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John & Judy's Vacation 2007 - Part 4 - Seattle

We left Coeur d'Alene and cruised 30 mile on I-90 to Spokane, a major, inviting looking city I wish we had had time to explore. After stopping at the YMCA for a swim and a mocha, we continued on I-90 through the Yakima Valley and over the Cascade Mountains via Snoqualmie Pass. What a scenic drive. We stopped at the Snoqualmie Pass rest area to find free coffee and cookies waiting for us. Also all the rest areas we stopped at in the state of Washington had free Wi-Fi. What a progressive state! There was snow on the mountains. Here are a few pictures of our drive to Seattle. Remember you can click on any picture to see a larger version.

Finally, we're in Seattle. We settled into our hotel room at the Sixth Street Hotel disappointed to find no free internet access for the first time on our trip. The advantage was that there was a pretty good restaurant in our hotel which saved us from having to go out in the rainy weather. In Seattle there's a Starbucks on every street corner and sometimes there's one mid-block too.

The next day Judy wanted to go to the Rosalie Whyel Doll Museum in Bellevue. While Judy perused the dolls, I took some pictures outdoors.

Later that day we went to Pike Place Market, Seattle's main tourist attraction, where they throw and catch the fish. We weren't too impressed. We didn't actually see them throw any fish, and there were too many tourists there. So we walked down the street and had dinner at  McCormick and Schmick's Seafood Restaurant. We'd been to one in San Francisco last year and the food was as good this year.

The next day Judy wanted to rest in the hotel room while I checked out some of the downtown Seattle attractions. My first stop was at the brand new Seattle Public Library, an impressive, unorthodox structure designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas built in 2004.  Of course they have free internet accesss on their computers or your laptop and a coffee bar right in the library. I  actually did a blog entry from there, the one on Einstein. This is actually the  coolest and most  impressive  library I've  ever been in except perhaps for the one in Paris, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. Check out the pictures. The geometrical patterns are fantastic!

After I checked out the library I went to the Seattle Art Museum. The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) just opened its new expanded version this year. It has been in the same location since 1991 in a high rise and as time goes by it has taken over more floors of the high rise. It still has room for expansion as it owns the four floors located directly above it. The rest of the building is owned by WaMu.

The above photo is the cafe at the art museum. After I toured SAM (no photos were allowed), I headed for the monorail station for the ride to Seattle Center where the space needle is located and site of the World's Fair in 1962.

Finally, it was time to head back downtown on the monorail.

The next day we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island.

We could barely see Mt. Rainier through the haze. Mt.  Rainier is an active volcano about 50 miles from Seattle, and on this day, for the first time in Seattle, the weather was not rainier.

On the trip back to Seattle the sun came out. I couldn't resist snapping a few more pictures of the Seattle skyline.

Here's a few other shots taken around town. For the complete Seattle picture album, click here.

 

The next day, October 9, 2007, Judy and I headed for the SeaTac Airport. We had one more adventure in store - the Seattle Transit Tunnel. Seattle busses are free downtown so we boarded a bus outside our hotel which dropped us off at the entrance to the Seattle Transit Tunnel, an underground transit system for busses. Here we picked up the bus for SeaTac for the outrageous fare of $1.35 apiece, I think it was. In 2009 they will have both busses and light rail utilizing the tunnel, the only underground transit system in the US which will be shared by both bus and rail. The rail connection will then link downtown with SeaTac Airport.

Judy was tired and couldn't wait to get home. After we got through security at the airport, she perked up and we had an uneventful (the best kind) flight to San Diego, just a short hop on Alaskan Airlines. They served Seattle's Best coffee on the plane, a definite plus.

John and Judy's Vacation 2007 - Part 3 - Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

It was either raining or threaten- ing to rain the whole time we were in Idaho and Washing- ton. We met Judy's sister, Jeanette, at the Perkins family restaur- ant. I had never been to a Perkins before. The food was good, they had homemade pie and the prices  were low compared to southern California. Everything including real estate was more reasonable here. I had reserved our motel, La Quinta, where we stayed four nights, online through hotels.com for $70. a night although the price from their own website was twice that much. It had everything - two queen beds, a remote for the TV that actually worked, a full kitchen including dishwasher and breakfast was included. You can't beat that.

The next day Judy hung out with Jeanette while I explored Coeur d'Alene. General William Tecumseh Sherman, after he had laid waste to the south in the Civil War, had come out here and established a fort called Fort Sherman, naturally. The name Coeur d'Alene had been given to the local Indians by French fur traders who thought the Indians were pretty sharp traders with hearts like a shoemaker's awl. Coeur d'Alene is a pretty little town that has grown to include on the outskirts all the mall stores that you can find everywhere in the US.  We felt right at home. It still retains a small town flavor though in the old part of town - no fast food restaurants there, not even a Starbucks. The downtown hamburger joint, Hudson's, was celebrating its 100 year anniversary so naturally I had to go there. The menu was very simple: hamburgers, cheeseburgers and pie. No French fries!

