I must confess that it was a slow day at the Conference. The Western Conference made for a full day yesterday, and the North American Conference starts first thing tomorrow morning, but today was quiet, as many Jurisdictions use today as their travel day.
But. last night was interesting. Traditionally the Grand Master takes his delegation out to dinner once during the Conference each year, and last night it was MW Steve’s term.
Now, one does hate to use the term ‘I didn’t do it that way in my year.’
But, alas, I didn’t do it that way in my year!
I was a really nice guy and chose a restaurant within walking distance, so that we could all walk together. (Now, admittedly, when I say within walking distance it was halfway across Milwaukee, on a night that Milwaukee had transformed itself into a frozen wasteland, so maybe we are all just lucky that we didn’t freeze to death on the sidewalk, but anyway…)
So, the important thing to know is that I was a nice Grand Master and selected a place that everyone could walk too. (Even if we came close to having to murder one of our number in order to survive by becoming cannibals.)
But MW Steve, breaking with tradition, said that we had to drive to dinner.
Now, I’m not going to say that the drive didn’t go well, but maybe, it might not have gone well.
I figured there was no problem. Got my car from the valet, slapped the address into the directions app on my phone, and off we went.
But, there might have been a problem.
From the get go, the phone kept telling me to turn the wrong way, down one way streets. Over and over again. Eventually I figured out that I had used it for directions while walking earlier, and apparently it was taking us on the quickest way to walk, not drive.
So, not good.
Now, I had our Assistant Grand Secretary and MW Coffman in the back seat, so MW Coffman finally put it in his phone, and that got us within a couple of miles of the restaurant. We parked, and the backseaters went to plug the parking meter.
That was broken.
So, we decided that the better part of valor was to move the car. Plus, I had to figure that we could probably find a parking space closer than a couple miles from the restaurant.
But, our AGS and our PGM abandoned me. They lacked faith that I would ever manage to find the restaurant.
Apparently, having driven around Seattle, in circles, for an hour or two, they assumed that it would be smarter to just walk a couple miles.
Well, that turned out to be a really bad decision on their part, because then they had to miss the second set of circles I started driving in all around Seattle!
So, eventually, I don’t know, maybe 300 miles later I found the restaurant that is apparently about a mile from the hotel.
In any event, I blame the Grand Master, ‘cause we didn’t do it that way in my year!
This morning, I remembered back 20 some years ago, to the day that I finally had to take the car keys away from my grandmother.
I decided it was probably best to take the keys away from myself.
So, we walked down to Seattle’s famous Public Market. I hadn’t been there for a lot of years, but amazingly, it doesn’t seem to have changed a bit. We did a good tour of it, and then decided to get a little lunch in a Bolivian restaurant just across the street, as it was on a second floor balcony, and the sun was shining.
That started out great until the protesters decided to take their protest to the Public Market. Hundreds of them screaming and hollering.
Now one must remember that we are in Seattle, and Seattle generally doesn’t believe in policing the streets, so of course some of the protesters broke off from their group, came up the stairs and invaded the restaurant.
We quickly paid the bill and took off.
The out of Jurisdiction Grand Lodge elected officers from halfway across the country were still there when we left, but I can’t imagine they stayed long with idiots screaming in the restaurant.
But, that led us to a very nice little French restaurant where we had a wonderful meal in peace.
The rest of the afternoon we spent at the Hotel, speaking with exhibitors. These exhibits are always interesting, and range from people who sell cool Masonic stuff, to various Masonic charitable endeavors, and concordant/appendant Masonic bodies, including bodies that are not active here in my Jurisdiction.
That was great, is always great, because you get to talk with interesting people about their Masonic passions, everything from the Medical Research done by the Grand Lodge of New York to the Tall Cedars.
It was especially cool to see our own Washington Masons with booths this year. Bro. Spreen, Ink Nutz, and VW Burk who was selling his Masonic trivia game. Lots of good stuff to see, learn about, and buy. I have heard that tomorrow our own Working Tools Podcast will be setting up as well.
Having forced the Grand Master to buy me a huge steak the night before, and having enjoyed a very heavy French lunch, we decided to go really light for dinner, and just got a little pizza. When who walked in but our very own Bro. Reeder with the entire delegation from the Grand Lodge of Kansas! Lots of us got to meet him just a few months ago when he came to install his cousin Jason Reeder into the East at Franklin Lodge in Port Gamble.
Seeing friends, old and new is one of the great things about this Conference every year.
I understand that first thing tomorrow morning our Keynote speaker will be our very own VW Zane McCune from Verity Lodge. It’s going to be great!
The Assistant Grand Secretary attests to the accuracy of the story about the drive to the dinner. MW Chris and I walked from Madison and Alaskan Way, past the Ferris Wheel, to the restaurant, a total of 1.2 miles. And we beat Cameron by about 20 minutes.
I got lucky when I joined Cameron and Melinda down at the Pike Place area. I ate lunch, and we parted ways, as I had to return to the Hotel and resume my AGS duties. Therefore, I missed out on the protesters.
Cameron is correct on the people you meet at this conference as you walk the 4 floors and assist people. In my case, I was one of the “Roadies” that helped bring in the music equipment for the entertainment for that evening’s Welcome to Washington Banquet. I also helped with “roadie” duty afterwards.
For me, today will be the Grand Secretaries tour of the Museum of Flight. This will be one of the highlights of the Conference for us.
I am so stoked MW that you guys were able to catch up with Mark and our other brothers from Kansas. We were fortunate enough to have he, RW Dave and MW Tracy be apart of our stated on the 15th. True fraternal bonding was enjoyed throughout the evening. It was VW Todd’s visit, which made it all the more enjoyable! What a great time to be a Mason!!