Pacific Northwest Road Trip (Blog)

[Savage]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Steve Pavlina's blog:

Pacific Northwest Road Trip

[Angela]

Bon voyage! What a wonderful time of year to take a road trip. Lots of love and adventure to you on your journey!

[Lakshyayidhi Lakshmihi]

Haha, roadtrips and relationships. They say if your relationship survives an extended roadtrip you know it's a good one. Good cheer, Steve.

I've been on many extended roadtrips, my Dad was a wanderer and he dragged us along, and as an adult I continued the tradition.

The last really long one I went on was about 4 years ago to Europe for a month. We flew in to Dusseldorf and rented a car and first drove up into the Netherlands, down into Belgium through France along the Cote d'Azur and into Italy. Rented a house in Umbria for 2 weeks, honestly I preferred the time spent with the home base and day trips from there. Then drove back to Germany by way of Switzerland during the Tour d'Suisse of all times, so got detoured along all these rickety cobblestone roads in the Alps. Then home.

It was an interesting trip, but my companion certainly was a chore to endure.

[James81]

Sounds Awesome.

I've been to Seattle and it's a beatiful city (especially from the air).

And I highly, highly recommend going up to Whidbey Island and spending a day or two exploring that. It's such an awesome place, and there is a little town there called Langley that is so quaint and cool. (and a little pizzaria along the main drag through that town that makes awesome pies ...although, you're a raw foodist, so that might not appeal to you )

In any case, have loads of fun.

[JeremyNoelJohnson]

Steve, road trips are fun. We've taken several road trips to Seattle and one to Yellowstone. We live just south of Salt Lake City, Utah, so it is a good 'launching point'

To answer some of your questions:

Have you ever gone on a road trip?

--> Yes, see above

If so, what advice would you have for us?

--> You already know the basics: full service the car, check the tires, etc... I'm sure you can afford (or probably already have) a GPS and plugin your destinations. Knowing which zones have construction is important. The only website I saw that seemed even close was this one: National Traffic and Road Closure Information - but even it is 'lacking'.

That advice was mostly useless. My best advice is this: take the time driving to reflect. I listened to Jim Rohn audio while driving and that really helped me. For you, you may just want to sit and ponder while reveling in the great freedom we have to just take off in a car and explore the country. While you are driving, use it as time to reflect more on your life and purpose. This helped me 'orient' myself, especially our last trip to Yellowstone.

It was while driving to Yellowstone that I gained an appreciation for nature and life. I'm somewhat of a mole who sits at a computer most of the time. But getting out and seeing there was more to life than keyboards, monitors, and pixels was very useful for me.

Did you enjoy the experience?

--> Yes and no. It's a long drive to Seattle from here. The trip will be even longer for you. I'd recommend a lower back support for your car seat if you don't already have one. Something like this: Flat Back Lumbar Support Pillow (w/ strap), Jobri, A6008 (not an affiliate link, but the closest thing I could find to what I have). I had lower back surgery so I pay extra attention to my lower back. I have to get out of the car every 2 hours and stretch out and get ice, so that factor is the only thing that makes a road trip tough for me. Maybe you don't have that worry though.

That you are going to be in Salt Lake is of note to me. I live about 30 minutes south of it. I am studying your article series on networking with busy people. This sounds like a great time to put it to the test

For Salt Lake City and Seattle, I'm going to ping my wife on that and have her send you a message personally. She has family in Seattle and has taken at least 10 road trips there. She's much more equipped to give you value right now in that area. When we travel, she's our tour guide and I think she'll be able to offer a few insights for you.

Good luck on the road trip. I'm forming an intention in my mind about Salt Lake City now.

[jayh]

I went on a similar three week road-trip about 20 years ago. We started in Georgia, and places included Vegas, Salt Lake City, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Carlsbad, etc..

The motto for our trip was "No hurry - no worry". That worked really well. Staying in cheap motels was kind of a fun adventure, and we only felt unsafe maybe once..

We stopped to listen in on a rehearsal of the Morman-Tabernacle choir in Salt Lake City. But be aware there are strange restrictions in that city like no Coffee or Tea in restaurants (caffeine restrictions). I know you don't drink that anyway though.

Have fun!

[Curtis2011]

Eww, road trips. Gross.

[Cochonette]

I didn't entirely understand why you kept blogging about it before.

The only road trips I've been on were to Las Vegas and New Orleans. My mom likes to gamble, if you couldn't guess.

[curiouslyrandom]

I LOVE roadtrips, and I LOVE the Pacific Northwest! We drove from SF to Olympia, Seattle and Victoria just about every summer when I was a kid. I also lived in Oregon for about 9 years, so I can go on and on about that.

