Warning, this attempt to be 'quick' was not quick at all...
Amazingly, I have a computer here in Seattle.
Given that I'm only here for less than 24 hours, I really need to make the most of it. So here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to use this time to quickly type up a summary of what I've been up to, day by day. The details can wait, but at least I'll have *something*.
So... where did we leave off...
Ah, November 16th. I was supposed to go to Berlin. Or at least, leave Göttingen. I had arrived in Göttingen on the night of Friday the 11th of November. I had planned to stay for three days. I didn't end up leaving until the 17th. My previous post explains the reason why.
The 'magic' that happened (that I wrote about in the post before *that*), refers to my re-connecting. Generally, the whole time I spent there was... really nice. There had been plans to show me around the town, but they mostly didn't happen... most of our time was spent at home, cooking dinners, watching anime and the Big Bang Theory on TV. This was preferable to me as well; my period had begun the day I arrived and I had significant period pain throughout my stay. Curling up in a bed all day was more than a welcome prospect. :( On the 14th of November we had gone for that wonderful, magical walk in the park. On the night of the 16th, instead of leaving Göttingen, we had gone out for dinner. Somewhere nice. Just as a way to say goodbye.
Every day I was supposed to leave, but I ended up staying another night. I even had hotels booked in other locations where I ended up losing my deposit (and was charged a night for) because I ended up staying. Every day I said I would leave the next day, and every day, the next day would come and we would decide to stay just one more day. Eventually, I had to leave. He nearly didn't believe me that I would, but I had to. So on the 17th of November, I was on the train to Copenhagen.
Half way there, he messaged me, to say a number of things, but that I had also left my camera battery charger and my international adapter at his place... D'oh!
I considered going back... I really did. But there was no way I could have returned and still had time to see Copenhagen. I had already - realistically - stayed as long as I could. I was now risking missing my flight from Copenhagen to Iceland. We decided I would continue onwards and he would send those things to a post office for me to collect.
17th November: Arrived in Copenhagen late at night.
(Gah there is a guy next to me who is jiggling his leg... it's *really* distracting. Why can't he stop!? Great, I start Googling 'Restless Leg Syndrome' and he's gone. I can focus again!)
18th November: This was my one day buffer before my flight. I suppose I *could* have gone back to Göttingen, but I really would have been cutting it close. I didn't want to lose my buffer day. But since I had it, I decided to take a day trip into Malmo, Sweden. A nice little place, nothing particularly exciting about it. Went for a long walk through it, and returned to Copenhagen. Went for a walk through the town, being incredibly careful about what pictures I took with my camera, knowing I had very limited battery power left. In addition to that, my memory cards were full, so I kept having to go through my camera and delete a few pictures. I inquired about buying more memory cards, but they wanted $40 for a 4GB one!? In Bangkok I bought a 32GB card for $45, thank you!
I walked through the main shopping street and saw they were setting up little kiosks for Christmas. Little wooden shops selling treats and chocolate and Christmas things. Christmas lights were up and it was all looking preeettty...
19th November: Today I flew to Iceland.
Oh wow, I'm not keeping this short at all. Let's try again.
19th November: Flew to Iceland. Landed, and two American women from Miami overheard I was looking at buying a bus ticket into the city, and offered me a lift in their rental car. Their names were Dora and Linda. This is important. You hear more about them later on. They dropped me off at Moya's place. Moya answered my Couchsurfing request for a place to stay.
20th November: Walked with Moya to the grocery store, bought Iceland's 'Skyrus' yogurty drink. The refrigerated room was warmer than outside. That was weeeeird. To step into a 'warm' room and see things that should be refrigerated just sitting on the shelves. IT HAILED ON ME! There wasn't even any rain first. Just clear, cold weather, then suddenly HAIL! Then suddenly NO HAIL! Then suddenly HAIL! I love Iceland. I ate fish and Minke whale. A cat followed me home and refused to leave.
21st Nov: The cat stayed with us the entire night. We put it outside and over an hour later it was still there. It came back in. Eventually Moya had to leave for university and I had to go to the Blue Lagoon. That was awesome! It was warm in the water and freezing in the air. It hailed on me there too. It was like:
'Ow! Ow! Ow!'
*sinks into the water to escape the hail attacking her*
...'Hot! Hot! Hot!'
*stands up to escape the hot water*
'...Ow! Ow!'
