Here you will find traveling with friends and family stories. I will share our adventures as well as the impacts of traveling with others. Sometimes good… sometimes bad!
It is pretty rare that I travel with people. But when traveling to Canada for the first time with dogs I felt it was necessary to bring along a “Canadian”. So I invited my dad on the road trip as we circled the Selkirk Mountain Range while traveling around Washington State, Canada and Idaho, our home state.
I sat at a table in the Archer Ale House (1212 10th Street) in Bellingham Washington contemplating what to do. There was a lofty goal in front of me, The Bellingham Tap Trail. Being that I was only in town for a few days. Could I really collect 8 stamps before I left, to obtain my treasured tap trail prize? The two boys to the right of me had attempted the complete trail… in one day… but they had not finished. Instead, they were invited to leave from one of the tap trail establishments participating. Not overly shocking as completing that many breweries and pubs in one day could be considered borderline alcoholic, but let us give them an A for effort.
My attempt would be far less than the boy’s attempt, as I took the shorter of the two options. 8 stops as opposed to the entire trail of 19 stops.
When I was in my late teens my mom said to me “Go to as many concerts as you can”. Although her statement was simple the meaning behind it was important to her. Like most parents they want their children to have a better life than they did, experience more, be successful and lead a life they are proud of.
It is funny when you are friends with someone and you have not seen them in awhile, and then when you do meet up, without even discussing it, they suggest to meet at the same place that you were going to suggest meeting up at before you can say “let’s meet here”.
Most likely it was not a coincidence as we both like beer, so when my friend Amy suggested meeting at Scuttlebutt Restaurant and Pub in Everett Washington, I was delighted with her suggestion. I was traveling from Idaho to Washington for a dog treat show last summer that happened to be near Amy’s home. I would stay with her for the weekend, which was not only great to catch up with my friend, but also helped spread the word about my dog treat business to Western Washington.
Wallace Idaho is a small mining town located in the heart of the Silver Valley of Northern Idaho. Wallace was established during the late 1880’s and once silver was discovered the town began to boom.
Jimi Hendrix, Heart, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Candlebox, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden and Temple of the Dog. No I’m not just rattling off my play list. Although they would all be on it, these are some of the bands that come from Seattle Washington.
While visiting Seattle I realized that I had never taken a ferry ride out to any of the islands in the Puget Sound. Although the ferries are slightly costly, I decided to throw caution in to the wind and figure out which island I wanted to visit. I would be traveling with my friend Meg so I found us a suitable island that had things that both of us would like, a lighthouse for me and wine tasting for her… well OK the wine tasting was for both of us. I’m an only child – I plan most things to revolve around me.
Large cities often have landmarks that are recognizable even if you have never been to the city. You see Big Ben and you know you’re in London. The Eiffel Tower, you’ve got Paris. The Sydney Opera House, you know it’s Sydney. The Space Needle and you are in Seattle.
So why does Seattle have an underground? Well it all started in 1889 with the “Great Fire” that destroyed about 31 blocks in the business district. After the fire the city began to rebuilt, but this time with stone buildings instead of the previous wood buildings. The theory was that another fire was likely and the stone would prevent the fire from causing such destruction again.
The business district also sat on tide flats which helped encouraged the decision to raise the streets. The regrade averaged between 12 feet (3.65 m) to 30 feet (9.14 m). This meant that the the streets were now raised about a story above the businesses’ first floor. The old sidewalks, at ground level, or what was once ground level were left behind. They were closed over, thus creating the underground passages.
Don’t judge it from the outside my friend Amy said to me as we stepped out of her car and walked into Skookum Brewery. I laughed a little as I looked at the building, not because it was funny, but because it was funny that Amy thought I had not walked into places that looked just like this all the time.