End of the line

Well, we're here. Here, in this case, being Mt. Vernon, WA, population 30,000 or so, annual rainfall about 30 inches. All the way up I-5 we were wondering how well we would cope with the misty grey winter of the Northwest...but when we got here, it was bright, sunny, and COLD (high of 32 and low of 15, today). Ah well, we'll get around to the rain sooner or later.

We stayed around on Tuesday the 1st for two reasons: dinner at Pizzetta 211 with our friend Steve Baughman, and a last chance to go to the session at the Plough and Stars, which was a lovely way to round out our stay in the Bay Area. That night, we stayed at a friend's place in Tiburon, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, and in the morning we headed north...marveling at how chilly it was...little did we know what we were in for. We had a lovely day for driving and were actually able to see all of Mt. Shasta for the first time in a few years. In fact, it would have been a perfect day to drive a U-haul with all of our stuff in it, if we had chosen to do that. I'm not yet certain that we made the right decision about the stuff but we are still convinced that moving once (i.e., when we get a house) is better than moving twice (into another storage unit and then into a house). After we got over the Siskiyous, near sunset, a thick fog came up and turned the highway into a mysterious place of floating lights and half-visible vehicles. To cope with this, we stopped at A&W for some fried cheese curds - we generally don't do fast food but those things are addictive. We made it to Cottage Grove a few minutes before our friends Kelle and Kev got home from work and, after a brief introduction to the wonders of their pellet stoves, headed out to the Axe and Fiddle for dinner and pints. Kelle and Kev's job is moving to Las Vegas without them this week and they, like us, are looking for ways to do what they love (art, in this case) and get paid for it. Kelle's art website is here - it's worth looking at.

Thursday, after meeting the chickens and seeing the new greenhouse, we set off for Portland. Again, it was a lovely day and Mt. Hood was clearly visible - very exciting for me, since I've never actually seen it due to clouds. We stopped in Newberg at the Newberg Music Center to see our friend G.D., the owner, and spent a pleasant hour or so discussing music with him. Got to Portland in mid-afternoon, got most of our stuff into Anton and Katie's house, made a quick stop at Powell's, and set off for a session via dinner at a little taqueria called Cha-Cha-Cha. During the session (held, believe it or not, at a place called It's A Beautiful Pizza), the football teams of two rival Oregon universities were duking it out and our lovely music was frequently interrupted with cheering and clapping that, sadly, had nothing to do with us.

Friday was our day off from driving and we mostly took it easy. Anton and William worked on some duo guitar pieces (p.s., Anton's about to release his first CD, it's really good), William and I went to lunch at our favorite Ethiopian place, Mudai, and the three of us ventured out to Next Adventure to check out their 'bargain basement' of used outdoor gear. I think we're going to go back there sometime in the spring and stock up on backpacking equipment. That night, we ventured out to dinner at Tsunami Thai (have I mentioned it's been pretty darn cold?) and decided to go back to the house before going to yet another session. We almost didn't go back out but we decided to forge ahead and ended up at the Alberta Street Pub for a really rockin' session...got home about 1, I think...

Saturday was THE LAST DAY OF THE ROAD TRIP. We went out early to hear Anton's friend Eric Skye play at Haven Coffee - the music was fabulous and the eggnog latte reminded me that there are actually good things about winter. We got everything back in the car and made plans to meet up soon, since we're so close to Portland now! Lunch happened at the Fishbowl in Olympia, WA and we got the added bonus of being able to meet up with not one but two people we know in the area at the same time. And then we drove north, past still more mountains (we could see St. Helens, Rainier, and Baker) and rivers and gigantic evergreens. Dinner at the Skagit River Brewery rounded things off very nicely...especially since we're really going to have to cut back on eating out for a while...!

We're staying at a friend's house in Mt. Vernon, doing lots of cooking and networking and emailing and figuring out what to do next. There are great sessions here; we already know most of the Irish musicians in the area because of Friday Harbor Irish Music Camp and it's wonderful to see everyone again. It's also nice to be making plans to stay in one place instead of getting ready to take off again in a few days, but at the same time it's hard not to wonder what the next adventure will be.