Adventure Accomplished

Katie D.

December 14, 2008 - 9:45 AM

Friends and readers, it's been a darn good week. My adventure in Washington has gone off splendidly, with exceptional variety of activities and experiences. I'm heading back to Colorado a very happy adventure girl. In the past week I have: seen a symphony performance, toured Seattle, learned to make Chicken and Dumplings, made new friends, hung out with friends for the first time outside of South America, worked as crowd control for a trio of Mexican soap opera stars, saw Lucy (the Australopithecus Afarensis) and rode in a DeLorean (that's the Back to the Future car for anyone who is even less car informed than I am). More complete descriptions coming right up.

Day 1: So. I pulled into Portland and struck off to find my friend, Jana, who had given directions to the flower shop where she worked. I arrived on foot hauling a week's worth of luggage and found her arranging flowers. It was wonderful to see her again, but also strangely anti-climactic considering the last time we'd seen each other was in a café in Buenos Aires. I helped her close shop and we were off to see the Oregon Symphony performing Tchaikovsky. Just FYI it's $10 for student rush tickets to Oregon Symphony concert, and the performance was amazing. So that's one esoteric activity accomplished before I even left the state.

Day 2: Got on a train to Seattle with a huge bouquet from Jana's flower shop. I thoroughly enjoyed my train experience and managed to finish my last final essay en route. This was my first train experience in the US, and it's my new favorite method of travel. Anyway, I arrived in Seattle with a huge bouquet of pink roses for my first night's hosts, some friends of friends who ended up semi-adopting me for the majority of my week-long visit. Christine and John are retired teachers who now spend as much time as possible touring the country in their RV. Aside from welcoming me to their lovely home in Federal Way (South of Seattle), they also drove me around, shared stories, and gave me a beautiful mask they brought home from Mardi Gras last year. As an extra bonus, that first night there I got a lesson in cooking chicken and dumplings.

Day 3: My hosts took me around Seattle, to the Public Market and around the city. We rode the Duck (an amphibious landing craft from WWII converted to street/water touring of the city) and saw some cool parts of the city. I saw the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat and got to view the city from Puget Sound. I also learned that there are 417 Starbucks stores in the Seattle area-talk about overkill. The Pike Place Market is super cool, and I saw the famous fish shop with the guys who throw salmon. I also rode the monorail and saw the Space Needle, which has got to be the strangest piece of useless architecture in the world.

In the evening Ian, another friend from Chile, came and picked me up. We piled into his 1980 pickup truck and headed across the Cascades to stay in Ellensburg for the night. It was awesome to see him again, and to speak the funny Chilean slang Spanish. Plus, when you share an experience abroad with someone, you never run out of stories: you can just go over the shared time over and over again. And we had some truly wonderful Chile adventures to reminisce over.

Day 4: Ian and I staffed an event in Yakima, at which the three stars of the Mexican Soap Opera Fuego en la Sangre would be signing autographs. Don't ask me how he found that event, but they were looking for bilingual people to staff the event, and it sounded goofy enough to be a part of my adventure. So we went for it, and it was pretty fun. I think this event was interesting enough to warrant its own blog, so how ‘bout I get back to you later with the whole story?

Day 5: Ian and I crossed back over the Cascades to get me back to Seattle. This time we crossed the mountains during the day, and let me say that the Cascade Mountains are incredibly beautiful. The trees are so beautiful up in the Northwest, and I think are both taller and represent more species than in other mountains I've seen. That being said, I am a Colorado Rocky Mountain snob, and let's just say that the in the time it took to completely cross the Cascades we still wouldn't even be able to see the top of the Rockies. Just saying.

Anyway, he dropped me off in Belvue, right next to downtown Seattle. I was there to meet one of my dad's best friends growing up. He lives in Seattle now, and even though I'd never met him before I was really excited to get to see him. He owns the only DeLorean shop in the Northwest. I got to see a significant number of the world's remaining 7,000 or so DeLoreans, and also got to ride around Seattle in one. Complete with people taking pictures of the car out of their windows. Now, you're either a car person who understands how cool this was, or you are completely clueless except for the whole Back to the Future connection. So I guess we'll have to leave it at that, but it was a darn good time.

Day 6: Back in Federal Way and resting up from my trip to Yakima and all the DeLorean excitement. It was mostly a calm recuperation day, except that one of my best UO friends, Maddy, arrived in Seattle and we proceeded to spend our last couple of days together before she sets off on her study abroad trip to Singapore. I'm so glad I got to share some of my Seattle adventure with her, because I'm going to miss her so much...

Day 7: Move in with some different friends of Maddy's family. We helped put up a giant Christmas tree and ate some fabulous Greek food. Have I mentioned that Seattle has amazing restaurants?

Day 8: Lucy! We go to the Seattle Science Museum to see the exhibit "Lucy's Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia," which was amazing on so many levels. The whole exhibit was amazing, with tons of displays on archeological finds from Ethiopia, from ancient to more recent times. There was also a series of hominid bones and explanations of human evolution. Then there was Lucy herself, the 3.18 million year old fossil of a bipedal hominid ancestor. Her skeleton is 40% complete, which is doing pretty well when you think about the whole 3 million years old thing. They have her on display in a horizontal box, with a replica skeleton displayed upright so you can see how all the bones would look in 3D. You might have already guessed that I really like this kind of archeology thing, so I loved that museum experience. Over three million years. A miracle.

That day I also walked around Seattle with Maddy, telling stories and dreaming big dreams. We're going to be bartenders in Australia after we graduate. Or something equally cool. But the plan these days is to graduate and then be off to bar tend by night and rock climb, SCUBA, and surf during the days. Seattle's Public Market on a Saturday is the perfect place to dream up big crazy dreams like that, because it's packed with people and stands with funky handmade goods and food with free samples. Quite the inspiration. And who knows? We're two adventuresome souls. Perhaps in three years I'll be adventuring in the Outback. I suppose I'll have to keep you posted.

That night we also took part in her family's Christmas tradition with a big party at a friend's house, complete with a White Elephant gift exchange. I brought a signed poster from the Fuego en la Sangre event, which was a big hit. I love being welcomed into people's homes, traditions, and circles of friends.

Day 9: Last full day in Seattle. I said goodbye to Maddy and began my preparations to leave. I spent more time with Chris and John, talking over our experiences in the wider world and making plans for me to come and visit again. It snowed like crazy that day, and I got to see all the incredible Northwest trees all snow covered and beautiful.

And then I left for Colorado. It was sad to go, but wonderful to be heading back home and all that that entails. But even as I'm leaving, I know I'll be back to Seattle someday. I had far too much fun there to be putting it behind me for long. Plus I have those other tentative plans that never materialized, including a visit with a Chile friend who was busy with finals, with whom I was planning to swing dance and rock climb.

Plus I've made some real friends in Seattle. Maddy's friends, who were so gracious in welcoming me for the week, are now my friends. I'd like to go back and have more lessons in easy cooking from John, and maybe learn to cross stitch from Chris. And the folks from the Christmas party were all wonderfully kind and invited me to stay with them as well. "Think about that before you say it," I told them, "when people invite me over I generally end up on their doorsteps." And that's true. Because I become welcomed as a stranger and a traveler, a storyteller, and sometimes become a friend, and sometimes even a part of a larger family.

With people and adventures like I've had last week, there's no way I'll stay away long. There's a whole world of adventure waiting, and new friends to travel back to.