April 1, 2011
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Roadtrip #3: Seattle, Washington
The first long roadtrip that I took my foreign exchange student on was during the Christmas holidays. The day after Christmas, 26 December, we packed the car and headed to Greenleaf to drop off Alpo at his second home (mom & J's place--he loves it there) and picked up C's friend J for a trip to Seattle. My aunt & uncle agreed to let us stay at their place and because of them we had a wonderful time! Thank you A & J!!!!! Anyway, because of the roads and my lack of confidence in driving, my brothers suggested, I drive to Portland and then take I-5 towards Seattle. It was just a few hours longer, but probably safer. The girls had never seen such big freeways like when we arrived in Portland area and then again in Seattle--four lane freeways are not common in parts of Europe, I guess. So, we got somewhere close to Tacoma and I had C. turn on the garmin. Well, the garmin had the settings set to avoid traffic and if anyone knows the Tacoma-Seattle area--there is always traffic. So, the garmin took us off the freeway in Tacoma although we were going to Redmond, which is north of Seattle and Tacoma is south. At first, I didn't follow the garmin's directions as I actually knew better (even with no sense of direction!
) and then after about four 'recalculating', I decided to see what it will do and got off of the freeway. Well, it took us through every little town between Tacoma and Redmond and we started making fun of this stupid machine. It also took about two hours longer... I decided to follow the directions and if it didn't get us there by a certain time that I would get directions to the freeway. It got us there by the deadline, but it took a lot longer than it should have... The girls did get to see the Seattle metropolitan area however! My aunt and uncle were so gracious! Although, I took the girls on vacation to Seattle, I was still working and at that time I was working nights teaching Japanese, Koreans and a German. So, I would teach until about 6 AM and then go to bed. Every morning, my uncle, who is an early bird, drove the girls to the bus station and made sure they got on the right bus. He even humored them and stopped while they took a picture of the Microsoft sign--actually, I think he was tickled by their excitement. They spent the daylight hours in Seattle and had a wonderful time. I didn't really get to spend time with them as I slept most of the day. When the girls were ready to come home (we had them home before dark), we would go pick them up. I think my uncle drove once or twice and then my aunt and I went together as well. My driving 'fear' (if that is what you want to call it) just might be genetic because my mom and aunt both hate freeways and go out of there way to avoid them--I come by it right. Anyway, we spent New Years in Redmond ice skating and then the girls humored me by seeing the new year in at a movie theater watching Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The trip home was completely different as I had originally planned to drive to Eugene, Oregon for training for a new job I was going to start in January. Well, after we booked plane tickets for the girls, I was informed that the training would be a week later. The plane tickets were non-refundable so I had to drive home alone. All that week, my uncle was watching the roads and he suggested that I go over the pass in Washington (can't remember the name) towards Yakima, which is what I did. I loved it! I decided then that I really enjoyed driving and wanted to go on more road trips!
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