North California

We really wanted to reach California that day, so we looked at the map and the biggest city at the border from Oregon and California was Crescent City…” Let’s go there for the night before going to Redwood National Park”
Once there, a nice BBQ next to the ocean was perfect until…
We realised that there were a lot of strange people in that city, even weird! All angry, when you cross them on the sidewalk, they look at you like they are going to kill someone! So we thought let’s go out of downtown to park our van in a quiet neighbourhood for the night. Once in bed, a lot of police cars and fire-fighters drove next to our van full pelt! Around 11pm we heard “Boom Boom Booom Boom” : Gun shots in the neighbourhood ! But as two strong Swiss soldiers we even weren’t afraid!
-No, actually we left the city the next morning as soon as possible. We even heard a couple days later that Crescent City has a dangerous prison!

In the Redwoods national park we felt again a bit safer and enjoyed the nature and those amazing trees!

We left road 101 and took the highway 1 for following the coast. That was one of the most beautiful roads we’ve taken. A road with about 7000 curves and steep (up to 16%) and 8h for 200miles but like a dream!

We took up a new sport during our trip: Golfing in beautiful spots! Doesn’t sound that nice!? We bought a golf club in a thrift shop (1$) and a basket of golf balls in a driving ranch (5$)!

In our travel guide, we read that somewhere north of San Francisco a small hippie, surf village was nice to visit. But during the 80s the locals took down all the traffic signs so they could grow marijuana more secretly. Now the signs are still missing but it’s more to keep it hidden from the tourists! When you read that, the only goal you have is to figure out where that village is!  And we found it!
Small village called Bolinas with 500 inhabitants! The only pub in the village was amusing. Everybody was friendly and it wasn’t a problem to be tourists. We know now all the village’s stories and history.

The next day, we surfed alone on the beach and even a seal joined us!

Oregon coast

After a new hangover we had to take the road again! The first stop was Hood River, a famous spot for windsurfers and kite surfers. The road along Columbia river is really breathtaking!

On the Oregon coast: Cannon beach. We met again our Whistler friends who were there for a couple days. We drove there quickly because it was the perfect place to chill and we had a big fire on the beach all together.

Second stop: Newport. A small cute fisherman’s town. It was a Friday night, so we thought, let’s go to a pub and meet locals! Direction “Rogue” a pub with its own brewery. A few beers later whole the people were speaking with us and wondering what we were doing there. Very kind people even so nice that the two waitresses from the pub brought us to a club when “Rogue” closed!

Last stop: Florence. A quiet city near the dunes. We tried to take up sandboarding, pretty funny but we both agree that compared to skiing… it is pretty boring!

After a lot of sightseeing, beaches, sea lions, whales and nice people: Oregon coast is very lovely! Now to California!

Portland

On the campsite, checking our emails, we found out that Norman, Urs, Jonathan, Louis, Sebastien and William (old friends from Whistler) were in Portland. We thought it would be a big party if we joined them and even the opportunity to take a shower! So we sneaked into their hotel room and had an awesome night in the karaoke pub.
The second day in Portland, we went to the visitors centre to be informed of the sightseeing tours. The two elderly people looked at us, laughed; and finally sent us to the most popular area in the suburb: Mississippi Street. Everybody is young there, they stay on the terraces for a happy hour, it looked very nice! Once there, we parked our van in front of a house with two guys on the balcony drinking a beer…
- What’s up guys, can I park here?
- Of course, you are fine!
- and can I even sleep here in the van?
- Hahah of course, just for that I give you a beer…

That was the beginning of a long evening hanging out with those funny guys on their balcony.
Portland is a wonderful city entirely made for bikers, and people are really nice and full of style.

Nick the host, even gave Rogier his shirt because he said: once you wear this shirt, it’s going to change something in your life…

Mont Rainier / Mont St Helen

Once we left Seattle, we thought let’s go purify our bodies, breathe fresh air and do something healthy. We went hiking on Mont Rainier Volcano, arrived at 10’000ft and again, we found meters of snow! We went crazy because we had already sent all our ski stuffs back to Switzerland a couple weeks ago. The only way we could slide on the snow was with garbage bags…  To end that day perfectly, what else but fishing and hanging out with an Alaskan family at a campground could be better! To make it even better, the sun set was gorgeous.

On the way back, we crossed big deers! (we thaught what is that?) And about 10, we stopped to make a few pictures and those crazy ELKS which weren’t afraid of our van but more impressed just stayed there!

The next day, we went to the top of Mont St Helens, a Volcano which is still active, erupted 20 years ago, and destroyed the whole area. We wanted to reach the top by bike and thought that jumping over a closed road fence wouldn’t be a problem.. But yeah… the rangers caught us; we had to return, drop off the bikes and reach the top on foot…

Seattle

After a few days alone in the wilderness, we arrived in Seattle! Luckily, we found Eric and Sam who invited us through couchsurfing to sleep in their apartment. First good surprise, the house is in the University District! After wandering in the neighbourhood we realised that we arrived in what seemed like a typical US movie. A huge university (35’000 students), fraternities everywhere, loud music for whole the street, guys playing American football on the street and girls tanning in bikinis on the balcony!
Booooom welcome to Seattle !

Everybody says that Seattle is a rainy city, but we were lucky: 4 days of sun with temperatures around 25°C: perfect! We grabbed our bikes and discovered the city: waterfront, pike market, library, music project museum, beaches, breweries…

For our last night in Seattle, what could be better than a real American house party? Thanks to Nora who brought us: more than 100 people, 5$ for alcohol all night, cops at 11pm and headaches the day after… Now we can leave Seattle!