Day One Aug 30, 2000 Wednesday Preparations, Arrive in Seattle We looked forward to visiting the pacific northwest since our days together in college in the late 1970's (read Chapter 1 and 2 of Jesse's story for more about that time in our life). We even had the Sunday Seattle Post-Intelligencer delivered to our dorm room for a while. Lyn had always been fascinated by the reputation of cool and rainy weather, and two of her high school friend lived, at various times, in Portland. Of course, each time the subject came up (and throughout the entire trip) Dave would belt out the famous observation that "the bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle" (the hills are the greenest green, too). Dave and Jesse had visited Seattle and Vancouver in November 1997 for a long week-end to see the world cup soccer game between the USA and Canada. The USA won the game earning a berth in the 1998 France World Cup tournament. We had purchased three tickets, intending to take our "west coast" trip that year, but Lyn was ill and Dave's mom had just passed away and money was very tight for a while.  At the last minute we changed our plans and only Dave and Jesse went, and then only for the very rushed long-weekend. They took the third soccer ticket and invited Winston to join them. Winston was a delightful man that lived in Vancouver who Dave had met when teaching a class in Dallas in Sept 1995. Winston was a one-in-a-million student, going out to Texas line dance one night in a cowboy bar (and telling the hilarious story the following day) and insisting that the entire class go for Texas Bar-B-Q for lunch one day. Later, Winston specifically requested Dave to teach a session with his client in Calgary (in the dead cold of early January 1996). The game was a delightful way to pay Winston back for his courtesy and kindness and to have a local tourguide for the one day in Vancouver. After the UK trip (May 1998) and the trip to Halifax and the Maritimes (July 1999), Seattle and Vancouver boiled to the top of our vacation list. In early spring 2000, we decided to make the pacific northwest our destination, then settled on the weeks directly before and after labor day to coincide with Dave's annual department conference, held usually in San Francisco and always on the Tuesday through Friday of Labor day week. Our plan quickly settled on flying in and out of Seattle, and driving the inland route down through Portland and Sacramento and into San Francisco. During the conference, Lyn and Jesse would sight-see and Dave would attend his business functions (most of them boondoggles anyway). On the trip north, we would follow the coastline on the small highways and stop in the tiny towns that dot the map all the way to Canada. We would take our time and enjoy the spectacular scenery (just look at the pictures) and we would RELAX on a trip for once. Finally, we would take a ferry across to Victoria for a day or two, then another across to Vancouver for a day or two, then finally return to Seattle and the trip home. We decided to stretch the trip, by having Lyn and Jesse arrive half a day early and leave a full day and a half after Dave's Seattle flights. This would allow Lyn ample access to Seattle and also minimize expenses as Dave's flights would be billable. We would stay as much as possible on frequent flyer coupons from Courtyard by Marriott and Holiday Inn Express. On Sunday, Dave flew to Minneapolis to deliver a three day class. On Wednesday, Lyn and Jesse flew out to Seattle. Dave joined them at the Courtyard by Marriott at the Seattle airport after picking up the Hertz rental car with the all important "Neverlost" satellite guidance system. Of course, no trip to the west coast would be complete without plenty of stops for our favorite tacos. We could smell that mystical taco sauce all the way in Florida, and had a Jack in the Box antenna ball on our rental car throughout the trip. This vacation had many difficulties, that we overcame. Click to read about the disappointments that dogged us, but never got us down.    Original Web Upload May 2001 Last Update: June 3, 2001