Big Trouble: Part II: Seattle (And Still No Yeti, But Yet More Hills)

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Part II: Seattle (And Still No Yeti, But Yet More Hills)

salmon on the fish ladder, ballard locks

monday, i ran in a nearby park and around a lake (so beautiful! but SO hilly! but so pretty! but so hilly! but kind of want to just sit down and look and stop this stupid running!) we explored the neighborhoods- fremont, capitol hill, and ballard and saw the fremont troll and the ballard locks with the salmon running. we ate thai for lunch and fancy mediterranean for dinner and found some great boutiques in which to spend money. (thank God they were there! what would we have done?!)

fremont troll

tuesday, we met up with some friends and henry got to play with their little scooter (about the same age, also named henry. it was a henry-palooza) and i got to drink his home-roasted coffee. soooo nummmy.

seattle underground. henry found he preferred to be above ground.

(oh, on the topic of coffee....loved espresso vivace. also enjoyed drip coffee from caffe vita and several others whose names i cannot remember but i am certain are neither 'starbucks' nor 'seattle's best.' i am also certain that seattle has ruined me for ever being able to tolerate a cup of hospital coffee ever again. instead of "i taste hints of vanilla and oak" it's more like "i taste ass and fire. definitely ass...maybe even ON fire.")

then we got lunch in the U district (university of washington, where all the vegan hippies go, apparently) at a delightful local vegan hot spot and then went to the EMP where henry and i slept in the car and robb explored and saw all kinds of super sweet stuff. i am told. :) then we went on the seattle underground tour to see what happened after this hilly, muddy pioneer square area burned down in 1889 and was then re-built with retaining walls on ground level then intentionally flooded with (somewhat) sturdy stuff while the usable buildings were built on top of all that. very interesting.

nirvana exhibit, EMP museum

seattleites are very friendly.

and that concluded our trip. we saw and did a lot, but also got a lot of good relaxing in. and eating. oh, Lordy, did we eat.

but people are so active (and happy. and polite) there, the donuts and other food don't really seem to stick much. like in most cities, everyone is trim and attractive and has chic hair and clothes. especially there, maybe. this place (portlanders would probably disagree) seems to be the world epicenter of cool, new, and fun. like a friend said, "the city has whimsy." and it does. everyone seems to make an effort to make it more fun, more interesting, more tasty to live there. the collective conscious seems to be WE LOVE IT HERE, not how can we keep making it better?

and that is so fun and refreshing.

we will definitely go back. we would love to see portland and the mountains and more of the oceany-island-y stuff. and the city is friendly, and easy to get around in, and fun and interesting.

but....there are a lot of hills.

it's always good to come home after a long time away. we'll see what the time change, jet lag stuff does to our baby monster. after the red eye landed at 6am, he let us all sleep in until 11am. then fell back to sleep at 6pm this time and was back up, blazing mad at 9pm and its midnight now and we're all still up! so we shall see what tonight/tomorrow brings.