Lost in Washington

My uncle Curt met us at the train station. He took us to a seafood restaurant near Point Defiance in Tacoma where we each had an excellent bowl of Boston clam chowder soup. Curt and I also split an appetizer of raw clams.

In the evening after another great meal at one of Curt and Cathy's favorite restaurants, Gary and I decided to go for a short walk for exercise. The walk turned out to be much longer than planned. While we expected to walk a rectangle, and it was a rectangle route, Gary convinced me Curt lived on 152nd. I didn't remember his exact address but thought there was a 6 in it meaning 160-something.

It turns out that even though his address doesn't have a street name in it, he lives off a named street. The named street felt about the right distance in the rectangle shape, and the tall trees felt familiar, but after walking down the street a short distance Gary didn't think the street was the right street and claimed a fence he saw wasn't on Curt's street. He was 95% sure Curt lived on 152.

As the southern side of the rectangle had been 176nd street I doubted we had walked 2.4 miles, but as the named street didn't seem right, I was convinced to go further.

162 was a dead end street. Then we crossed another named street that didn't fit in with what we knew about streets. We went to 152. This was not right. After a half mile it curved right. There was no curve in Curt's street near where he lives. Gary convinced me to go further even though I felt this was leading us away from Curt's house.

Eventually I decided we had to turn around. I was certain now that Curt lived on the first named street we had quickly checked out. On the way back we stopped at a gas station to look up Curt's address and phone number in the phone book. It is not in the phone book. I tried calling another uncle and got no answer so I called my cousin Martin. He told me Curt lived off of the first named street we had checked out.

We walked back and found that Curt lived just beyond the fence that Gary didn't recognize. As we walked up Curt's driveway he was coming out to drive around to search for us. It was 10 pm and long after dark. We had been out wandering around for well over several hours. No harm was done other than we walked much more than planned. I didn't have my hiking shoes so I am wondering if I will get a blister on my left foot. I'll see later today. Not much walking planned Sunday as we catch the cruise ship. The drive to the ship will be an adventure as Curt arranged for a limousine to pick us up and take us to the ship in Seattle. I am not used to such luxury.