I’m back now. The last day was relaxing, mainly because we didn’t have to pack up and check out before 11am, as we did for most of the rest of the trip. I felt pretty lazy all day. We walked from the hotel down to the the famous Pike Market, where normally there are guys throwing fish around and stuff. But since no one was buying fish that day, there was just a crowd of tourists standing around the fish vendors, who were tossing a lemon around to keep themselves amused.

We had lunch at the Athenian, which is inside the market, overlooking the water. Tom Hanks and Rob Reiner filmed a scene from Sleepless in Seattle here. The antique eatery provided a nice environment. The food was somewhat expensive and mediocre though. Oh well. You can’t have everything I guess.

After lunch, we headed up to the Seattle Art Museum. They had quite an ecclectic collection of paintings, sculpture, costumes, and photos. Going from one room of contemporary aboriginal art to a room of Renaissance paintings was a bit jarring, but still fascinating.

That night, we met my sister Jadine and her boyfriend/semi-fiance Dave for dinner at Ray’s Cafe.
I neglected to mention that I noticed Jadine’s new, stylish and modern hair cut. Well, I did notice it, and it looks great. So if Jadine’s reading this, consider it noticed!

The next morning we had to get up at 5:30am to return the Cookie Monster, and to get to the airport for our flight home. We should have gotten up at 5:00am because our flight was actually leaving 30 minutes earlier than I had noted in my organizer. Whoops. Anyway, it all worked out ok. The flight back was uneventful and pleasant-ish. Even the small Embrauer jet we were on had personal TVs in the seatbacks, which I think is the single most important aviation invention ever. It keeps you from wanting to claw your face off from boredom during long flights.

When we got back to Laura’s place, I discovered that Emeril had decided to die during my absence. It’s nice to be missed, although, not so nice to have to call CAA to resolve the situation. Turns out that my battery is already dead and needs to be replaced. I’m appalled that my 2 year-old car already needs a new battery, but what can you do? The CAA guy says it’s not uncommon these days. Things just aren’t made like they used to be!

I finally got home, and proceeded to dump my stuff everywhere like I normally do when I get home from a trip. Except, since I’ve moved all my rooms around, nothing is where I expected it to be, so dumping my stuff was a bit confusing. Basically, things are everywhere now. I’ll figure it out later!

We drove out to the coast again. After hours on Interstate 5 and then smaller highways weaving through the stubbly, clear-cut hills, it was a relief to see the Pacific again when we reached Newport. We quickly found a room at the Shilo Inn, which had a fabulous view overlooking Newport’s enormous beach. From our room, we could see a few people, tiny as ants, traversing the vast expanse of sand, bordered between a scrubby hill and the gentle surf. I completely failed to get a photo of this. So, I present, instead, some horses from the previous morning at the treehouse place.

After checking in, and settling in a bit, we went out in search of a restaurant with a view of the ocean, so we could watch the sun set as we ate dinner. You’d think it would be easy to find this, but you’d be wrong. There were few apparent restaurants in Newport with a nice view of the sea. We finally found the Best Western hotel’s on-site restaurant, which had a partially obstructed view. The atmosphere was dismal, and the food was forgettable. Driving around town later, eventually finding an all-night Safeway grocery store was actually much more fun.

Ok, I didn’t entirely fail to get a picture of Newport’s beach, but I did fail to get a picture I liked. After we went back to the hotel, I grabbed my camera to take some night shots of the beach, but I struggled because the hotels had huge flood lights aimed at the beach. These threw awkward and unnatural shadows of everything everywhere, and I just couldn’t find an angle that looked good and worked with these shadows.

Anyway, we decided that the next morning, instead of heading up the coast to another beach town, we’d make directly for Seattle. This would give us two nights in the city, and some time to enjoy and explore a little. We drove back inland, and got to Interstate 5 again, and plowed directly up the middle of Oregon, through Salem and Portland, and into Washington State. We got to our Holiday Inn in downtown Seattle around 5. After our usual settling-in routine, we selected a restaurant from among a zillion mouth-watering choices, and made a reservation online. Dinner was great. Laura and I both had wild salmon. It was served on a bed of whipped avocado and grapefruit, of all things. We also had a small dish of wild mushrooms, sauteed in garlic butter. Yum. Later on, we went for a dessert at an artsy cafe/bar.

Now it’s time to sleep. It’s our last full day of the trip tomorrow, and Seattle awaits exploration.

Today we hiked in Redwood National Park. We didn’t really have a plan, or a trail map, which led to some minor anxiety as we realized that trees are not good landmarks for finding your way back to the car. The scenery was magnificent though. The trees in this forest grow up to 350 feet tall, as high as a 35-floor building, The air was so rich in oxygen that there was a constant feeling of being high. The park seemed mostly deserted too. We very rarely saw other people on the path, and if you just stood still, all you could hear was the sound of the wind in the treetops, or the clatter of ferns rattling against each other in the breeze.

After our hike, we headed out onto the road again, driving back through Crescent City to pick up a picnic lunch at Safeway, then parking off the highway in the forest to enjoy our meal. After lunch, we drove up highway 199 to Oregon, where we found the Treesort. Spending the night in a treehouse was a lot of fun. It feels like being a kid again. Our treehouse was called the Peacock Perch. It’s pretty cozy.

It’s Wednesday today. We’re going to head out to the coast again, and try to make it to Newport.

Yesterday, we drove from Fort Bragg to Crescent City today, stopping for a picnic on the beach. Each turn in the road brought a new spectacular vista. Further north, we entered the giant redwood forests, where trees live up to 2000 years. Today we’ll do some hiking among the trees, and then leave California for Oregon. I’ve booked a treehouse for us near Takilma, about 2 hours from here. Thanks for that tip, D!

So far the secret trip has been a big success. We got up at 4:30am to go to the airport, and I didn’t say what we were doing until we got to Terminal 1 at Pearson. Then I explained that we were flying to San Francisco, spending the day there, and then driving up the Pacific coast to Seattle. Much of the trip’s content will be decided en route, so there’s lots of room for flexibility.

Arriving in San Francisco, we were greeted by warm and sunny weather, which is apparently not typical for this area. It was 25C all day, and bright and sunny. We checked into the brand new Intercontinental Hotel downtown, and set out to explore. We spent lots of time shopping, and then visited the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I only had my little camera with me, but the architecture in that place made me wish I’d brought the big one. Anyway, I did what I could.

Because of the time change, and our early start, our day seemed to last forever, which was a good thing. We had dinner at One Market, near the Ferry Building. I had an incredible Dungeness crab salad, and some perfectly-cooked bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin. We walked back to the hotel and collapsed in exhaustion. Today, we’ll pick up our rental car and head up the coast. More to follow…