The first step is admitting you have a problem

My roommate turned to me last night, as we were watching some inflammatory tv and squealed, "Oh! I know what you have!" I thought, what, IBS? OCD? Some sort of foot fungus? "I saw it on Oprah!" Oh god, I thought. "You have a passive addiction to the internet! They had someone like you on the panel!" Apparently, dear internet, I have a habit. I've got a crush on you, sweetie pie. Or something. At the moment we still don't have internet at home and she says my predilection for playing solitaire while watching bad tv is my pacifier for internet withdrawl. The tampon-like aid to quit smoking, if you will. Natasha assures me I have nothing to worry about, though. It's just a passive addiction. Still, if Oprah covered it, it's got to be something, right?

So, now that we've aired that dirty laundry, I promised some pictures today. There aren't a ton of hilarious stories or anything. Lots of hiking and driving and music listening. Not to mention the talking. Plenty of that. There was some drinking in Portland and Seattle. There was one incident involving a public toilet in Seattle at 2:30 in the morning that became a bit of a circus, but I'm not going to go into that here. (Thankfully there are no pictures.) I met some great people in Portland, and was able to play both ping pong and euchre in both there and Seattle (yay for transplanted Great Lakers). Not to mention a little fireside scrabble. It was a relaxing trip. Stacey had planned enough that we would have options for our days but no rush at any one place.

I borrowed a polaroid camera and kept an immediate scrapbook as I went-- pasting in photos and scraps of places I visited. Marcia, one of the old family friends my sister and I visited in Gig Harbor, dubbed me the Scrapmaster. Pshaw, I say, but I'm glad I have my book. I only wish that I was more liberal with the photos in the beginning of my trip. I think it took me a while to gain confidence with the large, unwieldy camera. Unfortunately I do not have my hands on a scanner or I'd share some of my favorite photos from my book. Somehow I had the wherewithall (is that one word?) to continue to write the time and date on all of the drunken photos I took when I went out drinking with my little sis and her newly minted college grad friends in Seattle. The hand writing got worse as the night went on, but I've got the time written on them.

Photos after the jump...

Here is the beach where Stacey and I first camped at the Kalaloch camp ground. Both Stacey and I grew up in Ohio and this was the first Fourth of July we both spent chilly. We are used to melting while celebrating this holiday. With a view like this, it was more than okay that I missed out on a parade.

This is Ruby Beach, which was one of my favorite places. I loved the look of desolation.

Here is the view from our second campsite on the Hoh River. At this point, it was the Wednesday after the holiday and most people had gone home. There were very few people camping around us, which was nice.

Here is Stacey on Hurricane Ridge, outside of Port Angeles, where we stayed the night in a funky hostel. (We were *very* happy that we decided not to camp that night. We had gone to hot springs that day and hadn't showered since Monday and were decidedly funky ourselves.)

The last picture is of Mt. Rainier, taken from the ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle. The skies were clear while we were there and Rainier was in perfect view.

Listening to a Feist song ("Mushaboom") on Stacey's disc 1 of her Olympic Road Mix. I need to buy this cd. Also on the mix: "Trust Fund Junkie" by Jason White, which is hilarious.

Comments

[Briana]

Meant to comment on this before... Your trip/pix look awesome! How much fun - it's some beautiful living up there.

Also, we must truly be sisters separated at birth as for the past week I have been *obsessed* with Fiest's "Mushaboom" - I got it on a comp CD that came with the music issue of McSweeney's Believer magazine. I feel like I could have written that song - well, if I had any musical talent whatsoever.

I wanna make you a Calexico mix and some other tunage - music swap anytime soon?