Couple of Coffees

Floating back to the states

We had a lovely ferry crossing through the San Juan Islands from Sidney to Anacortes, where I bought the final skein of yarn for my road trip blanket.

From there, we visited another small town or two before settling in the Everett area to have dinner with sister-in-law Susanne at Anthony's Woodfire Grill. All of our meals were delicious. The next morning, after breakfast pastries and coffee at Pave, we toured Boeing's Future of Flight center near Everett. The main building on the tour has the largest volume of any building in the world. We met some pilots there to take possession of some brand new planes. The new 787 aircraft, which hasn't started production yet, sounds really cool.

We wandered to downtown Seattle and Pike's Market for lunch, where I picked a treat from Piroshky, Piroshky, and the others fended for themselves. After taking in the sights, smells and sounds of the market, we found the hotel in Bellvue for the Music Box Society International conference. My parents walked the lobby and I was fawned over by people who hadn't seen me since I was a little girl. It was a lot of fun to reconnect.

We had a fantastic dinner with Jonathan's friend John that night at Ray's Cafe in Seattle, and the next day we headed home by Amtrak. The trip was delayed due to the train needing another engine. Then it was delayed again in the middle of nowhere, between Kelso and Vancouver, because the crew was getting close to working its maximum hours. I was surprised we didn't get a new crew in Kelso or wait the 10 minutes until we arrived in Vancouver. Instead, a taxi rolled along the riverbank to deliver the next crew, while we waited on the track. It was an odd sight, the taxi on the dirt bank by a river where people were kayaking. We got into Portland soon after that, and my inlaws came to pick us up and whisk us away.

So now we're home. It feels good. But I miss the motion of travel and the changing landscape. It is good to wake up and know where I am, though.

posted by Laura the Writer @ 6:16 PM