Seattle

Slackettes posing in from of Mount Saint Helens!

There used to be a lot more to the mountain than there is now.

We finally hit the road North around 9 am on July 5th.  We were headed to see Mt. St. Helens for those old enough to remember the occurrence in 1980.  I remember it, but was not that in tune with it since I lived so far away and had never been to that part of the US at that age.  I had visited MSH back in 1996 or so on a trip North with Zoysia, but that was 22 years before, so it has changed a lot since then!  I have a fraternity brother, Mark Sheldahl who lives in Southern WA, and has worked for Weyerhauser as a forester since getting out of Purdue.  We met up with Mark and his son Nathan at a MSH visitor center just off I.5.  Mark and Nathan both had a lot of good pointers on what to do/see in the area, as well as general info on the eruption, etc.  Mark's wife works at the Weyerhauser MSH visitor center which we stopped at also on our way up to see MSH.  And Nathan helps out there some too, which is why he was so knowledgeable too!  The best tidbit of info from Nathan was the Noble Fir trees looked like they were blurry/3D on the slopes based on how the branches where more horizontal than vertical.  Most of the trees grown for commerical harvest are Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii if I recall correctly from my Hort 217 days!).

There were numerous BIGFOOT sightings as we traveled the PNW!  Sasquatch does exist!!!  :-)

The MSH visitor center I saw 22 years ago is no longer in existence, and there are now three different ones - one that is federally operated and at the end of the road, the Weyerhauser sponsored one that is 5 miles or so from the end of the road, and the one closer to the interstate.  All were good to visit and learn from, but each was a bit different in what they offered and what you could learn.  My visit years ago seems to stick out more in my mind as I learned a lot about the people that were killed in the eruption, and what they were doing/where they were at the time .  There was a lot less info on those people this time around it seemed.  Another stark difference was the general view of the forest landscape where the eruption had occurred.  I vividly recall being able to see the trees all laid over in the direction of the blast, as well as very little green plants growing up on the forest floor.  Not surprisingly, after 22 more years, you can no longer see the forest floor due to replanting, as well as nature taking it's course of plants getting reestablished.  While the new greener look was neat to see, the older look of grey with just a bit of green, and the result of the blast left a different impression in my mind.

Gum Alley in Seattle!

We drove on up to Seattle and stopped off in the Tacoma area for a beer at Sluggo Brewery (we had the best waitress there!) and to let traffic thin out a bit before heading to our next Air BnB in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle.  We pulled in and unloaded for a bit, and then headed out to find a spot for dinner.  We discovered a cool downtown/city center sort of an area a few miles to the South of us.  After driving around trying to determine where we would eat, the girls found some sort of game restaurant/bar that was cool, and creepy in the same respect.  It was called MOX, and half was a restaurant/bar with about 10 beers on tap, and half was a game store!  The game store part had different rooms with different types of games that were played in each room - role playing, board, tiny figurine, world conquering, card, etc.  Not surprisingly they sold a bunch of games and game supplies.  The cool part was the game rooms had a lot of people (aka geeky gamers!) in each room actively playing a variety of games!  It was literally a geek heaven for nerds!  And we found out from our waiter that the second floor of the building was where they shipped out $200k/day in Magic, The Gathering supplies!

"Dad, we're getting tired of visiting all of these breweries."

On Friday we were slow to get moving, and just ran down to Pike St. Market area to kick around for the day.  It was packed due to July 4th holiday/weekend, but still fun.  PSM is always a fun place to walk around and people watch.  You obviously have the guys throwing fish and all, but there are also a lot of interesting people usually too.  For some reason, the big thing we tasted while walking through PSM was spicy jelly.  We stopped at a number of places that had samples of jelly to try the hot ones.  I'm not sure why, but there are a number of brass pigs near the market.  I did not pick up on the significance of them though.  Danica wanted to visit the "first Starbucks" but then was OK to pass on that opportunity when she saw the long line to get into the place!   We stopped into a little German store and got some German sausages and a drink in honor of Larissa!  Then after walking through more of PSM, we had to stop by Pike Street Brewery too!

Bish sampling some Washington red wines.

When we got a bit hungry, we found a little crepe place and had a savory crepe as a treat.  The consensus was that it was good, but not as good (or cheap) as the crepe place in Rehoboth Beach!    We visited the Gum Alley near PSM and decided it is very different than the Gum Alley in SLO.  I guess the Seattle one gets sand blasted/washed once/year, where the SLO one has years and years of gum accumulated on it.  The Seattle one is most definitely bigger, brighter, and covers more square feet of wall, but the SLO wins out on being more gross due to the grayish color the older gum has taken on.  There was a little cheese shop on PSM area that was fun to see cheese being made.  And their samples were delicious!  We finally stopped into a wine tasting place on Post Alley so Bish got some wine in, and not all beer!  That evening we went back to the Ballard/Market St. area near our place for dinner, and ate at a Korean BBQ place that Darby had picked out.  Darby and I both had Bibimbap for dinner.  Mine was in a "hot bowl" and hers was not.  I decided that Bibimbap in Korean means "find a toilet fast in English!!!!"  :-)

Boo outside in the gardens of Chihuly.

