After rampaging through Sabrina's Gym (thanks to Gengar), I realized I never found the Surf HM. I did a ton of backtracking and talking, but I could not locate any clues on its whereabouts. So I did what anyone should do in that situation: I asked an eight year old. "That's in the Safari Zone," he told me. Oh, yeah, right. When you first walk in there, you read all these signs and convos about the great gift you get if you can make it all the way to the farthest corner of the Zone. I thought that was just a stupid sidequest! They even tell you the prize you get "will make getting around much easier." I was really hoping you'd get a fighter jet or something... but it's just Surf, which is completely necessary to continue in the game.

LeafGreen/FireRed has a terrible lack of optional sidequests and subgames. It really is a pale shadow of Ruby/Sapphire, and I would encourage anyone who hasn't played either to go with R/S (or the upcoming Emerald) before bothering with LG/FR. After all the berry runs, talent contests, secret bases and whatnot of Sapphire, I'm fairly bored by LeafGreen. It lacks that free-world feel. Yeah, yeah, LG/FR is just a remake, but I was expecting a full bore remake to bring this game up to the level of R/S. Maybe the special new content after the Championship at the end of the game will make up for it.

The same pal who told me where to find Surf also traded me a Growlithe, which can't be naturally found in LeafGreen. I gave him a Weepinbell in return. Not sure if that is a LeafGreen exclusive or not, so I don't know if I helped his FireRed game much. I love working with traded pokemon, because they level up so damn fast. My Growlithe came over at level 15 and I got him up to 31 in no time at all. Taught him Strength too. I'm pretty confident he will be in my Championship team.

Now that Blastoise knows Surf, I ventured south from Fuchsia City over the ocean to Seafoam Islands. Seafoam appears to be a giant roadblock on the way to Cinnabar Island, where the next Gym Leader is found. I really hate long paths like this, especially when there's no safe ground from random encounters. The road from Fuchsia to Seafoam is a longish waterway - where you get jumped by annoying level 6 Tentacools every couple steps - and then Seafoam itself is a multi-level cave puzzle maze. Ick.

I found an Articuno deep inside the Seafoam cave, but I was in no condition to battle and capture him. So I bailed out of the whole path and went back to stock up on supplies. While I'm back on the main continent, I'm going to head up towards the Power Plant. I hear tell there's a Zapdos in there, but I haven't found the right path to get there yet.

Time: 27:44
Badges: 6
Pokedex: 62 (Seen: 119)
Party: Growlithe lv31, Blastoise lv42, Katamari (Meowth) lv36, Gengar lv48, Fearow lv21, Snorlax lv43