I am really glad to be home. I began to be really homesick Tuesday night, even with the baseball game. I figured it out: for at least the last 10 years, all trips I've been on have been 9 days or shorter. Vince and I and college trip? 9 days. Bernadette and I and dropping off Mom's bequests? 9 days. Yellowstone? 9 days. I was beginning to feel like I'd never get home this time. I got over it, and enjoyed the last two days, but I noticed while standing in line for the play that my body still felt like it was riding in the car.

At home, bills, of course, and for me, the evaluation of our polling place. We (I) forgot to write "provisional" on the line next to the provisional voters, but otherwise they (I) did an excellent job. I guess I'll be back for the general election. I initially thought any warm body would do, but I was at the initial screening with a guy who couldn't puzzle out how to sort and then add 10 ballots, so I guess you have to have some smarts.

The other thing was that last night I realized the library books, mostly trip guides, were due, so now they're overdue. I'll go in on Tuesday and pay my fines, but the books are now back. Today I did some videotape watching, catching up to the 10th. I have all the missing General Hospital episodes on one tape, except that Nick forgot to switch tapes Thursday night, so last Friday's is missing. I'm astonished (guess he can only cope with 9 day trips, as well) as he told Rich that he knew he'd be OK if the rabbit died and all the plants wilted, as long as I got my soap opera! The rabbit is fine, the hummingbirds are starving, just ask them, and the plants are doing beautifully. My avocado pit is sprouting, but we aren't putting it out for that darn squirrel this time. Today Rich saw a housefinch on the seed bell, so they've gotten desperate.

Roni left me mail along the way assuming that I'd find a computer, as I always have in the past. This time I didn't even begin to twitch (much) till Monday night, when Rich and Vince and my sister started talking about computers. Even so, even chugging past B's setup, past my sister's, and past my son's, which I knew worked, I was content waiting.

Al wins! (Actually, he'd already welcomed me back privately, but not connected with the page) Since he's already won a bunch of dinosaur stickers, I'll have to come up with something else, I suppose.