I went into the sauna for five minutes and my body was so warm I was able to stand outside in the freezing weather in nothing but my bikini. I took a few pictures with my camera (which still had power) before having to jump back into the water.
...man I suck at keeping things short! Okay. Each day in one line or less... GO:
21st Nov: Cat still there. Blue Lagoon. Hail. Pinched some lava rocks from the surroundings. Greenland is beautiful to fly over. New York.
22nd Nov: Stayed in Harlem. Scary. 'Someone' sent a huge bunch of flowers to my hostel, with chocolates.
23rd Nov: Walked through Central Park, saw the Thanksgiving Parade balloons being blown up
24th Nov: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Crowded :( Stumbled upon the Occupy/99% movement. Joined them for thanksgiving dinner.
25th Nov: Local day! Experienced the US local laundromat. Discovered Popeye's Fried Chicken and Biscuits... OMG so good.
26th Nov: Walked through Broadway, saw the Wall St Charging Bull, took ferry to Staten Island, saw Lady Liberty at sunset.
27th Nov: Visited the newly opened 9/11 memorial. So beautiful, but also sad. Nearly made me cry. Visited New Times Square.
28th Nov: Met Sabine, a Netherlands girl who resisted my attempts to be antisocial. We discussed plans to rent a car together.
29th Nov: Sabine dragged my hermity butt out to an interesting artistic performance. Sorted my bag, preparing for my next step.
30th Nov: Sabine and I went out to see the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas Tree. Saw the Library, iceskating in Bryant Park.
1st Dec: Still haven't received my camera cable in the post. :( Bought a local sim card for my phone. Saw the Macy's Xmas displays and New Times Square again.
2nd Dec: Still no package. Spent 7.5 hours wading through terrible customer service to buy an Amtrak rail pass. Tried Taco Bell for the first time. Saw the Lion King on Broadway!
3rd Dec: Post office was closed :( Met with Kaypree (another student from Japan). Ate at TGI Fridays, talked about boys, visited Macy's, New Times Square, discovered Kinokuniya, and finally relented, buying a replacement charger for my camera.
4th Dec: Was going to go to Buffalo today with someone from Craigslist, but slept in. I set up data for my phone. Portable internet!
(I should mention that by this stage I was getting *really* frustrated about being stuck in New York. I had been ready to leave for a while now)
5th Dec: Finally got my post package... with nearly everything missing except for one useless cable and a note :( But that was it, I was outta here. I bought a bus ticket to Buffalo and I was out that night. Sabine cooked a goodbye dinner.
6th Dec: Arrived in Buffalo, bus to Niagara Falls. Checked into the hostel, I was the only one there, even the owners didn't stay there! And it was a fully decked out American home! Yay. Only thing I didn't like was the surprise blackout in the middle of my shower. Scene out of a horror movie anyone? Walked to Niagara Falls, and into Canada to see the falls from there. Saw the falls light up at night too. Great day.
7th Dec: Lost my hat on the way to the train station. Used the first segment of my rail pass to go to New York (the only place the train *did* go to, sadly. Wasn't happy to be back there. But I met and spoke to my first Amish people on the train! Only bonus about being back in New York was I got to see Sabine again, who was still at the hostel.
8th Dec: Used the second segment of my rail pass to escape the next day, to Miami! Contacted the ladies I met in Iceland...
9th Dec: Picked up from Hollywood (Miami) train station by Linda! She took me out for spare ribs, chicken, collared greens...
10th Dec: Reunited with Dora as well. Met with Suzanne, drove 60 miles into the Everglades. Saw heaps of alligators. Joined Suzanne's brothers on the shooting range. Shot two revolvers and an automatic. Shot three cans! Went canoeing. Met Hoze, a Columbian, who gifted me a little wooden cat souvenir. Drove out to see a magnificent sunset over the land which we just missed. Had dinner of oysters, Dolphin fingers, buffalo wings, conch, and key lime pie. Drove to Miami South Beach, walked along it, saw examples of Art Deco. Most awesome part of my adventures so far, thank you Dora, Linda and Suzanne!
11th Dec: 8:20am train to Philadelphia.
12th Dec: Arrived in Philadelphia. Hostel $40, no breakfast, broken microwave, 20+ beds in the room -_-;; the hell? Walked to South St. Saw Physick House, ate cheesesteak at Jims... OMG so good. Locals keep volunteering information about Philadelphia which made me nervous. Made a hasty escape. May have seemed rude, sorry. Toured Independence Hall, saw a chair that George Washington put his butt in! Saw the Liberty Bell. At night, I saw Elfreth's Alley and Penn's Landing. Made a note to return during the day.
