In attendance:
pluto
Mrs. Pluto
Arriving late:
Shirley
Pat
Bob
Debbie
Also arriving late but canine:
Bella
Location:
Port Townsend, WA, and points en route.
Having organized the unsuccessful first Puget Sound Straight Dope Get-Together, I decided to simplify things this time by not inviting anyone from the SDMB. Instead Mrs. Pluto and I travelled to the Olympic Peninsula to see Leo Kottke in concert Sunday afternoon. Here are the meeting minutes from notes taken as events occurred:
Day One:
Depart Saturday morning for Seattle. Pluto insists that if we leave right away we can see “Fantasia 2000” at the IMAX theater before catching the ferry. We leave right away.
On the freeway headed for Seattle Mrs. Pluto inquires if Pluto has remembered the tickets for the concert.
After returning home to get the tickets we are too late for the IMAX so we drive by the Kingdome site, Pluto having heard they are giving away chunks of concrete for souvenirs.
We get a “Chunk-O-Dome” and head for the ferry terminal. Pluto sees a sign advertising the Seattle Underground Tour* and drags Mrs. Pluto to the tour. (Mrs. P. has already taken the tour, but is a good sport.)
Following the tour we get in line for the ferry. Pluto gets his first sackie in his change from the ferry guy. We visit the waterfront while waiting and see the fireboats and have some Ivar’s clam chowder. (Keep clam!)
Uneventful ferry ride to Bainbridge Island, followed by scenic drive to Port Townsend. Halfway through scenic drive Mrs. Pluto comments that if Pluto continues to read the road signs to her she will turn the car around. Pluto sulks but obeys. (More or less.)
We arrive at the Chanticleer Inn in Port Townsend, our Bed & Breakfast for the night. We meet Shirley, the proprietress, a transplanted Texan. We visit Port Townsend, a touristy little town on the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula. They have clothing stores AND bookstores so Pluto and Mrs. P. are both happy. We come across a wooden sculpture from Indonesia that we both really like. Asking price for the sculpture: $595.00. We look in our six hundred dollar pocket but find it is empty. Purchases are limited to a pair of garden shoes for Mrs. P. ($16) and a copy of The Straight Dope as a birthday present for the eldest Plutino. (Really! And Mrs. Pluto picked it out! And it was half-price! (Don’t tell Cecil!))
Dinner at the Belmont Hotel, in company with several young couples from nearby Chimacum High School. It’s their prom night and the Belmont is sufficiently classy for a formal dinner. After careful scrutiny Mrs. Pluto and I agree that they are too young. What, exactly, they are too young for remains unstated. But they are definitely too young. Our waiter is the manager filling in for a missing employee. He is a little less tactful than your typical waitperson. (“Don’t order the crabcakes!”) Mrs. Pluto is grateful, as she was thinking about ordering the crabcakes. She has the salmon instead and is very pleased with dinner.
After dinner the shops are closed but the sun is still shining so we drive to historic Fort Worden** and stroll along the beach and around the lighthouse before retiring for the evening.
Day Two:
Coming down to breakfast in the morning we meet Pat, the assistant proprietess, and Bob and Debbie, fellow guests. We also meet Bella, Shirley and Pat’s Golden Labrador, who is not supposed to meet the guests. But Bella really likes the guests and is only coaxed away by the promise of breakfast fixings in the kitchen. (“Bella! Ham! Come, Bella! Ham!”) Bob and Debbie turn out to be from – Auburn, which is adjacent to Kent, where the Plutos live. Mrs. Pluto discovers that Debbie is the daughter of a friend of hers. Small world.
It’s a windy day so we go to the hardware store and purchase some inexpensive kites and take them to Fort Worden where there is a big parade ground suitable for kite-flying. We see some kids playing with plastic grocery bags in the wind and decide to give our kites to them after we fly them. Sorry, kids. Mrs. Pluto’s kite is immediately airborne. Pluto has a much more technical kite, requiring finesse and just the right touch, unlike Mrs. Pluto’s, which is a child’s kite that you just have to hang on to. While Pluto is still trying to get his kite in the air, Mrs. Pluto’s kite, now high in the sky, let’s go of its string and floats away. In spite of evidence to the contrary, Pluto declares there is not enough wind(!) and we adjourn down to the beach where the wind is even stronger. Pluto’s kite is now blown every way but up and skids along the sand. Mrs. Pluto suggests we do something else but Pluto knows he can fix it. Surprisingly, he does. (By shortening one of the strings in the harness.) Now Pluto’s kite is airborne and doing well until it, too, breaks loose from the string and is eaten by a tree.
Having pretty much exhausted our interest in kites we head back to town, grab some lunch and then head out of town to nearby Chimacum for the concert. Pluto notices a lot of gray hair (well, salt-and-pepper anyway) in the concert line. These are not your ordinary concert-goers. Leo Kottke was playing several concerts in the Seattle area but we elected to come out here to Chimacum because it would be the smallest venue, besides the opportunity for a weekend getaway. Leo does not disappoint. Great concert, old favorites and new tunes.
We return to the ferry terminal along the same scenic route and Mrs. Pluto drags out the same old diatribe about reading road signs. (Honestly, she’s SO predictable!) Pluto does, however, point out “Egg an I Road” and wonders aloud if this wasn’t the location for Betty MacDonald’s ill-fated chicken farm. (A quick check on the web verifies this. No sign of Ma and Pa Kettle, though.) Another short ferry ride and a quick drive back from Seattle to home.
Summary
The Second Puget Sound Straight Dope Get-Together was way better than the first one.
Footnotes
*Seattle was originally built on sea-level tide flats. As the city grew drainage problems forced them to rebuild the streets eight feet or more higher, using fill from the surrounding hills. The original first floors of some historic buildings (and the sidewalks) are now underground. (And the hills are gone.)
**Fort Worden, adjacent to Port Townsend, is one of three nearby forts built by the Army Coast Artillery prior to the First World War. Fort Worden, along with Fort Casey and Fort Flagler, formed the “triangle of fire” (don’t you love military hyperbole?) that protected the entrance to Puget Sound from enemy naval vessels. The artillery is gone but the bunkers and barracks, etc., are still there. Fort Worden was the filming location for “An Officer and A Gentleman”.
“But when all was said and done, the winners were Bush and Gore, one of whom will be our next president, unless – and I would not totally rule this out – the Constitution suddenly is discovered to be missing, and it mysteriously turns up a few days later in the White House living quarters, and, lo and behold, the part that limits the president to two terms is GONE.”
– Dave Barry