Washington day 2

August 31

Today was the day we crowded all our Seattle experiences into. Yesterday had been devoted to the tooth. I felt satisfied that my recovery would go well because there wasn't enough discomfort where the tooth had been for me to need pain management pills. But I was concerned by how much more swollen my cheek had become. I spoke on the phone with Sarah's father, the dentist. He concurred with Mike that antibiotics wouldn't be necessary. Sarah, who is a doctor, too (a pediatrician), also thought antibiotics were uncalled for. I was outvoted by three doctors. I would have to trust that they knew better than I.

After making several phone calls I managed to coordinate visits with key people here in Seattle. Dan had once lived in Beer Sheva and we had only recently re-established contact. He works near the Space Needle, so he was prepared to walk over to greet us while we were visiting it. Richard and Kay live in Des Moines, WA, a suburb of Seattle. Richard is a relative of mine and Joel's. Even though he and Joel live in the Seattle area, they hadn't met yet. Joel also works near the Space Needle. He wanted to take us to a kosher restaurant for lunch in the area if our visit to the Space Needle was timed right.

Of all the possible attractions in Seattle, Razelle and I chose two: the Space Needle, as I've mentioned, and the "fish ladder." We went to the fish ladder first. This is a man-made set of cataracts that facilitate upstream migration of salmon past a dam that impounds water for the operation of the Chittenden (Ballard) Locks. These locks enable boats to pass from saltwater Puget Sound to freshwater Lake Washington and the fish ladder enables the salmon to do the same.

Our visit here was an unhappy one. The fish ladder was designed to be narrow enough for people to watch salmon go up it through a plate-glass window, but because a bull sea lion had decided to prowl for salmon here at the opening to the fish ladder, the salmon were afraid to swim past him. An entire school of salmon could be seen in the water below the ladder. Every so often the sea lion grabbed one and swam off a distance to eat it. In his absence they could have darted up the ladder but they were too spooked to try. A team of researchers were at the top of the ladder, I asked them if any salmon were getting through for them to collect data on. They said not many were. They knew the sea lion was keeping them from getting through but they could do nothing about it. I conjectured that perhaps the sea lion hunted by sight and the fish migrated by "smell," so at night they would get past him, but I was told that the fish didn't migrate during the dark. It upset me that the designers of this dam and fish ladder had come up with a design that would lead to decimation of the very fish they wanted to help because they had not considered the possibility that the narrow opening would be blocked by a predator. They had gone so far as to increase the number of "rungs" the fish had to "climb" so they could more easily get to the top of the ladder, but they had also made getting into the bottom of the ladder nearly impossible, for lack of considering one critical factor. I was told that the operators of the dam and locks were forbidden from "dispatching" the sea lion. His survival was more important than the survival of all those hapless salmon.

We turned away from the fish ladder and watched the lock instead. A half-dozen pleasure craft were lining up in the lock in preparation for entering Lake Washington from Puget Sound. Their crews were mostly retirees; and they knew their stuff – handling the guide ropes adeptly and cinching them up or hitching them to fasteners like seasoned sailors. We watched the bottom gates shut and the water level rise. We walked on before the top gates opened. We needed to get back to our van before our parking time expired.

We drove to the Space Needle. I dropped Razelle off and then searched for a space among the public parking lots in the vicinity. Vending machines dispensed tickets here, but the one serving the lot I'd chosen was very choosy. It kept rejecting the bills I fed it, but only after it had accepted the first one. It didn't give refunds and it didn't make change. I had to try over and over again to feed it what I had in my wallet or lose what it had already eaten. It took a lot of patience and repeated attempts, but eventually the correct amount had passed its finicky maw, and my parking ticket was printed and dispensed. I joined Razelle at the Space Needle. We spoke with Dan and Joel by phone before approaching the reservations desk for the restaurant. I also received a called from Rich about the timing of his visit at Joel's in the evening. I was trying to balance everyone's needs at once. It was good to have this phone so I could do all this from the base of the Space Needle. We went inside and were told that the restaurant was closed. Lunch was over and dinner had not yet begun; however, we could make reservations for dinner if we wanted to wait. The menu had relatively reasonable lunch prices, but dinner prices were far too high for our tastes.

We paid to ride the elevator to the top level instead (it ascended so quickly our ears hurt) and ate at the snack bar of the observation deck. They served an interesting cheese and eggplant sandwich that was very delicious; but even then, the snack-bar prices were exploitatively high, as well. We munched our sandwiches seated on bar stools within and watched our fellow tourists on the outside deck camping for photographs against the Seattle skyline, whose features were muted by less than ideal viewing conditions today. I had been to the Space Needle with Maayan in 1997. That experience had been so wonderful that I'd hoped to repeat it with Razelle. My expectations were high, but not realized. We rode the elevator back down to ground level (it descended so quickly our ears hurt). We bought fudge in the lobby and waited for Dan by the fountain outside.

Our reunion with Dan after all these years brightened our mood. He sounded just the way we remembered him and looked as we expected he would (I had seen his photo on the Internet, which is cheating, but Razelle had not). Razelle and he chatted a while to catch up while I fielded more calls and juggled rendezvous schedules. Joel would go home to Mercer Island and wait for us there; Dan would head for home and we'd meet him there, and Rich and his wife Kay would drive to Joel and Sarah's and we would all meet up together there after our visit with Dan and his wife Doris at their home in Belleview. Simplicity in Seattle; and it happened just that way.

Dan and Doris showed us around their home in Belleview. Dan collects rain water (I understand Seattle has a surfeit of this, though we saw none) and stores it for his lovingly landscaped Japanese garden. The ultra-religious Jewish family next door borrows some of this rainwater for religious purposes; it's a wonderful arrangement. Doris brought out sliced fruit of several tasty varieties and we covered all the intervening years since Dan was in Beer Sheva in the time we could afford to visit them. It was so nice to be reacquainted with this good friend from our past. We hope to remain in touch. Razelle gave Doris advice from her own experience on how to encourage bilingualism in her grandchildren. It's a pity we couldn't have stayed longer. We had one more appointment to keep before the day was over.

We reached Joel and Sarah's to find Rich and Kay already there and all the children tucked into their beds and (presumably) fast asleep. Rich is my cousin, and of course, Joel's cousin, too. It had been a very long time since all three cousins had been in one place; certainly not since our childhoods. We spent the evening exchanging stories. I showed Kaye a few of my blog entries because she teaches creative writing.

Eventually, Kay had to leave. She works in the morning. We all had had a full day so we parted in our separate directions. We (Razelle and I) perhaps served as catalysts for more visits between these families of Seattle relatives. I hope we meet Kay and Rich again, some day, too. The family reunion capped off this day with a warm feeling, after all.

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RAZELLE'S PHOTOS OF THIS DAY

Pleasure craft in Seattle's Chittenden (Ballard) Locks