I wasn’t ready to leave this last house sit. I certainly was disappointed that I’d only used the rooftop hot tub once in the week that I’d been there. Determined to correct that, I headed to the roof on the last morning, stripped off my clothes, and immersed myself in warmth and bubbles.

It wasn’t entirely my fault that I didn’t use it more often. It had been a fairly hot week, and that doesn’t lend itself to stewing in warm water if you’re not an alligator. It provided a final bit of relaxation before I took on the task of cleaning the house. It was a 5 story skinny house so there was quite a bit to do. Normally I would have only used one bathroom to reduce my cleaning, but with so many floors, I often opted for the closest facility, so now I had to clean two bathrooms.

The tasteful artwork adorning the walls did make for pleasant inspiration during those arduous stair climbs. The woman whose house I was watching is an artist, and whether she created the paintings or selected them, she had great taste. It was one of those places that I decided to photo document before I left just because it provided such good inspiration for decorating.

I took a nap and then began cleaning, which included the two bathrooms, one kitchen, and vacuuming from top to bottom since the two animals had been tracking things in all week. I’d allotted myself two hours, which I thought was plenty of time, but when I looked at my watch, I had only 30 minutes before I had to leave for my ferry, and I still had the floors to vacuum. Fortunately the handheld Dyson ran out of power at one point so I was forced to call it good and head for the ferry.

I gave myself 30 minutes to get to the ferry on my bike, but I figured it wouldn’t take quite that long. In fact it took about 10. While exploring West Seattle, I found an old road that wasn’t much used anymore, but wound directly from the top of the hill to the ferry landing. From the dock, I could look back up and see that the route was originally chosen to follow a natural drainage gap in the hill. Someone just came along later and dropped a grid on top of the rest of the hill.

I’d actually learned that about Seattle as part of my work as a tour guide. Someone asked why the street grid changes in the middle of downtown. I had learned, and explained to that person, that different pioneers had different ideas of how a city should be laid out. Some thought a grid should always be NS and EW, regardless of the terrain. That’s what gives San Francisco its ridiculously steep hills. Others thought that the streets should acknowledge the terrain and run parallel to the waterfront. Those who platted West Seattle took the San Francisco approach, but due to the wisdom of one early pioneer, I was able to coast directly to the dock without having to make a single 90 degree turn.

The ferry trip between West Seattle and Seattle takes about 20-25 minutes, but I find that the last run of the day is usually done in about 15 minutes. I remember the first time I noticed that we were moving about twice the speed we normally do, and I surmised that the employees were just in a hurry to finish their day. It was normally a relaxing trip where you stood on the front of the boat as the Seattle skyline moved closer, but today, I had to head back down to get my bike about the same time I had gotten to the observation deck.

With car ferries, cyclists are the first off the boat. This gives them a chance to get off the ramp before the cars disembark. Because it was a passenger ferry, the people got off first, and cyclists had to walk patiently behind the horde like a racehorse just chomping at the bit. Once we got to the street though, I took off!

I had a day in between house sits so I headed up towards the hostel I use to fill in the gaps between tours and house sits. It’s called the American Hotel and is located in the International district, formerly known as Chinatown before we realized that not all Asians are Chinese. To be honest, the name is still misleading as you’re not going to find a Polish or Peruvian restaurant there. The International district is made up predominantly of Asian businesses:: Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, and of course, Chinese. One of the highlights of the neighborhood is Tai Tung Chop Suey, a place that is famous because it was Bruce Lee’s favorite food hangout when he lived in Seattle.

The other highlight is the Uwajimaya market which is a massive Asian grocery store that has every Asian staple you could dream of. It must be nice for immigrants to be able to get a taste of home. I enjoyed getting a taste of Thailand from one of the many food stalls in the market.

I checked in at the hostel and took my bike down to the basement to lock it up. The main reason I choose the American Hotel over other hostels in Seattle is that it has bike storage. Locking my bike on the street is not something I like to do in any city and has been the highest incidence of stolen bikes that I’ve experienced.

