Whirlwind trip to Seattle

Last week was very busy. That's because Older Daughter and I made a quick trip to Seattle.

Older Daughter, as you may recall, is staying with us while job-hunting for a nanny position in the Emerald City. The job search had been on hiatus, however, until the weather cooperated. To get to Seattle from North Idaho requires crossing Snoqualmie Pass, famous for heavy snow and treacherous road conditions.

She applied with two nanny agencies, and both were impressed with credentials. However one of them wanted to interview her in person before they matched her with a prospective family. Older Daughter invited me to go with her -- a little excursion -- and we made plans to drive.

Unfortunately Snoqualmie Pass wasn't cooperating. We had to leave last Sunday to make it to Seattle for the Monday interview, and with Snoqualmie out of the question, we had to take a detour around the Cascades. (White Pass along Hwy. 12 wasn't in any better shape.) Our best choice was to head south along Hwy. 395, pass through the Tri-Cities area of southwest Washington, travel toward Portland along the Columbia River, and then head north again through Olympia, Tacoma, and finally Seattle. Total travel time: ten and a half hours.

So off we went. It was a very, very windy day, which caused no problems until we approached the Tri-Cities area of Washington. Suddenly we were in the midst of dust storms and tumbleweed.

Tumbleweed was slamming across the highway in what looked like an eerie dystopian video game where the players must dodge the explosive monster plants or whatever. But of course, we couldn't dodge, not while traveling at 65 mph down the freeway. Instead, we just had to accept slamming into them.

The plants tumbled across the highway and piled up on the barrier between lanes. Can you see how the dust is obstructing the view beyond the highway?

Tumbleweed also piled up along fencelines.

At one point, visibility diminished to the point where cars were pulling off to the side.

Most of the tumbleweed went beneath the car, but one particularly large and vicious plant with a stem at least two inches across skidded across the hood of the car and slammed into the windshield so hard we marveled it didn't crack it. It wasn't until later we saw it had left a series of gouges on the car hood.

As we crossed and then paralleled the Columbia River, we saw the water was remarkably choppy.

Gradually the weather improved as we headed west. When we stopped at one point to stretch our legs, we noticed tumbleweed fragments caught in the grill of Older Daughter's car.

Other vehicles were similarly decorated.

Fortunately that was all the drama we experienced on our trip to Seattle. At last, late on Sunday afternoon, the towering downtown of the Emerald City loomed before us.

We booked ourselves into a modest motel. The next morning Older Daughter had her interview with the nanny agency, and she aced it. With her qualifications (four years as a live-in, two years volunteering at a women's shelter daycare, certified graduate of the nanny school, and endless other certifications under her belt, including CPR), she's golden in the Emerald City.

We celebrated her successful interview by going out for sushi, Older Daughter's weakness.

With an afternoon to ourselves (it was too late to leave for home), we then indulged in my weakness: the Woodland Park Zoo. I'm crazy for zoos but seldom get to visit one.

And of course...

After the zoo, Older Daughter wanted to venture into the belly of the beast, downtown Seattle. (I love how this photo turned out -- so very very urban!)

The reason was, she wanted to see something she'd heard about, an automated store called Amazon Go.

Frankly, we were underwhelmed. It was nothing more than an overpriced convenience store...

...and cameras and sensors were everywhere, including the ceiling. Shudder.

Some random city sights as we headed back to the motel:

And sadly:

The following morning we left for home at 7:45 am, right at the height of rush-hour traffic. Such is life.

But the downtown was beautiful, gleaming in the morning sun.

Ditto the Space Needle.

Even prettier, Mt. Rainier.

This time we were able to take Snoqualmie Pass, since it was clear. What we thought interesting was this: Within one hour of leaving the motel, and despite all the traffic and highways, we were deep into the mountains.

This proximity to wilderness areas is precisely what interests Older Daughter about Seattle. She missed wilderness while living in New Jersey, and looks forward to hiking opportunities.

Here's the Snoqualmie Pass area.

The view from the east side of the Cascades.

The drive back across eastern Washington was mind-numbing but uneventful.

The Columbia River was calmer than the last time we saw it (much further downstream).

We even caught a glimpse of the wild horse sculptures that decorate a hillside in this area.

Can you see the sculptures in the distance on the hilltop?

Oh, and here's a new addition outside of Spokane: a massive Amazon fulfillment center.

So that was our whirlwind trip to Seattle. Older Daughter is now undergoing the tiresome necessity of background checks, reference checks, and other factors. She has her eye on one particular nanny position, so we'll see what comes of it.

Mission: Impossible

Now that the weather has cleared and Snoqualmie Pass is passable (on a dependent basis, that is), Older Daughter is progressing toward obtaining a nanny position in the Seattle area. Yesterday she had a phone interview with a respectable placement agency, which termed her résumé "impressive" and basically said she could have any job she wished. Next week, she'll likely be heading west to interview in person with both the agency and with a prospective employer.

