Portland and Seattle
Friday-Monday 18-21 August, 2023
Snoqualmie Falls, where we stopped on Monday to get in a little sightseeing.
We had begun with quite an ambitious plan of including that ever-elusive boat trip to Wizard Island in Crater Lake in our already aggressive itinerary. But I'm trying to live at a pace of perhaps only twice the speed of an ordinary person, and so I agreed to try to relax a bit and not cram quite so much in, and to put Wizard Island off until 2024. Instead, we could spend a weekend significantly on the freeway, yes, but also hanging out in the awesome major cities along the I-5 corridor, sharing food and drink with old friends. The funky groove of Portland, the more sophisticated air of Seattle, the strength of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, and the comfort and joy of time with good friends would be a wonderful low-key beginning to our grand adventure.
We started off with the readily-achievable goal of reaching the Super 8 in Red Bluff Friday night. With a diligent evening of packing Thursday night, we managed to leave the Zuckershack by 19:15 on Friday, once the steaming rush-hour traffic on I-80 had cooled down a little and the carpool lanes were open to a vehicle with just the two of us. Traffic was about as expected, and we were able to put our heads on the exceedingly flat Super 8 pillows at an uncommonly decent hour.
As you may know, after we stayed in a motel room in northeastern Oregon in 2015, and the walls of the room had photographs that were clearly Yellowstone and Vernal (in Yosemite) Falls, I now examine motel art to see whether or not it shows the local area, as opposed to faraway scenes. So, I wholeheartedly approved of this lovely photo of Burney Falls at the Super 8 in Red Bluff. Burney Falls is a 1:45 minute drive from Red Bluff, so perhaps closer Mossbrae Falls would have been better, but this at least was a nice photograph of the general geographic area.
On Saturday, we drove past all the familiar southern Cascades, Mt. Lassen, Black Butte, gargantuan Mt. Shasta. Mather climbed and descended from the Siskiyou Pass, and we crossed into Oregon. As we drove through the flatter parts of the I-5 corridor there, we noticed increasing smoke along the freeway, making us thankful we had decided to postpone Crater Lake. None of the Oregon Cascades was visible from the freeway.
Weather forecasts and scary news articles had made it clear that the Ross Lake National Recreation Area and most of the central area of North Cascades National Park were going to be too smoky for a good visit. The State of Washington had closed the road just a bit east of our planned campsite. However, it looked like the smoke might clear enough to enable us to carry out our plans to visit Stehekin in Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, south of North Cascades National Park. As Eric drove up the Willamette Valley, I combed guidebooks, examined maps, and ran Expedia searches, hastily replanning the middle part of the coming week to spend it on Vancouver Island rather than in Newhalem. With luck, we would be able to hike into North Cascades National Park from Stehekin. Or maybe we would have to postpone that visit, already canceled once due to fires in 2015, yet again.We felt pangs of sadness as we passed the exit for OR 34, Corvallis, wishing we could have had a visit with Mark. He was so good at keeping us in line, intellectually and emotionally, bringing us back down to Earth. The enormity of his loss has been immeasurable. And these web pages have lost one of their most faithful readers.
Even with a stop in Salem for a curbside pickup of some emergency REI supplies, we arrived in Portland in enough time to check into our motel before dinner. The reverberations of loud electric guitars at a concert across the street shook the room. We hoped they would stop before 02:00.
Breyana had suggested Hawthorne Asylum, a food truck pod, as a good place for a group dinner. Our motel turned out to be a reasonable walk from the Asylum, so we set out on foot, seeing a little more of the town. There was some smoke in the air, but it didn't seem terrible.
Outside an art space, we found this unusual instrument.
At the Asylum, we had a teriyaki chicken sandwich and a piece of fried chicken on a waffle. We forgot to take a group picture, but Eric took pictures of our friends. This is Scott, who plays Monster of the Week online with Eric, and whom we were meeting in person for the first time.
Our old geocaching event co-host Sean, with his wife, Ronda.
Gaming friends Breyana and Dandi. Breyana moved from Oakland to Portland in 2022, and Dandi made the same move six days before this dinner.
It was delightful to see everyone, and it was particularly fun to cross-pollenate friends from different circles and find the surprising things they had in common. Dandi and Ronda both work in the medical field, with great concerns about mental health treatment, and they had much to talk about despite having very different roles.
Scott kindly gave us a ride back to our motel, and the band brought things to a searing climax at 22:00, so we were able to get a good night's sleep.
In the morning, we drove out to Beaverton to have breakfast with Grant and Carly, who had had a prior engagement the night before. The restaurant had a lovely patio overlooking a duck pond, but, by this point, it was becoming questionable whether eating outdoors was actually the healthier respiratory course. We wore masks when we weren't eating. Mental health seems to be on everyone's mind as we try to recover from the painful isolation of 2020 and 2021.
Eric photographed Grant and Carly.
We crossed the Willamette and then the Columbia, making our way toward Seattle. Heavy traffic slowed us, making us concerned that we would be late for our 17:30 dinner reservation. As we drove, the smoke only thickened.
By 16:30, Andreea texted, noting the particulate count, and kindly offered to host the planned gathering at her home. Eric hastily contacted everyone in our group, and we all agreed to rapid test and meet indoors.
The decision to change our plans seemed more and more reasonable as we entered Seattle, observing the reddish haze over the city from the freeway. Eric photographed the smoky skyline as I drove.
We were greeted by Andreea and her two very excited canines. She showed us her beautifully-restored home, as our group of friends gathered. We ate Italian food, drank wine, and talked about all the changes our lives have seen.
We forgot to take a group picture (AGAIN!), but Eric took a picture of our overnight host, Maria, playing her great-great grandmother's bellows organ.
As Maria fed us oats and hard-boiled eggs for breakfast and then started to work in the morning, we reconsidered our plans yet again. We drank tea and coffee and examined web pages. The forecasts for Stehekin's air quality were less optimistic than they had been on Saturday. It was dicey whether we would be able to hike, or would just be stuck in the lodge with no internet or cell signal. We considered switching to the Olympics, but the air quality forecasts there looked similar. We could have explored Seattle for another couple of days. But, as it was no longer the weekend, friends would not be available to spend time with us, and outdoor plans were unbearable. No one would want to leave their home. As many of our arrangements near Lake Chelan were not refundable, we decided to pack up and head out into the Cascadian smoke, hoping it would clear by the following afternoon.
Eric photographed the iconic Space Needle from the freeway as I drove out of town. The sky was looking a little bit better, giving us some measure of hope.
Day 1 distance: 176 mi/283 km
Day 2 distance: 456 mi/734 km, cumulative 632 mi/1017 km
Day 3 distance: 212 mi/341 km, cumulative 844 mi/1,358 km
On to Lake Chelan National Recreation Area and North Cascades National Park.