Oregon

My hostel here in San Francisco is nestled among the strip joints, tattoo parlours and dingy speakeasies of a suburb called North Beach (don't be fooled, it ain't no beach) and I suspect that a couple of the gals in my dorm room are 'ladies of the night'. It's a rude awakening, this transition from a self-contained flat in Salem to a life of sharehouse living in the extreme: sneaking round a dark dormroom to avoid awakening fellow travellers; taking advantage of the free bagels and fruit salad each morning to be kind on the pocket; having random conversations with strangers and being cornered by stoner weirdos. All the fun of being a backpacker. I'm loving San Francisco so far, but that's a tale for another blog post. First, let me tell you about my time in Oregon.

Boarding the Amtrak

The train ride from Seattle to Portland, Oregon was one of the most beautiful train journeys of my life. The coastal Amtrak train is fitted with picture windows -- huge floor to ceiling windows out of which you can see the stunning countryside and water views. As we rattled past the amazing vistas I chuckled to myself as a loud Scottish woman attempted to photograph every last view, getting frustrated as trains got in her way, or the photo was blurred. Sometimes you have to just sit back and 'take a photo with your eyes'.

On the train I finished Steinbeck's classic East of Eden, a feat which I believe my friend Nick did on the same stretch of coast a couple of years ago. All 687 pages of the bugger. It was fabulous. Loved it. An epic family saga: my favourite genre. I've immediately started on a more digestible title of his: Cannery Row.

View from Nicole's dining room over Portland

I have to say I loved my time in Oregon. I was quite overwhelmed with the perfect balance of natural beauty and urban fun it presented, and I kept thinking that it felt very much like a place I could see myself living. When I arrived in Portland a friend of a friend whom I have never met before, Nicole, picked me up from the station and generously had me stay for a few nights. She took me on a fabulous hike through a place called Eagle Creek in the Columbia Gorge to Punchbowl Falls and we ticked the Twilight waterfall (Multnomah Falls) off our list too, in keeping with my movie location pilgrimage. Our hike was a little treacherous in places, with narrow pathways next to sheer drops, but served as a perfect vehicle for us to get to know each other. I found it fascinating how despite our seemingly disparate lives (Nicole is a surgeon) we had plenty of common ground to talk about.

Stunning Oregon fir trees

Nicole hiking in Eagle Creek

Punchbowl Falls

Our intrepid adventurer

Hiking with my fab host!

Multnomah Falls

The next day I explored the wonderful city of Portland alone. Oh how I loved Portland, and wished I could have spent longer there! Definitely somewhere I'd love to go back. Between the beer, vintage clothes stores, bicycles, BEST bookstore in the world and the plethora of bearded boys I think it's my number one place in America so far. Since then I've watched a few episodes of the hilarious TV show Portlandia, which sets it up fondly and knowingly.

Sadly I couldn't spend longer there as I had to head to Salem to stay with an old friend of mine from Uni. I hadn't seen Caroline since she left the UK in 2006 (just before I headed to Aus) but she's now build a wonderful life for herself, her husband Leon and their three rambunctious sons in Salem, Oregon. They kindly let me stay in their fab 'artist's studio' at the bottom of their garden and I was bewitched by the maelstrom that is their life. In the few days I was there we did so much! We braved the slippery ice at Silver Falls State Park, we climbed the volcano Mount Hood to take the boys skiing in the snow, they taught me to play Qwerkle and Mexican Train, I learned a myriad of things about parenting, in particular about parenting headstrong, gorgeous young boys, and I even got to go to a bouncy castle kids' birthday party! They were so generous to have me stay, feeding me and including me in everything. Not the last time on this trip I will be overwhelmed by people's generosity, I'm sure.

My 'studio' while in Salem

Timberline Lodge history (Jimmy Stewart!)

Silver Falls

Silver Falls State Park

My fab hosts!

Salem houses

Start 'em skiing young

Leon teaches Sebastian

View from Timberline Lodge

Timberline Lodge, as seen in THE SHINING

Caroline and Theo in the snow

View from Mount Hood

While in Salem, I continued to sample locally-produced craft beers and we even went to a food and drink fair where I got to try $1-tasters of a whole load of IPAs and porters, including one made by a friend of Caroline's, whose micro-brewery Salem Ale Works produced a delicious winter warmer, the Sleeping Marmot. We also tried out a new diner in town, ACME – Americans sure are good at diner food. I went for another epic 5-hour walk round the outskirts of the city, following my nose through woods and a huge park, while listening to Willie Nelson's autobiography Roll Me Up and Smoke me When I Die on audio book. I'm glad I kept my Audible subscription while travelling – audio books are great while on the road.

