Alice Travels

South Seattle, WA

2011-10-08T00:32:00.000-07:00

August-Sept 2011

Travis and Sparrow. A beautiful house, a beautiful time. I have fond memories of morning coffee on the porch with Sparrow, and walks in the park down the street.

Auburn, WA

2011-10-08T00:24:00.000-07:00

May-July 2011

Escape from Redmond.

This house, as told to me by my strange reclusive downstairs neighbor, was historically Auburn's first brothel. The current owner, he said, hates that story, because he hates women. Who knows.

What is true about this house is that the whole thing shakes and shivers when the trains thunder by, and when you stand on the porch you could see Mount Rainier on a clear day, and the owners of two shipper containers in the lawn had a yard sale every other day.

Seattle, Baby!

2011-01-04T15:18:00.000-08:00

Day 1

After making the daily coffee rounds, I decide to take a nap afterwards, and rise at the more reasonable hour of 9 am. After breakfast, I set out to find the location of a cellphone provider in downtown Seattle that costs me less than an arm and a leg.

Plunged headlong into the thick of the shopping district downtown, I pay $7 for an hour of parking with tears in my eyes. The shopping malls are thick and of epic, expansive proportions, fancy urban storefront dispays abound. I make my way to the provider of choice and pay ONLY about $40 for the phone AND my first month of service, with no contract. The day is off to a good start. After giving a disparaging glance through the graphic novel section at the neighboring Barnes & Nobles (though, Judge Death? It looked sort of awesome?) I scramble back to make it out of the steel jaw of the parking garage before I have to pay $14 for an hour and 5 minutes.

Driving out, I decide hell with calling for directions, I can wrangle this Army Surplus store route myself, through sheer navigational prowess. And I do! Passing the Pike Place Market on one side of the street, I find $3 an hour parking, pay for two hours, and half an arm in "parking tax", and head to the army surplus place. I didn't find the perfect peacoat, but I did restock on colored bandannas, and found the MOST amazing swiss-made alpine/motorcycle goggles. When my current steampunk goggles break, I am going there for a restock.

Then, onto Pike Place. First stop, delicious bbq pork steam bun. Second stop, adorable felt-crafted owl lumps (did not partake, but they were cute). Third stop, a eccentric used book store and it's owner, who was in the middle of telling a young flamingly gay photographer boy (James) the clandestine whereabouts of the hard-to-find Seattle Insect Zoo, off to the right, in the middle of a stairway down towards the Aquarium on the waterfront. I, obviously, was immediately engrossed. A short conversation later, in which I learned of James' adventure earlier in the day in which he had actually managed to snap a picture of a man throwing a sandwich straight at his face (I can only imagine) and also of James' dislike for the artist Chihuli, I decided that alas, I had not enough time for the insect zoo today, and went back to my parking space. On the way, though, I happened by an old asian man selling the most adorable plushes, and I fell in love with one that Rivka would also love, and bought it for her.

When I arrived, I realized I was closer than I thought, and had an hour. I payed so much damn money to park, I figured it'd be a shame not to spend at least the amount of time I paid for wandering around Seattle. So I walked several blocks, until I came to "Damaged Goods" a off-beat indie record store, which seemed to sell only everything I liked, and nothing I didn't. There I scored myself (finally!) a real leather used motorcycle jacket, just my size, and at a 30% discount. He proceeded to give me the two CDs in my hand at $5 each (Iggy Pop and T.Rex) and I explained that I was "giving glam rock another chance". He had Edward Gorey prints at the register, and after confirming we were both big fans, he told me about the gallery next door. The gallery next door had a beautiful illustration show up, which I perused.

I asked a bicycle cop for directions back to the highway, and made off with my goods. The directions went off without a hitch, concluding my first and very succesful solo trip to Seattle proper.

Williams AZ

2009-12-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

I drove through a blizzard, at 7,000 feet. In hindsight, though everything ended up working out fine, even to my advantage in some ways, this was not a wise choice of driving weather. Behind a truck at 30 miles an hour, he slowed down fast and I panicked and slammed on my brakes. Into the snow bank I went, and when they went to fish me out, my transmission had somehow blown. So started my 9 day tenure in Williams, a sleepy little Route 66 town, the "gateway to the Grand Canyon."

The hotel. By the time I left it had thawed out a great deal. The town was surrounded by foothills, as you can make out from the last picture, taken in a hail flurry the day my car was supposed to be finished and wasn't.

The town of Williams. I rented some movies, I walked to Safeway several times, I mingled with the local cowboys a little, and crashed at The Flyer for wifi connection during the day. All and all, not unpleasant.

Grand Canyon

2009-12-28T19:22:00.001-08:00

The Grand Canyon Rail. I got scalped tickets from the owner of the Grand Motel where I was staying: he got them for free and sold one to me for less than half price. Pretty sweet. On the way to the Canyon, the train de-railed, in it's first accident since 1961. Don't worry kids, they sent buses for us and the only reprocussion was that we were 40 minutes late. They let us stay at the canyon later, and got the train back on track by the time we were ready to come back into town. There was a staged robbery, but because of the snow and the later hour, the robbers didn't ride up and overtake the train on horseback like usual.

Views from the train: from desert to pine forests.

Me at the canyon. The views are overwhelming, the sheer distance you can see tricks your eyes into flattening out the landscape. Like looking at a miniature. I hiked the trail 3 miles roundtrip and ate at a restaurant.

