Day 125 - 28 Oct '23 - Eureka to Grants Pass. It was a slightly chilly start to the day at just 7°C, but we were cosy warm in our remotely-started, heated-seats car!
This morning we drove past Samoa, and then Trinidad! I know...crazy, right?! We were in a bit of a rush to get to a town called Crescent City, for Dan to find anywhere that was playing the NZ v South Africa rugby World Cup final.
"There's no way I'm missing this game!" he declared.
Starbucks was too small for us to sit in, but the 18-year-old behind the counter recommended an Irish pub nearby (it was one her parents went to). Unfortunately, they weren't showing it, so McDonald's was the winner of the day as they had free wifi and Dan could stream the game.
At half-time, since we had all finished eating and drinking some time before then, we jumped shipped to Walmart. They also had free wifi!
The kids and I went inside and tried to do some shopping (Alex needs some new trackpants, but the sizes are all wrong for him), while Dan stayed in the carpark to watch the second half.
When the game had finally finished (NZ 11-12 RSA), we carried on our drive through some beautiful pine forests along the coastline, then crossed into Oregon.
"Ooh look!" I suddenly squealed, "it's Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox!"
We had accommodation booked in a town called Grants Pass, and when we got there, we were told we could get free access to a nearby fitness centre's pool, as their own pool was closed for the season.
It was great to be back swimming laps, although it turned out I was rather unfit, ha ha ha! Also, my calves (the left one in particular) were not very happy AT ALL with my decision.
At dinner time, Alex and I were still full from our horrible Maccas, so only Dan and Abi had something to eat. Saved us some money!
Day 126 - 29 Oct '23 - Grants Pass to Portland. Brrrr, 0°C this morning, and a frost on the car! The smell in the air was a deliciously fresh one; winter here we come!
Our drive today was through more beautiful countryside and trees and hills.
"Look Nic, mountains, trees, a river..." Dan said, as he fiddled with the navigation map, referring to my ideal place to live.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Looking to see where the sea is." (Referring to his requirement).
"Well, California wasn't too far away!"
The temperature on our drive didn't climb higher than 13°C, and the wind was bitingly cold. Conversely, there were weather alerts for forest fires due to the extreme dryness, with the wind potentially making them worse.
We stayed in a cute little bungalow, with the slippiest wooden floors we've ever experienced! No sooner had we stepped inside (and I mean literally stepped inside) than Abi had fallen over, then Alex a little while later. It was quite treacherous; the owners had clearly polished the floor within an inch of it's life!
Once again, we were in a house, enjoying space. And central heating! And a kitchen we could cook dinner in!
Day 127 - 30 Oct '23 - Portland. The wind hadn't dissipated overnight, so it kept the chill in the air. We were toasty warm in the house thanks to the heating, but when we got out the car in town, we certainly felt the difference; I'll need to dig out Abi's jacket and my jumper!
We went to the middle of town, to the Pioneer Courthouse Square, to see the weather machine there. This was a bronze sculpture that at noon each day, plays a fanfare and sprays some mist, then a golden emblem displayed what the weather would be for the next 24 hours. It was quite amusing, and I admit to letting out a chuckle at the trumpets.
After this, we went to the world's smallest public park, Mill Ends Park. It was a grand total of 452 square inches, and had a fabulous history!
We went for a walk along the waterway, then drove to a supermarket for dinner supplies. We decided to treat ourselves to some steak for tea, as a singular piece of seasoned fillet was on sale for $4USD! A piece of beef more substantial than mince, isn't something we've been able to afford on our trip. This was still quite expensive, as we bought five of them, but it was much cheaper than any other steak there. By comparison, other singular pieces of skirt steak were around $12USD each, and I spotted some small pieces of ribeye steak from New Zealand, and it was $15USD!
The rest of our day was spent on the couch watching movies and chilling out in the warmth, while Dan did some work on his computer. Portland was a nice city to visit, despite the numerous tents of homeless people along the streets, but there wasn't much else we were wanting to do here; we decided to save our spending money for other activities in Seattle.
