Recently in _US: Pacific, Northwest Category

Barbara Ferry, the director of National Geographic Libraries and Information Services, is in Vancouver with her family to watch the Olympic Games. She learned that while the athletes are assuredly bringing their high-tech gear, it turns out that the spectators have special equipment of their own.

Every Olympics has its essential equipment--items that everyone seems to have--or wants to get.  I've heard that in the past pins were the thing, and I see some kids adorned but I rarely caught sight of any being exchanged. The exception was two ladies who had set up a make-shift display of dozens of pins from the United States and Russia near Canada Place -- sort of a mini-détente. One nice Canadian also handed me a Robson Square pin when I inquired about directions. 

For the Vancouver Olympics the it item is a pair of bright red mittens which are adorned with the Olympic Rings and Canadian maple leaf. They are everywhere, and were worn by the thousands at the indoor women's hockey game on Sunday night (Canada vs. Slovakia, and Canada trounced the poor opposing team 18-0.) The mittens are a true Canadian item-created by Canadian Olympics Committee with proceeds benefitting Canadian athletes. I had expected to pick up a pair at Olympic stores or at a street vendor - the latter of which are noticeably lacking in Vancouver, which meant I had to hunt them down. Canadians told me they were available at "mall" stores not easily accessible to tourists without a car. I'd also heard also they are at the Vancouver airport (missed that opportunity) and in Whistler. The adult mittens were sold out online and are now being marked up 50-100% on sites like eBay. Finally, I tracked them down at the Hudson's Bay Company store on Granville Street. Just picked up ten pairs for family!

While just about everyone has tinsel, eggnog, and Santa on their minds these days, I'm thinking of heading south of the border to catch a glimpse of the migrating gray whales.

Each winter, Pacific gray whales (among many other marine mammal species) cruise about 10,000 miles round trip from their summer feeding grounds in the Arctic to Baja California, Mexico, where they mate, give birth to, and nurse their young. The population has rebounded from brushes with near extinction in the 1850s and 1920s, with an estimated 27,000 whales migrating today. But fewer whales have been spotted in recent years, so knowing what to look for when whale-watching is key.

First things first: You needn't go all the way to Baja to see the whales. Many points along the Pacific Ocean in Canada and the U.S. provide glimpses of the gentle giants. In the north, you can spot them from Tofino, British Columbia; Depoe Bay and Sandy Point in Oregon; and Port Susan, on Camano Island, in Washington. And California has a selection of great viewpoints: Point Reyes, Old Point Loma Lighthouse, Santa Barbara Harbor, Cabrillo National Monument, Coal Point in Goleta, Mendocino, and San Diego Bay.

If you're heading to the Pacific coast to catch sight of the whales, here are some pointers:

• Bring binoculars
• Clear mornings are your best bet
• This may seem pretty obvious, but look west from your vantage point and train your gaze from the kelp beds where most gray whales swim (about three quarters of a mile from the coast) to the horizon
• Grays travel about five miles per hour. They often dive for 3-6 minutes, and then surface for 3-5 blows in a row before descending again. These basics may help you follow your target south once you've initially spotted her
• Look for the whale's blow or spout that can reach15 feet in the air and may be visible for about five seconds
• Gray whales extend their 12-foot wide fan-shaped flukes (tails) above water to dive deeper (and, lucky for us, it's another indication of a whale on the move)
• After diving deep, whales may leave something like a footprint, a smooth oval of water revealing where they've been

Who says industrial companies and national parks can't be friends?  Boeing and Washington's Mount Rainier National Park certainly think they can. On Monday, Boeing presented the park with a $75,000 check to help it become more carbon neutral.

According to the Boeing Charitable Trust, the money will go toward Washington's National Park Fund and be used to fund projects like analyzing the park's vehicles to find ways to reduce emissions and to continue a visitors' shuttle that cuts down on weekend traffic. The goal is for these and other projects to reduce the park's greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2016.

This grant is in line with the goal of the Boeing Charitable Trust: funding projects that "reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, inspire environmental citizenship, and protect and restore critical natural habitat." I think this partnership is a magnificent example for other industrial giants and hope we continue to see unlikely friendships formed for the good of the earth.

[nationalparkstraveler.com]

Photo: Jeannette Kimmel

President Obama recently signed a bill that would create a trail from Montana's Glacier National Park (above) to the Pacific Ocean at Washington's Cape Alava. The 1,200-mile Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail is part of the "dream of a transcontinental pathway across America," according to Ron Strickland, who proposed the Pacific Northwest Trail in 1970. He hopes to see a trail connecting the Pacific to the Atlantic become a reality by the 50th anniversary of the National Trails System in 2018, according to AP.

