Bonus Posting: Video of the Pooh Themed Graduation Speech

Attached to this posting is a video recording of the speech that Katie gave at the 2004 Churchville-Chili HS graduation ceremony at the Eastman Theater (unfortunately all the graduations are now held at the field house at RIT).  This video was shot on an 8mm camcorder by Katie's brother, Doug, who was 10 at the time (I was busy with my Nikon D-100 and a borrowed pro lens) so this is fair warning that if you are prone to motion sickness you may want to close your eyes at various points in the video.  If you listen closely at the end of the speech as the applause is occurring Doug asks if he can stop now.  Poor little guy must have been getting tired.  Anyway, I thought some of you might enjoy this after taking the time to follow along on our adventure.  It does do a better job explaining the relationship between Katie and Pooh than the posting on the subject.  Enjoy.

Sleepless in Seattle - Our Final Day

Katie and Pooh in their new home.

My last day in Seattle was to be a long one as Amy and I were to return to Rochester via a red-eye flight leaving Seattle at 11:55 PM with a connection in Chicago.  The day began by checking out of the Travelodge Hotel we were living in since Wednesday night.  We then moved the remainder of Katie's belongings to her apartment and finally brought Pooh over to check out his new home.  We had a whole day to kill so we decided to venture downtown to the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market.  We wandered the stalls of the various seafood providers and fresh fruit and vegetable stands as well as a variety of craft stalls.  What is amazing is that these booths are all setup and torn down each and every day!

Never did see any fist fly :-(

We ate lunch at one of the seafood restaurants in the market (I assume they don't have to tear down everyday) and I had to try a cup of the clam chowda (that's how we say it in Maine) and even though it was on the other upper corner of the country, it was pretty good.  After lunch we worked our way through more of the market and took in more sites including what is supposedly the very first Starbucks.  We then worked our way toward the Space Needle, a remnant of the 1962 World's Fair.  We chose not to wait in line and pay the fee for the ride to the top and instead decided a couple hours in a movie theater was in order.  Thanks to today's wonderful technology Siri was able to find a showing of Man of Steel along our walking route back to the market and where Katie's Prius was parked.

Produce at Pike Place Market

We had dinner after the movie and then walked back through the market at around 7:00 PM and sure enough, all the stalls were vacant and all those fruits and vegetables you see in the picture were gone, leaving empty stalls behind.  We were worried that the Ice Cream establishment we were eyeing earlier in the day would be closed as was the case for most of the eateries along the market street but we lucked out and were able to grab a cone before heading to the airport.
We had no issues with security and the flight was on time and both Amy and I were very tired from our long day without sleep and as the plane climbed to its cruising altitude of 37,000 feet we both fell asleep until our approach into Chicago and subsequent hop to Rochester, arriving back home shortly after noon.

Katie and me back when I had the hair  and she didn't

This was quite an experience for me, spending 5 days in a compact car with my adult daughter and her beloved Pooh bear (not too mention way more "stuff" than should fit in a Prius).  I hope you have enjoyed this blog as much as I have in trying to make it both entertaining and informative (I didn't think about providing links until the 3rd or 4th post).  I did this for few reasons.  First was to capture the experience while it was fresh and (hopefully) have a permanent record for both Katie and me to look back on in the years to come.  Secondly, Amy and I plan to do some traveling and RV'ing in our retirement and I've thought about doing a blog when that time in our life comes so I thought I'd see what that was like.  And lastly I wanted to share what Katie and I (and Pooh) were up to with close friends and family as it was taking place.  So if you followed us in our adventure I thank you.  If you are just reading this for the first time, I encourage you to go through the postings in the order they were posted (reverse of how they are presented on blogspot).
Oh, and if we were to ask Pooh for a good reason for why we did this blog, he is likely to say
“When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.” - A.A. Milne

