3rp.net

…and Oregon…and stuff.

OK, so yesterday we were leaving Seattle (Sheryl Crow’s Leaving Las Vegas has been going through my head for like a week. Pray for me…)…and now today, we’ve finally left. We drove part of the night down I 5, through Portland until we reached Eugene Oregon. Most of this through pea-soup fog. We stopped for the night at a Motel 6 (don’t laugh, they’re cheap and clean…) just outside of Eugene. Get this: that night, trying to find what the weather’s gonna do to us the next day, come to find out that nobody knows. I mean, these people get The Weather Channel (I mean, look at that name. Aren’t they supposed to KNOW?), but there is no actual weather. Right, what I mean is that all you get is an extremely general forcast for the entire west coast up there. Completely not helpful. At all.

So anyways, next morning we get up and it’s still foggy. You can’t see your hand in front of your face. So we get in our gas guzzler anyway, and poke off toward Grant’s Pass. This is where we’ll pick up I 199 toward the coast of California. The fog stays with us for much of the way, up mountains, down mountains and so on. Finally, a bit before Grant’s Pass the fog lifts, and the drive actually gets interesting.

Twisty turn-ey two lane road through the mountains, we see pine trees, smell the fresh air, and darn. Life is good.

Finally in early afternoon, we have a sighting: “Pacific HO!!”

I’m so excited I can hardly stand it.

So, we’re blasting along these twisty turneys and on occasion we come accross little establishments. Out in the middle of nowhere:

It was time for a late lunch, and wouldn’t know know it - closed on Tuesdays during the off season. Argh.

But, behind the lodge, there was something that almost made up for it. Georgeous clear, cold creek:

POW. Really brings out the conservationist in me.

Karen by the creek:

Me, looking serious:

It’s just an act. I’m not really that tough.

A little path beyond this, down along the creek, and some interesting trees…their bark was like velvet. Very cool:

Not too much further down the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) and we get to see some of our old friends up close and personal this time. Maybe you remember that Uncle Bill showed us some wild elk while we were visiting them in Thorp, WA? Where we were like half a mile a way and they looked like little elk dots even with my long lens?

Well these guys were hanging out just off the PCH…there was a sign just before the turnoff saying something like “Elk Viewing Area”. No fence, no long distance…just…elk. Hee.

Nice Rack!

Awwwwww, babies…

Tomorrow…on to the redwoods. Now THAT, my friends, is something worth waiting for.

Ok, ok, ok. I’m sorry it’s been so long. I’m going back now and putting in pictures for the days that I missed, starting with Seattle.

So, day one in Seattle…we had spend the night with Nate and Melissa on Vashon Island in the Puget Sound, and here’s a picture of them at the Pike Street Market.

The Pike Street Market is a cute, but overpriced indoor market whose merchants are famous for throwing fish around during busy times. We did not get to see any airborne fish, but we did think it was interesting that most (4 floors) of the market are underground. Thankfully, all the fish were above ground…(whew)…

That afternoon we went to lunch at the Owl and Thistle, which is a very nice little Irish Pub in downtown Seattle. Karen found this in the ladies’ room:

You see, Kurt didn’t actually blow his brains out with a shotgun. He’s alive and well, and plays poker at high stakes Texas Holdem games with Elvis and Jim Morrison on Vashon Island, and in his spare time, he scrawls graffiti in women’s restrooms. Elvis and Jim are gettin’ kinda old and saggy by now, but they can kick the crap outta ol’ Kurt at poker. The good news for Kurt is that Vashon Island is the west coast’s premier supplier of ganja, so he can get a pretty serious bake on when he loses.

And you thought I was gonna supply a picture to prove it. Heh.

Well, you may recall that Karen and I spent some time with her uncle Bill out in Thorp (http://3rp.blogspot.com/2005/01/thorp.html). Well, on the way back to Seattle from Thorp, we stopped off in a little town called Snoqualmie. There are two cool things about Snoqualmie: they have a really cool waterfall and one of the more sad things I’ve seen on this trip: a steam locomotive graveyard.

So, here are some pics of the falls:

Now, that may not look like much, but let me give you a little flavor for the scale of this thing. Here’s the bottom of the falls:

And, here, check it out - a coupla guys fishin’ off to the right there:

Ok, so it’s not Niagara, but it’s still pretty cool.

