Here I am, at the end of my Pacific Northwest adventure, literally on a plane back to Boston (well, LAX, but THEN onto Boston. Calm down about the semantics). It is 5pm west coast time, so I'll be getting back at 6:30am Boston time. NOT EXCITED. I have to work tomorrow too. Before I start reflecting all over the place (ewww), I'll give a summary of the day's events.
We slept until about 8:30 (our hangovers pretty much prevented us from getting up any earlier). After another shower (w00t), we headed to Pike's Place for some coffee from the first Starbucks. Well, I had some chai tea. But only because coffee objectively tastes like ass. Not much else happened after that.
We went back to our hotel for our free shitty buffet breakfast, where I learned that Nadkarns is wont to make up words. I asked her where the hot water for tea was, and she used some word, which I later learned means "liquid container," but the word doesn't actually exist in the english language. I can't even remember what she said, just the incredulous look I gave her for trying to trick me into thinking her false vocabulary was real. She apparently was not aware, but even our server was messing with her for saying ridiculous jumbles of sounds and passing them off as "words." I didn't even want the tea after her display of insanity.
We then bid our farewells to Colleen, who was going to meet her parents for another day in Seattle (she left us a lovely parting note too: I was all "awwwww"). Then the original four of us went down to check out Pioneer Square. I took an Underground tour before, but this time we walked around, saw a man-made waterfall, a fireman museum (really cool olde-timey fire trucks), and the Yukon gold rush museum.
VroooomWe then went back to the hotel, divided up the smores chocolate we had left, and left the hotel to Pike's Place one last time for lunch. Great lunch spot: a chowder cafe: preposterously delicious. Good choice, past-self. Hopefully it will hold me over for this train-wreck of a flight home.
OmnomnomThen Scott and I drove to the airport (Nads and Alex have a later flight). Hahahah, turning in that beast of a car to the rental company was hilarious. So dirty, bugs ALL over the front, 2700 new miles on it (we got it with only 500 miles on it!). The mud was caked on the outside, dirt and pine needles all over the inside. That thing is going to need some serious professional work. Goodybye, Beast.
Now I'm flying to LA, and then on to Boston. What an incredible, life-changing trip (ugh, bear with me as I get into this weird "emotions are happenin" kind of mood). I liked that I started "thorns and roses" for each day. It helped us with mini-reflections throughout the 12 days, and kept me at an all-time high for stoke levels. We went through our "Overall Trip" thorns and roses:
Thorns:
Me: missing seeing Mt. Saint Helens
Scott: same
Alex: same
Nads: not a very mobile knee
Roses:
Nads: wildlife up close and in natural habitat
"My head is so fucking big holy crap"Scott: seeing the Grand Tetons pop into view right at the park entrance - I agree based on it having such a "this trip is going to be so fucking good. Also those mountains are insanely gorgeous" kind of feeling
MIND BLOWINGAlex: Prismatic Spring - I agree because it is definitely one of the 10 most beautiful things I've ever seen
HOW IS THIS PLANET EARTH?Me: Seattle sunset dinner - great food, most beautiful sunset ever seen by human beings, great people, Joe taking close-up pictures of Alex - just a great, perfect way to end the trip
okI like the idea of the bookend moments: Grand Tetons coming into view and the Seattle sunset dinner. It entirely encapsulated the extreme awesomeness of the trip. It set the stage to pump me up and then it wrapped everything up with a wonderful moment that... pumped me up again. Excellent trip.
YOU GUYS. Hold on to your butts. I just saw Mt. Saint Helens. Really. We flew directly over it. I looked DOWN INTO IT FROM THE FUCKING SKY. The trip just became perfect. My thorn is nullified. It was so beautiful; I can't even describe this moment. Emotions be happenin. The conditions were PERFECT: Scott and I both had window seats over the right side of the plane, the Sun is still up, the cloud cover parted EXACTLY over it, I happened to glance out the window right as we were over it. It was meant to happen. The Universe wanted me to have a perfect trip. It was literally my ONE regret: not seeing it because of the fog. And I just saw it so crisply and clearly in the best view possible. We had gone there, and I saw postcards: I could identify it, but couldn't see it. It was MEANT to happen. I am beside myself, I can't even think about how to describe my thoughts or anything. Scott and I JUST saw it, knew the situation we were in, and now we can't even talk to each other. I am so overwhelmed. It was just so perfect. I'm never going to forget this feeling. Perfect trip. Perfect adventure. Absolutely fucking perfect.
I can't believe we ended up seeing it after allJust turned to my right and saw the Hollywood sign (cue stupid Miley Cyrus song) above the cloud layer flying into LA. Third time seeing it. Awesome.
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