Washington: Day 1
Whew! That 6 hour flight from Newark to Washington is extremely long and cramped. It’s amazing how you can leave at 7:30 am and still be in Seattle before noon!
I got myself through the baggage claim and rental car with minimum of fuss and headed off toward Tacoma, lunch, and Port Defiance State Park. The day was crystal clear, and Mount Rainier loomed fantastically on the horizon as I drove south. I love a place with snow-capped mountains, and I was already loving Washington!
I grabbed some lunch – even though my East Coast body insisted it was an afternoon snack, and headed to the park, of which I had heard great things. For a wonder, the guide books had not exaggerated. Port Defiance in springtime was full of miniature wild daisies in the grass, showy rhododendrons, pebble beaches full of driftwood overlooking the Puget Sound, Japanese and Rose Gardens, a Zoo, and Fort Nisqually.
Being a folklorist and amateur historian by trade, it was the Fort that drew me to Tacoma on my first day in Washington. It was a Hudson’s Bay Trading post back in the 1850s, when people would walk 70 miles in 3 ½ days in order to visit the “store”! Wow. You don’t want to make that kind of trip more than once or twice a year. When I entered the trading post building, the storekeeper instantly asked me what I had to trade, opening up a conversation that ranged from beaver pelts (versus the rental car – which I was sure would bring me more options, but he feigned ignorance of the modern automobile) to whiskey so watered down (Going for $10 a cup in 1850, mind you!) that a New York or Chicago resident could drink it like water all day without getting tipsy but it would get a trapper fresh from the mountains after a 3-year stint in the back of beyond roaring drunk.
After visiting 1850 for an hour, I napped among the daisies in the park, and then took the scenic 5-mile drive through the park with amazing views of the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains before heading to my hotel for dinner, a soak in the hot tub, and bed. Tomorrow – Mount Saint Helens!
Comments? Email us at
Comments
i can't believe they had to get up at 7:30 am
Posted by: liana | September 7, 2009 10:51 AM
very spooky
Posted by: rowetta morton-brown | October 26, 2009 07:35 AM