Now, on to the boneyard. I know it probably makes me a sentimental fool, but I found this to be profoundly sad. Maybe it’s just that we’re in the age of fast food, corporate whores and other prostitutes, I don’t know. I guess I kind of mourn for the days of slow food and enjoying life…and somehow steam trains are evocative of that for me. Well, here’s the scene:

It’s like the engineers just drove ‘em up here, stepped off and walked away. Just kinda weird.

I thought this was interesting:

Hooray for Michigan. Or something like that…

I like this picture of Bill and Andrew walking down the tracks:

Right after this, we went to a local fast food (*sigh*) place called Taco Time to meet an old college buddy of mine who works at Microsoft in Redmond. We had a nice chat - turns out he’s on his way to a vacation in New Zealand, and yes, he’s going to do the Lord of the Rings tour - and he takes me for a ride in his Porsche 911 Carrera. Nice. White. (I gave him crap for driving around a large kitchen appliance…) Fast. And sticky.

Later that afternoon, Uncle Bill and Cousins Andrew and Melissa went with us on a tour of “underground Seattle”, or what’s left of it. Apparently, Seattle was originally built on tidal flats, and what’s now street level was originally floor two of the older buildings. It was pretty interesting, actually.

Here’s a shot of one of the skylights they built in the current sidewalk so that you could still see underground:

And here’s a look at it from above ground:

That night, Karen and I spent the night with Nate and Melissa on Vashon again, and the next morning we went off to collect our rental car for the next leg of our journey. First thing we did was come back into Seattle from the airport and check out the Seattle Space Needle, and the Experience Music Project.

The Space Needle affords beautiful vistas of the city and surroundings:

And the EMP (Experience Music Project) was like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, but with studios that allowed you to play various instruments along with tracks. It was kinda cool. They also had Bob Dylan and Jimmy Hendrix exhibits, but didn’t allow any pics.

Well, children, I think that may be all for tonight. Stay tuned…

Today, I’m sorry to report that I fell out of love with San Francisco. There is an angry vibe in this town that rivals Manhattan of the pre-Giuliani years. We came here expecting and hoping to enjoy ourselves - we have both heard enough good things about SF to start believing that it’s a veritable Shangri-la. Perhaps our expectations were too high? Perhaps we haven’t given it enough of a chance? Hard to tell.

Things started off well - we drove in, had a good time driving around the city - the hotel we reserved far exceeded our expectations (it’s sweet, quaint, staffed by kind and helpful people, fastidiously clean, perfectly located and wonder of wonders: affordable) - so it’s not the bad accomodations. Our dining experiences have been fantastic when we’ve elected to actually spend money - so it’s not bad food. The city is picturesque in its own way, but not nearly the paradise that the promo literature would have you believe.

Sadly, I think it comes down to the people.

It’s not uncommon to be walking down the street and hear a cel conversation that goes something like this: “How dare you speak to me like that?!”

The children that you do see are atrociously behaved.

Drivers in this city are worse, if anything, than advertised. And that’s saying something. The Lonely Planet we bought says that we should take the time to do some Zen preparations before venturing out to drive in SF (this is not a joke). That doesn’t help you when you go out to walk, though - you really have to watch yourself to not get run over. And then you’re just as likely to get flipped off and cussed out for being in the right in a crosswalk…

There is a level of anger boiling here that defies simple description. Perhaps it has something to do with GWB getting a second term. Perhaps it has something to do with the gay marriage amendments getting soundly trounced. I’ve been trying to get my arms around this since I’ve been here, and I wonder if it has something to do with privelege.

Karen and I were walking around in a farmers’ market this morning in a well-traveled part of the city. The way people look at you and treat you is remarkable - several times I thought that I had become doggie doo that someone had stepped into - other times I’ve been run into by pedestrians - not even so much as a rueful or apologetic look - nothing even approaching an apology. When I thank someone for service in a restaurant, or just for answering a question, they pretty much haven’t a clue what to do with my courtesy.

What’s happening here?

As I was walking around this market this morning, I remember seeing perfectly coifed men and women, wearing beautiful clothes - the men are perfectly moisturized, the women are perfectly made-up……..and I remember thinking that there is probably more money walking around on the faces of these people in this market than some third-world countries have for their entire monthly GDP.

There is a curious impotence that comes to rich liberals. It’s a combination of being able to see the problems (of which there are admittedly many) of the world we live in, but not having anything approaching a coherent strategy or set of answers to answer the rampaging Republicans. So, there is no plan, and there is no willingness to lift a finger to address the issues. I want more social programs from the government, but I don’t want to pay more taxes. I want better environmental responsibility, but I’m not willing to get rid of my Lexus SUV for something more efficient….

