Days 33-39

Napa Valley was wonderful. Despite the earthquake damage in the town of Napa (several shops and entire sections of street were closed down and some buildings had severe structural damage), people were very friendly and businesses were doing their best to serve customers. We went to highly recommended olive oil producer and tasted about 30 different olive and nut oils, as well as 20 different balsamic vinegars and white balsamic vinegars. We couldn't leave without buying a couple bottles of our favorites. Later we hiked out onto a hill that overlooked Napa Valley as the sun set, sharing the abundant beauty only with a few cows that were grazing on the adjacent hill.

The next day we met back up with my Aunt Annette that we had spent time with in southern California. She and her husband had come back home from vacation there were eager to show us their thriving walnut orchard, which we were eager to see. A nearby orchard was harvesting an early variety, and we drove there on quads (which was super fun by itself) to watch the process. Earl explained everything in detail and it was very educational and interesting.

We then went to their house in Paradise, CA, built on a hillside overlooking Chico Valley. What a gorgeous place. It was a treat to watch the sun set from there. Easy to see why they call it Paradise. In the morning, we all set out to go gold mining. We hiked by a man-made waterway called a "flume" that is essentially a small canal which directs water from the natural river to a power plant. We spent the day mining with Earl's equipment in the river, interspersing mining with ample amounts of swimming in the deep, cold, crystal-clear water. What a perfect day it was. I found gold for the first time in my life there, just a couple of small flakes, but it was so exciting! I can see how people get the bug.

On our way back I jumped into the flume and had a blast floating with the current along the spillways carved into the rock and constructed from metal. It was a little freaky when the water disappeared into a tunnel in the side of the mountain. I had to try it, as I was sure that we saw where it came out again. Only 20 feet in, it got pitch black. I floated head-first to add to the freakiness. I extended my arms out to feel ahead of me in case of, well, whatever the hell was in front of me. There was absolutely sound in there, except for the occasional lick of the flowing water on the cave wall somewhere. It felt like I was in there forever, and I started to get worried that this might have been a bad idea, but then I saw a dim light ahead and knew I was good. When I came out I was relieved, but upon exiting the water I noticed that I had leaches all over me! Erica helped me pick every one of those blood-sucking bastards off, about 20 of them. Worth it, though.
Back home we separated the magnetite from the gold and wound up with a couple of good flakes of gold. Maybe 2 bucks worth. More fun than profitable.

Very grateful to Aunt Annette and Earl for the experience.

Next was the Redwoods. We headed for the northern coastline and experienced a crazy weather shift. It went from hot and dry at 95 degrees to cool and damp at 45 degrees in ONE HOUR! When we finally hit the coast it was like we were in a different country. The sand was different, the clouds were ever-present, the trees were huge, and even the waves came in differently. We stopped at some blackberry bushes that I spotted while looking for elk and tasted the fruitiest, sweetest, most delicious wild blackberries I've ever had. Must have been the perfect growing conditions there.

Further up the road was Redwood National Park. We saw many HUGE redwoods along the road on our way there, and I couldn't keep from being hunched over, looking up through the windshield at the unusually big trees. It was evening when we arrived, and when we finally parked and started a short walk into the actual woods, I was spellbound. I mean literally. This forest was so solemn and primordial that it felt as if it was forcing me to take deeper breaths. At times I had to focus on exhaling. I was dizzy with my own smallness in this forest of ancient giants. I could walk only very slowly, and in complete wonder as I approached the first of the ancients, a tree not less than 15 feet wide at the base, disappearing more that 300 feet up into a distant canopy where it mingled with the fog. Neither of us had spoken a word. I slowly met the bark of the tree with my hand and felt one of the ridges of it's bark, which filled my entire hand. I knew that this bark could be a foot thick on a tree this size to protect it from fires, and pondered the things that it must have lived through during it's 1,000 year or more life thus far. Truly a wonder.

As we penetrated further into the woods, I kept getting a deeper and deeper feeling of tranquility. The woods would open up from time to time, allowing us to see across to different groves of redwoods and witness the full length of the species from afar. A redwood viewed from afar appears to be an infallible column of living rock rising out of the ground by itself, with it's random sprays of dark-green needles along it's height appearing as smaller and smaller clouds, as if existing only to indicate the trunk's remarkable feat of altitude.

