This is a quick post about winter break since I jumped right from the beginning of December to the beginning of January in my last two posts.
For the first time in four years, I didn't have to navigate any airports to get home for the holidays. No flight cancellations due to inclement weather. No stale airplane air. No lugging my suitcases from one terminal to another. Instead, I bought a train ticket from Seattle to Portland and rode down in style on the tracks alongside Puget Sound while reading Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible and sipping root beer from the dining car. My whole life I had wanted to travel by train and while not as romantic as I had dreamt it to be, the experience was much more pleasant than air travel.
I arrived home just in time to fry up some latkes and celebrate the final night of Chanukkah with my dad, complete with candles, Chanukkah stories, and dreidel spinning. A significant portion of the next day was spent with my mom traversing our favorite Christmas tree farm seeking out the perfect tree to brighten up our living room for the holiday season. We nicknamed the one we decided on 'Spring Green' because of its cheery bright green hue. The next morning, we drove north to my gramma's house in Sequim, which just so happens to be only a couple hours from IslandWood, so I practically returned to where I had come from only two days prior. We celebrated an early Christmas with my gramma, saw my cousins perform in their church's rendition of A Christmas Carol, and generally enjoyed the feeling of the season with family.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day both brought delicious food (think: roasted lamb, baked apples, pumpkin coconut chicken soup, rosemary asparagus, pan de yuca, apple sausage, and pumpkin ice cream sundaes), a leisurely morning of presents, walks through the neighborhood, sunshiny runs through Grant Park, and countless games of chickenfoot dominoes. It was a very relaxing Christmas spent with my family and I'm very grateful to be able to enjoy a Christmas of plenty while others aren't so fortunate.
The rest of break in Portland was a whirlwind of city outings, catching up with good friends, and a trip up to the mountain for some cross-country skiing at Teacup Lake. I went out to tea with Katya at Tea Chai Té on NW 23rd, continued the tradition of spending a few hours at Pied Cow hashing out life with Audrey, strolled the waterfront and esplanade with Erin discussing the concept of home, wished Adrienne a buen viaje on her way to Ecuador for the semester, shopped in sweet little boutiques for a new winter coat with my mom, and had ginger buckwheat pancakes with my dad at Cup & Saucer. The trip up to Mt. Hood was lovely too, and although the snow conditions weren't optimal, it was still fabulous to be back on my skis after such a long time and return to my favorite ski trails around Teacup Lake. It also snowed in Portland for a day, which is a rare and wonderful occurrence! I took many walks through the neighborhood and caught many a snowflake on my tongue that afternoon and evening. It was beautiful to see Portland transformed into a Winter Wonderland and all of its residents turn into children again as they run outside with wonder and joy on their faces.
After another train trip back up north spent chatting with my enjoyable seatmate and gazing at the water and small towns zipping by my window, I lugged my suitcase, backpack, computer bag, and ski bag into a taxi, through the ferry terminal, and across the sound and was more than happy to finally deposit them all in the trunk of Leora's borrowed car when she picked me up from the ferry dock in Winslow. Off and away we went to celebrate New Year's. Our last few hours in 2009 consisted of catching up over Mexican food, casually celebrating East coast New Year's with Greta, Matt, and Kelsey since they were getting up early to go snowboarding the next day, and playing Scrabble in front of the fire with Minna, Ilya, and Minna's friend Lisa. It was all a very relaxing way to spend the evening, but a half hour before midnight Leora and I politely excused ourselves from Minna's house, drove back to IslandWood, and hiked through the forest to the canopy tower. There, we climbed the 179 steps 120' up to the top deck above the treetops as the thick curtain of clouds parted and revealed the Blue Moon (2nd full moon in one month) and millions of bright stars. A few minutes before twelve, fireworks started going off across the water in neighboring towns further south along the sound, and at midnight we howled at the silvery moon to welcome in 2010. We spent the next two hours listening to other people around the island yip and holler when their own clocks struck midnight, star-gazing, picking out constellations, making New Year's resolutions, reflecting on life, calling back to the sea lions barking down at the harbor, watching giant bats flit across the sky, and marveling at the magic of it all. It was the perfect way to ring in the New Year.
The next few days were spent showing Leora IslandWood in the daylight, and celebrating the New Year in the Japanese tradition at the Mochi festival (see previous entry + the video I just uploaded in that entry of me pounding the mochi!).
I also saw a total of four movies in theaters over break: Up in the Air, Invictus, The Blind Side, and Avatar. I was very impressed with all of them. In different ways, granted, but I would highly recommend each one of them, which hasn't happened much in the last few years of movie releases. So do yourself a favor and find time to watch all of them at some point, most importantly Avatar because the message Avatar has for the human race is one that is still not heard loudly enough.
Hope 2010 is treating everyone well!
The journey by train is far more interesting and exciting than air travel. It is much cheaper and enjoyable. You can explore more places and have much fun and thrill.
ReplyDelete