Low Tide

7/31/2013 - Miyajima, Japan

Miyajima is a small island off the coast of Hiroshima. It's a small resort town, but with history and spirituality. We saw its famous torii at low tide. In the spirit of island resorts, we beat the heat with a local beer as we walked along the coast. Despite other tourists, the heat, and aggressive "tame" deer, the walk was pleasant and peaceful.

It is nice to live at a time when Japan and the United States are at peace. Hiroshima, which we visited on the way out of Miyajima, is a reminder that Japan wasn't always the prosperous, healthy friend that it is today. In Hiroshima, we saw people going about their business, probably annoyed by the constant presence of dour tourists. I thought Hiroshima would be depressing, but instead I found the rebuilt city to be inspiring. 

Pictured: The torii, viewed from Miyajima.

Birthplace of Japan

7/30 - Nara, Japan

Nara was the capital of Japan before Kyoto. We went directly to Horyu-ji Temple, which contains "2300 items of historical importance... 190 of them are Important Cultural Assets or National Treasures." I laughed when I first read that in National Geographic, thinking that Nara must be stretching the definition of a "national treasure." 

I was wrong to laugh. The temple is amazingly well preserved. The buildings themselves are the oldest wooden structures on Earth. Looking inside, we were awestruck by their ornate Buddhist artwork. The area was mostly quiet, but every now and then we heard the Bell House ringing, or the wind flapping through the curtains. A friend said it best about Nara: "THIS is why you travel."

Pictured: The Five-Story Pagoda and Main Hall at Horyu-ji Temple.

Bookquest: Kyoto, Japan

7/29/2013 - Book 1st

Anthology of Japanese Literature, translated and edited by Donald Keene

Donald Keene's anthology includes literature from Japan's beginning to when the capital left Kyoto. It includes selections from The Tale of Genji, Basho, and many others. I generally don't get anthologies, but Kyoto seems appropriate for a long collection of history and culture.

English language options were otherwise limited. If I knew more about visual arts, I would be tempted to buy an art book from every city instead of translated literature. There have been many options in the local languages for art books in every city I have visited so far. Instead, I took down the names of some interesting artists and made a note to look them up when I get back online.

Empty Palace

7/29/2013 - Kyoto, Japan

We saw two of Kyoto's most famous sites: the old Imperial Palace and the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Both are beautiful in their own way. The Golden Pavilion is literally gilded. 

But after yesterday's vibrancy, they felt hollow. The Palace has been uninhabited since the capital moved to Tokyo. Yesterday's temples on the Path of Philosophy were elegant; the Golden Pavilion seemed gaudy.

The experience didn't help: rain beat down us, and tourists surrounded us at both places. At the Palace, we were crowded by an Australian Boy Scout troop, all wearing cowboy hats and carrying umbrellas. It took effort to draw myself away from the tourists and into the experiences.

Pictured: The Imperial Palace

Gion Matsuri

7/28/2013 - Kyoto, Japan

Today, Kyoto became one of my favorite cities. We walked along the east end: from Ginkakuji Temple all the way to Kiyomizu-dera Temple. We walked the "Path of Philosophy," through Murayama Park, and through Gion. We stopped at temples, parks, shrines, and restaurants. In such a developed country, we were surprised to see the traditional clothing worn by many Japanese (including, in Gion, two geishas). We even had a little excitement: I dropped my iPhone into a canal and had to jump in to rescue it. 

By noon, we had already decided it was one of the best days we would have in Japan. By 6:00, I'd decided Kyoto was a favorite. To top it off, we saw a ceremony that was part of Japan's biggest annual festivals, Gion Matsuri. We were briefly awed, but so hungry that we collapsed into an unagi (eel) restaurant in Gion. Our timing was perfect: as we exited the restaurant, we watched a parade leave Gion and stop on the Shijo-dori bridge.

Pictured: A ceremony at Yasaka-jinja Shrine in Kyoto's Gion area.

