For every down, an up

Needing a break from the failure of newspapers, hassles of health care and annoyances of unemployment, yesterday I took the bicycle out. My sister Michele and I had a great ride down the hill to Alki Beach, with its beautiful views of downtown Seattle on one side and the Olympic Mountains on the other, and enjoyed a nice fish-and-chips lunch at Sunfish.

Of course then it turned out that if you ride down to the beach you also have to pedal up the hill to get home. Still, all good.

A little exercise and fresh air on an usually pleasant, spring-like February afternoon. We agreed it was good day to not have a job.

Here are a few pics, beginning with Mich saddling up at my house.

President of Goofing Off

For Presidents Day today I took the day off, as usual, while Michelle went to work as usual. (I don't blame her; these holidays are good for getting some work done, and then you can save the day for another time.)

It was a pretty day here in West Seattle, and I was just getting ready to take the underused bike out for a spin when she called and suggested meeting at Than Bros. in the Junction for a bowl of pho. Yum, sounded good. I hopped on the ol' Giant, rode up the street and just beat her there by a couple of minutes.


Afterward, I coasted down California to Cupcake Royale, the girls' favorite hang, to see if they were around. I ran into Franny and Gina's friend Katy. They told me Gina had just left to walk down to the beach. They didn't feel like walking but were about to take the bus and meet her there.


By the way, Gina showed us a rough cut last weekend of "Stella," the not-quite-finished movie that she and Katy wrote and directed and that stars Katy, Franny and a bunch of their friends. Very impressive -- even better than I expected, and I figured it would be pretty good. Amazing the quality you can get with a regular video camera and the editing software that everyone seems to have now.

I can't wait for the final cut.

West Seattle Xmas Tree Lighting

Much fun had by all at the West Seattle Christmas Tree lighting tonite, where Tracy Record and fam of West Seattle Blog did the honors. Here's a gallery of pix, with a special focus on excellent hat fashions.



For a slideshow with larger images go here.

Handy notes for SealBeachDaily denizens: Use free VoiceNotes program on IPhone to record audio. Open GarageBand on the mac, delete the default track, drag your audio file into GarageBand. Click Share, send to ITunes, save as MP3. Import into Soundslides.

Election Day in West Seattle

Even for homey, good-vibey, community-y West Seattle, today felt especially celebratory.

I took a long Election Day walk around our neighborhood this afternoon, running a couple of errands, voting and scoring a freebie E-day cupcake and coffee, and everywhere I found people like this bike lady, totally into citizenship and encouraging others to join in. (When I took this photo, in the Junction, the bike lady's chain had just broken. If she took that as a metaphor or bad omen she didn't let on.)

It's a liberal hood, so I wasn't surprised to see all the signs of support for Barack Obama. Pretty strong though. With the exception of a couple of yard signs and bumper stickers touting John McCain, or the odd one regarding a statewide race or local ballot measure, the public displays were overwhelmingly Obama's. In the Junction -- the "downtown West Seattle" intersection of California Avenue and Alaska Street -- drivers honked their horns and waved to the Obamiacs on every corner. Before her chain broke, Bike Lady rode up and down the street, getting toots of support from nearly every passing car.

I'm registered as an absentee voter, but instead of mailing my ballot I walked it up to Schmitz Park Elementary, where Gina and Franny went to school through the fifth grade. Not the big crowds reported elsewhere in the city, but when I dropped my ballot in the box a poll worker told me it had been busy all morning.

At Schmitz Park I ran into our friends Angie and Lew, who also live nearby and also were there to vote. They let me hold their new baby Finn. Cute kid, even if he looks like Lew.





















A new trend, or at least one I never noticed before, is businesses offering free stuff on Election Day. Starbucks was giving away a free cup of coffee all over the country, and here in the Junction the awesome Cupcake Royale served up a free "babycake" to anyone who said they voted.

Cool, deal me in. My only gripe was that C-Royale and Starbucks are about a 15-minute walk apart, so I couldn't enjoy the cupcake and the coffee together. I also needed a blood draw today, so I thought maybe there'd be an Election Day special at the lab too. But no, just a regular ol' nonpartisan, full-price needle poke. As Kaye said: Communist blood-suckers!

As a political reporter and editor for most of my life, it's weird for me not to be working on Election Night. Michelle and I planned to continue the newsroom tradition of ordering pizza while the returns come in. She's not even home from work yet and the networks have practically called the race for Obama -- NBC has it at 200 electoral votes to 90 at this moment -- but there's plenty of news to come. And you can't go wrong with a slice and a beer.

Here are some other pics from my afternoon walk.

Congrats, WSB!

Looks like Tracy Record of the awesome West Seattle Blog is about to be named one of Seattle's 25 most influential people.

