I just got home last evening from yet another trip to visit family in the Seattle area. The express purpose of the trip was to attend the last three (out of six) performances of Woodinville High School's production of Les Miserables, in which my 15-year-old granddaughter had a part. The trip was for eight days, and my grandchildren's paternal grandmother, Judy--who is also my friend--accompanied me. Judy had never visited Seattle, nor had she ever seen the grandchildren's home since they moved out there three years ago. The next couple of blog posts are going to be about the trip.
One of the best things to happen to frequent flyers to the Pacific Northwest occurred a year ago when Alaska Airlines began a non-stop flight from Indy to Seattle, one per day each way. Prior to that, I flew Southwest Airlines, which meant the checked bags had no fees but also meant that there was a layover along the way. Las Vegas, Denver, Kansas City, Chicago...you name it...and sometimes the layovers were counted in hours, not minutes. I gladly pay the $25 for my checked luggage just to have the privilege of getting there sooner and without having to make connections.
I require handicapped support. Without the wheelchair pushers, I simply would be unable to make these trips. Although Judy is mobile, she does have one artificial knee and some problems with the other one. I had to convince her to accept handicapped assistance at the airports, since the services are free (aside from tips for the pushers) and do not take anything away from people who need the services more. Thus, we became two old gals being pushed around by caring folks who know the ropes about getting through security, etc.
I suppose I should also mention the time differential. Indiana is on Eastern Time. The Seattle area is on Pacific Time--three hours behind Indiana time. The experts say it takes one day for the body to adjust to one hour's time change, which means that it would take three days for us to get with the program. Also understand that the length of daylight hours in the PNW is longer this time of year than earlier. In other words, the sun comes up earlier by the clock in Seattle than it does in Indiana. Strange, but true. On the day of our arrival (Tuesday, May 8th), we were chasing the sun. When we landed, it was strange to see the sun still up when my Indiana watch said 11:30 PM!!
Tuesday, May 8, 2018:
Judy's husband Phil did the honors to take us to the Indy airport, along about 4:30 PM.
There is no curbside check-in for Alaska Airlines at Indy, but the desk is close inside. The first great thing that happened there was that the gal behind the counter waived our bag fees for reasons known only to God! That was a $25 savings for both of us, and we have no idea why! They pushed us to the gate where we were boarded early and first.
As I mentioned, the plane followed the sun westward. We landed at Sea-Tac in good shape. Megan and Denis (my daughter and son-in-law), and Robin (our granddaughter) met us at the baggage claim, then drove us back to their house in Bothell for a small dinner of soup and shrimp and other goodies before delivering us to our motel, a mere quarter of a mile from their place. Ryan (our grandson) provided Judy with a house tour before we departed. By the time Judy and I crashed for the night, it was easily 3:00 AM by our Indiana body clocks.
In terms of sleep, I'm only good for about three hours of uninterrupted slumber before I start to thrash. And every time I thrashed, I looked over at Judy in the other bed. She never moved. I swear she woke up in the same position she was when she fell asleep! At one point, I thought, "Well, if she's dead, I won't know it until morning." As it was, she was just one tired lady!
Wednesday, May 9th:
Although it was cool in the morning, it turned into a cloudless day. We thought we would just sit around and catch up on rest, but Meg thought we should take advantage of the day...and we were agreeable. After the children got to school, we departed for Whidbey Island.
We did a ferry ride on the way to Whidbey. (Can't do the PNW without a ferry ride!) We drove around the island, stopping in various places just to soak up the beauty. We stopped at a cafe in Langley and ate lunch outside there. There were flowers everywhere. It was lovely and warm and peaceful, and the food was good. The company even better!
We drove home across the Deception Bridge from the island. Stopped to look at why it is called Deception Pass... These are things we just don't see at home! We were home in time to visit with the grandchildren post-school.
Thereafter, Megan had suggested that Judy and I watch the Les Miserables movie, with the Closed Caption option turned on. Judy had never seen Les Mis. I had, but knowing how convoluted the plot is and how difficult it can sometimes be to understand the words when they are sung on stage, watching this on TV had an enormous impact on our ability to understand the show when we saw it at Woodinville High School. It was the best idea anyone had all week!! We watched until it was time to go back to the motel, then paused it to finish the next day. Judy and I were plenty tired...
Overnight, Judy told me that the fire alarm went off in the motel. Not enough to wake me up, but enough to concern her. When she told me about it in the morning, I already knew what had happened. When I went outside for my morning smoke, there was a scorched paper plate with two totally black burritos on it, set on top of the trash bin to cool off before putting in the trash. When I returned to the room with Judy's coffee, she told me about the fire alarm, and I told her what I saw. Mystery solved. Someone had obviously nuked a couple of burritos too long. I teased Judy about it. Motel is on fire? Oh well...unless someone is knocking on the door, let's just roll over and go back to sleep. (I slept through all of it!)
Thursday, May 10th:
Although it was a pretty day, we were all in agreement that we should take the day off (as much as one can when children have schedules in a one-car family). Judy and I watched the rest of Les Mis, with captions. At one point, we went to Costco to pick up supper pizzas. (Usually, Friday is Pizza Night in the Shchepetov household, but it was performance night for Robin, so we had to have something quick and easy.)
At "call" time, Robin was delivered to school. The rest of us went shortly thereafter. Meg had already purchased the tickets which were being kept at "will call" at the school, but there are no assigned seats. In short, our tickets gave us admission, but first come/first served on seats. I was using the rollator (walker on wheels with a seat) and was greeted at the door by the show's Producer, Katharina. Because I was considered handicapped along with my companion Judy, we were let in early. I asked if our escorts (Megan and Denis) would be allowed to sit with us, and the Producer tapped them on the shoulder as they stood in the general admission line so they could be seated with us! I mentioned to Katharina that we had come all the way from Indiana to see our granddaughter in the show. She asked who our granddaughter was, then said, "I know her. She's a sweet kid." I agreed and thanked her for noticing. Bottom line, we got preferential treatment because of my disability. We had nice seats and got in before everyone else!
I have to say this: when it comes to high school stage performances, I am hard to impress. I've been in shows and directed shows, although NEVER anything as ambitious as Les Miserables. Robin is "only" a sophomore, so she didn't have a lead part, but she did have a one-line solo in one number, and her frequent supportive presence on stage was stellar. When she was in it, she was IN IT! I heard her sing a part at home and was blown away. She can sing! She can really sing! It made me cry, actually. Who knew that she could knock me dead with her stage presence and charm? Every day is a new surprise with that young lady! The show was a tremendous success...a fantastic performance every which way you put it. There were prostitutes in the show. Robin wasn't one of them, but she could easily have been thrown in with the "lovely ladies".
After the performance, when the characters were greeting their fans, I found the young'un that played the bawdy innkeeper who basically stole the show. I pointed my finger at him and said I wanted to shake his hand. I told him that I had traveled all the way from Indianapolis to see the show. His comment was, "All the way from Indianapolis? Do you have family in the show?" I confessed that I did...Robin Heffelman. His response was, "Robin Heffelman! She is the best whore!" Yeah...okay. If you say so. He was a hoot!
When Robin emerged from the wings, we stopped at McDonald's for treats because it was the only place open after 10:30 PM...then the grandmas went home to the motel and died.
How much did we die? Apparently a lot. At one point, Nurse Judy woke me up because I was breathing heavily and noisily in my sleep. She thought she might need to call the paramedics. As it was, I didn't feel that I was suffering. I feel bad that I interrupted her sleep. And so it is with old people!
More later. It's hard to relate a week's worth of wonderful experiences in one blog entry!!
No comments:
Post a Comment