New Mexico (continued)

2009-12-06T18:29:00.000-08:00

Downtown Santa Fe..

Snuck a photo in the museum... marionettessss. They were so beautiful! I bought the book of the artist's other marionette/puppet work/shows... <3

Don't do this at home kids.

Hiking....brrrrr. It was too much uphill, too. I gave up before I got close to halfway around the loop, turned back, and went downhill again..

Off Rt. 66 through a little run down Pueblo.

Shot of I-40 from off a dirt road.

The continental divide! Exciting! I now even know what it IS, actually. Something about water direction.

Ravenssss~ <3

Tulsa---Santa Fe

2009-12-04T20:11:00.001-08:00

Ta da~ out of Oklahoma, brand new "curtains" for the van. Cardboard edged in black duct tape with the old curtains stapled on. They snap-fit over the windows like a charm.

As pictured.

Some amazing cloud cover getting through Oklahoma towards
Texas in the morning..

Spent the night, 8-9 hours after departing from Tulsa, on the Texas-New Mexico border. There was snow on the ground, until I got out I thought it was sand. In the dark, to a Floridian... well. It got down to 9 degrees that night, I woke up to frost on the INSIDE of the van windows. Brrr.

A little one-horse town off of Route 66, with this great old church.. My fingers nearly froze off taking these pictures, the wind was very strong today.

And more.

Route 66 cafe on historic 66 in Santa Rosa NM, I had a hamburger, and did a sketch of the interior.

Here it is: The Road. Hwy 66. I drove on the snow for six miles, got nervous when I didnt see an exit, wussed out and turned back. It was running parallel to I-40 anyway, same scenery, less snow.

In Las Vegas, NM, at a gas station

Closer to Santa Fe, on the Santa Fe Trail, route 25.

More Santa Fe Trail.

Won't post the Tulsa pictures till later, they need heavier sorting.

Pompano Beach---New Orleans

2009-12-04T20:02:00.001-08:00

A vacation without going away from home, Alden and I had a lovely week in Florida.

NOLA again! With Alden. We spent the night in Pensecola, after driving 10 hours from Pompano Beach. We had adventures and misadventures... mostly the misadventures were parking and getting lost. We ran around like madpeople in fancy dress, then got tired, itchy, and ornery (I did anyway) and decided to head out of town.

Then it was on to Memphis, where Alden's dog bit me...-sigh-

Day 4 (Preview Images, Text to Follow)

2009-05-19T19:03:00.001-07:00

Update Status/Day 3

2009-05-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

I just got home, and I have a mess of unpacking and organizing to get through, as well as playing catch-up with my lovely friends and relations. I am in the process of sorting, naming, and exporting all of my pictures to be blog-ready. Meanwhile....

Day 3
New Orleans

It was a day of Mardi Gras museum-going, chess lesson acquiring, beignet eating, doll perusing, and corset-wearing.

I met the renown and charming 'Man in a Red Beret', chess master Jude Acres, who gave me his full attention and some excellent life advice for an hour or so. I didn't get a chess lesson untill later, though, since I'd left my $5 at home. He did, however, scoot me in the back door of a lovely establishment, a resturant not far off in which most of the staff were avid chess players. So several of the cooks and servers came out and played games with me, and I got free drinks.

Earlier in the morning, my dad and I went to the Marti Gras museum and saw all sorts of spectacular glittery and feathered creations.

Day 2 in NOLA

2009-05-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

Monday

Had a great time walking around today. Continental breakfast at my hotel, the Saint Anne/Marie Antionette, then a morning walk, followed by a search through the car for my camera cord, and adventures outside of the Quarter to buy camera cord, fast food lunch. After lunch I finally did some solo exploring, bought MASKS, and other such EXCELLENT fare, got caught in the rain, got offered gator sausage by a cute local, then came back. Dad and I ate dinner at a wonderful seafood place, Deanie's-- It's a chain, I think, but we had great New Orleans style cuisine at a medium price range, and it was very fancy-looking inside. Here's all the pictures at once, I don't have the time/energy to sort them currently.

New Orleans Day One

2009-05-11T11:14:00.000-07:00

Sunday
I left Memphis around 10 am, a bit tired and frazzled, and rather looking forward to a long drive through the countryside. At about 2 or 3, the car had some trouble, and the tire blew out. I smashed my knuckles getting the tire out from under the car (bruised now in a nicely macho fashion) and proceeded to change the tire to a spare mostly by myself, even though Dad posed with the tire in the picture.

Then, really by serendipity, off a little country road there was a used tire shop with a guy who just happened to be there, even though he doesn't usually work Sundays.

At the rest stop on the state border:

When we got to Louisiana, the driving experience that was really impressive was this raised road, maybe 20 miles of it, through the bayou, really a neat thing.

We got in to the city around 7:30

We checked into our hotel room, which is lovely, with a private balcony, and then went straight out for eats to the Deja Vu cafe/bar, in which I had a very good local Shrimp Po' Boy. We must have looked hungry, because the service was lightening fast, and we ate it in the same manner, and hit Bourbon street, where all the bars and live music and nightlife is. We walked that, and Jackson square, where there are artists during the day and palm and tarot readers set up at night, and I got a few shots of some shops in the evening.

The balcony:

Shops