Seattle/Portland Run

cold fog question
low hanging mist of
powdered pearls
sharp plash of whetted rain
the city a basket full of stars
answers the sudden sky:
"Seattle"

©Edwina Peterson Cross
November 13, 2006

Road Trip - Seattle/Portland Run ~

I have just taken my one and only vacation from writing in the month of November. My daughter and I drove through torrential rains both ways but still had a marvelous time on our Road Trip to Portland and Seattle. It was one of those weekends where we stuffed a lot in and still seemed to have plenty of time for a lot of shopping, eating, laughing and visiting. One of the most entertaining things was that I wasn’t quite able to take a vacation from writing after all. I wrote two thousand some odd words in my notebook after the girls had taken me back to my hotel at night. I’ve just transcribed them to the computer and uploaded them to the NaNoWri Mo site. I just love it when I do something really absurd.

We visited three of my daughters-in-love who live in Portland and Seattle. They are in an interesting phase of life, a phase that I didn’t ever have, living alone in the city in tiny, darling, apartments. All three live in beautiful, old buildings that were the abode’s of millionaires in the 1920's with names like “The Delaware Arms,” “The Bella Vista,” and “The Armstrong Towers,”. The apartments look like doll houses with tiny cupboards built into the walls, scrolled woodwork and hard wood floors. The girls have painted the walls clean, bright white and then will have one wall painted a rich pumpkin, electric blue, or burgundy. They have lap tops, baskets of knitting, a few carefully selected books. The bulk of their belongings are evidently stored at Mom & Dads. I stayed at a hotel much like the apartments where I had a view of the Space Needle. At the age of nine, I attended the World’s Fair that brought the Space Needle to Seattle. They told us that in ‘the future’ buildings would all look like the Space Needle. Nothing looks like the Space Needle, but the Space Needle, but there is some incredible architecture in Seattle. It is a beautiful, very distinctive city. We ate breakfast down by the Fish Market and got to watch the “Fish Throwers” throw fish!

I spent a lot of money having hit both Portland and Seattle Landmarks - REI in Seattle and Powells Books in Portland. I don’t get to go to Powell’s enough that it has ever lost it’s Christmas Morning feeling for me. Powell’s is one of my favorite places on earth. This is a bookstore that is big enough you need a map. The books are inexpensive enough that you always buy too many, thus spend too much money, and I did. The thing is, they have books that you can’t find anywhere else. I bought six (count ‘em SIX!) books by Patricia McKillip, one of my favorite authors. Somdms These books are some out of print and some just hard to find, but there they were sitting there on the shelf together - beautiful hard back books for less than a paperback costs most other places. I also bought several beautiful blank books and (drum roll . . .) an Oxford Edition of Shakespeare’s Complete Works. Something I’ve always wanted. It’s going to take up an entire shelf all by itself. Fantastic.

Another thing I love about Powell's is watching the book lovers being so delighted to be with so many books. Powell's is a great place for people watching. Everyone is so happy to be there. You will hear delighted voices calling out to each other. “Oh! Look at this!” “Ethel! Come and see what I've FOUND! The other big activity of the weekend was the closing concert of the Dixie Chicks tour in the Tacoma Dome. I don’t do big concerts very often, but this was special. It was big and loud and really just an amazing concert. Political, a bit. Happy, yes. Music, great.

On my refrigerator I have a quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes that says, “We do not quit playing because we grow old. We grow old because we quit playing.” I find this to be a great truth. Whatever your “playing” is, it is necessary to life to keep playing. I like Road Trips. I like Concerts. I like Bookstores. I had a fantastic long weekend
- and while ‘taking a break’ from writing, I ended up with 2,838 words anyway!

As you probably already know, the problem with clichés is that while being kind of sickening, they very often are true. One of the best things about going on vacation is coming home. Cliché of the worst order. Very true, as well. I had fun sitting in the cute, old fashioned hotel room writing in my notebook. I am just delighted to be back in my own room with my computer. I’m wearing my fashionable new outfit (ultra soft yoga pants and smart-sox from REI, Dixie Chicks T’shirt, Brown Powell’s Hoodie Sweat shirt) and drinking tea in my new Powell’s mug. Outside it is brown on brown on grey on brown. It is raining softly and there is new snow sugar dusting the tops of the mountains. The fog is prowling around the mountains. Yum, November!