Friday, 8 June 2018

Our Cabin in the Woods Horror Story

Photo
Prior to our trip, I found what appeared to be a cool company, similar to KOA, that had cabins for rent. I thought that it would be fun to have a little bit of camping experience while we spent our time in Washington, so after a long day of exploring, we were so ready to check into our little cabin for the night. What started out as excitement, quickly turned into anxiety and fear!

As we were nearing our destination, Zach kept looking over at me and saying, "Shelby, are you sure you are going the right way, this looks super sketchy," "Shelby, we are really far out in the woods, pretty sure our phones are going to lose service." While Zach was being the skeptic, I was trying to be brave and optimistic, even though I was slightly creeped out. When we finally got to the destination, there was a nice bright sign showing the name of the company and security gates to enter the campground. Things seemed to be looking up and I, of course, turned to Zach and said, "HA, I told you, we will be fine here!"

Not one minute after that being said, we pulled up to the check in building, only to be greeted by a really creepy middle aged guy, with a HUGE metal cross that hung down to his belly, super short shorts, knee high white socks and a big old ranger hat. (I tried to find a picture that adequately depicts Ranger Bob, but nothing compared to the level of creep this ranger gave off.) Now, we are normally not super judgy people, at least we try not to be, but we both had a really bad feeling- he looked like some scary ranger dude off a horror movie that has a secret cabin out back where he tortures people and subsequently eats their brains out (we may have watched too many horror movies). We got to our cabin and tried to ignore the fact that the campground was desolate- there was only one other cabin occupied. We took the dogs for a quick walk and the whole time it felt like we were being watched by something or someone. When we got back to the cabin we brought all of our stuff inside, sat down and turned on the TV to try to unwind and take our mind off the fact that neither of us felt good about being there (even though we didn't fully admit it to each other at first). When we sat on the couch it reeked of sweat and sour milk and the cabin had quite a thick layer of dust all around; it looked like we were the first occupants in quite some time. When I went to check out the bed, I noticed blood stains on the sheets right away. Red flag!!!! Now, I should probably clarify that these blood stains weren't like murder blood stains, they were more like bloody-nose stains. Regardless, it obviously added to our paranoia. We weighed the pros and cons, and decided that we would sleep on the smelly couch out in the living room instead of on the bed with bloody sheets in the back corner room. However, when we pulled out the couch, there were dead bugs and the smell intensified, so I went out to the car and got our personal blankets that have for the dogs and put them on the blood stained bed. Zach tried to get some sleep, but I could not think about sleeping when I had such a bad feeling in my gut. So, the dogs and I stayed out in the living room and watched Spongebob (all the other channels were playing murder mysteries.. of course). After I got bored of watching Spongebob, I continued searching through the channels for something uplifting. I then came across the porn channels, which are normally locked, right? Well... these ones weren't! That was the last straw for me. I went into the bed room to find Zach playing games on his phone because of course he couldn't sleep and I told him about my recent findings. We both decided it was past time to get out of there. I mean for all we knew there were cameras watching every move!! At this point we were both running on adrenalin and on major high alert, which the dogs picked up on, so we threw everything back in the car, tossed the dogs in the car and sped outta there. When we got to the gate, Koni started piddling because we were freaking him out. So Zach jumped out of the car to let Koni pee and I quickly dropped the key in the box. Meanwhile, we hear a vehicle speeding up to the gates, and coming to a crashing halt beside our vehicle. Any guessed on who that may that be?? You got it, creepy RANGER BOB, with his belly sticking out of his shirt, holding a beer in his hand! As he sauntered up to Zach he asked where we were going. Zach threw Koni in the car, told him we were checking out, jumped back in the car, and I sped off as soon as Zach was in. 

As were drove out of the woods, slowly making our way back to civilization our nerves began to calm down, but we kept discussing all the possible conclusions that our story could have had. At the end of it all, we found a nice little Holiday Inn Express to spend the night at and slept quite soundly after calling both of our parents and telling them we almost died!! They were both very happy we made the decision to listen to our gut and get outta there!!
-S & Z

Up Next: Northwest Washington


Wednesday, 30 May 2018

Washington Part 2

Next up on our Washington adventure was supposed to be a few days at Mount St. Helens, Cape Disappointment State Park and the surrounding area, but unfortunately we had the classic cloudy/rainy Washington weather. We tried to make the most of it and do as much as we could without having to put wet dogs in the car after each excursion!

