Ell Alley: Oregon & California: Days 5-7

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Oregon & California: Days 5-7

On the morning of day 5 (Monday April 7, 2014) it was cool & foggy in Eureka. We got up fairly early. Rusty & Steve had the breakfast provided by the Best Western Plus Bayshore Inn, which was not much of a plus. They left Jordan at the Amtrak bus stop on the corner of 6th & C Streets at 8AM. Then they drove north, back to Oregon. They spent one night at Terwilliger Hot Springs, then another 3 nights in Portland, OR. That is their story to tell, if they choose to tell it. Jordan had breakfast at Denny's, then wandered around Old Town Eureka.

Old Town Eureka & the Eureka Marina

Jordan boarded the Amtrak bus at 11AM. The bus stopped in 12 small towns & cities between Eureka & Martinez, CA. Many of them were charming & interesting to see. The bus passed through mountains, valleys, forests & farmland along the US 101. It was a beautiful journey. At Petaluma, the bus turned east & skirted the northern shores of San Francisco Bay. The City of San Francisco was tiny across the water. Jordan arrived at the Amtrak station in Martinez at 6PM, boarded the train at 6:40 & arrived in Modesto, CA at 8PM. Nancy met him at the station & took him to her house.

Nancy worked on Tuesday April 8. Her son Drew took Jordan on a walking tour of Downtown Modesto. We had lunch at a restaurant that served Chinese & Japanese food. Drew is a comedian & actor. You can see his work on YouTube. It was hot & sunny in Modesto at 87F/30.6C. We spent the afternoon in the house. Jordan & Nancy had dinner at Damian's, a nice Mexican restaurant. Jordan had a good burrito, his favorite Mexican food.

Nancy's house in Modesto.

Houses in Nancy's neighborhood.

McHenry Mansion in Downtown Modesto.

Bus Station in Downtown Modesto.

On Wednesday April 9, it was 85F/29.4C in Modesto. Nancy took Jordan on a driving tour of the city. We had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant downtown, cruised the finer residential neighborhoods, drove by Nancy's workplace & shopped in a huge Mexican supermarket called Mi Pueblo Food Center. Modesto has a population of 200,000. 30% are Mexican. Nancy made fish tacos for dinner. Later that evening, we met Nancy's friend Miguel at the Tiki Cocktail Lounge, one of 3 gay bars in Modesto. We walked there from Nancy's house in the warm night air. Miguel gave us a ride home.

Here are more photos from Oregon & California.

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About Ell Alley

Ell Alley is the home of Jetta, Jordan, Kitty, Rusty, Steve & Toby. It is named for the alley beside & behind the house that forms an ell: the shape of the letter L. It is located in the Rainier Vista development, in the Rainier Valley of Seattle, which extends 7 miles southeast from Downtown Seattle to Rainier Beach, between Beacon Hill & the lakeside ridges of Mt Baker, Lakewood & Seward Park. Ell Alley is 4 miles from Downtown Seattle, 0.4 miles from the Columbia City Station & 0.7 miles from the center of the Columbia City Landmark District.

Rainier Valley History

The first settlers arrived in the 1850s, but settlement was slow until the forest was cut down & milled, as it was throughout the city. Developers bought logged-off land toward the end of the 19th century. They laid out the communities of Genesee, Columbia City, Hillman City, Brighton & Dunlap.

Cheap land in the valley, just outside the City of Seattle, attracted Italians of rural origins & they planted large, productive gardens. The north end of the Rainier Valley became known as Garlic Gulch. Japanese immigrants also had farms in the valley. The produce filled local markets including Pike Place.

The Rainier Avenue Electric Railway opened the valley to greater development, reaching Columbia City in 1891 & Renton in 1896. In 1907, the City of Seattle annexed most of southeast Seattle, including the Rainier Valley.

At the start of World War II, Japanese residents were forced into internment camps east of the mountains. Tens of thousands of war workers came to Seattle to work at the Boeing Company, the shipyards & the port. The US government constructed thousands of temporary housing units at Rainier Vista, Stadium Homes (now Mt Baker Village) & Holly Park in the Rainier Valley.

After the war, the temporary housing became public, low-income housing. Suburban development took many white residents away from the valley. Blacks moved into the Rainier Valley from the over-crowded, nearby Central Area. Interracial couples found acceptance here. Filipinos arrived in large numbers.

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, refugees came from southeast Asia: Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong, Lao & Mien peoples. Many settled in the Rainier Valley. Chinese continued to arrive, although most settled on nearby Beacon Hill. There was a small influx of Mexicans. Somali immigration began after US involvement in Somalia in 1992.

Work on new housing at NewHolly (formerly Holly Park) began in 1997 & continued for a decade, with 1400 units sold to private owners. The rebuilding of Rainier Vista began in 2003 & still continues. Columbia City rapidly gentrified starting in the late 1990s. Many units of new housing were built in the form of townhouses, condos & apartments.

The current population of the Rainier Valley is about 41,000. The racial breakdown is 34.1% Asian, 26.9% Caucasian, 26% African American, 1.6% Pacific Islander, 6.5% Mixed Race, 1% Native American and 3.4% from other races. Hispanic or Latino of any race are 7.2% of the population.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.

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Thursday, April 24, 2014

Oregon & California: Days 5-7

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