Everyone has their place in life. For Lindsay, it just happens to be on the San Juan Islands. While selfishly, Seattle seems too far from me, after a day there, or even minutes I understood. The ocean, the trees, the whales, the playful deer…all things that Lindsay loves. We found a campground on the west side of the island, set up shop, made a quick dinner (I actually made dinner…hello, look at me), and got dressed for our kayaking adventure. I was still very tired, but Lindsay wanted to go so bad, and since I had vetoed the kayak bringing on the trip, I felt bad saying no. So we layered up, and met our guide Dana. Dana was from Billings, and spends her summers in San Juan and winters working at the ski hill in Jackson Hole. All of these seasonal workers have such cool lives… a change halfway through the year. We got bundled in our rain gear and splash guards and life jackets and I swear we looked like the Gordon Fishermen… sweet outfit #2 of the trip. After a little demonstration, we got in the water. We kayaked out of the bay, and my arms were already burning. Note to self, go to the gym. The clouds kind of squashed our “sunset dreams” and Dana told us that night time was not the best time to see whales. Disappointing. I wanted to see Willy. It was still cool and I can now cross off “Sea Kayaking” on my list of life adventures.
I was plain old tuckered when I got back to camp. I fell asleep quickly to the sounds of our neighbors (who were quite friendly) analyze life. I swear it’s the outdoors. Fresh air goes straight to the brain. All the pollution must cloud your brain.
I woke up to the noises of Lindsay packing. I knew she had gotten up at the crack of dawn, and I was okay with the fact that she was waking me up. I didn’t want to have to limit her time on the island…but the west coast was calling and the ferry schedule wasn’t ideal. I woke up in a daze and a little bit of a sore throat, luckily Linds had made me some hot chocolate. I changed, brushed my teeth, and we headed for the lighthouse. I spent most of the morning, sitting on the rocks while Lindsay explored. At around 7 we met the park ranger and after she told us that Professor Otis wouldn’t be in until 8, I reconsidered the schedule and figured that we could afford for Lindsay to spend a few more hours on the island. I knew she was more than appreciative and everyone has the one place they love and this was her place. I knew she was excited for me to be there with her, and to get my approval…its apart of that whole sister thing. She went to explore and the sun came over the trees onto this picnic table. Still tired, I laid ontop the picnic table, like a seal in the sun, and fell asleep with my hood up. I took probably a 15 minute nap when I heard stranger voices. A couple was coming down the path. They must have seen me, laying ontop of the picnic table and thought I was some sort of park homeless person. I went to find Lindsay and we searched the Intepretative Center and the Lighthouse for Professor Otis. We sat on the rocks unti I saw him appear. A friendly old man, opened up the lighthouse for us and we got acquainted. While Prof. Otis ran to his car, we signed the guestbook. There was a place for your name, hometown, and a comment. Most people wrote how beautiful it was, or how they wanted to see an orca breach before they died… my entry read…”Brittany Metz…Chicago, IL…Free Willy”. Come on now, that’s funny. I hoped it would give future visitors a laugh.
Lindsay spotted the whales in the distance and so we went outside and sat on the rocks with the binoclaurs, camera, and Prof Otis brought out a radio so we could listen to them. They didn’t come to close to shore, but I did see two of them breach and got pictures of them. Hello National Geographic, I told you. We sat on the rocks and enjoyed our time with Prof. Otis and Lisa, his intern. It wasn’t quite the Free Willy experience… I didn’t get to stand on the rocks and sing Will You Be There by Michael Jackson, but it was still really cool.
Said our goodbyes and headed for the ferry. San Juan Island is just a cute little island, beachy on the exterior, country on the inside. We got on the ferry and I sat outside for a bit, then fell asleep on the benches. Next stop, Seattle bound. While we drove, I dealt with my hair that was beginning to look like a nest. Using the AC adaptor, I plugged in my straightener and tamed the beast while Lindsay drove. Yep, living in our car. Doing my hair using the cigarette outlet… we are really the gypsies travelling down the highway like Willie says in our road trip anthem “On the Road Again”.
