Seattle, Round 2

July 30-31, 2007--I took it easy the Monday after I returned, sitting inside Jenn, Grace and Chris' apartment working on my computer and looking at their spectacular view of the city from Capitol Hill. For lunch, I caught up with my college roommate Paula at a Vietnamese restaurant on Broadway followed by a dessert of Dilettante chocolates.

That evening, Jen, Grace, Chris and I met our other high school friend, Mark, at a yummy restaurant called Tutta Bella in the Fremont area. We went back to Mark's place to have some more wine and watch the sunset from his rooftop deck (it was a little chilly, so Jenn donned Mark's fiancee's Banana Republic eskimo jacket).


The next morning, I packed my stuff up and took in the views from JGC's apartment one last time, but from the roof. I was stunned as I emerged from the covered ladder at the gorgeous view and cloudless sky (in Seattle??!?).




Here's downtown and Mt Ranier:



















And the Space Needle, bay and Olympic Mountains



















Next I headed to Fremont again to meet up with an old friend I met in Australia at a restaurant I had been told about in Eugene... The Dish. Great independent sandwich/burger shop. We also took a spin past the famous Fremont Bridge Troll:


Next I headed downtown to take a look around. It was very pretty and clean from all the rain!


I stumbled across something called Freeway Park, a park built on top of the covered I-5 which goes right through town. What a cool idea!

The park also had these very cool fountains which cascaded into a false canyon... designed to block out all the noise of the city and freeway when you're down in it. (and yeah, having your pinky involuntarily stick out when you're drinking a beer is one thing, but when you're taking a picture--it's ridiculous!)






















Next I headed to the famous Pike's Place Market. Sadly my camera was dying so I didn't take too many pics of it, but I did get to explore the multiple floors of trinkets and watch the fish throwers. This place even had a fish with its jaw propped open for tourists to take pictures with that they would move via a rope hidden in the ice!


















Finally I made it to the ferry that goes from Seattle across to Bainbridge Island. Sadly, my camera took it's last picture of a cute dog as I was waiting to board, so I don't have a single picture of the beautiful crossing. Thus as soon as I made it off the boat, I headed to the nearest pub so I could get it charged again. I had some yummy drinks and food, and even ran across two Aussie guys who were temporarily residing in Vancouver, so told me all the best bars to go to the following weekend. Below are the view from the pub's deck and from the toilet in the women's bathroom:



















I drove off the island to the north to a hostel I knew of in Port Townsend, which turned out to be on the grounds of Fort Worden, the location where An Officer and a Gentleman was shot. When I arrived it was dark, so the pictures below were about all I could see. There is something very creepy about exploring military ruins in the dark.



















All around the grounds of the fort, which is now more of a camp, I could hear blues music emanating from random buildings. I wandered toward one of the sources and found a group of people jamming on a front porch. I Those of you who know me well may be surprised that I didn't walk right up and make friends, but for various reasons I wasn't feeling too social that night and took a video from afar instead.




A man that I stopped as he was passing informed me that it was a yearly acoustic Blues Festival, consisting of classes during the day and all-night jam sessions after dinner that can include anything that doesn't plug in to the wall. It's not every night that you fall asleep in your hostel bed to the sound of good live acoustic blues!!

Ben's bday and leaving Chicago

July 26-29, 2007--I drove back up to Chicago for Ben's birthday celebration on Thursday. We went to the local bar, Mickey's, where everybody knows your name (or at least Ben and Tommy's). It started innocently enough with rounds of beers and mixed drinks...



















Then came the round of Irish Car Bombs provided by the bartender (gotta love Tommy's face in this one...)



















And then someone had the genius idea of buying Ben a Three Wisemen.... and I still haven't forgiven that person!


Heather checks out the wisemen and Ben stares down his adversaries...
























And then Ben feels the after-effects....



There was much drunken love passed around-- Tommy and me...


Ben and Dan...



















And of course, Ben and me :-)


We had a lot of fun the rest of the weekend, too, but sorry, apparently no pictures! I flew back to Seattle on Sunday, luckily sitting next to a Southwest pilot who kept me entertained for most of the long 4-hour flight (I'm sure the Dewar's scotch helped, too). Together, we won the in-flight competition of who could come up with 10 body parts that are 3-letter words (there are 5 above the neck and 5 below... ready.... go!!). When my prize turned out to be bags full of honey-roasted peanuts and mini pretzels (he couldn't have any, being an employee of the airline), we decided that maybe I would get stuck somewhere on my trip, survive off the pretzels and peanuts, and then I could write in to Spirit magazine about how Southwest saved my life!!

