To the coast with Peter

Since Jeremiah was expecting us on Thursday evening, I had to give Peter a whirlwind tour of the northern section of the Oregon Coast. We left Portland on Wednesday evening and drove to Seaside, arriving just before 8pm. We checked in to one of the cottages at The Tides. It was crisp and clear out, and the scent of salt was strong on the breeze. After a week at the PDC down in LA, Peter had an aversion to restaurant food, so we walked to a little grocery and bought bread and deli meat, made sandwiches, sat and talked until about 11pm. It is interesting, having known him online for a dozen years and finally getting to meet him. People change over so many years, and yet they don't. He's a father now, he's been married and divorced, but he's still addicted to gaming, shifting from Genesis to Ultima to World of Warcraft. "Come play," he says, "I'll even give you a level 60 character." Heh. Addict. Thursday morning we went for a walk along the beach. The tide was very low and the birds were feasting on dungeness crab. once again, the weather was perfect--blue sky and very little mist or wind. When we got back to the cottage we sipped coffee and then made sandwiches to take with us for lunch. He was impressed by how 'cheap' sliced roast beef was, and helped himself to multiple slices, something that is a no-no in Denmark, where it is apparently much more expensive.


I took him from Seaside to where the largest Sitka spruce in the Continental US is. It is quite huge, even if it is not nearly so large as the Sequioias and Redwoods I saw this summer, but impressive none the less. Afterwards, I took him to Cannon Beach and the Ecola State Park for a view of Indian Beach and and of Cannon Beach from Ecola Point. I was reminded again of the difference in the the acuity of senses between myself and others. There is so much I noticed that Peter did not. I love the way the forest smells at Ecola and I asked him if he liked it. He had no idea what I was talking about. I took him to a spot that smelled especially strong of pine and cedar and humus and wildflowers and told him to close his eyes and breathe in, and he could not smell it. I had to point out the caterpillars he was going to step on, and the surfers in the water, and the sound of the trees creaking, and the way the trunks of some of the trees had gone silver. He marvelled that I noticed such things, and said he'd always wondered how I could paint pictures with words but now he understood.

Afterwards we drove the Pacific Coast Highway north through Astoria up to Aberdeen, WA and turned inland. The view of Mt Rainier as we entered the Olympia area was astonishing. Peter was amazed by the size of it, and the fact that it had even more snow on it than Mt Hood did. I drove up through Seattle so Peter could seet he city, then turned back on 405 to Bellvue. Peter misplaced the paper with Jeremiah's address, so we mooched wifi off some slob with an unsecured network so Peter could check his email, and armed with the street number, but without a mapquest map, we went in search of Jeremiah's house. Bellevue's streets and numbering system actually makes sense, so I found my way pretty easily. It is funny, he called my cell when we were just a minute away.

We chatted for a few hours and then about 9pm started making noises about dinner. Peter again expressed his dislike of eating restaurant food. Jeremiah pointed out that he is a bachelor who works long hours for Microsoft, so all he had in his house was beer and water. I told Jeremiah that I had been trying to get Peter to try sushi, but Peter stated he did not like the idea. Jeremiah noted that there was an excellent sushi place near his house, and that he was certain Peter would like it. So we had sushi. Peter is a quick learner. A lesson in Danish from Jeremiah on how to use the sticks and what the wasabi and ginger were for, and away he went. We went through unagi, ahi, shrimp, crab, and california rolls. The ahi tuna was very tender, impressing Peter. He was dubious about eating raw 'fiske' at first, but after his first bite, he was hooked.

After dinner we went back to Jeremiah's. He fixed up a spare bed for me and we all went to sleep at around 12:30. I woke up at 7:30 an enjoyed a bit of time to myself. His home is lovely, the entire west wall from the dining room to the living room is glass, and there is a nice view of a deck and trees and a small guest house that he presently uses to store his deck chairs and grill. Peter wanted to see the Microsoft Campus and Jeremiah invited me along. I called Mark to see if he was still on vacation and free to meet, but he was at work. I had a pounding headache anyway, and I did not feel all that social, so I decided to head home. At 10:15 I had to pull over. I was horribly sick to my stomach. I ended up changing clothes on the side of the road and taking a nap for a couple of hours, then continuing the drive home. Originally I had planned to stop and see Chris, who had been out of town all week, but I was not feeling up to it at all, so I called him. He was very sweet and told me to stop at his place and rest, since he was 45 minutes closer than home, but I declined. I felt gross and I am sure I smelled horrid and all I wanted to do was fall into bed. Which I did, when I finally got home at 3:30. A drive that normally doesn't take more than 3 hours took 6. Yuck.

Talked to Peter this morning, he and Jeremiah visited a strip club and a casino last night. For his birthday today they will do more of the same, I gather, and then Jeremiah will get him on a plane to Portland tomorrow so he can catch his Portland->Frankfurt flight in the afternoon.