small hands

Before I left Seattle for Mount Rainier, I stopped by Dahlia Bakery to get a couple of cupcakes for the road. They weren't on display, but I asked and they brought the tray out from the back. *Whew.* I was going to have to launch into a sob story about how I needed them.



I drove to Mount Rainier, taking 410 East from Tacoma, getting turned around by the lack of signs giving clear directions to the mountain. [Hint: go toward the Sunrise area] Accordingly, I got to drive across the Chinook Pass twice, socked in with fog and narrow and scary, twice.



I was pleased to reach the mountain and stopped at the lodge for a veggie burger and to write some post cards. Lots of people were wearing hiking gear and a short hike would have been fun (wearing plenty of warm clothes), but I didn't know how the day was going to unfold, so I didn't go on one.


Palisades Lake

I intended to go from there to Mount St. Helens ['cause I'm all about the volcanoes, baby], but Highway 123 was closed, so I had to get back to Highway 5, which took forever, and I ran out of time. I headed down to Oregon, stopping in Portland to restock at Voodoo Doughnuts [still didn't order a maple bacon doughnut], and then on to Eugene.

I spent the night in Eugene and got up the next morning to head to the coast. I was really impressed by all the international cuisine available in Eugene and even more impressed by the coffee at Full City Coffee Roasters. Wow.

Warning--Controversial Remarks Ahead: I had been throwing away two-thirds full cups of coffee the entire time I was in Seattle (and Victoria), not knowing exactly why until I had some Full City Coffee in Euguene. Here's why: the coffee in Seattle was acidic, terminally bitter, and rather disgusting.

Restored in my relationship with The Dark Master, I headed to the Oregon Coast, driving west to Florence.



I stopped at Leona's Cafe and Sugar Shack for lunch and had an excellent grilled chicken salad underneath an oil painting of Elvis and another of two white kittens. I would have taken a picture of the art, but I resisted taking mocking photographs during this trip. The waitress was superb, working the entire cavernous establishment by herself and acting as cashier. I left her a big tip.



I drove out between Florence and Coos Bay, throughly enjoying the dunes and the Pacific Ocean.



I stopped at the Shore Acres State Park and toured the gardens:







I had made a reservation for a campsite at Diamond Lake, so I headed east to the lake. I was not sure how far away it was and I really, really didn't want to drive in the woods at night because I didn't want to hit a deer. I was relieved to arrive at Diamond Lake around 8:00 PM, to locate my campsite and settle in. I had purchased a full sized air mattress, which I set up in the folded down back seats of my Isuzu Rodeo, with flannel sheets and two quilts.



I watched Brokeback Mountain on my portable DVD player [which plugged into the cigarette lighter] and went to sleep. I woke up around 2AM because it became profoundly cold. I looked out to see if it had snowed during the night, which has happened to me when I've been camping before. It had not, but I had to put on two jackets, three pairs of socks, and a cap before I could fall back to sleep.

In the morning, I got up and headed to Crater Lake.



Crater Lake is truly incredible. I am looking forward to going back with my kids and exploring it more, during the summer months. [I get the impression that it is quite the winter spot.]

I stopped off at the lodge and got a cup of coffee and ate my last Voodoo Doughnut.



It's got a pentagram on it; see? It was delicious, even two days old. Out of Voodoo doughnuts, it was time to go home. I headed toward Klamath Falls, passed the very beautiful Mount Shasta



and returned to Oakland, desperately craving a carne asada taco.

I thought I would give the stink eye to the brown hills and traffic congested East Bay after being in lush, green Oregon, but I felt a welling up of love and appreciation as I drove on 80 West in Emeryville and looked out across the waters of the Bay.

Heather commented that next time maybe I'll go "further afield", but this journey was about going inward actually. There's a lot of stuff going on in my life right now and it was a wonderful opportunity to cool out, to be meditative, to learn about myself.

I kept my word to myself that I would stay safe. I followed my plan and did everything I wanted to do, except visit Mount St. Helens and eat at more places. That is for the next trip. I expanded my horizons and saw new things and met new people.