Bish & Darby inside the Chuhuly Gardens.

On Saturday, July 7th we stuck around the downtown Seattle area again and visited the Seattle Center which is where the Space Needle is, along with a bunch of other stuff.  The first thing we did on this day was to visit the Chihuly Gardens.  The glass work this guy has done is absolutely amazing if you've never seen it before!  I've seen it a few time sin other places, but it is always an enjoyable experience to see his work again!  Btw, I've decided that Chihuly reminds me of a smaller version of Andre the Giant from the wrestling world!  Look his picture up!

Darby got kind of sideways with Spiderman!

Sometimes Danica just feels like a rock.

After Chuhuly, we visited the Museum of Pop Culture (aka, MoPop!) which is close by.  The girls really enjoyed this place as it had a lot of stuff they knew of/could relate to based on their age.  I was not planning on going in, but ended up going to use the bathroom, and figured out that I was inside the museum without paying!  So I hooked up with the rest of the clan, and joined them for a bit seeing some of the inside of the museum.  I eventually went out to the van and took a nap!  :-)

Slackettes by the Puget Sound... I think?

And then I headed across the street to the Gates Foundation Discovery Center (I think that's what it was called?).  It was a display of many of the things that are funded by the Gates Foundation, which was actually quite interesting!  They have done a lot to rid other countries of polio and other diseases that governments in other countries have not been able to overcome.  They are working on funding research on self sufficient toilets for many of the people that do not even have access to toilets or sewers.  They said it is estimated that 1 in every 3 people in the world do not have access to a functioning toilet!  There was an example self sufficient toilet in the place that generated energy every time the seat went up/down, which in turn the energy ran an auger that moved the dried out poop, and there was a membrane that captured the water from the urine.  It was a very educational stop if you are ever in the area!

The manufacturing floor at Boeing.

On Sunday, July 8th, we headed to the North a bit as Bish had scheduled a tour of the Boeing factory based on a recommendation from a friend.  It was a really cool thing to see/do.  The factory itself covers almost 100 acres of land under a roof!  Not much was happening on the day we visited based on it being a Sunday.  It was interesting to learn that Boeing "manufactures" some of the older models of airplanes they make, but that they "assemble" the newer models such as the 787 Dreamliner!  They have actually changed the process in which they make planes from one of building them, to putting the pieces made by others together to form a plane!  There are an estimated 30,000-40,000 people work at this place!  After Boeing, we went out to some podunk farm to the East and picked berries "for fun!"  Again, i took a nap in the car, because I could, and because I used to pick raspberries in the wild as a kid, so picking berries sounds to me more like work than fun!

Picking blueberries!

I will give Bish credit, as she finally came to the conclusion, on her own, that attempting to do a trip to something farther away one of the remaining days in Seattle didn't make any sense!  Whether it was the Olympic Peninsula, Mt. Ranier, or many other options within a few hours of traveling, it would end up being a long day.  So she gave in and decided it was OK to just have a few more days of doing things locally and taking it kind of easy!  She is the one out of the four of us that wants to "go, go, go" and "do, do, do" while on vacation.  I get it, but vacations are not restful when you are so busy seeing/doing stuff IMO!

Art pig in movie theater in Ballard area.

  So on Monday, we stuck around the area again.  We had wanted to do the Seattle Underground, so went downtown again to do one of these tours.  It was actually cool to learn about how the area grew and was built on top of itself.  After a big fire, they began to build stone/concrete walls and sidewalks, and then built a second layer of the same thing on top of the first as they were also building a big retaining wall to keep all of the water out and allow the soil to dry out.  So the lower layer of the original street layout exists under the older part of the downtown area.  And to back-fill the retaining wall on the non Puget Sound side, they just washed dirt down the hill with water pressure!

Of course!

After our underground tour, Darby wanted to see the Panama Hotel as it was in a book she read in school this past year.  Sadly it was uphill from where we were.  :-(  The good news is that it was near Chinatown, so we went and found a good lunch in the area.  The sad part of that is that we were only a block away from my favorite restaurant's location in the downtown area, 13 Coins.  Unfortunately I didn't realize it until the next morning.

The Slackettes were missing home, so we took them to a glass blowing place so it felt like AZ!

We were staying in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, which was a great recommendation.  and we stumbled upon the main restaurant area in this neighborhood on our first night in town.  I think we went to the area for dinner every night we were there!  There were about 10 micro breweries in the area, as well as a big selection of Asian places, lots of coffee shops, and other stuff too.

U Dub!

