Seattle

Now that we are back, I want to take the time to reflect on Seattle a little bit. We had a great time in that city... but it went so fast!

Although we got to stay with Sean in San Francisco, and camp VERY cheaply for 3 weeks, we spent the most money on our stay in Seattle ($20 each, per night). It was still not too bad compared to even cheap hotels. Our original plan was to stay on Vashon Island at a camping hostel there, but with ferry costs and a lockout on Fri/Sat for a wedding, we decided it wasn't worth the extra hassle, and we stayed at the Green Tortoise Hostel downtown. We could not have asked for a better location! You could actually SEE the Pike Place Market from our dorm room window. It was definitely the nicest hostel that either of us has ever stayed in. Green Tortoise just moved into the location in September, so the showers were *pristine,* the common room huge, the activities abundant, and the free internet and free breakfast were a definite plus! They also had discount tickets for museums and tons of tourist information readily available. Most hotels wouldn't have had ANY of these perks, so our accommodations worked out perfectly.

Seattle, we discovered, is indeed the land of COFFEE. There was at least one Starbucks on each block it seemed, and lots of other chain and independent espresso shops all over. Even on our drive up through Tacoma from Rainier, there were TONS of those little espresso booths lining the roadway. There were so many, we made a game out of spotting them along the way.

The Pike Place Market was definitely someplace where we spent a lot of time. There was just so much cool stuff, from amazingly beautiful (and cheap) flowers, to multi-flavored homemade pastas (including chocolate!), to fresh seafood like huge crab legs and 4ft long salmon, tasty donuts, and delicious oils, vinegars and garlic, plus prepared food vendors everywhere. We saw some amazing street performers with colorful characters: a dixieland jug band, a fiddler with an irish folk dancer, a group of older men with *amazing* voices singing gospel and soul, and of course your standard acoustic singer-songwriters.

So when we first got to Seattle, we had dinner at an awesome Indian restaurant near the hostel, then ran into some interesting people in the common room, and went with them to this place called "the Whiskey Bar." They had some great live jam-jazz with no cover, and we had a blast! The next day we liked the Indian food so much that we went back for lunch, bid our Chrysler Sebring rental car farewell (so sad!), and headed STRAIGHT for Jeremy's most anticipated destination: the giant REI flagship store! That was certainly the largest and coolest outdoor store I've ever seen, and after camping for 3+ weeks straight, I appreciated it a lot more. It even has an indoor rock wall, and tracks for testing out hiking shoes and mountain bikes! Crazy. After that we walked through town, and happened upon this awesome place called "Mama's Mexican Kitchen." The place was currently owned by the 3rd generation of "Mamas," and the food was amazing! ONE smothered burrito and some pico de gallo was more than enough food for the two of us, and our awesome waitress gave us free shots of *very* good tequila, the likes of which I have never had before (to welcome us to Seattle)! We also had our first experience with Seattle slugs... 4 of them fell out of the garden box onto our table. Jeremy almost picked one up and ate it, thinking it was an onion. They were kind of cute, but that would have sucked!

The next day, Friday, we spent most of the afternoon at the market, walked around Pioneer Square, and then went with some awesome travelers we met at the hostel to a Thai restaurant/bar that just happened to have some amazing free live funk that night! We had a great time swapping travel stories and mountain climbing tips while jamming out to some fantastic music.

On Saturday, we took the little tourist monorail to the Science Fiction Museum, which was incredible! They had so many costumes from really famous movies and TV shows... everything from Darth Vader's outfit to Indiana Jones' leather jacket and whip. They had tons of Star Trek uniforms and ship models too, which I really enjoyed. I got to see one of the only two models of the NCC-1701-D ship from the Next Generation! Cool! They had phasers and alien masks, tribbles and of course, they had the "queen alien" from the movie "Alien," along with the big metal suit thing that Sigourney Weaver used to defeat her. Craziness. After we finished in the museum, we walked outside, and the "Seafair Parade" was just beginning! That was definitely one of the most interesting and eclectic parades I have ever seen. It was supposed to celebrate the upcoming hydroplane races, but included tons of ethnic/civic organizations, each performing some incredible stunts, or wearing crazy costumes. They had a whole pirate ship complete with GREAT pirates and a cannon, a full length running Chinese dragon, the cheerleaders and pep band for the Seahawks, and tons of girls wearing fancy dresses waving. There were "Red Hot Mamas" pushing light-up vacuum cleaners wearing hot pink and feathers while dancing, middle eastern performers spinning huge hoops with weighted strings hanging from them, and Japanese girls all dressed up, dancing with fans and drums. It was great! After the parade was over, we walked around, back down to Pioneer Square, up to Capitol Hill a little bit, and checked out some live music at a place called the Triple Door.

Sunday started out slow, but got quite exciting. On our last day in the hostel, a private room opened up across the hall! We immediately took it. The private rooms have been booked up months in advance, but somebody left one early, and we just happened to be at the right place at the right time. It cost a little more, but it was worth it to be able to open the windows and door all the way, run the fan like crazy, take an afternoon nap, and sleep/pack our bags undisturbed. It was a great way to spend our last night in Seattle! So after moving our stuff to the new room and taking a nap, we went the Experience Music Project Museum (tons of stuff about Seattle music, Jimi Hendrix, and music in general), and took a bus down to the WaMu theater, where Daft Punk was playing. I already posted about THAT whole thing, but it was definitely one of the most exciting parts of the trip! I adore Daft Punk, and we both loved the concert. The combination of the concert excitement and last-day-of-vacation-jitters made it hard to sleep afterwards.

We spent the last day not really knowing what to do... we had to leave by 8pm to get to the airport in time, so we couldn't go too far, and we ended up just wandering around aimlessly, shopping, and eating good city food. Our last meal was in the Market at the Athenian Seafood Restaurant, which was in the movie "Sleepless in Seattle" apparently! It was very good, and had a fantastic view of Puget Sound. When we checked out and got onto the bus with our bags, we were lucky to get one last look at snow-capped Mt. Rainier from the bus, at dusk. It was so sad to see it go!

The flight home went smoothly, but neither of us got much sleep. We were able to see the snow-capped tops of the north Cascades and probably Rainier in the moonlight from the plane, which was awesome, and I was able to see the glow of sunrise as early as 1:30-2am, Pacific Time. It felt REALLY strange getting home... I found myself wondering, "do I really live here?" After a month away, it didn't feel like home anymore. However, after seeing some friends and checking in with family, we are starting to warm up to being back in Binghamton. My only complaints: the NASTY humidity, the bugs, and unpacking. :)

Well, that about sums up the last leg of our trip. I think I will post a few more pictures, and then I am heading to First Friday downtown with some friends. Stay tuned for more photos from our travels!