Day 128 - 31 Oct '23 - Portland to Seattle. Hallowe'en! Thank heavens, as Abi has been our daily calendar reminder for the last six weeks!!
We had a slow start to the day; Dan had work to do, and I was in no mood to get out of bed, as I'd had a rubbish sleep due to the central heating system that decided 6am was the perfect time to heat the house up to 20°C!
On our route we drove to Mt St Helen's, the infamous volcano that erupted on 18 May 1980. The visitor centre had an amazing video cataloguing the preceding earthquakes and eruptions that lasted for two months, then footage from the disaster, including some timelapse photography of the side of the mountain collapsing and some before and after photos.
There was also a brilliant display of photographs, a piece of blast-shattered tree, and a model of the worst volcano eruptions on record. Mt St Helen's ejected 1 cubic mile of material; by comparison, Mt Vesuvius (of Pompeii fame) ejected 9 cubic miles, and in 1815 the eruption of Mt Tambora in Indonesia was 10 cubic miles, and caused 'the year of no summer'.
We drove further up the road to get a better view of the volcano and it's missing side. As we got closer, it really hit us how terrible the eruption must have been, to have enough force to blow out the side of a mountain and all the trees in the surrounding area to a distance of 14.8 miles.
We'd read the stories about two photographers and a volcanologist who were variously 6-8 miles away and thought they were safe, only to have just enough time to make a short radio message before their cars were covered.
"And New Zealand insists of having a ski field on an active volcano!" Dan pointed out.
"Hmmm," I agreed. "There's no ski field on Mt St Helen's."
The eruption deposited an average of 46m of mud and debris on the valley, instantly changing the landscape, so much so that helicopter pilots the next day couldn't recognise the landmarks or read their maps. The eruption also caused the ultimate formation of two new lakes, as well as change the height and structure of the existing one.
It really was mind blowing, and if that was the destructive power of 1 cubic mile, the volcanoes that spewed more than that are unfathomable. And just to make matters worse, scientists have said that when Mt St Helen's blows again it will be far more destructive; this is because the lava domes at the top of the crater are much larger, so will have a much greater force bottled up behind them.
After we had some lunch, we got back on the road a lot later than ideal at 3pm, given we still had a two-and-a-half hour drive to Seattle, and Hallowe'en trick-or-treating was 5-8pm.
The kids got changed into their Hallowe'en costumes in the car, and after a fruitless stop at a dollar store for some glitter hairspray for Abi (they'd sold out), we got to our house just half an hour after the trick-or-treating started.
"Bye Dan, we'll see you later!"
I'd managed to get a map from a local community group, and the street we were staying on was right in the middle of it all!
The very first stop, we were all gobsmacked as the house owner put a HANDFUL of sweets in each kid's bag. Then the next house did the same, and the one after that! After just five house, Alex and Abi had more sweets and chocolate bars than they'd ever had on any trick-or-treating done in New Zealand. And they weren't all fun-sized ones, but lots were full size! There was even one house offering beers to the adults!!
So many houses had also decorated, and not only their garden, but out onto the street as well!
After just half an hour or so, we had only done one of the three streets, and their bags were half full of sweets. We popped quickly back to our house to empty them, and then went back out to do another street. I did feel like we may have been a bit greedy, but when I saw the other kids with bulging sacks and the adults STILL putting handfuls of sweets in, I didn't feel so bad.
Alex and Abi were very good at telling jokes at the houses, and incredibly, the owners would then given them more sweets. By the time we'd done most of the second street, I pulled the pin; once again their bags were more than half full.
"This is just ridiculous," I said. "You're not going to be able to eat all this!"
"Yeah, we've got heaps, let's go home now," Alex and Abi agreed.
We got back to the house and then I spent some time sorting through Abigail's sweets to filter out the non-gluten-free ones. Alex and Abi then did a little bit of trading, and Dan and I also ended up with a bag full of the ones Abi couldn't eat and the ones neither kid wanted.
Even after all of that, they still had enough sweets each to have 10 pieces a day for the next two weeks!! America sure knows how to go overboard with their Hallowe'en handouts... (It's also a far cry from the monkey nuts and mandarins, with the occasional coin or chocolate, we would get as kids!).
