west2

Saturday, August 25, 2001, On the ground

We landed without incident at SEA-TAC airport in Washington State. What we discovered was that there is a subway you ride to get to the baggage and rental car areas. Weird! So we took the subway and got to the National Car Rental place where they had one person working and 20 people in line. No one was too happy about the long wait for a car. Then we had to go to another area to wait in another line! Oy vey! Some guy was screaming at the poor clerk because it took an hour to get to the second line. Finally got our car, a Pontiac Grand Am, and hit the road. I had insisted on a 4-door car with a CD player and was not disappointed! Nice car with unlimited mileage, thank God, because we ended up putting about 3,000 miles on the car in the week we were there!

I have a comment to make on Washington State drivers :-P I am used to not driving in the left lane unless you are passing. Apparently there is no such tradition in Washington. Although the speed limit was 70 in some places, a goodly number of drivers chose to ride in the left lane at 60 mph alongside the trucks in the right lane who were supposed to be going 60 in their lane. Geography lessons abounded - I hadn't realized up till this point that Portland is RIGHT on the border between Washington and Oregon! Duh!

The directions to Marcus' house were pretty straightforward and we had no trouble finding his house. Marcus had postponed going to work till we came and we ended up driving him downtown to the restaurant where he cooks. We didn't want to go back to the house since we really didn't know the other residents so we decided to explore downtown a bit.

There was an Italian Festival in Pioneer Square (I think that's what it was called). What a perfect venue for an outdoor show! When we arrived a duo of Paul and Sam London from Toronto, was playing Italian songs, old and new. Paul was real schmaltzy! OMG! It was Italian disco time for a while! A whole bunch of people were up dancing in the space in front of the stage - old and young! Mom and I had dinner there and saw the ugliest dog I have ever seen. It was the size of a Chihuahua but had tufts of dark hair growing out of its body in various places. We couldn't stop gawking. A woman had on a T-shirt that said NOT ONLY AM I PERFECT, I'M ITALIAN, TOO. We saw lots of busses and the rail car running right next to the square. Some even went to St. John's! (But I don't think it was Newfoundland!) Mom has also expressed interest in going to the Friday Great Big Sea concert. All right! Maybe we can make a convert of her yet!

The ride to downtown was uneventful, but Mom and I got our first taste of the confusing one-way streets of Portland and ended up lost on the way back! A look at the trusty AAA map was confusing but we did eventually find our way back to North Portland. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard became my friend. I based all trips on how far is it from or how do we get to MLK from here? Or, as I discovered, Interstate 5 was always another option. Streets in Portland are confusing. Every street has two addresses that are the same, one NE or SE and the other NW or SW. Talk about confusing! Even up till the last day we were in Portland I still got confused because I neglected to ask, is that NE or NW? Grrr.

Marcus and Danni were nice enough to lend Mom and I their bedroom for the week. We had intended to sleep on the sofa beds but I guess it was easier for all involved this way. I swear the residents in Marcus' house are all vampires! No one goes to bed before 3 AM it seems! SO rather than cramp everyone's style, Mom and I holed up on the second floor. Mom was funny about the cat. I thought I might have problems since I am allergic to cats, but the acupuncture treatment works and my allergy symptoms are just about all gone! Mom, however, is scared of cats. She had a rather yucky experience with a cat in childhood and it has lasted up till this point. She was so scared of the cat that she barricaded the door of Marc's room so she wouldn't come in. Poor Wisteria! She meowed a bit the first night because Marcus and Danni weren't in the bedroom. Before we went to bed, I called Vic back home. Mom says, "Why are you calling him? He knows where you are!"