Eclipse Trip - Vacation!

The word of the week is stellar.

Aug 21 – The ECLIPSE!

After leisurely breakfast, we were all ready for the eclipse!

We did have the option of driving another hour to the south, to be within the area of totality, but in the end we decided not to risk getting stuck in the masses of traffic of people trying to do the same thing. While not my video below, it's still astounding as to what was seen under the totality shadow:

The eclipse itself wasn't quite as exciting as we'd hoped where we were: while we were at a 99.28% coverage at the peak today, it still wasn't enough to do more than dim the lights for a couple of minutes, akin to just after a sunset. We were lucky enough to be sitting out in the back orchard area, next to a young lady who had a pair of eclipse glasses which she was kind enough to share. Supplementing this with a shadow viewer I'd made out of an energy bar box, we were able to watch the eclipse as it happened!

The most amazing part for me was the several minutes leading up to the totality, when the light from the sun's corona started washing across the grass in waves similar to what you would see on the hood of a hot car. It was startling to behold!

The cheap, eye-saving view inside a box!

After that, we headed out for the day. Exploring the Columbia River Gorge was something that looked to be exciting, considering the natural beauty of the area we were situated in, in Oregon. Heading north along the gorge, we stopped at several waterfalls, the most impressive of which was Multanomah Falls, which is over 600 feet high:

It was 1/3 mile to the bridge, overlooking the upper pool - so lovely!

We had lunch at the large park lodge at Multanomah, then headed south again and after a long, winding drive along the gorge wall, we arrived at Vista Point, which was truly well-named:

This is just the view to the north!

The views from the century-old Crown Point building were spectacular, looking north and south up the Columbia River Gorge for dozens of miles from its perch atop the Eastern Escarpment. The building itself was impressive in its own right, being part of a visionary tourist destination system created long before tourism was a big thing in North America. I especially liked the marble partitions in the bathrooms!

The verandas were from another era, so relaxing...

We made it back to McMenamin's by early evening, and after dinner spent a few hours on the upper western veranda. It was surprisingly hot for the time of day, with the temperature reading 34C, but this was still bearable thanks to the low humidity. There's something to be said for sitting out on a century-old porch with people you like, whiling away the time without a clock ticking in your head. 

Considering this was the first time I've left Victoria in over a year and a half, it's great!

Aug 22 – The Return

I had an excellent breakfast this morning to start the day out right.

The Black Rabbit Restaurant( named after an animal that used to haunt the farm decades ago )served the most incredible biscuits and sausage gravy I've had in many years. I think I'll be hard-pressed to match it anytime soon; even the one at Mo:Lé here in Victoria doesn't compare!

We were on the road again after 10 AM, and immediately hit some heavy traffic once we were over the border into Washington state. The traffic volume only got worse, and even with my Google Maps to help, there was no alternate route that would get us past the congestion points any faster. So we just had to bear it.

One thing I forgot to mention was that sitting upright for the trip down hadn't done my abdominals any good. I awoke very early in the morning yesterday with extreme discomfort which kept me up for several hours until 4 AM, until I finally managed to get back to sleep with the help of the heating pad I'd brought along. This time on the return trip, I sat reclining in the front seat, which helped immensely.

Almost 6 hours later, we'd only made it as far as Seattle WA, which turned out to be one gigantic parking lot that took us almost 2 hours to circumnavigate even using the express lanes. To pass the time, we made a game of recognizing vehicles, losing track of them only to see them turn up again as the traffic merged once more north of the city.

Coffee shacks were EVERYWHERE... dozens of them!

After turning off the main highway to take back roads known to my girlfriend's family, we finally straggled into Sedro-Woolley shortly before 7 PM, nine hours after we started. If we had to do it again, we seriously would look at flying from the local airport in Bellingham WA to the airport in Troutdale OR, which would have saved almost an entire day of travel in total, as it's only an hour's flight for $275 USD one-way.

Aug 23 – The Recovery

Whew! What a long trip back yesterday!

I slept in until the unheard-of time of 7:30am, then my lady and I went out for breakfast in her hometown. We went to Joy's Bakery, a local institution for decades, and the food did not disappoint: the food was delicious and the portions were HUGE, enough so that I took the third of plate home to eat tomorrow morning.

Ferry to the left, hometown to the right, Mt. Vernon and Seattle to the south

My lady and I decided to head out for a few hours to nearby Mount Vernon, to check out a few of her old haunts and spend some time decompressing from yesterday's too-long drive. As we'd neglected to bring along any of the boardgames we'd packed( oops )I searched for local game shop and found one on the edge of Mt. Vernon called 'DockingBay 93' which boded well, being a Star Wars reference!

She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts...

What a gem of a place!

To our delight, the store was a crowded combination of comic books, collectibles, boardgames and more! I found a pair of Dark Crystal Mystic figures for the incredibly low price of $15 USD each. Considering they've easily been three or four times that on eBay, it means selling one will more than pay for the other.

But the best part? There's a FULL ARCADE in the rear of the building:

Next trip, we're spending some TIME in this place!

It was a super surprise, and I was reluctant to leave, thought I knew if we didn't we'd spend even more money there. So we then went to the unique Skagit Valley Co-Op, which I've been to before, though this time they didn't have a giant cookie( much to my disappointment ). We spent a little time there, but decided to eat elsewhere, as some of her favorite dishes were no longer on the menu. We went instead to the Calico Cupboard a block away, where we'd eaten the last time we visited, and it was just as good as I remembered despite the odd smell from the bathrooms we were seated next to. Again, GREAT food and generous portions for the price, and the peanut butter bar we had for dessert was too big for both of us to finish fully!

I had the lunch special - yum!

