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Published: June 30th 2006
The last couple of weeks have been crammed full of love, sweet love. Yessirree, catching up with the folks who know you best can be a really good thing, that is, of course, unless they start telling your new husband fun stories above your high school days which you try to rationalize and end up making your past appear even more checkered. (To my new family in Australia, notice how I’m speaking hypothetically; I was always an angel, scout's honor.)
Let me tell you about the fun (about the trip, not about my glory days):
After leaving Yellowstone we headed due north anticipating stunning views and many, many ferocious animal sightings as we drove through glorious Glacier National Park. Maybe, one of us should have thought and phoned ahead to check that, um, the park was actually open for the season before we drove a couple of hundred miles out of the way.
But all was not lost, as the ranger assured us. We were able to drive ten miles into the park which was sweet and all, but then we’d have to drive ten miles back out and then a hundred or so more miles around the
park in order to get my cousin’s place on the other side in time for dinner. We decided a possible grizzly or mountain lion sighting was worth the risk of being late for dinner.
Alas, we saw no cougars, no grizzlies, no mountain goats, no nuttin’. We did take a quick little jaunt off the side of the road to snap some pictures of a gorgeous gorge and an enchanting little island in a lake framed by icy, craggly, glacier-worn peaks. Then we got our sweet asses back in the subi and put the pedal to the metal.
Seeing my cousin, Brian, again was tres fun. Brian works for the U.S. Border Patrol and he was on shift the night we arrived. Knowing how big the border is and how dodgy those Canadians are, we decided to help and joined him for his patrol that night. And oh did we find us some miscreants, including a couple of Amish folks walking around in the dark and looking suspicious with their long beards and all. We flashed the lights at them and taught them a thing or two about electricity.
Next stop was a short visit with my
aunt and uncle in their beautiful little home in the North Idahoan woods where we hiked and wrestled with the dogs and walked stilts and rope swung and played Scrabble just like when my family visited when I was a kid. But there’s a new addition to my aunt and uncle’s neighborhood—Highland cows (although we prefer to call them Hippie cows) that we got to feed and pat and run our fingers through their luscious long locks. There was a precocious little baby bull in our happy little cow family who completely won us over. Heck, who wants kids when you can have baby long-haired cows that gurgle and moo? (And Paul says we can eat them when they get a little older and less cute, not like human babies.)
And then it was home to the folks’ house in glorious, glowing Richland, WA. Let me tell you a little bit about my hometown. It’s actually pretty famous. We’ve been both in Time and Life magazines and probably others as well. There’s also an informative exhibit at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, DC about home, sweet home. Too bad we’re famous for all the wrong reasons. Richland is home
to the Hanford Nuclear Site which was part of the Manhattan Project and responsible for producing the plutonium for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in World War II. Whatever your feelings about nuclear bombs, I think most of us would agree that celebrating a feat that ended with the deaths of lots of thousands of human beings is not such a great idea. Well, not here. Our city seems to take great pride in our nuclear accomplishment as visitors will easily witness as they get a bite to eat at Atomic Pizza or roll a strike at Atomic Lanes bowling alley. Richland High School’s mascot is the greatest illustration of our nuclear pride. Sadly we are the Richland Bombers; I was a Bomber. And our symbol is a mushroom cloud. One week, when I was in high school, I was rewarded for some accomplishment by being named ‘Bomber of the Week’. Winners of this prestigious honor are awarded with a ‘Bomber of the Week’ t-shirt complete with a glow-in-the-dark mushroom cloud. Jealous much?
And if you’re not into things nuclear, there are lots of other great things about Richland. I’m sure you can imagine how beautiful it must
Best Gramma in the world
With Ryan, Jenn, Riley, and little peanut in the belly.be. They always put nuclear reactors in the most scenic of locales. And you know it must be a lot of fun; nuclear scientists are renowned for their wicked senses of humor and crazy, wild sides.
