Washington D.C.: Cheap is Good, Free is Better

The western side of the Mall viewed from the Washington Monument

After my failed attempt at auditioning for the winter's rendition of Tarzan in B.C. put  our North American highlights tour on hold, we headed home to recuperate and set our sights on the east coast of the U.S.

One of the benefits of the said failure was the chance to experience an 'All American Thanksgiving', something Nic and I have been wanting to do since our first foray into the holiday back in Namibia (of all places) in 2012. It was there we met Kendall and Marge, and our fondness for all things American grew into a want for more.

Kendall kindly invited us into her home for the holiday weekend, where we were taken in by her husband Taylor and mother-in-law Trina. We were immediately a part of the family, and even more immediately warned of the dangers involved in Thanksgiving. The most inherent danger was explained to us as 'over-eating' at the first gathering, an 80 year old tradition on Kendall's dad's side, as it is highly offensive not to eat at the second sitting, which was to be at Kendall's grandmother's family home. The tradition is not 'over-eating', rather the family have been getting together to celebrate for the last 79 years and we just happened to be in town for the 80th, and getting carried away with the serving size was always a trap for young players.

The second warning was of a more political matter - discuss them at your own peril, or amusement! 

We may or may not have failed to heed these warnings, but it was a day of thanks nonetheless. There was more food put together than I thought imaginable, and the desserts were too good not to indulge in, even though every fibre in my body was telling me it wouldn't be a good idea.

American Thanksgiving in all it's decadence.

The rest of the holiday weekend was spent half feeling sorry for ourselves, half been thankful we had the opportunity to put our bodies through such an ordeal. Because after all, isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about? I should add that we snuck in a private tour of the Library of Congress, guided by Taylor himself who had trained to be a docent there a few years back, along with a night on the town and a Bruce Springsteen cover band gig, rumoured to be the best in the world, and although they were pretty bloody good, they were no TS rendition of 'Dancing in the Dark' good!

The Library of Congress 

Sunday brought about a tradition I had been away from for far too long - Church! Yes Sunday is to be spent in quiet reflection and thought... on what your NFL team could be doing better, or have done better. Or better yet, how good your team is doing. And better still is taking yourself to your place of worship and experiencing it live. Thanksgiving had not only given us a chance to experience the American holiday in all its glory, but Kendall's Dad had also generously given his two members tickets to Kendall and Taylor, and Kendall had even more generously given her ticket to us. And Nic didn't get a chance to be generous and let me take the one ticket up for grabs, rather I took that burden upon myself and didn't look back.

Throw in that it was one of the biggest rivalry games in the NFL and I really thought it would be wise of me to put myself in harms way and try and enjoy the game. Redskins v Giants didn't disappoint, well if you are Giants fan it did, but who really cares about the Giants. 

When Nic and I have indulged in the American sports it is usually from the nose-bleeds, but not on this occasion. Prime time seats, under cover and centre field had me thankful I had chosen to take on this burden and tried to enjoy myself.

Don't mind if I do!

With the end of the weekend, the real world called Taylor and Kendall back, but Nic and I haven't really had that dilemma for a while now, so we spent the week on Washington's famous Mall.

This is where D.C. really comes into its own.

With walking stick in tow, we perused the multitude of museums, sights, memorials, galleries, etc. on offer all for the costly entry price of nothing! None of the buildings along the Mall have an entry fee, well none we were going to set foot in anyway. Some of the museums have ticketed exhibits but you really don't need to bother. The amount of information, exhibits, showpieces, etc. already freely available is mind boggling.

I made the comment to Nic that one way or another D.C. will ruin something for you. If you had never travelled before and D.C. was your first stop, I think you would find it hard pressed to ever enter another museum again on your travels. One might think that being free, the museums may be second rate, but that is about as far from the truth as America's gun laws are to being logical. Even with the amount of museums and places we have been to on our travels, we still felt the need to check out every nook and cranny of every place we stepped inside. Yes, a lot of the exhibits were on things we had already seen, or experienced, and we may not have been as amazed as a first timer, but if you hadn't travelled before, the information on show here would be astounding.

The picks of the bunch for us were the American History, the Natural History, the Air and Space and the Holocaust Museums. Fair to say they are all worth the price of admission!

