August 27 & 28, 2016

Bellingham to Seattle to Glendale, Ca

Miles: 0 

We woke up around 7:30. We both felt confined in the bleached sheets and overly tucked in blankets. These days we sleep best on our air pads in our tent. 

Within 30 minutes of waking our stomachs started to growl. We walked to the shopping center across the street and were lured into a restaurant by their hearty servings and gluten free toast.

And you will never believe what is in that same shopping mall….. Another REI. We took a picture just for the fun of it but never went inside (they weren’t open yet and we couldn’t think of anything that we needed.)

After a filling breakfast we wandered around the grocery store trying to decide what we wanted for lunch. 

It was overwhelming. 

There were so many choices. The only thing we knew we didn’t want were more nuts. We left with 2 local peaches and the intention to return later to buy lunch and breakfast for the next day.

Check out time was noon so we lounged around, tried watching a movie and sorted through our belongings. We had to discard lighters and gather everything that needed to be checked. 

Unfortunately trekking poles can’t be carried on so we put all of our sharp objects and liquids in Andy’s pack to be checked in.

At noon we walked to the grocery store with the intention of buying a rotisserie chicken. On the way we walked by Pho 99 – a Vietnamese restaurant – and were lured inside with thoughts of large bowls of vermicelli noodles and Pho.

When ordering the waitress asked if we wanted a small or large bowl of Pho.

“Extra large please” Andy replied with a smile. “We need to stay hydrated.”

The food was delicious and we happily ate everything.

We then went over to the supermarket to get breakfast for the following morning. We ended up with granola, a bag of chips, yogurt and a bag of gluten free ginger snaps. 

Very healthy huh? 

You would never know that Andy is a nutritionist.

As we were paying Laurie noticed a buy one get one free sale on Talenti ice cream. “Should we?”

“Nah, we don’t have a way to keep it cold. And we don’t have a rewards card so we won’t get the deal.”

“We have reward cards for visitors” replied the cashier. “If you want the ice cream I will wait for you.”

“We don’t want to hold up the line, we will think about it” responded Andy.

It didn’t take more than a minute to decide that we wanted ice cream. Roman Raspberry and Tahitian Vanilla Bean are our current favorites.

We finally left the grocery store and walked 2.5 miles to the greyhound station. It was a nice walk near Western Washington University and down through the cute downtown of Fairhaven.

We ate ice cream on the benches of the Greyhound station waiting for our bus and wondering how they stay in business. The station desk was closed and we had no way of getting our tickets from will call.

“This happens all the time. Who knows if they will come back today. They’ve been in and out all day. Just tell the bus driver and show him your confirmation email and you should be good to go” said Dave, the very helpful Amtrak employee.

Even our bus driver was upset when he pulled in and saw no one there. He clearly needed something and was unable to get it.

Now we know better. Amtrak has buses too and we’ll look to them first when we need a lift.

The ride to Seattle was uneventful. Most of the time our heads were buried in our phones trying to upload the previous 10 days worth of blog posts. 

When Andy took off his shoes we both remembered that we did need something from REI – socks! We have new shoes waiting for us in LA but most of Andy’s socks have holes. 

Man! We could have bought new socks this morning. Oh well!

Andy’s college friend James picked us up from the Greyhound station and we went to have clam chowder for dinner. 

As we walked around the Pike Street Market James asked if we needed anything.  Laurie joked that we needed to go to REI. Turns out we were only 5 minutes away. 

Two REI’s in two different cities in one day – this is getting a little crazy!

The REI in Seattle is the flagship store and a little overwhelming. And the Labor Day sale was on, making it doubly overwhelming. 

We stayed laser focused, got what we needed and got out.

James was gracious to let us crash at his place for the night. We chatted for about an hour and went to bed around 10. 

We had a super early morning and wanted to make sure we got enough sleep so we don’t get sick on this last leg.

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Sunday morning came too early. Our alarms went off at 3:45. James very graciously took us to the airport. We were amazed at how many people were there at 4:45 on a Sunday morning. Then again it is the end of summer. And apparently we aren’t the only ones chasing deals. 

We slept on the flight and the rest of the day was a blur. We ate, consolidated all the extra gear we have at Andy’s parents house, sorted food, picked up our bear cans, visited more family and again worked on editing and uploading the blog posts.

We even managed to dehydrate leftover gluten free pasta and food from Andy’s aunt and uncle’s restaurant Mini Kabob. We both love their food and have been fantasizing about whether it would be possible to dehydrate their chicken kabob, rice and grilled tomatoes. Why not?

Our time in LA always seems to go by so quickly. It wasn’t until 11 pm that we finally went to sleep.

We’re full and tomorrow morning will be another early one, but it’s all worth it because we will get back to the trail before our bodies think we’re done hiking and start hurting.

Tonight we are grateful for good friends and delicious home cooked food.

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