The Northwest

Hello my friends. I hope you are all well and enjoying the summer weather. I'm in Portland right now, leaving this afternoon to head to the Oregon coast, then heading down through the Redwood Nat'l Forest and ending up in San Fran this weekend for a concert.

I spent about 4 days in Seattle and had a great time. Thats a really cool city and the weather was perfect. From I-5 South going into downtown you could see so many tiny sailboats on Lake Union that it looked like a collision was inevitable. I checked out the Pike Place market, the REI Flagship store (awesome), various parks, and the Ballard Locks where they control the water levels allowing boats to cross from Puget Sound into Salmon Bay and vice versa.

To leave Seattle and head to the Olympic Peninsula I hopped on a ferry with my bike that shuttled me across. It only cost about $7 and was kind of a cool experience. I spent the next couple of days exploring the peninsula and Olympic Nat'l Park. I stopped in a place called Port Townsend, an active port thats famous for harboring and repairing old wooden boats.

Olympic Nat'l Park is home to an incredible array of ecosystems and climate zones. You have the 8,000 foot glaciated peak of Mt. Olympus, temperate rain forests that receive about 12 feet of rain annually, the rugged coast of the pacific northwest, and all of this is linked together by a system of streams, rivers and lakes. It's a fascinating place, and it pissed rain on me the entire time I was there. I loved it.

I camped on the beach one night and had a great sunset. The next day I was hiking back out to my bike (about a 1 mile walk on the beach) and I came across a group of Japanese tourists. The man with the largest camera looked at me and said "Oh, tough guy." It was hilarious.

From the peninsula I made my way down to Portland. Again I was incredibly lucky with the weather. I stayed with a good high school friend Elizabeth and had the chance to meet some of her friends up here. They're all really cool (as Elizabeth herself is a very cool chick), and I thought one of her friend's, Anna, was particularly cool. So when Anna gets off work today she and I are going to head down the coast and camp out for a couple days. Then I'm off to San Fran and in the final stretch of my journey. Stay tuned for a couple more updates, enjoy the new pics, and I look forward to catching up with you all upon my return. Much love.

Dane

"Keep the shiny side up."

p.s. Pop, glad to hear that the California Sandbag doubles tourney at the Spitfire was a success. I intend to claim my place at the top of the podium when I get home.