"I'm not going to Seattle in December," said Joni. I think it had something to do with the frequent drizzle and perpetually overcast skies we had experienced on our previous three trips to the Pacific Northwest. So this year we scheduled our Seattle trip to coincide with the Northwest Folklife Festival in May.

Folklife goes from Friday evening to Monday night. Our main interest at Folklife was the four days of contra dancing. We had a good time dancing with a lot of very good dancers. It did seem like the dances were easier than necessary for the crowd.

When no contra dancing was available we watched performances. Unfortunately we missed performances such as the eight part didgeridoo music because of conflicts with contra dances. The most interesting performance we saw was taiko drumming, a combination of dancing and drumming that was new to us. Northwest Taiko's five drummers would shout in unison and hit the drums with various different arm movements that made striking visual patterns. One World Taiko, a duo, performed a composition that had been written for ten drummers. Two drums faced each each other, and the two drummers moved in a circle between the drums, beating them as they moved, and keeping the rhythm.

The Vela Luka Croation Dance troupe featured a man playing a three stringed "lijerica" with a bow. He held the instrument upright and turned it left and right to change which strings he bowed. Another man pranced around the floor, shouting instructions in Croatian, and couples did various dance figures in a large circle.

We saw a performance of Capoeira, a martial art that was developed by slaves and disguised as harmless acrobatics and music. Most of the group sang and played a one stringed instrument while two people in front did Capoeira movements, mostly near to the ground. The movements didn't seem to be connected to the beat of the music.

Kathy and Roger performed German dances with much stomping and spinning. Jill and Judy's marimba teacher performed with her marimba group. We watched her sticks blur during some impressive fast sections. Unfortunately we had to move a hundred feet away from the performance because it was over amplified. The one memorable "street" performer was Jason Webley who isn't a remarkable musician but is a great performer. We heard him lead his Aardvark song to the tune from the Blue Danube Waltz.

On Tuesday we joined my mother in Orting and started our trip down the Oregon coast. Our first stop was the Astoria Column on the shore of the Columbia River. Swallows swooped around the park grounds. The visitor booth was closed so information was scarce. We did learn that the column was made from concrete with different colors of plaster, and carved while wet into the brown and white picture illustrating Northwest history. We climbed the 164 winding steps to the top, 125 feet above the ground, and staggered around dizzily, looking at the evening view.

It wasn't far to our first ocean viewpoint, Ecola park. The sun set as we gazed at a lighthouse and looked South at Haystack Rock, a large formation located on Cannon Beach. According to the guide book, several species of birds nest there in the spring. We were looking forward to seeing the puffins in particular.

We found the Cannon Beach Hotel at the far side of Cannon Beach. Joni checked us in and had to tell the clerk what we all wanted to drink for breakfast the next morning. At breakfast time they delivered a basket of fruit and muffins and, of course, the drinks.

While waiting for low tide, which was due around 1pm, we strolled through the tourist shops in the town of Cannon Beach. It was a sunny Wednesday morning during the off season, so tourists were sparse. In one shop we saw the words of a nine year old on a sign: "Before there was TV people used to cook." A jewelry store sold ammolite, which is found on ammonite fossils, and resembles black opal, with vibrant green and orange hues. Ammolite is found only in Canada; the largest commercial source is in Alberta.

Cannon Beach lived up to its artistic reputation with an enormous art gallery population. However, only half of them bother to open on Wednesdays during the off season. We saw paintings by Bev Doolittle including "The Earth Is My Mother" and "Sacred Circle". These two paintings are reminiscent of the Dali paintings that have multiple interpretations: in one the viewer can find a collage of nature scenes or a woman's face. The paintings' frames were wooden with the titles of the paintings inlayed in each frame. Art and Nature has quite a few of her paintings.

A bronze sculpture gallery was packed with large, expensive castings including a sculpture of flying swallows and an amusing 3 inch green bug. Joni had a great time buying fabric at Center Diamond, which was conveniently located across from our hotel.

Finally low tide was approaching so we went to the beach. Exotic sea birds such as gulls and crows perched dotted the rocks. Eventually I did find a lone oystercatcher, a black bird with a bright orange bill. In the tide pools we saw hermit crabs and an occasional star fish. We also found rock faces blanketed with small anemones---each only about 1.5 inches in diameter. It must be quite a sight under water when they open up.

We continued our drive down the coast, making a brief stop at Hug Point State Recreation Area, which features 20 foot deep caves and a feeble waterfall, and then continued on to Munson Creek Falls. The waterfall is a short hike inland. The guidebook claims a hight of 266 ft, but it is actually several separate cascades rather than a single falls. A clear view was elusive because of tree branches as Carol helps demonstrate. Probably in spring it is impressive. Joni was astonished at the size of some of the slugs we spotted on the trail: but they were small ones, only 2-3 inches long.

We stopped at Devil's Punchbowl. This is a large cylindrical formation with a small circular entry at the base. We saw it at low tide and it was unremarkable. The area was overrun by squirrels that we thought looked different from regular gray squirrels. We also saw a handful of insane people surfing.

