Sleepless in Seattle

Monday 7th July we took sad leave of Al and Cindy in Minneapolis and boarded the flight to Seattle. Here the adventure really begins. Arriving with only the packs on our backs we'd given ourselves 48 hours in which to find and buy a car, equip ourselves with all the camping gear we'd need, buy food, do some sightseeing, catch up with friends Terry Cumpston and Brooke Mobley, and then head out. Somehow we managed all of that!

Our first priority was the car. We'd considered hiring instead of buying, as long term rentals can actually be quite cheap in the US. But the look of horror on the face of the car hire rep when we told him we wanted to drive the car to Alaska suggested that we may have perhaps misjudged our audience on this one. He assured us earnestly and repeatedly that no Seattle car hire company would ever dream of allowing any of their vehicles to be driven on the infamous Alaska Highway. So, on to Plan B. After visits to several second hand car dealers, we found ourselves the proud new owners of a Jeep Cherokee by mid-afternoon on our first day in Seattle, and thus we moved on to our next priority. Camping gear.

Max in full wading gear at David's house

Here we lucked out with the extraordinary generosity of our friend David Bruck, who lives on the east side of Seattle overlooking Lake Washington. In addition to running his own innovative baobab company (Baobab Foods), David is a former rugby player and keen fisherman. And owns lots of camping equipment which he no longer uses. Very, very useful! One trip to David's stunning hilltop house later and we came away with just about everything we needed, including crab net (for those Dungeness Crabs), salmon and trout rods and even full river wading gear.  Bring it on, Alaska!

Picnic lunch with Brooke and the Cumpstons

Next priority was catching up with Terry and Brooke. I still had car admin stuff to do, but Mands and Max joined up with them and spent a happy afternoon at the EMP museum (an entire museum dedicated to classic rock music - heaven!), and then I met up with them later. Fantastic to catch up with them again, our third shared continent with the Cumpstons. Concluded the evening with a fabulous dinner with David and his wife Jane, overlooking a busy lake (with kayakers, yachts, surf-paddlers and floatplanes all sharing the same busy space) and enjoying our first taste of the legendary NW Pacific sockeye salmon.

And so, two days and three nights after arriving in Seattle with almost nothing, we left with a car, a load of camping gear and a coolbox full of fine micro-brewed beer. On the road at last!

On the ferry heading towards Canada