Planning day

We really are living in the 'burbs right now.  (Something we have managed to avoid for the last 5 years).  However, we are staying in a typical Portland house.  Our apartment is an annex on the right side of this house.  It's very cosy, and the owner who lives next door is very helpful and friendly, he even has 6 bicycles and two tandems stored in his basement.  Fortunately, there was also room for our two shiny red bicycles as well.

Today we start some serious planning for the rest of the trip.  When we set off we had only booked a few nights accomodation in Seattle and a few nights in Portland.  

We find a coffee house in Powell's bookstore, buy some maps, hook up to the internet and get stuck into the research.

The outline plan is now coming together, we'll spend the rest of week in Portland, then hire a car for a week to see the Oregon coast and Crater lake, then fly to Las Vegas to hire an RV and tour the canyons, then fly to San Francisco and hire another car to tour around California.

So now we know what we want to do it's just a matter of booking everything.

Yes, there is a spreadsheet involved!

Shiny Red Bicycles

There are few problems in life that can't be solved by the addition of a shiny red bicycle.

Only kidding.  But we have found that our accommodation location issues miraculously disappear when we hire ourselves bikes for the week.

We picked up two hybrid-ish bikes ready for around town use and hopefully venturing a little bit further afield as well.

Portland is known for its cycle friendly attitudes, so we now have our freedom back.

As soon as we hire the bikes the rains stop, the sun comes out and all is well.

We also find that the Portland Saturday market is so popular that it opens on a Sunday too.  Result!

Although, still no purchases due to luggage restrictions!

Next stop Portland!

Saturday morning and head to the Seattle King St train station, ready to catch an Amtrak train to Portland.

Note - we are now travelling with 5 bags, an increase of 1 in just under a week.

Our train journey will last 4 hours, but the people we stand next to in the queue will be on the train for 35 hours, as they are heading to Los Angeles. Makes our journey seem quite light weight!

We make the novice mistake of not asking for seats on the river side,  so photo opportunities are limited.  We are however, at the back of the train, so my photos are pretty much all railway tracks with the odd bridge thrown in!

We arrive at Portland Station...

.... and it's pouring with rain, and we are too early for our Airbnb accommodation.  We trail our bags soggily around town for a bit, until we find a lovely Bistro called Mother's Bistro

It bills itself as having cooking just like your own mother's!  Fortuntately, this is not true in my case!  Sorry mum!  :-) 

We eventually jump into a cab to get to our accommodation, and find that we are really quite far away from downtown.  Even though the place we are staying is lovely and cosy, we are at least a 20 minute ride from town, and we don't have a car!  Have we made a big mistake....?

A sunny afternoon stroll through Seattle

Friday morning and the impact of the last few hectic days hit hard.  We are both shattered and decide to spend the morning just chilling in the apartment.  We have decided to use the website airbnb wherever possible.  Instead of staying in an impersonal hotel, we get to stay in somebody's home.  This apartment is in the Fremont area of Seattle and has a beautiful view over Lake Union.

When we venture out we find that our luck with the weather is still holding.  It is a beautiful sunny afternoon.

We head to the Seattle Olympic Sculpture park.  This is a beautiful space, that is a delight to wander through.  However, it cost a whopping $85 million dollars to build.  And now I have to confess what complete and utter art philistines we both are.  The joy that Stuart and I found walking through this park was in the descriptions that had been attributed to each piece of art.

To share the joy I have put together a little quiz.  

1- Match the sculpture with its description, 

2 - Figure out which description is false.  

See answers at the bottom of this post

To be fair, not all the artwork descriptions were a pretentious load of old cod (did I mention what philistines we are?!)

There was one piece that we found particularly engaging.  The description is as follows:-

This sculpture is functional but also has content that you discover through participation.  You need to put the meaning together by sitting on it, and then recomposing what you have seen and experienced in your mind's eye.  Only then will the theme - the process of love and loss - be revealed for you to sit here and contemplate.

