The entire day was spent on the ship, as we had no ports of call today. Luckily there was lots to do on the ship. We played a group round of trivia in one of the bars (There are like 20 bars on board, each with a different theme. Apparently, according to the cruise activity director, “if you aren’t wasted, the day is.”) Everyone but me played Bingo as well, but we didn’t win either time. I found an excellent nook, at the back of the ship to sit and read. Super comfy couches, tucked in behind yet another bar with a view of the wake of the ship.

Martha is fighting a little bit of sea sickness, mostly because we are out on the open water and rocking a bit. It is funny trying to guess which guests on the ship are drunk and which are just having trouble gaining their sea legs.

For dinner, we had quite the feast. Sam had escargot, I had ox tail soup and there were quite a few orders of fish. The chef on the ship really seems to know his stuff.

Let the cruise begin! We left Seattle at 6:00am, anticipating what the cruise line warned us could be a 1-2 hour wait at customs. Yet another beautiful day dawned in Seattle, just a slight bit of mist on the horizon, making Mount Rainier look like it was floating in the clouds. We left Seattle, and drove north, through the lovely forests surrounding I-5. We reached the Canadian border and waited less than 10 minutes before approaching the border. When the Mounty asked us where we were from, we all laughed, and Dad replied with our typical answer “All over!” She was not amused and insisted we elaborate, which meant going one by one to say which state we currently lived in. This recitation will become a common ritual over the next few days.

Once we crossed into Canada, it took us a little time to find the cruise ship pier, as the directions we had looked up took us over the employee-only bridge. A few more complications ensued when we arrived on the correct pier, only to realize we were so early that the cruise ship was still being emptied of the previous cruise passengers. We were approached by a cruise employee as we waited, about how we were getting to the airport, but we had to reassure her that we were not waiting for a cab or a bus.
Boarding the boat was a little messy and a little complicated. After waiting for over 2 hours without being asked to do anything, we all were asked to step out of line to fill out a form that declared we were not sick with Swine Flu.

Once we boarded, we found there were a few minor hiccups with our reservations. Mom and Dad had reserved a stateroom with a queen sized bed and a pull-out couch bed for me, but we found ourselves in a room with 2 single beds and a bunk bed. We had been assured of being able to sit at the same table as Martha and Sam, but we were at different tables. Dad was supposed to have a sticker on his card so he could get unlimited Cokes for the whole cruise, but it was on Mom’s card instead . . . and she wasn’t allowed to order the Cokes and give them to Dad. It took a few hours to sort everything out, but it could have been a lot worse.

As we boarded the ship, around lunch time, a massive leak in the main fire pipe line on the top floor began to flood the central staircase of the ship. According to the Captain’s announcement later in the day, a coupling had come loose and the water had begun gushing out into the lounge on the top floor, dripping down through the stairs, soaking the carpet and a number of staterooms. The central stairs were closed throughout the ship, even during the emergency evacuation rehearsal. It took over 16 hours of non-stop work for the crew to finish vacuuming, drying and replacing carpets and damaged furniture.

Dinner was delayed until 9:00 and took a little time for the waiter to get organized, but the food was fantastic. I think our collective goal is not to gain any weight on the cruise but we are going to have to work for it.

For day 2, we stayed within the city limits of Seattle. We slept in a little, in order to avoid Seattle rush hour traffic into the city, before heading towards Seattle center. We indulged our inner tourists and took a trip to the top of the Space Needle, on a day clear enough to see 2/3 of Mount Rainier and the Olympic Mountains in the distance. We came back down and headed to the Klondike Gold Rush National Park, one of the few indoor national parks in the country.

The park is basically a museum that chronicles the history of the 1898-99 gold rush into Alaska. Gold rushers loaded up on supplies in Seattle, totaling 1 ton. The Mounties of Canada required all gold rushers crossing into the Yukon to carry at least 1 years worth of food, plus there were the clothes, digging equipment (picks, axes, shovels, gold pans), and other gold rush travel necessities, (like a whip saw and hammer with which to construct a boat, in order to make it to the lakes where the gold had been discovered.)

