Me and the Winter Blahs

If I let winter get the better of me, by mid-January, I can be one big miserable mess. After a particularly weepy winter during my junior year of college, I knew I needed to pay a little closer attention to my mental health this time of year. While I hesitate to call this penchant for the winter gloomys full-blown seasonal affective disorder (I mean, what Minnesotan isn’t a little SAD?) I have enough self-awareness to realize that when the dark, cold winter days start to wear away at me, I need some diversions and distractions to help the season pass.

Some years, I find relief from the winter blahs in the Winter Olympics. Other years writing dates and work outside of the home have kept me from my winter wallowing. This winter? It’s salvation by Broadway Across America. Back in April when I bought season tickets with my friend Sarah to the 2012-13 Broadway on Tour season at the Orpheum in Minneapolis, the decision seemed a little impulsive and a bit fiscally frivolous. But even then, just as spring was about to burst into full bloom, I knew I was already fighting against this winter’s blahs.

Last weekend, Sarah and I went to the third performance of the season: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. (Soooo much better than Catch Me If You Can which we attended last month, but still not quite as good as the season opener: Beauty and the Beast.) I ended up spending an extra night in the Cities because I left on Thursday instead of Friday to avoid a nasty ice storm. It turned out to be the right decision because the roads were so bad that Andy ended up staying home from that Friday because he literally could not make it to work.

Here’s another winter blah beating tip: I lead a stress management seminar one time and I remember one of the tips was “improve your appearance.” After not cutting my hair in more than two years (go ahead, judge me), I hit up a salon in the Cities last weekend and got a good six inches hacked off. (Ahhh!) It’s amazing how something as simple as not having split ends can make you feel so much more together and on top of things.

Because our tickets were for the Saturday matinee, after the performance we battled a bitter north wind for a meal at The Melting Pot, the fondue restaurant on 9th Street. I’d never been before and we had a great time enjoying a four course meal of cheese, salad, meat, and dessert. That said, considering the price tag and the rather homogenous meal, I’d rather give my return business to some place with a little more personality. Or else, I’d probably just go back for appetizers or dessert. I don’t know about you, but I’m perfectly capable of cooking meat in a boiling pot of chicken broth (basically what the main entrée consists of) at home.

We’d planned to visit the ice castle down at the Mall of America after the meal, but embarrassing as it is to admit, these two native Minnesotans weren’t wearing enough clothes to make an hour or so of standing outdoors in temperatures in the mid-teens with a howling wind a great option. Last Saturday was the first “normal Minnesota January” day after a string of days with temps above freezing and I hadn’t left the house wearing the long underwear and down vests necessary for a pleasant visit to a structure constructed wholly of icicles. Maybe we’ll make it to the ice castle next month when I’m down to attend The Book of Mormon (eeeeee!).

What do you do to shake the winter blahs?
 

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Trapped in a Moving Vehicle

Turns out Andy really is allergic to beer. Having spent a week surrounded by the temptation of the Pacific Northwest’s finest microbrews, his sinuses have gotten the best of him and he’s spending the day lying low. This is travel day nine and beer allergies or not, it makes sense to have a quiet day. We’ve been at the guesthouse in Portland since mid-afternoon yesterday. We stayed here last year when we road-tripped out and it truly is a lovely house tucked away along a fairly busy business road in a residential neighborhood. While a continental breakfast is provided, the house has much more open, livable feeling about it than your typical B&B. The kitchen is available for use and there’s a washer and dryer tucked away in the basement where I happily did a load of laundry this morning. We’d been getting to the bottom of the suitcase, so to speak.

Had another travel day yesterday, setting off from Aberdeen to follow winding roads along the coast and down the Columbia River to Portland. Last year when we made the drive out west, we kept crossing paths with Lewis and Clark. Everywhere we turned, there seemed to be another Lewis and Clark historical marker. It only made sense to stop at the Lewis and Clark Interpretative Center at the mouth of the Columbia River, right outside of Ilwaco, WA yesterday. Oddly enough, the place where Lewis and Clark finally spied the Pacific Ocean had been named Cape Disappointment by a British officer who had been searching the coastline for a river and who deduced that the mouth of Columbia was in fact only an ocean bay. No one’s quite sure why he didn’t figure out that it was a river (especially since the current rips through even the widest parts of the Columbia) but nevertheless, the name stuck.

