Part 4, Washington and Idaho, West Coast Road Trip, 2011

Seattle:  arrived in time to walk to Space Needle from hotel, dinner in revolving restaurant was the splurge of the trip—very beautiful at dusk and as all the city lights came on,

Dinner above the city really was nice.  Perfect timing.  Soup, salad, dessert put us to the dinner minimum $'s.   The whole experience was delightful.  We learned the precautions walking to our hotel late at night by asking the right questions of the right people.  Nice to have a view of the Needle from our hotel window.  Thanks again Polly for thinking of the details.

Experience Music Project museum in morning

The design of the building is intriguing.  The exhibition was as well.  Not an easy one to figure out.  Battlestar Gallactica exhibit had interesting moral questions--"What would you do?" circumstances--really tough questions prompting an increased appreciation for the influence of the Spirit in my life.   Avatar exhibit was very interesting learning of the back side of the filming.  I haven't seen the film yet. 

 Vancouver:  great fun biking the sea wall around perimeter of Stanley Park,

Stanley Park fam foto.  Rented our bikes from a nearby bike shop.  The guys moved ahead of us, paused till we passed by and then moved ahead again.  Lovely ride.

Vancouver harbor skyline.

The views were ever-changing as we rode the trail along the sea wall of the park.

Great option for unwinding after sitting in the car for hours.  The Midwest Road trip we learned to keep the guys tanked up with food.  This trip we added meaningful exercise each day for all of us.  Little things do make a difference.

Bike/rollerblade trail is separate from walkers/runners.

Great variety of use along the route.

Even a very large swimming pool.

Laughing Madmen of English Bay, very funny bronzes on our return to the bike shop.

Slept in Burnaby between a bar and liquor store (the things the hotel website doesn’t show) which seemed a little dicey at first but worked out fine.


Vancouver: back to city for Granville Island—

Amazing difference to leave a somewhat blighted area, crossover onto Granville Island.

Loved this clever way for good neighbor industry (cement business) to fit into the creativity of food, arts vendors of the island.  Each of the cement trucks was painted as a fresh produce--asparagus, ear of corn, etc. 

Granville Island fam foto.  This mechanical sculpture, Kinetic Sculpture was fun.  There is a great website, http://www.360cities.net/image/kinetic-sculpture-granville-island-vancouver#355.70,-1.10,50.0.

. . . great huge farmer’s market atmosphere with lots of interesting food to try, . . .

Polly admiring the posies.

An interesting painting in a food court.  One more chance to have great clam chowder.

Delightful conversation with this artist, Michelle Vulama. She paints rocks with a tiny brush of acrylic paint to pull out the images she sees in the rock.  Very patient creativity.

We enjoyed the street musicians as we walked and as we sat in the sun.  Thought of Mark and his Native American flute. 

. . . kayaked Indian Arm Inlet with loons, heron and lots of mini crabs, misty blue mountains.

Images only in our minds.  Kayaking across open water  and along the edges of the islands  was a treasured experience looking for birds and mollusks. 

Back to Seattle:  stayed at B&B in good walking neighborhood near fun restaurants, . . .

Loved these digs, Maisson Baile.  The sun room behind Polly was reminiscent of a home on Willson in Bozeman that I always admired.  Now I can imagine what it was like inside.  Our room had been part of the upstairs ballroom.  Again reminded me of the stories Henry told me of his SAE days in the Story Mansion where he and his fraternity brothers slept in the very cold winter in the upstairs former-ballroom.

Volunteer Park fam foto.  The park is nearby the B & B in the Capitol Hill area.  The water tower in the background looks like part of a fortress. 

Climbing the many stairs was our substitute for Wizard Island trail.  Click on the image to better see the Seattle skyline through the morning mist. 

. . . enjoyed Olympic sculpture garden along ocean, . . .

We thought this was Red Chair.  It wasn't it was "The Eagle."  That was the beauty of this very large permanent installation at the Seattle Art Museum, SAM.  As you move around the park you see each piece from another vantage.

"Love and Loss" in the garden described as a transformed ". . . nine-acre industrial site into open and vibrant green space for art."  Delightful to browse and enjoy the sea air.  

"Perre's Ventaglio III"  "The idea is that from whatever angle you view it, the voids seem filled and the solids seem empty."

"Eye Benches".  (lower left)

"Schubert Sonata".  There are many more pieces.

. . . found jelly fish, . . .

Thought of Mark's years at University of Washington and our ferry ride to an island for his graduation convocation.

Fam foto playing at the tiny cove where Griffin discovered jelly fish.

 . . . had the best hot mini doughnuts at Pike’s market.

We loved these tiny donuts!  So fresh and so very good.  This machine was just like the one at Woolworth's dime store in Inglewood.  It was always mesmerizing to watch the batter dough plop down into the sizzling hot fat, fry the donuts, automatically turn them over and then bring then up the track to drop into the basket.  Yummy, warm with cinnamon sugar!
 The yummy taste lingers on discouraging eating any other doughnuts ever!

 Plymouth, WA:  drove through a very misty Mt. Rainer National Park and mostly saw the road in front of us, camped on Columbia River across bridge from Oregon, got tent dried and aired out.

Good place to have some space and time to reorganize for the last leg.

Boise:  stayed with Mark and Karen’s family and the cousins were up late again playing games . . .

 Boise art museum with terrific decorated shoe exhibit, . . .

Our addition to the shoe exhibition.

Harriet's creation in the children's activity area.

. . . river walk, goddess festival, . . .

. . . more game time with cousins, more walks on the trails, 

Claire (Taiwan student), Polly, Karen and I walked the foothills one evening.

 . . . good food and winding down transition time, and fun to get to meet their new ward before heading out—got home to Salt Lake City just before dark.


This is probably too much information, but that’s all I’ve been doing or thinking.  It was quite an adventure.    After our drive across the desert and so much stop and go traffic, I woke up thinking we just hit the car in front of us in my dream.  Everything went very well in reality.  The car battery died once we were home, but we were safe and watched over the whole trip.  Christopher got in some driving practice and everyone got a lot of map- reading practice, as well as big doses of dealing with long hours in small spaces with the same people always with you, changing plans, monitoring coolant and oil levels, flexibility, budget choices, cooperation, coping with new situations, and making the most of every moment.  It was my idea of a travel-study program as much or more than a vacation, but hopefully it came across to everyone else as just a lot of fun.  (Once again, thanks to Polly for summarizing our trip, in italics.)

For me traveling with this group was a delight!  Many thanks to Polly and her guys for inviting me along for the adventure.

THE END