We were back at my lady's parents place by 4pm, in plenty of time for other family members to arrive from the area, including my lady's uncle and his wife, her brother with wife and daughter, and her grandpa. It was a great group, and we chilled on the back deck for hours as the sun descended, enjoying pizzas ordered-in, until most everyone had had to leave when it started growing dark. My lady, her dad and I still sat on the porch until the stars came out, then called it a day.

A very good day, indeed.

Aug 24 – The Return

What's with these early starts?

I had a good breakfast waiting for me when I woke: always good! We hit the road after 6:30am, and less than an hour later, we'd arrived at the Anacortes Ferry as walk-ons. It was perfect timing, as we only had to wait about 10 minutes after purchasing our tickets before boarding began for the 8am departure.

Pretty comfy digs on the WA ferry - the food's pretty blah though

The sailing was again excellent: sunny skies and calm seas meant that's it was all  smooth seas, and we enjoyed several games of Dragonwood on the way home. After making it through customs without any hitches( no duty on my declared items thanks to our extended stay time in the USA! )my parents picked us up from the terminal in Sidney BC well before noon. My lady insisted on treating them( and me! )to lunch at Adrienne's Tea Garden as a thank-you for driving us to and from the ferry, which was the perfect end to our adventure.

Ohhhhh.... yeaaaaahhh....

Once I was home, I flaked out for a bit... after unpacking everything including my swag, which includes several items I was able to ship to my lady's parents place in the USA, thus saving HUGELY on shipping. I'm chuffed to have picked up a copy of the FASA Battletech Blueprint posters in great condition( though they were the folded, not rolled versions as pictured )for only $60 USD months ago, as well as 4 copies of Dragonflame for only $10 each( free shipping! )which are rare as hen's teeth here in Canada. The Mystics were a great random treat, but the pièce de résistance are the NECA TMNT SDCC figures... which I probably won't bring myself to take out of the box for a long while, due to their collectible value.

All in all, it was a great end to the trip, and I was glad to be home again to sleep in my own bed. While the abdominal issues I had were bit of a surprise, and I was disappointed that my travel insurance cover any sort of medical investigation( I would look into that this week with a few phone calls, and rightly so! )the trip was a huge success in that I got to spend time with my girlfriend and her family without any cares to speak of, save relaxing.

That's pretty much my definition of the perfect vacation.

Aug 25 – The Tick Arrives!

He's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack, evil-doers!

The zany but lovable big blue superhero known as The Tick made his debut decades ago in 1998 in comic form, becoming a instant hit with many. An animated series followed in 1994, along with a live-action series starring Patrick Warburton in 2001 that was well-received but cut short before its full run of episodes was created and completed.

Now, after a pilot in 2016, Amazon has brought back The Tick in 2017 with a full series, and its debut was tonight! As is the trend now, the full series of episodes was created and the first six episodes were made available TODAY on Amazon Prime( which I still have for another few weeks! ). In between catching up on a bunch of small tasks today, I watched the first three episodes and I have to say I'm hooked! The writing is excellent( as it should be considering the original creator, Ben Edlund, is offering the scripts )the acting is spot-on, including the humor, and the production values are exactly on the money dollar for dollar.

I will soon have to decide if I want to renew Amazon Prime to get the rest of the series... and I hope they'll spring for a second season too, given how popular superheros are right now!

Aug 27 – Draftelicious!

I printed out two copies of my novel's fourth draft this week!

One copy went to my parents yesterday, for them to read over and comment on, in as much or as little detail as they see fit. The second copy went to a friend and his wife today locally, because he's been eager to read the latest version for the last several years since he got his copy of the second draft.

520 pages double-sided!

I'm crossing my fingers that only small things need to be changed or added to this draft, because of the intense work that I've done over the last few months. It's entirely possible that I've overlooked some things, or that parts of the book / characters aren't as clear as they should be. But since I've been so close to the book for so long, I can't see if any of the things noted above, or anything else, needs further work... hence my reliance on a few beta readers. 

It's a little different situation from my second draft, when I sent out 60 copies of the book; only a half-dozen people gave me feedback on that draft( aside for my critique group ) so this time around I'm keeping the numbers low which I hope will result in a high ratio of feedback return.

I'm figuring it will be at least another month before people are able to get copies of my critique questionnaire back to me, and then I'll read through their comments thoroughly. From there I will peck away at making any changes over the rest of 2017 while I find to my research on the best agents and publishers to send the draft.

Next week, I resume work on Book Two!

Aug 27 – PODs?

What would you call a village of tiny houses?

A darned good idea, if you ask me!

If we had a little bit more time, I would've liked to gone into the city of Portland this past week have a look at some innovative housing solutions for the houseless. The City of Portland recently teamed up with the local architecture community for competition to design practical tiny homes that can be built in large numbers for low-cost, at scale.

They're REALLY tiny houses! Sharp-looking!

As you can see from the photo, the idea is to have individual houses for one or two houseless people each, with a shared communal kitchen and bathroom serving a dozen or so units. This creates communities out of individuals and provides a sense of stability to people who can't get into the traditional housing market easily.

What I like about this project is that it can scale up and out, to include communities like Victoria where traditional housing is out of reach of many lower and middle class income individuals, myself included. I like the idea of owning my own home, and while my needs are modest, the thought of spending three quarters of a million dollars for a small 2-bedroom detached home here is ludicrous.

Because of this, I hope that tiny home communities may start springing up in more places, enabling municipalities to see just how much of the benefit they offer to a city where too many people are locked out of the ever-pricier housing market.

 Did I mention I'm a little tired? But only little; getting back from the USA a few days ago has meant that I've been able to just kick back and relax as needed at home before going to work as usual tomorrow for a full five day week. I feel mostly recovered, though there's a few sore muscles here and there but I'm definitely the better for having spent a week on vacation after finishing my draft!