Good morning from Aberdeen Washington, the Birthplace of Grunge. Ed and I landed here last night around 8pm, and found a nice little hotel – Aberdeen’s Finest, according to the neon sign – offering free wi-fi and decided to stop for the night. It was a good decision – we were both tired and hungry, and Aberdeen is big enough to have three 7-11s so clearly it is a sprawling metropolis with many options.

After checking in and asking the clerk where to eat, we found ourselves at Billy’s. Billy was a local legend around these parts, and Aberdeen itself is chockfull of seedy history:

By 1900, Aberdeen was considered one of the grittiest towns on the West Coast, with many saloons, whorehouses, and gambling establishments populating the area. Aberdeen was nicknamed “The Hellhole of the Pacific”, or “The Port of Missing Men”, because of its high murder rate. One notable resident was Billy Gohl, known locally as Billy “Ghoul”, who was rumored to have killed at least 140 men (Gohl was convicted of 2 murders).

Hell. Yes. I didn’t know any of this before we stopped here, but if I had, I would have made a point of it. At Billy’s restaurant, Ed had a yak burger and a pint of Dick’s and I enjoyed a delicious but less hilarious-sounding meal. We came back to the hotel room, set up our various internet devices, and pretty much passed out for sleeping times. I had truly wanted to write an epic update – I have SO MANY PICTURES – but that’ll have to wait until later.

I know some people (okay, just Shan) will be disappointed that we didn’t spend the night in Forks, but I have other, non-creepy things I want to do before we get to Portland so it was good that we kept going. We did stop in Forks for at least an hour, and I explored the main drag with my camera. I want to properly name and describe the photos that I have but I was way too tired to do so last night and we’re about to hit the road again, but I will try to get to it tonight. I have words. Words about Forks. I will leave you with this, though: Even though I am not into Twilight at all and think the entire thing is ridiculous, I found myself a little melancholy after leaving the town because they do such an epic job of ruining the fantasy.

Here is a picture. There will be so very many more.

at least it's spelled right, i guess