24 Hours

I don't even really know how to tell you about our last weekend. We took a trip that lasted less than 24 hours from start to finish.

Saturday morning we left our home at 8:30 a.m. with our friends and we caught a train to Portland, Oregon. We were going to watch our hockey team play against the Portland Winterhawks.

It's important to note that Friday Portland and areas far south of Tacoma Washington were hit with a snow storm.

But, we were taking the train so we weren't super concerned. I packed extra knit items and warm clothes just in case we needed it.

Boy did we need it!

As soon as we got out of the train station we snagged the first cab we saw and made it thru the snow covered streets to our hotel. Which was a short walk from Memorial Coliseum where the game was being played that night.

Checked in, changed our clothes into our team colors, and headed out to walk around a bit and find some pub grub...

That's when we realized we were in the midst of an ice storm. It was literally raining ice. Everything was covered in it. So we did what I like to call the ice-walk shuffle.

Have I ever mentioned my intense fear of walking on ice? No, well my fear was in prime form.

After wandering aimlessly for what felt like miles and was really about nine blocks total we end up at another hotel and eat dinner and have a couple pregame beers. Wanting to keep my wits about me while doing my ice-walk shuffly.

We walked the three blocks from the Crown Plaza Hotel to the Memorial Coliseum. Unfortunately the tips lost... Portland does have a great team. Their arena could use some work.

So now we have the walk back to the hotel which was about six blocks away.

All public transportation at this point is shut down because of the ice storm.

No cabs are running because of the ice storm.

Begin the ice-walk shuffle.

At one point Dale and Keith broke off and left Ardy and I to find our way back to the hotel. They thought they were going the right way. I told them they weren't... their response

'You do what you gotta do'

we well gotta get warm so we went the right way.

they took the long way

the shuffle made us slower so we ended up at opposing corners by the hotel at the same time.

So we made it back. I made a plan that at 6:00 a.m. I would go to the lobby and request a cab be called and we would make it back to the train station by 7:00 a.m.

You see, we were heading home on an 8:00 a.m. train because we had another hockey game back in our arena in Everett.

9:30 I got a text message showing three inches of snow hitting the seattle/everett area. We were heading home to another snowstorm.

So Sunday dawned cold and frozen and not a car in site.

The night receptionist actually laughed when I asked about a cab.

Laughed again when I asked about their Trimet (light rail) system.

I asked how we were to get to the train station...

Her response 'I would say you better start walking'

Boy she was lucky that counter was as high as it was and that my hips were as tight as they were from the ice-walk shuffle the night before...

Obviously she doesn't know my fear of walking on ice.

I go back upstairs, inform our traveling companions that we have to walk to the train station which turns out is just a mile away.

On ice.

Over a steel bridge.

That spans a big river full of cold cold water.

It took us about a half hour to walk it. Not bad really. When we crossed the bridge I kept telling Ardy to get closer to the center so her foot wouldn't fall thru the gap... never mind that only her foot would fit it was enough to give me fits of anxiety.

I felt like we were on a Homeward Bound Adventure and I was sure I was going to be the dog who got hurt.

We made it to the train.

We made it home after a 6 hour train ride (frozen switches on the tracks caused us to stop, a lot)

We made it to the hockey game.

We were home by 7:00 Sunday Night.

Hard to believe all that happened in less than 24 hours.

Phew.

I did get a lot of knitting done. Trains give you nothing but free knitting time. Especially when it takes you six hours to get home.