In the midst of these plans and arrangements, Don found a hilarious "help wanted" ad for a nanny profiled on The Chive. (Warning: Some inappropriate language.)

It seems a single female CEO with twin ten-year-olds is in need of some household help. At first the requirements seem fairly straightforward.

But as the old saying goes, "But wait -- there's more!" Dig deeper into the requirements and they get weirder and weirder, bordering on creepy. ("Has room in their heart to love the kids and the mom" "willing to work out together in the home gym with the mom...")

Go read the entire job description. It's jaw-dropping. Essentially the nanny must be an Olympic athlete in several different sports, a computer whiz, a vegan gourmet chef, a college professor, a CPA, an in-house Human Resources manager, a Ph.D. in psychology, fluent in several languages, and be "civil-rights oriented." Oh, and she has to like kids too.

Of course a single female CEO with ten-year-old twins is going to need some household help. I get that. But I genuinely wish her the very best of luck finding a suitable candidate. To me, this sounds like Mission: Impossible.

Road trip!!!!!

I'm on my way to Virginia in early November!

What's in Virginia, you ask? Well actually, Older Daughter.

After four years, our oldest has buttoned up her nanny job in New Jersey and will be coming home, regrouping over the holidays, and then looking for work in the Seattle area. She's been shipping her possessions home, but the one thing she can't ship is her car.

So -- I'm flying out to Virginia to spend a couple days with my dear friend Ann (whose daughter GG attended a nearby boarding school many years ago). Older Daughter and GG are old and dear friends, as are Ann and myself. Older Daughter will drive down from New Jersey, camp at Ann's, then meet me at the airport in Virginia.

After visiting for a day or two, Older Daughter and I are off for a mother-daughter road trip as we cross the country toward home. We'll keep a sharp eye on the weather and probably opt for a more southern route as we go, but we won't be in a tearing hurry and can stop to see any sights that catch our fancy.

Poor Don will be baching it for the two weeks or so I'll be gone. I anticipate he'll be eating a lot of sandwiches.

Update on our daughters

A reader asked recently how our daughters are doing. Here’s a quick update.

Older Daughter continues with her job as a live-in nanny in New Jersey, but she’s getting mighty tired of the endless suburbs surrounding her. Coming home for Christmas made her realize how much she missed the wide-open spaces and the ability to go walking and be surrounded by nature rather than houses and pavement and cars.

So – she plans to move west within a year or so, this time heading toward Western Washington (Seattle area). She’s now an experienced nanny. Besides nearly three years’ experience on the job, she’s been volunteering at a women’s shelter caring for babies and toddlers (she needed experience with that age group), and this facility liked her so well they offered her a paid position. (She declined, but boy was she flattered!) Coupled with her credentials as a Certified Professional Nanny from the English Nanny and Governess School in Ohio, she will be in hot demand in the Seattle area.

She's grateful to the family she's working for, who have been very generous with her. Older Daughter has been diligently saving her money since eventually she wants to purchase some rural property. So many young people her age are mired in student loan debts after attending college; but she's soaring, free and unfettered, with a healthy bank account, excellent in-demand credentials, and endless opportunities in a place like Seattle.

Some may wonder if moving to Seattle means she’ll be exchanging one urban prison for another, but the Emerald City is a lot closer to wild spaces than New Jersey. An hour’s drive puts you into the mountains. There are also endless hiking groups in the area, which means she can get out on weekends and hit the trails.

Selfishly, we’ll be very, very glad to have our oldest closer to us. She’ll be a five-hour drive away, rather than a five-hour flight away, and conceivably could even come home on weekends. (Or we could go visit her.) Wouldn’t that be something!

Younger Daughter, as you recall, is now a sailor in the Navy, training in Advanced Electronics/Computer Field (AECF) in Great Lakes, Illinois. She just – as in, last week – finished ATT (Advanced Technical Training) School. Just as boot camp is a “filter” to weed out those unable to hack military life, Younger Daughter described the 10-week ATT school as a “filter” to weed out those unable to hack AECF. She tied for second place in class, so she’s clearly able to hack the coursework.

This week she started “A” School, with more advanced training. My understanding is this will continue until about October, at which point “A” School will be over and we might be able to expect her home for a fast visit. By then she’ll know where her duty station will be – perhaps Virginia, perhaps San Diego, perhaps somewhere else – and she will travel to that location to attend “C” School, the specialized training she’ll need on the job. Then she’s bound for a ship.

So far she loves the military life – absolutely stinkin’ loves it. She enjoys the discipline, she enjoys the camaraderie, she enjoys the challenges, she enjoys meeting people from all over the country and from all stations in life. She’s working hard, saving her money, and looks forward to when she can get on board a ship and put her training to work.

