Bend, OR to Seattle, WA

Sunday (Oct 14) was a joint birthday celebration, spent with family eating lots of good Filipino food and talking, talking, talking. I took leftover chocolate meat with me.... Mmmm....

I started around noon on Monday towards Bend, Oregon to spend time with my youngest sister's family. The tree colors are already brilliant, and I was tempted to stop and take pictures several times, but I was already running late and it was raining. I don't mind driving in the dark, and I don't mind driving in the rain. But driving in the dark and in the rain with headlights glaring at you and reflecting off the puddles on the road, that's something else. But even with all the gorgeous tree colors reflecting the setting sun, my best moment was when I had to stop at a rest area on Hwy 97 soon after it got dark. The rain was falling softly and I was all alone in that rest area. It was incredibly surreal and incredibly peaceful. I wanted to stay there all night and just listen to the rain fall.

I stayed two whole days in Bend, watching detective shows with my sister (I was surprised we liked the same kind of shows), carving pumpkins with the 4-year-old, and helping sew his Halloween costume (he'll be Lucky, the leprechaun).

The weather was supposed to be rainy/snowy and very windy on my drive back to Seattle. It was bright and sunny when I left Bend, but an hour later, I noticed that I was headed towards dark clouds. When I got to the 45th parallel (the latitude halfway between the north pole and the equator), I started seeing even more brilliant trees than the ones I saw on the way to Bend. And a half hour later, while following a slow truck, I noticed a dusting of snow on the side of the road. The road itself is just wet.

Sis said that it takes 5 hours to get to Portland, but it only took me 3 hours or so. As soon as I got to I-5, I stopped at the first rest area to take a nice nap. I wanted to take longer to avoid the traffic in Seattle, but I got to Seattle at 6pm anyway. I still got caught in the traffic. Some traffic lights were out because of the wind, which got stronger as I got closer to home. But, thankfully, the power in my apartment stayed up the whole evening.

Ahhh, home sweet home.