Coeur d'Alene is located on a beautiful, enormously huge lake. Here are some pictures. Please remember that you can click on any picture to see a larger version.

There is a nice visitors' center with a sculpture of the "coeur."

There is a resort right on the lake.

There is a nice new public library.

The old chapel from Fort Sherman is still there:

Here are some shots around town. Sherman Avenue is the main downtown drag. For more pictures of Coeur d'Alene check out the album by clicking here.

That night we had dinner at Jeanette's house:

One day we took a drive to St. Marie's, a little logging town about 60 miles from Coeur d'Alene. More beautiful lakes and rivers. No water shortage here!

That night we spent some time with Jeanette and her family, and Jeanette did some energy work on me.

Judy and Jeanette had a lot to catch up on, not having seen each other for 14 years. Our last night together we went to the Tomato Street restaur- ant.

The next morning we went east on I-90 headed for Seattle. We stopped at the Seattle Valley YMCA, a beautiful new facility where Judy waited for me while I swam. Then we had our coffee and pastry at the coffee bar there and bought a couple of sandwiches for our lunch. There was frost on the ground that morning!

John & Judy's Vacation 2007 - Part 2 - Napa Valley and Portland, OR

From Modesto it's only about a 90 minute drive to Napa. We got to Napa early in the afternoon and had the rental car till the next morning so we checked out the town of Napa which is the biggest town in the Napa Valley and located at the southern end. It's a cute little town.

Then we drove the 15 miles or so up Rte. 29 to Yountville where the California Veterans Home is located. After checking in with Mr. Wolfe, and unloading our things at the Hospitality House we took Dale out for dinner. Remember you can click on any picture to see a larger version.

The next morning, after we turned our rental car in and Dale picked us up, we celebrated Dale's birthday at the Gillwoods Cafe where we had breakfast.

Then we went exploring some Napa Valley wineries. We started out with the Hess Collection. After what seemed like an interminable ride up winding roads outside of the town of Napa, we finally discovered the place. It turned out to be our lucky day because we got a free tour AND a free tasting. After checking out the extensive art collection, Dale and I went on the tour, one of the best I've been on. Our tour guide, Yaeko, then invited us for the free tasting. I think they normally charge $10 for four wines. After tasting 5 or so I decided I'd had about enough. Dale was driving so I didn't have to worry about the winding roads. Dale had ailments which prevented him from participating in the tasting, but I let him do all the sniffing he wanted on my samples before I proceeded to imbibe them. Judy didn't go on the tour, but she got in on the free tasting too. After I got home, I ordered two bottles of the Su'skol Chardonnay online. Mmm Mmm good! I can truthfully say all Chardonnays are not created equal! I hope what I ordered was half as good as what I had in the tasting room.

Then we headed for Clos Pegase at the northern end  of the valley near the town of Calistoga. From Yountville you go through the towns of Oakvillle, Ruther- ford, St. Helena and finally Calistoga. The Napa Valley is narrow with just one major highway - Highway 29. There is also the Silverado Trail along the eastern side of the valley. The Napa Valley is just 35 miles long.

Clos Pegase also had an extensive art collection - mostly sculpture. These wineries are owned by rich men for whom winemaking is somewhat of a dilettantish pastime. On the tour I learned that only 4% of California wine comes from the Napa Valley. Most of the rest comes from the Central Valley where we'd just been, Modesto and Stockton, but it is of inferior quality since they allow many more  grapes per vine and they "overoak" it. That is, since there's not  much of a fruity flavor, they let it sit in the oak barrels longer so at least it has some kind of flavor. These are the grapes that go into Charles Shaw (Two Buck Chuck) and Gallo. The other thing is that Clos Pegase only uses  French Oak for its barrels which cost over $1000. apiece whereas, for the Two Buck Chuck variety, they use the inferior American Oak. After this day of education about wine, I was beginning to feel like a wine snob which reminded me of the excellent movie, Sideways, starring Paul Giametti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen  and Sandra Oh about two guys' road trip through the California wine country only they were in a different California wine country in and around Paso Robles, Los Olivos and the Santa Ynez Valley. Check it out on DVD if you haven't seen it! Here's some pictures from Clos Pegase:

   

Later that night Dale dropped us off at the Amtrak bus station in Napa, and we bussed it to Martinez where we caught the train for the overnight to Klamath Falls in a sleeper car and then by Amtrak coach to Portland, OR. Before we leave Napa here's a few more pictures of Yountville and to see our photo album of the Napa Valley including last year's pictures click here.