Drop me a line if you want to meet up in San Francisco, or if you need a place to crash. My new place has a guest room and a garden!

[Jonathan Browne]

Check out Olympia for sure it's fantastic.

I've done about a 15000 mile road trip with absolutely no money.

I flew signs to get money and actually lived with no fear of my survival on the road for a period of months. I generated enough money from holding up a sign on the road saying "traveling - broke and hungry" to drive all the way from my home in mass to Florida, down route I-10 through Texas, staying in Sedona for 2 weeks, going to Vegas and selling "energy crystals" with a woman I met in Sedona for a period of about 2 weeks, going to LA to attend a conference, allowing my Australian friend I met in Sedona to borrow my car while I went to Vegas and meeting him in Vegas to get my car back about 3 weeks later.

I then went to California stayed in San Francisco for 2 weeks and met some travelers that went with me to Santa Cruz where I met a really hot redhead chick who had just come off the mountains with about 5 grand from trimming weed. We hit it off and I ended up driving her to Olympia and becoming her boyfriend for about 4 months before she traveled to Taiwan to teach English.

Incredible times and i'm a very different person as you can imagine after such a road trip.

[Jake Birkett]

Sounds fun, I'd like to do one in the opposite direction i.e going South from Vancouver.

There's some amazing countryside and mountains around Vancouver. If you are both feeling fit, come and do the Grouse Grind (Grouse Mountain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) with me.

Have a great trip. Hope to meet you in Vancouver.

[Tam9]

Road trips are great!

You have time to reflect and observe while enjoying beautiful scenery (most of the time).

[Ramsus]

My family used to take a road trip from Provo Utah out to North Carolina every other year. So I've had some experience with long road trips.

Here's some advice off the top of my head:

Check all of your routes, make sure that any mountain passes are going to be open, that probably shouldn't be a problem this time of year, but having to backtrack and go out of your way several hours is never fun.

Book where you are going to sleep ahead of time. Driving around a city at midnight trying to find somewhere to stay isn't any fun, and sometimes there might be local events that you wouldn't know about that might cause motels to fill up.

Be prepared for a lot of thinking and conversation. Six or eight hours of driving gives you a lot of time to think about things. Although I don't think you'll probably have trouble filling the time.

Don't be afraid to go off the regular road, but plan for it ahead of time. There are a lot of very scenic roads you can take, they might take a bit longer than the regular roads, but the scenery can really make up for it. But like I said in the first tip, make sure that the roads will be open and navigable.

Also, I'm excited that you're coming to Salt Lake I live just out of downtown, and would love a chance to meet you. As for what to do, Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City is interesting. The canyons are one of the big draws in Salt Lake. You could probably route your path to go through a couple of the canyons, and in mid to late October the trees will be beautiful with oranges, reds and yellows.

I'll post again if I have any more ideas for interesting things to do in Salt Lake.

[cbthiess]

Road trips are awesome. I've been on many notable ones.

My suggestions:
1. keep your eyes open for reasons to side-track; these will be some of your highlights
2. make loose route plans, but no timing plans. You never know where you'll want to stay longer.
3. Portland - Powell's Books - apparently a heavenly, huge, rambling, confusing bookstore that winds through multiple buildings. Never been, but it's on my list.
4. Mountains - every route has new beauty. Take many routes.

Cheers,
-Chris Thiessen

[jayh]

Originally Posted by Ramsus

My family used to take a road trip from Provo Utah out to North Carolina every other year. So I've had some experience with long road trips.

Here's some advice off the top of my head:

Check all of your routes, make sure that any mountain passes are going to be open, that probably shouldn't be a problem this time of year, but having to backtrack and go out of your way several hours is never fun.

Book where you are going to sleep ahead of time. Driving around a city at midnight trying to find somewhere to stay isn't any fun, and sometimes there might be local events that you wouldn't know about that might cause motels to fill up.

Be prepared for a lot of thinking and conversation. Six or eight hours of driving gives you a lot of time to think about things. Although I don't think you'll probably have trouble filling the time.

Don't be afraid to go off the regular road, but plan for it ahead of time. There are a lot of very scenic roads you can take, they might take a bit longer than the regular roads, but the scenery can really make up for it. But like I said in the first tip, make sure that the roads will be open and navigable.

Also, I'm excited that you're coming to Salt Lake I live just out of downtown, and would love a chance to meet you. As for what to do, Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City is interesting. The canyons are one of the big draws in Salt Lake. You could probably route your path to go through a couple of the canyons, and in mid to late October the trees will be beautiful with oranges, reds and yellows.

I'll post again if I have any more ideas for interesting things to do in Salt Lake.