Day 129 - 1 Nov '23 - Seattle sightseeing. It was overcast and chilly when we left the house to head into the city, so we were all rugged up and warm, including Abi who was wearing her jacket for the first time. Scratch that, excluding Abi, who it turned out was only wearing a tshirt under her jacket, and walked around with her arms folded because she was cold.
We went to the well-known Space Needle as our first stop, which was next to a pretty cool playground that even had a labyrinth!
The park was also right beside the Museum of Pop Culture, a fantastical building designed by Frank Gehry.
We decided against going up the Needle due to the cost, and instead enjoyed a much cheaper monorail trip to a different part of town. From there, we walked through the Pike Place Market, and tasted some delicious mangoes from India and wild Alaskan smoked salmon (that worked out to be $182ND/kg, so stayed where it was on the shelf). In fact, all the seafood, which looked amazing, was quite expensive when converted. (We found these signs to be quite amusing...!)
We got the monorail back to the Space Needle, and then drove to the nearby Kerry Park, which afforded us a lovely view of the Seattle skyline. It was a shame it was so overcast and hazy, as I'm sure it would look even better on a clear day.
After stopping briefly at a supermarket for some 4pm lunch/dinner supplies, we headed back to our apartment. It had been spitting as we left the city, and the weather report threatens rain tonight and the next two days. Hopefully it changes, so we can see more of Seattle in the next two days.
The kids ate more of their sweets for supper (well, why not?), and we watched nature shows before they went to bed. I even indulged in a bath!
Day 130 - 2 Nov '23 - Seattle, day two. How much would you spend for peace of mind? Turns out, in America (for the uninsured and tourists), that figure is $250. That's $250USD. Two weeks ago, I had a lump appear in my left armpit. It was hard, and sore, and a bit red. After putting up with it for a few days, it went away, and I thought that was the end of it.
Yesterday morning, the lump was suddenly back: just as red, slightly larger, just as painful, and had a smaller friend joining it. Naturally, I then spent all day and most of last night consulting with Doctor Google, and had determined I either had lymphoma or was riddled with an undiagnosed cancer that had finally presented in my axillary lymph nodes.
"Why don't you go and see a doctor?" Dan suggested yesterday.
"Because they're expensive, so I'll wait until we get to the UK, when there is a slight chance I could get it for free."
But this morning, my imagination sent me into a self-pitying spiral of doom, and Dan and I spent almost two hours on the internet, trying to find some form of medical centre I could walk in to and not haemorrhage money.
"I'll just wait til the UK," I mumbled, when my searches weren't yielding positive results.
"I could always send you back to New Zealand?" Dan asked.
"Don't be ridiculous, I'm not going to spend thousands of dollars to get a $60 doctor's visit!"
"Well, what do you want to do?"
"I don't know! I mean, never mind the cost to see the GP, but then there's blood tests, and if I need a lymph node biopsy, that's $26,000USD!!"
"Why don't you see a GP first, before jumping ahead?"
"Hmm, maybe I should see a GP first."
So, at 1:30pm, I was in the waiting room of a walk-in clinic that charged me $250USD to see the doctor.
"Oh, that's an abscess," she said as soon as I took off my shirt.
"It couldn't be anything else?" I asked, obviously concerned she hadn't read the same Doctor Google articles that I had.
"Nope, that's an abscess. Here's your lymph nodes," as she felt in a different place, "and they're fine."
"So what do I do about it?"
"If it was bigger, I'd open it up and squeeze it out. But that hurts like hell and it's not big enough for me to do anything with anyway, so just put a hot compress on it for 20 minutes an hour, and have 800mg of ibuprofen three times a day. And drink two litres of water as ibuprofen affects your kidneys."
Two litres of water A DAY?! I'd be lucky if I drank 500ml most days.
"Is there anything I should look out for?"
"Give it a week. If it gets bigger, then go and see another GP from our clinic and they can open it up. We can't do anything until it's around 3-5cm."