The museum did a wonderful job of chronicling the adventures of 6 famous gold rushers, including John Nordstram, who used his $18,000 gold rush fortune to buy a shoe repair shop . . . which transformed into a national department store.

After touring the museum and watching the educational film about the gold rush, we took a ranger led walking tour of Seattle, where he pointed out many gold rush era monuments and landmarks. We learned the origin of the phrase “skid row” came from the logging industry in gold rush era Seattle, when the logs were slid down a single road, through the seedier parts of town down to the water. This part of town, in fact, had no underground sewers, but had a system of boxes that ran overhead where people would deposit their sewage so it could travel overhead, down to the ocean. To make a long story short, a reporter misunderstood a local discussing the loggers “skid road” and wrote it up as “skid row.”

At one point of the tour, the ranger pointed out the firefighter’s memorial statue in the middle of the city, which prompted Martha and Sam to chime in that they were fire fighters back at home. The guide recommended we try to stop at the end of the tour at the newly opened firefighters museum in the Last Chance Volunteer Fire Department. As we passed, we ran into one of the fire fighters, who let us into the museum despite the fact it was about to close. Martha and Sam, as well as the ranger and the rest of the folks on the tour, were in awe of the opportunity to see all of the old fashioned fire trucks. We think the ranger learned an awful lot on that part of the tour.

Martha’s friends, Emily and Sean were wonderful tour guides. After the tour, they took us down to the market, where we found the famous fish booth where they throw the fish. They also showed us a great little ally tucked away from the crowds where we had some wonderful dungenous crab and smoked salmon rolls. Fantastic eating.

At the end of a long day, we returned to the hotel, did some laundry, then hung out pool side before eating a light dinner of wine, cheese, crackers and salami. A wonderful, long day in Seattle.

Phase 1 of the trip: All roads lead to Seattle

It took a little time to gather all of the troops here on the West Coast.  Dad drove from CT to Boston to meet Martha and Sam, who were coming from Syracuse, NY, so they could all fly out together from Boston, through San Francisco, to Seattle.  Mom and I departed Kansas City, stopped in Salt Lake, and landed in Seattle.  Phew.  That is a lot of cities to sort through.

Now assembled in Seattle, Martha and Sam went to stay with friends from college, while the remaining three of us hunkered down in a hotel room near the airport.  An added bonus to this hotel of convenience: a straight on view of Mt. Rainier!  We kept the window shades wide open while we sipped Alaskan beer and ate pizza while watching the All-Star Game on TV.

Phase 2: Actually enjoying Seattle

This morning, we woke up rather early, checked out of our hotel, picked up the rental car and headed out of town towards the hulking volcano on the horizon.  The day was perfectly clear, not a cloud in the sky, and in the mid-70s.  We arrived at Mt. Rainier park, spent some time watching an educational film about the history and dynamic physical features of the peak, then stepped outside to gear up for our hike.  On the hill top in front of us, a deer frolicked through the open meadow, wagging its tail, munching on grass and posing for pictures with the mountain peak behind it!

Up the Paradise trail, about ten minutes into the hike, we came across SNOW!  Now, it is mid-July, it is in the 70s, and yet, there is thick snow banks to be found, not just in the shade, but in the broad meadows under the bright sun.  Sun so bright, in fact that most of us returned from the hike slightly pinker than when we began, despite a liberal slathering of SPF 30.  Welcome to glacier hiking!  Unfortunately, we did not come prepared like a number of other hikers we met along the way, with ice grips for hiking boots, light weight waterproof gators, ski poles and other higher tech equipment. We had on sneakers, jeans/shorts, and only 3 water bottles for 7 people. While I think we all wished we could have had proper hiking gear in order to take on the mountain, the reality of how much suitcase space that gear would have occupied for only 1 day of enjoyment out of 14 didn’t make much sense.

The hike back down the mountain seemed a bit more harrowing, since gravity and the slippery nature of snow were working in tandem and we were much more tired than when we began. We finally reached the bottom, three hours after we set out.  We had hiked just shy of Panorama Peak, where the entire trail turned to snow and ice.