Dorothy's shoes (American History Museum), The Holocaust Museum, the Original Wright Brothers Plane (National Air & Space Museum) and Julia Child's Kitchen (American History)

And then there is the Mall itself...

The walk from The Capitol all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial is amazing. The memorials and monuments along the way are all not to be missed. The views afforded from the top of the Washington Monument are some of the best we have seen to date. And yes, entry is free.

The Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial

There is just something about been more than 100 meters higher than any other buildings that makes the vantage point just that much better.

To the south is Virginia and the Potomac River, the north has a little place called the White House, but its the views to the East and West that are the breath-takers. The Washington Monument sits nearly smack bang in the centre of the Mall and the view down to the Capitol is amazing, with all the Smithsonian museums lining the green of the Mall. But the view westward towards the Lincoln Memorial is the winner for me. The Reflecting Pool, the WWII Memorial, the Monument itself and the surrounding gardens and grounds make for scenery you wouldn't imagine possible in the heart of downtown D.C. 

The views to the East, North and West from the top of the Washington Monument

A short hike from the Mall is that place called the White House, which is more than worth the detour, as is a day trip out to the zoo if you have the time on your hands. Again, like all good things in Washington it's free, so if you come away from it disappointed there is something wrong with you.

The star of the show!

If a trip to D.C. is on your radar, book the flight - you won't be disappointed. If museums are your thing, give yourself a good week to make the most of it. If museums aren't your thing, there is more than enough to keep you amused, and one of the best things about Washington is it won't break your budget.

The White House, The Jefferson Monument and The Capitol Building 

It's one of the best things about travelling - catching up with old friends who take you in and make you family. Kendall, Taylor and Trina made us feel a part of the family from the moment we walked in the door. Being in Washington for Thanksgiving was pre-planned but we would have never thought how much fun Washington could be, and it sure as hell wouldn't have been half as fun without the MacFarlands!

Cheers for putting up with us guys.

Glacier National Park: Saving the Best for Last

On top of Grinnell Glacier overlooking Grinnell Lake

As the title suggests, if you haven’t heard of Glacier N.P., do yourself a favour and Google it. It may not be as well known as Yellowstone or Yosemite, or as popular, but it’s definitely as good, if not better. In fact maybe that is why we liked it so much, getting away from the crowds and really finding the ‘hikers’ park.

I call it the ‘hikers’ park because there are no easy hikes in Glacier. You either see if from the comfort of your car, or you get off your arse and walk. I would definitely recommend the latter of these two options. That’s not to say you can’t enjoy it from the road side, in fact the Going to the Sun Road (GTTSR) is one of its more well know attractions.

But if you really want to experience Glacier, you have to clock up the k’s.

The picks of the bunch were Iceberg Lake and the Garden Wall, both quite gruelling hikes but both brought back memories of our first foray into this hiking caper – Patagonia. And if that’s not enough to convince you that Glacier needs to be high on your hit list, where Patagonia wins in the scenery and serenity department, Glacier is streaks ahead in the animal category.

The Garden Wall and Iceberg Lake

Throughout our stay in Glacier we were graced with the presence of two bears doing as they pleased, a moose taking an ice-cold bath, an owl recovering from a big night on the town, big horn sheep doing a whole heap of f_ck all, and an up close and personal encounter with a marmot not really interested in the daily goings on of our lives (that didn’t stop me trying to tell him anyway). Sadly we missed out on catching the beavers in action, or getting the grizzly encounter we, or at least I, have been longing for, but that’s just the way the biscuit falls apart!

Hiking the Garden Wall can be as easy or hard as you want to make it, but again I encourage you to make it as hard as you can endure. Most people tackle Logan’s Pass, which from memory is a sedate 14 miles along the continental divide that gives you incredible views of the valley, all the way down to Lake McDonald and the high country.

The views along Logan's Pass

I would highly recommend fitting in the quick 3 mile round trip out to Hidden Lake just to warm the legs up. Firstly, it’s a boardwalk style hike. Secondly, it’s almost always cold up at Logan’s Pass, so stretching the legs isn’t a bad idea. And thirdly, Hidden Lake is pretty spectacular in its own rights!

Hidden Lake

But if you really want to get the most out of the Garden Wall and Logan’s Pass, at about the half way point of the 14 miles, there is a steep climb up to a view point on top of Grinnell Glacier. And although the hike is steep, windy, gruelling and seems to go on forever, there aren’t too many places in the world where you can practically sit on top of a glacier.

