It's a pretty good sign that a vacation has been long enough when I come pack from a day's outing, and can't formulate an entry for Get Up 8.
Went here. Went there. Did this. Did that. Portland is nice.
Blah blah.
It's a good sign, too, when I'm excited about the trip home. Even when the weather is predicted to be three inches of snow on top of a quarter inch of ice. (What the hell is up with that?)
I realized I haven't updated once since arriving in Portland. I'm sitting in the airport, early for my flight, and I'll say this about Portland: there's free wifi in the airport.
How civilized.
The Bluebird Guesthouse was a great place to alight at the end of the day. Having a kitchen available was a plus, though we didn't take advantage of it. We though we might, but we didn't. Our room was comfortable, and the rate was excellent. The bus line downtown was just outside the door, and there's a local coffee shop half a block up the street, not to mention pubs, restaurants, a patisserie. (There was a highly recommended Thai streetfood stand across the street too. It was disappointingly authentic: nothing vegetarian on the menu.) We probably could have stayed right in the area of the guesthouse, and had a plenty good time.
Instead of having a good time staying near our accomodations, though, we had a great time gallivanting all over the place. We went here. We went there. We did this. We did that. Highlights included:
sakery.)
Et cetera. It seemed like we packed a lot in.
On days when we did use a car, we paid the little bit extra for a GPS navigation system. Honestly, I don't know how we got a long without one in the past. If I didn't know my way around Lincoln so well, I'd be tempted to buy one for Barbara (ahem) for Christmas. The downside: you'd never get lost anywhere. That's also the upside. I want this for my phone. (Along with a good camera and ogg player. Or just a tricorder, like I've always said. Oh, now, I also want an ebook reader built in too, with an e-ink display, but only if it has wifi built in and DRM-free content I can swap with my friends. Authors, please: I want to read your books. I'll pay you for them! Then I'll give copies to my friends to read, and they'll pay you for your other books! But I digress...)
Here's a newsflash: with the internet, cell phones, email, and social networking sites, I felt more in touch with the goings-on back home than I ever have on a vacation. I know, I know: is that a good thing or a bad thing? Being gone this long, it made be feel more in control and more comfortable with being physically not-present. I was able to coordinate plumbing work and snow removal (thanks Darren and Amren), and knew within hours when Lorenzo had torn into the bag of dry cat food and made a huge mess (sorry Shannon). I was also able to share my pictures and blog entries, when I bothered to write them, in a timely fashion, and won't have a huge pile of stuff to deal with when I get back to the office.
This whole idea of disconnection
? Overrated.
Seattle's been a busy place; it's been hard to keep up with making updates. I'm pretty tired, now, so this won't be a scintillating entry.
We're walking everywhere, or taking the bus, and haven't need to use the car since we arrived.
Our luckiest lucky find since arriving is In The Bowl, a hole-in-the-wall, vegetarian noodle place on Olive, just west of Broadway. Hungry and tired, we stumbled in on our way back from the Pike Place market. It was hot, crowded, noisy, and the food was excellent. I hope we make it back before we continue on our next leg.
While at the market we stopped at Beecher's, a cheesemaker. They had finished making with their making for the day, though, and were washing up the make room while we tried samples on the other side of the glass.
Yesterday, we made a stop I've been anticipating: Saké Nomi in the Pioneer Square area. We met the owners, Johnnie and Taiko, and spent an hour and a half sampling premium sake. I learned more about sake and Barbara found out that she likes some sake, after all. (We also have two bottles we have to figure out how to get home.)
Later, we took a turn through the central branch of the Seattle Public Library. It was a building full of surprises, open spaces, bright colors, and, presumably, books.
Today, we took whale watching cruise in Puget Sound aboard the Stellar Sea operated by Salish Sea Charters. It was chilly out on the water. Unfortunately, we spotted no whales, though we did see harbor seals, porpoise, and sea lions.
Tomorrow, we'll be having lunch with a friend of Barbara's out in Redmond, then off to the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame at Seattle Center.
We got up relatively early this morning to prepare for our drive up the coast on 101 on our way to Seattle. As we broke fast, we took time to appreciate the view from the Old Wheeler Hotel one more time before hitting the road. Though rainy when we woke, by the time we were loading up the car the sun was starting to burn off the overcast and fog.
Before leaving the Oregon coast, we took a walk on Arcadia Beach, just south of Cannon Beach on 101. It was a pretty as we could have hoped—misty, rocky, with the tide rolling in—and it was early enough that we had the whole beach to ourselves...for a while anyway. It felt warmer than I would have thought a temperature in the 40s would. After about an hour of beachcombing and taking pictures and watching the surf, we returned reluctantly to the car.
As we drove northward, Barbara spotted what she first thought to be a hawk overhead, but as we drew closer proved to be a bald eagle. Very cool.