Tuesday was Danica's birthday!!!!  She officially turned 12 that day!  I ran and got donuts for breakfast to celebrate!  I'm not sure what the everyone else in the family had for breakfast, but my donuts were greats!!!  :-)  Midday we finally rolled out of the joint and headed over to U Dub for another college walk around.  After U Dub, we went to the Balalrd Locks and watched a few boats being raised up to go from the Sound to a lake.  That was fun to see and learn about.  We had been talking about going to see a movie, so finally were able to see The Incredibles 2!

I got a little sideways when they made me try on a kilt!  They were only $300!!!

The route North, my fall down the stairs, and a few observations

Our route going North.

portland, and seattle...

Our route from home to Seattle is above in a pic.  It says ~ 1700 miles and 28 hours.  I'd say the driving time was more like 25-26 hours, but the mileage is more like 2700 based on all the other stuff we did along the way.  Still way shorter than last summer to the East Coast!

So our exit from Portland started out with probably the most hilarious occurrence yet this trip.  Do you remember the story about Danica running on the beach and falling in the water on the Cannon Beach visit while in Portland?  The good news, is we know where she got that clumsiness from!  The bad news, is I still have the clumsiness!  I know, it's a shocker that I'm clumsy!!!!  :-)  We packed up a lot of our stuff on July 4th, to make the morning of July 5th a bit easier to hop onto the road.  I was up early as usual, and Bish and I started to carry stuff downstairs to the car around 8 am or a little after.  We woke the girls around 8 am also so they could start getting ready to leave.  Bish and I had taken a majority of the stuff downstairs already, and I began taking her backpack, and the cooler with ice/beer/drinks/a few leftover items that needed refrigerated down too.  The cooler wasn't too heavy, but it was kind of awkward to to carry based on it's bulk.  I had her backpack on my back, and opened the door of the apartment to go down the stairs.  There were 3 stairs, and then a small landing, and then 11 stairs to get down on the level of the door that went outside.  I pick up the cooler once outside the door of the apartment, and begin to step carefully down the first set of stairs as it is a ~100 year old building, so the steps are kind of narrow.  I go down the first 3 steps, and then attempt to take a big step onto the landing.

Well, I'll be darned if there weren't friggen 4 steps before the landing, NOT 3!!!!!  And as you might imagine, and could only hope you were there to watch, my big, fat ass, began to fall!  I attempted to catch myself as best I could with my hands full of the cooler, but instead bonked my head against the wall before beginning to tumble down the 11 stairs that went down to the front door!  Using a term my dad used when I was a kid, I went "ass over appetite" down those stairs!!!  I learned that 11 older steps = 1 rotation of me holding a cooler!!!  I somehow friggen rolled down the whole flight of steps with the cooler still in my hands, and essentially landed with my feet back on the ground at the bottom of the steps!  In the tumble, I surprisingly only lost my glasses, 3 ice cubes, a bag of lettuce, and a cherry tomato... and of course I had a bruised ego, along with other parts of my body that seemed a bit sore!  As I was getting my wits about myself, I was expecting Bish to come running from the apartment to see if I was OK, but she and the girls were nowhere to be seen or heard.  I found my glasses, got the cooler situated at the bottom of the landing, attempted to stand up as I was kind of dizzy for some odd reason, and continued to carry the cooler on out to the van.

The scuff on top of my head from rolling down the stairs!

As I went back into the apartment, I asked Bish and the girls why they hadn't come to see what the noise in the stairwell was, and they all replied with "We thought you were just sliding the cooler down the stairs?"  I proceeded to tell them that I knew where Danica got her clumsiness from, of my tumble, and what few items I lost on the downward spiral, and not surprisingly, they all started laughing at me!!!  Despite developing some stiffness and soreness as the day progressed, it was a damned funny occurrence!  :

A few observations along the way....hopefully without offending anyone!  :-)

I had an absolutely wonderful time living in California for 14 years from 1993 - 2006.  I was in SoCal for 1 year, and NorCal for 13 years, and have a lot of great memories and friends from my time there.  I got to travel to (probably) more places throughout the state than many natives have been to, and got to see and experience a lot while there.  I still enjoy visiting Cali when I can, but there are a LOT of friggen people there, and it seems to be a very materialistic place.  Or at least more so than I recall it being that way.  If you're not driving a BMW, Mercedes, Tesla, or some exotic foreign sports car, you are slumming!  I recently heard that if your family is not making at least $117,000/year, then you are considered lower class!  For the most part, most of my close friends there do not seem to be as absorbed in the materialistic aspects of living in Cali, which I am thankful for as I probably wouldn't really be friends with them much anymore.  Money is nice, but there is a lot more to life than having $$ IMHO!  At this point, I don't think I'd want to move back to Cali based on how many people are so absorbed by "what you have" rather than "who you are and how you treat people."

WTF is the deal with people driving on freeways/interstates and camping out in the left lane?  I cannot tell you how many times I have had to pass slower cars by moving to the right on the freeways!  I originally thought it was a Cali thing, but have decided the epidemic is everywhere!!!  Get the frick over to the right!