I always say that all my kids need to enjoy their vacations are beaches and volcanoes. However, they flew to London and I headed straight for the beaches and volcanoes, so maybe it's what I need.

Most of all, I had fun.

The next day I took the Victoria Ferry to Victoria, B.C. It's a 2-1/2 hour ride from Seattle and it's very comfortable. I took Triptone just to make sure that I didn't get seasick.

There were tons of advertisements to take a trip to Butchart Gardens, but I didn't want to commit to that trip sight unseen. I went to the Empress Hotel and made a 2:00 PM reservation for afternoon tea, which didn't leave enough time to go out the gardens.

I went to Satin Moon quilt shop at bought this fabric:



And photographed this quilt



because I really like the swirly quilting on the stars:



I also went to the Munro's Books and bought my favorite magazine, Canadian House and Home, for a reasonable price (no tariffs or whatever). It was cool to see the Canadian and English version of the latest Harry Potter book.

I walked around looking at the Parliament House and totem poles:







At the appointed time, I went for tea at the Fairmont Empress Hotel:







I was seated in the library, which was very cozy, and gazed out at the harbor:



The service was unreal. I had this wonderful woman who was so attentive, so kind. She looked like Maribel Verdu in Pan's Labyrinth. I couldn't eat everything on the tray, but I tasted everything and it was all exquisite. My favorite was the curried chicken and mango sandwiches. I had Empress blend tea.

After the Empress, I took a self-guided tour of the Parliament House and then it was time to board the ferry to return to Seattle.

The trip there and back I was fortunate to sit across from married couples who liked each other, so they emanated a pleasant vibe, which was a relief. The return couple was more talkative and the wife asked me about my trip. She opined that I was "brave" to travel by myself, to which I thought (but didn't say) "Yeah well if I waited until I had a husband to travel with, it would be a very long wait." They spoke to another couple, who asked when they heard I was traveling alone whether I wanted a husband, as they have an unmarried son in his 40s. I didn't say no thank you, but...no thank you.

The ferry got in around 8:00PM and it was still light and I really wanted some sushi, so I consulted with my Seattle tour book and went to Shiro's because it's Ichiro Suzuki's favorite. They were tremendously gracious and even though I didn't have a reservation, seated me at the sushi bar. I watched Shiro work his magic; he's been making sushi for 50 years, and he fed me wonderous sushi and lots of pickled ginger. They offered me sake, but I had to get back to my hotel safely, so I had green tea instead. The salmon sushi made me want to cry it was so good and my cucumber roll had so much wasabi that I had to close my eyes while fireworks shot off in my brain.

I got back to my hotel safely and left Seattle the next day for Mount Rainier.

The next day it was time for me to leave Portland and head north. First I had to stop at Voodoo Doughnuts, because the book said that it was great and that Brad Pitt's favorite donut there is the maple bacon donut. As much as I love BP, I couldn't bring myself to order one, but I picked up two other donuts and then a cup of coffee from Stumptown Coffee.

VDD is on SW 3rd, in a dark hole of a store. They've got some amazing choices and I was tempted to order a dozen, where they give you 13 of the donuts of their choice. But I could never have eaten 13 donuts by myself. Froot Loops on donuts. Genius!!!



The two I ordered were both chocolate. As you can see, the one on the right has Cocoa Puffs as well. They were heaven; the perfect size, not too sweet, but wonderfully sweet. The coffee was really good too, but I barely noticed.

I headed west to Astoria. Of course I had to go to Astoria because of these two blogs. The drive out was beautiful, past beautiful farms [not the monstrous agribusiness concerns I'm used to in the Central Valley] and into the lush green woods. I cruised through, taking it all in.

Mariko mentioned the Pig 'N Pancake in Astoria, but I wasn't in the mood for pancakes when I finally got there (though I had been before). I figured out that I wasn't going to be able to eat everywhere and everything on one trip, though I still managed to eat plenty.

