This week I am vacation in Bellingham, my wife and daughter and I are staying with my mom and stepfather at their incredible house on Lake Whatcom. Having been away from the USA for some eight months (and it had been seven months before that for my previous visit) I find I am even more adapted to my adopted continent, and America seems ever more amusing and foreign. Dominique compared it to Toonville in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit.' I walked the aisle of enormous supermarkets, ate enormous bacon cheeseburgers, and drove by Bellingham's auto row, where thousands of enormous trucks and SUV's *aren't* being sold. I did, however, manage to find French Lavender ice cream, from
Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Creams--I have been hunting high and low for lavender-flavored ice cream in France to little avail.
Philippe Faur makes one but in typical French 'do EVERYTHING possible to discourage having to do actual business if you are a business' he's impossible to order from, and the single store in Paris who caries his product say they are on the verge to discontine doing so, as he is too difficult to work with.
Here in Bellingham, and all around western Washington, the rain has been worse then ever and flooding has occurred. Dom's late Christmas present was a new digital camera--and we went to Best Buy (enormous electronics store that did not sell Europe-to-US plug converters), one of those American rituals that I think was a first for me. We had to go out to the mall area three times (so far) on this trip--to Best Buy; later to Radio Shack to get plug converters--Radio Shack is actually in the Bellis Fair Mall; and to Value Village. Dom bought tons of clothes and toys for Aden while I read true crime novels and picked out a couple of 70s LP gems.
One thing that's not enormous is Bellingham's art house cinema, the Pickford, located on the main drag. When I was growing up, the Fairhaven neighborhood housed the Picture Show, and I think the Pickford is an extension of the same organization (am I wrong in thinking the Pickford used to inhabit the Picture Show's space?). In the Picture Show, in the 80s I would frequent it to see the art house films of the 70s abnd early 80s--Harold & Maude, King of Hearts, Wizards, Das Boot. At the Pickford this time we took in the excellent Slumdog Millionaire.
I took the opportunity to get my vaccinations for my tour of South America, which left me with a very sore left arm (but RN at Hoagland's Pharmacy did an excellent job administering the jabs). This exercise brought to light that Premera Blue Cross had taken the liberty to cancel my health insurance--seems they don't count me as a Washington State Resident anymore, even tho the US Gov't does. So, after 15 hospital-free years of paying them some $750/month...thanks guys!
My friend Brian came up from Seattle for megawine blowout--we enjoyed three RP100 bottles--the 1997 and 2001 Harlan Estate and a 1989 Haut-Brion. That made the cold of winter seem much further away...
Beyond that it's been about showing off Aden to her granparents--she is thoroughly high from jet lag--up between 3 and 6 am, going full steam chasing the cats--spending time with my folks, my son and his family, etc etc. My work has been limited to a few emails and trips to the Post Office.
The morning we left (we were very lucky to have chosen the Air France direct flight) was the morning after snow had shut down Charles de Gaulle airport, causing Air France to cancel more than 150 flights. The AF website showed the flightl leaving on time when I checked that morning before we left the house. The taxi dropped us off and Terminal 2E was packed to the point where movement was impossible. There was a bomb threat (usually someone has left a duffle bag in the middle of the hall in this kind of thing) plus thousands of stranded travelers who were trying to get rebooked that morning. The bomb threat dispersed. The line still didn't move, and we spent 3 hours in it. Seems Air France has no policy to call flights that are leaving imminently and get people out of the line. In this case, they just let the flight take off when its full. Being a family with a child having just spent 3 hours in line arounsed no sympathy from AF, but Dom browbeat the guy til he got us on the plane. There were certain threats of throat-slittting that my French isn't good enough to express, so Dom was on duty for that.
We got on the plane, and we sat on the runway for two hours. Once in the air, AF is great. The service is very accomodating, friendly etc. The selection of movies sucked. But, hey. And for once I couldn't sleep at all on the flight--despite the fact I had been too nervous about sleeping thru my 5.30 alarm to sleep well at home before we left.
Upon arrival in Seattle, we took the long walk to customs and immigration past a series of panel windows that gave view of the tarmac and one of the other terminals--it looked like a bad day on the Outer Hebrides--fog, wind, rain. The Immigration and Customs officials in Seattle are really friendly--I used to dread entering the US in Seattle, but now it's a breeze. Sadly, our car seat didn't make it (even tho they had 2 hours to get it on the plane in Paris)--so not only did we have to wait until all the luggage was offloaded to find out if it arrived or not, but then spent an additional 45 minutes in line to file a claim. We finally emerged and met my folks, who had rented a car seat from Ken's Luggage (this is a GREAT idea and I have to give kudos to Ken's for that). Only it was too small for Aden. So, after spending 10 minutes getting it locked down in my parents' Subaru, we had to take it out, and Dom & my mom & Aden went and got another one. 45 minutes after getting out of bag claim, we were on our way--and the SeaTac parking garage comped us the extra time, since we paid our parking when we first emerged from baggage claim, before we knew we'd need another car seat...on our way out of Seattle we stopped at my wine storage, and grabbed some treasures for the week. The scene added to the North Sea Oil Rig vibe of Seattle--by the railroad, huge industrial machine whining, rain going sideways--we were in a game of chicken with a loader carrying railroad ties--in fact, Seattle at this point was reminding me more of the surface of the planetoid in the Alien movies.
Before we left, I spent Sunday mixing the Sad Knights, and Monday in the studio with Bud Reichard...work resumes as soon as we touch down on Thursday...! So, I will enjoy the grey tranquility of the (rapidly eroding) lakeshore and keep warm.
Love
KS
Bellingham