I have been amazed at how many 5 point intersections there seem to be in both Portland and Seattle.  I have traveled to both states/metropolitan areas numerous times previously, and that aspect did not stand out to me.  They seem to have put in a number of streets at an angle that occasionally meet up with the regular cross street intersections.  And in Seattle, they have stop lights that go in one direction, but in the perpendicular direction, there are just stop signs!  So I drove up to one of these intersections the other day, and sat there for a few minutes until I realized (or Bish realized I should say) that the light in my direction wasn't going to change!  Because it didn't exist!  I don't recall ever running into traffic patterns that work in this manner anywhere else.  It definitely seems to be a local thing though.

Bish and I both have decided, actually, we have known for years, but recently verbalized it, that our kids are great travelers!  We are lucky that they are this way.  We have been fortunate to have traveled a fair amount with them since they were little, so they are used to living out of a suitcase at times, and packing light and doing laundry frequently.  They know how to adapt and go wit the flow... at least most of the time.  They are generally game to do/try about anything, whether it be an activity or a type of food.  The do well in the back of the car or on a long flight as they just sit there and read, and read, and read!  I would be puking if I tried to read in the back of a car!  And although they may not admit it, they are OK to visit micro breweries... frequently!  As there is usually some good food, or some craft root beer or games on the patio for kids at these places.

I have been amazed at how many homeless people there are in both Portland and Seattle!  I know there are a lot in SF, as I have been in that city/area a lot and have seen them over the years.  I know that Santa Barbara, CA has a lot of homeless living there, and it has been explained to me that the services for homeless people are really good in the SB area, which is part of the reason the population is so high there.  I'm not sure as to the reasoning in both Portland and Seattle, but man are there a lot of them in these areas too!  I know that there can be a variety of reasons as to why people end up homeless - mental illness, a tragic change/loss in their lives, depression, etc. but you'd think there would be something more that could be done by cities/societies/non profits to help get these people off the street and into a home and a job.  I know many do not want to work, and have heard that many actually enjoy the life that they have being homeless, and I've even heard that many make good $$ begging on the street corners.  I'm not a bleeding heart socialist, but I do think we could do more to try and help these people and get them off the street rather than to continue to give them food and shelter for free.  People seem so interested in helping out people in other countries, not that they don't need it too, but why don't more people help out those in our country that need more help?  That has never made sense to me.  Just my political $.02 for the day!

In the last few years, aka recent memory for the Slackettes, they have been able to travel to, and experience, a number of large cities in the US - Chicago, DC, NYC, Atlanta, New Orleans, LA, SF, Portland, and Seattle.  We asked them how they liked Portland and Seattle in comparison to the others.  They both concur that all of the cities have "too many people and are too crowded!"  I guess that living in the burbs is amenable to them.  They both liked Portland and SF better than Seattle, DC, NYC, Chicago, but couldn't really tell us a specific reason.  They felt SF/Portland were "cleaner" than many of the other cities.  Darby said no to DC so she didn't have to learn/pay attention to politics!  In fairness, everything does seem to take longer if you are in the city due to traffic, lines, etc.  I have always felt it is fun to visit a large city, but the only time I may have been interested in living in one was when I was fresh out of college as I think it would have been a good time to be in that environment.

If I think of more things to expound on, I'll add them later.

Portlandia!

Because you HAVE to go to Voodoo Donuts when in Portland!

We came rolling into Portland on Friday night.  I enjoyed watching the grass seed being harvested along I-5 on the drive up, while everyone had their head's buried in a book.  Bish got us an Air BnB just east of the Willamette River in the Hawthorne neighborhood.  It was a 2 story 4 plex and we were on the second floor.  The place was referred to as "historic" but "significantly outdated" may have been a more accurate description!  It was a 100+ year old building, so did have a lot of character and lacked a lot of modern amenities as one would expect, but it was functional and had most everything we needed for our time in town.  Before unloading all of our stuff (aka crap!), we had ran by the local Safeway to grab some stuff to cook on the grill and have a quiet night after 3 days of traveling.  We cooked burgers on the grill, and had some salad.

Slackettes at Powell's!

On Saturday we decided to go across the river and explore downtown Portland.  We had been told that the Pearl District was a pretty cool area.  We walked across the river on Hawthorne Bridge, and had to find Danica some lunch as she was getting tired and crabby!  We found the park with all of the food trucks that Portland is known for, and Danica had an gyro wrap, and Darby got a bento box.  The gyro wrap was to die for!

