The Great American Road Trip: Day 31 - Burke Museum, drive to Portland

To Portland at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Washington

Distance - 190 miles
Time - 3.5 hours

Over a month on the road and still trucking along! I've now driven over 4000 miles (by my odometer, so including city driving) through 9 states (AZ, NM, CO, WY, UT, ID, MT, WA, OR), meaning there's only 26 or so more to go in the next three months :D Good thing those New England states are tiny and close together.

Random aside - growing up in Colorado I didn't realize until I was applying to colleges that the region of the northern half of the East coast was what people meant when they said "New England" - I had always been confused and thought maybe my 5th grade geography had missed a state somewhere next to New Hampshire. Silly how you can go for so long with ideas like that if no one teaches you that New England is a region, not just the original name for the British colonies as a collective whole. Or maybe I just never made the connection that everyone else did :p

I had the best of intentions to wake up early and go running along the waterfront since I was just so close, but instead I happily dozed under the warm blankets until I heard Elise and Hannah start moving about. Elise headed out to work pretty early, but Hannah and I had a nice chance to sit and chat for a little while over breakfast and tea before she left for work and I set out to follow up on some of their recommendations for how to spend my last few hours in Seattle. It was such a pleasure staying with them and with Jim and Jeannie, I really can't wait until I get the chance to come back (or to return the favor and invite them to stay with me!)

My first stop was the Burke Museum, on the University campus. The parking system is a little funny, you pay for the day and then they refund the difference as you leave if you stay for less than 4 hours, but I got my little ticket for my dashboard and headed into the building. Elise and Hannah and I had been talking about some of my work in Burkina, and they remembered that the museum had an exhibit about women-led entrepreneurial projects from around the world! The Empowering Women section didn't allow photographs, but I did take photos of the brochure so you can see some of the different ideas women have come up with to make money and improve their communities. It doesn't really show in the brochure, but the exhibit itself had a little section for each group, with some examples of the product they are making, how the group started, how the project has impacted their lives and community, and a little plaque that raised counterpoint questions - the part I particularly enjoyed because those are hard questions with no easy answer but it's so easy to gloss over and ignore them. One that stuck in my mind was the peace basket weaving project that has become pretty much the only source of income for that community - what happens when the international market that the group caters to decides that these are no longer "fashionable" or worth paying so much money for and the demand for the baskets decreases? Having seen the struggles local artists and craftsmen go through to get their work out to a wider market, the thought I kept coming back to was along the lines of "wow, I can only imagine how proud these groups are to know that their work and stories are reaching an audience bigger than any they might have imagined when they started - that must be such a great feeling".

I did a quick walk though of the rest of the museum - a small exhibit on dinosaurs, the tectonic activity of the Pacific Rim, and artwork from Pacific cultures on both sides of the ocean - before heading back out on my morning journey. I wish I had had time to explore a few more neighborhoods, but decided to go ahead and drive back through Fremont to a coffee shop that Elise and Hannah had recommended. Caffe Ladro has several locations around town, this one was a pleasantly busy but not crowded shop where I was able to order immediately upon walking in, but did get lucky that someone was leaving one of the little windowside tables as the orange was being zested into my "Medici" cafe mocha. I must say that I always knew chocolate and orange were a good combination (even when my friends in college made fun of me for it), but now I know that the way to have an amazing cup of coffee is with chocolate and a twirl of orange peel in it. Gnome and I went online to decide on a route to Portland - directly on I-5? Over to the coast and then back inland? I settled on I-5 for most of the way with a little detour the last hour on the opposite side of the river so that I'd be traveling on small highways but it wouldn't add more than 50 minutes to the trip (vs the coast which would have been an extra 3-4 hours).

The drive was beautiful and fairly uneventful, although I did find it odd that I kept seeing logging trucks driving identical-looking tree trunks both south and north on the same highway - why not just keep the logs from the north in the north, and from the south in the south? I'm sure there's a reason, but it struck me as something I'd like to know. The part of the drive where I detoured off of I-5 took me through a very industrial little town that seemed to be a popular route for large trucks - I was one of only a few cars, and the streets were lined with industrial and commercial construction, logging, and trucking companies. I found where some of the trees ended up when I drove over the Lewis and Clark Bridge, there seemed to be wood processing facilities on either side of the river, which was particularly interesting after hearing about Seattle's history as a timber town that slid logs (down "skid row") from the hills to the water for export.

I got a little turned around, trying to follow the directions I'd written down from online while simultaneously trying to judge when my GPS was finally going to stop turning me back to I-5 and accept my new route (it won't let you chose your route besides a preference for most direct or shortest time). I finally made it onto SH-30 and enjoyed winding my way through the woods away from the bustle of the interstate. Dave had recommended Poppa's Haven as a coffee shop near his house where I could sit and blog while waiting for him to get home from work, and I arrived just after 4pm, giving myself 2 hours to sit and write and eavesdrop on the conversations around me. The cinnamon nut scone was a little dry but still very tasty, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I could get a large cafe au lait for under $3! When's the last time you got anything at Starbucks besides hot tea that was that price? (Probably about 7 or 8 years ago, now that I think about it)

The shop was closing at 6, so I packed myself up and drove a few miles to Dave's parents house. Set in a beautiful suburb of Portland, I was happy that the neighborhood was so winding and labyrinth-like because it gave me ample time to gawk at the beautiful houses with their lush gardens and towering trees, each road seemingly designed to twist around the hills so that each house had a downhill, spacious view either in front or in back. I was puttering around my car throwing clothing and toiletries in and out of my bag when the front door opened and a HUGE dog came bounding out to greet me! Seamus is a 3 year old lab, who is trained well enough to know not to jump and knock you over, but still has an enthusiastic little front paw hop that lets you know that he's just *dying* to greet you with a hug and probably a big sloppy kiss. Following behind him was Dave's mom, who warmly welcomed me into their home and laughed with me as we watched Seamus try to entice us to play by fetching a small tree branch and proceeding to strip it of any sticks that might inhibit our ability to throw it for him.

Susan helped me get settled into their basement guest room, and we were chatting in the kitchen as the rest of the family came home. It's the first time I've seen Dave since I left Burkina last November! We didn't see each other as often as some volunteers since we were a pretty long day of traveling apart, but did make a point to meet up every few months either in one of our villages or in Ouaga or Ouahigouya. With shared love of tea, reading, and traveling, we always had a lot to talk about and an easy comfort in just sitting and reading together in the shade. After dinner we spent hours just talking and talking, catching up on what our lives look like now. Dave paved the way for me on this cross-country travel thing, biking across the country this summer and conveniently compiling an email list of other Volunteers that I put to use when I was planning my driving trip.