Leaving the Orondo/Wenatchee area, we made our way over to Mount St. Helens. Originally we wanted to drive the Mt. St. Helens Johnston Ridge Loop, but decided we didn't want to waste a whole day of gas and driving if we would not be able to clearly see anything. Instead, we decided to pop in to the Mt. St. Helens Visitor Centre in Castle Rock. The visitor centre is very educational; you will leave feeling enlightened about the events leading to, during, and after the eruption in 1980. After taking our turns in the visitor centre (we like to have one of us stay in the car with the dogs if possible), I noticed a nice trail to the side of the visitor centre that was pet friendly (Wahoo!!). The walking trail that lead into the wetlands was super easy and just what the dogs... ok let's be real... just what we ALL needed after being in the car for much too long due to inclement weather! Sadly, we never got to catch a glimpse of Mt. St. Helen's while walking the trail. Oh well, just an excuse to go back- just maybe not in the wet season.







While in the Mt. St. Helen's area, we also wanted to hike the Ape Canyon Trail. Zach is really into Bigfoot and there have been supposed sightings around the area, so the hike would have been really fun for us, but that is something we will have to save for another trip. Instead, we decided to continue on to Cape Disappointment State Park in hopes that the weather would improve!

Cape Disappointment State Park is located on the southern most peninsula of Washington state right on the coast, so even though we hoped the weather would improve, we knew that there really wasn't that great of a chance that the clouds would part and the sun would shine down on us. I was somewhat disappointed in Cape Disappointment (the name was quite fitting- haha). When I was planning our trip to Washington, I saw tons of beautiful pictures of this park and I am sure if we would have hit it on a sunny day it would have been awesome, but the only things we could see were things from the car (boo....). We were able to see the lighthouse and that was about it!





If you're planning on going to Cape Disappointment, make sure you check the weather!! On a nice day you will be surrounded by some seriously awesome views! Go check out Cape Disappointment's Waikiki Beach and Deadman's Cove on Pinterest! Seriously stunning!
-S

Up next: A very scary attempted cabin stay!


Sunday, 15 April 2018

Washington State Road-trip: Part 1

This past Christmas, Zach and I decided to get away from all the hustle and bustle of a commercial holiday and spend some quality time together- dogs included.

I am a huge fan of the cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies and wanted to try to recreate a Christmas like the ones you see in the movies. So, I headed to my Google search and typed in "Best Christmas Towns in the USA". Up popped a picture very similar to this one:

Leavenworth, WA
Leavenworth is a cute little Bavarian town situated in the Cascade Mountains in Central Washington. Leavenworth has reindeer farms, sleigh rides, hiking trails, snowmobiling, and beautiful Christmas lights throughout the town. To me it looked like the perfect Christmas destination. 

After showing Zach the pictures of this town, he was on board with heading to Washington for the holidays. I started searching Pinterest for all things Leavenworth/Washington and soon realized that there is so much to see and do. As a result, we decided to split our trip up so we could get a little sample of all that Washington had to offer.


First off, Leavenworth, Wenatchee, and Lake Chelan. 
We decided to try out AirBnB for the first time on this trip, mainly because most of the hotels were already booked for the holidays. Both of us were kind of skeptical of staying in someone else's home, but decided to give it a shot. We ended up finding a cute little house about an hour outside of Leavenworth, in the town of Orondo. The hosts were awesome and even left our dogs some treats and us a bottle of wine. If you are ever in Central Washington and are looking for a place to stay you should definitely check out this AirBnb.

The next day we decided the dogs needed to let off some steam after being in the car for so long the day before, so we headed in to the town of Wenatchee to walk along the Apple Capital Loop Trail. This loop is a 10 mile trail that circles the Columbia River. The trail consists of a couple different riverfront parks. We could only bear the cold long enough to explore the Wenatchee Riverfront Park, which includes a sculpture garden, railroad, boat launch and docks, and Walla Walla Point Park, which has plenty of wide open spaces, sports fields, and a swimming lagoon (obviously it was way too cold to go swimming, but this would be a great place to spend a day in the summer).  
- Fun fact, Wenatchee is the apple capital of the world! There were apple orchards all over. 

