Tips for attending sc LYKE MANY others, we just returned from a high school reunion. It was my school, back home i in Medicine Hat. _ One of the world’s hardest jobs is going along to someone else’s reunion, but 1 was sure proud of Brian. He managed to handle the whole thing as if he enjoyed it and that must have taken some effort. Mind you, I threatened that if he got too friendly with a bottle of Scotch during the proceedings I would wear knee-highs and cowboy boots to Ais reunion. Anyway, he managed to main- ‘tain his cool, even when nearly . 2,000 of us swung into the school yell. It’s hard to stay civil when the rest are hollering, ‘*Boomalaka, boomalaka, bow-wow-wow!”’ _ Dd like to tell you that I ap- proached the reunion with serene ‘confidence. - Hogwash! I knew darned well that everyone else would look just like their grad picture while I'd look like I'd been doing time. ’ Everyone else would be richer, all their kids would fave PhDs ‘and their cats would have gradu- ated with scholarships from obe- - dience schools. ; “«. Thankfully; nothing like that - happened. My old friends looked just about like us but they were just as much fun as they were back then.” ‘Funny, though — many of those “most likely to succeed” _ idols didn’t do quite as well as expected. : Three days? Not tong enough! ‘Here are a few observations _ that might help you when plan- ning to attend a reunion: . @ Even though we drove our RV, . we stayed in a hotel during the ‘ reunion. "A girlfriend booked us a suite months ago and the extra space - was worth every penny. We had “foom encugh to eatertain when we wanted. » By booking early, we had our “pick of the best and at last year’s ‘price. @ [ let vanity do me in on the arbara ; MeCreadie TRAVELWISE first day. Don’t make the same mistake —- wear comfortable shoes. I’ll swear I was on my feet for 18 hours, in pain. © One of the smart things { did was to buy myself a knock-out dress for the dinner dance. I just feltso good in that dress! ff were a guy, I’d have bought a new suit, .... © We arrived the day before the start of the reunicn and that gave me time to make phone calls and get together with a few old friends. it was good to have the nucleus of a group put together, par- ticularly so that Brian had a few familiar faces. ® For once, I didn’t pack light. Good thing, too. We had such unsettled weather that we needed plenty of choice. I really needed the coat, the ex- tra sweaters and the fuzzy slip- pers! @ I bought the booklet of names and addresses but | wish I'd taken a bit of time to jot down maiden names from a posted list. Now that I’m back home, how in hell am I supposed to remember that Annie Jones is _ Mrs, George Boondocker? I'd sooner stay home than spend much time on major freeways. Sure, they’ve speeded up the time it takes to reach point B, but the drive is still hours of monotony. Freeways are bad enough as they blast through open coun- tryside, but they become down- right evil when they approach a major city. It’s not just the congestion -— certainly bad enough — but the exits too. it seems that half of the drivers want to get on while the rest want off, with everyone zig-zagging for position. We were delighted to discover the alternative to 1-5 that avoids both Vancouver (Washington) and Portland. Highway 205 branches off about five miles north of Van- couver, skirts both cities and re- joins I-5 just past Oregon City. The 205 is a four-lane freeway in excellent shape (being new, of course), Bu? even worse than the urban sprawl of the Vancouver-Portland area is the mega-mess that begins at Everett and doesn’t quit until south of Tacoma. To make it worse, there’s Sea-Tac Airport stuck in the middle. . If you really want to complicate things, try hitting the 1-5 through there at rush hour or when there’s a shift change at Boeing. The good news is that there is a hool reunions bypass there as well, Brian and ! tested the route twice, so trust us! It works and saves the driver both time and trouble. The only complication is that the bypass isn’t as clearly marked as the one skirting Portland — there’s no sign that assures you an easy return to 1-5, but it’s a breeze, About 12 miles south of Everett, take highway 405 south to Bellevue. Bellevue is almost parallel with Seattle on the map but, being smaller, has far fewer exits. Continue south to Renton. Here the highway doesn’t change but the number does — it becomes 167 and passes by Kent and Auburn. Keep driving. Your next land- mark is the sign to Puyallup and another magical change in number. Without doing much of anything except driving, you're on Highway 512. Just past Puyallup, 512 ends, merging effortlessly back with 1-5. There are many opportunities to return to 1-5, but the purpose of my directions is to keep you off the damn thing until absolutely necessary. This route is painless. It skips the sprawl! and especially those awful snakes running through downtown Seattle, I often wonder what they did with the guy who designed those. HOT CRUISE DEALS 10 nights Alaska Cruise Tour $1,194 Cdn. Includes 7 nights cruise, 2 nights Anchorage hotel, airfare 9 nights Christmas Caribbean Cruise $1,470 US. Free airfare plus complimentary 2 category upgrade. | Space is limited. Call NOW for details! Over 160 locations in the world. CALL 984-6122 1325 Marine Drive, NVan. (next to Canadian Tire) j COUYSE With all the different activities to enjoy, you niay never get around to golfing. Your summer Chateau awaits. You're poolside with the mountains above. You've sunk into the hot tub after a ? couple of hours on the bike trails. 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