We quickly figured out that the words love & loss were the sculptures.  The letters L are the two benches, the O is the table between them, the child is playing on the two Ss and the V is the base of the tree.  However, we couldn't find the E!  So I am wandering around the sculpture, climbing on it looking down at it and Stuart starts talking about it to the other folk walking by.  We had quite a crowd gathered by the time we all figured out that the letter e was the table top where the man with the umbrella is sitting on the right side of the photo!

I think when we get home I'm going to send Stuart into his tool shed and ask him to build something big.  It doesn't matter what, so long as we write a description that is beyond rational thought or meaning.  We could make millions!

The rest of the afternoon is a very leisurely stroll along the waterfront enjoying the sunshine

This week we have been very good with healthy eating (another reason we have chosen to stay in apartments rather than hotels).  However, it's Friday night so we decide to treat ourselves and book into a seafood restaurant called Brooklyn.  (A recommendation Stuart sourced by talking to the fishmongers at Pike market!)

You can see the delight in my face as I study the menu!

I think we are both pretty relaxed by now!

Quiz Answers

Qn 1

A - 2

B - 5

C - 3

D - 6

E - 4

F - 1

Qn 2

None of them are false!!

No rest day yet!

I thought today would be the first day that we might slow down and rest!  But oh no, we have found a Spinning class to join.  First class free -that's handy!

Stuart enjoys getting back in the saddle

I'm not so sure.  This is meant to be my holiday!!  (This photo was taken after the class, at least I am still in one piece!)

So after class, we head back downtown and to the site of the first ever Starbucks!  Surprisingly it's a pretty nice coffee house inside, unsurprisingly it's packed with tourists!

So I order my extra large, one shot, skimmed milk, no foam latte. (I'm not fussy!)

We then head to the harbour and we are very lucky with the weather.  It remains fair, but as ever a little bit of super vivid enhances the picture!

Next we go for a wander round pioneer square.  I like the story of this totem pole.  Apparently it was stolen in 1899 and erected in Pioneer square in Seattle.  In 1938 it was destroyed in a fire by an arsonist.  The city of Seattle asked the descendants of the villagers that it was stolen from to carve them a replacement pole.  The villagers took the money and said thank you, that was for the original pole, now we will have another $5,000 for the replacement pole!

In the afternoon we decide to take the ferry across to Bainbridge Island.  This is a 35 minute ferry ride and seems to be packed with commuters rather than tourists.

We must be viewing the skyline of Seattle from a different angle to the Fraser logo.  The Space Needle on the left hand side of the photo seems a little lost!

The return journey and early evening sunlight enhance the views!

I think we are done with the sight seeing in Seattle now!

It's a beautiful day in Seattle!

We arrived in Seattle late on Tuesday night, very very tired.  It had been a hectic few days and we were just grateful to arrive at our apartment all in one piece and without incident!

The weather forecast for the duration of our stay was not good to say the least!

However, we wake up and find that the skies are relatively clear and the day looks quite promising!

The clear skies mean one thing!  Head to the Space Needle as fast as possible to take photos!  (I vaguely recall planning to do absolutely nothing on day 1 but rest).  However, do nothing, doesn't come easily to us, so it's off to the tower!

Here are my 3 favourite photos, all taken very quickly in case the rain came, but it didn't in fact rain all day!

Next a quick trip to Chiluly gardens.  Seattle is the home of Chiluly!

After Chiluly, we headed over to the Pike Market, the number one tourist attraction in Seattle.  It is 5 floors of funkiness, and quite frankly torture if you are travelling with zero spare luggage space!

An excellent day today! (And tomorrow we rest!)

The Reality

This post is not about the holiday down the West Coast of the US, but it is about the reality of how cancer affects our lives.

In October 2013 Stuart had an MRI scan which showed 2 new lesions in the liver.   This was a very worrying time as this could have been a sign that the cancer was coming back.  We had to wait three months for a follow up MRI so the evolution of the lesions could be monitored.  Fortunately in January 2014 it was decided that the lesions were stable and therefore unlikely to be serious.

