I can't believe I went all the way to Seattle to see Brian and Amber, but forgot to take any pictures of them. It was one of those whirlwind, exhausting trips where I always feel like I spend more time traveling than visiting. I stayed at my usual Best Western hotel mostly for its proximity to the waterfront, but also because they always upgrade me to a room with a balcony. The first night I went out to dinner with Brian and Amber at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Fogon's. I love the food, but it is a LONG walk up to Capitol Hill. I think their streets are even steeper than the ones in Denver. The second day I went to Brian's and we played Villainous. Brian won (like usual), but at least I think I learned a few new tricks to the game.
I spent a day in Portland with my Vernier friends. My boss, Christine, and I went shopping at the Columbia employee store. It was Senior Day, so on top of the employee discount, we got the senior rate (almost 75% off!!!). All the shirts and pants I got are for hiking and biking. The tags on the clothes said they're for Omni Shade, Omni Wick, and Omni Freeze, so I should be ready for any season.
I managed to do a little sketching here and there over the 4 days. My favorite stop was at Burgerville in Portland, where I had Walla Walla onion rings and a marionberry shake for dinner. YUM!
I called this trip my Use It or Lose It adventure, because I "paid" for almost everything (plane, train, hotel) with pre-COVID travel points. Unfortunately, traveling is not the same as it used to be. Case in point, I thought I was really lucky to have enough points to buy a business class seat on Amtrak. Little did I know that Wednesdays are ballpark days in Seattle and the train was full of "enthusiastic" (aka. LOUD) Mariners' fans. My seat was right next to the bar car which was jam-packed even at 9:00 in the morning. And don't even get me started about airline travel. I'm surprised the plane can even get off the ground with all the luggage people haul onto the plane. You'd think most of them were moving away from home, rather than just visiting for the weekend. But unless I'm going to drive 1400 miles to the northwest, that's the only way I'm going to get there. I wonder how many steps that would take to walk it???
