The Journey Is Half the Fun?

We must have been more ready to get home than we thought, because we all woke up before my phone alarm went off at 8:30. Actually, Dear said he woke up at 6:15 with that song on his mind that goes “five-hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes…” and he laid there doing the math to make sure that’s really how many minutes there are in a year. After ciphering for a while, he concluded that it is.

Anyway, after the 8:30 phone alarm, we snoozed until someone did the tap-ta-ta-tap-tap thing on our door. Hmmm, we have no friends here and we still had the “Do Not Disturb” sign out, so who could it be?

Since the boyz were in their sleeping skivvies, I got up and looked out the peephole. There was a sturdy-looking tall bald man standing there, so I said (in gravelly morning voice), “Who is it?” and he said, “Da#&, I’ve got the wrong room again, sorry!” The same guy had knocked on our door last night and looked surprised when #3 opened the door. He’d REALLY have gotten a shock had I actually opened the door! LOLOL Good thing we were already awake when he knocked this morning, or we would have been much less forgiving.

At 9:00 Dear did his shower thing while I checked email and verified our flight departure info. Then it was my turn to clean up while Dear found the actual song (525,600 minutes) on iTunes so he could get it out of his head. Great song, by the way.

We’d packed most everything the night before just to make sure we had room for all of our original stuff PLUS the souvenir stuff we’ve bought in the last 2 weeks. All we had left to pack in the morning were our routine toiletries, PJ’s and slippers (mine), and find a place for the few dirty clothes from the morning cleanup. #3 showered and we were ready to check out about 10:45.

We hadn’t finished up some of the food items we’d bought the other night. Dear poured the rest of the milk down the sink, but we just left the brownies and 2 doughnuts. Maybe the housekeeper had a little snack as she cleaned our room.

Checkout was smooth – the printer was “miraculously” working – and we were on our way. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 2:40, so we figured we’d get to the airport about 12:30 to return the rental and get through all the security. But since it wasn’t 11 yet, we looked for a place to have lunch before going to the airport.

My boyz graciously agreed to one last Malibu Chicken lunch at the Sizzler just for me. Aren’t they thoughtful? It was wonderful.

We filled up the rental with gas for the return to Enterprise and Maggs got us to the Oakland International Airport in record time. The air around Oakland was really hazy, but I had read online this morning that the fires were building up again because of the hot, dry weather. I’m glad we did the SF tour when the smoke had blown out of the area for that short time.

We pulled into the rental car return at 12:30 on the dot. Enterprise man checked us in, told us we’d driven 2,511 miles (WOW), and gave me the receipt for the charges. It was less than what Gloria (San Jose Enterprise Clerk) had quoted – even with the extra drop-off and driving-into-a-non-bordering-state charges. Take that, Glo! There is justice, albeit *hooters* couldn’t think of the word I wanted. Oh, anti-climactic. That’s the word I wanted. Ignore the *hooters.*

Quick shuttle ride to the Oakland terminal, check the bags (no charge for 5 bags because we booked before the baggage surcharge requirement), endure the tedious security check, get dressed again, and made it to Gate 8A by 12:50.
Yep. We had a hurry-up-and-wait experience, but at least we didn’t miss the flight. My mother would be proud. She’s big on the hurry-up-and-wait philosophy of life.

We were scheduled to arrive in BigD at 8:15 p.m. and #1 was supposed to bring Dear’s van to pick us up at the airport. I sent him a message the night before with the flight info and again in the morning with our arrival gate A15. #2&K were on stand-by just in case. We like to have a backup plan for insurance.

We sat in the gate waiting area for a while and then #3 and I went browsing at one of the little souvenir/snack stores on the concourse. They had a deal on OAKLAND shirts, so we got one for him and one for the guy who house-sat for us. We also bought some of those little solar-powered keychains for friends and a couple of sodas. That killed about 15 minutes and it wasn’t too long after we got back to the waiting area that they started boarding the flight for home.

We kept ourselves occupied on the flight with various activities. Dear read the SkyMall magazine, I worked the crossword puzzle in the American Way magazine, and #3 listened to music on his iPod. When we started out, the pilot told us that the weather in BigD was sunny, temp of 97 with a few clouds, and that we’d be arriving about 15 minutes early. Must have had a good westerly tail wind.

Looong flight: 3 hours and 25 minutes. The skies were clear and we could see the terrain down below. FYI, Monument Valley, UT, is still impressive from 38,000 feet. #3 was sitting by the window, but I leaned to see things every once in a while.

AA (that’s American Airlines, not Alcoholics Anonymous) still serves free soft beverages and bottled water, but doesn’t give out free food anymore. Not even those little bags of honey-coated nuts or Chex mix. About halfway through the flight, our Malibu chicken lunch was a distant memory and our tumblies were grumbling. We figured we’d eat at Abuelo’s in Arlington after #1 picked us up from the airport. Yummy!

At 7:45, the pilot told us that we were flying over Wichita Falls (we knew he was talking about TX, but the people in front of us thought he meant Kansas. Hello? 7th grade Geography?) and that they had just gotten the report that there was “weather” at DFW and the airport was closed to incoming flights. At that point, he was thinking we’d be rerouted to Oklahoma City to refuel and wait out the DFW storm. Hmmm.

