Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming – Day 1

When entering Yellowstone National Park, Aleksey and I crossed borders quickly. Within a day we crossed from Washington to Idaho, to Montana, and finally to Wyoming where the large majority of the park exists. Yellowstone is a completely unique part of the world, at least to me. It is constantly changing due to one of the largest volcanoes in the world existing underneath its surface. In addition, the wildlife is really abundant compared to everywhere Aleksey and I have been so far. Within two days we saw 5 herds of mule deer, 2 Grizzly bears, a Pronghorn, and 8 or 9 huge Bison. When I say we saw them, I don’t mean at a distance, I mean we were right next to the animals (except the grizzly bears, they were about 60 – 80 feet from us). You will see in the pictures and the video just how close the Bison was – it was incredible(from the 2nd day)!! What a HUGE animal.

Our first stop in the park was the Mammoth Hot Springs, a place with a lot of terraces made from travertine – calcium carbonate, which is brought up to the surface by hot water from beds of limestone underground. As it is in the majority of the park, the travertine here was multi-colored due to the bacteria, Archaea, chlorophyll (green), sulfur (stinky, I mean yellow) and other thermophiles thriving in the hot water. We hiked around for about an hour and returned to our car. It was now getting late so we decided to call it a night and go to sleep.

Seattle, Washington

First thing we did when we entered the city was head straight to the Pike Place Market, an indoor farmers market where local farmers and artisans sell their produce and wares. The Pike market is famous for the fish flinging seafood sellers who scream in unison and throw fish that people buy to each other. I personally expected a larger market with more venders at a cheaper price. I did however buy some of the best peas I have ever had from the market – yum.

Afterwards we head over to the old town district and took a quick stroll around. We visited a glass blowing shop with some incredible artwork and a glass-blower working. Back to Pike Market for Sushi!! We read in our guide book that Seatlle has some of the best Sushi outside of Japan, so Aleksey and I decided to inspect this for ourselves. Mickey’s Place is NUMBER 1!! It did not even come close to comparing with Mickey.

We visited the space needle and the surrounding park. One of the highlights of this part of the day was finding a free parking spot. The parking meters are even MORE expensive than in Manhattan: $2.50 for an HOUR!!! What the hell! Later we visited the Troll under the Aurora Bridge in the Fremont Disctrict. I had seen this troll in pictures and was thrilled to see it in person. As you will see in the pictures the troll had some company: Christmas Carolers. Next: a statue of Lenin brought to Seattle from Slovakia and a farmers market where I loaded up on fruit.

Back to Pike Market for Seafood!!! We read in our guide book that Seattle has some of the freshest Salmon and sea-food in the Country so we, yet again, decided to inspect the claim. We went to Pike Pub and Restaurant, a very nice and cozy restaurant overlooking the Pike Market. Aleksey got a combo platter with smoked Salmon, a crab cake, and something unidentified. I got char-grilled Salmon on rice pilaf. We both really enjoyed our food – yum yum.

Off to Yellowstone!

Portland, Oregon – A small big city.

I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Portland. Aleksey and I spent the vast majority of our time inside the “Pearl District,” a small collection of streets in the north western section of downtown Portland. The city has the most restaurants and microbreweries per capita in the United States. For lunch we decided to eat at a health conscious restaurant at the edge of the Pearl District, where Aleksey quickly ordered a grilled hamburger. The food was excellent, and not too expensive. Later in the day we visited one of the many microbreweries and had a beer each (I had a brown ale that was OK, and Aleksey had the “Russian River Damnation” which he thinks was SO-SO). Off to Seattle, Washington.