Day 5: Travel Day
Welcome
Yesterday we travelled to Berkeley, California.
It was another fresh morning in Spokane, overcast and lightly spitting when Tristan and I emerged from the Hotel Indigo in search of a breakfast. We found an establishment called Brews Bros Coffee Bar, an establishment that could have come straight from a 90s sitcom, walls heavily adorned with décor that could only be described as funky. This placed specialised in flavoured beverages and the area behind the counter resembled a pumping nightclub, a wall of shelves packed with about fifty tall glass bottles, each holding a different flavouring syrup. I ordered the avocado toast and added a couple of boiled eggs which came sliced atop the avocado, perfectly salted and peppered. I managed to steer myself away from the naughty side of the drinks list, sticking to my usual black coffee, no cream or sugar, strong, hot, and bitter, the way I like it.
At 2pm we checked out, loading the Wagoneer for a final time and setting a course for Spokane International Airport. There were complimentary luggage carts outside our terminal, and this made us very happy. We piled them high with our bags and cases and wheeled everything the short distance into the terminal where we enjoyed an easy check-in courtesy of the friendly and helpful Air Alaska staff.
Upstairs we settled into seats outside the gate to wait for our flight. I got to see first-hand evidence of the project that had been advertised on my coffee mug earlier in the day, the Concourse C expansion project known as TREX (Terminal Renovation and Expansion).
We were airborne shortly after 5pm aboard a QX E175, a narrow-bodied twin engine airliner that the Air Alaska website describes as having a maximum takeoff weight equivalent to approximately 10,000 Copper River salmon. This aircraft bore us away from the tarmac and far away from any Salmon and minutes later burst through the thick cloud cover into the golden sunlight that had only been hinted at in a few moments throughout the day. The journey was smooth and passed quickly, 300 miles across Oregon and then another couple of hundred over northern California and then we were descending, a wide circle that took us all the way around the Bay Area.
The sun was setting as we touched down and it was dark when we emerged from the terminal, baggage trolleys teetering as we wheeled them up to the curbside. There was a traffic cop policing the pickup zone and she came down hard on any fool who tried to double park, or didn’t pull far enough forward in the parking space. Paul went to fetch the rental car and returned a while later in a dark Chrysler Pacifica finished in a colour that could be either Brilliant Black, or Black Crystal, or Brilliant Black Crystal, depending on the year of the car, a fact I haven’t checked. We immediately put the vehicle through its paces, folding the seats as down as they would go and cramming every nook with an appropriately sized case or bag. It was an impressive pack, but not one that we were excited to unload. Part way through we were interrupted by the traffic cop and learned that we were blocking a fire hydrant. We moved forward a metre and she let us be.
Our accommodation for the night was an Airbnb in Berkely, tucked away on a quiet suburban street. We carried everything out of the Pacifica and up the stairs, stowing it safely for the night before we could allow ourselves to begin to relax and wind down. The call was made for pizzas and we sat ourselves in front of an enormous television to enjoy cheesy dough and fast car racing.