After a brief rest, we began the drive back down the mountain, stopping at various vista points to take photos of the carved out river bed, still showing signs of damage from some serious flash flooding a few years back, waterfalls, and of course, the front entrance of the park.  Upon a recommendation from Emily and Sean, Martha and Sam’s friends from college, we made reservations at Ray’s Boathouse for dinner.  Luckily, we had time to change out of our sweaty hiking clothes and into something more appropriate, because Ray’s turned out to be a very classy seafood restaurant, overlooking the water.  As luck would have it, we arrived just prior to sunset, so we were able to toast our pre-dinner beverages just as the sun touched the Olympic Mountains in the distance.

All in all, a very successful first full day in Seattle.  Tomorrow, we venture into the downtown part of Seattle.  More updates then!

I’m headed out to the west coast with the family tomorrow and hope to keep the blog updated via my new iPod touch. We will be visiting seattle Vancouver and various cities in Alaska. Keep a look out for updates!

I’m going to try and start contributing to this blog on a regular basis again. That said, a few quick updates.

Tomorrow starts the last full week of classes here at school. I’m teaching, grading and plowing though my last bits of reading, trying to get this semester squared away. Then comes the seminar paper writing. Joy.

I’m teaching the Summer A session, May 11-June 19. Hopefully this will give me a jump start on my summer work.

I’ve been accepted to present a paper at the CHLA conference in Charlotte this summer. More on that later!

So tune back in folks, I’m going to try and keep you updated on this crazy grad school adventure I’m still on.

Barack Obama is going to be the next president of the United States of America. I am very, very tired from celebrating, but all I have left to say is “Yes we did, yes we can, yes we will!”

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Yes, I have heard of early voting.  Yes, I am aware that it is happening right now.  Thank you, but I already have a few dozen fliers about the benefits of early voting in my bag, on my desk and in my recycling bin at home (see, saving the environment is a priority for me too!)  I have received phone calls from Hilary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Michelle Obama, all extolling the virtues of  early voting.  Friends and co-workers have already cast their ballot early and laugh that I haven’t voted yet. Two kind young students came by my house this weekend, offering to help me through a sample ballot and give me yet another flier about early voting.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, democrats and republicans, I will be voting on election day.  Want to know why?

1. I am an English grad student.  I spend my LIFE talking about the significance of tradition, turning points and symbolism.  This election is a hugely important, symbolic moment in the history of our country, our generation and hopefully, the world.  I want to take part in a symbolic and important way, which means showing up at the polls on election day.  Standing in line with my fellow citizens to “pull the lever” on election day has meaning and I plan to experience it.

2. I am an English grad student.  I know there will be long lines. I also read 2000 pages a week.  A line for me is simply a new and interesting place for me to blow through some of that reading.  Only difference will be standing as opposed to sitting, lounging, sipping coffee or lying in bed.

3. I am an English grad student.  I sit and analyze what is on television, whether I intend to or not.  The next ten days are going to be chock a’bock full of election analysis, editorializing, polling, exposees about clothing budgets, insane campaign schedules.  Accusations will fly, promises will be made and if I am going to have any hope of staying sane, I need to have something to look forward to.  I need to have my vote waiting for me at the finish line.

4. I want to remain invested in the race. I want to try to find value in the fascinating debates about pubic policy, social issues and cultural forces that are affecting this election.  During the primaries, Georiga voted halfway through the election process and to be completely honest, about two days after Obama swept the state, I stopped watching CNN for about two months.  Mostly, it was hard to stomach the ugliness when I had already expended my investment in the process.  Obama could have been convicted of robbing a bank with a super-soaker, or have admitted to doing heroin with Paris Hilton and there was nothing left for me to say about it.  Not this time.  I am holding out for the end.

5. Voting early seems so anti-climactic.  Call me a traditionalist, call me crazy, but there is a joy of doing something at the appropriate date and time.  A little delayed gratification never hurt anyone.  I want to come home election night and watch the election night coverage and see them tally up my vote.  I know logically that all the votes go into the same place, that all the votes they are counting will be the same whether they were cast this week or on the 4th.  But somehow, the connection just seems more real to that election night coverage when I was at the poll a few hours earlier.

