So no post since July 19th! We are the worst bloggers ever. So much has happened. First of all, we left Park City, Utah for Reno, Nevada. So many thanks to The Colten Family (Steve, Laura, Matt, Gabby and cats) for their hospitality and advice.
But first, a few more pics from Park City:
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| Maggie took us on a short hike with great views of the Park City Mountain Resort and the town. |
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| Smoky and Tahoe cuddling in their condo when we left. |
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| We drove through the Bonneville Salt Flats on I-80 before crossing into Nevada. Intense winds. The high speed land record was broke here in the 40s or 50s, can't remember. You could really feel the wind pushing your car around driving on the interstate in this area. |
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| Looked like hail when we first drove through. |
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| Another cool camp site we found on freecampsites.net in Winnemucca, Nevada. |
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| The road in. |
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| Did a short hike the following morning. |
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| We arrive in Reno! |
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| We went to a Reno Aces game where they clobbered Las Vegas. Great stadium! |
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| Matt and Gabby acting up at the Reno Aces game. |
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| Running the bases after a great fireworks show. |
We went on a hike on the Tahoe Rim Trail with the family:
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| While at the Colten house, Misha got a new nickname: Shelby |
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| A view of Lake Tahoe from the trail. |
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| We went for a swim in Lake Tahoe after the hike, very refreshing! |
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| Em at the Brasserie St. James in Reno, great Belgian style beers. |
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| Em repping her new Brasserie St. James shirt outside the brewery. |
We went on a 3 day backpacking trip in the California Sierra Nevada's outside Lake Tahoe in Desolation Wilderness, much of it on the Pacific Crest Trail:
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| Beginning of the trip on the PCT. |
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| First site of Lake Aloha. |
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| Misha jumping around in Lake Aloha. |
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| Em hiking up to Mosquito Pass with Lake Aloha in the background. |
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| The view from Mosquito Pass...luckily there were no mosquitoes. |
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| Clyde Lake just past Mosquito Pass. |
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| We camped at Lake Lois, beautiful alpine lake. |
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| Camp site near Lake Lois. |
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| Lake Lois in the morning. |
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| The view of Lake Aloha from Mosquito Pass. |
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| Camp night 2. |
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| Hammock at camp with a nice view. |
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| Sunset and moon rise from camp. |
Misha's paws got injured on the rocks in the High Sierras so this was the last backpacking trip we did. She's fully recovered now though and eager for backpacking season to come around again. After Desolation Wilderness we went to Chico, CA for a couple days and checked out the original Sierra Nevada brewery:
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| Em at Sierra Nevada on the outdoor patio before the tour. |
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| Misha loves her spot. |
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| Em taking a sample from the fermenter on the private tour we got from Jamie's friend Zach who works there. He was really nice and gave us lots of samples from the fermenters! |
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| Em in the brew house. |
We went back to Reno for a couple of days to pick up our suits for job interviews. Somehow we were able to both have interviews on the same day, and we jetted up to Seattle from Reno. We camped in Bend, Oregon along the way.
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| Smith Rock near Bend. |
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| Our first day in the city we both had our interview suits on! |
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| Em received a job offer on the spot. We went to Fremont Brewing to celebrate. |
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| Em and Misha at Golden Gardens Park with a view of the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. |
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| Misha's new spot in the new apartment. |
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| Mariners game. |
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| Puget Sound sunset. |
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| Our camping gear doubled as our furniture for a while until we slowly began picking things up. We've come a long way since this picture was taken! |
After hanging out for about a week in Seattle we finished up the rest of our trip and went back down to Northern California. We stopped in Yakima, WA first, where 77% of the hops in the world are grown.
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| Hop vines. |
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| Misha at Bale Breaker Brewing in Yakima with Cascade hops surrounding. |
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| The hop harvest was getting close. |
We spent some time visiting Emily's friend Erin from Prague. She and her husband Keola live in McKinleyville on the coast of California with little Keiki.
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| Yeah shes pretty cute |
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| Heres all of us together on a hike in Arcata. Except Mishas partner in crime Callie is missing. |
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| Family pic |
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| Disc golf course in the redwoods. Keola pushed the stroller up and over some pretty big roots and steep paths so we could play this course. |
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| Keiki had us all belly laughing at the Mexican restaurant. She does this great bit with a lime. |
We left McKinnleyville to drive down the coast towards Santa Rosa. It was a stunning drive with plenty of excuses to stop the car and explore.
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| Em and Misha in Mendocino. |
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| We saw dolphins swimming in this cove! |
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| Wall Of Beer at Woodfour Brewing Company |
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| Wolfdog checked another brewery off her list. What a complex palate she has! |
Unfortunately the driver side window broke in The Emancipator. We had to do a makeshift repair job as well as bring all our gear into our motel each night so we wouldn't get robbed. Looking back we really lucked out since this and the occasional issue with the alarm going off in the middle of the night were our only vehicle setbacks over 10,000 miles!
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| The wounded Emancipator |
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| John at Russian River Brewing. |
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| Bartender at Russian River Brewing. |
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| The final campsite near Ashland, Oregon. It was very hazy from the wild fires that day. We totaled it up and spent 66 nights in the tent this spring/summer. |
Portland was our final stop before returning to Seattle where we caught up with Jamie, Johns cousin, and her family.
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| Ellie, Jamie and John at Multnomah Falls. Avery was born a couple months later! |
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| Johns most precious cargo yet! |
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| Great meatballs at the Italian Festival! |
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| You can't go to Portland for the first time and not hit up this place. We went around 7am on a Saturday so we cruised right in. |
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| John skated the famous Burnside Skatepark underneath the Burnside Bridge in Portland. |
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| While Misha and I ate donuts and drank coffee! |
And so we headed back to Seattle to start the next chapter of our lives. Looking back on everything we did last summer really strikes me as an amazing experience. We will never forget it. Our plan is to continue The Great Western Adventure in the PNW now, exploring this amazing landscape by traveling, hiking and skiing as much as possible. For now, though, we've got to work a little bit.
Acknowledgements and stats to come...
