Interstate: no longer a dirty word

Mapquesting directions - even sectionally - from East to West can be an intimidating thing. Mileage immediately piles up and the hours seem impossibly, improbably long and evil. Worst of it all is that you are inevitably stuck on some interstate highway, with numeral names like, 80, 90, 84, and the rest. How can anyone expect to get excited about that?

BUT, I am a girl of the East, where our interstates reign like cement kings over the sometimes lush natural world. What I'm realizing is that it is very different in the West. The interstate highways lay like fallen ribbon upon the mountains and along the streams and waterways. In the West there is no shortest route between point A and point B, there is only twisting and turning, meandering routes that give with the landscapes, allowing them to not only grow but entertain you. For miles and miles I found myself watching nature-tv, which I highly recommend.

Which leads us to Portland, OR - the West! We have arrived and are celebrating by taking the West a little slower. Tomorrow we have the luxury of sleeping in a little and biking around to get to know this new city. A whole day - We are excited!

My computer is still out of commission so I don't have any (awesome) photos to show you from our trip (and there are some goodies) but I'll leave this - I don't know where in the pacific northwest this is, but we could be there. You just never know...