Visiting the Campus of U Dub

Katie's Kitchen table and chairs

This morning we returned to Katie's apartment to assemble the furniture we purchased from IKEA the yesterday.  This took us until lunch time.  We went to Northgate Mall for lunch in the food court and then more shopping to help Katie get situated in her new apartment.  Once we delivered her new purchases to her apartment, we then returned to our hotel room situated on the outskirts of the University of Washington campus.  We walked to campus from the hotel via a bike trail that runs throughout the area.  One thing you need to know about the U Dub campus is that it is on a hill and all paths leading to the campus are up hill and very steep.  Once on campus we worked our way through a variety of malls (this campus has more than one) and located the university bookstore to purchase the requisite t-shirt or jersey.  Once we located merchandise to our liking and not too harsh on the wallet (not an easy task) we headed to the area of campus where Katie will be working as a post-doc for Professor Daniel Gamelin.

Fountain with Chemistry Building off to the right.

I must say this campus is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen and I have visited plenty of campuses with my three children as they tried to figure out where to go to school.  As we approach the area where the chemistry building is we traverse across a large brick courtyard with a variety of buildings and a very interesting tower structure with 3 brick towers arranged in a triangle.  As one leaves this courtyard to the south, you find yourself at the top of a series of steps lined with trees leading down to a large fountain and off in the distance you can see the peak of Mt. Rainier.  Once we are at the edge of the fountain Katie points to the building to the right and informs us that it is the chemistry building.  Given that the perimeter of the fountain is lined with rose gardens, Amy points out that Katie's new place of work has views of a water fountain, rose garden and Mt. Rainier.  Not too shabby.

Katie's New Apartment

Most of what was in Katie's Prius

Today (July 5) was the big day for Katie as she finally got her keys to her new apartment.  The apartment is located in the gated complex, Clock Tower Apartments, and her unit comes with a free covered parking space.  Katie is very excited about this as she is sick of birds and the trees of Chicago dropping various things onto her car.

Kitchen in Katie's new Apartment

The unit is very nice with a bit more room the place she lived in for her last 3 years in Chicago.  After unloading her car and moving all the stuff previously removed from the car and sitting in our hotel suite, it presents a pretty impressive pile of belongings.  How she managed to squeeze all that into a Prius is beyond me (note- the picture here does not include her 32" TV and my luggage and camera bag).  One big reason all of Katie's belongings fit into the Prius is that she got rid of all her furniture under the theory that it would cost more to move it than it was worth.  That leaves her with a bit of shopping to do.
After lunch (left over pizza from our dinner with Jamie and Larry) we headed south to the IKEA store on the other side of the city.  Of all the IKEA furniture Katie had in Chicago the one piece she really liked and wanted to re-purchase if possible was the small kitchen table with 4 chairs ($149 total).  It must be a popular piece as we were able to find the exact same item 5 years later at a different IKEA location.  In addition to this unit, she bought a new TV stand a utility shelf, pots and pans, dishes, glasses and flatware.  By the time we returned to her apartment and unloaded it was after 6:00 PM and we all agreed we would go get dinner and call it an evening.  Assembly of the new furniture could wait until the morning.

4th of July in Port Townsend

Ferry boat ride from Edmonds to Kinston

Our first full day in Seattle was the 4th of July and as such Katie would not be able to get the keys to her apartment until Friday so we needed something to do for the day. As it turns out, Katie's very close friend Jamie, from her time at the University of Rochester, now lives in Port Townsend. Katie made arrangements for us to spend the day with her.  Amy and I had the opportunity to get to know Jamie quite well the summer Katie graduated from the U of R because Jamie spent that summer in Rochester working and came to our house many times to visit. She became a sort of surrogate daughter during that summer and we were looking forward to seeing her as much as Katie.