13th Dec: Visited the US Mint in Philadelphia. Apparently was the first visitor that day. The 8 security guards staring at me made me nervous. Bought a set of minted coins for Mum, and a little jar of gold and silver for the girls (Mum has this link but I don't think she reads this journal, so shhhh, don't tell her). Re-visited Elfreth's Alley and Penn's Landing. Then took the train to Washington DC. Saw the Capital Building, The Washington Monument at sunset, the WW2 Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial at night (which looks amazing, can I just say). Also saw the White House, and discovered 'Five Guys', makers of the best burgers ever.
14th Dec: Morning walk to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and barely had time for another trip to Five Guys before catching my train to Chicago. Sadly this burger was really ordinary. On the train, I had somehow been assigned a seat in the middle of a group of 13 Amish. Really interesting. They started singing songs in German.
15th Dec: The songs become significantly less appealing when they are being sung at 6am. The day therefore was nearly a complete waste; I managed to post a few things home which made my backpack lighter, but I arrived at my hostel so tired that I just slept through the day. Later that night I met some of my hostel roommates (all of whom ignored my attempts to be antisocial, curled up on the bed, back to them, with headphones in my ears, and started and continued a conversation with me...) I ended up trying Chicago's deep pan pizza specialty for dinner, and took a Korean room mate with me for the experience. Nice experience, very filling. One pizza fed us both for two days. Stayed up until 2am, sleeping pattern rather out of whack now, updating my journal with the free laptops available.
16th Dec: Had to make the most of my time in Chicago, because I was due to leave at 2:15pm. Visited the Chicago Water Tower, which is a famous survivor of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Walked down Magnificent Mile and saw a wonderful cityscape skyline at the river. Giant statue of Marilyn Munroe caught a lot of attention. Saw 'The Bean' (officially known as 'Cloud Gate'), and the two lions outside the Art Institute of Chicago. Wanted to try a Chicago 'beef hot dog' but all I could find was an ordinary cheap imitation. :( Nearly missed my train. My train was nearly 48 hours long over three days: from 2:15pm today (Friday, 16th December), until 10:25am on Sunday, the 18th of December.
I want to take some time to point out what ridiculous luck I've had with weather. I'll take more time to explain it at some point but basically where ever I have gone I have experienced good weather, even if bad weather was there prior to my arrival, even if it's *supposed* to be rainy season/cold season/snow season, I have found myself time and time again experiencing no rain/no snow/warmer weather than usual. Bad weather almost always occurs after I leave. I have missed rain in Laos PDR, the floods in Thailand/Bangkok, the floods in Malaysia, the floods in Dublin, the rain in Europe, the snow in Iceland and snow in Niagara Falls. Generally, a day after I leave, the place I've left will rain/snow/become cold. It's been great that I have missed the rain, but I had thought that by now I would have experienced snow. But no. Europe, Iceland, New York, Niagara Falls, Washington DC and Philadelphia all failed to provide snow. Even Chicago had no snow but snowed the day after I left. My only chances remaining for snow became my day in Seattle. I checked the forecast and like usual, I was due to receive good weather (and I'm in Seattle now, and sure enough, no rain or snow). I had started to give up hope.
However! On my train ride from Chicago to Seattle (which ran from Dec 16th Friday 2:15pm until Dec 18th Sunday 10:25am, I had not counted on an hour long stopover in Minneapolis at 10:30pm... and there was SNOW!
SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW!!! I ran outside in -6 degree weather (that's 21.2 degrees fahrenheit), and giggled like a school girl in glee. I wasn't even sure I knew what I was seeing when I first looked out the window... my first thought was that maybe it was just ash, or pollution? I didn't dare think it... could it be!? BUT IT WAS SNOW!
And probably my last chance for snow at all during this trip. I was happy. I caught it. I ate it, I was freezing out there! But I enjoyed myself. So yay... But yes. I have experienced incredibly good weather this trip, and although bad weather happened all around me, I seemed to miss all of it, somehow...
Sunday 18th: Arrived in Seattle today. Early in fact. Scheduled time was 10:25am, actual arrival time was 9:40am. Nice. Checked into my hostel, meandering slowly on the way there. Discovered they have computers and updated my journal ;) Reeeally should make the most of the remaining daylight: I leave tomorrow morning for San Fransisco!
