Seeing Seattle

In the midst of my production of the Golden Girls saga, I went out and about of my San Diego home northward bound to Seattle, Washington. My visit up north was brief, but PACKED with fun adventures and it's high time I share those adventures with you, dear readers.

 Last time I was in the North West corner was about twelve years ago (holy cow!), so I was quite excited to see Seattle once more. But I was especially excited to see my sweet aunts who live there!

Being a busy worker bee, I spent the first half of my Thursday at work before popping over to San Diego International Airport, also known as Lindbergh Field. (Side note; Charles Lindbergh's plane, the Spirit of Saint Louis was built in San Diego at Dutch Flats, an area of present day Point Loma, by Ryan Airliners. HENCE why the airport has two names,) My wait there was short and I was able to check my bag at the gate, which was a wonderful relief as I despise having to shove luggage over peoples' heads. I'm unusually paranoid that I'm going to drop my bag on someone's head. Talk about an ouch!

The flight was quick and painless. I ended up writing a fair amount of one of my books on my iPad during the voyage, so that was lovely. Felt like vacation right off the bat!

Sea-Tac was an interesting airport. I had to take a shuttle train from my terminal to the baggage claim before stumbling out into the cool and refreshing Washington air. My aunts were at the airport and ready to go! Even though there was heavy traffic leaving the airport, we were able to visit the entire way, so that made the ride go quickly by.

Mocha-Moch, my new furry friend

We enjoyed some yummy Thai food, but it took us just shy of an hour to get to their neck of the woods (literally) because of the traffic. We just laughed and visited the whole way up. My aunts are wonderfully adventurous spirits. They have been to England, Ireland, and Ecuador in the last few months alone! They just arrived that week from their latest international trip, but you would never know it from their energy! When we made it to their cute house, we fed the neighbor's chickens, (named Goldie, Opal, and Ethel), collected eggs, fed a different neighbor's cat, housed a stray kitty, who is quite friendly in the garage and turned on her heated senior citizen home, then fed their two cats and the 16 year old puppy, Sophie. They call it the coldesac farm. All the animals are very sweet and it was a lot of fun getting to help care for such a collection of furry and feathered friends.

We made plans to see the tulip fields and a few other amazing spots for the next day. 

Early the next morning, my aunt fed her "people". First, she starts with the crows and the squirrels, giving them a cup full of peanuts, which they gratefully received. After that, we fed Ms. Ellie Mae, the retired senior citizen kitty with her heated bed. She was never attracted to the idea of going inside, but she LOVED being pet. Then, we went to the chickens to let them out of their little hen house. We had to feed them in two separate piles - Opal likes to peck, I mean, pick on Goldie, so she and Ethel would eat from one pile of corn and Goldie could have her own.

The mostly golden girls

After all the furred and feathered friends were fed, we ate some yummy oats ourselves and then hopped in the car to go birding. We saw the most AMAZING things! We enjoyed the company of dozens of Russian trumpeter swans and Eagles! Real, wild, nesting BALD EAGLES!!! Now, my readers in the northern neck of the woods are probably thinking, "Meh, no big deal." But to a kid from the southern half of the states who has never seen a wild Eagle before, this was a wonderful and an incredible sight. The areas that we visited to see the birds were breathtaking even of themselves.

The only problem with birding in Washington in early March is that it is COLD! We were bundled up, but the wind coming off the water was a descent reminder that North West cold is waaaaaaaaay more piercing than South West cold.

We drove up a little ways more north and drove through the blooming tulip fields. It was spectacular. Yellow and orange, and gold flowers as far as the eyes could see!

The Russian swans were enjoying the flowers as well. If you're wondering what Russian swans were doing in Seattle, don't worry, they were here on visas...I'm just kidding. It's a part of their migration pattern to have their babies here then they eat as many potatoes as possible before making the incredible long trek back to Russia. Talk about a commute! Trumpeter Swans mate for life and travel in family units.

It was a lot of fun to hear the squawks and honks of the swans as we drove through the country roads, winding our way to the Mount Vernon area, where under the watchful gaze of a red-tulip painted tower, we had our lunch at the Calico Cafe. Oh my gosh. I will never be able to have better clam chowder than that which I enjoyed at this cafe. SO GOOD! We sipped delicious coffees and enjoyed our salads and soups. For dessert we enjoyed an excellent apple cinnamon bun.

We drove back down to our neck of the woods, watching the Canadian geese, the Russian Swans, and the tulip fields fly by. When we made it back to the house, we watched two Episodes of Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs that talk about the Maritime Museum of San Diego's ships, the one-hundred-eleven year old steam-yacht Medea and the 152 year old iron hulled barq, Star of India. We did this in preparation for our next adventure, which I'll tell you all about next time in the Weekly Read!

Until then, Dear Readers!

Your humble author,
S. Faxon