So there you go. That’s the latest on our girls.

Snark du jour

On this past weekend's WND column entitled "Is Feminism Killing Women?", I hadn't caught up on the comments for a few days and was astonished to see there were over 100.

One commenter named Robert has taken it upon himself to criticize every column I write, particularly addressing the regressive, knuckledragging methods we used to raise our daughters (how dare we homeschool!). I don't mind this in the least, because it generates additional comments, and lovely people step in to my defense.

However Robert does raise one good point: I've neglected to keep readers updated on our daughters' progress.

Here is Robert's comment (referencing my aversion to feminism): What gets to me is that PL's home-schooled daughters were spoon fed a steady diet of this pabulum. Last I knew, neither was college bound and the eldest was working as a hotel maid.

So, without further ado, here's an update on the kids:

Older Daughter, as many of you know, did indeed work as a "hotel maid" for a couple of years. It was actually an upscale motel, not a hotel, and she was the best durned housekeeper the motel owners ever had. She was 16 and 17 at the time. I don't know what else Robert expected a teenager to do to earn money -- CEO of a huge corporation, perhaps? -- but the job gave Older Daughter the opportunity to cultivate her work ethic and save her pennies. As a result, she was able to garner a glowing letter of recommendation from the motel owners and emerge with a substantial savings account.

She took that work ethic and letter of recommendation with her to nanny school last summer, and graduated top of her class.

With yet more glowing credentials, she landed a job as a live-in nanny to four boys with a family in New Jersey, starting last November. She enjoys the job and the family thinks the world of her. Because she's a live-in, she has very few expenses and is banking about 80% of her salary -- a salary, I'll add, that exceeds the pay of many first-year teachers. Her savings account at the moment is a hair's breath away from five figures, and she's been on the job less than six months. Not a bad position for a 20 year old.

Younger Daughter is taking preliminary classes at the nearest college toward her goal of becoming a radiographer. She's acing her exams -- on her last two tests, she scored 100% on one and 94% on the other. To earn money, she's doing yard work for an elderly neighbor as well as picking up other part time work as available. This summer her former violin teacher, who also happens to be CEO of the local hospital, has promised her a job at the hospital where she can work directly with the radiography department. Younger Daughter is 17 at the moment, though she turns 18 in just a few days.

Like Older Daughter, our youngest is cultivating a work ethic, saving her pennies, and earning the esteem of college professors and hospital CEO's. Both our daughters are moral, honest, and hard-working young women.

I dunno, I think our girls are doing pretty well, considering they've been "spoon fed a steady diet of this pabulum" their whole lives.

But maybe that's just a proud mama talking.

Launching a kid

We've had a stressful week here in the Lewis household as we made the countdown for Older Daughter to launch into the world.

Don't get me wrong, we are all delighted with the new job she has in New Jersey as a certified professional nanny. The family she's working for sounds ideal, the pay is generous, the neighborhood is lovely, and she'll be close to her dear friend GG who is currently working on Long Island.

But the irrefutable fact remains that we'll be separated from our dear daughter by the space of 3000 miles. That's a little heard to swallow. As I told Older Daughter, ironically this wouldn't be so bad if we didn't get along as a family. But we do get along, and this makes the separation rough.

On the upside, we're confident the solid foundation we've given her will prove useful as she embarks on her adult life. It will impact her personal choices for decades to come -- who to marry, how to treat her future husband, how to raise children, how to someday form her own family life.

Anyway, enough philosophizing. The week was spent getting two boxes of her personal effects shipped in advance of her plane flight. Unlike packing for her three-month stay in Ohio for nanny school, this was a more permanent arrangement, so she thought long and hard about what she wanted to bring in terms of clothes, books, and other personal possessions.

Her room at her new job does not have a bookshelf, so that's one of the first purchases she'll make after she arrives. Until they we'll hold off shipping her books.

Lydia knew something was up, and spent an inordinate amount of time on Older Daughter's bed, looking pathetic. It's hard for Pyrenees to accept the loss of a flock member.

I asked Older Daughter what she wanted for dinner on Tuesday, her last day with us. She choose navy bean soup.

We all slept badly Tuesday night and got up very early Wednesday morning. We're an hour and a half drive from the airport, and her flight left at 8:30 am, so we were on the road by 5:45 am.

She filled in an ID tag for her one checked bag...

...and within minutes she was ready to go through security. I tried not to sniffle too loudly as I hugged her goodbye.

She called us late Wednesday evening, safe and sound in New Jersey. She'll face jet lag over the next few days but will soon adjust.

We'll have her back for three days over Christmas, but she's on her own now. One kid, launched into the world. Where do the years go?