6. Voting isn’t about convenience.  We have very few civic responsibilities here in the United States. With all the news channels talking about how we the consumer is partly responsible for the financial bailout because we had no personal responsibility, reading articles and journals that talk about the trouble with students who don’t take responsibility for their own grades or education, I am looking forward to exercising my right to vote.

Maybe one day, when I have a full time job, kids, a house, and various other responsibilities, early voting will be a necessary convenience that I celebrate.  But this year, I will be voting on November 4.

No matter when you vote, remember to do it!

I am struck by the most recent twists and turns by the Republican party and associated pundits, turning themselves into rhetorical pretzels in trying to justify Sarah Palin’s VP position.  The news media is not allowed to critique the fact that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant because it is private, but the fact that she is a mother is used as a plus.  We are not allowed to question whether or not it is responsible for her to leave her 4-month-old special needs child at home because it is sexist, but she can claim that because she has a 4-month old special needs child, everyone else in the world with special needs children can count on her to advocate for her cause.

I am not sure even the Republicans can keep track of all the different rhetorical twists and turns they have created.  For instance:
From William Kristol’s op-ed in the New York Times today

“Character, judgment and the ability to learn seem to matter more to success as president than the number of years one’s been in Washington.”

It is nice to see Kristol, a long time Fox news pundit who leans a little to the right has come around to seeing Obama’s side of the argument, that his relative “inexperience”  in Washington is canceled out by his desire to change the world, by his clear judgement on the Iraq war and his upright character, instilled in him by his single mother and  . . . Oh wait.

Kristol argues that Palin can learn on the job, should McCain drop dead of a heart attack at 73.  Not a bad argument.  Except  I am pretty sure Palin would disagree.  If I am not mistaken, Palin said (to wild applause mind you) in her national convention speech that, “the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of ‘personal discovery.’” She made it very clear that no one, and that means NO ONE, should be allowed to sit behind the desk at the Oval Office if they are not entirely clear on what they are doing ahead of time.  Which makes her quote about not knowing what the VP does that much more embarrassing.

Republican pundits think it is ok for Palin to wing it in Washington but disapproves of Obama’s mere 6 years in Washington.  Palin doesn’t think anyone should be allowed to “learn on the job,” but is hoping that someone will provide her with a job description for a position she has already accepted.  If I weren’t trying to be politically neutral in my classroom, this would be an excellent example to use for lessons on ethics and rhetoric, and the importance of remaining consistant when trying to communicate a clear message.

I’m so glad I am voting for Obama, so I don’t have to figure out what the Republican’s actually stand for.

I am watching to stay informed. I am drinking a beer while I do it. I keep falling back onto my rhetoric class for tomorrow, thinking of teachable moments. It isn’t working. So I had to vent it all out there, basically in real time.

Reasons (so far) that the Republican convention’s speeches are making me sick to my stomach.

Rudy Guiliani

• In running through Obama’s resume, Guiliani paused after saying he worked as a “community organizer,” laughed, then said “what?” The audience began to laugh. Guiliani continued to laugh and said “what is that?” then said “ok, maybe that is the first problem with his resume.” Maybe it is because community organizers work 120 hours a week in the poorest areas of the country, where these Republican fancy-pants have never set foot that they have never heard of organizing.
• Organized chant erupts in the crowd. “Drill baby drill.” Encouraged from the podium. So much for foreign oil or those windmills in McCain’s ads
• Guiliani brought up “Islamic terrorism” as a watchword that Democrats are unwilling to say for fear of offending someone. Gee, political correctness is a negative for a presidential candidate. Or, is it being able to pronounce multi-sylabic word.
• Trying to paint him as a flip-flopper. Suggested that Joe Biden should get his VP slot in writing, because Obama might change his mind.
• Boos for the United Nations. In general.
• Palin is the most popular governor . . . in the 3rd least populated state in the country. Is that a selling point?
• Palin does not represent MY generation, thank you very much. I don’t need to dress like a sexy secretary to get the “good old boys” to take me seriously. Nor would I hold up my pregnant 17 year old daughter as an example of how I am against abortion, while telling everyone else in the race she is off limits.
• “How dare they question if Sarah Palin has enough time to spend with her children and be vice president. When did they ever ask a man that question?” Seriously? Seriously? First of all, Obama said he would fire anyone on his staff if they brought up her personal life, and mentioned he was the child of an 18 year old mother. To whom is he referring?
• Rudy, hogging the spot light to the very end, pre-empted the video that was to “introduce” Palin to the crowd. The organizers decided to skip the film, cause, everyone already knows her already, so we just need to stay on schedule.