Fuji Rock Festival

7/26/2013 - Yuzawa, Japan

My friend surprised me with an early birthday present: tickets to Japan's main outdoor music festival. We bought some supplies, took trains and buses to distant Yuzawa, set up a tent, and headed into the festival. 

We walked in hearing My Bloody Valentine's "Come In Alone," and watched the full Nine Inch Nails set that ended close to 11:00. We thought the night would be over after that, but that's not how Fuji Rock Festival works. There were smaller tents with live music and DJs until 5:00 a.m. We partied until 3 a.m., singing and dancing with the Japanese. A great night.

Pictured: On our way into Fuji Rock Festival at a ski resort in Niigata, Japan

Soba at the Brewery

7/25/2013 - Naka, Japan

Our first stop in Japan was Kiuchi Brewery in Naka. When we arrived, our tour guide drove us from the sake brewery to the beer brewery. In typical Japanese fashion, we had to wear special shoes to keep the floor clean, and we rinsed the bottom of them every time we entered a new building. 

We tried their latest beer, flavored with a citrus fruit called "daidai." We ate soba, a very healthy and tasty noodle dish. I will dine well in Japan: I am with two friends who really know how to eat and drink. I've already found that I prefer Japanese food in Japan to Japanese food in America. This might seem obvious, but it isn't always like that. I think I prefer Chinese food in America to Chinese food in China, for example.

Pictured: Kiuchi Brewery's main building in Naka, Japan.

Feels Like Home

7/24/2013 - Tokyo, Japan

After China, Tokyo felt like I was almost back in the United States. There are so many little things: brushing my teeth without bottled water, having 3G Internet access, being able to use Twitter and Blogger, and encountering more familiar social norms on public transportation. I've studied Japanese, so I was excited to start reading signs on buildings and public transportation.

The biggest reminder of home is the change in my traveling companions. In China, I traveled with a tour group. In Japan, I will travel with two friends from Chicago, one of whom I have known since high school. We all arrived in Tokyo late and celebrated at a British pub.

Pictured: Looking for a British pub in Uemo. I was excited that I could read the Japanese: "ka-ra-o-ke" club.

The Venice of China

7/22/2013 - Suzhou, China

Suzhou is famous for its gardens and canals. It's the Venice of China. We walked through the gardens, took a boat down the river, and had a beer on the riverwalk. It was all very peaceful.

When I heard there was a "Venice of China," it seemed like everything in the Western world has a Chinese equivalent. It's huge! I guessed that for every city I could name in Europe, there was a more populous city in China. I would have thought they'd have little character to them, but I was proven wrong, at least in the cases of Xi'an and Suzhou.

Pictured: View from our boat in Suzhou

Bicycling above Xian

7/21/2013 - Xi'an, China

Bicycling around the city wall showed us the variety in Xi'an. We saw old pagodas and new construction. We heard traditional Chinese music in public places, and we heard contemporary dance music from shopping malls. We saw kites flying above city parks. We saw mobs of people moving through markets.

It reminded me of Robert Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. He says motorcycling across the United States is his preferred way to see the country. Driving a car is worse because the rider's panoramic views are constricted by windows, and the driver doesn't feel the environment as much. Biking around the top of Xi'an was certainly a highlight of China.

Pictured: The market crowd in Suzhou, viewed from the city wall (see top right).

Xian and Detroit

7/20/2013 - Xi'an, China

We were wowed by the terra cotta warriors: hundreds of years old, but only unearthed in the last few decades. When I think about Xi'an, though, I'll remember looking to the future, not the past.

While checking out the Xi'an nightlife, we met a young expat entrepreneur with a small business in Xi'an. He was enthusiastic and confident about opportunities in China. The interior of China is an exciting place for a capitalist: one of the cities could explode with wealth soon. 

I had Detroit on my mind since I had heard about the city's bankruptcy. I couldn't help but compare Detroit with Xi'an. With its current level of growth and its proximity to China's military power, it could be as important to the world economy as Detroit in the early 20th century. 