Oh and the views down to Grinnell Lake, Lake Josephine, Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Sherburne aren’t too bad...In fact they are probably the pick the lot!

View atop Grinnell Glacier

I think we clocked up close to 30 k’s this day, but if you have it in you, it’s probably the hike of the trip so far. Big call, but I’ll back it in.

Our other favourite hike was out to Iceberg Lake. A little easier only being 10 or 11 miles, but again worth every step. Along the way you pass a few waterfalls, and the scenery really is breath taking, but the lake at the end of it is where the money is at. Much like the Glacier Grey hike in Patagonia, it ends with at an electric blue lake, complete with more icebergs that the Titanic had to navigate – slight stretch there, but truly it is incredible to be able to sit back in the sunshine and just watch these icebergs just float about, whilst trying to work up the courage to take a dip!

That is one of the other best things about Glacier N.P. – most of the lakes are cold but not too cold to swim in. Barring Iceberg Lake, which as the name suggests is slightly on the frigid side of things, the rest are big enough to remain warm enough in the summer months to cool off in after one of those gruelling days on the foot falcon. And they are also cold enough to drop a few tins in, wait half an hour and the sink some pleasantly cold froths as the sun sets of the mountain ranges. And if that doesn’t excite you, I don’t know what would!

Sunset beers along the shores of Swiftcurrent Lake

Sadly, experts are predicting that by 2030 all of the park’s glaciers will have disappeared, and with it one of America’s unsung wonders will melt away with them. So if you’ve got an American National Parks trip planned for the future, make it the near future and you won’t regret it.

Logan's Pass Boardwalk

Portland: No Real Rhyme or Reason To It

Portland viewed from the Washington Park

I was chatting with a mate the other day about his travels and we came across an interesting point in that there are places you just love without any real reason behind the fondness. Most of the time you fall in love with a place because of the people you meet, or the things you do or see, but some places you like just because you like it. There is no real rhyme or reason to it, it’s just that.

There have been a few of these places so far on our travels, Tallinn and Riga come to mind, but they are few and far between and none more so than Portland.

We didn’t do anything in particular that was great, but we had one of the best weekends of our trip to date. Yes we were in town for the Oregon Brewers Festival, and although it was good it wasn’t anything I would recommend to others to get involved in. It sounds tastier than it was – over 100 craft breweries putting their reputations on the line in America’s Mecca of craft brewing (yeah I had you at 100 breweries) but we found we had a better time at the plethora of local breweries.

Sampling a few of Portland's finest, with a few of Perth's finest

I should point out that we spent the weekend in Portland with some good friends and it may have just been that Nic and I were so excited to talk to people other than ourselves, that anywhere would have given us the same vibe but I think Portland has something to it that you just can’t put your finger on.

For starters there is Portland’s slogan, albeit I don’t think the locals are too fond of it, ‘Keep Portland Weird’ but maybe it is that. We had heard rumours of Portland’s weirdness but we actually got to see one of its more eccentric characters in the flesh, and it seemed we were the only ones to find this even slightly out of the ordinary. I ask you, would a man riding a unicycle down one of the main streets of town wearing a Darth Vader mask pique your curiosity? What if that said guy was doing just this whilst playing the bagpipes? 

The myth?

Shit, I nearly fell over, but most people didn’t even raise an eyebrow. In fact I think they probably thought I was the weird one chasing the guy down the road trying to get a photo of him! Apparently he is somewhat of a regular sight, often changing his instruments and costumes (a flute and a tutu have been noted), but always keeping his mode of transport the same. I suppose the unicycle would be one of the only people carriers around where you always have your hands free!

The legend!

There are the number of eclectic suburbs to wander through, and the even more numerous breweries to quench your thirst at, but if someone asked me whether Portland is worth going to I would give them a resounding yes, but if they pressed further as to what to do in Portland I really wouldn’t be able to give much more of an answer than ‘grab some mates and enjoy it!’

To be honest we may have enjoyed Portland so much because we spent a fair amount of the weekend just chilling out with some good friends, drinking delicious beers and talking a fair amount of shite (three of my favourite things), which was a fair change from the previous 8 weeks of practically being on the move every waking moment. But Portland has an allure to it that has to be experienced rather than read about.