Thursday, August 14, 2008

Travels With Bubbie

Bubbie's business has taken us "on the road" of late: one journey to Northern California and a second to Western Washington, both by automobile. Even at $4+/gallon, gasoline is less expensive than flying. The Bay Area and Marin County haven't changed much since our last jaunt there in the spring. Bubbie had her meeting in Emeryville, we hung out with family in Corte Madera and San Geronimo, and Pop and I ate oysters fresh at and from Drake's Bay. Cousin Jack was nowhere to be seen, heard or felt, neither in the town nor the city.

The trip back to OR via the Redwood Highway was spooky. The forest fires plaguing CA had driven many of the forest folk to seek shelter along the coast in and about Arcata and environs. All of the motels were full of desperate folks, as were the streets. Even though they roll up the sidewalks at 8 PM thereabouts, at that hour lots of sullen-looking people were sitting around every available table at just about every venue. We scurried home.

WA was more the usual. Again, Bubbie had business in Bellevue after which we headed to Port Townsend and Chimicum for more family revelry (and more oysters for me). The combination of tourists and trust-fund-babies in PT is always remarkable and this last trip did not disappoint. H. Bert Frank, like Cousin Jack, was conspicuous with his apparent absence.

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