Starbucks, GreenPeace, and Books

I think today was officially the halfway point of our incredible cross-country adventure. Yesterday was a long day, which consisted of seeing Seattle in about six hours, having dinner with my good friend Jacob Dixon, and then heading south down to Oregon City to stay with the Woodman’s.
Seattle, also known as the Emerald City, really is a neat place. I was thankful that the God gave us a true Seattle experience with gray, overcast skies and slight chill to the air. We left the hostel around 10:30 and walked just a block down to the Pike Place Market, also known as just the Public Market. It’s the home to the famous fish throwers, who thrive on launching freshly caught fish through the air to the cheers and applause of hundreds of onlookers. Seattlians sure know how to make an ordinary thing like grocery shopping into an entertaining spectacle. It’s also home to a world class farmer’s market with lots of fresh produce (mostly organic), as well as tons of quaint and delicious cafes and bakeries, not to mention the original Starbucks. I’ve said many times that I’m not a huge fan of their coffee, although after driving 15 hours across middle-American farmland, I sure was glad to get my caffeine intake at the first one we came to in Denver. But the nice thing about them is their consistency. Anywhere you go you’re going to get pretty much the same thing, and the original Starbucks in the Pike Place market was no different. With such an incredible history of small business turned world-wide corporation, I had to get a mocha from the place that started it all. I waited in line amidst an onslaught of tourists, all with the same idea in mind as me. After about fifteen minutes I received my drink, and it was pretty good. Probably one of the best mocha latte’s I’ve had from Starbucks, so I was glad that they lived up to their reputation.
After moseying around the market for a bit, complete with some incredible street musicians, we started to explore the rest of the city when we were viciously attacked by a street-evangelist from GreenPeace!!! She proceeded to attempt to sway, coerce, smooth-talk, and condemn us for our carbon-emissions, and tried ultimately to persuade us into bowing before Mother Earth and worshipping at the alter of Al Gore. But there is no need for worry, because we would not be swayed! Despite her scare tactics that because of gas engines and Kleenex we would all soon be underwater and therefore blaspheme the goddess of nature, I will still be driving my CO2 producing, fossil-fuel burning 4-cylinder Camry, with the wind blowing in my hair and a twinkle in my eye, while wiping my runny nose with a tissue. Sarcasm aside, we had an interesting conversation that I got mostly on film, and she was respectful even when I rejected her religion. It did make me think though, that here are people that are spending their time and energy doing in effect “street-witnessing”, yet there were no Christians pleading with people top turn from their sins and bow before the God of Creation, nor was I. Very convicting.
The rest of our time in the city was spent mostly walking up and down the steep streets, and exploring an art museum. After this, we headed down to Tacoma just south of Seattle to meet up with Jacob Dixon and have some dinner. Jacob just got back from his first deployment with the Army, and I was glad to see that he was still in one piece. He said that his regiment has a very low casualty rate, probably due to the intense training they do before they go overseas. He’s definitely grown up a bit, as war will do to a person. Please pray for him.
We finally made it down to Oregon City later that evening and were welcomed by the Woodman family, who used to go to Calvary Chapel Bartlett. They’ve been very kind to us, giving us food, a place to sleep, and an opportunity to do some laundry! Today Ben, Candace, and I headed up to Mt. Hood, down to the Hood River which is the wind-surfing capital of the world, and finally into downtown Portland. The view from Mt. Hood was beautiful, and I was pleasantly surprised to see there was still lots of snow on the mountain. Take that Green Peace global warmers! I was excited to go check out Hood River, mainly because I heard so much about it when I was a kid. My dad used to be an avid windsurfer, and all the magazines about the sport seemed to be centered around this mecca of wind. Unfortunately today there was no wind, apparently the winter is the best tome of year for that. But it was very pretty and I got some really neat photos. The amazing thing about Oregon is that it is so diverse! From the mountains, to the beaches on the coast, to the river, it really has it all. There were also some beautiful water falls right off the highway that we stopped to look at on the way to Portland.
After dinner I Portland we went to Powell’s Books which has to be the largest bookstore in the world. The place takes up an entire city block! We spent about an hour and a half in there, which was good because I was going to go broke if I stayed in there any longer.
Tomorrow we’re going down to the coast of northern California to camp out among the mighty Redwoods. I’m very excited.