While making our way slowly through a thick but polite crowd in Seattle's Pike's Place market, my eyes met a box of dates. Thinking my friend was next to me, I turned to say loudly that "I haven't had dates in a long time." It was only after these words left my mouth that I realized I had spoken them not to my friend, but to a similar-aged woman. Realizing the implication of my words, I tried to recover, stating something like, "I meant the dates there [pointing to the box], not dates with people." Privy to my mistake, the woman chuckled with her friends and quickly responded with something close to, "I haven't had dates in a long time, either." It was over in a moment, but became one of the many moments I will remember from this road trip to Seattle.
I was joined by a childhood friend as we visited natural features and cities large and small. Our first north stop was the Folsom prison museum, where we learned that men lived in cells opened to the elements and had to dispense their own chamber pots daily. Executions were unceremonious, taking place from a pole and noose at the top of a set of unmarked stairs. Prisoners kept and keep a large garden and themselves built the cell units from a local quarry.
A few hours later, we arrived at Lake Shasta, where a tour led us across the man-made lake and up a curvy road to spelunk in a cave system whose seventy-degree temperature contrasted the 106-degree weather outside. The guide ended the tour by illuminating the last and largest room to display a towering canvas of limestone wall formed by years of water erosion. On the base are the names of those who escaped the dark room for a challenge with but a few items, including matches, a set of clothes, and twenty-four hours.
Leaving California, we stayed the night in Ashland, in northern Oregon, where I learned that Oregon does not allow self-serve gasoline pumping, instead requiring full-service attendants.
The next day, we stopped in Eugene for coffee before visiting Portland and seeing Powell's Books, a very large and well-known new and used book store whose rooms are on three floors in rooms labeled by color. The pearl room on the top level housed rare books.
In Portland lies a large, colorful garden called the International Test Rose Garden, which displayed the contrast between concrete Portland and green Portland, a contrast visible immediately as a lush curtain of foliage and trees cascades down brick walls that surround the same urban street that feet before it opened to an urban landscape of businesses and pedestrian and automotive traffic. Like other large cities, Portland residents must battle such traffic, but it is not as thick as urban centers like San Francisco and New York City. There does seem to be more space here, but the parking challenge reminded us that it was still a big city.
We left Oregon to find ourselves too late for visit to Mount St. Helen in the late afternoon, leading us to Tacoma, where we stayed the night. The next day, we arrived in Seattle, and immediately toured the Space Needle, which we followed with a walk through downtown to visit Pike's Place market, a seaside conglomeration of multicultural foods and products. It was here that we stumbled upon the first Starbucks, which at this time featured a serpentine line of people wanting a cold drink or the right to say that they visited Starbucks One.
Finally, we traveled south in the city to see the Museum of Flight, whose website claims is "the largest independent non-profit air and space museum in the world." We visited three of the many locations of the museum, and saw a full-sized early twentieth century plane reminiscent of that of the famous Wright brothers; corporate aircraft from Britain, Canada, and the United States that included the 747 and Dreamliner 787; several military jets, including two Blue Angels aircraft and a Harrier jet; and World War II propeller planes from nearly all sides of the conflict, including the German Messerschmitt, the Russian Yakovlev Yak 9-U fighter, the British Supermarine Spitfire, the Japanese Hayabusa,, a U.S. B-29 Superfortress, P-51 Mustang, and my favorite, a P-38 Lightning.
An all-night drive home allowed my friend and I to reflect on the trip and reminisce on more important matters while at times listening to 1960s music. While the trip began and ended quickly, we found new experiences, met new people, and learned about ourselves and the differences between the states of California, Oregon, and Washington.
I was joined by a childhood friend as we visited natural features and cities large and small. Our first north stop was the Folsom prison museum, where we learned that men lived in cells opened to the elements and had to dispense their own chamber pots daily. Executions were unceremonious, taking place from a pole and noose at the top of a set of unmarked stairs. Prisoners kept and keep a large garden and themselves built the cell units from a local quarry.
A few hours later, we arrived at Lake Shasta, where a tour led us across the man-made lake and up a curvy road to spelunk in a cave system whose seventy-degree temperature contrasted the 106-degree weather outside. The guide ended the tour by illuminating the last and largest room to display a towering canvas of limestone wall formed by years of water erosion. On the base are the names of those who escaped the dark room for a challenge with but a few items, including matches, a set of clothes, and twenty-four hours.
Leaving California, we stayed the night in Ashland, in northern Oregon, where I learned that Oregon does not allow self-serve gasoline pumping, instead requiring full-service attendants.
The next day, we stopped in Eugene for coffee before visiting Portland and seeing Powell's Books, a very large and well-known new and used book store whose rooms are on three floors in rooms labeled by color. The pearl room on the top level housed rare books.
In Portland lies a large, colorful garden called the International Test Rose Garden, which displayed the contrast between concrete Portland and green Portland, a contrast visible immediately as a lush curtain of foliage and trees cascades down brick walls that surround the same urban street that feet before it opened to an urban landscape of businesses and pedestrian and automotive traffic. Like other large cities, Portland residents must battle such traffic, but it is not as thick as urban centers like San Francisco and New York City. There does seem to be more space here, but the parking challenge reminded us that it was still a big city.
We left Oregon to find ourselves too late for visit to Mount St. Helen in the late afternoon, leading us to Tacoma, where we stayed the night. The next day, we arrived in Seattle, and immediately toured the Space Needle, which we followed with a walk through downtown to visit Pike's Place market, a seaside conglomeration of multicultural foods and products. It was here that we stumbled upon the first Starbucks, which at this time featured a serpentine line of people wanting a cold drink or the right to say that they visited Starbucks One.
Finally, we traveled south in the city to see the Museum of Flight, whose website claims is "the largest independent non-profit air and space museum in the world." We visited three of the many locations of the museum, and saw a full-sized early twentieth century plane reminiscent of that of the famous Wright brothers; corporate aircraft from Britain, Canada, and the United States that included the 747 and Dreamliner 787; several military jets, including two Blue Angels aircraft and a Harrier jet; and World War II propeller planes from nearly all sides of the conflict, including the German Messerschmitt, the Russian Yakovlev Yak 9-U fighter, the British Supermarine Spitfire, the Japanese Hayabusa,, a U.S. B-29 Superfortress, P-51 Mustang, and my favorite, a P-38 Lightning.
An all-night drive home allowed my friend and I to reflect on the trip and reminisce on more important matters while at times listening to 1960s music. While the trip began and ended quickly, we found new experiences, met new people, and learned about ourselves and the differences between the states of California, Oregon, and Washington.
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