The other reason I like the American Hotel is because it is right across the street from the Amtrak station and the light rail. This makes it especially convenient for those late evening arrivals or early morning departures. The other hostels are in better neighborhoods, but they require a transfer when leaving or arriving in town.

My six bed dorm room was empty except for one person, and the bed I was assigned was away from the window. It had been a warm day in Seattle, and the room was pretty hot so I worried about getting a good night’s sleep. Since it was a Sunday, I calculated that the odds were pretty good that no one else would be coming since the reception desk closed at 8, and it was now ten minutes past 8, so I opened the window and took the bed closest to it.

I decided to go to sleep at 11, so I figured I was in the clear with my bunk bed squatting. I was wrong. From somewhere in the depths of sleep, I awoke to a guy searching the room with his phone flash light. In an instant I realized he wasn’t a thief but someone confused that his bed had been stolen. I asked him if the bed I was in was the one he was assigned, and he said yes, so I told him I would switch. He said not to worry about it since he was only there one night. It might have also helped that I was much older than him and that he was from Japan, a culture that typically shows deference to elders.

In the morning, I quietly packed up my things, grabbed some tea in the common room and saw two people there, backs to each other. We were all engrossed in our phones, and it really bothered me since one of the things I liked most about staying in the hostels is getting to hear other people’s stories. I decided to see if I could shift the paradigm.

I asked the guy across from me if he was happy with the eggs I’d watched him make. He answered in an accent that prompted me to ask where he was from. Once he told me he was from Argentina, I attempted to speak with him in Spanish, apologizing for my lack of fluency. At that point, the girl who had been reading with her back turned to us chimed in that the best way to become fluent was to speak more. She shared that she was Mexican but living in Chicago.

The three of us chatted about our different backgrounds when a German guy walked over and joined the conversation because he was interested in knowing more about Patagonia, at the southern end of Argentina. At last the common room was abuzz with people sharing their stories. It validated my belief that all these people traveling alone would like to socialize. They are just coming from a generation that is used to doing it more so with their phones than their voices.

After the conversation wrapped up, I checked out and went downstairs to retrieve my bicycle. It was a 5 minute ride to the ferry, and I parked my bike to wait for its arrival. Another guy pulled in behind me and asked if I had any tips for a newbie. Though I was able to share my knowledge of how to ride the ferry with a bicycle, I was much more fascinated by the story of his upcoming journey.

He’d flown to Seattle with his wife and daughter a couple days earlier to enjoy the city together. Now, he was going to ride across the state of Washington, starting from the coast. He planned to catch the ferry, then the bus to Forks. From there he would begin the bike ride from west to east. I was a little surprised that he planned to include some dirt trails on his ride, but he explained that, being from Montana, he didn’t much care to ride near cars. In fact, it turns out he was from Whitefish, a place I’d visited on tour just a month before.

In another Montana coincidence, just last week I got a step on guide assignment for a pre-cruise tour to Alaska. This is where I step onto a motorcoach and share with them the narrative of whatever place they are visiting. The day before my step on assignment, I looked at the client and the name seemed familiar. As it turns out, this was the same client who I’d been a step on guide for on a one week tour of Glacier National Park. And guess where we stayed? Whitefish!

When the ferry landed, Bob headed off to catch his bus, and I headed to my new pet sit only to find out it had been converted to a house sit. When I arrived, the owner told me that she just wasn’t comfortable leaving her dog with strangers, despite having booked it nine months in advance. She had left the dog with her daughter but informed me that I was welcome to enjoy staying in her home for the next 2 weeks. I think this is possibly the best pet sit I’ve ever had!

There was another time that someone had converted a pet sit to a house sit, but that was because her cat had died the week before. She still needed someone to water our plants, however, and with her huge yard, we decided the free place to stay was almost not worth it.

This place was a condominium, which meant that the watering was all taken care of by the gardeners. In fact, in another odd coincidence, the person in charge of the landscaping turned out to be a woman Joan and I met in Mazatlan last year so I made sure to schedule a reunion.

With a beautifully landscaped property, no animals to take care of, and friends on site, the disappointment at leaving my last house sit had been pleasantly diminished, and I settled in on the deck to enjoy my coffee overlooking Bainbridge Island.