Pictured: The growing nightlife in Xi'an

We Are the Attraction

7/19/2013 - Beijing, China

The Forbidden City was packed with tourists. Most of them were Chinese, and many of them hadn't seen Westerners before. Some of them took photos of our tour group, as if we were more of a tourist attraction than Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City (our tour guide called it "holy ground," reminding me of an excellent viewpoint I read about visiting China).

In a way, the Chinese tourists helped us get a scale of how many people live in China. The day we visited was just a random hot Friday, but there were still many Chinese who had never seen Westerners before. It must be like that every day. One of our tour group said, "Have you ever even seen this many people before in one place? This place is huge, and it's packed." I tried to think. At the Olympics? Maybe at Lollapalooza, or SummerFest? 

Pictured: Trying to get as far away from the tourists as I can while sitting in the Forbidden City

Greatest Wall

7/18/2013 - Beijing, China

Our tour through Beijing was full of superlatives and comparisons. "China is the world's largest country!" "Oldest history!" "The Great Wall is longer than the length of the United States!" "Biggest wooden structure in the world!" I was afraid our tour guide would pound his chest about China's superiority throughout the entire tour.

Once we got to the top of the Great Wall, it spoke for itself. It exceeded my high expectations. As I walked from one hill to the other, I saw more and more Great Wall through the mountains.

We joked about the name "Great Wall" throughout the day, at once saying, "This Great Wall is sure better than that other wall." Compared to all the superlatives we had heard, "Great Wall" really is an understatement.

Pictured: View from the Great Wall of China (Mutianyu section)

Failing to Find Enlightenment

7/17/2013 - Beijing, China

I was in a bad mood all day today. It was hot. Everywhere I went, there were countless Chinese tourists. I must have climbed 1000 stairs between the Summer Palace and Beihai Park. I tried to contemplate the ancient Buddhas, but tour guides walked by, shouting Chinese into megaphones at crowds that didn't pay attention. The city smelled atrocious. I couldn't find any safe food to eat, so I resigned myself to eating lunch at KFC. A Chinese security guard told me I couldn't take photos of the river, and I had no idea why.

I had one brief respite where I felt ok. I sat under the shade of bamboos trees in Beihai Park. I had given up on appreciating the buddhas, so I tried to appreciate the sheer amount of humanity pouring through the park. I put my emergency headphones into my iPhone to escape their noise, drank an entire bottle of water, and resigned myself to just having a bad day. Not every day can be a winner.

Pictured: Tourists climb the stairs of the Summer Palace in Beijing

The Future

7/16/2013 - Beijing, China

I stayed at the Bookworm store to hear a panel of two local authors. They spoke about their recently published science fiction stories, and how they do and don't use the genre to comment on contemporary China.  

I was particularly struck by how one author praised science fiction for being "pure," meaning that it is free from complications associated with writing about reality. She used the same word "pure" that described the tech nerd music in San Francisco. As if to drive the point home, the other author, a Google employee, quoted Steve Jobs' speech about "connecting the dots." 

I connected the dots to San Francisco. Beijing made San Francisco look like even more of a paradise: the nerds I met there were totally optimistic about technology. Their music is just for fun. Hearing the writers in Beijing speak about cloning, they seemed much more anxious about the future.

Pictured: The audience for "The Future," a discussion about the latest issue of Pathlight 

Bookquest: Beijing, China

7/16/2013 - The Bookworm

I Love Dollars, by Zhu Wen

I Love Dollars is a collection of stories about materialism in contemporary China. I think that's the biggest trend among the elite Chinese that are my age, so I wanted to pick up a good satire about their lifestyle. 

The Bookworm was very impressive, and I recommend that anyone who goes to Beijing try to talk to some of the locals there. I heard very frank descriptions of China.

City of Chinese Immigrants

7/23/2013 - Shanghai, China

Shanghai, our tour guide informed us, is "only two hundred years old." That's young compared to Beijing, Xi'an, and Suzhou (the last two well over 1000 years old). Our tour guide compared Shanghai to New York: "everyone who lives in Shanghai is from somewhere else." He meant they are from other parts of China. 