"Well, that should make you feel happier?" Dan asked with a smile when we were back in the car.
"Yes, but it just cost you $500 NZD!"
"No, it cost us $500, and isn't it worth it for peace of mind? You would just have stewed and sulked for two weeks before we got to the UK. Now you can do something about it."
"Yes. You're right."
"It makes you wonder what the people who live in America do, if you don't have insurance!"
"And that was just the price for the GP, never mind tests or surgeries!"
After our very expensive 15 minutes, we went for a quick drive to see the Fremont Troll. This was a sculpture built under a bridge, specifically created to fill up a space used by druggies and homeless.
He was huge, and in one of his hands was a real VW Beetle! Recently, homeless had tried to move back in, so a beautification project was underway, with extensive planting all around and behind him.
We didn't have anything else to do today, so after nipping in to a pharmacy to buy a heat pack, we headed back to the apartment and I started my hot compress regime.
"Wow, look at this funny red line!" I cried, as I showed Dan.
"That looks good, and hopefully that's the puss being absorbed."
"Yes."
"Although I wouldn't put it past you to have burned yourself."
"No."
Once the kids had gone to bed, Dan and I watched a really interesting documentary on Netflix called Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones.
We can highly recommend it! Not only was the host talking about the diets the people were on (and I'm not talking 'diets' but actually what they eat), but he had also investigated how they live. It was quite an eye-opener; the diets weren't anything we didn't know already (no meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, eat until only 80% full), but he had convinced entire cities to change how they did things based on his research, and this meant people there were living longer.
Day 131 - 3 Nov '23 - Seattle, day three. We were rudely awoken at 2am by the upstairs neighbour coming home, stomping through the house, and playing rather loud music.
"Ooh, I recognise that one," as I hummed along to the tune until I could remember the words of Paralyzer by Finger Eleven.
"Doesn't matter," said Dan, as the track was cut short, and a new one started. "They didn't like it."
After 20 minutes of some questionable music choices we'd had enough, so I thumped the ceiling, and the music was turned down; it didn't stop until 3am. We sent a message to the accommodation host.
At 5am it started up again. What joy! We sent another message to the host after another 40 minutes.
At 7:30am, it finally went silent, and we got some more sleep. We sent a third message to the host, to which he replied with an apology, and told us he'd sent a message to the neighbours. Hopefully it doesn't happen again tonight.
This morning we went to the Bellevue Botanical Garden. Luckily for us, following on from yesterday's expense, it was free!
It wasn't a very big garden compared to others we have recently been to, but this one was decorating for their annual Garden of Lights later in the month, and we were lucky to get a sneak (and free) preview.
Volunteers started in spring, we were told, creating wire models of various plants and flowers, then wrapping them in lights.
These 'plants' were then dotted around the garden, and looked amazing! There were hyacinths, sunflowers, gladioli, lilies, and water reeds, to name a few.
It was a shame we wouldn't be able to see the full effect, when they were all 'planted' and on display at night.
We headed back into town after that, to see the Seattle Public Library. This was an 11 storey architectural marvel of steel and glass, built in crazy angles.
We went inside to the top and made our way down the book spirals, to a Red Hall (seemingly there for no reason other than to be a red hall), and then to the children's section for the kids to read for a bit.
The whole place was incredible, with soooo many books, and pieces of art, everywhere!
In fact, Seattle had a LOT of phenomenal architecture, from the Amazon office Spheres (where their staff go for lunch and meetings, surrounded by 40,000 plants)...
...to a random building with an impossible structure of a skyscraper balanced on top of a concave base!
There were also glass buildings that looked like waves, and one that sloped inwards and outwards every few storeys. It must be an amazing city to study as an architect!
After that, we went to Walmart for dinner supplies, then went back to the apartment for another late lunch. We also made a short walk to a nearby airport and Boeing centre, where we could see another of the nearby volcanoes, Mt Rainier.
Dan spent the rest of the afternoon investigating rental cars for our time in the UK, while I looked at our next few days of accommodation (which will be our last in the States before heading back to Canada in a week).
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