Day 323: Seattle Scenes and Unseemly Potluck Sacrilege

This weeks theme is "on the road," but the closest I'll be to being on the road this week, is in my memories and fantasies. So here are a few photos, one literally of the road, remembering my visit to Seattle two months ago.






Have you ever noticed how there are two types of people in the world: potluck people, and Not potluck people? I would like to say that I'm a potluck kind of person, and it almost seems like there's a kind of nobility or saintliness that would come with being a potluck person.

But I can't quite make myself like potlucks, and I've tried! I'd like them better if I was participating in a potluck because I really wanted to hang out with the people I was having the potluck with, and trusted their food. (Trusted, as in, no one licked their fingers or spoons while preparing it; the cats weren't on the counter and the only pet hair in it is from my own dog(ick!); and it's not 90% cornstarch and sugar and salt.)

The bigger issue for me, other than the virus/bacteria/cesspool issue, is the coerced, having-to-hang-out-with-people that I don't really want to hang out with issue. In my heart, I know I should love it, and the people, and the small talk, but having time to even get to think my own thoughts is often scarce, and having eyes-glazed-over conversations where I have to bite my tongue and nod politely makes me want to pull my fingers nails out. And then I just feel guilty. And then I get to go home and clean up the mess in my kitchen from whatever I made for the potluck in the first place. Anyone know a sure-fire cure for a bad attitude?

Day 298: Joe, the Balloon Guy

I couldn't resist this title.

Will you forgive me?

Day 280: Crater Lake, Mountain Driving Terror, and more Balloon Ride Bliss

First, before I rant and rave about mountain driving, let me point out that after leaving my brother's in Graham, WA, on we stayed overnight in Crater Lake, Oregon, on Monday, Sept 22. Crater Lake National Park is described as "the most under-rated National Park in the U.S" by 1000 Places to See Before you Die. I'm not planning on dying soon, but driving in mountains makes me feel like I might, or might want to.

Anyway, we stayed in a cabin, no TV, no computer, no phone, no cell service. My son and husband, who are clearly not Ludites, practically lost it! Until Scott realized he could still plug-in his computer and play the movie (excellent) Darjeeling Express on it. Personally, I missed having a hair dryer. So this first photo is of my family "roughing it."

Crater Lake is truly beautiful. It's 1943 feet deep, and rests inside a caldera formed approximately 7700 years ago when a 12000' tall volcano collapsed, following a major eruption! Water temperature is 38 degrees year round, and the lake is 4.5 miles by 6 miles across. Beautiful, but you have to drive up mountains to get to it, and walk along look-out points.






Balloon Installment # 4

Yesterday, I posted photos of our launch, and today I'll show you a few photos of us up in the air. This first one is of Frank, our pilot. Both Doug and I independently and unbeknownst to each other, prayed for his health.


These are not technically great photos, but look at the look of bliss on Doug and Scott's faces. That perfectly describes what it felt like up in the air--not intense, but blissful.

This is an aerial (balloonial?) view of a vineyard from our basket:


Another blissfull look, this time on me:


See you tomorrow!

Day 279: My Brother Ronnie & the Balloon Launch

On Sunday, Sept 21, we left Seattle, and drove to Graham, WA. This was the best part of our whole trip! Ronnie is my older brother, and I hardly ever, ever get to see him (as in years). I can't tell you what a treat and delight it was to get to spend Sunday day and night with him, and see 3 of his 4 children, and 6 of his now 9 grandchildren. (And boy does he ever make pretty grandchildren!) The 9th was born two days after we left!

My big brother, Ronnie. This most wonderful of guys cooked lasagna for Doug, Scott and I, and cooked the sauce for 2 1/2 days in a really large pot that used to be my mother's.


Everett, showing off his super-cool bandaid. Everett is married to my niece, Amanda.

Sweet, wonderful Amanda.

Amanda and Everett's son, little Mr. Tony. Tony is quite the character. . . and absolutely loves to eat!

Scott torturing his little 2nd cousin, Ronnie, who is the brother of Tony.


Who doesn't love Scott? Libby (one of Kim's daughter, who had no brother until Ethan Frank was born 3 days later) and Lana (one of Mike and Jenn's daughters) certainly seemed to kind of like him.

Ronnie and Kim, his oldest daughter.

Kim, her brother Mike, and Ronnie.

Kaitlyn Kim's daughter) and Tea (Mike's daughter), two more little sweeties to add to the liveliness. I wish I could have stayed a lot longer . . . Even now, remembering the visit, my eyes tear up thinking about wonderful and welcoming they all were. There's just way too many miles between us, but I'm never successful in talking anyone into moving to ND :(.

Installment #3: The Balloon launches!!!
As in actually rises some 1700 feet into the air! With us in it! I truly expected it to be scary, but it wasn't at all! It's the most amazing thing; one minute you're climbing into the basket, and the next you're gently gliding upward, more smoothly than in most elevators!

This is what it look like if you look up into the balloon when the propane is being fired.

Section by section, we climbed into the basket. I liked that the basket came up to above waist-level; I got to let go of my fear that I'd somehow fall out of the basket. 13 of us got in the balloon along with our pilot, and Scott, Doug and I were in our quarter of the basket. I was paying attention taking this little guy's photo, disappointed I'd just missed this beaming smile he showed next, when suddenly I realized he'd let go, and . . . folks. . . we weren't on the ground anymore! I hadn't noticed, but could see he couldn't reach those handles anymore!

