Pleasanton, CA
The plan was to get on the road first thing Monday morning. But true to the Olecko tradition, we didn’t get moving north until around 4:00 pm (just in time for rush hour).
Luckily the rain stayed pretty light the whole way. We almost made it as far as Eugene, Oregon (about 1 1/2 hrs south of Portland). The next day, we drove through Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington.
Portland looked beautiful, but we didn’t have time to stay and visit 🙁 The biggest highlight was the REI (Recreational Equipment Inc) store in Seattle. All I can say is “WOW!”. The Seattle store is the largest in the country, by at least 50%. The stairway up to the store from the garage takes you along a waterfall. It looked like you had the option to hike up a trail too, and it wouldn’t surprise me if you could climb up. Inside, I felt like a kid in a candy store. But luckily the car was already full, so all I was allowed to buy was a couple of small silk travel sheets (using up a couple of gift certificates before we left the country).
-Joanne
From Bob Heady, on Apr 3, 2006 at 02:58AM:
REI
Hi kids,
The mother ship is a wonderful place to visit. I spent an entire day there.
This website is awesome. I will definately be using this at PQ and future trips.
I might even recreate a couple of past journeys just to see how it works.
-bob