Then in April 2014 Stuart had both a CT scan, requested by the oncologist in Canada and an MRI scan requested by Stuart's UK doctor in readiness for his return to the UK.

We got the results of the CT scan which was OK and a verbal confirmation that the MRI scan was OK and so made our two minute video update about Stuart's latest results and his ninth 90 day plan.

A few days later and we hadn't received the written MRI report, so I asked for it to be faxed to me at the office.  When it came through the only words I saw was that the lesions should be viewed as metastatic until proven otherwise.  (Metastatic means cancer that has spread).  It was like the world had stopped again.  The report also said however that the lesions were not typical of metastatic cancer, but it's hard to hold onto that given the first sentence.

Stuart had called my phone seconds after the fax arrived, so I read the report to him over the phone.  I could tell that he was shocked too.

Given the timing of the holidays we couldn't get to speak to a doctor before Easter.  We reassured ourselves that if it was anything serious that needed action, we would have been contacted.  We got on with the packing and goodbyes and hoped that everything would be OK.

Today, Wednesday, the first real day of our holiday we received a phone call from the UK doctor. He had ensured that there had been a very thorough review of the scans, and whilst they could not say 100% that everything was OK (nothing is 100% in medicine) he said that it was very unlikely that the lesions were metastatic.

We then received another phone call to say that the oncologist said that there was no need to worry for now.

These calls together, were a huge relief.  Stuart is very matter of fact about things and will deal with whatever needs to be done if it arises.  I worry enormously about worst case scenarios, and I had been mentally figuring out how to return home quickly to follow up on any action plan that may be needed.

We don't need to worry for now about the cancer, but we know that we can never be complacent (we have always known that).  Stuart has been incredibly lucky, he was treated quickly, he had the right treatment and he had an amazingly positive attitude, plus the love and prayers of friends and family around him. But there are others that have all that too, and they don't make it.  Cancer is an evil disease and we will never underestimate it or lower our defenses.

So right now, we will pack our travelling bags, pick up the guide books, study the maps and set off to do what Stuart enjoys best

Celebrate Life!

The Grand Depart

Easter?  Easter is cancelled in our household!  I have been working up to the Thursday before Good Friday and the shippers arrive Monday.  I think I have mis-timed things a little! The weekend is a frenzy of activity, packing and cleaning.  We eventually get most stuff packed away.

On the Sunday morning we drop some of our valuable off at a friends house, so that we can collect them at the end of our trip. This includes the laptops.  I realize that I will be suffering laptop separation anxiety and spend a significant part of Saturday backing up files to a hard drive and Dropbox, so that I can access data if needed.  

Telling another friend about my separation issues, she politely asks how many devices we will be travelling with that can connect to the internet.  Um only 4, I reply a little sheepishly.  Maybe I'll cope!

Monday is the day the shippers arrive!  Since we have not had a car in the 3 years we have lived in Montreal, I feel entitled to reserve a big space in front of our house.  None of the neighbors seem to mind!

Even though we have boxed most of our stuff, the shippers spend most of the day packing and wrapping.  When we left the UK 5 years ago we had 6 suitcases and 2 boxes.  When we left Australia 3 years ago we had 6 suitcases and 38 boxes.  Now we are departing Canada, we find that we have 6 suitcases and 121 boxes!

I have no idea how we managed to accumulate so much stuff, and only 6 of the packages are bike boxes!

Tuesday morning and we are packed and ready to go!

Bike padlock keys are boxed up with the bicycles, my work office key handed in last Thursday, and now the house keys are being left behind.

It feels quite weird being completely keyless!

The final departure from the house.  (It's the house that is for rent, not Stuart!)

The reason behind this blog

Here is a two minute video clip that tells you a little bit about why Stuart and I are taking some time off to go travelling down the west coast of the US. If you want to know a little bit more background to Stuart's story, you can find it on an earlier blog