Day 18

Hey everyone

Its been awhile since we have updated the blog, but its been a lot of traveling since Seattle and Diego and I have both been too lazy to sit down and write. From Seattle, Washington we connected to the legendary Interstate-101 (on the advice of Eric Page), which goes around the Olympic Peninsula, and then down the east coast of Oregon and California until Los Angeles. The 101 is well deserving of its reputation because driving along the coast was spectacular. Because of the cost of entry into national parks we could not enter the Olympic National Park so we stayed to the seaside. The water in Port Angeles was crystal clear and we even had a distant view of Vancouver. From the Olympics we went south to Oregon, which was much more breathtaking than the Olympic Peninsula. The coast has a lot of rock formations that have been eroded away by the waves and wind to form small islands, points, and arches out of the giant rocks by the shore. Diego was happy to be back by the ocean while I could help but imagine how scary it must have been for explorers traveling out in the seemingly endless and vicious ocean. After Oregon we carried on into California where we spent a half day in the Redwood forest. The Sequoia trees were huge! “Big Tree” was labelled as being approximately 1500 years old. The huge trees reminded me of the slow moving, deep voiced, and wise walking trees from the Lord of the Rings. And apparently the Redwoods rainforest is how all of North America used to be during the Jurassic Age, so it’s a bit like going back in time when you enter the forest. Diego and I walked some trails but as we roamed around we of course got lost and ended up on a part of the road that wasn’t where we parked the van. Since we had two sets of keys we decided to split up and walk in opposite directions along the road until one of us found the van. We eventually found the van and continued along the 101 into the wine country of California and have now stopped in San Francisco for a couple days. I haven’t been to Europe but of the cities I’ve seen I think San Francisco is the most beautiful I’ve even seen. All the homes use vibrant colours, very detailed iron work around the doors and windows, and stucco for the exterior walls. And the architecture seems very Spanish or French in some areas, while other areas it is more Victorian. Very nice place to live! The infamous Alcatraz is also easily within view from the harbour. Diego and I spent about an hour by the harbour just looking at the prison, as birds dove down into water to grab fish, and sea lions casually swam around. I highly recommend visiting San Francisco if anyone gets the chance, well worth it.

But with all the sight seeing I also got some bad/good news. I’ve been offered an interview for an R&D Engineer position in Ontario. I didn’t expect any call backs for work until at least the end of Mexico, if ever, since I haven’t had much luck since graduate school, but now that I am finally on this trip one decided to call and it’s actually a good job. I had to make a decision whether or not to go back for the interview since it could mean the end of the trip for me. I wrestled with the idea for a few hours, but couldn’t decide. I knew I was going to regret my decision no matter what I decided to do. Diego gave some wise advice and suggested that I go for the interview and make the decision to continue the trip or not after I have the job offer. At least then I will be making the decision based on a sure thing and not just the opportunity. This idea calmed me down since I will essentially just be prolonging the decision. So at this point in time I will go back to Canada on Sunday for the interview next week and fly back to meet up with Diego in Las Vegas or Mexico City a few weeks later depending on where Diego is. However if I am offered the position then I can’t prolong the decision any further and will have to decide whether to rejoin the trip or stay in Canada to take the job. We’ll see.

Before Sunday though Diego and I will be travelling to Santa Cruz, Malibu, Santa Barbara, then Los Angeles where I will fly out to Canada and Nacho will fly in from Spain to go with Diego to the Nevada Desert and Las Vegas. Stay tuned. 

Port Angeles in Olympic Peninsula

Oregon

Reflections

The Redwoods

Sleeping in a parking lot playing guitar and having a smoke (of tobacco, don't get any ideas people)

The Rock (Alcatraz)