Vacation, Part III

Day 8, on to Oregon

Portland, Oregon, City of Roses.


We spent our time in Portland staying with friends Chris and Kinnari--another family with a three year old, Soren, and a baby, Kirin--checking out a very pleasant corner of what was a new state for all of us.


On our first full day there we enjoyed a picnic at a nearby park with other local families with young children. Edith played on the playground and splashed in the Beverly Cleary memorial fountain, where she introduced herself to Henry Huggins and Ribsy. Apparently we were quite close to Klickitat Street.


Chris then gave us a driving tour of the city rife with information and complete with tidbits only a native son would know, which was great. And took us for what turned out to be the best iced coffee we had all trip. Unfortunately, it was abnormally hot, and Edith was a cranky-puss. She was happier chilling out with Soren in front of Sesame Street when we returned to the house.


She also serenaded Kirin in his swing.


What to do with a preschooler who has a disagreeable meltdown during dinner? Reward her with a big cup of abnormally colored ice cream right before bedtime, of course. How's that for responsible parenting?


Day 9, Child-Friendly Portland

On Sunday Chris and Kinnari introduced us to the Portland Children's Museum and a kid-friendly downtown fountain. What could be better?


The construction fairy hard at work: "All this plumbing needs is a little pixie dust."


Talking on their shoe phones


Day 10-11, 21 hours of travel

Saying goodbye is hard to do


We drive back north for our red-eye home via the coast, giving Edith her first sight of the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, it's too cloudy to see much else of the fabled Oregon coastline.


Goodbye for now, West Coast. Thanks for the good visit!

Vacation, Part II

Day 3 (cont.) through Day 7, Vashon Island

After leaving Kirkland in our new rental car, we headed over to West Seattle to pick up the car ferry to Vashon Island, just fifteen minutes out into Puget Sound but light years from downtown. We were scheduled to stay on "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Farm"--that is, the former farm of the author of the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, now owned by someone else who has converted it into an eccentric B&B. After finding the place by the seat of our pants we figured out which of the two suites to let ourselves into, since no one was around. We were just settling into our digs on the third floor of the barn in the loft when the proprietor called out from below. We chatted a bit, then she asked us to remind her of our names. The names didn't sound right to her...and that's when Tom realized, in a flash, that if you're staying in one spot from August 9-11 and another spot from August 12-14, you need to make sure you have somewhere to stay the night of August 11...

Yes, we had arrived a day early--and then let ourselves into someone else's room. What a sinking feeling. It was late and we were tired, and where were we to go on this little island full of private homes, no hotels anywhere? And how to explain to a three year old that we'd messed up and had to leave Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's farm again, after we'd built it up all day and just shown her her bed? But it turned out fortuitously for us: the anticipated guests hadn't arrived yet and hadn't specifically requested the loft, so the proprietor found some third spot on the rambling property to put them and tacked on an extra night to our stay.

The rest of the time on Vashon was much more relaxing. We had read it was an ideal place for biking, and that had figured large in our imaginings of these four days--until we arrived and discovered the island was ideal for biking if you were training for the Tour de France. Or at least in much better shape than a pregnant woman is, never mind the three year old to be carried on back of one of the bikes.

Instead we went into a coffee shop in the little village of Vashon every morning, checked out a few of the island's rocky beaches (once in the company of Meredith and the boys, who came out to visit), and made little houses out of logs at the farm per Edith's request. We went to the municipal pool one afternoon and took a preschooler-style hike in a public preserve. I checked out a local yarn shop that turned out to be in the owner's home. As we pulled up and I realized that it was a private residence, I prepared to turn away--I just wanted to browse briefly and wasn't up for a real purchase, much less making friends with the owner in her own home. But her husband ran down from the deck and greeted us, inviting us all in. He quickly engaged Tom in conversation, and by the time he'd given Tom a free sample of a local brew to take home and walked him through an island trail map we'd otherwise never have gotten our hands on, I felt obliged to at least take away a bit of sock yarn and a sock pattern.

We did go back into Seattle one night for dinner with our UW friends, allowing us to see another neighborhood in the city and to catch up with a great couple. The best part was hearing from a first-year assistant professor and partner who were both glowingly happy in their new location and careers. There's hope!