Many things ran through my mind, not the least of which was how to get this info to #1, who had already left our house to make the trip to the airport to pick us up and doesn’t have a cell phone. Hmmm. Oh well, there was nothing I could do at 38,000 feet and #1 is savvy enough to check the website and/or the Arr/Dep screens at the airport to get the latest info.

We did land at 8:00. It was just that we were in OkC instead of BigD. Pilot said that we’d refuel, deplane the 3 lucky passengers who were headed for OkC anyway and just got there 2 hours early, get a new flight plan, and wait for DFW to open up to incomings. It’s the first time in my many years of flying experience that people weren’t up out of their seats the nanosecond the plane stopped on the tarmac. Everyone just sat there talking quietly and waiting for the next update.

9:00. Pilot said we’d been refueled, the 3 OkC passengers were off (lucky them), we had the new flight plan, and DFW was still closed. But it looked like the weather cell was moving quickly (obviously he’s not from TX because he seemed surprised at fast-moving weather) and we were going to get in line to take off.

9:35. Pilot explained why we’d been sitting on the runway for so long. There were at least 60 rerouted flights coming into OkC and we had to wait for a takeoff spot between the incomings. We finally started rolling a couple of minutes later and were in the air by 9:40. Pilot said it was only a 25-minute flight to DFW.

10:26. The 25-minute flight (uh, more like 46) landed at DFW. We were anticipating a turbulent ride and #3 had his knuckles all set for whiteness, but it was a smooth flight. We saw the lights of BigD long before we landed and figured that those fast-moving clouds were off in Arkansas somewhere by then.

10:40. Taxied to Gate C10 (remember I had told #1 we’d be arriving at A16 – oops) and people popped up to deplane. Flight Attendant told us that there would be gate clerks to direct people to connecting flights (yeah, right) and that our luggage would be at Baggage Claim C4. Situation back to normal.

11:00. Not so much. We were still waiting to get off the plane. No one had moved. We were still sitting down (experience has told us that it’s easier just to wait than to join in the deplaning rush). Pilot told us that the gate folks were having trouble getting the SkyBridge rolling walkway thingie to work so we could get off the plane, but the mechanics were working on it and we’d be on our way very soon.

11:15. Yeah, we’re still sitting. Pilot said that the SkyBridge rolling walkway thingie was still not working and everyone needed to do an about-face because we’d be walking down the aft stairs, around the wing, and up the back SkyBridge stairs into the gate area. Understand that our seats were in Row 26, so we were very close to the back of the plane. Now, suddenly, we’re at the FRONT of the line! Sweet.

I’ve never been pooped out of a plane before, but obviously there’s a first time for everything. Talk about dropping off the kids!

11:25. We made it down the back, um, aft steps, around the wing, up the baby steps into the SkyBridge NON-rolling walkway thingie and finally into the waiting area at Gate C10. I noticed that there were large signs above the corridor that told us our luggage would be at Baggage Claim C12, but didn’t the Flight Attendant just tell us it would be at C4? Hmmm.

We followed the crowd to Baggage Claim C12, where VOILA!!! there was #1 waiting for us! Hugs all around – we’re HOME!! #1 said he was glad to see us but that he had some bad news and my heart did a flip-flop expecting … I don’t know what I expected to hear.

He’d locked the keys in the car. And it was parked in a one-hour tow-away spot. And the fuel light had come on a few miles back. And our baggage was at C12.
Fitting ending to an interesting day, wouldn’t you say?

Long story short (did I just hear a sigh of relief??), we walked to C12 and retrieved our luggage. I called #2 and he went by our house to get the extra set of keys and then drove to the airport to bring them to us. He got there about 12:30. After the hugs all around with him and the locked-inside key retrieval, we loaded everything up and he followed us to the nearest gas station just to make sure we got there. With the adventure we’d just experienced, we weren’t taking any chances on running out of gas with no backup plan!

We stopped to eat taquitos at What and eventually pulled into our driveway at 2 a.m. We unloaded the car, talked for a little while and my head hit the pillow at 3:30 – which was really only 1:30 to us because we were still functioning on CA time.

It’s been a fun 2 weeks. Thanks for reading along and sharing our adventures. The last set of pictures will bring the total to somewhere around 525. Lots of memories and gorgeous scenery.

Hey, it’s good to be back home again.

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p.s. Oh, did I mention that the air conditioner on the bedroom side of the house wasn’t working when we got home?

Rainy Days and Mondays

Well, it’s not raining, but it’s the last Monday of our vacation and it’s been a quiet day for us. No excursions or adventures, but write-worthy just the same. My blog, my stories.

Dear and I got up early this morning (relatively speaking, of course – it was 11 when we left the room) and did the laundry chore while #3 slept. (Packing dirty laundry is yukky.) All his clothes were in the laundry anyway, so he couldn’t go anywhere decently until the task was complete. Although…this is California. Maybe no one would have noticed.

While we were out, we went by a UPS Store to arrange for shipping our redwood windmill home. The girl at the first store kind of gulped when she saw the size of the thing. It’s not really HUGE, but it stands at least 2 feet tall without the turning blade apparatus thing (I googled for the technical term, but to no avail) and it’s a good foot across. She didn’t have any boxes big enough, so she gave us directions (here we go again) to another UPS Store that could accommodate The Thing.