We walked through the market, we ate, we saw Chinese acrobats, and we went out for karaoke. It was only a brief taste of Shanghai, but I enjoyed it. I felt it was an exciting city looking to mature its identity.

Pictured: View of a new skyscraper from the market.

Bookquest: Shanghai, China

7/23/2013 - Shanghai Foreign Languages Bookstore

China Cuckoo by Mark Kitto

Mark Kitto's China Cuckoo is about the author's experience after trying to start a business in Shanghai. His company is seized by the Chinese government, so he gives up and travels to the interior of China looking for a different kind of self-realization. 

It was the only book I could find about contemporary Shanghai. Most of the store's books about Shanghai took place in the 1910s-1940s. When I asked a staff member about "no old Shanghai, new Shanghai," they told me, "No new Shanghai books. New Shanghai, pictures." She pointed me to a book containing photos of all the construction in the city over the last 20 years.

Compared to Beijing, the selection was uncontroversial. The few books about current world politics all assumed that China would be the major world power within my lifetime. The big question the books answered was: would that be good for the rest of the world, or great for the rest of the world?

Janggi in Olympic Park

7/15/2013 - Seoul, South Korea

On my way to the Peace Gate in Seoul's Olympic Park, I saw two old men playing Janggi (Korean chess), with three other old men watching. I know most of the rules, so I stopped to watch for a bit.

Despite Janggi being a war game, it was one of the most peaceful scenes I'd experienced in Seoul. It was an especially impressive contrast with yesterday: instead of Olympic Park's Peace Gate, yesterday showed me weaponry at the War Memorial & Museum. Maybe there's something to be said for that article I read yesterday about slow "traveling" vs fast "tourism." 

Pictured: Janggi in Seoul's Olympic Park.

Bookquest: Seoul, South Korea

7/14/2013 - Kyobo Bookshop

I Have the Right to Destroy Myself by Young-Ha Kim

That's a pretty provocative title. Reading the cover jacket, I Have the Right to Destroy Myself sounds like it will be a shorter, more Korean version of a Haruki Murakami novel: Le Monde described it as a "novel about Love and Death in Seoul," and Der Tagesspiegel described it as "slick, and heavily under American influence." I don't know anything about Korean literature, so I bought the most recent critically acclaimed book about Seoul that I could find.

Overall, they had a good selection of English-language books. I saw recent critically acclaimed books in fiction and nonfiction, including some of my favorites. 

Tourist Seoul

7/14/2013 - Seoul, South Korea

This was a big tourist day. I saw the palace, bought a book at a bookstore, got lost, saw an e-sports event in Gangnam, visited the War Memorial & Museum, and had dinner in a trendy part of town. Along the way I took the subway and walked through some of Seoul's most distinct parts of town.

After spending all day as a tourist, I read an article advising people to be "travelers," not "tourists." "Tourists" are on a schedule, with lists of things to do. Slower "travelers" connect better with the landscape and the people.

It's too much to say that the "traveler" is the "higher" form of the two. Regardless, I'm going to be both a "tourist" and a "traveler" on this trip, but it will mostly be tourism until I get to Europe. I just haven't invested the time to learn the language to connect with people.

Pictured: Phoenix statue in Gyeongbokgung, the "Palace of Shining Happiness."

Nerds After Dark

7/11/2013 - San Francisco, CA

I spent my last night in San Francisco at a club owned by an internet millionaire. The show was everything I expected: a Skrillex-looking DJ, Super Mario Brothers cartoons, offensively loud club music, a chant of "Nerds! Nerds! Nerds!" that mimicked "Shots! Shots! Shots!," singers that sounded like Daft Punk robots, and a purple-haired Japanese dream girl. The show ended with 8-bit chiptunes: ComputeHer and 8 Bit Weapon. 

The 8-bit music was the crowd's favorite. A friend with me described it as "pure" and "it has that fantasy aspect to it." The whole experience had that Silicon Valley optimism to it: nerds make the world a better place with their weirdo technology.

