Expectations

The story of two vacations

In the Spring of 2023, April and I had two major vacations planned. One was an exciting 9 day long roadtrip to the Pacific North West, promising amazing hiking, massive tulip blooms, the best food, and epic adventure. The other was a credit card point weekend trip to Salt Lake City. Can you guess which was more memorable?

North West - Day 1

The trip started off well. We awoke on a colder than expected morning at 3am to start the 10 hour drive to Portland. Our first stop was a glass bridge around the 4 hour mark. we made it just in time for sunrise and took some decent photos. This is where our first problems began…

this is one of the last photos I took with my beloved Mamiya 7 before it shutter winding mechanism failed. For all practical purposes, my main camera was out for the count before the vacation even started.

The next stop was the air museum directly south of Portland. A museum I wanted to go ever since I was a kid because it housed the famous Spruce Goose. While I didn’t get any good photos, I enjoyed seeing one of the largest airplanes in history.

Once we made it to Portland, we dropped our stuff off at a hotel and hit the town.

I had the first of what would become a total of 37 drinks at Dutchess Brewery, bought some books that the world famous Powell’s and then made an impromptu decision to go across the river and check out a few local recommendations. The night got a bit out of hand and we need up bumming cigs off of strangers at a bar for people much younger than us

Day 2

Day two was a pleasant gray Sunday. April decided to get dressed up and we walked around downtown to take photos with the cherry blossoms, but due to the we grass, April slid down a muddy hill and got covered in mud. Lucky for her the roll of film with most of the photos from that morning is lost.

The rest of the day was us aimlessly wondering around looking for stuff to do. Mostly getting varying degrees of wet.

Day 3 - Travel

Day three we drove from Portland to the home town of that girl from Twilight, Forks Washington. Along the way we made a few stops.

We had planned no camping, but because of the weather, we decided to grab a hotel this night.

Day 4 - Hoh

Our plan was to go backpacking in the Hoh rainforest, but it ended up being far too cold. So instead we went decided to do some short day hikes, and make our fancy camping food.

You’ll have to trust me on this one, but the photos do not do this place justice…

While no film photos documented the creation, April and I made what is possibly the best clam chowder that the Hoh rainforest had ever seen. Using a pot and cooking utensils bought from a thrift store for $3.50, we clocked a roux over an open fire and simmered the most delicious and creamy chowder we ever had.

Once we were done eating, we had planned to set up a tent and camp. But it had snowed and the ground was covered in a thinking layer of white. So we decided to drive a bit to find another hotel.

Day 5 - Islands

Because we had planned to be backpacking our time in Hoh, we hadn’t made any plans on what to do instead. Wo we started the day at a diner figuring out what to do. We decided to drive north to catch a ferry. But firs we stopped at a jewelry store to buy April a birthday precent. A pari of pearl earrings.

We ended the day looking for tulips but didn’t have any luck. We did find some fields of yellow flowers tho. So we ate a very good and expensive dinner and drove several hours till we were just outside of Seattle. We found a hotel, a very, very dirty one that we would hav never stayed at if we knew how bad it was.

Day 6 - Birth Day

It was officially Aprils birthday. We started slow, exploring antiques stores north of Seattle before heading to our Pod hotel.

The rest of the night can be summed up with this photo:

Day 7 - Problem

I awoke early to go shoot photos o Seattle only to find April was made aware of a tulip filed that we missed. Of course this was my fault and she demanded we drive the three hours back to see it. I declined and decided to keep to our schedule. And with this action our vacation started its steep decline.

While we both put on happy faces, it was clear that the missed tulips had tinged the experience of the trip. We soldered on tho. Marking towards one o the other key highlights, an expensive dinner of some of the best Shshie in the world.

Our dinner was amazing, as expected. But was we needed our last full day in Seattle, April knew that without tulips, the trip would be for nothing. So as we slept, I hoped that our last options, a tulip farm on the other side of Portland, would pull though.

Day 8 - The Return

Despite all my hopes, the turnip farm south of Portland required tickets and were sold out. So unfortunately we had to cut our trip short, too dejected to fully experience our last day of vacation.

Salt Lake City

On December 31st, April had $300 in delay credits that would expire. Instead of letting the pointes expire we had to find someplace cheap to go. Having no better ideas, we picked Salt Lake City, Utah.

Only a few weeks after our trip to Seattle, we were still reeling from our tulip disaster. So without much hope we decided to head to Utah with a different mentality. We each clearly stated one task we were garenteed and booked. With no other expectations, the rest of the trip would be winged.

With my Mamiya still in the shop, I decided to switch it up. I brought two leicas with me, one loaded with color, the other with black and white.

Despite our great effort and failure a few weeks prior, were were able to strike gold almost instantly in Utah. Without even planning and almost by accident, we found a tulip festival.

We also spent some time observing the the Mormon religion.

Our first meal was salty, and that isn’t a joke about the city. It’s a serious critique of the food.

Utah Day 2

We decided to spend the first part of the day relaxing and walking around town.

I spent some time walking around while April did some paper work for her new job. I took some photos. Not my best but it was still nice to see a new city.

Our main stop for the day was the Great salt flat. we made the great drive, and with some hesitation we decided to drive our rental onto the salt.

I took the car up to 90 MPH before hitting some water and hydroplaning. After that, we decided to drive at a normal speed.

The flats had the most amazing sunset. But such a thing is impossible to catch on film.

After the sun went down, we begun the long drive home. Turns out resturants in Utah don’t stay open very late, so we found the last non fast food option that was open in all of Utah.

On day three, we awoke very, very early. This was the day we were to do my acitivt, An activity I had wanted to do for years. Far from anythign of importance or interest in Utah, lies a very unique pile or rocks. In this pile of rocks, fossils can be found. For a fee, you can buy entrance to this quarry and mine to your hearts content. And I planned and to make the most of it.

I didn’t take my camera out except for once at the end of the day. And you must understand that this is the biggest complement. Despite my broken toe, a side effect of warming tennishoes to a rock quarry, my day could not have been better. I fount a total of 50 complete trilobite fossils and even more parcials.

Afterwards we drove three hours to sleep in a bus at a hippy spa. This was Aprils requirement. Despite our spa booking being for the next day, we decided to sneak in and take a soak in the hot springs in the dark. After being worn out from a day of mining and driving, and then a very relaxing hour in a hot spring we slept like babies.

Utah Day 4

Day 4 was all about relaxation. We had a flight leaving at the end of the day and were in no rush to leave.

We both got magical massages from a Cristal expert. The best part of the trip for April

After scrambling to make it to the airport in time, forgetting my camera bag in the rental and having to run through the parking lot, we made it to our airplane with very little time to spare.