Portions of the trail already exist, and the Pacific Northwest Trail Association has been maintaining those parts for many years. The complete trail will pass through three national parks--Glacier, North Cascades and Olympic--and seven national forests, and will be the only national scenic trail that connects two other international trails--the Pacific Crest Trail, which runs from Mexico to Canada, passing through California, Oregon, and Washington, and the Continental Divide Trail, which connects Mexico and Canada by way of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.

The Pacific Northwest Trail was officially designated on March 30, when Obama signed a public lands bill that also created the Arizona National Scenic Trail and the New England National Scenic Trail, bringing the total number of national trails to eleven. It has been some 26 years since any additions to the national scenic trails system have been made.

Photo: Steve Geer/iStockphoto.com

Traveler and Photo District News are currently hosting our annual World in Focus Photo Contest, and this year we're letting readers preview the submissions and vote on their favorites. We just put a new batch of images up on our website, and here's one of our favorite picks:

This image, by Alasdair Turner, is of four climbers descending Washington's Mt. Baker in very high wind. Click here to view more images, vote on your favorites, and submit your own photos to our contest.

[World in Focus]

Friend of IT Marissa Bea writes to us about a strange aquatic animal found along the Pacific Northwest coast. While it looks more like something straight out of The Empire Strikes Back, the funny-looking geoduck (pronounced "gooey duck") is a sought-after treat and even gains media attention (Dirty Jobs's Mike Rowe worked on a geoduck farm in 2006, and Top Chef cheftestants cooked up geoduck in Season 3). Here's what Marissa has to say about this Northwest clam.

Being from the Pacific Northwest, I have a strange love affair with the species of clam known as a geoduck.

The quick and dirty: the geoduck is an oversize clam, with shell sizes ranging from 7 to 9 inches in diameter. But the amazing feature of this bivalve is not the shell size but the length of the odd siphon (or nose, or tongue, or what have you) that protrudes from it. There have been specimens found that are up to 6 feet in length, however most are not nearly that long.

Geoducks have one of the longest life spans in the animal world, coming in close to tortoises with an average life expectancy of 146 years. They have few natural predators and can reproduce like rabbits. The female geoduck can produce 5 billion eggs in her lifetime (that's almost an entire new planet of people).

This creature is native to the northwest coast of the U.S. and Canada and gets its name from the Nisqually word for "dig deep." It is still possible to go hunting for them along the beaches. You know you have happened upon a geoduck when you step in the sand and water squirts out at you. Dig a few inches and they are easy to spot. This unique animal looks like a freak of nature, but really it's nature at its best, with an almost infallible design that has been working for millions of years.

But if you pick one up, please put it back. They enjoy the beach more than your kitchen.

Smithsonian Magazine caught up with Top Chef Season 3 winner Hung Huynh, who showed them how to prepare geoduck. Click here for the video.

What strange species live in your neck of the woods? Tell us about it!

Photo: Jordan Husney via Flickr

To mark the release of our March issue (now on newsstands), we're celebrating cities over the next few weeks, and we've asked our readers to share what they love most about their towns. We've been overwhelmed by your responses, and don't worry, we're going to try to get to them all!

Still haven't submitted? Here's your chance. We've put together a list of fill-in-the-blank questions that should help get you started and we'd love it if you would copy and paste the list into an email, fill in your answers (as many as you like) and send your responses to IntelligentTravel@ngs.org. Declare your love for that special city in your heart!

Today's featured city-lover is photographer Susan Seubert, who has most recently captured New York, San Francisco, and Sydney for Traveler. Here's what she has to say about her favorite Northwest city.

To mark the release of our March issue (now on newsstands), we're celebrating cities over the next few weeks, and we've asked our readers to share what they love most about their towns. We've been overwhelmed by your responses, and don't worry, we're going to try to get to them all!

Still haven't submitted? Here's your chance. We've put together a list of fill-in-the-blank questions that should help get you started and we'd love it if you would copy and paste the list into an email, fill in your answers (as many as you like) and send your responses to IntelligentTravel@ngs.org. Declare your love for that special city in your heart!

Today's featured city-lover is Pam Mandel, of Seattle, Washington. Pam is the author of the witty Nerd's Eye View blog, and when she's not riffing on the Seattle weather, she's dreaming of Hawaii over at WorldHum.
 
Seattle is My City
 
The first place I take a visitor from out of town is Alki Beach to see the view of the skyline from the waterfront.
 
When I crave milkshakes I always go to Luna Park in West Seattle.  
 