 After we got rid of Danica's Grumpy Bug, found our way to Powell's Books, which is a well known bookstore in Portland that takes up an entire city block and is multiple floors.  Having two daughters that read voraciously, whether it be a paper book or their Kindles, we thought they would enjoy Powell's for hours.  So we got them situated there, and Bish and I promptly found the local Deschutes micro brewery as there are a ton of micros in the area!  We had barely gotten sat down at the bar (it was busy for mid afternoon on a weekend - we later found out there was a home brewers convention in town), and gotten our flight delivered, and our phones went off with the girls telling us they were leaving Powell's and coming to find us!  30 minutes?!!!! WTF?  Where were our kids?  I was pleasantly surprised that they actually listened to what I had told them as we left them - "we are going to Deschutes Brewery, which is a few blocks North of Powell's."  They were out on the street, headed North, and were just a half block from Deschutes by the time we caught up to them!  Maybe they will be able to function on their own someday!  :-)

Me in front of some random restaurant.

Powell's was "too crowded and too loud" for their liking.  It was a Saturday in the middle of summer, so I can see the argument.  Maybe we'll go back at a later point in time to give it a try.  So we finished our flight of beer, and moved on down the road.  Danica was starting to get tired of walking around (aka headed back down the grumpy path), so I lucked out and found a neighborhood grocery store called World Foods that had tables outside.  We ducked inside to grab something to drink and snack on (again, not enough fuel and Danica gets grumpy).  It was a small, high end, neighborhood grocery with a nice variety of things to choose from.  I ordered Bish and I some micro brew beers from their little coffee/wine/beer counter, and we found some cheese curds and herb flavored almonds (pronounced a-monds for my buddy Jeff!), and the girls had a root beer and chocolate milk respectively.  While sitting at the counter, an older gentleman that obviously worked at the place came up and started talking to us.  We discovered that he and his wife actually own the place (and another on like it in a different area, as well as a restaurant!).  He stood and chatted with us, and told us about his family, moving the US from Lebanon, and then Portland.  He was very nice, and friendly, and a gem to meet and talk to!

We ended up walking around the Pearl some more, and eventually hopped onto the light rail a bus and headed back towards our home for the time here.  We went and had a Poke Bowl for dinner not far from the "historic" place, and called it a night.  We got some cheap entertainment on the light rail.... an older lady (I was thinking white trash as the situation unfolded) sat across from Darby and I, and was headed to the same area we were (I know because she asked us where the train went).  She got on a call on her cell, and was talking "a bit loud" for being in a public place.  Well, she proceeded to explain to the person on the other end of the phone (as well as the whole damned light rail car!) that she left her husband "at the bar" where he had wanted to "go watch TV" (I guess the TV at their home wasn't adequate?), and that she "just needed to get away from him" as he was constantly "on top of her" (not literally) and wouldn't leave her alone.  She needed some "alone time" so was going to Target, and wasn't sure when she'd go back home!  She began to cry at some point while on the phone.  In some respects, you felt sorry for her, and in others, you thought "do you really need to be talking so loud in public about such a private subject?"  But it was entertaining nonetheless!

Danica with Darby "squared", aka Darby Bigelow in the Rose Garden!

On Saturday, I had discovered that Cale Bigelow (Clark 2.0 to the turf program at Purdue) and his family were in Portland too!   So I pinged him, and we made plans to meet up on Sunday!  We met him, and his youngest, the only other "Darby" we have met/known, at the Portland Rose Garden on Sunday morning!  He had been in town for some grass seed meetings with seed growers ("boring" from the Slackettes) and his family had flown out to join him for a few days away, as well as for Darby B. to look at U of O, and OSU as options for college.  We all kicked around the Rose Garden, and then headed down the hill for lunch at a pasta place that makes all of their own pasta!  After lunch, we went over near their hotel, and Bish and the girls stood in line at Voodoo Donuts fro 30 minutes to pay $10 for 4 donuts!  Then we all walked around a local street fair that was going on in the area, and eventually parted ways as they headed back to their hotel, and we headed across the river to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science & Industry).  There are friggen signs for this place everywhere!  It must be a big deal up here in Portland?

Waiting in line for Voodoo Donuts!

OMSI was pretty cool, and we lucked out as it was "$2 Entrance Day!"  It was in an old GE building along the river, so was very industrial looking.  The girls were pushing being too old for the place, but there was plenty for them to do and see and learn.  They did some of the activities, and were able to go into a robotic exhibit that was really cool!  We headed back to the "historic" place, and eventually went to some of the local micro breweries not far from there for dinner.  We first hit Modern Times (now with a Portland location!), and some tacos.  Then we went to Cascade Brewing, for some sour beers (their specialty), and a reuben and pretzel and soup.  and eventually to Rogue Brewing for cheese curds and lettuce wraps!  All the food was good, as is typically the case at most micro breweries.

A Voodoo "Dirty Old Bastard" donut and milk!

On Monday we headed East along the Columbia River towards a town called The Dalles.  Man is it a big river!  Bish had really good intentions to get in a hike along the way, but kept striking out.  She wanted to pull off to see Multnomah Falls, and the exit was closed as the parking for it was full by the time we left the house.  We were able to stop along the drive at the Bonneville (Bish kept saying Boonville) Dam for a tour and some education.  It was a fun visit as they had a lot of info on the Columbia River and all of the dams along it's route, as well as the history of the building of this dam back in the 1930s-1940s.  Me being the water geek that I am, I especially enjoyed the "dam tour" and the info I learned.  The river flows over 100 million gallons per minute... all friggen year!!!!  No wonder the ocean is so full of water!  And we learned that this dam is considered "small!"