Sarah Palin

• The announcers on ABC tell us that there was a speech written for the VP pick before Palin was selected, written primarily for a man, but when she was nominated, they “scrapped it” and found someone to write a speech that was more suited “to her personality.”
• Why is Palin the only person who ALWAYS refers to McCain as “John S. McCain”? Or maybe I missed it.
• Slight side note- the video back drop for the speakers is much less impressive then the fake White House facade behind Obama.
• If this is Palin’s chance to introduce herself to America (as the announcers keep saying) why is she only talking about McCain?
• Did she really just say make a call to all the families of special needs families? Really? So much for families being off limits.
• Todd, life long oil worker, but we aren’t going to talk about that pesky little DUI. Sounds like our current president.
• She read a quote from an unnamed writer about how great small towns are, in reference to a habberdasher from Missouri, who turns out to be Truman. She grew up with Harry Truman? People like Harry Truman? People in Missouri? Small town people? There was really no antecedent to that sentence. Sigh. I suppose there are teachable moments.
• She just compared herself (and hockey moms) to pittbulls. The difference: lipstick.
• Small town mayors are like community organizers except they have actual responsibilities . . . I bet those poor community organizers around the world would be more then happy to trade your salary and “responsibilities” for their 120 hour weeks, bad pay and difficulty work. Quit picking on the people out there who are doing a necessary job for the unfortunate people that the government has forgotten.
• Newt, Huckabee and other Republicans seem less then excited during her speech. WTF?
• She sold the Alaska government luxury jet on Ebay? Seriously?
• She is allowed to joke that her kids miss the Governor’s mansion chef, but Hilary can’t say she doesn’t bake cookies?
• She used that “Thanks but no thanks” line for the “bridge to nowhere” again, even though it has been shown she was a flip-flopper on that issue.
• I know she has only been the nominee for like 72 hours, but you think she could whip up a new speech. Or at least rephrase the same points. She is reusing a ton of material from her announcement speech, right down to the jokes.
• Our top concern when a hurricane hits the gulf is that we shouldn’t have to pay for higher foreign oil. Right. Um. Have you not been paying attention for the past few years?
• Take it from a girl from the most beautiful wilderness in the US . . . we can afford to drill it. Repeat chanting.
• They won’t say Obama’s name.
• Ragging on him for writing to memoirs but not a bill in the Senate. Nice. I have to admit, that was a good point.
• She really does seem to think we can win all the wars we are fighting.
• Ragging on the fake columns behind Obama for his speech. She is just jealous he got a cooler backdrop. (Nice slight on the “hollywood studio lot” though. Smooth)
• Failed to mention that all those taxes he is going to raise are on the top 1% of Americans so that everyone else can get a tax break. Sigh. There is that rhetoric thing again.
• Naming off swing states now. I hate it when the Democrats do this too, but Obama is a little smoother about it. He doesn’t just go through a list.
• Maybe if someone looked up the definition of community organizer, you would see that it too is a career about change too. Perhaps we should start a campaign to mail literature on how to become a community organizer to the RNC.
• Harry Reid, head of the majority party in Washington, “can’t stand John McCain,” which is the best accolade they need? So much for bi-partisan, reaching across the aisle.
• She called McCain a fellow. I think you stop referring to men as a “fellow” when he turns 50. Maybe 60.
• If people don’t stop repeating the quote that she is “one tough cookie,” I am really going to get mad.

Whew. I am exhausted. That was tough. Personally, I think picking on community organizers is a mistake. They will organize those communities against you right quick.