Seattle in September

So very shortly (like a week) after I left Seattle in June, Roark invited me back up for a visit. After checking travel dates and getting the hint that early September is primo weather in the Northwest, I book a flight up for a very long (5 day!) weekend.

I got up there on Wednesday and after having a nice little backyard BBQ, Roark and I decided to venture down to Belltown for some drinks and more good weather. After asking several questions about Geeks Who Drink and my role there I finally decided we just needed to go to a quiz. So we popped in to the Frontier Room where Quizmaster Scott acted as master of ceremonies for the evening. With only two people we ended up 7th out of 11 teams which I consider a victory. You can read all about the quiz here, I even got a little shout out!

Thursday we went towards Pike’s Place Market, thinking that during the middle of the week I might have a better shot of getting in to the original Starbucks. Score for mid-week vacations. There was no wait to order and we got our drinks fairly quickly. The original is much different from any other Starbucks I’ve been in. Knowing from the “history” of Starbucks that Howard Schultz based his original on the espresso joints in Italy it makes sense. But I think the average customer would be a little thrown. We went down to the waterfront and hopped on the Bainbridge Ferry so I could see the city from the water and just get another view of everything. Pretty cool, reminded me of a much less dramatic Satan Island Ferry. Afterwards we headed to Safeco field to watch the Mariners play the Royals. And they won, which is good, considering they’re at the bottom of the NL West. I got to see Ichiro play as our seats were right above Right Field on the baseline. Also, the Mariners have a player named Kyle Seager, who had a fan club with signs that I ran in to after the game. Kismet maybe?

Friday Roark suggested renting a canoe and paddling around Lake Washington by the university. I wish I’d know, I could have brought boating clothes, as is I was very unprepared for such an excursion, but it was fun anyways. Saw lots of ducks, I haven’t seen ducks in ages. And lily pads. But no frogs, bummer. We walked around Washington campus afterwards, which is so nice a pretty. It reminds me a lot of the east coast schools. University Gothic architecture, lots and lots and lots of green space, tons of open “quad” areas. If I could choose based on campus alone, UW would have beat UT hands down. (Plus I look so good in purple!) Friday evening we headed out to Ballard to meet my friend Jen. Jen and I knew each other in high school and thanks to the magic of Facebook have been able to keep in touch over the years. So when she moved to Seattle and I was visiting we decided to get together for dinner. We ate at this cute little Italian joint, Volterra and then wandered the area before claiming a booth in a bar down the road. It was great to see with Jen, meet her fiance, and catch up on what was happening in her life.

Saturday I talked Roark in to heading to the EMP (the music/sci-fi museum next to the Space Needle). We wandered through an exhibit on Avatar, well the technology of Avatar. Lots of behind the scenes on how they shot the movie, which was interesting, but takes away my dream of what movie making should be. Technology huh? Wandered the Jimi Hendrix section and Nirvana/grunge of course. I will say I’m still not sure what the allure was of the grunge movement, but maybe that’s just not my kind of music. It was someone’s music and that’s all that matters. Upstairs, the sci-fi exhibit on display was Battlestar Galactica, a show I’m not familiar with, but Roark is. He went a little gaga over the model ships and the Cylon statue. I read all the little trivia facts trying to figure out wtf the show was about. Going through the exhibit I’ll admit I was intrigued and could probably be coaxed into watching the first few episodes. We made a little stop by Gasworks park too. We’ve driven past it multiple times, but finally we stopped, got out and wandered around for about an hour. In that hour I saw 2 brides, 1 pirate ship and multiple SUPers. I don’t get SUP, thankfully Roark doesn’t either. We both agreed that we’d rather be sitting on a boat with a beer. That evening we ended up back at Teatro Zinzani, the dinner theater where Roark knows the manager. This new show was written and directed by Tommy Tune and starred Liliane Montevecchi. It was absolutely amazing, and dare I say funnier than the last show, even if neither of us got pulled up on stage (thank goodness).

Sunday I flew home. Yes, on September 11th. I will say, it was probably the safest day in the last 10 years to be on an airplane. TSA was out in full force and everyone seemed a little on edge. The “Fasten Safety Belt” light was on for most of the trip and the flight attendants wouldn’t even let you up to use the bathroom. Before we left they even kicked a family with an unruly kid off the plane. Not sure if the crying kid was the reason, but the fact that we taxied for 15 minutes and went back to the gate meant something was up.

All in all great vacation to Seattle. Now that I have vacation time I’m so excited to be using it for fun things. I did manage to completely tear up my feet by day 2. I don’t know what went wrong, I was wear my super comfy Vans, but I ended up with 3 huge and painful blisters. So painful I had to break down and buy a pair of sandals because I didn’t bring my own and couldn’t wear shoes for longer than 30 minutes. Other than that one bad thing, the weather held out the whole time. It was sunny and between 75-80 degrees. Plus did I mention the sleeping in? 5 days of sleeping in, much needed in my opinion. And now it’s back to work and back to the real world. Or time to plan the next trip. One of the two.

Duck Butt!

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~ by lifeofapostgrad on September 12, 2011.