Salem Ale Works beer tasting

Vintage store in Salem

Discovery in Salem Park

Cameron's Koala Castle

Hangin' on Mount Hood

I'm still adjusting to the huge lifestyle shift of travelling. One of the things I need to get used to is the plain hard fact that I can't do everything. When I move on from a place there will always be things I haven't done, places I haven't seen, and I guess this is something I need to accept – and to just focus on what I did do and see. And not feel guilty for days spent relaxing, as this is just as important as consuming culture and scenery etc. Something to ponder...

Seattle, Washington

I'm writing this while sitting by a huge picture window in the dining car of the Amtrak train on America's west coast, after a wonderful week in Seattle. I could have stayed in that amazing city for much longer; indeed I hope to visit again and enjoy more of what it has to offer. Now, as I watch the stunning scenery fly by, I'm pondering how I will summarise this leg of my trip in one blog post. Be warned, this one may be lengthy.

The primary reason for my visit was to see some Sydney friends, Dan and Ang, and their daughter Ruby. They left Australia over a year ago and we who are left behind miss them terribly. It was wonderful to be welcomed into their home for a week and get a taste of American life.

Dan and Ang

Seattle is the largest city in the Pacific North West and is a boom-bust town. Having worked its way through timber, gold and aircraft booms, it's now enjoying a renaissance as a centre of technology, with Amazon, Google and soon Facebook investing heavily in offices there. Surrounded by water (lakes and sounds) with snow-capped mountains in the distance it's also a beautiful location. It reminded me of Sydney in its proximity to the water, hilliness and the feeling of it being a 'city of villages'.

Still shocked at the decrease in temperature from Sydney's summer, I didn't spend as much time outside as I may have done during a summer visit, but here are a few of my observations and activities.

The architecture in Seattle is amazing; an eclectic mix of styles reflecting the boom-bust nature of the town and representing a range of eras. Art deco next to brutalist architecture flanked by contemporary glass buildings was not an uncommon sight downtown. I particularly loved the Seattle Central Library, an unusual glass building built 10 years ago with a typography-lover's dream interior. It's great seeing public money put into such a fantastic resource too: upstairs they had music practice rooms, reading and writing rooms and there was a wide range of public events. The children's library was also fab.

The Library

Going up the Library Escalators

Curios at Pike Place Market

Exterior fire escapes

Seattle International Film Festival posters

Space Needle at the Seattle Center

1920s architecture

A visit to the Seattle Art Museum brought me a sight I'd seen only last year at Cockatoo Island, at the Sydney Biennale! Aside from that I thoroughly enjoyed wandering round the gallery, which had an interesting range of indigenous art from around the world, inluding Australia.

Dan took a day off work and we hopped on our bikes to explore beyond the city centre, riding past Lake Union. The views were fab but our hands and feet (and ears!) became extremely cold, so we heartily welcomed a rescue from Ang at the gasworks park, where she brought us some delicious burgers and a ride home.

Seattle skyline panorama by Dan

Inside Gasworks Park

When they lived in Sydney, Dan used to brew his own beer, and I sampled many a fine pint of the results of his exploits. For his upcoming birthday, Ang wanted to surprise Dan with a customised keg fridge, and this all came to fruition while I was there. She had purchased a keg fridge and commissioned some local graffiti artists to come over and spray paint it. They spent a few hours on the back porch in the cold and here are the fruits of their labours. Dan loved it! What a great present.

I also met up with an old STC colleague, Tina, who took me to the Theo Chocolate Factory. It was fascinating to see first hand exactly how they make their chocolate and have a guided tour around the factory and kitchen, but of course my favourite part was eating plenty of samples of their delicious flavours.

Wearing our protective headgear

A visit to Seattle is not complete without a Twin Peaks pilgrimage. Dan, Ruby and I went out to the town where Twin Peaks was shot, North Bend, just east of Seattle, and had lunch in the diner there. Too full after our burger to eat cherry pie, I still enjoyed a 'damn fine cup of coffee'. We then visited Snoqualmie Falls which features in the opening credits of the show. There's also a hydro-electricity station there and some beautiful scenery.

Snoqualmie Falls

Dan and Ruby

Memorabilia in the Diner

While I was in Seattle the local team, the Seattle Seahawks, were doing very well in the league. Even without being a sportsfan it was hard to escape the buzz in the city and the overwhelming support from the fans. Many homes and businesses proudly displayed a flag with '12' emblazoned across it (which signfies that they are the '12th man' in the team, they are so dedicated) and even the local supermarket display created the Seahawks logo. The Hawks did win their game and will now be in the 'Superbowl' on 2 Feburary, which to sportsfans is kind of a big deal, apparently.