So we ended up driving all the way out to The Dalles before we eventually pulled over again and walked around.  It was a cool little town, and we found a nice little microbrewery to eat lunch at (shocker!).  Then we made Bish really happy as we went with her to a local winery so she could taste some of the local wines!  It was honestly a really cool winery tasting room as it was an old grain mill along the river.  While she enjoyed some local wine and conversation with other visitors, I promptly took a nap on one of the couches in the tasting room!!!

Sideways Slackettes with totem pole at OMSI.

In hindsight, we should have spent more time in Hood River, OR than in The Dalles.  We stopped in here on our way back to kick around some more, and this was a much neater little river town that The Dalles had been.  Bish got to do some more wine tasting, and I did a little tasting at a local distillery!  The girls were really happy as they bought a Harry Potter trivia game, and then got some ice cream before we left town!  Once we got back to the house, we had a quiet evening of a movie and popcorn!

A sideways Bigfeet sighting on way to Cannon Beach.

On Tuesday we decided to head West to the coast and the ocean for something different.  We visited a little beach town called Cannon Beach which was your typical summer beach town with tourists walking around everywhere, bad traffic/drivers/etc.  We walked around the town a bit and Bish and the girls decided they wanted to go out to the beach.  I was way behind on my steps for the day (we typically do not get rolling until 11 am or so each day, so my typical walking patterns are shot thus far!), so I decided to walk around the town a bit more and explore all of the knick knack shops.  It was a whole lot of crap I didn't need to or want to buy!  As I'm walking around, I get a text from Bish that says "We are headed back to the car.  Danica is wet from head to toe."  I'm thinking "WTF did she do now?"  So I meander back to the car to meet them (I have the keys).  Well, her and Darby were playing chicken near the water, and Danica turned around to run, and she slipped and fell face first into the water!  Always something entertaining with this one!

Bish & girls in Astoria, OR where ships come to pick up wood.

After Cannon Beach, we drove up to Astoria, Oregon where the film Goonies was filmed.  After not voicing my opinion on spending more time in Hood River vs. The Dalles, the day before, I spoke up this day and said we should try to spend more time in Astoria than Cannon Beach today.  I was wrong, CB was better.  :-(  Not that Astoria was bad though.  We kicked around in downtown Astoria too, and found our way to another micro brewery - shocker!  They had all kinds of Goonies stuff to look at, and the beer was decent too.  We walked into some local "herbal apothecary" type of place with a hippie running the joint.  I'm amazed he could keep the doors open, but some lady was in tehre buying stuff while we were there.  We attempted to drive by and see the Goonie house, but they had signs on the alley to get there that you'd be trespassing if you went up the alleyway.

The sideways Slackettes version of Chunk & Sloth!

Wednesday was July 4th, and we had a rather quiet day.  We met my friend Tom Glazener, who I have taught with for the IA, for lunch, but otherwise just kind of took it easy, other than making the girls go do some bball and exercise type stuff in a local park for the first time on the trip.  We got stuff to make on the grill for dinner, and watched another movie, and eventually caught some of fireworks shows on the river from our West facing deck through/over the trees. 

I may add some additional pics to these posts if Bish can figure out how actually download pics from her phone.  I guess I'm not as clueless as my wife with my sideways images when she can't even download!  :-)

Off to Seattle next!

Santa Rosa, Eureka, Grants Pass, Eugene...

The Slackettes at the Charles M. Schultz Museum!

We left Patti and Bob's house on Wednesday morning headed North.  We drove up 280 and through SF and across the Golden Gate bridge and eventually into Santa Rosa.  There was a spot I learned about and have wanted to visit for years since finding out about it, the Charles M. Schultz Museum!  I grew up reading Peanuts in the newspaper, and read many Peanuts books when I was young, so have always been a fan of Snoopy and the gang.  So when I found out about this museum, I knew that I wanted to try and visit it someday.  Although the girls are not as familiar with the comic strip, I thought they would enjoy the museum also.  It was neat to learn about Schulz and his life/legacy.

Tiny Slackettes b/w the Giant Sequoia trees.

One of the most memorable experiences of my time in California was getting to meet "Sparky" (Charles Schulz's nick name) one time when I was touring around Oakmont CC in Santa Rosa with Mike Clark, the golf course superintendent.  We drove up on a guy on a tee box, and Mike got out and invited me over to the guy and introduced me.  Once I figured out who Sparky was, I was quite excited!!!  He was a very nice, and humble person.

Another Kodak moment!

Although sideways, you get the idea!