Pictured: ComputeHer plays at the DNA Lounge. Her instrument is a modified Commodore (Amiga?) computer that controlled the bass line.

Crisis

7/10/2013 - San Francisco, CA

I had planned to visit Yosemite this day, but my tour bus failed to pick me up. I suddenly had a whole day with no plans. I considered this a crisis. I'm clearly not on vacation mode yet.

I skipped to my plan for the next day: San Francisco's hippie Mecca, Haight-Ashbury. My first instinct was to find a bus schedule, but thankfully I had enough good sense to walk. I walked through the Palace of Fine Arts, the Presidio, San Francisco University, and finally Haight-Ashbury. It was all very lovely. 

In the afternoon, I watched sea lions diving and surfacing in San Francisco Bay. I read under a tree. I even read Longfellow's poetry; I can't remember the last time I read poetry. Crisis averted.

Pictured: View of San Francisco homes through the woods in the Presidio

Twain Roosevelt Sequoyah

7/9 - Mill Valley, CA

At Muir Woods, I was surprised to hear three familiar names from my office back home. In my office, I have portraits hanging to inspire me: Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, Sequoyah, and Descartes. Three of the four made an appearance on my trip to Muir Woods. 

First, the bus driver joked about the fog on the way to the park with a quote from Mark Twain, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." At the park, I learned that Theodore Roosevelt made the woods a national park. Last, we saw that the great trees' scientific name was sequoia sempervirens, after Sequoyah. I looked, but couldn't find any evidence of Descartes.

It may have been a bad idea to visit some of the most beautiful places in America before going overseas. What woods can possibly be more majestic than Muir Woods? I'm reminded of another Mark Twain quote from The Innocents Abroad, when Mark Twain saw Lake Como in Italy:  "It certainly is clearer than a great many lakes, but how dull its waters are compared with the wonderful transparence of Lake Tahoe!" I'm afraid I could be an American snob abroad.

Pictured: Walking through Muir Woods

Underdog Millionaires

7/8/2013 - Napa, CA

I toured four wineries in Napa. Each winery was beautiful, but I felt the tour guides all told the same two stories: First, making wine in Napa is really expensive. Second, Napa wine tastes the best. 

As one example, the smallest winery we visited was Andretti, owned by the race car driver. He spent a fortune buying land and growing wine. Then, their Syrah won a "best in show" award. They told it like it was an underdog story! They came from behind, with only $50 million, and finally got some recognition for their efforts. I thought about my friends in Milwaukee who brew beer in their homes. It's usually pretty good, and it doesn't cost $50 million.

Pictured: The Robert Mondavi Winery in Napa, CA

Two Hikes

7/7/2013 - Marin County, CA

I hiked twice today: through the Marin Headlands, and across the Golden Gate Bridge.

At the farthest point into my Marin Headlands hike, I saw a man, alone, looking out at the ocean through his binoculars. During a break from his viewing, I asked if he could take a photo of me. He said, "Ah, no, I can't, I got into trouble last time I took pictures with someone else's camera." Perhaps unfairly, I assumed that he was a sex offender. I said, "Oh, I understand, well, thank you anyway."

I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge next, and it was much more crowded. I heard cars going by, loud bay winds, and tourists shouting and laughing at each other. I often find tourists to be annoying. On the Golden Gate Bridge, they were endearing.

Maybe I'm just a "city boy," but I preferred the Golden Gate Bridge walk to the hike with the possible sex offender.

Pictured: The Golden Gate Bridge (left) and the Marin Headlands (right)

Shut the Box

7/6/2013 - San Francisco, CA

Between hostels and bars, I won't have trouble meeting people in the cities I visit. My first night in San Francisco, I met two people at the hostel and took them to an internet-renowned bar down the street.

There was a dice game at the bar called "Shut the Box." I know Shut the Box. To prepare myself for traveling around the world, I learned games of the world. I may regret learning games instead of learning something useful. For example, languages.