And of course I can't write about Seattle without mentioning the beer. Oh, the beer! What a brilliant city for a beer lover. Hundreds of microbreweries are located in the Pacific North West and many brew awesome beer. If only I had enough days there to sample them all. But I did a bloody good job trying. Here are some of the brews I sampled:

- Standard Brewing: Bere de Guarde (Belgian Strong Pale Ale)
- Redhook Ale Brewery: Paddy Coynes IPA (American IPA)
- Big Al Brewing: Winter Warmer (Stout)
- Sierra Nevada Brewing Co: Ruthless Rye IPA (Rye Beer)
- Portland Brewing: BlackWatch Cream Porter (American Porter)
- Two Beers Brewing Co: Evolutionary IPA (American IPA)
- The Pelican Pub & Brewery: Silverspot IPA (English IPA)
- Standard Brewing: Bee's Wine Ginger Beer (Ginger Beer)
I think my favourite was the Elysian Brewing Company's Split Shot Espresso Milk Stout, a sweet stout which I would happily have instead of dessert any day.

The Ruthless Rye IPA

But I think my favourite thing of all about my week in Seattle was getting to hang out with my friends there. When you're visiting friends it's less imperative to sample the tourist hotspots and more important to catch up and relax together. The time we spent eating with each other, singing karaoke, watching many episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, baking together, enjoying Ang's home-cooked meals, putting the world to rights, playing Mansions and Monsters, spending whole days in our pyjama pants -- these are really the times I will treasure. A week felt like it passed in a flash and now I'm on my way to Portland, but I have some great memories of my time in Seattle and I aim to return (even if it's just to drink more beer). So thanks Dan and Ang for having me to stay.

Oh Canada!

Greetings from rainy Vancouver where I've spent the last few days attempting to get over my jetlag and the sudden drop in temperature at the home of my Granny's cousin, whom we affectionately call 'Auntie Helen'. Tomorrow the pre-amble is completely over and I shall head to Seattle for my trip to begin in earnest, so here's a little update on what I've been doing so far.

Kim's Nigella chocolate pavlova

After a fabulous last supper courtesy of Kim on Wednesday evening I loaded up my backpack for the first time. My packing list passed Beth's seal of approval (no mean feat, this gal is ruthless!) and I was ready to go. Kim and Beth spent the morning with me on Thursday, prolonging the inevitable goodbyes. We had a delicious brunch at Revolver cafe in Annandale, where I enjoyed my last decent coffee in a long while (yes, I have embraced the Antipodean coffee snobbery with gusto). Then they took me to Sydney Airport where we spent more time avoiding saying goodbye.

These women are such an important part of my life and are central to me feeling that Sydney is my home. With Beth 8 months pregnant it's even harder to tear myself away. We are both about to embark on a year of adventure, and although the internet makes the world feel smaller, I can't help but feel sad that I will miss out on being by her side during this time. Still, she has a fab bunch of people who WILL be at her side, and in a year I can finally meet baby Rosser-Yuen.

So then, 14 hours from SYD-LAX.
Watched: Ginger and Rosa, Dir Sally Potter
Read: 33% of East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
Ate: 'Beef stew'
Took: 1 zopiclone
Slept: 8 hours
Ate: two mouthfuls of 'potato cake', 3 pieces of melon (hmmmm, airplane food)
Layover in LAX: 4 hours
3 hours from LAX-Vancouver
Ate: Cherry Ripe from my bag
Read: to 56% of East of Eden
Watched: the sun set between layers of clouds

The contrast between the Virgin Australia and the Alaska Airlines flights was comical. Like the difference between Tetsuya's and your local dumpling house. Alaska is not without its charm but the plane is right out of the 70s, as are the staff, who never quite seemed to have a handle on their unruly passengers.

My... (hmmm, how to describe her. She's my Granny's cousin's daughter so I guess that makes her my third cousin?) Anyway, the wonderful Bronwen kindly picked me up from the airport and drove me to Helen's, where I was asleep in no time, exhausted from the trip and the very long day (crossing the date line messes with your mind).

On my first full day here I got myself a map and embarked on a large walk of the city, to orient myself and try to stay awake. Helen lives Downtown which is most convenient and makes walking everywhere really easy. I took a pilgrimate to Gastown where the original Fluevog store is situated and almost fell over when I saw John Fluevog himself upstairs on the mezzanine! He even popped downstairs to the shop floor, but I was too starstruck to go and talk to him. (For the uninitiated, he is a Canadian shoe designer who makes the most stunning shoes, of which I own 6 pairs and which are now firmly beyond my price range.)