This excursion took us about 20 minutes, so we went back to the Laundromat to put our clothes in for the drying cycle. Since the other UPS Store was further away, we finished the laundry and brought it back to the BW lodge so we could get #3 for the rest of our days’ activities.

By the time he got ready and the boyz finished watching the movie they started while I was checking email, it was 3:00. We found the other UPS Store and forked over massive amounts of cash to ship The Thing to ourselves in TX. Good grief, it’s only wood – not solid gold. It cost more to ship it than it did to buy it in the first place! Hindsight.

After the $$$hipping transaction was complete, we stopped at a Target to get a cheapo carry-on bag to add to our collection because we have more stuff to take home than we brought with us. Souvenirs and shirts and jackets and magnets and shot glasses and whirlijigs and you get the picture. More stuff. We found a duffel bag in the Clearance section and got a bargain. Now we have to figure out who will be assigned to this new carry-on bag. That’s a task for tomorrow morning.

I took the camera out with us today, but only took a couple of pictures. I love the purple trees, but again don’t know what they are. Where’s Neil Sperry when I need him?

After Target, we looked for a restaurant for our last vacation dinner. We chose the Elephant Bar Restaurant – a place that boasted of an “eating adventure with a Pacific Rim flair.” Whatever that meant. I wondered if there would be tiki torches and pigs with apples in their mouths on roasting spits, but no.

Our sampler appetizer had shrimp, garlic bread, potato skins, nachos, chicken fingers, and sweet potato fries. Hmmm, quite a combination. But also quite tasty. #3 and I ordered “Pacific Rim” dishes: I had Mongolian beef over rice and he had sweet ‘n sour shrimp over rice. (I guess Pacific Rim is the new euphemism for Chinese?) Dear went for the chicken and shrimp jambalaya over rice. (Wait. That’s Cajun.) (Whatever.) I think all their dishes had rice in some form or fashion and there were also quite a few sushi and other Asian choices on the menu. That was their Pacific Rim theme.

It is California, you know.

We debated on whether to see a movie after dinner, but we opted to return to our lodging base and just get our act together for the Great Packing Extravaganza, Rental Car Adventure and the eventual Trip Home tomorrow. Checkout is at 11, so we’ll have plenty of time to do everything and still make it to the Oakland Airport to catch our 2:40 departure.

She said with fingers crossed and bated breath. Yes, it’s “b-a-t-e-d” not “b-a-i-t-e-d.” I looked it up just to make sure. Wouldn’t want to lead you astray or give you the impression that I’m an uneducated dweeb. I aren’t, and I got well grades in English.

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Anderson to Hayward

Our stay in Anderson was probably the least pleasant of any on this trip. We rested for a while after we got to the hotel and then ventured out to find something to eat. We were headed for Red Lobster, when Dear spotted a Marie Callender’s. We don’t have those in BigD, so we stopped. I had a slice of quiche, salad and a bowl of clam chowder. Dear had a tri-cut steak and mashed potatoes, and #3 had the chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes. Then we all had a piece of pie: razzleberry for me, german chocolate for Dear, and sour cream apple for #3.

The food was good, but more expen$$ive than we had anticipated. And afterward, we all felt awful, and it made for an uncomfortable evening. We watched a Hallmark Channel movie, I crocheted, #3 chatted online, and then we all went to bed early (11:30). One thing I’ve noticed about being in this time zone: the days seem to last forever. That’s random, but it just popped into my head so I wrote it.

My cell phone has served as our alarm clock for this trip. I usually set it and put it on the night stand between the beds so we’ll all hear it in the morning. No problem so far. Until Anderson. For some reason, my phone would interfere with the cheapo hotel clock/radio frequency (I don’t know how to explain it, but if you’ve ever talked on your cell phone around a radio, you know what I mean) and the clock would make that annoying buzzing sound at random intervals and without warning.

The first time we heard the buzz, I just put my cell phone under my pillow on the opposite side away from the nightstand. The buzzing didn’t stop. Finally, about 3:00 I just yanked the clock/radio cord out of the wall socket, put my cell phone back on the night stand, and went to sleep again.

Then the fun really started. The people in the room next to ours (on the other side of the adjoining door) decided to start talking and laughing loudly at 4:15. Woke us all up – and that’s really saying something if they woke up #3!

I had seen a couple of men going into that room earlier and they seemed rather jovial. I can only imagine how their evening went to make them so slap-happy in the wee hours. That’s probably very non-politically correct, but HELLO? We were trying to sleep! We could tell by the voices that there were at least 4 people in on the fun – and at least one of them was female.

Dear got out of bed and cranked up the air conditioner in our room for white noise to drown out the party, but the stupid thing kept cycling off leaving us in relative silence in our room and privy to the goings on in the next room. Thrilling. I considered calling the front desk, but didn’t want to risk life and limb by poking a stick at the party-ers. They finally quieted down about 5:00 and we three went back to sleep.

8:00. Noise from the next room AGAIN. Do these people never sleep?? Are they vampires who sleep during the day? What’s up with this? But this time, they added slamming doors to the cacophony. Since the sun was up now, our A/C was running full speed ahead and helped to drown out some of the noise. We managed to doze until my phone alarm went off at 10. Grrr.