After Santa Rosa, we headed on up 101 on our up to Eureka.  I got kind of sleep while driving, so asked Bish to take the wheel for a bit, and lo and behold, Danica started feeling "kind of sick" after Bish started driving!  :-)  In fairness, it was more the windy, hilly, and bumpy road than it was Bish's driving!  There seemed to be a lot of road construction on this route, and we stopped a number of times fro flagmen and construction.  Somewhere along the way, we pulled over to take a break, and get the girls pic with Paul Bunyan and Babe.  I also got a pic of some little boy who will be traumatized for life after "playing with balls!"  We also detoured off onto the "Avenue of the Giants" to see some of the giant redwood trees that grow in Northern California.  It is absolutely amazing how damn big these trees are!

Again, friggen sideways, but funny nonetheless!

We rolled into Eureka for the evening and got to eat dinner at Lost Coast Brewery.  I remember eating here 20 years ago when I first started coming to the area for work.  Bish and I both even had the dinner I recall getting back then, beef stew made with either stout or porter beer!  And we had to eat breakfast at my favorite spot up there, the Samoa Cook House!  Although my buddy Jeff isn't a fan, I have always enjoyed the place.  There is a little island off Eureka called Samoa (not the one in the Pacific), where the logging activities would take place.  Well, this cook house is where all of the workers were fed each day, so it is a family style/all you can eat sort of place.

Schulz's home studio had been moved to the museum.

After breakfast we drove up the coast to Crescent City, and then over 199 towards Grant's Pass Oregon.  199 was a pretty drive, and not as back/forth as I would have guessed.  Bish had made a reservation for us to stay in a yurt in Grant's Pass (why not, we stayed in a tee pee last summer!).  An older couple had built a yurt in their backyard, and rented it out on Air BnB.  The couple were nice, and it was interesting to learn that the husband had been a sculptor his whole life.  In looking at his web page with the work he has done, it was very impressive to learn what he has done and who he has worked for - http://www.richardhellis-sculptor.com/.  He did a Bob Hope bust that was given to Oprah Winfrey, as well as made busts of other famous actors.  Many of the castings in which he made these from were sitting on shelves outside of his studio.

Outside the yurt.

Grant's Pass seemed like a cool little community.  They had recently done an art fundraiser where locals had painted bears and placed them around town. (there were cows in SLO for the same purpose)  Richard, the sculptor, told us he was one of the first people to do this concept in the LA area back in the 1960s.  He said he paid his way through college by sculpting cows for cities around LA.  We also found a local soda shop (or pop shop as Danica called it) like Louie's Candy Kitchen back in North Manchester that I had to take the girls to for the experience.  They each got an ice cream float, and I got a chocolate soda and a cherry phosphate!

There were cannabis clubs everywhere in Cali, Oregon, and I assume Washington will be the same.

While in Grant's Pass, we went out to see the Oregon Vortex (think Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz).  I thought it was going to be a scam, but it was actually more interesting than I expected.  It was some weird anomaly up in the mountains where things seemed level, but really weren't.  And you almost felt kind of dizzy/off balance after visiting the place.

The girls at the Oregon Vortex.  Whichever girl stood on the right was taller than the other.

Ready to go to bed in the yurt.

We then drove up I-5 towards Eugene and U of Oregon.  Again, another college campus visit for the girls.  They should have a decent idea of what they like and dislike when they finally get to the point of deciding where to go to college.  I had learned that U of O was the filming location for one of my favorite movies, Animal House!  So I had to find a few of the on campus locations from the movie to see!

Me doing my best (sideways) Bluto breaking into Dean Wormer's office impression!

The drive on up to Portland was pretty, and very interesting to me being a turf nerd.  This area is where a lot of the grass seed is grown in the US.  There were acres and acres of grass fields that were being harvested with a miniature combine looking machine.  It would be neat to learn more about the process someday.

Bay Area - San Jose, San Francisco, Monterey-Carmel, Stanford

I can't get some pics to orient the right way, but this is one with a Giant Artichoke in Castroville!

After arriving into Patti & Bob's house Friday evening, we promptly went to our favorite sushi place (ever!) for dinner Friday night - Sushi Zono!  Our house was about 4 blocks away from this place when we lived in the area, so we got to know Haru the owner, and his son Eibo.  Eibo was behind the sushi bar when we walked in, so it was nice to see a familiar face.  Their version of the Las Vegas roll is the best one ever!  The girls concurred on the Zono LV roll after having one too!

We took it kind of easy Saturday morning at Patti's house.  Then we all went down to walk around downtown Los Gatos for a bit.  I used to hang out in this are a lot when I lived in the area.  I spent many an hour at LGBC,(now Loma Brewing Company - not as good IMO) CB Hannigan's (now closed), the Black Watch, etc.

Doing "the Larissa pose" in Pacific Grove!