Kettle Corn booth a the Kingston 4th of July Festival

After breakfast we headed to Edmonds, about 10 miles north of our hotel, to catch a ferry across Puget Sound to the town of Kingston.  This time on the ferry allows me to claim virtually all modes of transportation for this trip once I take a plane back to Rochester (see my second posting - Train? What Train?).  We landed in Kingston about an hour before Jamie could pick us up but the holiday made it easy to figure out what to do as the town of Kingston was having a little celebration with arts and crafts booths just off the ferry landing.  We browsed the booths and bought a bag of freshly made Kettle Corn and we all agreed that this was the only way to go for Kettle Corn.
Jamie eventually picked us up and after hugs all around we drove from Kingston to Port Townsend and took a long walking tour of the town with a stop for lunch at Sirens Pub overlooking Puget Sound.  I had a Salmon sandwich and a locally brewed Scotch Ale.  Very yummy.  Jamie has a very unique job in Port Townsend that keeps her involved in marine animal activity in the area and after lunch she showed us an elephant seal that had decided to use the local downtown shoreline to do his molting.  She explained to us why the elephant seal needs to do this and what some of the theories are about why this particular young male decided to hang out in town while molting.

Katie and Jamie outside Jamie's work place.

After checking out the mischievous elephant seal we walked the shoreline all the way to the Port Townsend Marine Science Center where Jamie works.  This non-profit facility serves as a research support and educational center for the marine life in and around the sound.  As best I remember from her description is that their primary purpose is education but also server as a means for gathering experimental data for research projects by using volunteers to help gather the data.  Part of the educational initiatives that the center is involved in is what is best described as a marine petting zoo or as they like to call it, touch tanks.  What this is is a bunch of tanks containing a variety of ocean invertebrates.  We were given a special guided tour of this facility and Jamie was able to get my normally very squeamish daughter to touch all sorts of weird and slimy ocean critters.

Point Wilson Lighthose

Jamie had to leave us for a couple of hours to go pick up her boyfriend and we took the opportunity to walk further out on the peninsula to the Point Wilson lighthouse for some picture taking - my first Pacific coast lighthouse!  We then walked back into downtown Port Townsend and waited for Jamie and her boyfriend, Larry, to return and join us for dinner.  On our way back to Kingston to catch the ferry back to Edmonds and our hotel, Jamie took us to "the end of the earth".  This is a short little path that ends at the top of a bluff that gives the appearance of the earth just ending.  We missed the 8:20 ferry by just a few minutes and had to hang out, once again, at the ferry terminal in Kingston.

End of the world.

Lucky for us the party was still going strong at the little park near the ferry and we were entertained until the 9:40 ferry left and we were able to make our way back to crash after another long and eventful day.  I'm going to need a vacation when I get home just to catch up on sleep and rest!

The Story of Katie & Pooh

Katie and Pooh @ 3 months old.

Katie was born shortly after 6:00 AM on December 16th 1986.  After the excitement of the moment had settled down and Katie was taken to the nursery and Amy was in some much needed rest, I ventured home to freshen up.  Before returning to the hospital I wanted to pick up something special for my new born daughter so went to the local Sears and searched through their plush stuffed animals.  I found this wonderful Pooh bear made by Gund (my new friends, the Hoffmann's, assured me that a Gund would last forever).  Upon returning to Highland Hospital in Rochester later that afternoon I placed the Pooh bear into the crib of my new born daughter.  To this day, without exaggeration, Pooh bear has spent every sleeping night with Katie.  He has travelled on camp out trips with the Girl Scouts, gone on class trips and every vacation our family has taken.

Katie and Pooh at the Churchville-Chili 2004 Graduation

When Katie graduated from high school she was valedictorian of her class and was to give a speech at graduations, as is customary.  When she took the podium and completed the requisite thank-you acknowledgements to the attendees she began her speech by telling everyone in the Eastman Theater that there was someone special in her life that she'd like them to meet.  She then reached into the podium and pulled out Pooh bear, held him up to the full auditorium and said "Everybody, this is Pooh bear.  Pooh bear, this is everybody".   This is how her valedictory speech began and it continued using the story of Christopher Robin's departure from the 100 Acre Wood to go off to school and his promise to return and to always keep Pooh in his thoughts.  Katie's Pooh bear was a metaphor for the comfort and security of home and family.  The speech was very emotional and memorable.
Unlike Christopher Robin, who had to leave Pooh behind, Katie has never left Pooh behind.  He has been through 4 years of college at the U of R, 5 years of graduate school at Northwestern University in Evanston, Il and is now traveling the rest of the way across the country through exotic desert like terrain and through enchanted forests to be with Katie in Seattle as she starts her next chapter in a post-Doc position at the University of Washington.