Hopping into the toasty car to warm up we decided to head over to Leavenworth, where we decided to brave the cold again and discover what Blackbird Island had to offer. During the spring and summer I am sure there are all sorts of beautiful birds and other critters roaming about, but since it was the end of December, it was more like a frozen tundra. Oh well, at least the dogs were able to get some exercise! 


After freezing outside for a good portion of the day, we decided to call it quits, grab supper and head back to the house. We headed over to Rudloof's Pizza, where we had an awesome Bavarian pizza with ground mustard, sauerkraut, bratwurst, and red and green peppers. Sounds weird, right? But it was strangely a really good combination! 

  

Over the next few days we drove up to Lake Chelan, revisited Wenatchee, ate some killer BBQ in Cashmere, and then spent our last few days in Leavenworth, driving up Icicle Road where we did a few hikes, and then spent the night enjoying the lights and shops.

             
Lake Chelan




Best Brisket ever!
Zach's pulled pork was amazing too!
If you are ever in Central Washington, you have to go eat at Country Boys Southern Style BBQ! The only other place I have had BBQ that tasted this good was in Texas! These guys know how to do it right! 
Icicle Road




FYI, they call it Icicle Road for a reason. We totally almost crashed our new Explorer as we rounded the last corner of the road and slid into a drift that landed us inches from a tree. Looking back on it, it is almost comical how close we were to hitting that stinking tree! The theatrics continued when a really nice family hooked their truck up to our vehicle and tried to get us out; the road was so slippery that they ended up getting sucked into the drift as well. Then, another truck, who was obviously more prepared for an emergency, came over with their equipment and got both the first truck and us out with no damage to any vehicle. We are so grateful to all those that helped us get the car out of the drift, because if they hadn't come along, we would have had to call a tow truck from the next closest town which was an hour away.

Probably one of my favourite things to do was to just enjoy the lights in town, and after our little car sliding accident, we needed to reset and relax. Downtown Leavenworth really had that warm, exciting, joyful Christmas feel. There were kids sledding down the small town hill, hot chocolate in the gazebo, and sleigh rides that took you right down main street! Sorry for the picture overload to come, there were just so many details in this cute Bavarian town. 

















If you ever have the chance to come to Leavenworth, do! There is plenty to see, and whether you come for the lights in the winter, or hiking in the summer you will enjoy the time you spend in this town. We know we did! 

Start planning your Leavenworth vacation here.


Thanks for popping by,
-S

Up next: Cape Disappointment State Park and Mt. St. Helen's












Monday, 9 April 2018

A little about us

Hi, we're Zach and Shelby!

Exploring new places and spaces has been a huge part of both of our lives since we were quite young.


I remember my childhood consisted of spending weekends in Waterton Lakes National Park with my family, camping in British Columbia during the summer, and looking forward to when mom and dad would tell us we could go on a big vacation with them outside of Canada (airplane ride? yes please). I fell in love with the excitement of being somewhere new and doing new things. 

Zach began travelling at a very young age; his family would spend their winters in Florida and then travel back up to Waterton to spend their summers. Needless to say, Zach is an old pro at road trips, maneuvering through airports, and exploring. 


We have two dog children, Zoey and Kona, who we love to death and quite honestly have a hard time leaving with anyone when we travel. So, this past summer Zach and I decided that it would be fun to spend the next few years picking a different part of America and exploring what each of the 50 states have to offer while Bones and Kones are still young and eager to go on car rides- or as I like to say, "Go Exploring in the Explorer", since we drive a Ford Explorer. Zach hates how cheesy that sounds, but I love it!

Roadtripping Doggies (Zoey-left, Kona-right)

Dreaming about their next car ride. These guys are BFF's.
We wanted to create this blog as a way to preserve the highs and lows of travelling- whether that be road tripping across America, cruising the Bahama's or immersing ourselves in a country we are unfamiliar with. 

Here's to hoping we can adequately capture and record all the fun that's to come!
-S

Up Next... Review of our 2017 Christmas Trip to Washington State.