Given that I'm only here for less than 24 hours, I really need to make the most of it. So here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to use this time to quickly type up a summary of what I've been up to, day by day. The details can wait, but at least I'll have *something*.
So... where did we leave off...
Ah, November 16th. I was supposed to go to Berlin. Or at least, leave Göttingen. I had arrived in Göttingen on the night of Friday the 11th of November. I had planned to stay for three days. I didn't end up leaving until the 17th. My previous post explains the reason why.
The 'magic' that happened (that I wrote about in the post before *that*), refers to my re-connecting. Generally, the whole time I spent there was... really nice. There had been plans to show me around the town, but they mostly didn't happen... most of our time was spent at home, cooking dinners, watching anime and the Big Bang Theory on TV. This was preferable to me as well; my period had begun the day I arrived and I had significant period pain throughout my stay. Curling up in a bed all day was more than a welcome prospect. :( On the 14th of November we had gone for that wonderful, magical walk in the park. On the night of the 16th, instead of leaving Göttingen, we had gone out for dinner. Somewhere nice. Just as a way to say goodbye.
Every day I was supposed to leave, but I ended up staying another night. I even had hotels booked in other locations where I ended up losing my deposit (and was charged a night for) because I ended up staying. Every day I said I would leave the next day, and every day, the next day would come and we would decide to stay just one more day. Eventually, I had to leave. He nearly didn't believe me that I would, but I had to. So on the 17th of November, I was on the train to Copenhagen.
Half way there, he messaged me, to say a number of things, but that I had also left my camera battery charger and my international adapter at his place... D'oh!
I considered going back... I really did. But there was no way I could have returned and still had time to see Copenhagen. I had already - realistically - stayed as long as I could. I was now risking missing my flight from Copenhagen to Iceland. We decided I would continue onwards and he would send those things to a post office for me to collect.
17th November: Arrived in Copenhagen late at night.
(Gah there is a guy next to me who is jiggling his leg... it's *really* distracting. Why can't he stop!? Great, I start Googling 'Restless Leg Syndrome' and he's gone. I can focus again!)
18th November: This was my one day buffer before my flight. I suppose I *could* have gone back to Göttingen, but I really would have been cutting it close. I didn't want to lose my buffer day. But since I had it, I decided to take a day trip into Malmo, Sweden. A nice little place, nothing particularly exciting about it. Went for a long walk through it, and returned to Copenhagen. Went for a walk through the town, being incredibly careful about what pictures I took with my camera, knowing I had very limited battery power left. In addition to that, my memory cards were full, so I kept having to go through my camera and delete a few pictures. I inquired about buying more memory cards, but they wanted $40 for a 4GB one!? In Bangkok I bought a 32GB card for $45, thank you!
I walked through the main shopping street and saw they were setting up little kiosks for Christmas. Little wooden shops selling treats and chocolate and Christmas things. Christmas lights were up and it was all looking preeettty...
19th November: Today I flew to Iceland.
Oh wow, I'm not keeping this short at all. Let's try again.
19th November: Flew to Iceland. Landed, and two American women from Miami overheard I was looking at buying a bus ticket into the city, and offered me a lift in their rental car. Their names were Dora and Linda. This is important. You hear more about them later on. They dropped me off at Moya's place. Moya answered my Couchsurfing request for a place to stay.
20th November: Walked with Moya to the grocery store, bought Iceland's 'Skyrus' yogurty drink. The refrigerated room was warmer than outside. That was weeeeird. To step into a 'warm' room and see things that should be refrigerated just sitting on the shelves. IT HAILED ON ME! There wasn't even any rain first. Just clear, cold weather, then suddenly HAIL! Then suddenly NO HAIL! Then suddenly HAIL! I love Iceland. I ate fish and Minke whale. A cat followed me home and refused to leave.
21st Nov: The cat stayed with us the entire night. We put it outside and over an hour later it was still there. It came back in. Eventually Moya had to leave for university and I had to go to the Blue Lagoon. That was awesome! It was warm in the water and freezing in the air. It hailed on me there too. It was like:
'Ow! Ow! Ow!'
*sinks into the water to escape the hail attacking her*
...'Hot! Hot! Hot!'
*stands up to escape the hot water*
'...Ow! Ow!'
I went into the sauna for five minutes and my body was so warm I was able to stand outside in the freezing weather in nothing but my bikini. I took a few pictures with my camera (which still had power) before having to jump back into the water.