To escape the midwinter blues, I head to Pike Place Market. The buzz of activity, the bright colors, and the chatter of the market reminds me why I fell for Seattle in the first place.
 
If I want to see the salmon run I go to the Ballard Fish Ladder.
 
For complete quiet, I can hide away at the Arboretum. Bonus: In fall, the trees are spectacular!
 
If you come to my city, get your picture taken with Noguchi's Black Hole Sun in Volunteer Park.  
 
If you have to order one thing off the menu from Bakery Nouveau it has to be the almond croissant.

Some good news from our colleagues at the Center for Sustainable Destinations came out this week - they've announced a partnership with organizations in Oregon and Washington to create a geotourism project for the Central Cascades region in the Northwest. If you're not familiar with our geotourism projects, here's a quick recap: The CSD works with local partners and the public to identify authentic, sustainable aspects of a region - be it culture, food, shopping, activities, events, or landmarks. Right now, you can log onto the project's website www.thecentralcascades.com, and nominate places that you think best represent the region's character. CSD will then put them all together to create a geotourism mapguide, which are amazingly accurate and helpful maps. (I've used them before and found that I hardly need a guidebook.)

The "Central Cascades" area designated for the map stretches from Mount Rainier National Park to Crater Lake National Park, including communities plus private and public lands in both states. The printed Central Cascades MapGuide will be available in September 2009. A parallel interactive Web site is also being developed, so check out the site now and help others find the best places to visit.

And if you're interested in contributing to other mapguides, Montreal is still taking suggestions through today. CSD also has a complete list of available maps for Guatemala, Rhode Island, Arizona, Vermont, Romania, Norway, Yellowstone, Montana, Appalachia, Peru, Honduras, and Baja, Mexico, many of which are free and available as PDFs online.

Photo: via the Central Cascades site 

Having just spent a week in snow-covered Seattle, the thought of spending even more time in a winter wonderland is the furthest thing from my mind. But on January 10, 100 ski resorts are lifting their fees in celebration of Winter Trails Day. Twenty-two states from Washington to Maine are giving snow-goers the chance to try cross-country skiiing or snowshoeing for free, meaning that those who claim the only winter sport they enjoy is making snow angels have no excuse not to frolic in the white stuff. January is also "Learn a Winter Snow Sport Month" (betcha didn't know that), and other resorts across the country are hosting plenty of events straight on 'til Groundhog's Day.

Thanks to Gadling for the tip!

Photo: Vahid Jahed via the Intelligent Travel Flickr pool

Rainer Jenss and his family are in the midst of a yearlong around-the-world trip, and they're blogging about their travels here at IT. Keep up with the Jensses by bookmarking their posts here.

I am a big fan of Michael Palin for two reasons. First and foremost, I love Monty Python. But perhaps my favorite work of Palin's comes not by way of his comedy, but for the series of travel documentaries he produced for the BBC over the past 20 years that feature him traveling Pole-to-Pole, Around the World in 80 Days, and Full Circle. What I'm particularly intrigued by is that he makes it a priority to travel over as much physical landmass as possible during each of his journeys and whenever possible, does so without the use of aircraft. His objective is to capture the true essence of what lies between different geographical locations, gaining the perspective that distance, space, and time provide.

In retrospect, watching these programs probably helped influence our decision to travel around the world for a full year, without stopping or coming back home for the duration, as much as anything else. As a frequent business traveler, I have taken my fair share of cross-country flights from New York to the West Coast, and noticed that rarely do passengers look out the window or know where they are during the roughly six hours on board the plane. Instead, we get in our seats, sleep, eat, read a book, work on our laptop, or watch a movie and then BAM - we step out into a different city thousands of miles away that still speaks English, and has plenty of Starbucks and copies of USA Today. Frequent flier is really a more accurate term for who we are and what we do. After all, a true travel experience provides you with a sense of place, something a cross-country flight just can't capture. Never before had I had the time or opportunity to do it the Michael Palin way, until now.

For the last six weeks, I've blogged about our family's cross-country trek that took us through 18 states (and two provinces in Canada), covered 7,600 miles, and didn't find us in a single airport. We witnessed incredible scenery, met warm and friendly people, and experienced the country in a way too few people get a chance to do, along one continuous trail from one coast to the other. As a result, I don't think any one of us will quite look at a map of the U.S. the same way again, or board a plane without appreciating the distances they cover and landscapes they fly over. So as we drove into Seattle six weeks after we left home, we celebrated the fact that we had now officially driven across the country, and there was still so much more to see and do.

