I find it hard to believe that it's almost been a month since I slept in my own bed. However, after last night, my back doesn't. It's good to be home.
Here's the recap...
FRIDAY
I arrived in Seattle just before midnight Friday. I had convinced my buddy/business partner Randy to drive down to pick me up. The idea was simple: I'd arrive and then we'd spend two days checking out neat stuff in Washington State.
Unfortunately for Randy, it was Good Friday, meaning the entire population of Canada was heading to Seattle for the weekend. He spent hours stuck in the line-up at the border. Meanwhile, I was snacking on free pretzels at 30,000 feet.
The journey began in the early afternoon in Belize. After lounging around and doing last minute packing and re-packing, Brent and I headed for the airport, once again using the services of Bullet. Brent had paperwork to do at customs as he was exporting his video camera to Canada for repairs. The trade off was that I left my audio gear in Belize. No big deal, as I probably won't need it any time soon.
Check-in at the Belize airport went smoothly, although most of the duty free shops were closed for Good Friday. This meant that I was only able to come home with a smaller bottle of One Barrel that I had purchased and not used on Caye Caulker. I had hoped to snag a bottle of Ron Zacapa Centenario on the way home. But it was not to be.
The flight to Dallas was fully packed, and I was surrounded by an XXXL family. Luckily I have learned from my travels, and I always get an aisle seat. It not only allows you to stretch out your legs, it also allows for unrestricted access to the can.
Immigration at Dallas was easy. I cleared customs in record time and proceeded to the next waiting area. I was in Dallas for about two hours, and spent my time enjoying fattening food and Dos Xs.
The flight to Seattle was painful. Again, the plane was packed, but this time it was an L10-11 or some such, and even though I had the aisle seat, it was cramped. Plus, I was at the very back of the plane, too close to the smelly can.
There was no entertainment on the 4 hour flight, unless you count a symphony of babies with bursting ear drums. And while I had my iPod and noise-canceling headphones, the Gods were not kind to me. The headphones went on the fritz. And, to make matters worse, on this particular plane, the engines were located on the ass-end of the fuselage -- or, in this case, just outside the widow of my row. Not only was it loud as hell, you could feel them.
Needless to say for four hours I was unable to sleep for more than a few minutes, I was cramped into an extra-small seat, and the noise was deafening. I love travel, but I hate flying coach. It is worse than even the worst bus. Plus, the beer is $5 a tin. Harrumph.
It was a bumpy ride to Seattle, although we made good time, arriving just before midnight.
Randy was waiting in the world's ugliest airport, pissed at the huge delays he experienced in crossing the border earlier in the day.
But it wasn't all bad.
Upon arrival we immediately headed for my new favourite greasy spoon, The Hurricane. It's a 24-hour licenced joint in the shadow of the Space Needle. After a greasy burger and tankard of Mac and Jack's African ale, it was time to hit the sheets at the Day's Inn across the street. It was now something like 2am.
Saturday in Seattle
The weather sucked
Saturday we joined the masses and went shopping. Target. Circuit City. The liquor store. You name it. But we had a plan -- Satsop.
Satsop
The town of Satsop, WA is located south of Seattle -- and west of the state capital, Olympia. South of Puget Sound and close to the Pacific, it was once home to a massive nuclear reactor project. But cost overruns and fraud brought the project to a halt after about 75 per cent of the site was completed.
Today, two massive cooling towers stand, cooling nothing. The town is trying to develop the area into some sort of bizarre industrial area, but isn't having much luck.
Cooling Tower
Randy and I are interested in the site as it might be good subject matter for a possible TV project.
UFO?
The weather was absolutely brutal, and not just because I had become accustomed to sunny days that featured daytime highs approaching 35C.
No, it was brutal because it was more like the west coast winter I had left behind. Cold, wet, and -- believe it or not -- there was actually snow mixed with the rain.
Our visit to Satsop was fairly quick. We stopped to shoot some photos out the window, made some mental notes, and then left. We discovered later that there are a number of underground bunkers here -- and that it is possible to arrange for tours. Which is certainly something we'll arrange for the next visit. Apparently you can climb the massive cooling towers as well. Fun!
