Enjoying Cities

July 4th - July 10th

David and I had a fab July 4th in Portland. We both got to get our fill of two of our secret guilty pleasures/hidden fascinations. In looking at the Portland Chamber of Commerce web site, I had found out The Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. or SPEBSQSA (sometimes acronyms lose their usefulness) was having their annual convention in Portland. I know you are thinking, uh, who cares? Well, I care as I actually have a secret love of acapella music that I acquired in college with the Williams College Springstreeters and Octet. I don't indulge it often (and recordings do nothing for me), but whenever a chance presents itself, I love to hear a performance. So, when I read they were going to have a free performance in Courthouse Square on July 4th, I made David go an hour early so we could get good seats (he brought a book). (Editor's/David's note: I was not kicking and screaming as some might imply. I enjoyed at least the first 45 minutes.) It was great. It was over the top patriotic for the first hour when the program was just a mass sing-a-long (17,000 conventioneers were in town - you aren't laughing so hard at SPEBSQSA now, are you?). Later the program had more variety when it was individual groups performing. I had such a great time that I actually over dosed on barbershop and we left after only 3 hours (there was still another hour to go). David got some chapters in his book, The Sparrow, read. Nevertheless, don't feel bad for him, because he got his overdose later on FIREWORKS.

Turns out that Vancouver, Washington (right over the bridge from Portland) has the largest fireworks show west of the Mississippi. 45 minutes of booms and bams for your viewing pleasure! David in one of those "I'm cooler than cool" moves that only come a few times a year in most of our lives got us primo, perfect, only could have been better if we were on the launching barge itself, seats. Sure, he sort of lucked into them, but it was only through intelligence, persistence, and know-how that he got to the place where luck could take over. (David's note: Betsy is being over-kind of course. And she had the patience (after 3 hours of SPEBSQSA) to handle the 2 hours it took to find the "perfect" location. I can't imagine too many others who would put up with that…)

Press to hear the conventioneers singing

On those high notes, we left Portland for Seattle. Oh, we did drive through MilwaukIE, Oregon (that town that www.findyourspot.com recommended for me). It was small, really small. We couldn't find a restaurant to eat at. I think I better retake that quiz and change my answers just a bit.

Using our Unofficial Guide to the Best Campgrounds, we found a sweet place up in Bothell, Washington that is situated around a small lake. It was quite cute. We weren't the best tourists there, but we did go on an underground tour of the city. No, this isn't a subversive or grunge tour; rather it is a tour of the former sidewalks of Seattle before the town raised the streets 12 to 27 feet. It was well done and quite informative. We actually both had an ex-trainer moment when we decided to switch tour guides 1/10th of the way into the tour. As David said, "You know when the group realizes the guide doesn't know much and they just sort of stop asking questions as it isn't worth the effort." Our main tour guide was awesome though and we learned quite a bit about the founding of Seattle, the fires, the quakes, and even a bit about how 3500 of the women in town listed their occupation as seamstress in an early town census. The founders did some more investigation on those "seamstresses" and found that most of them lived in a 4-block area and that they couldn't find any sewing machines. Hmmm. We then walked over to Pike Place Market (with Pluto) and watched the general show of humanity for a while. My highlight here is the flying fish guys (a fond memory from my younger days).

(David taking over the writing…)

For our last day in Seattle (it was a very short visit) Betsy found in our Watch It Made In the USA guide that Boeing gives tours, so we packed everything up and headed for the tiny plant where they build passenger jets (747, etc.). The main assembly building is the largest building (by volume) in the world! (For the engineers: 2 miles around, and 11 stories high - you do the math.) We got to see a number of nearly complete planes, almost ready for delivery to JAL, ANA, NWA and a number of cargo planes. Did you know they only do 15 hours of in-flight testing before delivery? Made me want to ask the airlines for a plane with a few miles on it!

Another item from the Seattle trip, somehow neglected by Betsy, was my trip to see the Twins crush the Mariners (actually the Twins played well, but Seattle essentially lost the game - 15 LOB!). Safeco Field is absolutely beautiful - and I had a tremendous seat. 1st row of the 2nd deck! The game was a sellout, but I somehow scored this great seat off of Ticketmaster the day before the game! I wasn't asking questions and enjoyed an unobstructed view of the entire field from above 3rd base. Note that I went on my own to the game - Betsy was not as interested in the game, considering we wouldn't be able to sit together (no 2 tickets for adjoining seats left). (Betsy's note: I enjoyed staying home and having complete control of the clicker and cable TV stations. This RV traveling is pretty rough sometimes.)

We've now relocated for 2 short nights in a quiet state park in far northern Washington, 5 minutes walk from a beautiful bay on Puget Sound. It is actually Washington's oldest park, Larrabee. Betsy especially loved investigating the tide pools this morning - purple starfish by the dozens! But the highlight of the stay here has been our "tear-down" and re-org of Tiny's basement. We pulled literally everything out from below, found a few things we didn't realize we brought, found some other things we were glad we brought, and generally made the basement more accessible. At least we know where most of the stuff is now. We've begun the same process in the living section of the RV, but that we'll work out over the next few days, after driving part of the day, on our way north - and away from the beautiful cities we've been visiting in the Northwest.

Betsy again: I can't stress how much Pluto has been enjoying himself on this trip OR what a mostly delightful companion he has been. He likes to stick his head out the RV window sometimes, but mostly he curls right up and goes to sleep as soon as we start moving. He loved Larabee and when we were on the beach he found a log that he decided he was alive. David and I were laughing out loud as Pluto tried to get the log to play. The waves supplied the log with movement that kept Pluto entertained.

Our next big city was Vancouver. Although it was a beautiful, livable city, I think we were done with cities at this point. We did enjoy the park, Canada Place, and we enjoyed our drive and walk in Stanley Park. We found a local tradition of dances on Thursday nights in the park. Someone brings along a music system and they play ballroom music and folks dance. It seemed to be primarily Asian folks, and it was on the "last dance" when we arrived, but it looked quite nice. It seemed like a good way to feel community in a big town other than the local bar. We also came upon some outdoor art at Sunset that was quite photogenic.

Stanley Park Ducks

We are off to Jasper, and Banff next - and expect to be in Canada for at least the next 2 or 3 weeks. Keep those suggestions on where to visit/what to do coming ... and of course we'd just like to hear how you're doing, too.

Love,

Betsy & David

P.S. Still another few weeks to a working web site on www.ptak.org. Nothing we can do about that for now.