Goodbye, Seattle

We were awakened at 6:30 this morning by a call from home (remember that 2-hour time difference, Nar?) that the church had been broken into during the night and stuff taken from the offices closest to the back door. Of course, Dear’s office was one of the ones hit. Missing items include a nice bass guitar, a cheapo six-string guitar that someone donated (euphemism for “I don’t want this piece of junk in my house anymore – give it to the church”), and #3’s trombone. The robbers took other things from other offices, too, but nothing with as much meaning to us as that trombone that we bought for #3 when he started band back in the 6th grade. Sigh. Oh well. He’ll get a replacement trombone with the insurance settlement.

Here’s hoping that TPTB will step up the security measures around COL and go for steel doors and jambs. Not to mention leaving the outside lights on around the building. There is an alarm system, but response time from the authorities is still long enough for thieves to get away with a few valuables.

Anyway, Dear talked with Nar for a few minutes and then we managed to go back to sleep for another couple of hours until the alarm went off at 9:45. Check-out time at the hotel was noon, and we left the building by 11:45. This day begins the southbound leg of our trip back toward our eventual departure from Oakland, and our reservations for tonight are in Kaizen, OR – south of Portland and north of Salem – only 200 miles away.

Traffic in Seattle wasn’t too bad at midday and we drove to Tacoma before stopping for lunch at Azteca, a Mexican restaurant. We haven’t had Mexican food since we left BigD and this restaurant was crowded – a good sign when scoping out local establishments. #3 and I had combo plates and Dear had what we would call chicken fajitas, except they called it carnitas.

The food was really good – we went into this as skeptics because of our discriminating TX palates, but we really wanted Mexican food – and we were pleased with our choice. Dear and #3 had spied a Krispy Kreme store just up the road from Azteca, so they stopped in there after our meal for a couple of those sinful things. I stayed in the car away from temptation. (I’ll have Strawberry Cheesequake Blizzard later. LOL)

We filled up with gas (for the car, not a Mexican food euphemism, at least not yet…time will tell) at a Circle K where the price was $4.21/gallon. Dear wanted to do the pumping himself before we get back into Oregon where it’s still illegal to do so (see earlier blog). Back on “the 5” southbound to Kaizen.

The hotel is a remodeled version of what used to be the Kaizen Econolodge. Scary, I know, but it’s now called The Renaissance Inn and Convention Center. And the building is done in 1920’s art deco style – very chic. And pink. LOL The room is large, the bathroom is small, and the air conditioner works fine now that Dear cleaned the filter. He’s going to leave them a maintenance bill when we leave. Riiiight.

We relaxed for a while and then decided to go with fast food for supper, so we headed for the Dairy Queen we’d seen on the drive in. The Blizzard flavor of the month is Girl Scout Cookie Thin Mint and it is wonderful. We may have to have another one before the end of the month. Oh wait, July just started. This could be bad.

Back to the room and catching up on emails, blogs, photos and “So You Think You Can Dance.” Quiet, travel day with no photos. But tomorrow is another day – we’re heading for Crater Lake, so expect a barrage of photos then!

ttfn