superlatives

just a few brief highlights of the trip:

-Most beautiful location: tie between the Smith River NRA in Norcal and the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. Look them up. You should go there.

-Proudest of their alcohol: Portland. These people are very serious about beer. Very serious. It was good, and a lot of people I met here were pretty intoxicated as a result of how good it was.

-Weird weather Award: San Francisco. They should take the "windy city" title away from Chicago because this place has wind gusts that will knock you off your feet. And it knocks the temperature down about 20 degrees as well.

-Healthiest food: San Fran. These people know their fruits and veggies like no other. I have never seen more tofu in my life.

-Most likely place to smell Marijuana: Anywhere in San Fran. Healthy food, unhealthy smoking habits.

-Most unusual law: The state of Oregon. You aren't allowed to pump your own gas anywhere in the state. In the good ol' state of Oregon, they have gas attendants to do it for you. We figured this out by attempting to do it ourselves and getting screamed at for a few minutes. If you are in a hurry to get gas, you are out of luck. Try another state.

-Most likely to get in trouble for throwing your water bottle in the wrong bin: Oregon. These people are serious about their recycling...most restaurants have several bins for garbage and various categories of recycling. Which is cool. And sometimes confusing.

-Most likely place for people to get high off the sun instead of their coffee: Seattle. I have never seen people more excited about a sunny day. People were going nuts. Of course, their excitement could have been exaggerated due to the fact that just about everyone is walking around with some form of caffeine in their hand 24 hours a day. And yes, there is a Starbucks on every corner.

-Black hole award: Eugene, Oregon. Although there is very little to do here, everyone we met apparently came to visit at some point and just never left. Now they work random jobs and hang out at bars and talk about what they would do if they ever did leave.

-State that is secretly populating the earth: Texas. Yep, everywhere I went I met people from Austin/San Antonio/Dallas/Denton/Houston Texas. Planes, restaurants, hostels...you people are everywhere- except for Texas.

-Most likely to get run over by a bike: Tie between Portland and Seattle. I think I saw more bikes than cars...and due to the very steep hills they definitely can go pretty fast. so you better move out of their way.

-Most likely to run into an activist (of any kind): Portland. In one afternoon I got stopped about 4 or 5 times by various people trying to get me to sign petitions. "Excuse me, would you like to help me save the ancient forests?" was probably my favorite. These people are serious about having causes. Cardboard cutouts of Obama were ducktaped around various historical statues around the city. Who needs Lewis and Clark anyway?