This was my primary critique of the John Kerry run for the Presidency. It’s not enough to proclaim “anyone but Bush”. While we may agree with the sentiment, there needs to be an alternative that captures the hearts and minds of voting men and women in America. It’s “the vision thing”. Sadly, oddly, GWB has it (as Bill Clinton did before him) and John F Kerry did/does not.

But back to SF. We took the “F Line” up to the “Castro district” today. The “F Line” is the line of restored trolley cars that runs from the Fisherman’s Wharf up Market Street. “Castro” is the gay district here in SF. It’s no exaggeration to say that it’s the epicenter of gay activism in America. Both Karen and I expected an experience kind of like South Beach in Miami FL - that is, happy gay folk celebrating their gay-ness. What we actually saw was a great deal of commentary on gay porn (in shops, magazines, news rags, cinemas, etc.), and gay folk holding hands. We did NOT feel safe, I’m sad to report.

I know, by now you’re probably pissed at me, saying that I haven’t given the place enough time to grow on me. Maybe you’re right. But I can tell you this: I’ve been to a lot of cities in my life, both here in the states and in Europe and Asia. I’ve not felt this unsafe in a place since my early teen trips to Manhattan in the early to mid 1980s.

We’ve still got a couple of days here. Perhaps things will change.

Grrr…San Francisco.

This city is truly a great place in many many ways. However, in terms of internet cafes, Vancouver has it beat hands down. I’m currently paying $7 USD for an hour of internet time and can’t even upload pictures. It’s this way all over the city as far as I can tell…whereas in Vancouver, I could pay $2 CAD for an hour. And then, in Victoria (capital of BC…still in Canada…on Vancouver Island…) it was like $6 CAD per hour, but I could still use the USB ports on their PCs for uploading pictures. *sigh* Well, so I get more and more incentive to buy a laptop for my next trip. Heh.

So, you gets to reads my ramblings instead of checks out me pics. Sorry.

I’m in this ice cream/crepe store that also has a coupla internet terminals. And the guy who runs the place (great big swarthy fella of “meditteranean descent” I think) seems to really like Elvis. Which isn’t the end of the world, except for the fact that he insists on singing along at top volume. Oy. Vey.

BTW, this is at LEAST the third time in the last 40 minutes that I’ve heard “It’s a Matter of Time” by The King…………………………..

Argh. OK…now that that’s out of my system…

So, last time I posted pics, Karen and I were in Seattle, Thorp and Vashon Island. Turns out that Vashon Island is one of the major growers of pot on the west coast. A very mellow, age-ing hippie vibe on that island. Fun enough for what it is, but you can only take so much…

We left the Seattle area on Tuesday the 2nd, and drove our Alamo rent-a-SUV down the coast. For a long while it was pea-soup-foggy, but then we left Eugene after spending the night there, and things started to clear up. Just an interesting aside (well, it’s interesting to me anyways)….we stayed in a Motel 6 just outside of Eugene, and tuned in to The Weather Channel to see if the fog was going to continue. You know how TWC does “local weather on the 8’s”? Well, they didn’t have a local weather forcast for Eugene. I kid you not. Totally blew my mind.

Holy smokes. Jackass just put “It’s a Matter of Time” on again. I think I’m gonna be sick.

The good news is that the people watching is kinda fun. Maybe things heat up after 10PM. Lots of couples of every variety you can imagine. I’m constantly feeling underdressed here. Right now there is a group of 8 Koreans with sportcoats and cigarettes out front. Hehe. And here I sit in my weatherproof Eddie Bauer coat, REI convertible pants, Birks and SmartWool socks. Definitely more Vancouver than SF…

Anyways…….back to my narrative……

Which I know you were just waiting for with baited breath…

So, we’re driving down the coast, and we end up in Redwood National Forest. And all I have to say is “wow”. Even as I was taking pictures of that amazing place, I knew there was no way I could do it any justice at all. So green, so dense, so quiet, peaceful…I could have walked off into that woods and never come back. Oh…and that place really is “the Forest Moon of Endor”. That’s where they shot the film.

I have lots of cool pics to share….I just gotta figure out how to upload them.

Be back soon….

Off to LA this coming Tuesday…

Back in MI the Tuesday after that…