Oregon Trip: Days 6-8
June 19, 2007:
I tried real hard to update every day, but I got a little behind.
On Friday the 15th, we went with my aunt and uncle to Seattle. I really wanted to take a ferry in, so that's what we did. On the ferry, I saw my last two new birds of the trip: a Glaucus-winged Gull and a Brandt's Cormorant. The view from the Ferry coming into Seattle was spectacular, even though it was cold and overcast. It's the kind of view you can really only get from a nearby large body of water or a nearby mountain, neither of which Houston has.
My aunt and uncle had never been on the ferry, so it was a new experience for them. After getting off the ferry, we went directly to Pike's Market, which is famous for their throwing of fish. There were quite a few people there with cameras, so the fishmongers threw a fish for them :) I didn't see anything really that I wanted to eat at the market, so we kept walking down the street. I did manage to buy some flavored honey (one of my favorite treats).
On the way to the Monorail stop, we all stopped by a Seattle gift store. I always enjoy the touristy stores when I'm a tourist :) I bought a panoramic magnet of the city to put on my fridge at home.
The Monorail stop was an indoor mall, so we ate lunch there. I had my first Mexican food since leaving Texas: a mound of beef nachos. After lunch we got on the monorail (another first for my aunt and uncle) and took that all the way to the Space Needle.
The Space Needle was pretty much what you'd expect. The ground floor was a giant gift store, then you had elevators up to the viewing deck. And of course there were lots of people. My aunt said the amount of people there were nothing compared to July and August during peak tourist season. We had a nice walk around and took lots of pictures and video, then went on our way.
On the way back, we stopped a coffee shop, just so I could say that I've had coffee at a Seattle Coffee shop :) The coffee was pretty good, but nothing spectacular. We walked back on the ferry late afternoon and headed back towards Gig Harbor.
On the way back, we made a short stop to see my cousin Jennifer and her two boys Ian and Trevor. I had seen Ian, now 5 years old, when he was a little baby, but I had never met Trevor before. They both seemed to be into their play area to take much notice of us, but it was still fun to see them.
For the final event of the evening, we had a sit-down dinner of Chicken Fettucini. After dinner we had Cheesecake and chatted with my dad on my speakerphone about his trip to Boston for the eBay sellers conference.
The next morning was the trip back to Oregon. The last thing to do was a trip to see Mount St. Helens. It was threatening rain when we left, so we weren't very sure of our chances. We stopped at the Forest Learning Center to try to spot some Elk, but didn't see any. The next visitor center was supposed to overlook the volcano, but it was too cloudy to see it. We finally went all the way to the final visitor's center on the ridge. Right before we got there it started raining, hard by Washington standards. Then we got out of the car and it started hailing! Wet and cold when we got to the front door, we paid our admission and went to see the movie about the explosing.
The movie was informative. It really explained what exactly happened that caused it to explode, and illustrated how it's still erupting today. At the end of the movie, the screen and curtain are supposed to pull up so you can see the actual volcano, but all anyone saw was a sea of gray. There were a few chuckles from the crowd as we exited the theatre. From there we walked partway up the lookout path hoping to see... well... something. Freezing cold and halfway up the path, we decided just to turn back to the car. We drove straight back to Newberg after that.
Then for our last night there, we had a relaxing dinner of Tofu Lasagna with Jan, Bob, Gram and Gramps. We all listened to Gramps recall the 3 years during the depression his family lived on a farm, and how he used to get paid $2 for cutting and transporting a quart of wood.
The next morning was the flight back. We made it there in time for Pam's flight (after missing the car rental exit and ending up in Washington). I walked over to my flight and saw there was a flight 1 1/2 hours earlier than mine that I could get on. They put me on standby and told me the luggage made it on the earlier plane. Half of the plane boarded when they made the announcement: severe thunderstorms in Houston caused a complete closure of all incoming and outgoing flights. All flights to and from Houston were delayed 2 hours. After that, everyone that got on the plane had to get off and wait it out.
Luckily I was able to make the standby flight, so I only got in 45 minutes later than I would of been in my original flight. Pam was also late because her plane from Kansas City to Long Island had to come from... you guessed it... Houston.
Wouldn't you know it, they lied to me when they said my suitcase made it on the earlier flight. I had to leave my information so they could deliver it to me the next day. After the airport, I took my friends Conan and Jennifer to Nit Noi (Thai food) in appreciation for them giving us rides to the airport as well as for taking care of our cats while we were gone. I pretty much crashed after that.
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