Lindsay made her stop at the Seattle Zoo and then we headed for the Space Needle. You can’t go to Seattle and not see the Space Needle. We found some street parking (after we saw the place with DUCK TOURS, one of my favorites), and headed for the Needle. Lindsay is afraid of heights but she agreed to go. I was just hoping this wasn’t like the Eiffel Tower, in which I had a mild panic attack in, even though I’m not afraid of heights or enclosed spaces. We got our tickets, and got in line behind 2 women and a man who were busy checking their email. Now I know I’m a phone fanatic but these people didn’t seem the slightest bit interested in going in the Space Needle….it was like they were on tourist auto pilot. We waited in line for a little bit, took our free photo, and headed to the elevator. The ride up only takes like 90 seconds… so there was almost no time to have a panic attack. We got to the top and took a walk around the 360 view of Seattle. A beautiful city and we had the most beautiful sunny weather. For the first time in like 2 weeks, I was warm. We took in the sights, and then headed back to the ground.
On to Pike’s Place Market. In our brief tour of Seattle, I really liked it. It was clean and nice and had a sort of bohemian feel to it while still being a bustling city. Pike’s Place Market was a unique expreince and reminded me of the markets we had been to in Europe. We saw the guys tossing fish back and forth and street performers playing the bass and sax. There were fresh flowers everywhere…..brought back good memories of Grafton Street in Dublin. We walked around, tasted the fruit from the vendors and wandered through the vegetables and fruit and flowers and fish and nuts and souveniors. We saw the gum wall…. An alley lined with people’s gum. It smelled fruity and although it might be slightly unsanitary, it was oddly beautiful. Strangely its these types of places where people choose to leave messages of hope and faith and love. People had made hearts out of their gum. Or used their gum to tack up messages like “Everything Will Be Okay” or “God doesn’t close doors without opening a window”. Sometimes those messages are the best ones…. A simple reminder of the beauty of life in the sticky walls of a Seattle alley. Our parking expired soon so we made our way back to car, up a big hill. Seattle was more hilly than I expected, and I saw less Starbucks than I thought. I gave Lindsay my permission to move here, I definitely wouldn’t mind visiting and it seemed like Seattle had the perfect mixture of art and commerce, nature and city, and sea and mountains.
Next stop, Portland. We made our way south. We made plans to meet up with Kevin, Lindsay’s other cousin, so we made our way down after a brief stop to get more ice at Safeway. We found Kevin’s house, and picked him up to head out for pizza. I had seen a sign for pizza somewhere on the highway and it sounded SO good to me. We went to a little restaurant close to Kevin’s house called Mississippi Pizza… a very artsy pizza place with a live music lounge attached. We ate our pizza in a booth after I polished off a rather large side Caesar salad. I hadn’t really eaten much that day, unless you count my apple that Lindsay bought at Pike’s Place… seriously good. I do love fresh produce. We sat in the booth for a while, catching up with Kevin and telling him of our adventures. I’ve been to my share of Bucholz functions so I was able to keep up with the talk of family. After a while, we headed back to Kevin’s. But first, a stop at this tire swing across the street. Spontaneous desire to swing. So we did. It was a little high so after Kevin jumped up and had a little hard time, I decided to stick my body though it. At first the ladies got stuck, which wasn’t comfortable, and I wiggled up a little more, but then the pressure was on my very full stomach..so that wasn’t good either. But still fun… Lindsay went next. Three big kids.
Kevin had extended us an invite to camp out at his house. Neither of us were in the mood to drive any further and staying with family and friends always is fun so we set up the air mattress in the living room. Seriously, we are vagabonds. Moving from place to place. Taking a roof and a shower wherever we can. Getting ready in our car. I was exhausted so I fell asleep pretty soon after I laid down while Lindsay chatted with Kevin and his friends/rooomates.
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