I must admit that when we got up and heard nothing coming from the other side of the adjoining door, I deliberately banged my suitcase lid against said door just for spite. It was a futile, childish attempt at neener-neener, because almost immediately they started talking, laughing and slamming doors again. Sigh. There’s no justice. Or rest for the weary.

#3 turned on the TV (loudly) to some wildlife show and the first thing I heard was, “Oh no, the hippo decoy is stuck in the mud!” HUH?? The human “star” of the show was in Zambia or some such place trying to get a sweat sample from a female hippopotamus (for whatever reason, I don’t even want to know) and had cleverly (?) concocted a hippo decoy to fool the female into approaching what she assumed to be an available male hippo. Duh. That’s the first picture. The decoy is the one on the left that’s laying there like a beached, um, hippo.

We checked out at 11:45 and were traveling by 11:47. A few miles down the road, we started seeing signs for the Olive Pit and an accompanying olive tasting. Then we began seeing olive groves on either side of the road. This was the first time we’d ever had an olive opportunity, so we stopped. And took a picture. Are you surprised?

The Olive Pit in Corning was a little store that sold mostly olives. All kinds and varieties and flavors. I’ve never seen so many olives in one place. There were garlic olives, pickled olives, stuffed jalapeno olives, smoked olives, black olives, every kind of olive you could ever imagine and then some. They also had pickled garlic, sauerkraut, artichoke pastes, rows and rows of EVOO (Rachael Ray should buy stock here!), and even some souvenirs thrown in for good measure. There was a little deli counter on one side of the store where you could “build your own olive sandwich.” Yuk. We passed on that opportunity.

I tasted a pickled garlic clove and a hot ‘n spicy olive while Dear and #3 pretended they didn’t know me. I bought a green shot glass and an olive spoon. The cashier also gave me a couple of postcards, a shipping order form in case I wanted to buy something later, and a free sample of lotion. Lotion? #3 wanted to know if it was Olive Lotion. NO, SA, it isn’t olive lotion! The Olive Pit was an interesting little diversion from the drive on The 5.

As we were leaving the Olive Pit, we saw a man walking his dog that appeared to be a Papillon (the dog, not the man), but it was much bigger than our grand-dog, Jaxon. Dear stopped the car and I asked the man if I could take a picture of his dog for comparative purposes. Thus the dog photo.

From Corning, we found a Subway and had a light lunch to hold us till we got to our destination for the next 3 nights: Hayward and the San Francisco/Oakland/Bay Area. We made it without incident. Gas is back up in the $4.45 - $4.75 range. The hotel where we’re staying is a Best Western MOTEL (it’s hard to tell the difference with those Internet promo photos), but it’s in a quiet neighborhood and close to the freeways.

We rested for a while and then Maggs directed us toward an Olive Garden for a familiar eating place. On the way there, we saw a Mimi’s Café and detoured there for dinner. It was wonderful. And reasonably priced. We took a little side excursion to find a UPS store for the aforementioned mailing of the redwood windmill and then made it back to the hotel – I mean motel – for a quiet evening.

The outside temp is 70 with very little humidity. The forecast for where we just came from is in the 100’s for the whole week, with the hottest day being Wednesday with a potential temp of 109! I’m really glad we’ve come south and west of that heat wave. Of course, we’ll be back in TX by Wednesday, but I’m just saying.

There are beautiful flowers and trees everywhere. The first floral picture doesn’t show the true color. The flowers are more of a deep, hot pink. It’s probably because of the shooting angle. The other two photos are more accurate color-wise. Just don’t know what they are!

We have a bunch of brochures to help us decide how to spend the next couple of days, but we know for sure we want to see a Pacific Ocean sunset at least once more before we leave for TX. And visit Fisherman’s Wharf, Alcatraz and ride the cable cars. And get some photos of the Golden Gate Bridge.

But first we want to get a good night’s sleep without slamming doors, laughing neighbors, or annoying electronic devices. Here’s hoping…

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SoOR to NoCal

The Super8 Motel in Phoenix had a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. Who’da ever thunk it. A flat-screen TV in a Super8 Motel. Wonders never cease. The bathtub didn’t drain and I’ve seen water fountains with more water pressure than the shower. But we managed to get ready and we left Phoenix at 10:45 – a full 15 minutes before we actually had to.

There were low clouds around the hilltops when we left the motel and the air temp was 69. Heavenly. The further south we got, the more haze was hanging in the SoOR air. The haze cleared when we got into NoCal, so the winds must have blown all the smoke from the fires northward into Oregon.

We stopped for lunch in Yreka. Want to know why? Good. I was going to tell you whether you wanted me to or not. My blog, my stories.

When Dear and I were first married and lived in Mecca (Springfield, MO for any non-A/G readers), he played for youth choirs at Central A/G and I worked at the Blue Goose (otherwise known as the Headquarters of the Assemblies of God) (genuflect, genuflect, hobaba). One of the families we knew via teens in the youth choir and mom who worked at the BG with me had named their daughter Yreka, after the NoCal town.