We have learned that the best way to try and see as many people as possible when visiting an old haunt is to just find a gathering spot and time and let everyone know you'll be there.  If they can run by to say hi, great, if not, then we probably won't get to see you on this trip through town.  it just becomes too much effort to try and run around and go see everyone.  So we met a bunch of old friends at Stein's Beer Garden at the old Vallco Mall in Cupertino.  Thanks to everyone for coming to say hi - Maggie, Alix, Lauren & Sam and kids, Rick, Basile, Susan & Kevin and Mason, Patti, Diana and her family, Alec & Kristin, Jeff and Katie, Megan & Clay and Warden!  Hopefully I didn't leave anyone out?  It was fun to see everyone and catch up a bit!  Thanks for coming to say hi!

Slackettes at fortune cookie factory in SF.

On Sunday we headed up to SF for the day.  It is Gay Pride weekend, so we knew the city may be a mess, but we went anyway.  We decided to try and avoid the Market St. area as much as possible as that is where the Pride Parade was, so we initially went into the city on the West side and hung out in Golden Gate Park for a bit.  We just kicked around in the park, and found that the De Young Museum now has an observation tower with a great view of the city.  We went up into the tower, and got to see the Palace of Fine Arts, downtown, etc. from 9 floors up.

Cable Car ride in SF

The girls wanted Dim Sum, so we found a spot in Chinatown for lunch, and then went to a fortune cookie factory around the corner that one of the girls teachers had told us about!  I figured they were made by a machine, but it is all done by hand!  We walked up to the Cable Car Museum and saw the giant wheels spinning that keep the cable cars moving!After Chinatown, we rode the cable car over to Fisherman's Wharf area to kick around and see the sites.  The girls enjoyed going into the Ghiradelli store numerous times to get the free carmel/chocolate square handout!

When we first walked into the Cable Car Museum, we saw an Elastigirl (aka the Mom from The Incredibles) play figure that seemed as if it had been left on the bench by a kid.  It was still there when we were leaving the museum, so I picked her up and we began to take pics with her in various spots for fun!

Bish had made reservations for us to see Beach Blanket Babylon on Sunday afternoon (family friendly version of the show).  I had never seen it, but it has been a long running staple in SF for years (43!).  It was hilarious!!!  Very topical in regards to politics, famous people, Bay Area stuff, etc., as well as very entertaining!  I'd highly recommend going to see this show if you are ever in SF!

On Monday we drove down to Monterey-Carmel area, and then back up to Santa Cruz.  We kicked around in downtown Carmel first thing, and then drove over to Compagno's Deli for lunch.  Bennett, the owner is always manning the cash register, and seems like a crabby guy, but is actually a gem of a person!  He loaned us his 3 season passes to the Monterey Bay Aquarium on our last trip through the area.  Today he asked where we were from and what we were doing.  When I said "just kicking around" he told the girls to start kicking me!  Which they loved!  We drove through Cannery Row area a bit, and then headed up the coast towards Santa Cruz.  But not without stopping in Castroville for a pic with the World's Largest Artichoke!!!  :-)

Elastigirl in Carmel!

Thus far the "best line of the trip" was from Danica on our way into Castroville (North of Monterey/South of San Jose, and known as the "artichoke capital of the world!").  I had found a giant artichoke on Roadside America to take a pic in front of, and as we pulled into a parking spot in front of the place it was, Danica said, "Oh Jeez!"  Darby replied, "What?"  And Danica comments, "Did you not just see the Giant Artichoke?"  It was hilarious!

The girls were not into the rides/Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk as much as Bish had thought, so we just walked around a bit and they played a few games (aka - I overpaid for shitty stuffed animals!), and then we drove up the hill to UC Santa Cruz campus for a visit to the bookstore.  How can you pass up the opportunity to get a Banana Slug souvenir? (Think John Tavolta's t-shirt in Pulp Fiction!)  We then headed back over the hill and stopped and had a beer at the old LGBC (now called Loma Brewing - not as good IMO) and played some cards at the table while Bish and I enjoyed some tasters.  We ran into our old friend Tom who we know from Sushi Zono as he was sitting at the bar.

Elastigirl at "Mem-Chu" aka Memorial Church on Stanford Campus.

Tuesday was meant to be a rather slow/catch up day since we knew we'd be hitting the road on Wednesday again.  Everyone slept in, and we left just in time to run by Amato's for lunch cheese steaks!!!  After lunch, we drove up to Stanford for a tour around campus.  We try to show/expose the girls to various universities during our travels so they will have a better feel for what types/size of colleges they might be interested in when they get to that age.  Bish showed us around soem of the areas she remembers from her days on campus, including the church in the middle of campus which was really cool!  We walked over to the athletic field area to say hi to my buddy Joel who maintains all of the athletic fields on campus.  It was good to see him and catch up a bit.  Afterwards we were all kind of tired, so just went back to Patti's for a quiet evening and some pizza.

Elastigirl with the cheesy stuffed Minion and pillow we won at the Boardwalk.

On Wednesday morning, we headed up the Redwood Coast, or as my buddy Jeff likes to refer to it as "Behind the Redwood Curtain!"