Album: Around St. Louis
One thing I wanted to do before I moved to Seattle was snap some pics of the area before they changed too much. Well, I waited a little too long and progress has slowly started to change the face of the downtown St. Louis.

Washington Ave has completely changed. What used to be a rough-around-the-edges club district now sports upscale cafe's , boutiques, lofts, and pubs. Thankfully the old buildings were left in place so the architecture and old-town flavor still comes through.

The older buildings hold quite a few memories... We spent few late nights (mornings?) in these old warehouses. These buildings housed some of the greatest parties of the St. Louis electronic music scene.

The last photos are from the flood wall down by the Mississippi river. St. Louis allows local artists to come down here and paint to their heart's content. This goes on much much longer then I shot, but we only had so much time available.

Album: Gas Works Park with a View
http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/GASWORKS.htm

Album: Beastie Boys at the Key Arena-- Sprint Picture Phone
This ended up being a very interesting evening.... After making a phone call, we found out the B-Boys actually did not go on until 9:10, following two opening acts. So we bussed it into the city (that is along story in itself), arriving around 9:30. The show was INCREDIBLE. We had decent seats at first, but even BETTER seats for the encore. We noticed the first two rows were taped off below us, completely empty. So when the main set ended, I decided to head down there, wanting better seats for the encore. Bridgette, Tim, Nate and Ken followed me... As soon as the music turned on, the lights came up, but the Boys were not on the main stage anymore... They were right in front of us, performing from the Sound Stage (A/V and Lighting controllers stage)!! We quickly rushed around landing even better seats directly in front of the performance. And that is where the Sprint Picture phone came into play. I used to say "Man... why did i spend the extra money on a camera phone?? I am never going to use it!"... I was wrong. The quality is not the highest, the images are a little blurry, but we have our memories.

Album: Jack Johnson and G. Love and Special Sauce Concert at the Gorge in George.
Sirius hooked me up with some tickets to the Jack Johnson and G. Love and Special Sauce concert. The show was spectacular! The pics are not. :) I am not sure what was wrong, but almost none of the pictures turned out. Noelle, a friend of Tim's sister, was my guest at this show. The location is the Gorge at George, a huge outdoor amphitheater that overlooks a beautiful canyon and river. It was great watching the sunset in the background while listening to great music with good company. This was the last show for the season at the Gorge, and the last show for the Jack Johnson tour. All three bands commented that Gorge is always their favorite stop on the tour.... With good reason. The view is breath-taking and the acoustics are fantastic. It's the best concert venue I have attended yet.

Album: Idaho: From Boise to Pocatello and Back.
A special promotion with the Denver Mopar office required me to visit as many stores in Idaho as possible. I landed in Boise (I was unaware of the smaller airports in Pocatello and Idaho Falls) and drove through to Pocatello, ID. From Pocatello I traveled as far north as Rexburg and as far south/south east as Preston and Montpelier. Pocatello offered something I have never tried before... In the distance from my hotel I noticed dirt trails winding up the side of the mountains. As luck would have it, I just happened to rent a Subaru Outback for my trip. As the saying goes-- "What kind of car makes the best race car...?" A RENTAL! :) I decided I had to find the trails and test the abilites of Scooby. I was very surprised how manuverable and agile the Outback was. The only thing that kept me from reaching the top of the peak was my gas level. I started the trail with a half tank, but due to the extreme angle of the final stage, fuel couldn't reach the pump and I had to reverse down the 100 yard gravel and sand path... And yes, I was sweating a little. Especially when I would apply the brakes and the vehicle continued to descend!!

Album: Monroe Trails
These pictures were taken about 4 miles from my house (while living with Tim and Bridgette) at Al Borlin State Park in Monroe Washinton. We definitely did NOT have city parks like this in St. Louis. There are quite a few trails that wind throughout the wooded areas along the riverfront. Great for jogging, walking, mountain biking, escaping. More pics to come later. Following a slowly disapearing trail, I came across an old defunct railroad bridge. The bridge still crosses the river, but the area that used to contact the shoreline has been destroyed (to keep people like myself from exploring it!).

Album: A Sunday Drive
The beginning of February started out rather murky (typical winter weather). One Sunday morning the clouds finally parted and the sun broke through. I decided to take advantage of the change and head out for a drive to "anywhere, WA". I chose a direction, a road, and I was off. I eventually ended up in Sultan where I discovered a cool little park right off the highway. The park was created at the point where the Sultan River meets the Skykomish River. Beautiful.

Album: The Journey West.
This will eventully contain pics from my journey beginning in St. Louis, MO and arriving in Monroe, WA, outside of Seattle. The trip took me about 30 hours over 2500 miles during one of the worst storms the Pacific Northwest has experienced in 20 years. I drove through the tail-end of the storm, so the weather wasn't too bad, but the road conditions were horrible. I am currently missing the entire splash gaurd assembly from under the front of my car (the black plastic that protects the fender wells and engine bay from bouncing/splashing road debris). It was ripped off somewhere in Montana because the snow on the highway was about 1ft deep! My daily routine for each day included a 4 or 430 wake up call, on the road by 530 or 6, drive until about 8:30, rinse, repeat. It was a long, somewhat stressful drive, but beautiful none-the-less. Keep checking back.