The California Veterans Home sure is a beautiful place located in Yountville, home of the most expensive restaurant in the US, the French Laundry, where you have to make reservations six months in advance. The CA Vets' Home is sandwiched in between a beautiful golf course on one side and the prestigious winery, Domaine Chandon, on the other. Last year we visited Domaine Chandon for a tasting and toured and tasted Robert Mondavi winery as well as Berringer winery where they make excellent White Zinfandel, Judy's favorite. For the complete photo album of Napa Valley including this year's and last year's pictures, click here. A few more pictures of California Veterans Home before we leave Dale and head on up to Portland, OR on the train:

Finally, we're on the train at 11 PM and escorted immediately to our upper and lower berths. Judy got the lower berth where she could see the mountains and rivers lighted by a full moon, and I got the upper berth where you had to be a contortionist to cram yourself in there. But I was up for the following sunrise picture about an hour outside of Klamath Falls. In the morning we ate breakfast in the dining car, but, like Cinderella, we had to be out of our compartment by the time we got to Klamath Falls or else we would turn into pumpkins. At Klamath Falls I hauled all our luggage about six cars down the train to coach class. (Why pay for a compartment when you're done sleeping there?)

As you can see, it rained all the way to Portland.

After we arrived at Portland's Union Station and checked into the Mark Spencer Hotel (probably the best hotel experience of our vacation with excellent coffee and pastries as well as other breakfast victuals included), we headed for Powell's Books only a block away and a Portland landmark as it's the largest brick and mortar book store in the world housing both new and used books. Here is a picture of Union Station and Powell's Book Store.

The next morning I picked up our Thrifty rental car in downtown Portland and we headed out over the Morrison bridge on I-84 along the Columbia River Gorge headed for Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to visit Judy's sister, Jeanette, and her family. Here's some pictures taken along the Gorge and later in farming country.

John & Judy's Vacation 2007 - Part 1 - San Diego to Salinas, Modesto and Stockton

We left San Diego on the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner at 6:10 AM on Sep- tember 24. After changing in LA to the Coast Starlight, we headed north through Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo arriving in Salinas around 7 PM. Took a taxi to our motel on John Street. The next morning I walked to the YMCA (luckily located only a few blocks away) for my 30 minute swim. I used my Y card every day of the trip at YMCAs in California, Oregon and Washington and there was never a charge. After we ate our included breakfast at the motel, I called Hertz to come get me so I could pick up our rental car. Then we headed for the Steinbeck Museum located in downtown Salinas.

Here's some pictures of our train ride to Salinas, our station stop in Santa Barbara and the scenery north of San Luis Obispo. You can click on any picture to see a larger version of it.

John Steinbeck is my favorite American author, and he grew up in Salinas. He wrote about life in the Salinas Valley and in Monterey which is close by on the coast. The townspeople didn't always appreciate having their dirty laundry hung out in public, but now that Steinbeck is safely dead (having won the Nobel prize in 1962), they have built and dedicated this excellent museum to him which chronicles his life in literature. According to Wikipedia: "In fact, claiming [The Grapes of Wrath] was both obscene and misrepresented conditions in the county, the Kern County Board of Supervisors banned the book from the county's public schools and libraries in August 1939. This ban lasted until January 1941.^" Some of my favorite Steinbeck works are East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, Tortilla Flats, Of Mice and Men, The Red Pony and Travels with Charley. Several of Steinbeck's books were made into movies including East of Eden starring James Dean, Grapes of Wrath starring Henry Fonda, Of Mice and Men and The Red Pony. Here  are some pictures from the Steinbeck Museum.

We had to cut short our visit to the Steinbeck Museum in order to drive to Modesto and have dinner with Judy's daughter and grandson by 5 PM. After checking into our motel, we went to Malissa's duplex on Rumble Road, and Judy met her grandson, Huck for the first  time. Here is a picture of their meeting. The next day Judy babysat Huck while Malissa went and worked out; then they visited while I checked out Modesto. Then we went out to dinner. Here are some more pictures of Huck and Modesto.

The next day we went to the Children's Museum in Stockton. After dropping the dogs off at Doggie Day Care in Escalon, Malissa drove us through a part of the country where they grow a lot of almonds. Malissa pointed out that the correct pronunciation is not ALmonds but AMMONS. I tend to think that only people who grow them or live near there pronounce it AMMONS, but, neverthless, they probably don't care as much that you pronounce it correctly as they do that you keep buying them. Huck had a lot of fun at the museum because he had to do and see everything.

Finally, it was time to say good-bye to Malissa and Huck and head for Yountville in the Napa Valley to visit Judy's cousin Dale who lives at the California Veterans Home. Goodbye Baby Huck and Malissa!