IT Editor Janelle Nanos is on the West Coast this week, blogging about her trip and taking advice from readers on where to head next. After gathering some suggestions, she met up with one IT reader for a tour of her favorite neighborhood. She'll be heading to San Francisco next and is still looking for suggestions, so please feel free to leave them in the comments below...

After a few stops in Tacoma, Washington, I arrived safely in Seattle this past weekend and was very lucky to meet up with Nerd's Eye View blogger and friend of IT Pam Mandel, who took some time out of her busy afternoon to show me the old amusement park grounds at Alki Point, which was once known as the Coney Island of the West.

I'd never heard of (or honestly, even conceived of) Seattle's little beach town, but with its amazing view of downtown and a hefty heaping of kitsch, I was instantly smitten. The Point was the place where first settlers arrived in Seattle, and its current iteration, Alki, is a mix of old and new: Stacks of old-brick condos mingle with newer glass developments along the waterfront, and old fishfry shacks cozy up to coffee shops with Wi-Fi. There's a long, winding bike path that snakes along the Sound, and volleyball players—and yes, even a few swimmers—were taking advantage of the beach (the great old photographs in Spud Fish and Chips show hundreds of swimmers in their full-piece bathing suits playing in the waves—causing us to wonder whether the enthusiasm waned or whether our tolerance for cold has slackened over time).

IT Editor Janelle Nanos is traveling from Seattle to San Francisco this week, and she's sending her dispatches from the road. Help her plan her trip by leaving comments below...

On my way out of Tacoma, my friends and I were hankering for ice cream when we stumbled upon the fabulous establishment that is Don's Ruston Market and Deli (5102 North Winnifred St., tel. +1 253 759 8151). Tucked in the tiny town of Ruston, which is completely surrounded by Tacoma (and the only such town to be so surrounded in the country, claims Don) the soda and sandwich shop is right above Commencement Bay, a harbor that eventually stretches out to the Puget Sound.

Don Torbet and his wife Beth have been in the soda-shop business for 25 years next month, and he says he took over the store, which was originally built in 1917, thanks in part to his love for the Green River ice cream soda. The lime green beverage was once among the most popular sodas in the country but fell out of favor, and eventually was only produced in Seattle. Don keeps a few bottles on ice for diehard fans, but has to drive up to the factory for the syrup to make ice cream sodas. Let me tell you, it's worth the gas money—the bright green, lime flavor mixed with vanilla ice cream was fantastic. As was Don, who is more than happy to regale you with local stories and discuss the idiosyncratic history of regional fountain drinks (he claims to have been introduced to the egg cream only when some East Coast visitors stumbled through). His menu features a wide variety of shakes, ice cream sodas, burgers and sandwiches, and continues to serve as the local grocery in the community, just as it had for the three generations of owners who ran the shop before Don.

After grabbing a Green River, head down to Point Defiance Park to get a great view  of the Puget Sound and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The city park has a spectacular rose garden and living history museum at its fort, and Don and Beth operate a kayak rental shop out of Owen Beach. It's a lovely way to spend an afternoon, and the perfect way to work off your ice cream soda.

Photo: Don Torbet and his Green River soda, by Janelle Nanos

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Hello from the West Coast! I've arrived safe and sound in Seattle and have been eager to take advantage of your suggestions. I'll be sending dispatches from my trip over the next few days—and please feel free to continue to help me plan my trip!

Within minutes from arriving in Sea-Tac airport, I worked my way to downtown Tacoma, a smaller city a bit south of Seattle where Dale Chihuly, the glass sculptor whose blown-glass flowers grace the ceiling of the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas, is originally from. The Museum of Glass (pictured, left) was completed in 2002 in part to celebrate Chihuly's role in the studio glass movement, and it helped to revitalize the city and redevelop the waterway downtown. Today, the gleaming silver building sits on the edge of the harbor, looking a bit like a blimp set down sideways in the center of the city.

Ok readers, here comes a challenge. We at Traveler make a living telling people where to go and what to do when visiting new places. But we also know that the real essence of great travel is having knowledgeable locals tell you where to go. So I'm turning the tables a bit and asking you, our readers, to help me plan my upcoming trip to Seattle and San Francisco. What are the local haunts that a typical tourist would miss? The favorite neighborhood joints, the outstanding yet overlooked museums, the things that locals do on a Saturday instead of checking out the sites? I want to know.

This will be a reader-generated trip. You guys get to decide where I'll go and here's the deal: I want you to show me. I'm going to be in Seattle the weekend of July 18th, and in San Francisco the weekend of the 25th, and I'll be blogging while I'm gone. I'll have my video camera too, and I'd love not only meet our readers, but introduce them to the rest of you. So leave your suggestions for favorite places in the comments below, and if you're up for being a tour guide, email me so you can show me a slice of your town.

