As I reflect on my 5th Pacific Northwest trip in three years,
I feel like Alice in Wonderland, falling through the looking glass.
Fast! Much doesn't make sense. Care to join reflections on my fall from expectations?
While the Pacific Northwest is stunning!--big trees, lakes, rivers, and the percolating life of the wet Puget Sound and Strait de Juan de Fuca--I'm tumbling through my looking glass, over bridges, missing exits, stumbling by the Space Needle that touches the dazzling blue gray changing sky; that big sky--most alive!--in the city I thought I may call home.
I thought I'd love Seattle and be packing my bags. All of them.
Seattle is certainly a bustling city offering much in the way of culture and outdoor sports but it's electric. ELECTRIC. I mean you can feel and see the buzz. The port, boats, buildings... everything was lit up, moving, going, feeling energetically too much for my body. And those bridges and looping roadways were intimidating to navigate. I was told that people are quite calm and pleasant in Seattle; they may well be. I'm talking about the city as a living, breathing, organism.
I learned I prefer small and calm cities.
So surprise number one, as Pacific Northwest cities go, I'd choose Portland over Seattle. I truly thought I'd favor Seattle because of the Puget Sound, Vashon Island, Bainbridge Island, University of Washington, and city culture. Plus, I love boating!
Portland is inland, a bit warmer in summer months and on a river.
Despite traffic, which pales compared to Los Angeles, this city felt laid back and manageable. It felt like a city of welcoming communities with a vibrant downtown, though Portland like many American cities, suffers a high homelessness issue.
Yet Portland offered all the activities I enjoy and that majestic Mt. Hood sat like a king inspiring oohs and ahhs.
Orcas Island didn't disappoint, it's still my favorite island in the San Juan Island archipelago of Washington state but it was getting cold. And I started coughing and learning about allergies.
Hay and pollens. And when the sea picked up to dance with wind, my girlfriend said, you're welcome to stay longer, but I chose to leave. I'd realized I need a bigger community on an island soon going into winter.
Bellingham, Washington I enjoyed but it didn't feel as lively as I'd prefer. It's very quiet. I may not have given it enough time but that's the breaks when traveling through and making quick decisions.
Port Townsend, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula gets a lot of great press for its creative atmosphere and beauty. I'm sorry but its pulp mill, Port Townsend Paper, located near the center of town turned me off.
I learned from locals who feel the pulp mill's toxic air pollution, maybe water, too? contribute to asthma and cancer in some local residents that one gentleman referred to as a "cluster".
The big surprise of them all was when I was treated in an inhospitable manner by B.C. customs going into Victoria. I not only turned around and left my formerly beloved province of Canada the same day, I began questioning my love affair with Canada.
Playing it over in my head like a jilted lover.
Vancouver Island has some of the cleanest air I've experienced to date. There's so much I loved about the area, it's hard to imagine I was turned off by my treatment. I told the story to a friend yesterday who said his friend had an even worse experience with B.C. customs. Most people get through customs no problem but... well enough on that.
Driving through Oregon the past week, I learned all about allergies. My own. A huge portion of Oregon is farmland and I couldn't handle the pollens. What I thought was a cold was allergies to grass seed pollen.
Therefore, as much as I enjoyed liberal and beautiful Eugene, as far as resettling goes it's out of my consideration, as well as Corvallis and other small towns in the Willamette Valley like McMinnville and Newberg. (Newberg was way too conservative for my taste. Seemed to have a church every other block.)
For air quality and sustainable life, I think Portland (not super clean air because of cars) and Bend would be my Oregon front-runners. I didn't go to Bend but this is what I surmise from what I learned. A future trip?
Northern California around Mt. Shasta was interesting. They've got the Shasta Lake and the Sacramento River. More lakes, hiking, fishing, kayaking, canoeing. Mt. Lassen.
I stayed two nights in Anderson, which is between Redding and Red Bluff on I-5. It's a bit conservative. Lots of farmland so you have to be careful about pesticide use.
I met a couple whose home borders Driscoll Farms Strawberries, and every 3 years the farm uses strong and poisonous pesticides, and as a "good neighbor" Driscoll pays to relocate nearby residents for 2 days. This couple had recently been relocated with their newborn and toddler.
They mentioned a neighbor outside of the safety buffer, meaning supposedly not impacted by pesticides, reported feeling as though her eyes had been pepper sprayed (a symptom). Unlike the couple I met, she didn't have the personal cell phone numbers of Driscoll Farm and California Agricultural representatives to report her pesticide reaction.
I arrived a week after the spraying. (I have a knack for this sort of timing. Remember Santa Cruz Nov. 2007 when I arrived just in time to experience the aerial pesticide spray of the light brown apple moth and humans and birds first hand? Not by choice but rather no disclaimers on visitors web sites)
I could say much more about this pesticide story and maybe I will in another post. Personally, I'd never want to live next to a strawberry field using pesticides. I found this from Strawberry Workers' Campaign on internet:
- Methyl Bromide. Driscoll growers use nearly a million pounds of the methyl bromide/chloropicrin pesticide mix. Methyl bromide can cause serious damage to the nervous system and in some applications, is known to cause birth defects. Workers may be exposed to methyl bromide when they put tarps over the fields before the chemical is injected into the soil, and when they remove the tarps.
To read more about this toxic pesticide used in California, read here. A good organization with pesticide information, including actions you can take to safeguard your community from toxic impacts of pesticides, check out Pesticide Watch and Pesticide Action Network.
Enroute to San Rafael where I'm visiting dad now, I thought about stopping in Davis, California but didn't because of looming storm clouds and fact I'd prefer not to live close to farmland, nor on flat land. Davis is very close to Sacramento, too, which doesn't have such clean air, but UC Davis is a fine university, doing great work toward creating a cleaner world.
I stopped in Yountville, Calif. (Napa County) to visit my long-standing family friend and impressionist painter Noel, who at age 86 has retired at the Veteran Administration's home. I was impressed with this facility, which houses a hospital, parks, art room, library, church, and beauty to fill up spiritually every day.
I made it to San Rafael last night. Some people ask why I don't move to the Bay Area. I suppose it's possible but for personal reasons it doesn't feel right. Marin County has clean areas especially near the water like Point Reyes. San Rafael is pretty clean, too, though for some reason reportedly they have America's highest incidence of certain cancers.
It's always something. I'm telling you.
Overall, the long drive from Los Angeles to British Columbia was worth it. I learned so much about air quality and climate change challenges; I learned about cities, islands, farmland, pollens, pesticides, stretching my comfort zone by ziplining, kayaking, canoeing, and driving long distances alone, politics of customs agents, conservative and liberal pockets, and...
I have a lot to think about. Maybe you do, too.
Signing off on a stormy California day.
We need the rain. :-)
Photo I took at the top of Hurricane Ridge, 17 miles outside of Port Angeles in the Olympic National Forest in Washington State. I told you-- the Pacific Northwest is gorgeous.
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