Some of the fam

The Welsh-Canadian relos have been most accommodating, taking me out variously to dinner, lunch and evening drinks and sharing the delights of Vancouver with me. They are Helen's three children Bronwen, Gareth and Bryn, Bryn's partner Stephen and Bronwen's daughter Morgan. Auntie Helen is now 82 and has been regaling me with fascinating tales from various parts of her life. She was married to Taffy (real name Rhys, but he was Welsh so everyone called him Taffy) who was a mining engineer, so they lived all over the world, including Mount Isa in Queensland in the 60s. Their son Bryn was born at a Flying Doctor station there, and she has all sorts of stories of spending their days in the 40+ degree heat with only 'Kalgoorlie Coolers' (wet sheets over a fan) to keep them cool. When the roads flooded they would have no supplies for days and the first thing which made it through was always beer. Then milk and then medical supplies. (Sounds like some Australian priorities never change.)

They also lived in Rhodesia before it was Zimbabwe, Ontario, South Africa and several parts of Canada, where their children and even their dog tagged along with them. I could write a whole book of her stories! She was a child in Leeds during the war with my Granny, Doreen, and they are still very close: my Granny came out to Vancouver to visit last year. They were evacuated to the Gwrdu in Wales during the war together. I shall have to ask Granny to tell me some more of their childhood stories when I see her later this year.

Squirrel!

Loitering tankers offshore

Today I decided to re-acquaint my feet with my hiking boots so did a 18-kilometre walk round Stanley Park, a 1000-acre peninsular of coastal rainforest right on Helen's doorstep. Despite the grey skies and drizzle it is a stunning place and I came back with sore legs and rosy cheeks (and hopefully a desire to sleep through the jetlag tonight). Tomorrow morning Stephen is driving to Seattle so I will cadge a lift with him and be there in time for luncheon.

 The Lions Gate Bridge

Stanley Park Totem Poles

Early observations can confirm some of the Canadian stereotypes I've heard. Everyone is wearing sensible footwear, fleeces and waterproof jackets. Also, judging by the power behind the shower, there is clearly no water shortage here.

One final thing to mention, my good friend Jill didn't even wait until I was out of the country for 24 hours before giving birth to her son, Billy. How inconsiderate! (However I shall forgive her as he looks adorable and I can't wait to meet him on his first birthday.)

Heading off...

'How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.'
Winnie the Pooh

Farewell food

I'm not very good at goodbyes. I frequently ghost at parties and like to keep necessary farewells as brief as possible. When I left the UK I pretty much packed up and left within a week. This long drawn-out 3-month leaving process has actually been quite challenging. On the one hand I've enjoyed being able to plan more thoroughly, downsize more gradually and feel prepared for my trip. On the other hand I feel as though I'm now outstaying my welcome and people are bored of hearing about my plans!

A series of farewell gatherings commenced in mid-December with a Greek dinner at the house of one of my work colleagues, Carl. My wonderful team laid on quite a spread, making homemade labneh, hummus, cured salmon and delicious 12-hour slow-cooked lamb. Perfectly orchestrated and secretly planned, it was an absolute pleasure to spend the evening with these fantastic people whose daily company I have enjoyed over the last few years. I shall indeed miss this bunch.

I realise that although I diligently photographed the delicious food, and even the stunning view, I didn't get a picture of my teammates! (Which probably says a lot about me.) I was extremely touched and grateful that they went to all the effort, and it was indeed a spectacular way to begin my departure.

I also bid farewell to the gorgeous gals in my book club. The five of us have been meeting pretty much monthly for over three years, taking it in turns to cook dinner and desert and choose books to talk about. Really it's just an excuse to get together, try out new recipes and drink wine, but it's also made me read books I never would have thought to pick up. For my farewell edition Alanya cooked beautiful stuffed capsicums and we cooked up plans for me to skype in to a book club from overseas.

After the culinary excess of Christmas I thought I couldn't bring myself to eat another thing, but Sydney's foodie culture is far too tempting in my final days here. For my big final farewell I hired a room in a pub called The Henson in Marrickville and couldn't leave without trying their magnificent pork belly dish.

Baker extraordinaire, Kim, treated me to a scrumptious leaving cake which brought a tear to my eye and a 'yum' to the lips of my friends who tucked in.

With one final leaving dinner at the Rosser family home the night before I fly, I think I can safely commit to continue my longstanding tradition of photographing all of the tasty food I eat while neglecting to take pictures of the people I'm with. Let's see what delicious meals I snap while on the road.