Instead I went to a Farmers Market in the downtown area and walked around looking at historic buildings.



This enormous hydrangea bush made me gasp.





This house was my favorite:





I went to the Columbia River Museum and then headed back west and north. The drive into Seattle was pretty, passing the Sleater Kinney offramp near Olympia, which has a beautifully domed state capitol building. Traffic was really bad from Tacoma to Seattle, which is not a small distance.

Eventually I got to my motel, which was the Travelodge near the Seattle Center. Hotels in Seattle are expensive and parking is extra, but the Travelodge was adequate and more reasonably priced. As soon as I got out of my car, roadweary, some guy accosted me, saying that I needed a younger man like himself. Younger? He had plaque on his teeth older than me. It irritated me and made me feel a little unsafe, the only time I felt so on the whole trip.

I was very hungry and I wanted sushi, but on Sunday evening there were very few restaurants open in that area. I lucked out and found Bambino's East Coast Pizzeria. It's really pretty inside and I had a Pellegrino Limonatta, a tuna and white bean salad with garlic infused olive oil drizzled on top, and rigatoni carbonara. If I had known how enormous the white bean salad was and how delicious, I would not have ordered the pasta, which I only ate a quarter of. [Carbonara should be made with lean bacon; that's all I'm saying]. The food (and lots of good Seattle tap water) made me feel much better, though.

The next day I had planned to take a ferry to Victoria, B.C., but I would have to check in at 6:30AM for a 7:30AM departure, and I was too tired. So I spent the day exploring Seattle instead. I went to The Mother Church, also known as the original Nordstrom. I also went to the Barneys New York next to it, which had lovely clothes and shoes. I went to the Seattle Public Library:



Not to cast aspersions on a library, but $165.5 million is a lot of money to spend on a building that does not feel very welcoming. I like a building, especially a library, to say Come on in. There's room for everyone and all are welcome.



For lunch, I had a grilled salmon sandwich at Lowells in the Pike Street Market while gazing out at Puget Sound. That was fun and the salmon was delicious.

On the way back to the motel, I stopped at Dahlia Bakery and bought a cupcake:



It was one of the best cupcakes I've ever eaten and I've been to the Magnolia Bakery, people. [Matt is rhapsodizing about Sprinkles Cupcakes, which I am going to have to check out.] It was perfect.

I went to Kinokuniya and Uwajimaya in the International District and had a blast looking at the Japanese craft books.


ISBN 452903979X



I like this Start Series of books, because there's something accessible and inspiring about them. And the book cost about $10.

Then I went out the Capitol Hill and University Districts.



I want this house. It's across the street from the Volunteer Park Observation Tower:

It's so nice to make a pot of coffee (Nicaraguan Organic from Cole Coffee) and drink it from a favorite mug, eat a boiled egg and a slice of toast, prepared in one's own very quiet kitchen. It's great to be home.

* * *





The next day I got up and headed out to the Columbia River basin. I stopped at Staccato Gelato to try their donuts. They are big and sweet. I really liked their applesauce donut.

I headed out on 84 East. It's hard to describe how incredibly beautiful this area is. My pictures don't do it justice. Alicia's pictures are much better.

I've always loved being out in nature, but I didn't expect to be so moved by the beauty of the area. It's so much more lush than the parts of the Sierra Nevada mountains and foothills that I've been in. Because I was by myself, I could indulge in my love for waterfalls, mountains and trees at my leisure.

I stopped off at Multnomah Falls and hiked up the hill past the bridge, but not all the way to the top because I didn't know what the day had in store and how much time I had.



Next, I drove on eastward, and stopped at Eagle Creek. There I used the ladies room and then laced on my hiking boots, put on my sunglasses and broad brimmed sun hat, grabbed a bottle of water, and set off on a 6 mile hike on the Eagle Creek trail. It's beautiful and easy; there were of people of all ages and their dogs on the way. Parts of the trail were right on the side of the mountains, but they had cables you could hold onto.