Next was the Oregon Coast Aquarium. The first room featured "jellies", which the display insisted are not fish. We saw small jellies, big jellies, jellies that glowed, and jellies with lots of tentacles that looked like hair. In the next room we stroked a starfish (it felt fuzzy) and we stroked the anemone (which Joni found to be sticky). Because the tank featured local Oregon coast fauna the water was very cold so our hands got numb quickly. Numerous salmon and a couple very large sturgeon swam around in a large tank.

The best part of the aquarium was the seabird aviary which featured all of the birds that were supposedly nesting on the shore. The staff said that the puffins were currently nesting and we couldn't see them because they stayed hidden in their burrows. The aviary was outdoors with a pool and rock cliffs. We spotted puffins on the rocks. They leapt off the cliff and plunged, like winged rocks, into the water. Underneath the water they were very graceful. We could see them swimming around "or flying underwater" as a kid said. They had their breeding plumage: little crests on their faces. We also saw oystercatchers and the pigeon guillmots. The common murres looked sort of like penguins walking around outside the water. They swam very fast underwater, snatching the dead fish out of the pool.

We left the aquarium by way of the "Passages of the Deep", which is an "undersea" tunnel. We saw sharks, rays, and various other fish swimming. There were windows in the floor. Leopard sharks would swim under our feet every so often. The discomfort associated with walking on the glass reminded me of the CN tower, but it wasn't nearly as strong.

At the recommendations of the aquarium staff we went to the Whale's Tale for their clam chowder. The clams were tender and the chowder was flavorful.

Next we stopped at Seal Rock which is famous for its tide pools. The rock formations on the shore create deep tide pools. The tide was low and the pools were 4-5 feet deep in places. We saw nesting birds on the rocks, but careful inspection with the binoculars revealed that they were cormorants rather than one of the exotic Oregon coast species. They were a deep black because they were completely covered with dense colonies of tiny mussels. In the large tide pools we saw some very big open anemones.

We stopped at the Darlingtonia Botanical Wayside to view the carnivorous plant Darlingtonia Californicus. These are four foot high plants that turn yellow and curl over at the top. The bugs fly into the tops and never leave.

Our last stop on the Oregon coast was a dune buggy ride. We arrived barely in time to get the last driver for a 30 minute ride. My mother recalled a sedate dune buggy ride from her past. This ride was completely different---it had exhilaration and excitement as its goal and resembled a roller coaster ride. The driver would zoom up a steep hill and then plunge off the even steeper back side. He would drive at high speed towards an embankment until it seemed certain we would hit it, but at the last moment the buggy would spin and come to a dead stop. I found the physics of driving on the sand intriguing. The sand made it possible to stop and spin abruptly, and it made descent down steep hills possible. However, the ride got tiresome after about fifteen minutes. Joni and my mother found it nauseating.

We started inland at Reedsport and made a stop at the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area. I was a little concerned that the elk might be in hiding, but we found a small herd of elk grazing at the roadside. In an effort to get a better picture, my mother walked out onto a walkway that took her closer to some elk. Joni and I saw all the elk heads turn towards her. As she drew closer they turned around to get ready to flee and continued watching her with their heads turned backwards.

Satisfied with our elk watching, we continued the drive to Ashland where we had tickets to see the Tempest. About an hour before Ashland we stopped for a late dinner at a terrible "Chinese-American" restaurant. Probably Wendy's would have been better but Joni had her heart set on Chinese food. The place was closing as we left, and we saw a Chinese guy come out with a fish head on his plate. Maybe they can make decent Chinese food there if they don't try to Americanize it.

We started the next morning with left over "Chinese" food, and then walked around central Ashland. A South African furniture store caught my eye. Practically everything in the store seemed to be made of Blackwood, an attractive dark colored wood with occasional light colored streaking. One item we spotted was a chess set featuring Australian animals for the pieces. The pawns were echidnas, and it had wombats, numbats, kangaroos, koalas and kookaburas. In another shop I saw some glass jewelry boxes which had peacock feathers in the lids---sandwiched between two layers of glass. The woman in the shop asked me if I'd fallen in love with Ashland yet after having been there a couple hours.

We met up with Jean Linington, a friend of Joni's mother. Her son was in the play. Both he and one of the actresses were there. The actress talked about performing for kids on a school trip. She looks out into the audience and everyone is asleep.

We got settled in the theater ten minutes before the play began. The theater was packed with teenagers. As soon as the lights dimmed, all of them started shushing each other, but when Miranda appeared on the stage they stopped. In this production Prospero was a woman who was betrayed by her sister Antonia. The play was well executed. The set was sparse, but used well. Ariel was played by a exotic looking six foot tall Asian man. Caliban was pale white and dressed in little more than a loin cloth. Joni loved his hair which reminded her of a troll doll. She was apprehensive about seeing the play with a bunch of middle schoolers, but they turned out to be an appreciative and responsive audience. She liked hearing them react to things.