...man I suck at keeping things short! Okay. Each day in one line or less... GO:
21st Nov: Cat still there. Blue Lagoon. Hail. Pinched some lava rocks from the surroundings. Greenland is beautiful to fly over. New York.
22nd Nov: Stayed in Harlem. Scary. 'Someone' sent a huge bunch of flowers to my hostel, with chocolates.
23rd Nov: Walked through Central Park, saw the Thanksgiving Parade balloons being blown up
24th Nov: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Crowded :( Stumbled upon the Occupy/99% movement. Joined them for thanksgiving dinner.
25th Nov: Local day! Experienced the US local laundromat. Discovered Popeye's Fried Chicken and Biscuits... OMG so good.
26th Nov: Walked through Broadway, saw the Wall St Charging Bull, took ferry to Staten Island, saw Lady Liberty at sunset.
27th Nov: Visited the newly opened 9/11 memorial. So beautiful, but also sad. Nearly made me cry. Visited New Times Square.
28th Nov: Met Sabine, a Netherlands girl who resisted my attempts to be antisocial. We discussed plans to rent a car together.
29th Nov: Sabine dragged my hermity butt out to an interesting artistic performance. Sorted my bag, preparing for my next step.
30th Nov: Sabine and I went out to see the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas Tree. Saw the Library, iceskating in Bryant Park.
1st Dec: Still haven't received my camera cable in the post. :( Bought a local sim card for my phone. Saw the Macy's Xmas displays and New Times Square again.
2nd Dec: Still no package. Spent 7.5 hours wading through terrible customer service to buy an Amtrak rail pass. Tried Taco Bell for the first time. Saw the Lion King on Broadway!
3rd Dec: Post office was closed :( Met with Kaypree (another student from Japan). Ate at TGI Fridays, talked about boys, visited Macy's, New Times Square, discovered Kinokuniya, and finally relented, buying a replacement charger for my camera.
4th Dec: Was going to go to Buffalo today with someone from Craigslist, but slept in. I set up data for my phone. Portable internet!
(I should mention that by this stage I was getting *really* frustrated about being stuck in New York. I had been ready to leave for a while now)
5th Dec: Finally got my post package... with nearly everything missing except for one useless cable and a note :( But that was it, I was outta here. I bought a bus ticket to Buffalo and I was out that night. Sabine cooked a goodbye dinner.
6th Dec: Arrived in Buffalo, bus to Niagara Falls. Checked into the hostel, I was the only one there, even the owners didn't stay there! And it was a fully decked out American home! Yay. Only thing I didn't like was the surprise blackout in the middle of my shower. Scene out of a horror movie anyone? Walked to Niagara Falls, and into Canada to see the falls from there. Saw the falls light up at night too. Great day.
7th Dec: Lost my hat on the way to the train station. Used the first segment of my rail pass to go to New York (the only place the train *did* go to, sadly. Wasn't happy to be back there. But I met and spoke to my first Amish people on the train! Only bonus about being back in New York was I got to see Sabine again, who was still at the hostel.
8th Dec: Used the second segment of my rail pass to escape the next day, to Miami! Contacted the ladies I met in Iceland...
9th Dec: Picked up from Hollywood (Miami) train station by Linda! She took me out for spare ribs, chicken, collared greens...
10th Dec: Reunited with Dora as well. Met with Suzanne, drove 60 miles into the Everglades. Saw heaps of alligators. Joined Suzanne's brothers on the shooting range. Shot two revolvers and an automatic. Shot three cans! Went canoeing. Met Hoze, a Columbian, who gifted me a little wooden cat souvenir. Drove out to see a magnificent sunset over the land which we just missed. Had dinner of oysters, Dolphin fingers, buffalo wings, conch, and key lime pie. Drove to Miami South Beach, walked along it, saw examples of Art Deco. Most awesome part of my adventures so far, thank you Dora, Linda and Suzanne!
11th Dec: 8:20am train to Philadelphia.
12th Dec: Arrived in Philadelphia. Hostel $40, no breakfast, broken microwave, 20+ beds in the room -_-;; the hell? Walked to South St. Saw Physick House, ate cheesesteak at Jims... OMG so good. Locals keep volunteering information about Philadelphia which made me nervous. Made a hasty escape. May have seemed rude, sorry. Toured Independence Hall, saw a chair that George Washington put his butt in! Saw the Liberty Bell. At night, I saw Elfreth's Alley and Penn's Landing. Made a note to return during the day.
