Jammed Packed Few Days

How is it that we wait until we have out of town visitors to enjoy all that our region has to offer and then we try and cram it all into a short time? Five nights ago my sister and niece flew in from Michigan to spend some time with my mom and I. Here is the schedule we have kept:

Wednesday:
Plane arrives we go to my mom’s living place and surprise her. Spend a little time with her and then head off to my house to get them settled into the guest room.

Thursday:
I am up at 5am working from home for a few hours so that I can take my sister, niece and mom on our first outing. Because my mom is in a wheelchair I get to go with them because I am driving the “Mom Mobile”. We pick up my mom about 10:30am and head off to the Pacific Science Center. We have a great time there and then a quick walk over to the Seattle Center before we head north in rush hour traffic. We get my mom back to her place in time for dinner and then come home to work a few more hours.

Friday:
It was another early morning of work before we head out into an absolutely gorgeous day in the Pacific Northwest. Because the weather was nice we decided to do a walk on ferry from Edmonds and go over to Kingston to have lunch and then spend some time on the beach in Edmonds. The Edmonds and Kingston Ferry docks have great walk on access for wheelchairs. I sure got my workout this day pushing my mom up the ramp to the second deck of the ferry and then keeping her from sailing down the ramp on the other side and yes you get to do it all again on the return trip. After some quality time in the sun it was time to drop off mom and return home for a few more hours of work and getting the laundry done.

Saturday:
Up early to go and get mom and bring her to Monroe for the Parade. We were in the Parade for the Re-Elect Kirk Pearson entry. I pushed my mom down the street while my sister and niece helped hand out candy and campaign buttons along the route. After the parade it was over to Kirk’s for a BBQ and a dip in the pool before we took mom home and after we got back to Monroe the four of us headed over to the Fair for dinner and to look at the exhibits. We got home about 8:30 and we were all tired out from the long day.

Sunday:
A typical Sunday, up at 5am, out of the house by 6:30 on the way to mom’s to get her ready for church. Bring mom back to Monroe for church and after the 1st service take my mom over to visit a friend in Monroe. Back to Church until 2nd service is over then back to get mom and out for lunch. Finish lunch and take mom home and then finally get back to the house at 3:30pm. It was time for a little rest before needing to get online with our developers at 7pm. Finally crawled into bed at 8:30 and crashed.

Monday:
Cloudy day but today was Senior Day at the fair so up early to work a few hours then down to my mom’s to get her and bring her back to the Evergreen State Fair. As we left to go and get my mom the sky started to lighten. We ate lunch, my niece road a few rides, we walked through exhibits, played a few games, won a big stuffed animal and had Scones. The sun came out after a couple of hours and it was a great day. At 4:15 we left to take mom home and as we got about 5 miles out of Monroe the rain started up. I came home and did/doing a little more work and printing out my boarding passes for tomorrow.

Tomorrow:
I get on an airplane and head to Costa Mesa, CA for a few hours only to get back on a plane at 7pm tomorrow evening to fly back to Seattle.

I will be so ready and thankful for a next weekend, especially because it is 3 days and we have no plans.

Wheelchair Friendly

I have come to believe that Seattle is NOT a wheelchair Friendly city. My sister and niece are here visiting from Michigan and since my mom is pretty much happy just spending time with everyone, it is an opportunity to find activities for an active 9 year old that I can get my mom and her wheelchair around in. Because the weather was cool and wet and my niece totally enjoys science (she is so like me it is sometimes scary) I opted to take them to the Pacific Science Center.

Things are going pretty good until it was time for lunch. Of course I didn’t pack one so we needed to go to the little café they have there. We locate this small elevator that will take us to the 3rd floor where the café is. When lunch was over we needed to finish seeing some of the exhibits so we headed back to the elevator. Push the button; wait a few minutes, nothing. Push the button; wait a few minutes, nothing. Push the button; wait a few minutes, nothing. Get the picture here. So my sister goes down the stairs to see if she can ride it back up to us. Soon here comes my sister back up the stairs, the elevator is out of order.

I ask the guy working there how I could get out of there, He says that if I go to the other side of the building there is a ramp. I’m thinking ramp. Controlling a wheelchair going down a ramp from the 3rd floor to the 1st floor is going to be a good work out. I send my sister and my niece down the stairs and I tell them that I will work my way back to them. Off we go across the open deck to the other building. We get there and would you know it, the ramp is closed for construction. Here we are again stuck with no way to get down. Did you ever have one of those déjà vu moments; fire alarm goes off at the doctor’s office, elevator doesn’t work; try to get into the county court house and the lift doesn’t work.

Back we go off to try and find another access and there just isn’t one. So now I am looking for someone who works there and I happen to run into the guy who had just fixed the elevator. Thank God, I really wasn’t looking forward to doing a fireman’s carry down the stairs or something. Oh yeah, all of the bathrooms were on the 1st floor and we both had to go. So the elevator work, we got to the bathroom with no problems and life was good again.

I have come to the conclusion that Seattle is just not wheelchair friendly. Cobble stone sidewalks, steep hills and poor retrofits in the buildings just make it a struggle.