Just to add to what you said about booking in advance - what we did on our road trip was only book the busier places like Vegas and the Grand Canyon for example, but left everything else up to spontaneity. This left us with major milestones to make, but also gave us the flexibility to stay longer in a given location if we wanted to. It also meant staying in shady motels sometimes!

On average, I would say we traveled at least 4 hours a day, so it is nice to have the flexibility to stay an extra day if you become road weary.

[KeepTahoeBlue]

Steve, I have lived in Tahoe for 6 years. If you are short on time, I would suggest skipping Reno, and spending a night or two at Lake Tahoe, instead.

If you like, I could suggest some activities, or even take you two on a short hike with a great view of the Lake.

Enjoy your Adventure!

Tom

[Katia]

I have done three road trips so far, all of them in Europe, and I definitely want to do more. Probably the most epic one was with my boyfriend at the time, and his fantastic van made into a kind of a motor home (so we never had to pay for a hotel, and could sleep just anywhere we liked the scenery). It was a 6-week-long ride through central and south Europe, and we enjoyed everything from mountains to sea, forest to historical towns, castle ruins to huge busy cities, some pretty exotic food, sports and much more in 11 countries.

I agree with cbthiess's recommendations, these have worked very well for us. The road trips are just perfect for taking inspired actions, so our plans are always very loose and we go with any opportunity that presents itself on the way and sounds good. Sometimes we abandon the plan altogether and go somewhere else on a whim. It is always absolutely delightful. So relax, allow yourself enough time and see what happens without too much planning. I recommend avoiding highways, as there are very few surprises on them. Oh, and getting lost is actually a good thing

Road trips are the best way to spend holidays - well, for me anyway. I think you will love it too, Steve and Rachelle. Have fun

[Theobinomy]

It is a beautiful wonderful city. Great people, bike loving, laid back.

Some places to visit: Stumptown coffee (speaking of... coffee is a part of the culture), many of the local breweries for their great brews (widmeir bro.s and dachutes). In the same area (because you'll be walking) is thai peacock, powells books. Take the portland street car to twenty third (or trendy-third lol). Bustling arts all over (first thursdays downtown or last thursdays in alberta).

Maybe you can do a local foraging tour? Check out First ways First Ways They'll probably put you in the local/live food network around here.

Perhaps check out Food Fight, the infamous vegan grocery store.

Also, buy "The Zinester's Guide to Portland" ($5)

Downtown there are a ton of food carts, which can be fun. I recommend the crepe's, but I can be biased.

10/10/10 is the portland marathon

Backspace is a cool coffeehouse/art gallery/gaming spot

Thats just to get you started.
Oh geez, and thats just in the city, when you get out go to the gorge/Willamette (will-am-et) falls for some great hikes.

[cylon]

I love the Bay Area.

I drove the Highway 1 coastal route from Southern California to San Francisco last year, such a great experience. And the scenery is absolutely beautiful.

Probably where I'll end up living.

[danas]

I LOVE road-trips!!!!!!! Especially in America (I say this as a non American- so maybe its less exciting for an american)
I love sleeping in cheap motels and tents with a person I love.
One of the most romantic things in the world!
Ive been on road trips in the West coast USA, UK, Turkey, Mongolia, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Austria, Mongolia, Lapland and more..
The USA is very fun because its fascinating culture (I loved going to rodeos and barn dances haha), beautiful landscapes, super friendly people and its very very convenient (unlike some other places on my list).

[LDRydr]

If I don't get in a road-trip at least every couple of months I go stir-crazy. But I'm a motorcycle addict so it goes with the territory. My 2006 Yamaha FJR1300 has 87,000 miles on it. A little road trip in May/June this year took me to Mexico, all lower 48 states, B.C. Canada and Hyder Alaska in 9.5 days! I can say I've been almost everywhere.

I live in the first Vancouver, which is Vancouver Washington USA, a mere 10 miles north of Portland, just across the mighty Columbia River, which divides the two states. With a quick stop here you could tell your friends and blog-followers you'd visited BOTH Vancouver's!

I lived in Portland for years before escaping, so I should at least mention a few places you should see there:

Voodoo Doughnuts for a bacon maple bar.

Portland City Grill on top of the U.S. Bank Building for the best view in town, and the food is pretty tasty, too.

Pittock Mansion former home of early pioneer family that owned the first local newspaper.

Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum is outside Portland a bit, but still worth it. Home of The Spruce Goose!

Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood See what the WPA built with your folks tax money back in 1936-37.

And no trip to Portland would be complete without visiting a few of the hundreds of micro-breweries.

But enough about Portland. Come see Vancouver!