Visiting the relatives

July 24-26, 2007--I took a side trip to a side trip, renting a car in Chicago to go see my grandma down in Mattoon, IL. This 20,000 person town surrounded by farmlands is where my father grew up. I had just missed my grandma's 80th birthday celebration (her actual birthday is next year) due to the road trip, so I went down to spend a couple days. We also visited with her sister, my aunt and her husband at their farmhouse, and took a trip up to Springfield to see my other aunt and cousin. Here we are at the yacht club in Springfield:


Before leaving, we went back to the farmhouse to collect some sweet corn for me to bring back to Chicago--I thoroughly enjoyed playing in the corn field.



















Ahhh farm life--

Chicago

July 20-24, 2007--I left my car in Seattle at Jen, Grace and Chris' apartment and caught a taxi to the airport. Well, I intended to catch a bus, but since I hadn't packed yet about 20 minutes before it came (a couple blocks away in the rain), I obviously missed it. I asked the cabbie if this was typical Seattle weather, a constant drizzle all morning, and he said yes, but that Seattle folks forget all about that fact when it is sunny and gorgeous.

I got to the airport quite early and grabbed some lunch and beers in the Seattle Taproom. As I ordered my first beer at 11:00, the bartender asked "Would you like a shot with that for $3?" I guess the drinking before noon rule doesn't really apply in an airport.

When I arrived in Chicago, Ben and I met up with his coworkers at the local Irish pub, Kerry Piper. The men of the group were apparently trying to outdo each other on how many rounds of shots they could buy, so it turned out to be quite a short night!























The next morning was the infamous Bags and Booze Tournament thrown by Ben's good friends, the Griffins (a clan of good ol' Chicago Irishfolk.... nuf said). For those of you who aren't familiar, bags is basically the equivalent of horseshoes, but with a slanted box on each end with a hole near the top that you throw bean bags in. This is generally what it looks like:


I thought someone was playing a joke on me when every person I was introduced to had a ridiculously Irish name like Gallagher, Griffin, Collins and McGinnis (though I guess Redmond fit right in!). The beer started flowing early as we warmed up our throwing arms. Then, of course, the shirts started coming off--
























Ben and his brother--you wouldn't even guess they're related.


















I did alright in the tournament but was knocked out in one of the last rounds by a Bullet-Tooth Tony look alike and a 12 year-old girl (who actually won last year). So we started playing poker instead in the fading light. After paying out the drunks who got belligerent through the course of the game, Ben and I split the winnings (which I count as my first ever win in poker!). I had never seen such a party where certain parents get blasted while their kids run around playing. Maybe it's a Chicago thing?


















As the old folks passed out and/or took the kids home, the last stragglers collected in the garage to turn up the tunes, dance along, and generally be drunken idiots.




Portland and Seattle, roses and Dick's

July 18, 2007—I didn’t remember to take any pics of Clayton the night before, so here is one of him leaving for work on his bike (yeah NM license plate!!)


He had told me of the famous Portland Rose Garden, with the most different varieties of roses in the world including a test garden of new hybrid varieties, so I of course I had to stop and smell the roses:

I also took many, many pretty pictures.






























Here is Portland as I was leaving—very pretty town!

And then here is Seattle. I was nearly killed about 3 times on this drive because Washington drivers don’t pay attention. And I consider myself a good judge on this since I had been driving every day now for about a month and hadn’t had any trouble!

I arrived in Seattle early and spent some time at the nearest library to work on my blog until my dear hosts, Jenn, Grace and Chris, got off work. Jenn and Grace then took me on a tour of their neighborhood on Capitol Hill down Broadway to Dick’s Burgers, since apparently we all needed some Dick’s in our mouths.

We were also accosted by a Nick Nolte in his mug shot look-alike homeless man, Showing off the shower radio he had bought at the dollar store but now required another dollar in order to buy batteries to make it work (what a conundrum!). He alternated between shouting “I’m the king of rock and roll!!” and shoving the radio in each of our faces so we could see the mirror on it and saying “You’re cute. See how cute you are?”

After dinner we headed to a party at our other friend, Mark’s apartment and out in the new hippie-yuppie area of Freemont, an area which has apparently declared itself the center of the universe.