I told you I see significance in small things – so that’s why we stopped in Yreka for lunch. It’s pronounced “wy-reek-a” and it was a quaint little mining town that popped up during the CA gold rush. Or so they say. Yreka the town for Yreka the old friend. End of story.

Anyway, after a quick lunch we got back on The 5 and resumed our southerly drive toward Anderson. Along the way, we saw Mt. Shasta. There were also several fires burning to the west. We saw one of the planes that drops water onto fires and watched it make several runs to the water hole and then back to the largest of the fires in the area. We took several photos of Shasta, the Dam, the Lake and the fires.

Another interesting little town was Weed. We didn’t stop, but #3 saw the sign for Weed Central Community College and decided that he wants to go there. NOT, but we took a picture anyway.

There was a houseboat rental marina at Shasta Lake with really nice looking houseboats. That might be a fun thing to do sometime in the future. Live on a houseboat for a week. Hmmm, we’ll add it to our “Maybe” list. One of the houseboats had run aground. Kodak moment. Wonder if there’s an extra charge to extricate a houseboat from the shore.

We exited The 5 to check out Shasta Dam. #3 was reading the directional signs by the roadside and then saw that there were directions painted onto the roadway. He read it as Dam To. You know how they paint those signs to be read as you reach them rather than logically? Yeah. Who’s idea was that anyway? It’s very confusing. But we got there.

Shasta Dam was an interesting stop. It’s the second largest dam in the US – I assume the first one would be Hoover – but I didn’t get the chance to ask the dam tour guide because we missed the dam tour by about 10 minutes. Oh well. We’ve done dams before, as you know if you’ve been reading me for any length of time.

Dear and #3 did get their picture taken by a dam photographer who was shooting visitors for a future dam promo brochure. I was in the dam restroom at the time, so the dam photographer didn’t get my picture for the dam brochure.

On our side trip to the dam, I noticed some particular plants that had red branches. I asked a woman what they were and she said they were manzanita trees. I’ve never seen trees with red branches before, but they were really cool. Wonder if they’ll grow in TX?

After the dam, the drive to Anderson was uneventful. It was only about 20 miles, but I managed to get a few more rows done on one of the baby afghans I’m crocheting. #3 had programmed Maggs to take us to what Dear thought was the hotel. But when she declared, “You have arrived,” the only thing close by was a Dairy Queen. Not very subtle, #3, but effective. We all had a Blizzard.

Just behind the DQ was Sue’s Java Café. No DOOL Daniel, but I took a picture anyway.

We’re at the Baymont Inn and Suites in Anderson, CA, and it’s the 4th of July. We’re celebrating by watching the “Dirtiest Jobs” marathon on the Discovery Channel.

Happy Birthday, America!

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Crater Lake

We actually got up early this morning and were on the road by 10:15 because we had a 200-mile drive to even get to Crater Lake and then another 100 or so miles further to get to our stopping place for the night. We drove a little while to give the restaurants a chance to open for the lunch crowd and then stopped in Albany, OR for a Sizzler lunch.

We also looked for a Post Office or UPS Store to mail the redwood windmill we bought last week. (Did I tell you about that? No? Well, you’ll just have to visit us to see it.) There’s no way we can get it on the plane, so we’re just going to ship it home. Dear stopped in at an Army Recruiting place to ask if there was such a store nearby and the Army person gave some sketchy directions. We never did find it. I hope that guy isn’t on a SAR team! (Just for K, that means Search And Rescue. Love. I hear that your paint job is coming along nicely.)

Anyway, Albany was the first town where we’d actually seen an A/G church on this trip, so naturally we had to have a photo. They had a fireworks stand on their parking lot (great fundraiser!) and I figure that the female in the picture was standing on the sidewalk to make sure that drivers-by knew that the fireworks were available – just in case they didn’t see the giant white tent or the FIREWORKS signs every 3 feet along the road.

We made the rest of the trip to Crater Lake in pretty good time. Got there about 4 p.m. Along the way, we passed the Lowell Covered Bridge, the Blue Pool camping area, and Diamond Peak. There are pictures of each place. Then we paid the entrance fee for yet another national park and drove the last few miles to Crater Lake.

All I could say was, “Wow.” Check out the photos and you’ll see what I mean.

Crater Lake was formed when the volcano Mount Mazama erupted 7,000 years ago (so they say) and the top of the mountain collapsed in on itself. Eventually, the rain and snow runoff filled the hole and became what was dubbed Crater Lake. (What? Did you think it was formed by a meteor that hit the earth?) The deepest point of the lake is 1,943 ft. and the average depth is 1,148 ft. It’s the deepest lake in the US and one of the deepest in the world.

Wizard Island is one of two “islands” in the lake and is actually a volcano-in-progress forming upward from the floor of the lake. The other island is called the Phantom Ship because of its appearance. One more interesting thing is that Crater Lake is called a closed ecological system because no stream runs into or out of the lake. Isn’t it amazing how “nature” is self-sufficient and perfectly balanced? Hmmm, I vote that it’s all part of a creative plan. Amen.

Entertaining AND informative. I should get an Emmy.

I took way too many pictures, but it was so awesome that I just couldn’t stop. Flip through quickly if you get bored. I’m especially proud of a couple of them and plan to ooch my buddy, Buddy, into painting one of them to add to our, um, I mean HIS collection.