The center is wonderful: just the right mixture of “just the facts, ma’am” placards and hands-on displays. All of this interpretative stuff makes me excited about the summer! The center itself was quickly outshone by a baby seal we spied sunning itself on a rock in the ocean far below us. Just as the park ranger and I zoomed in on him to take a picture, a big wave came over the rock and washed the little seal into the ocean. Oh no! But the little guy proved himself a pretty good swimmer in the rough waters. Still, here’s a picture of the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse instead. Although the mouth of the Columbia River provides some of the most challenging sailing there is – due to moving sand bars -- where the visitor center now stands was long manned by the military, especially during World War II.

The traffic in Portland gave us fits yesterday. For one thing, I’d made no clear plan for how we were going to get to the guesthouse. Since we’d stayed here last year, I figured we’d “wing” it. However, it’s a lot easier to get into Portland from the east on a sleepy Thursday afternoon then it is to come in from the west at 3:00 on Friday when everyone’s “getting off early for the weekend.” We ended up where we needed to be, but promptly hit construction and by the time we got to the guesthouse, I was stressed out, but we needed to turn right around to go pick up a friend. That also proved a directional nightmare. “This isn’t the way we came last time, is it?” I asked Andy as we shot by our turn and ended up heading across the bridge in Portland with the lowest safety rating ever, twice. When we dropped the friend off, we came back to the guesthouse to find nary a parking place in sight. After twenty minutes of backing up and turning around and dead end street after dead end street, I was fit to be tied. In the end, Andy took over driving duties and we parked a couple streets down from the guesthouse. There’s nothing worse than being trapped in a moving vehicle when you just want to go to bed.

In between the driving nightmares (we are such smalltown kids) we had a lovely dinner and picked up beautiful desserts from Pix Patisserie.

Today, besides the laundry, I walked up to a yarn shop and found some beautiful Shetland fingering that will be perfect for some colorwork knitting I’m hoping to get to after I finish up the sweater I’m currently knitting away at. Andy rallied for a to-go lunch at Burgerville. There’s something satisfying about the name Burgerville. I may go scope out some coffee now while Andy snoozes. Outside it’s sunny and a bit breezy. It’s a very contented sort of day for punting around.

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Happy Easter!

I’m happy to report that the Sea/Tac airport is in no need for baggage retrieval reform. After our plane landed (it was slightly ahead of schedule) we made our way to the baggage retrieval in the main terminal where we waited approximately two minutes before my bag came spewing out onto the baggage carousel. Since they’ve started requiring a payment for checked bags, I’ve tried my hardest to avoid having to check any bags. Although I’ve flown into Seattle before, I’ve never had to retrieve a bag. But like everything in this trip so far, checking a bag proved delightfully straight forward.

I suspect Andy and I are kind of like what hobbits would be like if they went on vacation, as long as they weren’t bothered by any of that nasty ring business. “Oh look, food!” they would exclaim. “Oh look! Nice things to drink!” Because we come from such a rural area where options for food and drink are limited, eating out tends to be a big focus of our travels. Last night we had a lovely meal at the Coastal Kitchen. Tonight we found a little gastropub just a few blocks south of where we’re staying. Some clam chowder and plenty of microbrews have also been consumed.

It’s so nice to be where everything is green and flowering.

It seems most Minnesotans like to “make a break for it” come April when their home state is reduced to nothing but rotting dead grass and mud. Here the trees are flowering, along with violets and primroses. The weather has been fine: a little chilly with some spitting rain.

We had a day of wandering today. We’re about a 25 minute walk from downtown. We wandered through Pike’s Place Market and spent a good long time in the Seattle Aquarium where I tested out the “aquarium” setting on my new camera extensively.

We headed up to the Seattle Center where we went through the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum. (Admission to the SFM is free with admission to EMP – I’m not sure how many people would head through the SFM if admissions were separate!) Since we won’t rent a car until Tuesday, we walked everywhere today. Now we’re both nursing sore feet.

Not sure what tomorrow brings: more exploring of some sort. Right now Andy's trying to set up the mini DVD/TV in our room and has succeeded only in dropping it on my leg. Here's to hoping he's slightly more successful in his endeavors.

Hope everyone’s had a lovely Easter! It's been a low-key one here, but nevertheless, a good one.

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