We arrived Monday night back home from our trip to Montana, and got up early the next morning to go get friends from the airport.
I had so many activities piled on top of each other this past summer that I was agonizing about a conflict. My friends from Boston would be here for a few days, but the last day of their trip (scheduled months before we knew when Pedro and I would be selling our houses) was going to be the day I planned to load up the UHaul. I finally broke down and explained my distress to them, and suggested they leave early Friday morning, and I would work on my move after they left. My friends instantly changed plans so that they could help me with the UHaul. God bless real friends.
Back in 2015, my college friend Madhawa came out to the West Coast and we had a marvelous road trip up the coast. We started by touring all the sights in Portland, then we went over to the coast in Tillamook, Oregon, and drove north through Washington state, and then took a ferry to Vancouver Island, Canada, and eventually over into British Columbia mainland to the city of Vancouver. We came home through Seattle. We really bonded and had so many laughs and stories to tell afterward. We loved the idea of bringing his wife and son over to show them some of the things we had done together so many years ago.
We had three days to do what Mads and I had done in seven. Naturally we would only have time to hit a few of the great spots.
Since their flight arrived early in the day, Pedro and I took them right from the airport to eat, and then explore Portland.
We ate lunch along the waterfront, and Udi spotted the Tilikum Crossing – Portland’s newest bridge, unique in that it only allows pedestrians and bikes and commuter busses, but no cars or trucks. She begged: can we go there? Of course!
From the bridge, it was a short walk to the launch for the aerial tram up to Pill Hill. That’s the local moniker for Marquam Hill, where the teaching hospital, Oregon Health & Science University, is located, as well as the Portland VA Medical Center and Shriners Children’s Portland hospital. So many medical facilities are crammed onto the top of the hill that there is limited parking for students and employees. Portland’s TriMet operates the tram, and has a website filled with awesome photos of this unique part of our local public transportation system. I always bring visitors here because the ride up is cheap, it’s fun, and the views from the top are outstanding. (I didn’t take photos this time, but I’ve got some in an old blog post.)
Then we went home because Kai had been promised a big giant yard with wild animals and chickens. It was the whole reason he had agreed to be a good boy on this trip. Mads and Udi presented us with gifts, to include a lovely world-travel-themed decanter set. We had stopped to get whiskeys to try, and I added the new bottles to the ones I already had, and we each poured a taster. Then we had a tour of my beautiful land in Rainier.
When Mads came to visit Kellen and me back in 2015, it was a few months before I moved to the place in Rainier. None of them had ever seen it. So we had fun touring the whole property. The timing would be perfect, because they would get to see the old one AND the new one, because the following night we would all go to the new house and get our house keys for the first time. Exciting!
The next day of course, we had to go to the coast and repeat that portion of our long-ago road trip. We would leave from my house in Rainier to the coast. The idea was to make a big loop. We got a late start but the loop would help because instead of coming back to Rainier, we would simply go into Portland to meet the real estate agent at the new house to pick up our keys.
In Astoria we tried to visit the column, as Mads and I had done in 2015, but it was closed for repairs. Dang. So then we just drove down the coast to Cannon Beach. It had been making news at that time for a cougar spotted on the sea stack called Haystack Rock. Local authorities freaked out and cordoned off a large section of beach to keep visitors away from the big cat in case it wanted to leave the rock and cross the beach back into the forest. Many of us thought it was all so silly. It was probably not the first time the cat had ever been on the rock, but the first time we humans had NOTICED it there. No one ever saw it come back, and they eventually tentatively took down the barricades, then the cat was spotted on the rock again. Since that time, it’s been spotted on four different occasions, and has been photographed swimming from the rock to the sand. No tourists have been eaten, and all is well. Authorities have ceased freaking out about the cat.
From Cannon Beach, it would be a straight shot back on Highway 26 to Portland. We wouldn’t have a ton of time, but at least an hour to play on the beach before our meeting with the real estate agent. As soon as we parked, I checked the travel time, to make sure and catastrophe struck!! The map showed a massive wreck had CLOSED THE HIGHWAY. Our return trip would take us an alternate route that would add a whole additional hour to the journey. To make it on time, we would need to climb back into the car and leave immediately. Argh.
I messaged our real estate agent and explained the situation and asked for the meeting to be moved to an hour later. We headed down to the beach, just to take a look. Kai was tired of being strapped into the car and wanted to run. We waited and waited. The agent was always very responsive, but just on this one occasion – no reply.
Down at the beach there was a cluster of humans staring at the rock and aiming gigantic camera lenses over there, but no one could see a big cat. I fretted about the time, and checked my phone for messages. I tried a phone call just in case, but she didn’t pick up. Kai ran around with glee, he dug in the sand, found a puddle, found his joy.
Mads got out his drone and began taking some great aerial videos. Since I hadn’t heard back from the real estate agent yet, I began thinking in terms of how late we would be. “We are currently 10 minutes late.” “Now we are 15 minutes late.” Despite this, I took off my shoes and ran to the water to splash in the ocean.
Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. We were 30 minutes late for our meeting, and that was only if our journey back to the car went smoothly and there were no traffic problems on the journey home. I was so frustrated that we couldn’t stay. We had spent all morning planning this big trip to the beach, and we had to start planning to leave the moment we arrived. Kai was very sad to leave the beach – the first fun he had had all day. Poor kid. We dragged him unwillingly back across the sand and up the hill to the car.
We piled into the car, got Kai all strapped and buckled in, crammed the rest of us in, and got back onto Highway 101 and headed south. The text came in: “Sure, we can meet later. Stay at the beach and have fun.” Too late.
The good news is: the rest of the trip was smooth. We picked up the keys with no problem and we all had a tour of the new house. We picked up food to go and had dinner there at the new house too.
That evening we dropped Pedro off at his house, then the rest of us went back to Rainier for a last night at the farm. Kai ran to check the chickens again.
The final day was UHaul day!
With the help of my friends and this rented truck, I took the final load of stuff from my old home in Rainier. All the previous loads had gone into storage. This time, because we had the key, I could take furniture directly to the new place. I drove this big beast an hour into town and through the city and somehow got it parked in our short, steep awkward driveway. Everybody worked their butts off to empty it. I remain immensely grateful.
Other friends showed up then to pick them up. They brought Sri Lankan food – which was delicious! Mads, Udi, and Kai went on to the next stage of their vacation, and Pedro and I spent our very first night in our new home July 28th.
Conscious Engagement 