(We Were Not) Sleepless in Seattle

Hello, Everyone!

We're back on the road and heading North!  This evening we crossed the border and are currently staying at a hotel in Vancouver.  The border crossing today actually led to Tammy's fun fact, which is that pepper spray is illegal in Canada.  This makes very little sense to us, since it seems like the only reason you would carry pepper spray is for defensive purposes, and it is not fatal; but, nonetheless, Tammy is now pepper-sprayless.  BUT, fear not, faithful readers, for we have bear spray canisters already waiting for us in Anchorage.

(NOTE: after further research, it appears that bear spray and dog spray ARE legal in Canada, and pepper spray is not.  This is getting weirder by the minute).

With that said, here's what we did this weekend!

Tammy went to a wedding in Atlanta.  She says it was great getting to see some of her old sorority sisters.  She is also the world's worst rememberer when it comes to taking pictures (she never remembers to do so), and thus she did not to use the camera that Steve lent her.  (Tammy argues that she took one blurry photo, and therefore the prior sentence is a lie).  Nonetheless, there are no pictures of Atlanta.  You can leave comments about how disappointed you are if you wish.

Steve went to Portland to visit his good friend, Alexis.  It was an awesome visit, and she did an amazing job showing him the sites around Oregon.  Highlights included:

Downtown Portland

Rogue Brewing Company, which makes one of Steve's favorite beers: Dead Guy Ale

And, waterfalls!

After meeting back up in Seattle, we explored the great coffee city.  First, we met up and stayed with Tammy's long-time camp friend, Gabe.  He lives in this amazing co-op downtown and has sweet decorations on his bedroom walls, including a HUGE version of Connect 4!

Once we were settled, we did all the typical touristy things, including:

The Space Needle

The first ever Starbucks

Pike Place Market (where they throw the fish)

And the Science Fiction Museum!

We then finished the tour by heading into the Fisherman's wharf.  Tammy has developed a great affinity for boats after watching the show "Deadliest Catch."  For those of you who don't know anything about the show, it is a reality show on Discovery Channel that follows a few crab-fishing boats as they go out onto the coasts of Alaska (http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/deadliest-catch/).  It turns out that the boats dock in Seattle when not in season/use, so Tammy wanted to check out the wharf.  She got super-excited when we came across these . . . the pods used on boats of this type to catch the crabs.

Much to Tammy's excitement, we then came across the boat THE WIZARD!  It is one of the main boats used on Deadliest Catch, and she got pretty excited about it.  Really excited.  Like, jumping around the streets excited.  Some Seattlans (is that what they're called?!) got really scared by it.  Nonetheless, she was pretty happy for the rest of the evening.

Here's the boat in action:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxNhOsVpfyk.

So, that's all for now.  Tomorrow we'll explore Vancouver, and then continue heading North on the trek to Alaska!  Hope all of your summers are going well!  Let us know what you're up to!