Posted on Wed Apr 16, 12:55 PM in Livin'
Now it’s so slow, so slow…
I can’t remember the last time I travelled for 2 weeks straight. It might very well have been 1992, when I was part of a summer symphonic band which spent nearly a month touring Europe. That’s probably also the time I bought a pair of Asics gel running shoes for cross country, which I have been using all this time for the gym. Both of those situations were remedied with this trip.
I thought briefly about blogging while travelling, but after the first couple days decided my time was better spent travelling and also picture-taking. If I spend time to write anything it’s an all-day affair, so best for me to soak up the scenery and relate it all later.
There are a gazillion pics to sort through. While in San Francisco I did do some touristy things and that’s kind of what my pics reflect, but in Seattle I relaxed and focused more on details. In all cases I took pics of meals, which I am really trying to do on a regular basis without feeling self-conscious. Actually, at a vegetarian restaurant in Seattle (Cafe Flora), the waitress complemented me on what good idea that is, being so much easier to describe the meal with an image instead of just a description. And there were LOTS of meals, including one at Chez Peltonen, which had their usual Food Club come by and one member single-handedly direct the production of about 7 Chinese dishes, complete with side commentary about the history of the four major Chinese culinary regions and their various similarities and differences, including social and economic histories. It was a huge, tasty feast… with PICS.
We did manage to escape down to Portland for an overnight visit, in which we saw their beautiful Japanese and Chinese gardens, stayed at one weird, funky hotel (Ace Hotel), enjoyed excellent small-plate dining where I had pork rillette in honor of Wm ON HIS BIRTHDAY (Navarre), and consumed the best late-night desserts ever (Via Delizia).
My five flights were on time and uneventful, which is how I like them. Now that I am home, I can enjoy the somewhat spring-y weather in Wisconsin, which I was teased with in San Franscisco (most days), Seattle (a few days), and Portland (80-freakin’ degrees the one day we were there). My bulbs and perennials, which I spent most of last fall planning and planting, are already sprouting. I spent my first full day back doing yard work, most of which was raking huge amounts of sticks out of my front yard, but also removing insane amounts of decomposing leaves, which our leaf pickup schedule didn’t account for, being that there was a fairly late leaf drop last fall. I also spent some time getting the screens into the windows and changing out flannel sheets for regular ones on the beds. Spring cleaning, indeed.
As far as the pictures go, I am going to have to get a pro Flickr account if I want to do any reasonable kind of organization with sets, so when I have that figured out, the uploading will begin. Until then, it was all very much fun, and special thanks to Cheryl, Alana, John, and Amy for putting up with me and driving me all over hell’s bells in Seattle.
Go ahead, have your say!