Tuesday, August 17, 2004
ONE LAST SEATTLE STORY....1971
One of the fun things about Seattle is that everywhere you go there is water. For someone who has lived in the mid-west all of my life, I have always enjoyed going where the water was. My brother always seemed to migrate to the same thing, living in Chicago, Milwaukee and Seattle. Those places seem more like foreign countries to me because of the influx of water-related things. The seafood for instance.
Whenever we went to visit Louis and Gail we always went down to the Pier and enjoyed the ambience of the docks. It was mesmerizing just to find a comfortable place to sit and watch the seagulls. Their effortless comings and goings were choreographed into a symphony of flight that I never tired of watching.
Mom and dad loved the clam chowder from Ivar’s at Pier 54.…..their motto was “Acres of Clams.” Being tourists it was always enjoyed much more than the local folks who congregated there….they could come back so their demeanor was just a routine lunch in familiar settings. To us, it was a hallowed place to enjoy only for an hour or so and we never knew if we would be back or not. It made dining more special. Of course we bought glasses with their logo and after mom and dad passed away, their glasses joined my one glass. Now I have one each for George, Becky and John. Just a nice souvenir of some bygone days.
Before leaving for Missouri we made a big trek around the Olympic Peninsula. Mom and dad opted to rest at Louis’ but we took John, Becky and DiDi with us. We saw lots of scenery but not many places to eat or places to get down to the water. Being the rock hound that I am I wanted to get to the shore and pick up rocks. It was put upon Warren to find a place and eventually he found a less than perfect spot but we did manage to get to the water. This was where we could have used a SUV but our little 2-door Plymouth Sedan made it just fine…..admittedly, she struggled.
The kids splashed and played in the water while I inspected rocks to bring back. They were wonderfully smooth and when wet were beautiful colors. I would love to go back and look through more of them…….it is a rock lover’s paradise. I have them piled by a corner of the garage and when I pass by I always give admiring glances their way. I’m sure they have missed the water but have grown used to being a shrine for me. Occasionally I pick them up just to feel their smoothness and marvel at God’s designs.
Sooner or later it comes time for the return trip home. It is always hard to leave because we know we won’t see each other for some time again….still, it is a fact of families who live apart. We kissed and hugged and headed up the hill to the gas station for a fill before getting onto the highway. We had planned our route before leaving so we were set. At the station we filled first and drove away from the pumps and parked to the side of the station. All of a sudden Warren saw dad’s pickup speed away and head up the freeway but we lost sight of him. We got onto the street to take us to a better place to spot where he went and Warren thought he saw him going the wrong way. We took off down the road after them but once in the artery of traffic it became impossible to find anyone. We drove further on, getting out of the rush-hour traffic going in to Seattle and found open high-way. Warren figured dad was ahead of us so we went as fast as we dared to catch them. Then doubt would plague us and we’d slow down thinking they were behind us. This went on all day long……hurry up…stop and wait. Finally we gave up and decided they just weren’t on the road we were.
We made it all through Washington State through a lot of construction areas on the highways and were hungry and emotionally drained. We decided to give up the chase and stop at Huntington, Oregon for a good meal. John was with us but the girls were with mom and dad, riding in their camper behind the pick-up. We had the girls luggage in our trunk so of course we knew this was going to be a problem for them.
We had given our orders and were waiting wearily for our food when I looked up to see mom, dad and the girls strolling by the big picture window on the front of the restaurant. I couldn’t believe my eyes. They came through the door, we waved to them and they almost fainted as well. Mystery solved. Dad had fueled his pickup, didn’t see us at the other pump and thought we had gone on. He hurried to catch us going the way we had agreed upon. They had a day similar to ours. Hurrying to catch us and then deciding we were behind them. Though we took two completely different routes and had stopped and raced down the State to Oregon……..we ended up at the same place within 5-minutes of each other.