After the play we went to Funagain Games, dealer in imported German board games. We walked into the store and saw a small room with various games on display. Most of the games, it turns out, are stored alphabetically by name on large shelves in the back room. We knew about the place because we had ordered from them by mail. They told us that 97% of their business is mail order. Upon discovering that we were from far away, one of the staff said "You are what we affectionately refer to as 'pilgrims'". They had a section filled with games that were damaged and hence were being sold at a discount. After scrutinizing one of the games I remarked that it was hard to find any damage. One of the guys said that to find the damage it's best to feel the game. He started running his hands over the game trying to find the damage without success. One of the other guys came over to look and they finally found a nearly indetectable ding in one edge of the box. Apparently they need to take this kind of care because some of their customers are picky collectors. The third guy said he still felt bad about an incident involving an angry letter from a customer who had received a game with a tiny dent in the box. We got 3 games for ourselves from the ding and dent section, and 5 games for other people. When we asked for a bag to carry this pile of games out of the store the guy said they didn't have any bags. You can tell that they don't do much business in the store. They had lots of boxes.

We drove to my grandmother's house that evening. My mother left early the next morning and we had two days with my grandmother. We wanted to cook dinner for her, but needed some ingredients so we took her car. Joni was distressed by the car's excessive width. Merry and Roger were moving that weekend, but they managed to visit the next morning for a couple hours.

My friend Mark joined us at my grandmother's house and we went to Powell's Bookstore where we met up with Sasha, Mark's fiancee. Trina, her boyfriend, and Susan, one of Joni's friends, joined us for lunch at House of Louis, a dim sum place in Chinatown. We left Powell's at seven that evening, and then went out for Sushi at Obis, a sushi place near by which turned out to be good, and astonishingly, cheap. Mark drove us back to Orting. In the car we listened to a really funny tape called "Laughter in Stress Management" by Marilyn Grey.

In Orting I spotted a rufous hummingbird outside my parents' kitchen window. My father said that no birds live in Orting. We went on a walk with him. A flock of cedar waxwings perched in the trees. A spotted sandpiper walked along the creek shore. We spotted a varied thrush in the shoreline bushes. Chickadees, robins, and sparrows we couldn't identify put in appearances. Eagles soared overhead. Not bad for "no birds". He said they only came out because we were there. Joni's theory is that he classifies all the birds he doesn't recognize as sparrows, and he thinks sparrows are not interesting. We walked upstream until the creek split. Water coming from the glacier was cloudy. The other stream was crystal clear. The water mixed in unexpected ways that we could clearly see because of the two different colors.

My mother took us to a private garden that was grown by a couple after they retired. We came up to a tree with a lot of bees buzzing around in front of a cleft on the trunk. Our guide said that the bee hive was in that tree. I asked if there was always so much activity. She said that it was unusual. A few minutes later we looked back and saw hundreds of bees in a huge swarm.

We returned to Seattle so Joni could go to another fabric store. On our last day in Seattle we went to Crosscuts and I looked around at different woods. The zircote was attractive, but expensive and I decided that I shouldn't develop a fondness for expensive woods when there are so many nice reasonably priced woods. They had an old piece of padauk there which was interesting to see. This wood is a brilliant red color when freshly cut. The old piece they had had faded to a dull dark brown color.

On the way back to downtown, Joni saw another fabric store, but we rode past it to a furniture store in Pioneer Square. Practically everything in the place was made of koa. One piece we liked was called Table Tango. It featured two small tables at slightly different heights with the middle legs intertwined.

We also went into the Kagedo Japanese Art Gallery (www.kagedo.com) and saw stones artistically wrapped in rattan or cane. The artist has been trained in traditional Japanese basket weaving and uses some of the knots on his stones. We made a brief stop at Elliot Bay Bookstore and had lunch. Joni ordered lunch at the bookstore and was amazed by the device that lights up when your food is ready. After lunch we rushed off to Pike Market to meet my father.

We visited Pike market twice during the trip. The first time we were there we saw Chinese man selling paintings. His daughter told us that he was a well known painter and showed us that one of his paintings appeared in a book. He charged $45 for an original and $30 for a copy. I examined one of the copies and could see little dots---it looked like a low resolution digital reproduction. Because of an upcoming event, "Pigs on Parade", we saw numerous large pig sculptures at the end of the market. The Starbucks pig was covered with coffee beans. We saw the Swineway Pigano whose side opened to reveal two octaves of keys that actually made noise when struck. When we returned to the market at the end of our trip we stocked up on crumpets. The person at the crumpet shop warned us that we had to eat our 18 crumpets within 24 hours. We figured it would be ok if we got them home to our freezer within 24 hours.

We prepared salmon with pineapple sauce for dinner that evening, had breakfast with Kathy and Roger the next morning, and then left to catch our flight.

We had good trip. Joni is much more enthusiastic about returning to sunny Seattle. Next time she says she wants to head north.