We stopped for lunch at the Blue Scorcher in Astoria. We had a false start when we learned the Scorcher doesn't accept plastic, but they got our orders going while Barbara secured a table amid the thronging elementary school kids who were there on a class trip, and I ran to the bank to secure some fundage. Barbara had salad of fresh greens, red grapefruit, and pomegranate along with some lentil soup. I had the cranberry tempeh sandwich. We agreed our meals were excellent. The sandwich was cranberry relish, butternut squash spread, and tempeh on potato bread; it was like the Thanksgiving meal we skipped on Thursday to make the trip out here.
A squall was rolling across the Columbia River as we crossed the bridge into Washington. We wanted to stop at the Cape Disappointment lighthouse, but we found the trail to it was closed by order of the Coast Guard. I guess that's why they call it Cape Disappointment. While there, though, we enjoyed a fantastic view of the mouth of the Columbia and the Pacific Ocean beyond.
As we continued along 101, the scenery metamorphosed from coastal to
temperate rain forest, dark as night as you stared into it, and the
mountains gave was to lower, flatter terrain. Another rain squall
crossed our path as we began to work our way around Willapa Bay, and as
we rounded a curve, putting the sun at our back, the sky burst forth in
the most vivid rainbow I have ever seen. It looked close enough to
touch, and we squinted across the tops of the foliage trying to catch
sight of the pot of gold; no gold, ultimately, but the scene was
<description mode="superlative">you know,
awesome</description>.
Hitting I-5 was an abrupt transition from the rural and coastal to dense urban traffic. Olympia, Tacoma, and Seattle sprawl together, and I-5 was blanketed with cars from the moment we hit it until we found our exit. Downtown Seattle suddenly appeared out of the darkness as we rounded a curve, a riot of brightly lit highrises and skyscrapers, a northern landmark on the SEATAC approach pattern.
In Seattle, we're staying at the Shafer Baillie Mansion B&B, a sprawling house tastefully bedecked in an English Arts and Crafts style. After the hotel in Wheeler, with its closely-arranged rooms and whirring heater, it seems very quiet.
We know we've found civilization again, because we're surrounded by
Thai and Ethiopian restaurants, cars and people. It's loud and brightly
lit, and there are scruffy guys that walk down the street shouting at
themselves. As we shared our bamia,
gomen, and wots at the Queen Sheba on John Street,
listening to the half-drunk Microsoft Evangelist
at the next
table loudly tell her date about all her former boyfriends and their
messy breakups, we asked ourselves, should we have just stayed on the
coast?
Since we arrived, locals have been telling us how lucky we are with regard to the weather. Instead of bright and clear, they say, it could just as easily be gloomy and pouring rain.
It started raining today as we were eating lunch. In a land of fish and chips, steaks, and fresh oysters, this vegetarian won't need to eat any cheese again for a while. Thank goodness for the continental breakfast, where I can, with my coffee, get fruit and oatmeal.
As we were paying for our lunch, the gentleman behind the counter
told us, Yep, it's gonna rain all day, then it's going to freeze
over. Drive carefully!
That's a prediction I hope doesn't come true.
This morning we did some housekeeping, taking our laundry up to Corkrey's Coin-op Laundry in Nehalem, and the wifi reception there is surprisingly good. The downtime—yes, on vacation, I'm talking about downtime—gave me a chance to catch up on some email.
We planned to take a walk on the beach on the way back from lunch, but the rain and chill put the kibosh on that, so we just parked off the road up the beach from the Twin Rocks and watched the surf for a while.
After a turn around the antique shop in Wheeler, we came back to the hotel for a quiet evening. Tomorrow, we'll drive up 101, cross the Astoria bridge into Washington, and head into Seattle. The debate we're having, now, is how long to keep the car, once we get back to Portland. We planned to turn it in right away, and use public transportation to get around, but since we've arrived, we keep learning of things we're interested in doing in the Portland area that aren't well-served by public transport.
It's a question we're going to have to answer soon, so we can extend the contract on the car if we need to.
First, let me say, the biggest mistake we've made so far on this trip, other than getting the flight time wrong, is the choice of shoes we made to pack. We both should have brought hiking boots and something to wear when walking on the beach that can get wet.
Yesterday, we went to Tillamook to visit cheesemaking facilities.
It's definitely not as touristy as the strip from Rockaway Beach to
Astoria that we traveled the day before. Our first stop was Blue Heron
French Cheeses, which Barbara believed to be a small cheesemaker. It
turns out they outsourced their local
brie to California some
years before, and what we expected to be a cheesemaker turned out to be
a roadside petting zoo and gift shop—fine for what it was, but not
what we were after.
We had crossed the Tillamook Creamery off the list as an industrial cheese facility, larger scale than what Barbara was interested in. After Blue Heron, though, we were still looking for some actual cheese being made, so we stopped up the road at the Tillamook Cheese plant. It turned out to be smaller than Barbara expected. Established by local dairies to facilitate trade of dairy products for needed supplies from Portland, the Tillamook Creamery Assocation is one of the earliest manifestations of the local agriculture movement.
Much like our trip to Cornwall in 2002, much of this trip seems to be about rocks, water, and rocks in the water. Check out my flickr photostream to see what I mean.
Last night, we supped on local pears, wine, cheese, and bread in the common area of the inn. It was the best evening meal we've had so far.