It was as if we had been transported back to the Mesozoic Era, and I half expected a newly-minted dinosaur to come scurrying through the ferns. We came across an older tree that had been hollowed out by fires and entered it, looking up a hundred feet or more to the still-living core where it still grew to meet the sun. I climbed on the burls and knobs of the trunk and got pretty high above the forest floor before I could look out above the dead wood. I felt like a kid in a playground without borders or limits. Everything was bigger than I was used to, and I reveled in it. I made a small fire to smell the smoke of this place. It was new and intoxicating. I don't think that I could ever spend enough time in a redwood forest.

Before we left the next day we did see a very big elk with antlers that looked like he could shred our car. And we also went to see the "Big Tree" which is 22 feet in diameter and estimated at 1600 years old.

Then it was off to Olympia to meet up with one of my best friends, Brennan Boothby. We met him in the afternoon and he took us around to see some of the local sights. I had never visited him in the four years that since he moved to Olympia, and it was good to see the sights that he had become accustomed to over time. We met up with his girlfriend, Ash which was a pleasure and made a KILLER homemade pizza that night for dinner, with toppings that included apples, fresh garlic, fried sausage, and an ungodly amount of spinach. The apples actually worked perfectly with the pizza. I would do it again any day (actually I want some right now).

The next day we all went to the Olympic National Forest for a short day hike. It was a similar experience to the redwoods to me, seeing the enormous western cedar trees there. I've never seen a cedar tree that big, and I had to get a piece of the bark as a souvenir. We had lunch on a 15-foot tall boulder that sat in the middle of a pristine rushing river with water as clear as the river in Paradise, but colder.

On the way out of the park we stopped by a great cliff-jumping spot on Lake Cushman. Both Ash and I jumped from 20 feet into the clear lake. I ended up swimming around with my goggles for a while, enjoying such water clarity as is difficult to find on the east coast. The air temperature was about 60 degrees, making the water feel warmer than I'm sure it was. Before getting back to Brennan's place we hit up 5 Guys and had a little taste of home.

Next we went to Seattle. We saw the Public Market and got a sample of some alder-smoked king salmon (SOOOOO GOOOOD!) and had a cup of coffee at the first Starbucks store. A very interesting and busy downtown area where I'm sure I could spend $1000 in a few minutes.

Then we visited with the Holdhuses, only a short drive away. Kristian took me out mushroom hunting while Erica and Eunha hung out. It took a long time and we almost lost hope, but we ended up finding about a pound of chanterelles! And I had never had them before, so it was especially special for me. It was a treat to have them fried up back at their house.

We were lucky enough that Kristian could take off work the next day, so we all went out clamming! We managed get 4 different species of shellfish in our bucket: Butter clams, mussels, cockle, and a horse clam, which none of us had had before. We took the ferry back from the island that we clammed on, and it was Erica's first time on a ferry.

Back home Kristian whipped up THE BEST CLAM CHOWDER I HAVE EVER HAD! If any chef claims to be capable of better, I would ONLY believe it when I taste it! You just couldn't get fresher ingredients, and the flavor was indescribably sublime. The kind of food that makes your eyes roll into the back of your head. Maybe he used crack, I don't know. But I do know that afterwards we prepped some garlic wine sauce to steam a huge serving of smaller clams, including the cockle and the horse clam, which we split. And those were to die for. I really feel like we had the full clam experience, and I was full to the bursting point.

The following day we reluctantly left, grateful for the experiences, and headed for Idaho to visit Jade in Rathdrum. Along the way we stopped at Lake Wanatchee for lunch and enjoyed yet another gorgeous lake.

Route 2 from Seattle to Spokane winds along a raging river and is much nicer to drive than the interstate, by the way. It also runs right through a quaint little town called Leavenworth. We stopped there on the Holdhuses recommendation to see the unique Bavarian village. Everything is Bavarian to the max; the architecture, the food, the roads, even a lot of the people! We got a bratwurst and some gelato, which for our highly budgeted trip was a splurge. But we both needed something extra at that point to keep us going on the long drive.

Finally, at 8:30 PM we met Jade at a McDonalds in Spokane. Good to catch up with him and see him in his new habitat. We spent the night at a rest stop in Idaho and today we look forward to meeting his girlfriend and baby girl.

We have officially begun our crawl back east! Now we're looking forward to Canada.