After a windy drive across western Montana, the Idaho Panhandle, and eastern Washington, Francine landed in the Emerald City with all her Munchkins safely aboard. We have done this drive before, a couple of times in fact, but the dramatic change in the landscape never fails to amaze me. You drives for miles across high desert, arid Mountain regions, and a few steep, green river valleys in the Idaho only to find more desert plains, more parched grass, and always more wind.
Just when you think this will go on forever, you start climbing, and in what seems like a blink of an eye, the color green begins to saturate your view. As we entered the Cascade range, Washington put on its most dramatic show, with clouds sprinting in and out of steep misty mountain valleys, rays of sunshine peeking through pine forests, and as you start to descend, Seattle unfolds before you, surrounded by the water. It truly is a wonderful juxtaposition.
Seattle is aptly nicknamed. It has been nearly 10 years since we have spent any time in this city and I had forgotten how wonderful it is. Wonderfully hilly neighborhoods of old houses, funky local shops and restaurants, vibrant gardens, and active, engaged, and intelligent people. While I tend to be personally skeptical of cities as possible long term living environs, if I were forced to choose a bigger city, Seattle would be at the top of the list.
The difference between this visit and our previous one was the weather, which has been amazing. Sunny, warm, and almost no rain. We have spent our time outside walking, sitting on our friends' porch, playing at the park, and touring the city. Yesterday was a quintessential day for us, we took a great walk around Green Lake, a city lake with a fabulous walking path around it. Given the weather, it was packed with a great cast of characters, both young and old. There were musicians, dancers, dancing rollerbladers, an old man on a recumbant bike "walking" a 4 pound dog, bearded guys in camo fishing for carp, voter registration tables, and a little kid going sailing with his dad while wearing his Darth Vader costume. Fabulous. And everyone was talking politics after the previous night's debate.
After our stroll we headed straight to the Pike Place Market, the epicenter of Seattle. If you like food, and who doesn't, Pike Place Market is heaven. We started out at Beechers for some of the finest macaroni and cheese on earth, moved on to have asian barbecued beef baked into bread, then on to some ice cream. In between, we saw flying sea food, acquired halibut, bread, vegetables, and flowers for dinner, checked out the original Starbucks complete with a significantly more racy logo than the current one, and listened to buskers playing everything from the Violent Femmes to Johnny Cash on a guitar and an accordion.
Today, after recovering from last night's festivities, which included a Maggie led dance party, we did absolutely nothing. We sat outside, enjoyed the phenomenal day, and spent time with good friends, both old and new. It has been a brilliant few days in the Emerald City, almost magic in fact.
Tomorrow we are off to explore more of Washington and looking forward to getting back into our road routine. As Dorothy said: "there is no place like home." Even if that home is an RV roaming across the country.
Every fall a great event begins. Across the nation families, friends, and co-workers come together in a spirit of sportsmanship and competition to drink beer, scream at the TV, and lament the fate of their chosen squad of football warriors. I am no different . . . except . . . I bring my own cheering section.
