Visiting Uncle Sam – Part 1

Hello everybody,

sorry for the delay, I know I haven’t posted for a while but here it is finally: the first post about my road trip on the US West coast!
Let’s see if it is as successfull as the others, knowing that most of my readers are now busy watching the UEFA Euro 2016 soccer championship 🙂
(I am myself writing this post watching France struggling against Albania)

After a loooooong trip from Bali (23 hours sitting in the plane plus a 5 hours stop in Dubai), I finally land in Seattle where my cousin Natalie picks me up.
I am so happy to see my family again. Last time I was here was 15 years ago: I was still young, fat and stupid. I already hear some people saying that I didn’t change at all 🙂
It will also be a good time for me to recover a bit from the last months in Asia and Pacific.

I am staying at my cousin’s place in Lacey where she’s living with her Husband Sombo and her dog Callie.
The first 2 days are quite relaxed since I’m still struggling a bit with jetlag. We just stay in the Lacey/Olympia area and one afternoon we also do a short visit to my cousin Koon near Seattle.

I am surprised to see how tall his children became. I am now by far the smallest one the pictures 🙂

The Seattle visit starts on the 3rd day with a short walk in West Seattle where we have a nice view on Seattle Downtown. I forgot how everything is bigger in US cities than in Europe and I really enjoy all the space around me.

After a short breakfast, we then go to the top of the Columbia Tower to enjoy an amazing view on the city. The highlights are the football and baseball stadium as well as the numerous sailboats in the bay. We chose to skip the Space Needle as I already went there last time.

The following station is the Pike Market. It is one of the oldest one in USA and is a big business place for local farmers and fishermen.

Not far from there, I also get to see the first Starbucks and another funny touristic place, the Gum Wall, which is a wall completely covered with chewing gum.

The day ends with an underground tour of Seattle, where we hear some interesting stories about seattle, among others how Seattle downtown was reconstructed above the existing houses (which are now underground) after a big fire at the end of the 19th century.

On the next day, I am taking the plane with my uncle Kam to Las Vegas. I am quite excited to discover this famous city where the movie Hang Over took place.
We spend some time playing in the casinos but we also take some breaks from time to time to walk along the central street called the Strip and take a look at the famous hotels (Bellagio, Caesar Palace, Venetian, etc…).

We also go to Fremont Street, which was the old place to be, before everything was moved to the Strip.

Back in Seattle, I spend again time with my family. One afternoon, we make a short trip in the nature to the Snoqualmie waterfalls.
The view is very nice and I am impressed as always by the water volume that flows in front of me.

The weekend after is a special one in USA as monday is Memorial day. Memorial day is a public holiday for remembering the soldiers who died serving in the US armed forces.
On sunday, we make a big barbecue at home where I finally get to try a real Budweiser. To be honest, I’m not really sure if it’s really a beer as it had absolutely no taste 🙂
I also could improve a bit my beer pong skills 🙂

After a long nice night to recover, we take a walk in the afternoon in Tacoma to enjoy the sun on the sea shore. The sun is out and the sky is clear and so we enjoy a very nice view on Mt Rainier.

After almost 10 days in the Seattle area, it is now time for me to start my road trip down the West coast. After a last photo session and a lunch near Tacoma, my uncle and my cousin drop me at Seatac Airport where I pick up my car.

I can now open the miles counter 🙂 : (daily miles 0, cumulated miles 0)

The next stop is in North Seattle where I spend the evening at Torsten’s place, a friend of mine I met at my last work. Torsten left Germany just like me 😉 a few years ago and moved to Seattle with his husband. We enjoy the evening catching up and speaking about my future plans, especially for after my trip.
After a last night in Seattle, I take the road down to Oregon. Before leaving Seattle, I make a last stop at the EMP museum. I have the feeling that this museum was made just for me as the exhibitions are all nerdy: Grunge and Rock with exhibitions about Nirvana and Jimmy Hendrix, Science fiction, Heroic fantasy and a special exhibitions about Indie Games 🙂

The collection of guitars broken by Kurt Cobain after live performances is very cool and I also like reading about the evolution of spaceships and weapons design in the science fiction litterature.

I spend about 2,5 hours in the museum before taking the road to Portland.
(daily miles 22, cumulated miles 22)

The goal for the afternoon is to drive along the Columbia River Gorge.
In the next post, I’ll tell you about my week in Oregon. Stay tuned!