These are the days of miracles and wonder

The boys were mesmerized by the beauty of Washington state ( but they never want to see another bleeding tree). A few moments of doubt in German engineering when the air conditioning failed in a 30 mile tail back on the way into Seattle. Unlike German football, turning the a/c off for a while resuscitated it’s full functional efficiency and we cooled down to enter Seattle. Then, out to dinner with Tom.Old friend, Scot, mass spectroscopist, expert on drug metabolism and toxicologist, pilot, rugby aficionado and genuine nice guy. He gave us the line that this was the best place to eat Alaskan king salmon in the world and against my expectation, it turned out to be true!

Again, for the 4th time we opted for a Drouhin.Our guruette , Tracy. says this one is named after the 26 year old daughter who knows more about wine than master SOMs. Perfect meal in a spectacular lakeside setting .Moan with Tom about the state of the nation.

So then we turn to home. We find that our hotel doesn’t have a roof bar – “because it mostly rains” – and decamp to a perch on stools in the steakhouse. At least it’s happy hour -at 11! There speculation on my social life caused Blair a wine reversal to ruin his shirt but at least his sphincters remained secure ( I think) .As we mopped up after this incident we were approached by Jeff and Jean, concerned that we were texting ( or writing this blog) rather than talking to each other. We politely explained that after hours in a hot cramped space ( bloody Germans ) together , we needed private time but then fell into conversation with them. Meantime, our sensitive Norwegian SOM had a suggestion for Ian..Jeff had played rugby in the USAF and had watched the 7s!! On his way to Dublin to drink in the Brazen Head, he is flying tomorrow to Oahu. Lots in common. Best friend with Jean’s husband, another flyer who skis Powder Mountain – we’ve been there! Again lots in common : Jean and I feel the same way about golf, Then we turned to politics.

I think it’s fair to say we disagreed about almost everything but kept talking ( at varied decibel level) over another round of drink for almost an hour. We touched on it all – taxes, race, guns, wars, bone spurs, Russia and religion. Heated and passionate , both couples approaching the issues from fundamentally different assumptions, yet there were a few commonly held beliefs ( Jean said Trump was a bozo: we did not disagree).

This type of interchange is so uncommon as we all retreat to confirm our biases. In the end, like two rugby teams that thump each other for 80′, we hugged, exchanged information and posed for a pic.Perhaps a lesson for the country at large: stay true to yourself but engage rather than retreat from tackling uncomfortable truths? Better a disputatious consumption than frozen silence. This way we learn about each other even if not from each other.