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My cousin Vinnie, and yes that’s really his name and yes he really is my cousin, invited me to go with him on a road trip that would span Oregon, Washington and lead us into Canada. He wanted to take a whole month last summer to do this and at first I had hesitations. After all, I’m a working man, I have a job and responsibilities. So naturally I said yes. Vinnie and I grew up together in Northern California. My family lived in Pleasant Hill and his family lived in Albany. Both of these cities are on the East Bay and when we were teenagers we began taking BART into San Francisco and always had a great time. Vinnie is almost exactly one year older than I am and he is pretty much the one that determines what we’ll do. I’ve always just sort of relied on him for this and he always comes up with great ideas. I figured his road trip to Canada last summer would be nothing less. And I was right. It was just the two of us and we had an amazing time.

We stopped in Ashland, Oregon at the Shakespeare Festival. It’s something both of us had always wanted to do and just never made it up there. Moving on we stopped in Portland for a night and then headed out early the next morning and didn’t really stop until we made it Seattle. I know this is cliché but one of the first things I wanted to do was stop and have a great cup of coffee. We happened upon a place called Cherry Street Coffee and though this might sound stereotypical, it really was a good cup of coffee. Maybe the fact that there was a nice drizzle outside and it just all sort of felt right regarding Seattle expectations contributed to the overall effect, but still it was good coffee. Next we headed over to Pike Place Market and hung out for a while. Vinnie and I liked Seattle so much that we decided to stay the night and found a quaint little inn in which to rest our heads. The rest of the trip was just as amazing and I forgot to mention I have a great story about crossing the Canadian boarder. I’ll have to save that one for next time.