We stopped at the Rim Village Visitor’s Center to take care of some necessities and then looked around the gift shop. I bought a couple of things, including a Christmas ornament to commemorate our 2008 vacation.

Back on the road toward Phoenix (Oregon, not Arizona) – our destination for sleeping tonight. Along the way, we passed some interesting shops. Moozie’s Café and Catering boasted “Udderly Delicious Food” and was next door to the Longhorn Saloon. I found that immensely amusing. Then we saw the Purple Parrot that declared they had White Castle burgers. They lied. Well, they had the frozen ones, but that’s just cruel.

The hands-down winner for the day was the drive-through coffee stand in Eagle Point. I wanted to get a bunch of their cups just for the shock value. “Hi, welcome to our home. Would you like some coffee??” You’ll have to look at the pictures to get it.

We had dinner at Miguel’s Mexican Restaurant in Eagle Point. After the hilarity of their other retail establishments, we figured the food would probably be worth the effort. We all had various flavors of burritos and they were great. Knock on wood. We’re 2 for 2 with Mexican food, so I think we should quit while we’re ahead and are not regretting those choices. If you get my drift…

We made it to the Super 8 in Phoenix before dark and are settled in for the night. I’m so thrilled that all the pictures turned out good – I was worried because it seemed so hazy out. Must be the NoCal fires sending all the smoke northward and eastward.

Tomorrow we drive back into CA, but it’s only 150 miles to where we’re staying in … get this … Anderson. I look for significance in the small things. We didn’t want a long drive on the holiday because you just never know what kind of other drivers will be out there, too. Be safe, everyone.

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The Bluest Skies You've Ever Seen

Before I start today’s blog, I must comment on the picture of the bowl of cherries. We are in Washington, you know. So, the other day on our drive between MSH and Mt.R (read earlier blogs to figure out those locations), we stopped for liquid refreshment and there was a produce stand on the opposite corner that had fresh Washington cherries. Our #2 loves fresh cherries, so I bought a couple of baskets just because we would have done it had he been with us. They were Bing and Rainier cherries. Never heard of the Rainier variety, but they were every bit as good as the Bings. Since these cherries hadn’t been refrigerated, I kept some of the pits to see if we can grow a cherry tree just for #2!

Okay. So. Today was downtown Seattle day. At least that was our plan. #3 woke up with a tummy ache and feeling light-headed. He had a bout last year with a condition called labyrinthitis, which our dr. said was a rare virus that affects the labyrinth passages of the middle and inner ear, thus the dizziness and nausea. We were just praying that this was not a recurrence of that episode.

We got dressed and drove downtown to at least walk around a little while and have lunch at a place recommended to me by some of my engineer buddies at work. Random fact: Downtown Seattle is surprisingly hilly. Some of the streets that run east and west are reminiscent of San Francisco, they’re so steep! I wouldn’t want to drive in downtown Seattle in the winter time or with questionable brakes. Or with my mother.

Maggs got us to the parking garage for the Pike Place Market and after driving around the garage for about 15 minutes, Dear was finally able to find a parking space. #3 was hanging in there, so we went up several flights of steps to get to the Market and find Ivar’s – our lunch destination. We had no luck and Maggs kept saying, “You have arrived,” which we knew darn good and well we hadn’t.

So I called one of the engineer buddies responsible for this particular wild goose chase and told him where we were and where the heck was Ivar’s!? He said we should go back down to the street that was at the water level – down the freaking steps that we just climbed!! to Alaska Way that runs parallel to that particular area of Puget Sound – and walk toward the ferries.

Maggs liked those landmarks and we finally found Ivar’s. The lunch crowd had thinned out by this time (because of our boondoggle trying to find the place), so we only had to wait a couple of minutes for a table. #3 was barely with us by this point and was looking kind of green, but he was hungry. So he ordered a bowl of clam chowder while Dear and I had fish and chips. Good food. Not the best we’ve had on the trip, but good.

After lunch, #3 felt a little better so we rode one of the free Metro buses to Pioneer Square to take the tour of Underground Seattle. It was really hot on the bus – no air conditioning – and the heat combined with the motion of the bus didn’t do #3 any good. By the time we got to Pioneer Square and found out that we’d have to wait 90 minutes for the next available tour, #3 gave up and asked if we could just go back to the hotel. We made it to the car in record time and got out of downtown just as rush hour was beginning.

Another random fact: There are 5 floating bridges in the world and 3 of them are in the Seattle area. Two of them are right in the city and the third links Bremerton Island to the Olympic Peninsula. We drove across the 520 floater on our way back to the hotel. One down, two to go.

Back at the Quality Inn and Suites, #3 slept for a couple of hours while Dear watched TV and I caught up with photos, email and blogs. In retrospect, it was a good break for us from the rush hour traffic, because what we saw of said traffic was comparable to the mix master at 4:30 on Friday afternoon.

When #3 woke up about 6:30-ish, he felt better (whew!) and we decided to venture out again – this time to visit the Space Needle. Maggs pretty much knows the way to downtown Seattle by now, so she got us there in good time. The Mariners are in town this week playing the Blue Jays, but we missed most of the game-time traffic.