Well deserved.

Fish Nazi and The Unabomber

With Kaye and Val in town, we went yesterday afternoon to one of our favorite West Seattle hangs, Sunfish on Alki, for a lunch of oysters and fish and chips.

I love the cod there, fresh and flaky, and the simple atmosphere of the small beach-side space. But there's something about the brothers who run the joint that always has reminded me of that famous "Seinfeld" episode, "The Soup Nazi" -- about the demanding guy with the perfect soup who would punish offending customers by shouting, "No soup for you!"

Here's a sample:



Nothing quite that extreme at Sunfish, but the brothers (I'm sorry I don't know their names) are pretty stern dudes, and woe betide the poor newbie who whips out a credit card or asks for more than one tartar sauce.

The last time I was there, a month or so ago, the owner was unaccountably nice to me. Nothing unusual by normal business standards, but he smiled and asked how my day was going. I even mentioned it to Michelle that night, that's how out of character it was.

So cut to yesterday. As I put in our order, the Fish Nazi smiled again (what?) and asked if I like to go to Las Vegas and play in poker tournaments. Wowie, he's looking into my soul! But then I remembered I was wearing my gray hooded sweatshirt with the World Poker Tour logo. When I said that yeah, I do like to play cards in Vegas, he got all excited.

"You're that guy with the sweatshirt, on the TV. With the name ... what is it?"

Oh, I said, you mean The Unabomber? That would be Phil Laak, the poker pro known as The Unabomber for his standard getup of hoodie and sunglasses. Other than the sweatshirt there's really not much resemblance and I told Fish Nazi that I'm not him, but he got all excited and asked a bunch of questions about poker and pointed me out to his brother, busy cooking.

"It's that poker guy."

Weirdly, the little episode of mistaken identity made my day. That and the fish and chips and the nice company. I went out to the Muck last night, while Michelle and Kaye were having a girl date, and nobody there mistook me for a poker pro. If anything I was the fish with chips. I lost nearly $150, never really got close to winning.

No soup for me.

Bedtime reading for the Raineys

At dinner tonight with my friend Jim Rainey and his charming family, I pulled out my camera to snap the above pic and Michelle mentioned that the Rainey clan soon would be appearing on M&M.

"So," Alison said after asking some questions about the blog, "we can read about you tonight until we fall asleep?" Sure, I said, that's what we do.

Ho ho.

The Raineys are visiting Seattle on a quick Pacific Northwest vacation from their home in Los Angeles -- South Pasadena, actually -- where Jim is a kick-ass reporter covering the presidential campaign and the media. Among his many excellent recent "On the Media" columns was this smart take on the "irony deficiency" in the hubub over The New Yorker's Obama cartoon cover.

Jim called in advance asking for Seattle tourist tips, which is kind of funny considering I never do anything here but go to the casino or the movie theater or the baseball park. But I mumbled some stuff about the outdoors -- kayaking, maybe, a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island, a walk around Seattle Center, possibly a tour of the Hendrix-inspired Experience Music Project rock museum. Amazingly, they're fitting all those suggestions and a couple others into their short stay.

I think that impressed Michelle, who opined tonight that Seattle's a boring place to visit. "What could you possibly do here for three whole days?" Has she ever mentioned that she grew up in Italy?

Anyway, the Rainey mob seemed to like it here. The weather's gorgeous right now, for one thing.

We were all going to meet for dinner at our new favorite West Seattle restaurant, Matador, but when the Raineys showed up -- including Cole, 15; Libby, 14; and Hank, 8 I think -- we learned that Matador is an adults-only joint. Cole, endearingly: "Too bad for them, they just lost out on some business."

True that. We just walked up the street to Elliot Bay Brewing Co., where we ordered burgers and beers and caught up on LA Times gossip, the downfall of the newspaper biz, presidential politics, and music the cool kids are listening to these days. Cole's suggestions were all bands I've never heard of and already have forgotten. Libby says she's into Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell lately. (Fine, kid, but when you're done my mom wants her record collection back.)

The evening's only disappointment was that we completed dinner too late, by 15 minutes, to finish off with an ice cream cone at that West Seattle institution across the street, Husky Deli.

Still, a fun night was had by all, I think -- even Hank, who fell asleep on Alison's lap. The Lake Washington canoe race this afternoon may have worn him out.

There goes the neighborhood

The West Seattle Blog alerted us that they started tearing down the Hancock Fabrics and the Shuck's Auto store today. They're building a Whole Foods and some other stuff in there. Just down the street they're building a new ginormous apartment building, and a block from that they're building another ginormous apartment/retail building where the Super Supplements, Funky Janes and some of the shops now are.