Satsop marks the second nuclear facility I've visited. Back in 2003, I visited the Ignalina reactor in Lithuania.
Fond nuclear memories of Ignalina, Lithuania
We continued our journey west, primarily in search of lunch. We'd only booked the one night in Seattle, and we'd thought we might stay somewhere on the Olympic peninsula rather than in the big city.
The whole are was new to us, and, if we could have seen beyond the 2 feet the heavy rain and snow had reduced our visibility to, we would have seen some lovely countryside.
We decided to stop in a smallish town called Aberdeen, pop. 16,000. We were immediately attracted to it because it appeared to be falling apart.
Waterfront demolition
Shut tight
Ghost town
It was still raining heavily, so we decided the best thing to do was find a place to stay. And that place was the crusty old Olympic Motel.
Actually, it wasn't too bad a joint. The rooms were massive, and there were only about 3 other people staying in the entire place.
It was a bit of a throwback to the old days... But comfy, none the less. The fridge in the room did a good job of chilling the Tecate.
Lots of parking at the motel
Classic scene
After dumping off all my sandfilled clothes, we hit the streets to make notes of places to photograph, should Sunday not be a washout.
We found a fab place for dinner called Bridges... we bucked up and ordered the prime rib. It was excellent... and a nice change from rice and beans. I don't do prime rib that often, so when I do, it is always a mouthwatering treat.
After a decent sleep, I was disappointed when I woke up and it was STILL raining outside. That didn't bode well for a photo safari.
Undeterred, we ventured out and the first stop on Easter Sunday was Safeway -- which not only was open, also had a Starbucks. I needed a vat of coffee, and Starbucks was really the only option.
We went back to several spots we'd seen on Saturday and shot a bunch of images (see above). The most interesting place was an old boarded up theatre called "D & G".
Old theatre
Elsewhere, we discovered a city block that had recently been struck by fire. While snapping away I was approached by Dean. Dean owned the land on which the burned out building sat.
At first I thought he was going to chew me out -- but he simply wanted to know what I was up to. This lead to a long conversation about Aberdeen and its history. Although the downtown area didn't look like it, things are actually on the upswing and a lot of renovations are underway.
Dean explained that the economy suffered a number of hits, the most recent being the collapse of the lumber industry. But in a Tofino-like turn of events, tourism is taking over as thousands flock to storm watch at Ocean Shores -- just up the highway. The plan is to turn Aberdeen into a place to stop and visit, rather than just a place to drive through. And, they might be on to something,
Dean also told us about an old Navy base with lots of secret underground facilities -- and that part of it was open to the public. However, time was short as we had a long drive back to Canadaland. So, we filed the information away and I gave Dean my card in the hopes that he'll keep in touch. I really want to explore this part of the state some more. Especially on a warm and sunny day.
We headed north to Canada, stopping in Seattle to try and do some last minute shopping. Unfortunately most of the stores were closed. Rather than dilly-dally around, we thought the best course of action was to hit the border before the rest of Canada.
We hit the border around 6pm and the line-up was about 15 cars deep. We were up to the little booth in about 5 minutes. And we were ready.
Since I had been out of the country for almost a month, I was allowed to bring back something like $700 worth of stuff. And I would have, if the stores had been open. As it was I only had a few hundred bucks worth of stuff at best. It pisses me off, though, that the booze limits are based on volume rather than dollar value. I'd much rather bring back $700 worth of rum than $700 worth of shoes and cheese.
Randy, having been down south for 48 hours was allowed $300 or so. He had much less as well.
The interaction with Canada Customs was as follows:
Inspector (looking at Randy): Where do you live?
Randy: North Vancouver.
Inspector: Value of goods you're bringing back?
Randy: About $100.
Inspector: Bye.
That was it. He didn't even look at me. But, I guess, that's the way Customs should be. Free and easy unless there is a good reason for the third degree. Still, I wished I had brought more cheese back.
About an hour later, I was unloading the car and looking at this strange place called home. Another trip was over, and real life was staring me in the face.
However, the past 30 days had certainly been memorable. And I look forward to doing it again...
Cheers!
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