February 29, 2012

Outside Temp: (in Seattle) around 30-40... not really sure, but it was clear and pretty.

What I cooked today:
Oh yea, like I cooked today... hahahahahaha

Update:
We survived the drive out here!  Woo Hoo!

We are in Seattle for a clinic appointment for Ryan.  I know, just a clinic visit.  But it's worth it to meet our new Transplant team and let them meet Ryan.  And it's much better to meet a new team when things are going well, instead of when things are going, uh, not well.

So, we headed out around 8:45am this morning from the house.  We stopped in Great Falls to fill up the gas tank and spend about $50 on junk food, soda, chips, and extra candy bars (just in case we crashed the car in the snow, and needed the extra calories...)

The drive was absolutely beautiful!  I don't think I can explain how pretty it was, and since I totally forgot to take any pictures, you'll have to believe me.

It took about 3 hours to get to Missoula, MT.  We went over a snow pass on the way there, but it didn't snow much and we had no problems.

From Missoula, we headed through the rest of Montana, and into Idaho.  Apparently, Idaho is only about 60 miles across (at least this part of it), but there was another pass.  We, again, made it through with no problems.  A little snowy at times, but the roads were clear.  We stopped outside of Spokane for gas, and started across the plains of eastern Washington. 

By around 6ish tonight, we made it to the Cascade mountain range.  This time, there were traffic advisory warnings, etc.  "Traction Tires Advised.  Chains on trucks over 10,000lbs."   The snow was coming down pretty hard, and the roads were filled with slush and snow.  By the time we hit the top of the pass, the "advised" for traction tires was upgraded to "required".  We saw 2-3 cars that slid off the road.  A U-haul truck, towing a car, slid off the road, and ended up straddling the snow pack on the side of the road.  No one seemed hurt, just slipping and sliding on the road.

Of course, we have 'magical' tires.  Our totally awesome snow tires, with studs, are amazing!  We were not only able to skip the 'chains' thing, but we could stay on the road the entire time, and were even able to pass other cars and drive at reasonable speeds!  For a while, we stayed behind the sheriff's car, since we figured if he could go 45 MPH, then we could go that fast as well.

As we got closer to the top of the mountain, they lowered the max speed to 35 MPH, which was fine since the sun had gone down, and it was dark and we had no problems slowing down. 

We made it down the mountain by 8ish PM, and headed into Seattle.   Not bad timing!

Of course, about a hour outside of Great Falls, we realized we had forgotten one of Ryan's medications.  So, we stopped at a local pharmacy and got a few pills to tide us over until we get home.  Really nice pharmacist who had no problem checking out prescription and getting us the meds we needed.

Then we picked a hotel.  Since we weren't sure if we would make it into Seattle tonight (if the pass was closed or if we had any problems), so we didn't reserve a hotel room.  We picked one in downtown Seattle, so we headed over there.  By the way, for those who have never been to Seattle, it totally reminds me of San Francisco, mixed with downtown LA.  Lots of tall buildings, but also hilly.  Of course, it's dark, so I'm not sure if I'll stick to that assessment tomorrow. 

The hotel was even kind enough to give us a discount since we are going to the hospital!  We decided to walk down to a pizza place in town for dinner.  Ryan realized he likes mushrooms. Who knew?

Clinic is tomorrow afternoon (2:45pm), so we have the morning to check out Seattle.  We might go to the aquarium or maybe the Space Needle.  I'm not sure what to do, since we can only play for half the day (or maybe only a few hours,  if we sleep in). 

Ryan is already knocked out, and Patrick is catching up on some work he didn't get to do today (obviously!).  Hopefully, everything will got great tomorrow!