Photos: Seattle by Rich Frishman; San Francisco, by Charles O'Rear/Corbis

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More than one Traveler staffer has succumbed to the scooter craze in recent months (pictured, above). And the need to scoot is spreading. Seattlest reported last week that Scoot About, a scooter rental program based in South Lake Union, is testing a scooter rental program similar to that of ZipCars. The scooters are available to business people to run errands in and around the city. Rates start at $5 per half hour and include gas for the first ten miles.

If you're just in town for the weekend, no need to worry. People not enrolled in the program can rent scooters by the hour (starting at $30 for the first hour) or the day ($75). Everyone is required to take a scooter safety course before renting but only need a regular drivers license (here in DC, scooterists must get a special license to legally scoot around the city). Scoot About owner Susan Richardson just added an all-electric scooter—which means zero emissions for up to 25 miles—to the fleet.

Photo: Noah Wiese

The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing may be over a month away, but there's still time to catch some Olympic action stateside at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for track and field, held June 27 through July 6 in Eugene, Oregon. My hometown of Eugene, lovingly known as Track Town USA, is a mecca for runners who come to literally follow in the footsteps of running legends. But I can testify that you don’t have to be a runner to appreciate what Eugene has to offer. 

For the fourth time, the U.S. Olympic Team Trials will be held at the historic Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus. Hayward has been home to Ducks track and field since its construction in 1919 and is the place to go to get a track and field fix. Check out statues of stadium namesake Bill Hayward, who built up the Ducks’s track and field program in the 44 years he served as coach, and Bill Bowerman, who coached the legendary Steve Prefontaine and also co-founded Nike. 

Hayward Field has been expanded by 6,000 seats for the trials, but if you don’t have a ticket head to Eugene 08 Festival happening just outside of the stadium. This free, sustainable festival is open to everyone and will have two jumbo screens with simulcast of the events, a solar-powered entertainment stage, sports bar, food court (try a burrito from Ritta's Burritos), along with interactive exhibits and kid-friendly areas. Buses will provide shuttle service and a bike and skateboard valet will be available to keep the carbon footprint down.

For a break from the action, wander onto the beautiful 295-acre U of O campus. Check out the exhibits at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural and Cultural History. Take in the beautiful old buildings like Deady Hall and new modern marvels like the LEED-certified Lillis Business Complex. Grab a seat in Columbia Hall 150 to catch one of the films in the first Running Film Festival, (screening times won’t interfere with trial times for all the die-hard fans). Or head to the 1873 Pioneer Cemetery across from McArthur Court for a nice stroll among old gravestones and towering Douglas firs. 

It’s not every day you have to struggle to keep a story about doughnuts PG-13. But Voodoo Doughnut in Portland, Oregon–-fresh off opening a second store in the city called Voodoo Doughnut Too!–-thrives on providing people with new experiences. Why should writing about their new store be any different?

When I visited my friend in Portland last month, she took me to the much-famed original shop on SW 3rd avenue. I’d never heard of it before, so when we passed through the unassuming storefront and stood before the more-than-slightly suggestive menu, I was surprised to realize it isn’t just a doughnut shop. It’s a very, very dirty doughnut shop. One that you would (or should) be embarrassed to take your mother to.

Aside from doughnuts of various vulgar shapes and names, the shop offers perks that the usual chains just don’t have on the menu. Like Swahili lessons or legal weddings, and other events that didn’t make the cut here due to aforementioned efforts at prudence. The doughnuts are delicious and the atmosphere is electric, infused with a pride in creativity and craftsmanship lost on most franchised shops. Classic ingredients include toppings like Cap'n Crunch cereal, crushed Butterfingers, and strawberry Nesquik powder. One chocolate-flavored doughnut features a pink marshmallow coating with a "surprise" filling (!). I won’t disclose what I ordered because it might tarnish my virtuous image, but I can say that it was superb.

Last month, Voodoo owners and founders Kenneth "Cat Daddy" Pogson and Tres Shannon responded to Portland's growing demand and opened their second location at 1501 NE Davis. Voodoo Doughnut, Too! currently serves doughnuts 21 hours a day (closed between 3 and 6 a.m.), with plans to stay open 24 hours once a take-out window is installed. Cat Daddy recently shared with me his plans to host a wiffleball league and bike-in movies at the new locale, as well as flea markets and car shows in the fenced, 20,000-square foot parking lot.