I look at these photos, seeing people come out of their houses to watch us go up, and I just wish you could feel some of the same exhilaration I felt! I still feel it now when I look at these and see how gradually everyone got. . . .smaller! And it was fun to entertain the neighborhood.


And in tomorrow's installment, I'll include more shots from the air.

Day 278: Seattle and the 1st Balloon Landing

Today we got to sleep in and recover from our marathon city tour yesterday. This is just outside of Joey's Restaurant, where we had breakfast, and Doug comes down with a severe case of multiplicity:

Doug, as you may recall, also has a weather curse, so the beautiful weather Seattle had apparently been experiencing--before our arrival--gave way to rain. (Again, my apologies, Pat!)

Parking is tough in Seattle. This is the lobby of the Seattle Museum of Art. We saw an exhibit of Impressionist art. (I personally think the commentary was a sanitized version of the lives of those French guys; I liked our libary's series on the lives of the Impressionists much better.)

Saturday night, we went to a dinner concert at The Third Door. We got to sample salmon in banana leaves, and was tortured by Joan as a Police Woman. Joan has wild hair, and dresses in go-go boots.That would have been fine, if she had actually had good music. I feared my distaste was because I was old--except Scott amused himself by playing Pong on his new Blackberry, and the young women in the bathroom said Joan looked like something out of Flash Gorden. Half the audience left during the intermission.

We walked back to the parking garage, stopped at a little grocery, and I was amused by the organic molasses sitting side-by-side on the shelf next to Spam. Scott said Spam was considered a delicacy in Japan.

Balloon Installment #2: We Chase the First Group

The "chase" was on. There were 13 passengers in our chase vehicle and one guide. One man said that he was extremely afraid of heights, had trouble going 3 steps up a ladder, but couldn't wait to do this again. Still, I was wishing the champaign breakfast had come before the balloon ride rather than afterwards--

These photos are shot from the window of the chase van. We could hear Frank, our pilot up in the balloon, talking to our guide, the van driver. He gave instructions:

"We're heading for the school parking lot . . . "

It was 8 am, kids were being dropped off for geography and spelling, and here comes the Wizard of Oz above their heads.

"Not here! Too many cars!" We head one block over to a residential street.

The balloon just clears the rooftops; carpooling moms race back into their houses for cameras. . .

The balloon can only steer up or down, based on the propane and hot air, and here the balloon is fired up to keep from landing on this van. . .

The crew from the vans also worked the ropes to keep from landing on the van!

And one woman rushed out in her bathrobe for photographic evidence to show her husband what happened after he left for work this morning!



Tomorrow, I'm posting photos of our visit to my dear, sweet brother, Ronnie in Graham, WA, and Balloon Installment #3, our launch in the balloon with Frank.

Day 277: Seattle and Balloon Ride Installment #1

On Friday, the 19th, after picking up our rental car in Seattle, we picked up Scott outside the Moore Hotel. It makes my heart happy that Scott's back in the U.S.! With cell phone connection! And getting to spend the week with him was such bliss!

We headed out to Pike's Place Market, where my favorite thing here was actually the original Starbuck's coffee shop, and their original logo:


Being with Scott, who is a Commando Vacationer Extraordinaire, meant we still took in the Space Needle, the Science Fiction Museum, and the Experiencing Music Museum (Jimmy Hendrix) before stopping off at the Verizon store. Only after all this, we checked into our hotel for the night. Oh yes, and there was also some wine tasting thrown in.





Balloon Installment #1:

Each day, I'm also going to include some balloon photos, because I must! I didn't want to take a balloon ride. I hate heights. And mountains. And roller coasters. And ferris wheels. And parking garages. I hoped Doug would forget--or that Balloons Above the Valley wouldn't have openings. But they did, and the three of us headed to Napa Valley on Thursday, the 25th, at 4 am. I made peace with death.


But it was unbelievably wonderful! Hot air balloon rides start early in the morning to take advantage of the rising temperature and warming of the air. Balloons rise with the heat from the propane, and there is no steering. You ride with the wind, and the pilot only controls up or down motions.

We were assigned to Frank's 2nd group. There are 2 groups: the first group goes up, and the 2nd group gets into the "Chaser" van. (Remember "Twister"? Kind of like that, only different.) Three vans "chase" the balloon in the air. The pilot is in communication by radio with the vans and tells them what streets to take. The initial launch, at sunrise, was from a vineyard, and we watched workers picking the grapes from the vines alongside us.


The "chasing" was exciting, all by itself, although the "young'uns" who are the crew of the chasers seemed to like to scare us, telling us the pilot had "about 3 weeks experience" and that "we don't run into mountains much," but would then tell us more accurate detail about the operation of a hot air balloon operation. Wait till you see where the first group landed!

Day 276: Up, Up, and Away! (but now I'm back :))

I'm back from another adventure! I'm sure it's beginning to look like I lead this incredibly exotic life, but it's actually quite unusual for me to get to do as much traveling as I have been doing recently. I have some of the most wonderful pictures to post now from my trip to Seattle to meet up with Scott, returning to the US after having been stationed in Japan for 2 years, before he heads to Virginia. (And no, the Navy has NOT taken to traveling via hot air balloons; they're still using ships!)

We flew to Seattle, and then drove down to San Francisco, before returning home. And although I hoped that my husband would forget the thing he really wanted to do (take a balloon ride across Napa Valley), we actually did get in a balloon and go up approximately 1700 feet in the air, drifting with the wind.




Tomorrow I'll write more aout the beginning of the trip, starting in Seattle, and work my way through the adventure. But each day, I'm likely to sneak in another balloon photo because it was so over-the-top incredible!