9AM Pacific:

WE’RE BACK! Hello again everyone, and thanks for being so patient. After five days in Canada, we’re finally back in the U.S. and back in action! The updates should start pouring back in, posts will be consistent, and best of all, we can use the gps again. Shout out to the older generations who learned to navigate using road maps, that stuff is taxing. We just passed the border into Washington and are on our way to the great city of Seattle, where we will spend the next few days exploring the city and Olympic National.

After days in the mountains, it’s good to be back at sea level. We got our first sight of the Pacific again yesterday, after waiting a whole year it’s truly an amazing sight, not to mention gratifying. It’s good to be back. We’ve finally escaped the rain and the mountains, the sky is blue and the speed limit isn’t soft as all get out. The feeling of being able to go faster than about 55 mph on the highways is amazing. 55 mph isn’t a highway, it’s just a really wide road. The conifer forests of the pacific coast are obscuring our vision of the ocean, but we could care less. Seeing hills that aren’t made just of stone, the constant green, it’s the most relieving feeling you can imagine. Gas is back in gallons, the money isn’t made of strange plastic, road signs advertise fast food instead of camp sites, boy do I love our country.

The hills are alive, mostly because they’re covered in trees and wildlife, but there’s a certain gentle quality to them as well. The sharpness of the Rockies has faded, giving way to rather lumpy clusters of dark green earth, scattered about the edges of the highway. Occasionally we’ll catch a glimpse of the pacific inlets from between the trees, the water rippling softly as it approaches the shoreline. We’re nothing if not elated right now, and the trip only goes up from here. Stay with us as we ramp up towards the forests of Olympic National, the deserts of Utah and Nevada, the valleys of Yosemite, the gorgeous drives down highway one and the Pacific Coast, plus so much more. More updates to come, finally.
12PM Pacific

We’re in the city, and walking through the streets of Seattle with 30 pounds of camera gear in tow. Seagulls fly up and down the corridors created by the mesh of classic and modern skyscrapers which fill the downtown area. Parks dot the landscape, hidden from view by walls of glass and steel. People are playing ping pong in a city square as food trucks line up in preparation for the lunch rush. Stores advertising authentic Scottish bagpipes sit across from more coffee shops than should ever occupy a single block. Someone has written “you look nice today” on the sidewalk in light blue chalk. Art museums and historic sites are smashed inbetween shiny new offices housing tech startups and think tanks. The space above the city streets is covered in a tangled web of cables which power the busses and trams that rattle through every few minutes. It looks like we’ll even get a little rain in true Seattle fashion. More updates to come.
8PM Pacific:

After a massive day in the city, we’re on our way back to the hotel for a night of work. Staying at a ski resort just north of Olympia, should prove to be interesting to say the least. The content should absolutely blow up tonight, though when many of you get this it’ll be quite late already. As we drive through the foothills leading to Olympic National, the golden hour of the evening is upon us. The trees are lit a soft glowing yellow, as the sun blinds each and every traveler on the road. You’d hardly guess the Pacific Ocean was right around the corner, much less a metropolis like Seattle. Speaking of, the Seattle post will be up in the next few hours, as well as its video. Banff will be up too, in addition to Facebook and Twitter posts from the gap days. Check back in the morning for a whole mess of content to be sure. We also plan to do something new, a picture of each place we visit, but uncaptioned. Look for them on our Twitter and Facebook pages, can you guess where World as we Know it is each new day? That’s all for tonight, but keep checking guys, it’s about to blow up.