On the ferry, which we rode several times

At "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's farm." The barn once held 4000 chickens. Now it held us, a bunch of lumber, an art studio, and piles of barn-appropriate odds and ends on the ground floor. We stayed in the loft at the top. Great for us, not an option if you need real childproofing...


The important part was the view from the deck (not that Edith let anyone spend much time contemplating it at leisure):


Building a raccoon house with the woodpile


"Hiking"


At the beach

Vacation Retrospective

Before we disappear into the fall rush and forget that we ever had a vacation, I'd better at least post the pictures, even with relatively little accompanying text. Actually, most readers will probably prefer this version. But I will include a Harper's-style index.

Destination: Pacific Northwest, from Seattle to Portland

Three phases:
(1) Downtown Seattle, in the company of friends Nadine and Mike
(2) Vashon Island in Puget Sound, on our own
(3) Portland, as guests of friends Kinnari and Chris and their 3 year old and 3 month old (a preview of things to come!)

Travel time index
Hours from Princeton to Philadelphia Airport (PHL), normally: 1 in car or 2 on public transport
Hours from Princeton to PHL, us: 3
Missed trains in a row: 2
Minutes early each of those trains was running: 5
Minutes it takes a NJTransit ticket machine to spit out a ticket: Too many
How fast a preschooler can run from the station snack bar to the platform: Not very

Minutes our original flight was delayed: 90 and counting
Minutes in line to change to different flight so as not to miss connection: 40
Seats left on new flight: 4 (whew)
Dollars comped by the airline for dinner for our trouble: 30
Hours from leaving home to takeoff: 7
Miles from home to PHL: 55
Hours from PHL to Seattle, including connection: 8
Miles from PHL to Seattle: 3000
Minutes from airplane seat to hotel bed, including baggage claim, hotel ground transport, and check-in: 40 (wow)

Hours from Seattle to Portland on I-5, normally: 3
Hours from Seattle to Portland if you take a big scenic swing east through the Cascades: 6-7
Minutes wife spends convincing husband that speed trumps scenery with a preschooler in the car: 3
Hours from Seattle to Portland on I-5 when there are brush fires along the freeway: 7
Minutes husband spends musing on what the Cascades must look like: 3

Hours from Seattle to Detroit by plane: 4
Hours from Detroit to PHL by plane: 2
Hours from PHL to Princeton by train: 4


PART ONE, SEATTLE

Day One, Downtown Seattle

Edith kicks off vacation the right way by luxuriating in a late morning at the airport hotel, taking full advantage of all available pillows and indulging in a Mary Poppins viewing before getting dressed for the day


We head downtown.

At the Maritime Museum, Edith and Mike fish for salmon by hand, then haul in their catch one by one, minimizing their environmental impact as well as their profit margin. Tom, Nadine, and Mike also try out some maritime alter egos.


Pike Place Market is still a real, operating open-air market full of fish vendors, organic fruit and vegetable farmers, and wholesale flower growers, as well as shops with baked goods and ethnic delicacies. Way cooler than Quincy Market in Boston or Pier 39 in San Francisco, both of which are the shells of old markets turned chain-store-boutique-malls. Pike Place inspired Edith actually to ask for fresh fruit for breakfast every morning.

We also sampled our fair share of coffee shops on this trip, of course, and Edith discovered that they often (though not always!) served something other than coffee.

Seattle Center has rides for kids.

We got just enough rain to see this on our way to dinner.


Day Two, Chittenden Locks and the University of Washington

I've always wanted to see locks. These were way cool: constant boat traffic, total viewing access for the public, and a salmon ladder on one side, allowing visitors a view of the salmon migrating back upstream. (I always thought salmon surged upstream at rapid-fire pace; it turns out that much of the journey looks like a day on the gym treadmill.)



An academic can never pass up a visit to the local campus; this one provided a nice setting for Mike's homemade zucchini chocolate cake and a nap. And allowed us to slip a note under the office door of a Princeton friend just completing his first year on faculty there, resulting in a lovely dinner out a few nights later.


Day Three, Kirkland

Nadine and Mike headed back to real life in Wenatchee, so we went to bother another college friend of Gretchen's at her home in Kirkland, just east of Seattle. Meredith is the grad student mother of a three year old and a six month old. She is in seminary and a candidate for Methodist ordination. Three-year-old Nathan loves maps. We found some things in common to talk about.

From Kirkland we head out to Vashon Island for some days on our own. Part Two to follow soon...