But what Richland does have is all of my family and friends and memories, and for me, those are reason enough to come for a visit (the beautiful Columbia River, a booming wine industry, and delicious Spudnut donuts are also pretty good). And geesh it was good to see everyone again. Holly and Terry and Finn, and Ami and Doug and Kayla, and Melissa and Matt all spoiled us with absolutely scrumptious backyard barbecues full of laughs and too many margaritas and glasses of wine. (Terry, I will never forgive you for that hangover.)
The annual Cool Desert Nights (yes, there are in fact deserts in Washington state—they don’t build nuclear plants in rain forests) Antique Auto Show and Ye Merry Greenwood Renaissance Festival also graced Richland during our visit which made for a neat mix of folks—muscle car freaks with mullets on one side of town and bar wenches in corsets watching their men folk joust sans horse on the other
equals FUN!
I’m a closet car freak, and Paul has been shamelessly “out” for decades, so we decided to check out the classic car parade. Goodness gracious there are some pretty cars in this world! Did that sound too girlie for car talk?
Paul and I also made a trip up north to visit my friends in Seattle and poke around one of my favorite towns in the world, Bellingham, where I got my undergraduate degree. Bellingham is one the greenest, prettiest towns that I know of and it is just full of beautiful places to wander around and scrumptious, yummy, hippie restaurants to stop at and fill our bellies. So we did just that. I was in heaven.
In Seattle, Paul and I got to catch up with some more old friends. We had fabulous happy hour drinks with Jenn, great late night conversation with Laura (your bed just might be our new Best Bed of the Trip and your new apartment is beautiful), and a kickass barbecue with Karen and her boys and Konrad and Julie and little Evan, and a quick rendezvous with my favorite Thai restaurant (who I’ve come to think of as
an old friend). Thanks to all of you, we love you guys.
And good news! Also in Seattle I got the stamp of approval from the Australian immigration doctor. Lucky me. I guess that means I’m one step closer to being a legitimate resident of Oz. If only my new country was better at playing soccer . . . . Come to think of it, my old country had a pretty crap showing too. (Side Note: To Arnaud, Bernie, Flora, Sandip, and David—watching World Cup this time around really brought me back to my trip to Europe last World Cup and how much fun I had learning all about this crazy sport you call “football” with you. I don’t know if you’re reading this, but I miss y’all!!)
Back in Richland, we were treated by some more great meals out including a celebratory dinner from my folks for my friend Sari and her soon to be husband, Caleb. Congratulations, you two. So sorry we’ll miss the wedding. And thanks, mom and dad for a great dinner and good visit.
Paul also got to take part in my traditional Shari breakfast dates with my fantastic grandma. I’ll never
grow too old for dates with my grandma. We love you, Gramma!
My friend, Karen and I also participated in Richland’s most entertaining, legal pastime: KARAOKE. It wasn’t pretty. And thanks to the lack of sound on our blog, Paul can’t embarrass us or torture you all with any live recordings. We did meet some great new friends though (see photo below). See what radiation can do to a person!!!
That’s it for now. Thanks so much for putting up with all my shout-outs and walks down memory lane. To everyone in Washington—we’ll see you again in December as we now have tickets from Lima to Pasco which means we will be coming back through before moving to Australia. Then, it’s up to you to come visit us there. To everyone in Australia, it’s confirmed; we’ll be home for Christmas barbecue. I want to see Santa in surf shorts!
But before all that, next up is a visit with my newly pregnant brother and sister-in-law and aunt and uncle in Portland, OR where we get to do some wine tasting and pig roasting. Then on to Medford for Fourth of July fun with Cara and Chris, and
Glacier gate
I don't see any damn snow on the road so open up already!! on to San Francisco to catch up with Monica. And then one glorious national park after another (with a debauched Vegas detour) until we hit the border in El Paso. Andale!!
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Bernie
non-member comment
World Cup
Hi Casey - of course i'm reading this! I can't think of a better way to skip a bit of time while in the office. Glad to hear you're enjoying the world cup again, hope you two can make it to Europe some time during your epic trip!