her blog

here's a few highlights from our trip to seattle, in no particular order:

1. the neil gaiman & amand palmer show was pretty incredible. they both sang and read and it was a little like watching them on twitter, goofily romantic. it was delightful.
2. pike place market is remarkable and there are so many great restaurants in seattle. it made going to seattle while we are restricting our diet seem like a bad plan. we muddled through, had one really great meal and have a list as long as our arms of restaurants we want to try on later trips. 
3. shawn & i both dropped off stuff at shops in seattle. people of seattle, get your pixel party on at pink gorilla games and find cookoorikoo at tasty, reconstructed seattle and cakespy.
4. we got to hang out with the lovely, rosalie of unanimous craft and her partner in crime, doug. that was fun. we definitely hope to see them more! after all, seattle is not that far!
5. we didn't have plans for thursday night so we decided to try to go see the sharon jones show. but we showed up at the venue to find out that it had sold out since we'd checked an hour earlier. shawn is a pro at buying tickets to sold out shows so started to work his shawn magic. a woman said yes, she had two tickets and we didn't owe her a thing for them. we insisted we buy her and her friend a drink and then we all enjoyed the show. seriously so awesome.
6. i took a very, very long nap in the sunshine whie shawn worked one afternoon. bliss.
7. the jason webley show was so great. i know it got its own blog post but its worth reapeating. if you are unfamilar with jason webley, aquaint yourself. you won't be sorry.
8. seattle is really, really pretty. and really really big. i loved it and i'm glad we live so close but i'm happy to live in portland. 
9. we went to experience music project. the jimi hendrick exhibit was cool. the nirvana exhibit was like taking a little hike through my teenage angst and there was also a horror exhibit. i saw the sign from the slaughtered lamb, of american werewolf in london fame. it was rad. also pretty cool? the scream booth - an almost soundproof photobooth that photographs you as you scream.    
10. i didn't get to see the fremont troll.
11. i guess we'll have to go back.

because i left my camera battery at home.

while shawn took a yoga class with his friend joe, i spent the morning at the conservatory of flowers. i was excited to learn that the wicked plants exhibit was there and did NOT want to miss it. i'm so glad i went. i was greeted by a giant dahlia garden, which was a quiet riot of color. quiet except for the shutters of many, many cameras. 

my head was spinning before i even walked inside. once i was inside, i couldn't have been happier.

to say i was happy would actually be an understatement. i was ecstatic. i picked up shawn after yoga and dragged him back there. i was drunk on photosynthesis. and ideas. SO MANY IDEAS. like this one.

we did it. and we stopped at multnomah falls on the way home.

we experienced something odd today. on past road trips, the drive home was always a bummer. up through BORING southern illinois. the place we were returning to always felt so blah in comparison to where we'd just been. and yes, we've been some truly amazing places on this trip but we were also returning to an incredibly beautiful place. we both said, at the very same moment, "we live someplace pretty." and we do. it was an amazing three weeks but i'm happy to be home. 

today we drove from twin falls to pendleton, oregon. we got a room and then wandered into the prodigal son brewery. we found ourselves a comfy table and settled in for the evening. great beer, good food, a scrabble board and a ms. pac man game. it was the best possible way to end our three weeks on the road. 

we saw so many amazing things, did so much. packed orders out of the back of the car and kept in touch with clients and customers almost the whole time. it was really amazing.

together, shawn & i really do make a bad ass robot.

we had no real plan today. get some breakfast, maybe try to see the great salt lake and then head on out. we weren't feeling it. but we also weren't cranky like yesterday. 

so, we got up and i found a place for breakfast: ruth's diner. it was delicious. breakfast came with these giant biscuits, "mile-high biscuits." they were light and fluffy and moist and OH MY GOD GOOD. 

we then set out to get a view of the lake. and google told me that if we cut through a neighboorhood we were near, there was a causeway to antelope state park. we ended up spending the entire day there. it was beautiful. we saw a falcon, bison, antelope and many other birds. it was a perfect day together.

but wait, there's more...

the route to twin falls was mostly interstate, which we'd been avoiding. less to see. but shawn figured out a route that was a little out of the way but would give us a solid block of non-interstate driving during the magic hour. we made frequent stops for pictures. deer, cows, horses, run down stables, shacks, and this handsome and sort of terrifying fellow pictured above. 

we pulled to the side of the road and snapped a picture. he flew to another post. we followed him. he flew to another post. we followed him. and he then humored me by allowing me to take his picture for a good ten minutes. he was beautiful and fierce and knew it. eventually he flew away but i spent our time together in total disbelief. i had won the lottery. seriously. he looked me straight in the eye and just let me snap away. i'm getting chills just thinking about it. corny but true.

oh, and after a great deal of searching and comparing photos, i've concluded he's a red-tailed hawk. 

i kind of love my life.

more pictures of him and my most magic magic hour are here.

today was kind of rough. we were in the car forever and got a little snippy with one another. which, we've gone EIGHTEEN DAYS without doing so, i guess you could say we were due. shawn was sick of driving, wasn't excited about salt lake city, and wanted to stay at arches national park. i too was not terribly excited about salt lake city but NEEDED to for our car to get closer to home. also, my camera battery died which made me extra pouty. oh, and i was pms-ing. so, it was a perfect storm. we could have had a fight to rival the eiffel tower battle of 2003. but we didn't. we just got a little cranky, turned on ben folds and moved on. by the time we checked into our hotel and had dinner, we were totally fine. 

and we'll need to go back to arches. it was incredible.

the trip is winding down. we're starting to make our way home. today was our last planned stop - in grand junction, colorado. we stopped to visit a friend of shawn's dad. we called him after we'd taken a nap and he picked us up at our hotel and whisked us off to colorado monument national park. we drove around the entire park, stopping to take in the the views and snap a few pictures along the way. we talked a lot about shawn's dad and laughed a great deal. it was pretty perfect. 

tomorrow we are continuing on to moab and then maybe salt lake city, then boise, then home... 

and then i get to pack up and leave again, but that's a story for another day.

we got an early start today and drove and drove. and then drove some more.

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we actually ended up driving far longer than we'd planned. we kind of forgot that it was memorial day weekend and that hotel rooms would be scarce. the first open room near where we'd wanted to end up was in del norte, colorado, 100 or so miles farther than we'd planned on driving.

but, we saw so many incredible things and took many, many pictures. 

there were two completely amazing things we saw that i didn't even attempt pictures of:

#1 - a large-ish buck, standing a top a pile of boulders. it looked completely unreal and 100% regal. it was beautiful.

#2 - we were driving along side a large cow pasture. we could see that the cows looked unsettled and then we saw something large and black, running. at first we thought it was a calf who'd gotten away from the group. after a few seconds i realized that no, in fact it was A BABY BEAR. a baby bear was running away from the cows. it was AWESOME.

pictures couldn't even touch these two moments. i'm certain that when i close my eyes to go to sleep i can conjure the memory of either of these moments. i'm sure i'll be able to do that for the rest of my life. sometimes you just don't need the picture. and sometimes, you need the picture so that you know you aren't completely losing your mind.

and there's even more pictures here.

drove all day. took LOTS of pictures. and someday soon i'll be well rested enough to write a proper blog post. right now all i want is a bean and potato taco and bed.