A short synopsis:
TUESDAY: Sacramento - Bend, Oregon. We left at 9:15 and again at 9:30 when I came back for the leash (and we added lawn chairs to the load. We even used one of them while camping.) We ate at Applebee's in Redding, and I think I must look them up here. We saw the tall flagpole in Dorris, and the Oregon tourist center was closed. We were, we discovered, on the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway. Rich said "been there. seen that." about every sight we passed. He also managed to ding the Roadside Geology of Oregon book, which up till now had been pristine. There were TOWELS in our hotel! (Hey, after Awful Abdul, everything else is wonderful!) We couldn't walk up Pilot Butte as they are widening the road, so we walked along the canal to the Deschutes River, seeing deer and nighthawks and, uh, kinglets? Pizza, and I picked up an Oregonian (my favorite newspaper) in Fred Meyers, Bernadette and I swam and soaked, meeting a nice lady from Santa Monica and giving her our URLs, and so to bed.
WEDNESDAY: Bend - Spokane, Washington. The goal was to get Bernadette to the housing office on campus by 4 so she could get her key. We were on the Journey Through Time highway. (This highway/byway naming is an interesting phenomenon.) The antilock brake light came on, and stayed on, no antilock brakes, but we were fine, kept barrelling along. B. picked up her key and we moved her in, then began to relax as our last major deadline for a while was past. We walked along the Spokane, through Riverfront Park, and fed Bernadette a neat Last Meal at Cyrus O'Leary's. We saw no marmots, but goldfinches, and trout fingerlings in the river. The last time I was in Spokane, the river was at flood stage, and this time it barely had enough water to flow.
THURSDAY: Spokane - Seattle. I woke up at 4:30 as there was a major fire about 2 blocks away. On the highway, I spilled hot coffee all over myself. This appears to have become an Eastern Washington tradition. We looked at Frenchman's Coulee and Sailor got to swim in the Columbia. I looked at the dry, bleak, Eastern Washington scenery and finally complained, bitterly, "Gee, this sure LOOKS like a rainforest and coastline trip!" We had lunch in the car in Ellensburg, walked in Iron Horse State Park (25 miles of old railway line. We were at mile 2097), and got lost in Snoqualmie National Forest looking for a nature trail. We thought we were on it, but the signs were directing us to it. We finally arrived at the trail, to find the bridge out, as a tree had fallen on it. This was fun to climb over, pretending to be young and foolish once again. We arrived in Seattle about 6, and my sister had dinner almost ready. My niece came, and shortly later, Vince. Clinton had gone to Washington, and I wondered who came to the White House to spend the night?
FRIDAY: Seattle. We were going to go over to Olympic Park this day, but Seattle has its ways. It used to be that it gave me, uh, my "monthlies" (primly) every time I came no matter where I was in my cycle. However, I am nearly 54, and this isn't working any more, so the city now does a number on our car. Last year it was the battery, and this year it was the water pump. We discovered this almost to the ferry, and got back just before my sister left for her weekend of college reunion stuff. She left us a map and some ideas, but the garage was closed for the week. We finally found someone who would fix the car the next day. So then it was off to the Woodland Park Zoo, which is fabulous. I haven't been there for 15 or more years, and they've really improved it. The two things I really remember are the Orangutan compound, with this ape leaning back in his hammock leading the life of Riley, Rich looking at him saying "looks like you've retired too, fellow!" and the Brown (Kodiak) Bears which we could see real close through VERY thick (I hope!) glass. Wow. Oh, and the butterfly exhibit was fantastic. Rich had a Question Mark in love with his hat. Thence to dinner in a restaurant in an old elementary school, and so home.
SATURDAY: Seattle - Shadow Mountain. The car was fixed in a timely manner, and we were on the noon ferry. We were on the Deer Park road, since I thought we might camp there, and I saw a couple of California quails and a quailet. We both saw a deer. Mostly, though, the road was so awful that finally Rich suggested turning around, since we weren't going to be going anywhere from the campground if this was the way out. Then it was look for another place. Saturday instead of Friday, late instead of early. I got frustrated, that I hadn't planned better, but then we found this private campground. $13/night, not bad, and decent enough. Free entertainment, too, a guy backed into the waterpipe, fortunately downhill from us, and broke it. We went to two talks, about the wind (a young ranger, not too good at public speaking yet) and wolves. We also got into the Park free! (and the pass was good for 7 days!)
SUNDAY: Olympic Park. Hurricane Ridge, deer, chipmunks, not much of a view due to clouds. We were walking with the wolf-talk ranger, and managed to find a flower he couldn't identify. I love subalpine fir, which deals with the terrible winters (40 feet of snow annually) by putting all its horizontal growth at ground level, skirts, so the tree can grow up and shake the snow off. Then to Marymere Falls. Then to the Hoh Rain Forest. This is a dry year there, only 70.6 inches of rain year-to-date when the normal amount is 73. We saw elk as we were leaving, and a wren and gray-eyed juncos and deer all along the way. I cooked, and managed to explode a cooked tomato all over myself. There were campers up the hill still talking loudly at midnight. I complained about them the next day.
MONDAY: Shadow Mountain - Seattle. We stopped at Salt Creek Campground and did some tidepooling, and looked around Port Angeles. I'd thought to drive along the Hood Canal, but we preferred to get back soon, so took the ferry back. My sis ran off with me to a science toy store, and that night we all (Vince, as well) went to the nearby pizza place.
TUESDAY: SeattleSis had to go back to work. Rich and I went to Freeway Park, and then to the Arboretum.
That night was the AquaSox game. The Everett team won, too, over the Boise Hawks, 3-1. There was a home run. Hey, it's where Ken Griffey Jr hit his first professional homer. I thought minor league baseball was a hoot. The balls are brought to the plate umpire by a pig. Everyone knows everyone. There are silly between-inning games. I got a picture with Webbly the mascot. (Rich points out that in the logo, the frog is catching a fly ball. Of course.) I got a t-shirt for half price, and we were really tempted by the stadium blankets. At the end, the players were out in the concourse signing autographs. We said goodbye to Vince.
WEDNESDAY: Seattle - Tillamook, Oregon. We saw the Washington Capitol and had a bit of a tour. Raymond, Washington has metal sculptures all through which are special. We went to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and huffed up to the lighthouse. Then we crossed the Astoria Bridge into Oregon and bopped on down the beautiful coast to Tillamook.
THURSDAY: Tillamook - Crescent City, California. Toured the cheese factory and visited the Visitor's Center, where I got a neat mileage guide to the coast. We walked up to Munson Falls, which is gorgeous and is the one place we went that was totally uncrowded. We beachcombed. Rich got a nifty fossil and I found a bit of thunderegg. We saw WHALES(!) at Depoe Bay. We saw Devil's Churn. The Oregon Dunes are a definite place to go back to. We looked at cranberry bogs in Bandon. We were too late to look at the Prehistoric Gardens, which was OK. And on into California.
FRIDAY: Crescent City - home. Rich had been grazing on blackberries the whole trip, and now that we were safely in California and past the agricultural checkpoint, he could pick a bunch, so he did. Then we went beachcombing, and I got a number of pretty rocks, a couple of agates, some carnelian (nothing like our motel host had, though, a hand- sized hunk) and driftwood. Then we looked at a couple of redwoods and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove, home.