' house in time for dinner - yes! Melissa's friends are Darcy & Rob – they are great! They put us up for the weekend, fed us ridiculous amounts of amazing food & took us to their family beach house on Whidbey Island where we got to hang out with their gorgeous dog Riley and some of their family. I had Spearhead fish (Darcy's dad Frank described it to me as a sea-going trout), elk spaghetti sauce & elk pepperoni (among other things!) over the course of the weekend.
It was a very relaxing weekend where we did almost absolutely nothing – a great change from all the driving and tearing about we have been doing. Here are some pics of the places & animals I got to see over the weekend. I also had my first taste of Creole food on Sunday night on our way back from Whidbey – the pic of the alligators on the roof is from the restaurant we ate at in Seattle. I liked jambalaya – not such a huge fan of gumbo though.

HOW – Helping Orphans Worldwide

Aug 6
Melissa & I stopped in Portland, Oregon to have lunch with Hillary Brown, co-founder of the charity Helping Orphans Worldwide. I met Hilary in 2007 in Moldova when I volunteered for 2 weeks in an orphanage with Outreach Moldova, an Irish charity. Hilary was there at the time as a volunteer manager and has since set up this charity which is currently focusing on helping orphans in Vietnam.
It is really good luck with my timing in the US that I got to meet Hillary at all because she is moving to Vietnam this month (August) to work full time & be on the ground to ensure the kids are getting all the help the charity can possibly provide to them. We spent a couple of hours with her and it was great to get a firsthand account of the work the charity is doing – Hillary is so passionate about helping children that it's really hard not to volunteer at once! J But I do hope to visit her in Vietnam when I (finally) get to Asia and volunteer with the charity as well. Its not likely to happen in the next 12 months because I wont have a regular job until at least then.
If anyone is interested in Helping Orphans Worldwide – all the information is here: http://www.helpinghow.com/
And here is a video explaining what the charity does. Hillary is very open to questions (and donations of course!) and can provide comprehensive information on any funds donated to HOW.

California to Oregon

Aug 5
This morning it was necessary to put on a cardigan! And socks & shoes! Bit of a shock to the system....
After much discussion, and careful listening to the engine of our car, we decided we had a bigger problem than that of our broken tent pole – when we are driving uphill the car's gearbox grinds as though there is something wrong with the clutch. This only seems to be happening on the small, windy roads of the PCH but we decided to contact the rental company anyway – they advised us that if the car is making a sound that makes us uncomfortable to drive it we can exchange it at one of their other locations – great news. While I was calling the car rental company, Melissa was buying a fishing line and convincing one of the shop assistants in an outdoor store that it would be a good idea to be a good Samaritan and fix our tent pole. So we are sorted again – yeay!

We didn't make many stops today – one at the drive-thru tree in California and one other for me to hug a giant redwood tree – pics later – I still have to get them from Melissa.

Update: After driving 35 miles out of our way in southern Oregon to get to Merford airport to change our car – we were told they didn't have any cars available to exchange with ours. So we are now driving north again towards Eugene & Portland. The plan is to stay in Eugene tonight & drive to Portland tomorrow to pick up a new car and go meet Hillary whom I haven't seen in 3 years since I volunteered in Moldova. Am very excited to hear about Hillary's new project (Helping Orphans Worldwide) in Vietnam working with orphans. But in the meantime – here are pics of the beautiful Oregon sunset as we drive north.

California...California!

Aug 3
We headed north from Vegas to Death Valley – one of the hottest places on earth. The highest recorded temp there is 57C. Our car recorded a respectable 120F or 49C while we were driving through. We just kept praying that nothing would go wrong with the car. Death Valley is also host to the lowest place in the US -282 feet below sea level; the lowest part we got to was -190 feet below sea level. Ridiculously hot, ridiculously barren, how anything survives there is beyond me. See pics below.

After DV, we kept driving north and stopped for the night in a town called Lee Vinings to look for accommodation. This is where things started to go wrong J. All of the motels were full so we had to camp in a not very welcoming Camping & RV Park (it was already 9.30pm when we got there). After putting up the tent in the dark I decided to go do my laundry in the Laundromat on the main street as I was running dangerously low on clean clothes. This was my first experience of a Laundromat – one of the machines I was using just stopped working and didn't drain out the water leaving my underwear floating in sudsy water. After fishing it all out, I had to take my clothes back to the tent dripping wet in a plastic bag because the local diner that owned the Laundromat was closed for the night.
Aug 4
Next morning I got up extra early (6.15am), went to the diner, got my money back and rewashed & dried my clothes. One thing sorted. Then I went back to the campsite where Melissa & I started to take down the tent – and the elastic in one of the poles snapped. Sigh..is anything going to go right today??
After breakfast, we started out for Yosemite National Park. To get there from Lee Vinings we had to cross the Tioga Pass which was incredibly beautiful (and where I met more friendly chipmunks – see below J) at a height of almost 10,000 feet.

After Tioga, we came into Yosemite which was very very pretty but very very crowded. As we are short on time, we had already decided to just drive around the Valley, get a look and then head on toward Hwy 101 & Pacific Coast Highway on the Californian coast. Even driving around Yosemite was difficult – there was so much traffic! But it is incredibly beautiful and it would be a fantastic place to spend some time in low season which is something I would like to do someday. Here are a few pics, including one of Yosemite falls which is the highest waterfall in the US at over 2,400 feet. What did blow me away about Yosemite was the moss growing on the trees there – thick, luxuriant, bright, vibrant green moss – I tried to get pictures of it but as usual I haven't done it justice – see below. To me, it was beautiful.

Once out of Yosemite, we bypassed San Francisco (which we have both visited before) to get to Pacific Coast Highway asap. Driving west across California, first thing that struck me was how HUGE California is! It took us about 4 hours to get to the coast. Second thing was how dry it is – that seems a really stupid thing to say as I write it, but it was such a strange sight east of San Francisco: there are lots of trees which look really green by contrast against really, really dry, scorched bright yellow grass – and it all appeared to be farmland but how any farmers can make a living off that land I cannot imagine.

The PCH north of San Francisco is GORGEOUS but quite cold! J It's the coldest either of us has experienced in a long, long time! But so beautiful and much wilder than the section between LA and San Fran. Our first stop on the PCH was Bodega Bay – where Hitchcock's The Birds was filmed! See from pic below – he didn't have to stretch the truth so far re: the number of birds hanging around this town! ;)

Twisty, windy roads along the coast; driving in & out of tsunami hazard areas, smoky controlled burning areas & misty, foggy forests of Giant Californian redwoods. We drove as far as Fort Bragg and stayed in our most expensive motel to date: USD 76 for a queen room – California is expensive! J But not before stopping in a small harbour restaurant for delicious clam chowder for dinner.