Road Trip From Vancouver to Pheonix

So Korinne and I left our farewell brunch at Enigma on Saturday afternoon to head down to Seattle for the rest of the weekend. After some early delays leaving the city due to a forgotten cell-phone, not mine cause it's broken, and a few more goodbyes to our relatives we were finally on our way by about 6 pm.

Once we got to the border though the fun really began. The line at the pacific x-ing was less than 5 minutes but we were pulled over for inspection as expected. After our u-haul was briefly looked through the officer determined that I was "intending to immigrate" due to my dresser full of clothes being the first thing seen in the u-haul. We were then given a 45 minute lecture on how I wasn't allowed to do that because none of my immigration paperwork had gone through but Korinne was fine because she has a greencard. Finally, after nearly an hour of being scared half to death that our summer plans were ruined, we were allowed to enter the US although the next time I try to cross the border my name will be flagged but hopefully by then I will be applying for a work visa and it will be at the "nicer" Toronto airport border crossing.

Anyways, I feel I could rant on forever about my love for the border and everyone who works there, but I will get to the good stuff and the drive down. We got to Seattle in under 2 hours and proceeded to my friend Paige's place near the U-district on 45th Street. Saturday night also happened to be my friend Matthew Korch's birthday party at a frathouse-like bar in Queen Anne called Ozzie's. This place was pretty massive with 2 floors, 3 karaoke stations, and about 7 bars. After catching up with some of my childhood friends, both in drinking and talking, we then enjoyed a deluxe and fries at the infamous Dick's.

Sunday got off to an early start around 2 pm with brunch at the Pancake Corral in Bellevue. Paige, his roommate Mike, Korinne, and I then stopped by JDS, my elementary and middle school, which no longer looks like an insane asylum, but an actual school. I feel bad for the kids who get to play basketball without worrying about running into the walls of the gym or play soccer at recess on actual grass, not gravel with a few weeds poking out. That stuff definitely built character. We then returned to Seattle where we enjoyed some Molly Moo's ice cream, pretty, pretty, pretty good. Paige then had to run off for his brother's graduation dinner so Korinne and I walked around downtown Seattle and Pike's Place with my friend Ariela. Then we drove to Freemont, saw the troll and the statue of Lenin before having dinner at a bar called Norm's where you're allowed to bring your dogs in. Just because I could, I ordered a forty of pilsner which comes in a paper bag to go with my dinner. It was a pretty tame night other than that because a long day of driving was coming up.

On Monday we left Seattle pretty early in the morning, and after stocking up with a few snacks for the road we made our way down to California. We stopped in Beavertown, a suburb of Portland, to have lunch with Korinne's friend Alana who is going to school there and living in a beautiful neighborhood. A word to the wise, don't drive in the siskous of Northern California at night, especially not in a u-haul. It is steep, winding, and semi-trucks with no regard for the speed limit everywhere. Add a full moving truck and darkness and that's what we dealt with. I was having a bit of fun in between my sudden moments of panic as a semi sped past at 75 mph, but I'm pretty sure Korinne left some scratch marks on her seat. Needless to say we made it through in one piece and decided to stop for the night just north of Sacramento. We stopped in a town called Doogery or something which only had 1 hotel, if you could call it that, where we paid too much for a room only to find the toilet was broken.

After a few hours sleep, we got on the road heading to San Francisco but decided to do a little detour through Napa and Sonoma Valleys. It's pretty nice but there was construction being done everywhere so that kind of was a bummer, but I would definitely go back. We then made our way on US1O1 across the Golden Gate Bridge and into San Fran. The city is amazing, although the summer months are apparently not the time for the best weather. Korinne and I went to the Fisherman's Wharf, the Marina, Crissy Field, walked through the Presidio neighborhoods to the Palace of Fine Arts, and drove part of the scenic coastal drive before meeting up with Korinne's friend from high school Ellie Ford. Small world story here, it turns out Ellie's roommate is a girl I was friends with from my high school in Bellevue. Korinne and I already knew that but she had no clue so it was a bit of shock for her to say the least. Korinne, Ellie, and I then went to dinner at an amazing Thai restaurant by her apartment then had a few drinks at a bar called the Blue Light. Unfortunately we could only spend 1 night in San Fran but we definitely could have spent an entire week or more there, incredible city.

Wednesday was a long day of driving from San Fran, through Oakland and the traffic of northern LA, then across the mountains of eastern California into Arizona and finally to Phoenix. Korinne and I have been relaxing a bit and hanging out with my fahshja and sis, golfing in the 1OO+ degree heat, enjoying the 4th of July with my future boss and his family, and doing quite a bit of preparing for our trip to Europe.

We leave for London in about 15 minutes so I'll wrap up by saying it's already been quite an adventure but I'm excited for what lies ahead in the coming weeks.

Kevin