At one point, I was completely by myself and hadn't seen anyone in a long time and I worried a little. I didn't have a cell phone, I thought about a serial killer, I thought about a mountain lion and how they're supposed to strike silently. I was worried that the applesauce donut that I had eaten would make me smell even more appetizing to a mountain lion.



Then I told myself that my fate could not possibly be to die being eaten by a mountain lion on the Eagle Creek trail in Oregon. No way, no how. Cardiac arrest arguing a motion for summary judgment in front of Judge S., a struggle to the death for a pair of pumps at Nordstrom, but not in the wilderness. And sure enough, more people came walking by and my worries abated. It was beautiful, beautiful.

When I got back to the car, I ate lunch of my Uwajimaya food from the small ice chest I carried on the passenger seat and continued east to the Hood River, whose claim to fame is for being an extremely popular spot for windsurfing. The book says

The fury of the winds derives from the heat of the eastern desert drawing in the Pacific westerlies. The confining contours of the Gorge dam up these air masses and precipitate their gusty release.

I love information like this, especially because the part of the Bay Area that I live in is subject to the same effect, the heat from the inland counties sucking in the cloud coverage and fog from the Pacific.

I didn't go windsurfing. I drove on to the Dalles, where the landscape changes dramatically to brown, brown, brown grassland.



On the way, I passed by Mount Hood, which is, typical of the Cascade mountains, dramatic and beautiful. I'm a sucker for landscapes formed by volcanos and glaciers.



I went to Fort Dalles and got a wonderful tour from the guide. She is completely sweet and a history buff, a native of the area. Having read the Little House series repeatedly, I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and the artifacts.


















Plus, they had quilts.



At the end, the tour guide asked me where I am from* and what brought me to the area and I mentioned the tour book. I think the question was actually deeper, about what I, an African American woman by myself, was doing there. What could I say? Indulging my curiosity. Exploring the West. Seeing how my tax dollars are spent on National Parks. Taking a break from my crazy life.

*I get asked this question about 20 times a year. Do you get asked this question a lot?

It was almost 5:00 when I finished the tour, so it was time to head back to Portland. I stopped at a rose garden in The Dalles and looked down at the hills and the river. The drive back was beautiful.



I was hot and sweaty from the hike, so after grabbing a veggie burger and a blackberry lemonade from Burgerville, I went back to my room and took another extra long shower.

It was a wonderful day.

Multnomah Falls

Eight days, 2500 miles, 300 pictures.

While I was in Seattle, my children sent me an e-mail from Paris, which said, in part "We thought you hated road trips." I sent them back a reply which said "I thought I hated road trips too but it turns out I only hate them if I am crammed in a car with a bunch of other people and we're driving somewhere like Texas or Arizona [in the summer]. I actually enjoy them if I am by myself."

I had a great time.



I left at 5:30AM on Thursday (8/2) and headed up I-5 going north. I stopped in the bustling metropolis of Dunsmuir (pop. 1,923) and had breakfast at the Cornerstone Cafe. There I learned that you have to be careful when you order wheat toast, because you could get beige white bread when you're not expecting it. Dunsmuir smells really good, like sweet flowers.

My plan was to drive all the way to Portland on the first day, just to get my journey started and to get a sense of how I would do on a road trip. This was my first one since the 1980s. I truly hated them because of the supremely uncomfortable ones I was dragged on when I was a kid. I don't even drive to Los Angeles, because you can fly there in one hour.

I listened to my MP3 player, drank coffee from the gas station (rather tasty actually) and, reading those brown freeway signs about some historical site, wished I had a talking GPS system that didn't give me directions, but told me why stuff like rivers and mountains are named the way they are and facts (geographical and historical) about the place referenced by the sign.

I got a splitting headache in Eugene and stopped to get a diet Coke to wash down some Advil. Driving into Portland was thrilling and I let my sense of direction lead me to the Red Lion Inn at the Convention Center. (It helped that I had looked at its location using Google Earth before I left home.)