Also right across the street from this Hanckock Fabrics, I think some other ginormous thing is going in where the auto dealer used to be. Sounds like thousands of new residents and cars showing up all at once. Makes me shiver to think of the commute a year from now. Right now it takes me 12 minutes to get to work. I'm guessing it'll be 45 minutes by this time next year.

'Wait. Are you the Michelle?'

When we walked up to the annual West Seattle SummerFest this afternoon, we stopped by the booth of the excellent West Seattle Blog to say hello and offer props. WSB really is an incredible blog. Michelle and I talk about it all the time as the model for a neighborhood news source and for the kind of community-centered, reader-friendly micro-coverage that might help save the stupid newspaper industry. So we were happy to meet Tracy Record, a lifetime journalist who runs the venture (more than) full-time, and her husband Patrick Sand, whom their site lists as co-publisher and "the sales guy."

Michelle stuck out her hand. "I'm Michelle," she said. "I run the P-I's web site."

"Wait," Tracy said. "Are you the Michelle? Like, from Michelle & Mark?"

I raised my hand, and we all had a nice few minutes of mutual admiration. We noticed long ago that Tracy had listed M&M on her West Seattle blog roll, but she must actually read it too. She asked about our road trip, and when she mentioned something that had happened in the hood recently she added, "I think you were still gone then."

Very cool. It also made me realize we haven't been doing much blogging lately. Sometimes, I find, you just feel like taking a break. We'll have a couple of little posts to catch up on in the next few days. For now, here are a couple more pics from today's street fair.

Promotion

One of the nice things about returning home earlier than planned was that we got to attend Franny's eighth-grade graduation ceremony last week, celebrating promotion from Madison Middle School to high school.


In a way it seems silly to me that the school makes such a big deal about passing the eighth grade, but on the other hand going to high school is a big deal, and the kids all get into it. The girls dress up, some of the boys put on a shirt with buttons, a few of the class leaders and teachers make short little speeches, the school jazz band plays a couple of tunes, everyone gets called up to the stage to receive a certificate (that's Fran getting hers, in the fuzzy photo above), and academic achievers get called out for special attention.

That's where I ended up getting a little annoyed though. Franny's best friend Lacaia (below, with Fran) was one of 27 kids who managed to get through the three years of middle school with a perfect record of straight A's. Quite an achievement, I think, and nice that she and the others were called up to the stage individually to receive a little trophy. But when the stupid principal, Ms. Hudson (who insists on being called Dr. Hudson), got to Lacaia, she bungled her name: "La ... La ... LaCalla?" It's La-cay-a. She messed up Lacaia's last name too, which is even easier.

That made me so mad. Come on, lady! After all the platitudinous speeches about preparation and taking care of the details, you can't take the time to learn the names of 27 outstanding students? Sheesh. What does a kid have to do to get your attention around here, shoot up in the hallway?

Really, I was so bugged I almost walked up to the "doctor" after the ceremony and chewed her out.

Even so, it was a fun night. Frank looked happy and proud. Gina and Greta sat with Michelle and me in the grandstand, and we all mingled afterward in the courtyard, where we ran into Mich and Gabby (she's in Fran's class).

The ceremony was at West Seattle High School, where most of the Madison promotees will attend next year. Gina went there for freshman year but didn't really like it; she and Fran are both moving in the fall to the Center School, which is a smaller arts-oriented school downtown.

Here are Frank and Gina goofing off:


Gabby and a group of her friends. Gab's third from the right, in the blue floral dress:


Franny and her buds:

Nice to be home

We left Renee's comfy house in Denver on Tuesday morning and after two very long days of driving arrived back in Seattle late Wednesday night. Great trip, great memories, but we both agree it's great to be home too.

Although we cut Pie in the Sky II a little shorter than planned -- maybe it really was pie-in-the-sky, Mom -- we still spent two very full months on the road. We got tired, I'll admit it, and maybe a little over-saturated too. At some point it gets hard to take in any more sights and experiences and really appreciate them, no matter how cool.

One down side of returning early is that we're without Internet access until the middle of next week, when they can reconnect our DSL. That's why we've been out of touch since returning. (I'm writing now from the library up the street.)

Thanks to all for following along, for hosting or meeting us along the route and for sharing in our fun adventure.

Here are a couple of pics from the drive home, beginning with the nice Rocky Mountain view from Renee's neighborhood. We drove north to Wyoming, stopped in beautiful downtown Laramie for lunch, then cut west into Utah, up to Idaho, through a slice of Eastern Oregon, where there was still snow on the ground, then into Eastern Washington and across the Snoqualmie Pass to Seattle, viewed above from a freeway underpass and below from the West Seattle Bridge to our house.