I didn't expect to see Shut the Box until I got to the Channel Islands, but here it was in San Francisco. I joined the game and won quite a bit after "shutting the box" twice in three games. I was not invited to a fourth game. If I'm looking for another source of income overseas, I'll have to work on my hustling skills.

Pictured: A bartender picks up the dice to roll against me in Shut the Box.

Bookquest: San Francisco, CA

7/6/2013 - City Light Bookstore

Bookquest: Golden Gate by Vikram Seth

Golden Gate is a story about San Francisco yuppies in love. It is written entirely in verse. Gore Vidal called it "the great California novel."

I picked it up at City Lights Bookstore. City Lights had its heyday in the 60s and 70s, publishing counterculture writers. That legacy remains: for example, the store has more books devoted to "Western Spiritual Traditions" than to Judaism and Christianity combined.

My favorite part of the store: a building across the street had Banksy art with the quote, "If at first you don't succeed - call an airstrike." Heh.

Pacific Road Trip

7/5/2013 - U.S. Highway 101, Oregon and California

When I decided to drive from Portland to San Francisco, I did not realize how far it would be. It's probably for the best. If I had realized I would be driving all day and night on the 5th, I wouldn't have stopped to enjoy the scenery as much as I did.

It's impossible to share the scenery through photos: first, it's too wide: panoramas of green mountains and waves crashing onto beaches. Then, it's too tall: arriving at the redwoods, it's impossible to see the tops of them, let alone photograph them. 

Pictured: Scenery from U.S. Highway 101.

Fireworks

7/4/2013 - Eugene, OR

I had a great 4th of July with friends in Eugene. We had a full summer evening: a beer tasting at a brewery, Japanese food for dinner, a live band at a bar, and fireworks.

On our walk home, a fireball rolled down the street in front of us like a flaming tumbleweed. We couldn't help but laugh at it: in any other context, it would have been frightening, but today it was just AMERICA!

Pictured: Backyard fireworks lighting up a masterpiece of sidewalk chalk.

Hipster Karaoke

7/3/2013 - Portland, OR

Portland is trying to elevate karaoke to an "art form." 

I expected to see the best karaoke of my life: hipster divas performing some of my favorite indie rock / pop songs. Maybe I arrived too early, but that wasn't the case. The first few songs included the Foo Fighters, Judas Priest, Lionel Richie, and Megadeth. Those are not mainstream karaoke songs, but they're also not the weird indie Pitchfork music that I expected. 

I planned to sing A-Punk, by Vampire Weekend. The song has the three important qualities of a karaoke song: easy, short, and upbeat. It even has potential for audience participation, with an "ohhh ohhh ohhh" or a "hey hey hey." Unfortunately, when I showed up, the songbook contradicted what I had read on the website: A-Punk was unavailable. My practice was for nothing, and I had to make a quick choice.

Scanning through my iPhone, it seemed my favorite obscure bands' songs would be too long (LCD Soundsystem), the wrong mood (The National), too difficult to do without serious practice (Sigur Ros), or absent from the songbook (Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors). Then I was surprised to see a pretty long list of Deerhoof songs in their songbook. I can't sing anything like Deerhoof's lead singer Satomi Matsuzaki, but I thought I could do something interesting with the song. I decided I'd get as far away from the original performance as I could: I'd bust out a Lou Reed-style Deerhoof song.

It kinda worked. It was not my best performance, but at least it was unique. The hipsters clapped politely and said nice job when I was finished.

Travel As a Game

7/2/2013 - Portland, OR

Foursquare has introduced some badges specific to cities: since I visited enough recommended places Portland, I got the Portland Foursquare badge. I have mixed feelings about doing this: it makes my travel a bit less spontaneous, since I'm visiting the places that Foursquare considers interesting. On the other hand, they're places I'd generally visit anyway.

It also doesn't take too much time: I got the Portland Badge within 24 hours of being in Portland by checking in to Powell's, Deschutes Brewery, Ground Kontrol arcade, Voodoo Doughnut, and the Portlandia statue. That's a good 24 hours.