I wrote of this before in a prior chapter but couldn’t end today’s story without including it one more time. It was one of those things that happens and you are never able to understand or explain it…..but we were a bunch of folks mighty glad to see each other. The rest of the trip home was uneventful which suited all of us just fine…….
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
Whenever we went to visit Louis and Gail we always went down to the Pier and enjoyed the ambience of the docks. It was mesmerizing just to find a comfortable place to sit and watch the seagulls. Their effortless comings and goings were choreographed into a symphony of flight that I never tired of watching.
Mom and dad loved the clam chowder from Ivar’s at Pier 54.…..their motto was “Acres of Clams.” Being tourists it was always enjoyed much more than the local folks who congregated there….they could come back so their demeanor was just a routine lunch in familiar settings. To us, it was a hallowed place to enjoy only for an hour or so and we never knew if we would be back or not. It made dining more special. Of course we bought glasses with their logo and after mom and dad passed away, their glasses joined my one glass. Now I have one each for George, Becky and John. Just a nice souvenir of some bygone days.
Before leaving for Missouri we made a big trek around the Olympic Peninsula. Mom and dad opted to rest at Louis’ but we took John, Becky and DiDi with us. We saw lots of scenery but not many places to eat or places to get down to the water. Being the rock hound that I am I wanted to get to the shore and pick up rocks. It was put upon Warren to find a place and eventually he found a less than perfect spot but we did manage to get to the water. This was where we could have used a SUV but our little 2-door Plymouth Sedan made it just fine…..admittedly, she struggled.
The kids splashed and played in the water while I inspected rocks to bring back. They were wonderfully smooth and when wet were beautiful colors. I would love to go back and look through more of them…….it is a rock lover’s paradise. I have them piled by a corner of the garage and when I pass by I always give admiring glances their way. I’m sure they have missed the water but have grown used to being a shrine for me. Occasionally I pick them up just to feel their smoothness and marvel at God’s designs.
Sooner or later it comes time for the return trip home. It is always hard to leave because we know we won’t see each other for some time again….still, it is a fact of families who live apart. We kissed and hugged and headed up the hill to the gas station for a fill before getting onto the highway. We had planned our route before leaving so we were set. At the station we filled first and drove away from the pumps and parked to the side of the station. All of a sudden Warren saw dad’s pickup speed away and head up the freeway but we lost sight of him. We got onto the street to take us to a better place to spot where he went and Warren thought he saw him going the wrong way. We took off down the road after them but once in the artery of traffic it became impossible to find anyone. We drove further on, getting out of the rush-hour traffic going in to Seattle and found open high-way. Warren figured dad was ahead of us so we went as fast as we dared to catch them. Then doubt would plague us and we’d slow down thinking they were behind us. This went on all day long……hurry up…stop and wait. Finally we gave up and decided they just weren’t on the road we were.
We made it all through Washington State through a lot of construction areas on the highways and were hungry and emotionally drained. We decided to give up the chase and stop at Huntington, Oregon for a good meal. John was with us but the girls were with mom and dad, riding in their camper behind the pick-up. We had the girls luggage in our trunk so of course we knew this was going to be a problem for them.
We had given our orders and were waiting wearily for our food when I looked up to see mom, dad and the girls strolling by the big picture window on the front of the restaurant. I couldn’t believe my eyes. They came through the door, we waved to them and they almost fainted as well. Mystery solved. Dad had fueled his pickup, didn’t see us at the other pump and thought we had gone on. He hurried to catch us going the way we had agreed upon. They had a day similar to ours. Hurrying to catch us and then deciding we were behind them. Though we took two completely different routes and had stopped and raced down the State to Oregon……..we ended up at the same place within 5-minutes of each other.
I wrote of this before in a prior chapter but couldn’t end today’s story without including it one more time. It was one of those things that happens and you are never able to understand or explain it…..but we were a bunch of folks mighty glad to see each other. The rest of the trip home was uneventful which suited all of us just fine…….
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
