Seattle Summer 2012

Since I am already behind on so many blogs (mainly Chicago trip and bull run) I decided to write my Seattle trip while it is fresh (or fuzzy considering I am operating on about 5 hours of sleep).

Here are some highlights.

Crabbing and kayaking in Puget Sound, eagle watching in Indianola, jewelry buying and cemetery strolling in Suquamish, driving around Little Boston, the Great Wind-Up, farmers and art market in Kingston, licorice ice-cream and sheep store in Port Gamble, Victorians and lighthouses in Port Townsend. Lots of old friends: Chloe, Drew, Kevin, Ezra, Dave, Erik, Art, Lisa, Jeff, Mick, Nadine and Kristal. Trying new restaurants and shops in Seattle. Visiting my old apartment on Capitol Hill. Family dinners. The Cup and Muffin. Sweet, farty, clingy dog. New favorite sweatshirt from nephew. Morning routine of raw pea pillaging. Introducing Big Freedia to North Kitsap. The exotic windblown hair of a VW convertible vs. the tangled mess of the deathtrap Suzuki. Ivars! Meeting my cousin’s children for the first time. Dahlias. Lots of dahlias! Shameful street dance in downtown Seattle. Ferry rides. Cheating at freeze tag. Tour of old boats on Lake Union. Collecting rocks at Hansville. Zombie flower photo shoot. A free-for-all track meet. And watching my incredible nephew marry his beautiful bride – I have a new niece!

A distinguished old man chilling on the back of a pickup in front of my favorite store.

 

My birthday pie. Yeah, I look good for my age.

Early morning beach walk: low tide and low temperature but lots of eagles!

A nook in Lake Union

From my sister's garden. This is my favorite flower - the smell is intoxicating.

The view from my kayak in Puget Sound.

All calm the day before the wedding.

Pointing the way.

All of the centerpieces came from my sister's or my nephew's garden!

Annual breakfast at Seabeck

Reno aka Beans aka Underwear Stealer & Sweet Clinger

 

However… way too much caution thrown to the wind in terms of chowder, wine, and sourdough bread. I never thought I would be coming back to New Orleans to detox but… the next few days of strict diet and gym are going to be painful. I am too scared to step on the scale until I do some serious damage control. But the main point of this blog is not personal – it is about books! I scored MAJOR at some used bookstores. How I got them all home is another story.

My stash - I tend to be a savant when it comes to getting things on planes.

On my birthday, my friends took me to Half-Price Books in Capitol Hill (as well as some fantastic restaurants and bars). My brother recommended the place. Good selection, decent prices, but nothing too unusual. If you want to find your run-of-the-mill selections then this is the place to go. Two stories, very nice staff, and easily organized. I missed the old Elliot Bay Bookstore in downtown Seattle, which was one of my favorite places, but did not have a chance to go to their new location.

Mr. B’s Bookery in Kingston. They were a bit more expensive but did have a nice small collectible selection. While I am aware most bookstores focus on their region, I am always on the lookout for something strange. In New Orleans bookstores I have found one-hundred year old government papers from Connecticut and Missouri. Cool, but no help to me. So I always cross my fingers that I will find something like that about New Orleans in some far away place… But no such luck, thus far.

One of my favorite used bookstores is in Port Townsend, William James-Bookseller. I have found some great things there. This trip, I didn’t have a lot of time and some weird guy smelling like cigar kept following me around the store saying, “Well, will you look at that. Did you ever think I would find this?” holding up some book I have never heard of, and of course, I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. Prices for your average paperback seemed a bit high. I don’t want to pay $7 for a used paperback that costs $9 new, but I found some nice children’s books.

But, the major score of this whole trip was… wait for it… The Goodwill in Silverdale! I was FLOORED at the selection. My sister is a huge fan of Goodwill – she collects glass, old tools (she has some pretty funky sickles to her name) and odds and ends. I went with her to poke around and was immediately flabbergasted by not only their range of books but the prices. Their collectible section was astounding and the majority of my finds came from that store. AND I managed to pick up a groovy pair of bowling shoes and a weird brown velvetish-type jacket with a peacock embroidered on the back.

My complete booklist from my Seattle trip:

History/Non-fiction

Five Points by Tyler Ambinder (really looking forward to this one)

The Making of the Wizard of Oz by Aljean Harmetz

The Peabody Sisters of Salem by Louise Hall Tharp

The Encyclopedia Britannica Vol. I-III (1926 – really beautiful)

The New Century Dictionary Vol. I-II (1927; no III available – this will probably keep me busy for awhile trying to find the last one)

From the Time Life Books: The Old West (wish I could have gotten all of them): The Women, The Great Chiefs, The Gamblers

To America by Stephen Ambrose

In Joy and Sorrow: Women, Family and Marriage in the Victorian South by Carol Bleser (which after I bought I remembered I already owned but have not read. D’oh!)

Little Visits with Great Americans Vol. 2 (1905) by Orison Swett Marden (an incredibly quaint book about artists, sculptors, inventors and other people most of whom are completely obscure now)

Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country by Peter McWilliams

The Hatfields and the McCoys by Virgil Carrington Jones (1948)

A History of the English Speaking People Vol. 1-3 by Winston S. Churchill

The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Index (1955) by the Abraham Lincoln Association

The Kid of Coney Island by Woody Register

American Bee by James Magure (advance uncorrected proof!)

Fiction

Fighting Angel by Pearl S. Buck

And I bought an edition of a book for a friend of mine. It’s a secret…

Children’s Books

Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum (I have read all of the books but my rule for these are either the large paperbacks from the 1960s or the updated hardback versions with colored illustrations)

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Farm by Betty MacDonald

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (this is the second book I have ever cried over. I have read this book probably about a half-a-dozen times. I almost finished reading it again on the plane but was getting too choked up and had to stop. This is a lovely old hardback with a photo of the author on the back looking just like you would expect him to)

A Book of Brave Deeds (1952) edited by John T. Trowbridge

The Animal Story Book (1938) edited by Charles E. Knapp

Shrimps by Judy Hawes (very odd book about the life of shrimp)

Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum (one of my favorites)

I usually swap out some of my old books to used bookstores, but I think to keep my karma good I am going to donate them (along with a new batch of clothes) to my local Goodwill!

I REALLY wanted this from a bookstore in Port Gamble but they wanted too much $$$.

Time to start reading…

Words to live by... and they had kick-ass saltwater taffy!

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2 Responses to Seattle Summer 2012

  1. Trixie says:

    Sounds delightful! I really want to read this one: The Peabody Sisters of Salem by Louise Hall Tharp. Sounds like my kind of book.

    And I LOVE the idea of getting fat off chowfer, wine, sourdough bread. Why the hell not.
    That said, I’ll detox with you.

  2. John says:

    Looks like it was a glorious trip :)
    Beautiful Seabeck photo…

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