The Hodges: Day 1-5 West Coast Extravaganza 2009

Day 1: Friday morning we set out to begin our tour of the West. We drove up through Idaho and then into Montana. We stopped along the way to do a little sapphire panning at Gem Mountain. We panned through rocks to pick out clear stones-sapphires! They are clear until they are hear treated and then they turn various colors, most commonly blue. We actually found 2 “gem quality” stones…..but they are pretty small. It was a cool and new experience for both of us. We then planned to camp out at a camp site somewhere around that area. We kept driving and driving as all of the camp sites were either full or cost about $15 to $20……well we didn’t want to pay for that. So, we looked up the nearest WalMart, along our route, and ended up in Kalispel, Montana. We re-arranged the car to make it suitable for our sleeping arrangements. Chris slept in the front drivers seat, with the seat reclined, while I put down one of the back seats and slept in the “trunk” of the MDX. So, YES, we slept in a Wal-Mart parking lot. But, let me tell you we are not the only cheap ones. We were joined by about 7-8 other cars. One young couple in slept in the back of their truck on an air mattress with an INFANT. And, there were about 2 other couples that were in at least their 70s. It was quite hilarious to be honest. The next morning we journeyed on to Glacier.

Day 2: We spent the morning hours on into the afternoon driving through Glacier National Park along the “Going to the Sun Road”. It was a gorgeous drive along the mountain and canyon walls. It was quite scary to be honest; the road was really narrow and the sides of the roads were straight-up cliffs. We had secret hopes of seeing a grizzly but did not see a single one. We hiked a couple of miles, in the rain I might add, to see this “Hidden Lake”. We did at least see some mountain goats, but the rain dampered our excitement for the lake. We pick-nicked in the car and journeyed back through the park to continue on our journey to Washington. We starting looking for campsites again in Montana as we were nearing the state border and it was getting late. We found that all of the National Forest Campgrounds wanted money to stay, and the one site that had a vacant spot was a hike back into the woods. So we drove on, and happened upon a “Recreation Site” which was also a campground. We cooked up some delicious beef stroganoff, and slept in our tent for free in this quaint little campground by the lake.

Day 3: Our mission on Sunday was to make it into Seattle, WA. We drove across the state of Washington, of course stopping at Cabela’s along the way. Nothing too exciting along the drive. We actually booked a HOTEL along the way from my iPhone. We stayed in Bellevue, just outside of the city. Sunday night we ventured downtown Seattle to check things out. There was a “gamer convention” going on…..yes people in their 20s-40s at a video game convention….quite sad actually. Chris loved seeing all of the gays, especially the men carrying purses (haha). We grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed back to the hotel. (We didn’t want to do too much in Seattle, because my brother and sister-in-law are meeting in Seattle tomorrow morning.)

Day 4: We had been having a little bit of trouble keeping air in one of our tires; thinking it needed to be patched up from a slow leak, we set out for Sears. Of course the hole was too close to the tire wall, so we were going to have to buy a new tire. And then, of course all of the other tires were a little too worn, that if they but a new tire on there of the same size the car would think the tires were slipping and it could ruin the transmission. Long story short we had to buy 4 new tires. The good news was that when I had gotten my old tires at Sears, my dad came through with getting the road hazard warranty on the tires and we got $414 back on the old tires!!! After getting the car all saddled up with new tires we of course had do a quick drive through the Microsoft complex in Redmond and then head on up into Canada. We got through the border, despite the inquisitively rude border lady, and journeyed on up to Whistler. This is where the Winter Olympics are going to be in February!!! We had booked another hotel on the phone and got in late afternoon. We enjoyed walking around the ski village and then cooked up some delightful Spaghettios in our room. We went to the lodge’s hot tub, and enjoyed talking with lots of other travelers for about an hour. It was a beautiful, cool night.

Day 5: We went up the gondola at Whistler. Once we got to the top, we took the Peak2Peak gondola connecting Whistler and Blackcomb mountain peaks. At its center, it is 14,050 feet above the ground. It is 2.73 miles in entire length, and 1.88 miles free span between towers!!! It was quite intense actually. We got some beautiful pictures from the top! After this, we headed back towards Vancouver. We didn’t have a whole lot of time, since we had to get back to Seattle, but we did stop at Granville Island. There is this awesome public market there, full of all sorts of vendors: fruits, vegetables, flowers, meats, seafoods, baked goods, jewelry, and assorted gift items. We had a blast walking around and soaking it in. Then we got back in the car to journey back to the USA! We booked another hotel near the airport, to pick Corey and Sarah up the next day!