Road Trip

After finals finally finished, I said a sad goodbye to NYU, and my roommate and I fly to California to do a mini road trip starting in San Francisco and going as far as Vancouver. I felt that hiring a car and hitting the open road was a must, so channeling Dean Moriarty we packed up the car and headed north. 

Firstly, Highway 1 is a beautiful drive. Unfortunately we didn't have the time to follow it all the way along the Western coast, however, the I-5 is pretty great too. 

Exploring Oregon has always been at the top of my 'States I want to visit'. It's the main reason we decided to head north instead of south and it didn't disappoint. It may have started raining the moment we left California, but we got used to the North West pretty quickly. 

Our first stop was Portland, home of hipsters and cute cafes. We then headed to the coast and stayed at a place in Seaside. We enjoyed seafood and a walk along the beach, then we had gin and tonics in the jacuzzi that overlooked the beach.

We crossed over into Washington on the coast which was possibly the best place to do so as the drive along the Columbia River was amazing. We headed on through to Canada, stopping for the night in Vancouver which was probably our favourite city that we visited so it was a shame we were only able to stay for one night. We finally had some sunshine and were able to walk around - Gastown was our favourite area - and take in the view from Granville Island. 

We then stopped off in Seattle on our way back to California. A pretty city despite the rain. We walked around Pike Place Market and Capitol Hill.

Throughout the whole trip we would stop at any and every viewpoint, we would even stop in the middle of the road in order to get a picture - the beauty of travelling along empty roads. 

Another favourite stop of ours was Lake Shasta in Northern California.I would love to go back and spend a couple of days camping and hiking by the lake, it is so peaceful and could not be more beautiful. 

The trip was so so much fun, I definitely recommend the North West, not only is there so much to do and see but the people were so nice and welcoming, which caught us New Yorkers a little off guard.

all photographs taken by myself and Diane:
check out my tumblr: http://amisehmi.tumblr.com/
and Diane's: http://d-e-e-j.tumblr.com/