Like I said, Mary gave me her number upon disembarking the train and we exchanged hugs--she was by nature a hugger. Earlier in the trip, I had over heard her giving some line of trivial bunk to another traveler, and jokingly I called her on it. She leaned into my space and said in a lowered voice, "It's like my grandmother used to tell me: if you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, befuddle them with your bull shit." And a wink. I knew we had entered the realm of friendship when we shared dog pics! But I was really touched by the offer to go hiking.
I grabbed a cab who took me to the car rental where I acquired the use of 2016 Nissan Versa Note. I am usually not happy with compact cars--Mini Coopers suck. But this versa was marvelous. Then on to the hotel.
My reservations were at the 1938 Executive Pacific Hotel on Spring Street across from the Public Library. It was a great location to access the sites on my itinerary. And the staff was magnificent, which made up for the small bathrooms... Nothing is ever perfect.
In my original plans I had contemplated taking a ferry to Bainbridge Island and walking around, but the distances and times imagined from maps is not the same as in real time and scale and I just wanted to do something simpler that involved walking. So I scrapped the ferry and took the versa to the Washington University Arboretum and the Japanese Gardens. It was a good choice.
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