13th Dec: Visited the US Mint in Philadelphia. Apparently was the first visitor that day. The 8 security guards staring at me made me nervous. Bought a set of minted coins for Mum, and a little jar of gold and silver for the girls (Mum has this link but I don't think she reads this journal, so shhhh, don't tell her). Re-visited Elfreth's Alley and Penn's Landing. Then took the train to Washington DC. Saw the Capital Building, The Washington Monument at sunset, the WW2 Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial at night (which looks amazing, can I just say). Also saw the White House, and discovered 'Five Guys', makers of the best burgers ever.
14th Dec: Morning walk to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and barely had time for another trip to Five Guys before catching my train to Chicago. Sadly this burger was really ordinary. On the train, I had somehow been assigned a seat in the middle of a group of 13 Amish. Really interesting. They started singing songs in German.
15th Dec: The songs become significantly less appealing when they are being sung at 6am. The day therefore was nearly a complete waste; I managed to post a few things home which made my backpack lighter, but I arrived at my hostel so tired that I just slept through the day. Later that night I met some of my hostel roommates (all of whom ignored my attempts to be antisocial, curled up on the bed, back to them, with headphones in my ears, and started and continued a conversation with me...) I ended up trying Chicago's deep pan pizza specialty for dinner, and took a Korean room mate with me for the experience. Nice experience, very filling. One pizza fed us both for two days. Stayed up until 2am, sleeping pattern rather out of whack now, updating my journal with the free laptops available.
16th Dec: Had to make the most of my time in Chicago, because I was due to leave at 2:15pm. Visited the Chicago Water Tower, which is a famous survivor of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Walked down Magnificent Mile and saw a wonderful cityscape skyline at the river. Giant statue of Marilyn Munroe caught a lot of attention. Saw 'The Bean' (officially known as 'Cloud Gate'), and the two lions outside the Art Institute of Chicago. Wanted to try a Chicago 'beef hot dog' but all I could find was an ordinary cheap imitation. :( Nearly missed my train. My train was nearly 48 hours long over three days: from 2:15pm today (Friday, 16th December), until 10:25am on Sunday, the 18th of December.
I want to take some time to point out what ridiculous luck I've had with weather. I'll take more time to explain it at some point but basically where ever I have gone I have experienced good weather, even if bad weather was there prior to my arrival, even if it's *supposed* to be rainy season/cold season/snow season, I have found myself time and time again experiencing no rain/no snow/warmer weather than usual. Bad weather almost always occurs after I leave. I have missed rain in Laos PDR, the floods in Thailand/Bangkok, the floods in Malaysia, the floods in Dublin, the rain in Europe, the snow in Iceland and snow in Niagara Falls. Generally, a day after I leave, the place I've left will rain/snow/become cold. It's been great that I have missed the rain, but I had thought that by now I would have experienced snow. But no. Europe, Iceland, New York, Niagara Falls, Washington DC and Philadelphia all failed to provide snow. Even Chicago had no snow but snowed the day after I left. My only chances remaining for snow became my day in Seattle. I checked the forecast and like usual, I was due to receive good weather (and I'm in Seattle now, and sure enough, no rain or snow). I had started to give up hope.
However! On my train ride from Chicago to Seattle (which ran from Dec 16th Friday 2:15pm until Dec 18th Sunday 10:25am, I had not counted on an hour long stopover in Minneapolis at 10:30pm... and there was SNOW!
SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW!!! I ran outside in -6 degree weather (that's 21.2 degrees fahrenheit), and giggled like a school girl in glee. I wasn't even sure I knew what I was seeing when I first looked out the window... my first thought was that maybe it was just ash, or pollution? I didn't dare think it... could it be!? BUT IT WAS SNOW!
And probably my last chance for snow at all during this trip. I was happy. I caught it. I ate it, I was freezing out there! But I enjoyed myself. So yay... But yes. I have experienced incredibly good weather this trip, and although bad weather happened all around me, I seemed to miss all of it, somehow...
Sunday 18th: Arrived in Seattle today. Early in fact. Scheduled time was 10:25am, actual arrival time was 9:40am. Nice. Checked into my hostel, meandering slowly on the way there. Discovered they have computers and updated my journal ;) Reeeally should make the most of the remaining daylight: I leave tomorrow morning for San Fransisco!