friday 8.31.2007 (minneapolis to seattle)
Posted in seattle for bumbershoot on September 11th, 2007 by jenni | No Comments »
Tags: seattle, visiting friends, washington
Matt and I arrived at the airport around 2pm, cleared security, and paid a visit to Granddaddy’s Bar, a tradition that makes every flight more tolerable. We giggled at Skymall for three hours, and arrived at Sea-Tac around 6pm. Steve and Colleen were waiting to sweep us away to their apartment overlooking downtown Seattle.
seaplanes fly very close to their rooftop.
We had cocktails on the roof of their building, then headed to Mama’s Mexican Kitchen for dinner. We dined in the Elvis room in back.
We went to a bar called Shorty’s for drinks and pinball, then hung out in the back room for a while because it had the awesomest bar stools I’d ever seen. We couldn’t even sit in them because they were full, but even looking at them was way too exciting. Our bar will definitely have pimp chairs such as those.
We moved along to the NiteLite, a place that was disturbingly empty for a bar around midnight, but they had cheap drinks and a standalone naked ladies game I couldn’t figure out how to play. We had a round of shots and Long Islands, and when Steve went back for another round, he was denied. The old lady behind the bar told him there was a limit of one per person (even though they’d given him another, just not an entire round). He told me that I should try to get others at the bar, but we were denied again. Incensed that we’d been cut off (and not even from drinking, just from one beverage in particular), we decided to go elsewhere.
Elsewhere was the Whisky Bar, mostly because we liked the name. We did not indulge, thankfully (Matt and I had water), and we had some discussion about the fact they were playing Bon Jovi’s Runaway, although we don’t remember what we were debating, exactly.
We decided to take the bus home, except it never really worked out that way. We definitely stood at the bus stop for a while, then started walking. Eventually, Matt and Colleen became trapped in a cabinet we found outside a restaurant.
After that, we ran though sprinklers outside a building, and all ended up with very wet pants. Which is not terribly comfortable when you still have several blocks to walk, dudes. Remember that.
We wandered through Fisherman’s Wharf, down to Ghirardelli Square. I don’t really get the whole chocolate empire thing, but it seemed to be a big draw. For some reason, we had already managed to do a ton of walking, even though I swore I was going to lay off and take public transport as much as possible (I was still having trouble with my ankle from the 3day in September). So we hobbled over to the cable-car turnaround nearby and waited to go up Russian Hill, one of the steepest in the city. Last year, I climbed it. This year, I was riding.
I called and pestered Jay for directions, and we set off on the MUNI train to see SBC Park, per Stephanie’s request. She’s not so much a sports enthusiast as a sports freak. The park was very cool, though, and we’d have seen a game there if they were playing. We did, however, get to see the remnants of the Love Parade. All I can say is that San Franciscans like to get either fuzzy or naked. Sometimes both.
You can hear the sea lions all the way up in the tower! I love that. We wandered around, took lots of photos, and then headed back down the stairs. This time, I managed to not remove the skin from my knuckles and wrist on the way down, so I considered that a huge personal success.
We walked down and saw the Palace of Fine Arts, the only remaining building from a 1915 expo. It’s attached to the Exploratorium, but the most we saw of that was the bathrooms.
We heard a lot of stories as told by prisoners and guards. They talked about a few escapes, and the fact that there are no known successful escapees, but a few prisoners unaccounted-for. We got to go in the cells, including isolation.
We made a point of rushing back to the boat and managed to get seats inside. Back at the pier, we got on the crowded trolley again. At the stop after ours, the driver yelled at a bunch of boarding tourists, ‘Girls up front! Boys in the back! Girls up front! Boys in the back!’ The men confusedly headed for the back door. The women climbed on, and the driver cracked up. He said, ‘I was just messing with you!’ and broke down in hysterics again. I couldn’t stop laughing.
We took the shuttle to Epcot and got right on Spaceship Earth, Heather’s favorite ride, ever. Now, Heather and I have wildly different tastes in our choice of Disney entertainment. She likes the slower, educational rides, especially if they feature space or dinosaurs. I’d prefer to avoid Disney entertainment altogether, but if it’s my only option, I choose the fast, loud, mindless rides that make you wonder if you’re going to puke. Too much learning makes me fidget. So we compromised, and went on both types of rides.
Mexico was under construction. We got our picture taken with a giant troll in Norway. In China, Heather got bubble tea, while I searched for merchandise featuring the good chairman. In Germany, we bought two pretzels and a pop for $8. In Italy, we stopped.
After coffee, we rushed through the United States and went on to Japan. The shops in Japan seemed to know I was there, because they had stocked everything I ever wanted to buy. I picked up and carried about half the contents of the store around with me, then put most of it back and still managed to spend almost $90. They had Hello Kitty stuff I’d never seen before, Totoro, and a million maneki neko. I’m pretty sure it was my favorite place at Disney World.
Then we wandered through the less-interesting countries of France, the UK, and Canada. I suppose Canada is interesting to some people, but it’s next door to me. I was unimpressed. Although I kind of dig all the maple leaf shirts; it’s a much better fashion choice than stars and stripes.
We circled around back to Mexico so we could sit in the sun and share our nachos with the local wildlife. The herons picked bits of tomato from our fingers, and then made demanding honking noises when they felt neglected. My parents called to say they were nearby, so we walked over by the Imaginarium and waited. While Heather made phone calls, I laid on the bench next to her and dozed off in the sun. I didn’t care much about being at Disney, but I was loving having escaped the overcast weather in Minnesota, and meant to enjoy it as much as possible.