Fort Vancouver & Vancouver National Historic Reserve former home of the Hudson's Bay Company large trading post.

The Columbia River Gorge home of the second largest river in North America and multiple spectacular waterfalls.

And why stay in the big bustling city of Portland when you can stay at beautiful Heathman Lodge in Vancouver?

Depending on the days you pass through here I can be available to assist with questions you may have, or as a free tour-guide or beer-tasting guide. Just reach out. And if you don't, enjoy your trip!

[Zach M]

Congrats. The Pacific Northwest is one of my favorite places on the planet. And of course, I'll be happy to scout out a vegan restaurant in Sacramento for you.

[Razilee]

Oooh, shameless website plug opportunity: Loving Vancouver

As you might be able to tell, Vancouver is my favourite place on your list of destinations. I'd love to meet up with you while you're in town. I had hoped that Rachelle might be part of the Vancouver Fringe Festival that's on right now, but no such luck

The top 3 things to do in Vancouver in my book are walking/riding around the Sea Wall at Stanley Park, shopping for art and delicious foods at Granville Island and teetering across the Capilano Suspension Bridge (or the free Lynn Canyon Bridge if you haven't manifested enough cash for Capilano ).

There's tons more that I love to do here too, but I shouldn't hijack the whole thread!

Happy road-tripping and I hope to see you here

[Theobinomy]

regarding Vancouver.

take one of the little boat taxis: ohhh fun!

[Gene]

I hope you have a glorious and inspiring trip!

[Andrew Brunelle]

3 weeks seems kind of long for a road trip, but do what you wish, Steve. It is your life. It seems like you've gotten rather distant from your children, and I'm thinking these "road trips" might be a way for you to get away from them for a long, extended period of time. I really don't know how much time you spend with the children you agreed to create, but taking a 3 week road trip after taking about a month away from them in Canada seems self-indulgent.

It seems like Erin does most of the childcare, and I think it is wrong that she will be stuck doing all of it again because you want to take another one of your trips. I don't mean to get down on you, Steve, but why such extended vacations away from your children? Is there some underlying reason there or are you just needing to get away for a month at a time (or close to it)?

[Zach M]

Originally Posted by Razilee

Vancouver is awesome

Agreed. It's one of my favorite urban environments in the world, and I even lived there for a brief time.

The best way to see Vancouver, weather permitting, is by 2-person kayak. You can rent one at Granville Island (a peninsula actually). No experience required.

[Angela]

I love Vancouver, too. I could imagine happily living there.

[Medea33]

I make a solo road trip every other year or so, starting from Seattle and going to Winnipeg or South Dakota. Just me, a fast car and hundreds of hours of music.

What works best for me is a combination of planning and serendipity, so I might book ahead for my first overnight stay and then decide each morning how loosely I want to approach things that day. One road trip, it took me two days to cover 400 miles, because I decided to pull over at every historical marker in that part of Montana. Best trip ever.

I like side roads better than major highways, except for Canada's Highway 1. And my best advice is to stay present and engaged, because a road trip isn't about the destination.

San Francisco is a great city, best seen from a boat. Take a ferry, if you can. Visit Alcatraz if you want a combination of spooky and cheesy, with a side of amazing views. Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. Fly kites at Fort Mason and walk along the Embarcadero.

For places to stay, it depends on how luxe you want to be. There's a killer hotel that occupies just the top few floors of a skyscraper (the Mandarin) and a cool boutique hotel on the edge of the Tenderloin (Bijou), where you can share your breakfast with a homeless person.

If you are hotel types, Portland's Hotel deLuxe is my favorite place to stay there. It's on the edge of both downtown and the Pearl District and was built in the 1920s. It's also only a short distance from MAXX, one of the great civic transportation systems, and Powell's Books, which is kinda like a big ole crack den for booklovers.

Like San Francisco, I think Seattle is best seen from a boat (or from the I-90 ramp to I-5, but that's another story). In addition to the other suggestions, I'd drive to Anacortes - a great old beach town gone upscale - and take the ferry to Orcas Island. I'd also recommend visits to Pike Place Market, Hiram Chittendon Locks and Seattle Center. See if there's anything interesting at Richard Hugo House, Book-it or On the Boards. If you bend in that direction, the clubs in Belltown and around Pike Place are lively. If you're quieter, maybe the Triple Door.

On your way to Vancouver, you might want to stop in Bellingham's Fairhaven District. There's a really good bookstore and the attached restaurant has a lot of vegan choices.

I'll stop now, before I get to Vancouver, which is my favorite city ever. Except, erm, you really need to take the boat taxi to Granville Island.

[roxyruby]

I hope you have a nice time!

I'm sure we'll be seeing lots of pictchies in your facebook.