For a perspective on travel as a game, check out this article. 

Pictured: My score on Dr. Mario at Ground Kontrol, the arcade bar in Portland.

Bookquest: Portland, OR

7/2/2013 - Powell's City of Books

Bookquest: Butterfly People by William Leach 

Butterfly People is "a moving elegy for American nature and for America itself as it crossed the threshold of industrialization." Oregon is certainly a very natural state, and Portland itself has quirky people pursuing narrow passions (yes, I am comparing hispters with "butterfly people"). The book seemed like a good fit.

I loved Powell's City of Books. It not only had a whole section on butterflies, it also had sections on gold mining, tectonics, activism, the military industrial complex (which was bigger than the "general military" section), "American Studies - Culture Wars," and what seemed like half a floor of Christianity. 

One staff recommendation gets an honorable mention. In the Pakistan section, among books about war and extremism, there was a book called On Wings of Diesel. The recommendation said: "It may seem as if Pakistan is nothing but bad news, but... CHECK OUT THESE TRUCKS!" Indeed, the book contained many photos of Pakistan's painted trucks.

Farming and Gardening

7/1/2013 - Carnation, WA

My friends in Seattle all have impressive gardens, but one friend has the advantage of living on an organic farm. She and her husband are growing just about everything: staples like wheat and chick peas, familiar vegetables like tomatoes and squash, fancy West Coast things like kale and quinoa, and at least one Indian vegetable that I had never heard of. 

In Seattle, I stayed with three different good friends that I hadn't seen since they married. They really made the city look like a "happily ever after" paradise. I didn't want to leave, and I think it's going to be really unfair to every city that comes after Seattle.

Pictured: The farm in Carnation, WA

Golden Gardens

6/30/2013 - Seattle, WA

I only have good luck with Seattle's weather. My second day in the city was sunny enough to visit Golden Gardens and play beach volleyball. I stayed at the beach with friends for hours. By some miracle, I didn't get sun burned. A beach paradise in a mountain paradise. It doesn't seem fair.

Pictured: Sunset at Golden Gardens

Bookquest: Seattle, WA

6/30/2013 - BLMF Literary Saloon

Bookquest: Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

As part of my trip, I'm buying a book in every major city that I visit. At the end, I want to have a bookshelf to remind me of my trip. I'm calling this my "Bookquest." 

I bought Sometimes a Great Notion in Seattle. A brilliant, well-read friend from Seattle recommended it. It takes place in the Pacific Northwest, and the author really brings out the dreariness of the weather. I'm told it's not a very cheerful book. I can't wait to read it!

Mountain Paradise

6/29/2013 - Seattle, WA

I've never seen Seattle's gloom. Every time I've visited, the weather has been perfect. 

My first day in Seattle, I helped a friend pick raspberries in her garden, then we went to a bar in Tacoma to see a band. It was like a fun bar night in Chicago, except that the outdoor bar had a fantastic view of the mountains. A great start.

Pictured: One view from my friend's back yard garden. The other view is Mt Rainier.

Leaving

6/29/2013 - Milwaukee, WI and Chicago, IL

"At last, with a touch of headache from an eve-of-departure party, I got out of bed on the great day, put on my new kit and tramped south-west under a lowering sky. I felt preternaturally light, as though I were already away and floating like a djinn escaped from its flask through the dazzling middle air while Europe unfolded." - Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts

I thought about just quoting Fermor in this blog instead of actually writing my own posts. I knew that light feeling once I got to the airport.

I had good send-offs in Columbus, Chicago, and Milwaukee before I left on my trip. The morning I left, I had an epic breakfast with my parents in Milwaukee: grits & eggs, coffee, coconut pie from Honey Pie, and toast with my aunt's strawberry and rhubarb jam. My last taste of the midwest was the guacamole from the Frontera restaurant in O'Hare. Then I was off to Seattle!

Pictured: At O'Hare. I've got a backpack and a duffel bag, that's it.