American Northwest - SEATTLE AND MOUNT RAINIER

So we raced to make it to our train from Montanna to Seattle, only to discover that Amtrak, as always, was running two hours late. After an extremely restful night (for a train that is), we awoke to a view of desert and mountains, and wondered if we took a wrong turn and ended up somehow in Nevada. But we weren't. Moral of the story: Washington State is diverse. Back on terra firma and in Seattle, our cabbies managed to get lost en route to our apartment, but eventually we made it.

One word to describe our place in Seattle: Vintage. From the vintage street lamp in the boys' room, to the display case of 20th century video cameras, to the red velvet, movie theatre seats in the living room, to the Texas license plate dustbin, it was definitely a pack rat's heaven.

We determined that vintage is a great aesthetic touch, but some things should never be vintage......

Like our bicycles. Seattle is a great city for biking, brimming with bike lanes and off-road trails. For the next five days, our prime means of transportation was biking. The first day there, we went on a very informative and historical bike tour. At the end of the tour, our guide valiantly attempted to court Diane, proclaiming (as she removed her helmet and shook out her luscious locks) "I love your curls!"

Our hosts (the vintage people), lent us their bikes, which were of course vintage. Biggest problem: no gears no hand brakes no adjusting the seat height up. (Luckily we rented two from Diane's new boyfriend).

Now if decorating their home in all vintage regalia isn't enough, our hosts also own a vintage trailer park mall. For those of you who are too mainstream to know this, they sell vintage clothes out of vintage trailers in the most hipster district in Seattle. There, Aaron and Noah bought a vintage electric razor from the 1960s, and it still works! Meanwhile Rob and Diane realized that their childhoods (and they) are now vintage.

There was a woman we met on our first night who told us the best thing to do in Seattle is "eat eat eat". And boy did we ever! From Kenyan, to Asian fusion, to vegetarian Indian, to upscale bistro, to an Italian meal where every course was a secret until it was on our plate in front of us, every bite was delicious.

Not only should Seattle be known for its great food, but also for its people! Each day, we would meet strangers on our journey who would tell us the best things to do in Seattle. One day we asked a family we met on a street corner for directions to the light rail, and we wound up talking to them for an hour. They told us to take the ferry to Bainbridge island the next day, which we did!

On the last day, we biked out to see the salmon locks (not lox). The Seattleites created a canal and lock system for passing boats, connecting lake Washington to Puget Sound & the Ocean. But up until then, salmon had been using the pre-existing streams to swim to lake Washington to spawn. To let the salmon through, they created a "salmon ladder", so they can swim up the "stairs" to get across the canals.

We were ready to drive off to Mount Ranier, for camping, hiking, and all things physical. Then, right before we left Seattle, Diane pulled her back to the dismay of everyone. One visit to a sweaty chiropractor later, we were on the road to Mount Ranier, which we had been admiring from Seattle. Diane (who's back was still pulled) was a good sport and came on all the rigorous hikes, and participated in all the camping extravaganzas. She fashioned her own walking sticks out of two branches she found on the ground.

We did three very intense hikes, two of which went above the tree line, one of which traversed snow fields, and all of which were between 10-20 km each round trip.

Now we're driving to Portland, and we've only gotten lost once so far!

Some more signs for your reading pleasure. Draw your own conclusions: