Smartie's Bar & Grill #74

I personally wouldn't come. I have put my plans to travel to the UK on hold for at least another year, probably 2.

It is a 40-50 hour drive depending how fast you go and rental car places usually charge milage. I'd spring for the extra $400 per plane ticket. Probably cheaper in the end.

As for what to see, whatever you want to see really along that route. I personally wasn't a fan of Niagara falls but to each their own.

 

Mt Ranier and Puget Sound are spectacular.
NYC is not what it used to be. It was in rapid decline before the pandemic. Make sure any places you especially liked are still there.



More time in the forests and along the coast in the NW might create better memories.

 

Thank you Chrizton. I'll look up flights.

As for coming to Blighty. We are well ahead of the game here and should all be vaccinated by February. The issue you might have is getting a booking. Uk holiday sales are up by 40% on normal.

 

I am not worried about getting COVID from the UK. I am worried about getting it from a US airport or a packed plane full of Americans seated ass to elbows. It feels like the covid vultures are circling me as more and more people closer and closer to me are getting it and more and more places I go somewhat regularly as closing down for "deep cleansing" with a "no comment" as to whether their employees have contracted the virus. I am going into voluntary personal lock down next week and will stay there until New Years....and despite what the dems on the board would have you believe this is not a left-right thing. People from across the spectrum are getting it. Talked to a lady today whose family are militant mask wearers who all got infected.

 

Cheers Ddyad. As tourists I guess we wouldn't notice to much, we'd be doing the empire state and liberty.
Doesn't mean I don't understand or care.

 

You mean like 99.9%?

 

The USA is a beautiful country every part of it has something unique to see. Some parts of the USA have changed and some remain the same.
It would pay you to do some research first. Check out all the National Parks, one of the most spectacular is Yellowstone. Also, check out some of the State Parks some of those are worth seeing.

 

~ In New York State they found over 80% of COVID-19 infections were persons who wore masks very deliberately. In fact the USA and in nearly all nations where mask use accelerated it as followed by extreme increases of illness.

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It is nowhere near 40-50hours from New York City to Niagara. I suspect that that was a typographical error.

 

The vaccine made her pull her ears off.

 

The masks aren't, and never were, intended to protect you from them. Their purpose is to protect them from you.

 

~ Same thing . What's the point ?
Not only are mask pores too large to stop a virus, wearing a mask is making people touch their mouth, nose, eyes, and face more. It also imparts a false sense of security, leading to little or no hand washing.
Wear a mask from your vehicle into a store. Leave the store and touch your face ( taking mask off ). What did you touch in the store ? And so it goes. Even without the graph, without science, it's just common sense.
We actually should wash our hands and face before and after everything we touch. Not practical - hence the mask to appease the authoritarians.

 

Why do surgeons wear masks?

The bottom line is whether you care if you kill other people, or not. That is left for each of us to decide.

 

~ Surgical masks are for large droplets. How many people are sneezing and coughing in public ? Virus will carry on breath and linger in the air - mask or not.. You can judge people by their views on masks if you like. A mask is not preventing anyone from dying. That simpleton thinking is dangerous. Stupidity causes more harm. I worry about the idiots in politics passing useless draconian rules at the same time stating "I will not take a `Trump´ vaccine". All they are doing is dumbing down the uninformed. We all wear masks. They are not effective of infection would be falling.
That's my bottom line. No guilt.

 

I said what I had to say.

We all display, by our behavior, what kind of people we are.

 

~ Being judgemental is not a good trait . It shows someone had need to feel superior - an obvious sign of inferiority.

 

Haaahahahahaaa!
Good One!

 

It is 40-50 hours from Niagara New York to Portland Oregon by car--almost 2700 miles. Perhaps I was confused about what he intended to drive.

 

Hi.
Yellowstone is on our wish list, along with The Catskill mountains and Martha's Vinyard. That's one big country you got there.

 

You might consider flying into Seattle rather than Portland. Mt. Rainier is quite a bit closer from there. Flying in from NYC or Newark you might have a decent view of Rainier from the left side of the plane. Flights from Seattle to Houston pass almost right over Rainier with a fantastic view from the left side of the plane.

If you're wanting to check out the San Juan islands then Seattle is also a lot closer than driving all the way from Portland, but maybe you are looking forward to the drive. Probably Portland's airport is a bit easier to get through than SeaTac. SeaTac used to be a super easy in and out place but then they moved the rental cars off to a massive new facility that is not nearly as easy as it was when they were still in the airport.

I'm sad to say that I never made it out to the San Juan Islands although I spent a lot of time in those parts back in 2011, 12 and 13. La Conner is about a 90 minute drive from SeaTac and is magic little gem of an art town. I stayed at the Channel Lodge but the Wild Iris Inn looks like it might be a little bit nicer. You can checkout the San Juan Islands by taking a ferry from Anacortes. You can checkout the Cascades by taking a drive over to Winthrop, which provides for a pretty crazy change in climate zones going from the coast to the dry high country east there. You could also checkout Mt. Baker from these parts. Bellingham is a pretty sweet college town, I think it's a college town. This means a town that is more or less dominated by the students, faculty and staff of a university / college. Excellent local IPAs anyway, that's for sure dude. If you do head up to these parts I might just also mention to checkout Deception Pass for a great view / photo op.

 

Wow thanks.
Just looked at flights NY to Seattle, much more frequent and cheaper. So that's a definite change.
Deception pass is another winner!
We were already planning a sight seeing trip around the San Juan Islands.
Originally when we were planning our visit for this year, we were going to stay longer, about a month. So our plan was to make our way up the Oregon/Washington coast and then drive up to Banff.
But next year we already have holiday commitments so we are having to shorten our visit to 15 days.
So we are trying to see all the best bits without feeling like a whistle stop tour.

 

I never made the ferry trip, but the advice I got from a local was to skip taking the car and just go for the ride to San Juan Island from Anacortes, go for a walk and have lunch in Friday Harbor and then return, or just stay there overnight and return the next morning. In that case you could take a late ferry over to maybe catch that part of the day and an early ferry back to catch the other part.

As you can see on maps this route will take you on a pretty sweet cruise through the islands.

Here's the link,

https://www.wsdot.com/ferries/schedule/scheduledetailbyroute.aspx?route=ana-sj

Banff has long been on my list as it looks amazing.

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Separately, have you been to the Dolomites?

Lake Molveno country is so freaking beautiful that it almost makes Yosemite look like a ghetto, and I've never been anywhere in the US as beautiful as Yosemite!

I hiked there in Italy back in July '97 and it was amazing. I lucked out that I was hiking down from the mountains at just the right time of day such that Lake Molveno reflected a blue cone of light into the sky from the angles where I was at between the sun and the lake. That was really amazing. I literally stopped in my tracks when I noticed it. Chalky white dirt all around me, careening up to the top of the mountain on my left as I walked the path and also across the gorge over to the right were the same colored white mountains rising up to the blue sky. And right in front of me was a huge cone of sky that was deeper blue than its surrounding sky! It took me several seconds to even figure out that I was seeing something unique that made me stop! And I looked up at the sun and the sky and the terrain and concluded that the lake was reflecting a blue colored sunlight back into the sky, shaped like a cone.

 

Hi Grey Matter. Good advice there. Do you know if you see the whales from the ferry?
Yes we've been to the Dolomites, just as inspired as you were (Memories are made of this)
We loved our trip to Yosemite, Stayed in a cottage in Mariposa. If you removed the pickup trucks and replaced the horses you could film a western. Climbed most of the falls from the base, did the mist trail. Fantastic memories.
We have done several tours in Europe and have driven up through Switzerland, Austria and across the Brenner pass.
Have a look at Plitvice lakes in Croatia. Its where we honeymooned, and we went back in 2019. Drove down through Austria and Slovenia staying in Air BNB's (We love meeting the locals)

 

As best as I recall, I think maybe I heard from a few folks that you can see Orcas on the ferry ride, but there are migration timing issues I think that make it almost a certainty at times and very unlikely at others.

 

That is too beautiful to be real.