The Space Needle is relatively easy to find and I called ahead to see if we could get dinner reservations at SkyCity – the revolving restaurant one level below the Observation Deck. The earliest we could get a table was 8:45, so we had a little time to spare. Dear drove around a few blocks deciding whether to park the car ourselves or take advantage of the valet parking at the Space Needle.

He was heading into a $5 lot when a scruffy-looking man approached the car and shouted to us that there was “FREE PARKING ACROSS THE STREET AND WE WOULDN’T HAVE TO PAY ANYONE ANYTHING TO PARK THERE.” Scary little man. Dear politely thanked him and drove around a couple more blocks just to make sure the man didn’t follow our progress. Because of that, Dear decided that valet was the wiser choice for parking.

We puttered around the Space Needle gift shop for a few minutes and then rode the whoosh-evator up to the Observation Deck to walk around and take some pictures till our table was ready. The only revolving restaurant we’ve ever eaten at is the one at Reunion Tower in BigD and that was like 16 years ago – right after we moved to TX. [We have a friend, David B., who (when he was younger) had a life ambition to eat in every revolving restaurant in the United States. I thought of David as we entered the SkyCity revolver.]

Of course, we took pictures on the ObDeck and also in the restaurant. We were lucky enough to be there at sunset, so Dear got some passable shots as we revolved around. The meal was wonderful, but expen$$$$ive. Very. But I figure, how many times will we eat at the SkyCity Restaurant at the Space Needle? And the ride up was included as part of our meal, so we saved money there. Yeah.
That’s what I keep telling myself.

Dear and #3 had the Seafood Trio (salmon, prawns and scallops with red and purple potatoes and asparagus spears) and I had an 8-oz. filet mignon. Did I say wonderful? Yes, it was. But, it was definitely our splurge for the trip. We didn’t have dessert there, but we did stop in the gift shop and got stuff for the rest of the fam. Wish they could have been with us.

We also stopped at Shari’s (comparable to Shoney’s or Marie Callendar’s and conveniently located next door to our hotel) and got some coconut cream and oreo cream pie to take back to the room. Note the photo of the contents of the refrigerator in our room: Diet Coke and PIE. I am my father’s daughter and he would be proud.

“Benchwarmers” was on TV, so we watched it, ate pie and drank Diet Coke to finish off a fun day. We didn’t get to do everything we’d planned, but tomorrow is another day.

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Free Sunday, Malibu Chicken, Volcano and Mountain

Sunday morning. It’s weird not getting up and getting ready to make it to church for 10:30 choir practice. Dear always leave the house before 8, so it’s usually just me and #3 around the house. Dear only gets 2 Sundays off during the year, unless he’s sick (very rare), so having free Sundays with the family is a novelty for him. Condemn if you want, but we always enjoy the time away from responsibilities and expectations. It’s a very demanding job and the breaks are always refreshing for Dear. But then, at the end of our time away, he’s ready to get back into the swing of things for the next 50 Sundays. How many other people do you know who are at church 50 Sundays out of the year?

‘Nuff said. We enjoyed our first Sunday off. We actually left the hotel early and were on the highway north before noon. Yes, that’s early for us on vacation! We decided to drive for a while to give the church people a chance to clear out of the restaurants. You know how annoying church people can be on Sundays when they’re hungry. Maggs graciously found us a Sizzler Steak House north of Longview (WA not TX) and we enjoyed our lunch of steak, shrimp and Malibu chicken.

Sizzler always reminds me of when I was pregnant with #1 in Florida. The only kind of food I could stomach for the first 3 months of my pregnancy came from either Church’s Chicken (a 20-minute drive from where we lived in Boca Raton) or Sizzler (just 5 minutes down the road). I guess that’s why I love their Malibu chicken – I pretty much lived on it back then. At least for a few months at a time.

After lunch, we drove on to see the Mt. St. Helens Volcano. The Visitor’s Center has a gift shop (naturally), exhibits to see and read, and the ever-popular informative video that plays twice every hour on the :05 and :35. We caught the 3:05 show and learned some interesting facts about the MSH eruption in May 1980. Do you remember where you were when it happened? I don’t remember the exact moment, but I do remember the cloud of volcanic ash in the air over Southern Missouri where we lived at the time. Very impressive.

We did the one-mile scenic trail walk (I can’t remember why – other than to walk off the Malibu chicken) in the 96-degree heat and were all sweating (I was “glowing” rather than sweating) and panting by the time we got back to the car. There was a heat advisory alert for southern Washington, so we didn’t see many other people on the path. Wimps. Send ‘em to TX in August. Then they’ll understand heat advisory!

FYI, the scenic trail walk was not TO the volcano site, just around some marshy looking water thing filled with lily pads and ferns that used to be Silver Lake before it got blown away by the 1980 eruption. We would have had to drive another 90 minutes to actually get to MSH. We chose not do to that because the informative video was so, um, informative that we felt like we’d already been there.

Back in the car and on the road again relishing the air conditioned comfort and recovering from the MSH walkabout. Maggs and I had a difference of opinion as to how to get to Mt. Rainier National Park. Since I sit in the back seat with my Rand McNally Road Atlas and Maggs is in the front between the driver and the passenger with her global positioning software microchip, she won. It wasn’t the scenic route that I would have chosen, but she got us there just the same. The drive through the park was spectacular and Mt. Rainier is awesome. Many photos.