Pooh always willing to go wherever Katie leads.

This one plush stuffed bear from the premier stuffed bear company that was a gift from me has meant so much to my daughter throughout the years that it only seemed appropriate to give him a major role on this biggest journey to date in Katie's young adult life.  Hopefully this little history will answer some of your questions you may have had about Pooh and Katie and why this blog is being done the way it has been done - featuring a ragged 26 1/2 year old stuffed Pooh bear that certainly showing his age.  This particular Pooh bear has seen a lot of life with Katie and for both his sake and hers, hears to hoping my friends Marty and Jeannine were right and he lasts forever.

Day 5: Seattle Here We Come

Capone's in Coeur d'Alene

Today was the final day of driving as we leave Butte, Montana and head out for 600 miles of I-90 straight to Seattle.  After two days of getting up before the sun we decided to give ourselves a treat and sleep in until 7:00 AM.  We got up and had yet another continental breakfast in our Super 8 motel and we pulled out of the parking lot just before 8:00, bypassing the gas station across the street and heading up the on ramp just a few hundred yards up the street.  After driving driving for 90 minutes or so I see that the gas gauge has 1 tic left and I say to Katie "We need to get gas soon.".  About 3 seconds after I say this the chime warning you that you are low on fuel went off and Katie pulls out her iPhone to find the nearest exit with a gas station.  Keep in mind, we are in western Montana and, although its not as uninhabited as Wyoming, its pretty close.  Katie's first reaction upon glancing at her results was "Oh-Oh" which got my heart racing a bit.  She then says "Why didn't we just fill up at that station across the street from the hotel?".  Of course I didn't really have a good answer other than "It's a Prius, isn't it?  We shouldn't have to gas up".  We finally find one about 30 miles down the road and we fill up the tank and it takes 9.6 gallons.  Given the fact that we have been getting over 50 mpg and the tank is 11.9 gallons I figure we could have gone another 100 miles!  Why was I panicking so much.

We decide to get off interstate 90 at Coeur d'Alene to find a place for lunch.  We traveled through a portion of this town that Katie says is a major tourist/getaway town for this region of he country.  We quickly pick a joint that looks interesting and find ourselves in a very nice establishment called Capones Pub & Grill.  The back of the menu indicates they were featured on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives".  The food was excellent and we both enjoyed our respective sandwiches.

Columbia River

The rest of the journey was pretty much uneventful, which is what one would like on a cross country trek.  We did pull off on a scenic turn off with a panoramic view of the Columbia river.  It was quite the view but it was also very hot outside so we only stayed long enough for a quick look, kind of Griswold family vacation style.
Once we hit Seattle our pace drew to a crawl as we tried to make our way to the intersection of I-90 and I-5 so that we could turn north and make our way to the hotel.  We finally made it and were checked into our room by 6:15.  We strolled across the street to an upscale plaza of shops and restaurants and found a place to eat.  After we were done we strolled around the place and stumbled across a big Bartell Drugs store.

Kodak Kiosks and Complete RSS System in Bartell Drugs

Bartell Drugs is one of the biggest customers of the photo equipment that I work on so I had to stop in and check it out.  Very impressive array of Kodak equipment in an inviting arrangement with easy chairs to sit in while you work on your photo projects via a Kodak Picture Kiosk.
After leaving the Bartell Drugs we found an Apple store and directly across the parking lot was a new Microsoft retail store.  It was pretty hilarious to walk from one to the other and see virtually the same setup in the Microsoft store complete with the geeks wearing nametag lanyards that were identical to Apples with the exception of the corporate logo.  Nice try, Microsoft.
At 9:00 PM Katie and I left for the Seattle airpot to pick up Amy and as I write this, our little band of travelers has grown by one and we are now 4 as Amy joins Katie, Pooh and me on our adventure.