One way I prepared for the trip was to read Alicia's and Mariko's blogs and make a list of things to do and eat.

So I checked into the hotel and almost wept with joy at the site of a Burgerville right across the street. I got a turkey burger, fries and a blackberry lemonade* and took them back to my room.

*They had these amazing milkshake flavors on the menu, but I'm not much of a milkshake drinker, me being increasingly lactose intolerant and them being loaded with calories.

Traveling by yourself = you don't have to drag your exhausted self out of your hotel room to check out the nightlife or any other such nonsense if you don't feel like it.

I once saw a report on a 60 Minutes type of show about how they never launder the top coverlet of hotel beds. So I brought a blankie with me, stripped the coverlet off immediately, and put my quilt on the bed.



It was 87 degrees in Portland and humid (to me at least). I took a super long shower and watched some of A Very Long Engagement on the portable DVD player I brought and went to bed.

The next day I consulted with the Oregon travel book, authored by Elizabeth and Mark Morris, published by Moon, before I set out. This book is absolutely excellent and because of it I had a great time in Oregon.



I went to the Cup and Saucer for breakfast, getting turned around and diverted before I found it and then finding a parking space right in front of it. [This is a miracle for someone from the SF Bay Area.]

While I waited for a table I read a sign which said that hate speech would not be tolerated in the cafe. It made me happy to read and it and my breakfast--egg, potato, cheese, bacon, green onion scramble, vanilla ginger scone and coffee--and a friendly and attentive waitress solidified my opinion that Portland is excellent.


Though the sky looked like this, it didn't rain.

After breakfast I strolled down Hawthorne Street, going into a Fred Meyer because I had never been to one before, and feeling deeply jealous [in a petulant and stamp your foot kind of way] of all the beautiful old houses and tree lined streets in the area.

I had a list of things I wanted to do, thanks to Alicia and Mariko and their commenters, so I:

a. Went to Powells Books (the most excellent used book store) and browsed and bought the practice at home issue of Yoga Journal and this quilt book.

b. Walked around the Pearl District, stopping at Pearl Bakery and Storables, where these wire gym baskets only cost $10 each. [Dude, they try to sell the used ones on ebay for $25+ each.] I bought four for my fabric stash.



c. I stopped off at Pix Patisserie and bought macaroons. The tip jar said "Tips are friggin' sweet."

d. Checked out Fabric Depot and Mills End Fabric stores. Being able to buy fabric online makes shopping at stores like this a bit obsolete. You see the same stuff you pass over online and the stuff you like other people have snatched up and taken to the cutters. Especially in a cavernous store like FD.

Traveling by yourself = you get to shop for stuff you like

e. Drove to Beaverton [passing by Nike World Headquarters] and shopped at Uwajimaya and Kinokuniya* book store.


The candies at 7 o'clock were gross, not sweet at all. I love tangelos and they reminded me of how I used to eat four or more a day when I was pregnant with my son.


ISBN 978402190415B and 457911020X

*There's one in San Francisco, but it's in Japantown and frankly it's easier to find parking by driving 700 miles to Portland.

I decided to have an early dinner at Pho Van in Beaverton. As I walked in and the waitress saw that I was alone and that I immediately asked for the location for the ladies room, she thought I was not serious about eating there. But I ordered the sliced beef salad and the chicken pho, which eased her anxiety. I think the fact that I ate with chop sticks and know my way around a bowl of pho* eased her anxiety even more and by the end of the meal she was all smiles. The food was delicious.

*Thanks to Pho 84 and Vo's Restaurant in Oakland.

I had decided upon setting out that I would not eat any food that I could get at home, which meant no chain restaurants and no Starbucks.

I love the way the folks in Oregon say Have a nice day when you're leaving their establishment.

I returned to Portland, picked up another blackberry lemonade, and returned to the hotel.

Traveling by myself, I wasn't going to wander around at night. Plus, I'm a bit of a lightweight when it comes to staying up late.