The final stretch...

It was with a heavy heart that Matt drove us away from Seattle. He really likes the area and, if he can make it happen, he wants us to use Seattle as base when I return back from China next year. 

Our next stop was a small town in the Northern Cascades, a town called Leavenworth with a population of less than 2,000 and TOTALLY MADE UP TO RESEMBLE A TOWN IN BAVARIA!!!!????!!!!

It was rather bizarre! But they did a lovely job of it. It could have very easily looked cheap and tacky, but it was actually quite pretty, the surrounding mountains certainly help. Also, on the main street there were only local businesses and it was nice to stroll along looking into the windows after a lovely dinner of seafood pasta.

Having been in France, Joshua could say with experience, that the place definitely felt European. Although he kept referring to it as Bulgaria ;) Here he is on the rooftop veranda where we had our lovely dinner.

Matt bumped into a cousin of his!

We were only in the town for 2 nights. On the second day Matt and Josh went white water rafting. We met up for Pizza afterwards, but Josh was so tired (probably from the adrenaline rush, he was rather nervous before the rafting) that he wanted to go straight back to the Kabin.

Matt and I went to a local brewery to turn in a token Matt had received with the rafting for some locally brewed beers. We sat outside and enjoyed our view....

The next day we drove to Boise Idaho, not much to say about this leg of the journey, it was a necessary stop. Matt and Josh went to see Superman at the cinema. I'm a scrooge, I can't stand to pay full price for movie tickets if I don't mind waiting to see the movie on Netflix, so I stayed in the hotel.

Wednesday saw us re-entering Nevada on our way to the small town of Ely. One thing I love about the desert is the presence of dust devils (I call them dirt devils). They are formed from cyclones of air picking up the dry dust.... they look like tornadoes and can range from pretty small to rather large like this one.....

The KOA that we are staying in for this last leg of our journey is a large RV kampground with only 3 kabins. This meant that we could only book the 'deluxe lodge'...

 We have our own bathroom, kitchen and air conditioning (which is great now we are back in the 90's). Josh loves the fact that he has his own loft

Yesterday evening we went for a walk near 'cave lake'....

We had dinner while watching Brave at the kampground park.

Today we drove to "Great Basin National Park". We went on a short hike to a lake.....

We then went on a cave tour. The tour itself was pretty cool, we got to see some awesome 'rooms' throughout the system of caves. I didn't take my camera and the iphone was not able to take any decent photos.

Tonight we are having a dinner of 'Mustgoes': baked beans, hot dogs, cheddar garlic biscuits and mac'n'cheese.

Tomorrow we leave for Las Vegas.

It's been a great vacation, we've managed to avoid getting on each others nerves despite the close living conditions. Although, Matt and I laugh that Joshua's description of this holiday will be "I got to eat some awesome seafood and level up my character on my nintendo DS game. I think we went to Seattle, it was something beginning with an S anyway..." :)

The diet starts tomorrow, I have been treating myself to some delicious meals (I'm munching on peanut butter M&Ms as I write this). I'm glad that I have several asian supermarkets nearby in Vegas, so eating healthy won't be a problem or a chore!

Tossed salad and scrambled eggs

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Seattle, Washington. In the evening we met up with a colleague of Matt's and his family for some Chinese food.

This morning we treated ourselves to a nice lie-in. It was nice to be in a proper bed!

When we finally left the hotel we headed down to the waterfront of the bay...

We then headed to the market at Pike Place

We were then ready for lunch and so we headed to "the crab pot" for an amazing meal. We ordered the Westport Seafeast for 3 people (Dungeness crab, snow crab, shrimp in the shell, steamed clams & Pacific mussels, andouille sausage, corn on the cob & red potatoes in their jackets).

It arrived in 2 buckets which were then dumped onto the table and we were given wooden mallets and then left to rummage through the delicious assortment of seafood.

We were also provided bibs as it can get rather messy when you're smashing the hell out of a crab...

Matt, fat and happy after the feast :)

 Josh's shellfish remains...

It was a really fun experience, we were there for about 90 minutes slowly making our way through the feast. It was a really good value for the amount of seafood that we ate, $25 per person. Anybody visiting Seattle should definitely give this place a go.

After lunch I was in need of a nap so I headed back to the hotel while Matt and Josh took a ferry tour of the port.

We then met up again and headed to the Space needle, which is a lot smaller than I had previously thought.

As we are in Seattle we thought it only right to grab a Starbucks, although we didn't go to the original one in Pike Place. Joshua, who doesn't like coffee, found that he has a fondness for non-fat caramel frappacinos! He had a sip of mine and then was hooked!
We chillaxed on a lawn beside an amphitheater next to the space needle.

We then went to see the International fountain...

And watched some young Koreans play the drums...

We then headed back to the waterfront, past some interesting fountains...

Saw a train...

And decided to stop at Elliot's Oyster House for dinner. Josh tried his first Oyster, there wasn't a second one ;) Matt and I asked the waiter to pick a selection for us. I'd never had more than one type of Oyster at a go, so it was interesting to notice the differences in the tastes and textures!

For my entree I chose the Cioppino, a shellfish and fish stew. Delicious!

Here was our view from the restaurant...

Goodnight Seattle, we love you!

Oregon

Wednesday morning we headed into Oregon under cover of cloud and rain, but still we got to see some lovely scenery on the coastal road...

I'm very happy to report that Joshua is apparently a perfectly normal teenager, happier playing games on his phone rather than looking at awesome views ;)....

This is the view from our Kabin....

 
Our Kabin....

This morning we woke up to lots of rain, we couldn't even see across the bay!

So we decided to head up north to the fishing town of Newport to visit their aquarium. Not expecting much we were pleasantly surprised to find fun exhibits. I got to touch an anemone, my finger still tingles ;)

We also got to see my favourite bird, the puffin, as well as sea otters, sea lion, octopus and the largest shark tunnel I've ever seen.

It was then lunch time and so we headed to a place I found on Yelp.... it has 311 reviews and 4.5 stars (311 is a HUGE number of reviews for around here, they are usually less than 30)

It was right on the side of the town port....

My handsome company...

I like this shot of Matt's beer and Joshua's Mountain Dew

We had some delicious dungeness crab cakes

Steamer clams in a white wine, garlic and lemon sauce....

Josh and I split this Fisherwife stew: crab, shrimp, prawns, clams, mussels, scallops and fin fish in a tomato garlic broth. Heaven!

I was too busy noshing on the above dish to take a photo of Matt's Crab Po Boy sandwich.

After lunch we walked around the port to look at all the ships.

For the late afternoon we headed back to the Kabin so that Matt and Josh could change into swimming trunks, and then we headed to a local beach as the sun had finally made an appearance. We spent about 3 hours there, relaxing, exploring and building sand castles.

Upon arriving back at the Kabin we bought some ice creams and walked around the campground. We're now going to have some ramen noodles for dinner before packing up the truck ready for an early departure tomorrow for Seattle.