My Journey to Seattle: Part 1
Jan. 3rd, 2004 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aris_merquoniSo after the first day of driving, I wrote this:
Events of the day.
Mom kicked me out of bet at 6:30 in the morning, which was the only way we were going to meet our goal of getting on the road at godawful-1.5 AM. We didn't quite make it. I finished wrapping presents for Jay, Lizard, and Tim, and got all my stuff in the car, but my back was acting up like nothing else and mom had lost her set of car keys. While she searched, I attempted to heat up a dual-temp pad, which for convenience's sake had been kept in the freezer. Tempers were short, and things finally came to a head when we were in the car, keys and heating pad forgotten, and my back gave a twinge so bad I saw sparks.
We went back for the heating pad. Things were actually better after this.
We stopped for breakfast at Denny's in Santa Rosa. Don't laugh. The food was edible, and having eaten something seemed to unclench my back. We then raided a Longs for some windex and a pack of Icy-Hot back patches, one of which I applied, which also helped. By eleven, I felt good enough to take over control of the car. I drove until about three-thirty in the afternoon, and mom drove us into Coos Bay around six, where I'm now typing this up.
Things I must mention about the drive up:
Alan Parsons Project is the best driving music ever. Just... ever.
Highway 101 is absolutely beautiful. The fog, the trees, the vinyards, the fog, the ocean... amazing. And driving it is so much fun. I love the Echo.
"Tranny-Man Transmissions" in Brookings.
Once we got a room and some relaxing done, we went for dinner at the Blue Heron bistro. I admit, I was a little anxious when I saw an array of pro-USA posters, until I realized that they were the most recent articles in a collection of war posters and memorabilia. It's absolutely terrific. Whatever the owner's sentiments about war, the posters are still amazing pieces of art. I'd love to see Antiques Roadshow come through there.
We had oysters Rockefeller, and were presented with the biggest oysters I've ever seen. The only other time I've had OyRok was in a fancy restaraunt for my mom's birthday(or was it anniversary? I can't remember the specifics). The oysters there were tiny and smothered with cheese. These were huge, and you knew you were eating oyster. Considering that we'd ordered nine of these things and entrees... wow. Couldn't finish. Amazing.
Though, actually, I'm not all that fond of oysters. I think it was just the cheese.
So we got some directions and had a nice dinner. I'm looking forward to getting some sleep.
My only real regret so far is that I forgot to bring my knitting along. Blah. That was going to be my thing to do in the car while mom drove.
Plans for tomorrow: Get a bathing suit(another thing I forgot), and a wifi card for my laptop. And drive to Seattle! MWAHAHA!
--
Well, the second day's drive was just as uneventful, except we managed to almost get lost looking for the Frys in Renton. But we made it, got the wifi card, and picked up a cute little scanner that's USB powered and everything. This means I have art scanned and it'll be up on my webpage soon. Promise.
We made it back to the hotel, where we learned a couple of things:
1) Everything is expensive in downtown Seattle, especially in the hotels. The snickers bar I ate the first night cost $3.25. Yes, American.
2) No pool. The bathing suit was unnecessary.
3) No wifi.
At the third, my mother about had a fit. They were changing services. Well, was there any internet access at all? Oh, the business center. Could we use that, for free? Oh, of course it's free... but the server is down.
Blah.
We ate dinner in the hotel, and it was the most depressing thing ever. A big empty dark dining room with nobody else around, like we were in a slasher movie.
The next day,![[livejournal.com profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
invertedreptile came over and we(Lizard, mom and I) went down to Pike's Place Market and bought things. The most wonderful doughnuts ever, a tiara for timthepenguin, earrings and shirts and an apron and stuff for mom. All in all, it was a fun day. Yay for Seattle.
Events of the day.
Mom kicked me out of bet at 6:30 in the morning, which was the only way we were going to meet our goal of getting on the road at godawful-1.5 AM. We didn't quite make it. I finished wrapping presents for Jay, Lizard, and Tim, and got all my stuff in the car, but my back was acting up like nothing else and mom had lost her set of car keys. While she searched, I attempted to heat up a dual-temp pad, which for convenience's sake had been kept in the freezer. Tempers were short, and things finally came to a head when we were in the car, keys and heating pad forgotten, and my back gave a twinge so bad I saw sparks.
We went back for the heating pad. Things were actually better after this.
We stopped for breakfast at Denny's in Santa Rosa. Don't laugh. The food was edible, and having eaten something seemed to unclench my back. We then raided a Longs for some windex and a pack of Icy-Hot back patches, one of which I applied, which also helped. By eleven, I felt good enough to take over control of the car. I drove until about three-thirty in the afternoon, and mom drove us into Coos Bay around six, where I'm now typing this up.
Things I must mention about the drive up:
Alan Parsons Project is the best driving music ever. Just... ever.
Highway 101 is absolutely beautiful. The fog, the trees, the vinyards, the fog, the ocean... amazing. And driving it is so much fun. I love the Echo.
"Tranny-Man Transmissions" in Brookings.
Once we got a room and some relaxing done, we went for dinner at the Blue Heron bistro. I admit, I was a little anxious when I saw an array of pro-USA posters, until I realized that they were the most recent articles in a collection of war posters and memorabilia. It's absolutely terrific. Whatever the owner's sentiments about war, the posters are still amazing pieces of art. I'd love to see Antiques Roadshow come through there.
We had oysters Rockefeller, and were presented with the biggest oysters I've ever seen. The only other time I've had OyRok was in a fancy restaraunt for my mom's birthday(or was it anniversary? I can't remember the specifics). The oysters there were tiny and smothered with cheese. These were huge, and you knew you were eating oyster. Considering that we'd ordered nine of these things and entrees... wow. Couldn't finish. Amazing.
Though, actually, I'm not all that fond of oysters. I think it was just the cheese.
So we got some directions and had a nice dinner. I'm looking forward to getting some sleep.
My only real regret so far is that I forgot to bring my knitting along. Blah. That was going to be my thing to do in the car while mom drove.
Plans for tomorrow: Get a bathing suit(another thing I forgot), and a wifi card for my laptop. And drive to Seattle! MWAHAHA!
--
Well, the second day's drive was just as uneventful, except we managed to almost get lost looking for the Frys in Renton. But we made it, got the wifi card, and picked up a cute little scanner that's USB powered and everything. This means I have art scanned and it'll be up on my webpage soon. Promise.
We made it back to the hotel, where we learned a couple of things:
1) Everything is expensive in downtown Seattle, especially in the hotels. The snickers bar I ate the first night cost $3.25. Yes, American.
2) No pool. The bathing suit was unnecessary.
3) No wifi.
At the third, my mother about had a fit. They were changing services. Well, was there any internet access at all? Oh, the business center. Could we use that, for free? Oh, of course it's free... but the server is down.
Blah.
We ate dinner in the hotel, and it was the most depressing thing ever. A big empty dark dining room with nobody else around, like we were in a slasher movie.
The next day,
invertedreptile came over and we(Lizard, mom and I) went down to Pike's Place Market and bought things. The most wonderful doughnuts ever, a tiara for timthepenguin, earrings and shirts and an apron and stuff for mom. All in all, it was a fun day. Yay for Seattle.