Outside temp at the park entrance was 97 degrees. When we got to the highest point on our particular route, the temp was 63. I was most amazed at the snow that was still on the ground – even with air temps averaging in the mid-80’s. How is that possible? At one point, the snow was so deep around the trees that it looked like a Vermont winter scene instead of Washington in June. Several of the reflection lakes were still frozen over!

For the first time in our travels since our trip to Beaver Creek, CO in 2005, we saw a bear! Up close and personal. Well, from about 50 yards away. It was a baby black bear and he (she?) was munching plants on the hillside above the roadway. Photos, of course. But we didn’t get out of the car because baby bear on the hillside = mama bear somewhere close by. But we saw a real live bear in its natural habitat. I know. It doesn’t take much.

Further up the mountain road toward Paradise, Dear and #3 found a spot to get out of the car and play in the snow. Dear thought it was really funny that he was walking in the snow in shorts and t-shirt. #3 did the follow-the-leader thing for a few steps behind Dear, and then decided to challenge his dad to a King of the Hill manly man tussle. #3 ended up face down in the snow. Men, men, men, men, manly, men, men, men…you get the idea. More photos.

On the way down the other side of Mt.R, we could see some weather coming in and by the time we got to the bottom, we couldn’t even see the top of the mountain for the clouds. It started sprinkling and soon was raining with little pea-sized hail mixed in for good measure. Not good for the rental car, so Dear pulled over under some trees for a few minutes until the hail stopped. Then we drove out of the rain shower in about 10 minutes – the only rain we’ve had on the trip thus far. It’s because we brought an umbrella with us. If we hadn’t, it probably would have rained every day!

After Mt.R, we drove on in to Renton (Seattle area) and found the hotel that will be our home for the next 3 nights. I’m excited to see the sights in Seattle (too bad the Rangers aren’t playing here this week) and take a drive around the Olympic Peninsula into the Olympia Mountains. Maybe we’ll see a Pacific Ocean sunset.

Pictures are posted at www.myspace.com/alemapyak. Enjoy!

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WA to OR and Back Again

We started out lazy today. I woke up at 7:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep, but I didn’t wake the guys (how thoughtful of me). I plugged in my headphones and watched some videos on the computer and caught up on my emails. Interesting one from the job I applied for at work. Evidently, they want me to call for an interview. I left an “out of office” message on my work email so they know I’m on vacation, but I might have to break down and call in about this job. Still thinking about it.

Dear got up at 11 and got ready for the day’s activities. He checked out the guest laundry room – all one washer and one dryer of it – and decided that he had time to do at least one load of laundry while we were waiting for #3 to reach coherency. Is that a word? #3 rolled out of bed at noon and did his routine to get socially presentable. The laundry wasn’t finished yet, so we started watching a movie. The laundry finally did get finished, but then we wanted to see how the movie ended. Consequently, we didn’t leave the hotel until after 2:30.

The agenda for the day was to see Multnomah Falls and Mt. Hood. Well, it’s impossible NOT to see Mt. Hood if you’re outside and looking east, but we thought we’d get a little closer to it. Multnomah Falls is one of the highest in the world and Mt. Hood is the second most climbed mountain behind Mt. Fuji in Japan.

Side note: We figured out that the reason our camera wasn’t charging was because the charger that we bought the other day at Radio Shack isn’t what the little bugger needed to keep going and going and going. You get the picture (no pun intended). According to the instruction book (which I handily brought along on the trip), our little Kodak shutter pet (KSP) just needed new batteries – not a charger. Come to think of it, I don’t think we’ve changed the batteries since we bought the camera several years ago. I’d say we got our money’s worth out of that set of cells.

We had a little difficulty in navigating to Multnomah Falls, but finally arrived about 4:00. No parking spaces. So Dear drove down the road a little further to find a turnaround spot and did a second pass of the parking lots. A spot opened up, so he scooted into it in true Texas u-turn fashion. We made the short walk to the base of the falls and I took a couple of photos before KSP completely died. (Gentle reminder that I've posted all the photos at www.myspace.com/alemapyak.)

As is the case with all national/state/local attractions, there was a gift shop! Fancy that. And they had the required lithium batteries to feed our little Kodak pet. She was revitalized and ready to take another thousand pictures or so. I didn’t take nearly that many at the falls, but got enough to document our visit.

We headed back west to Portland and across the Columbia River bridge to Washington to find a place for an early dinner. We’d seen several restaurants along the riverbank earlier and decided to stop at a place called Beaches. Didn’t see Bette Midler or hear the song, but the food was good, the atmosphere was fun and the view was of the river and all the boaters, jet skiers, sailors, etc.

We ordered seared ahi and onion rings as an appetizer and then the guys had seafood fettuccini and I had a grilled mahi mahi filet with strawberry salsa. Interesting blend of flavors, but very good. A light dessert (frozen strawberries, chocolate cake and key lime pie) and we were full to the gills.

Back to the hotel for an early evening, another load of laundry, blogging, crocheting and maybe a movie. I love relaxing with the fam. Sigh.

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