West Coast Adventure-Seattle

I know you guys have been patiently waiting for the trip report but I’m still working through my travel journal. So I’ve decided to make a sort of mini series out of the KT-Mikey West Coast Adventure. Here, for your enjoyment, is the first installment.

Oh and just so you know, there are certain phrases that were repeatedly used on this trip. Just so you can get into the mindset of the trip I will use them repeatedly in this report. They are: CRAZY!!! Je..Jesus Christ. (said in the tone of Mr. Slave) and finally…Check!!!!

Seattle—May 11, 2005
I can’t tell you what it was like when the day finally arrived. I’ve been planning this trip since October and when May 11 finally rolled around I couldn’t believe it. Our flight was at 8pm and the general rule of flying Jet Blue (and thus out of JFK) is to avoid traveling during anything close to rush hour. An 8pm flight puts us right in the thick of rush hour and thus we decide the best option to get ourselves to JFK is the Airtrain. NJ Transit to Penn Station. Then we hop on the LIRR to Jamaica station where we catch the Airtrain that drops us off right at Jet Blue. Easy as pie. Yes, well I forgot that we’ll be gone for 18 days, which means we’ll have quite a bit of luggage. In addition to my book bag, I have a big suitcase, a carryon type-suitcase (for all my fun things that I buy while we are away), a carryon bag and my small toiletries bag. Michael has one super big suitcase and 2 large gym bags. I have to say it was quite an adventure getting those bags through Penn and then down the stairs to the LIRR. I was so happy when we got to Jet Blue and I could hand them all off. I was a little upset because in my original plan, I had envisioned myself enjoying Lost & Alias on the flight but then I remembered that the only basic network Jet Blue carries is NBC. Boooo. But thankfully they did have comedy central so hurrah! I can watch South Park. The flight was ok for the most part (thank you Mr. Valium) it was a little bumpy at times which of course made me a little jumpy at times. But then we were down safely in Seattle and I was a happy camper. (Jet Blue point total for flight= +1 for new & improved Jet Blue Terminal @JFK; +2 for fun Jet Blue Tshirts that we plan to purchase when we return home; -1 for flight attendant that wasn’t as happy as most other Jet Blue employees; -2 for charging $5 for a movie!!; +5 just for being Jet Blue)

Right off the bat, Michael and I have to officially state that the Seattle Airport is dumb. You get off the flight and take a poorly labeled tram to a poorly labeled luggage pick up. Plus, 3 flights must have come in right at the same time and wouldn’t ya know it, we were all at the same baggage claim. We walked past 10 open terminals and find ourselves waiting like cattle for our luggage. Sporto needs a smoke after that long flight so we bust out of dumb Seattle Airport for some fresh air. After his smoke, we get our luggage (yay! All pieces claimed! I’m always nervous after the near catastrophe of Vegas) and head off for our first night in Seattle. Because we got in so late our first night is at the DoubleTree Hotel SeaTac Airport. Michael and I devised a rating system for hotels on the trip; scores are 1-5.

Price (priceline) $38
Water Pressure 5
Room Space (Michael enjoys the extra sink outside of the actual bathroom) 5
Temp Control 5
Décor/Ambiance 1
Staff helpfulness/courtesy 3
Beds 4
Coffee 3
Hotel Facilities(restaurant, pool, fitness) 3 (Buffet was a little expensive@ $13 but it was good quality so I guess it was worth it)

Extras
+1 for cute shuttle driver
-2 for teeny tiny dasani from vending machine
-1 room all the way in the back, last room of last building (this was especially annoying coming in tired from flight at 12 am)
+3 warm cookie when you check in! YUMM!

Thursday, May 12, 2005
The next morning after our $13 buffet we head to downtown! I’ve done some research and apparently we will save $5 if we take a limo rather than a cab our new hotel. That’s what I’m talking about. Let’s start this trip off in style. Ahhh. Limo is nice. And roomy. We likey.

We get to Seattle nice and early and the lovely people at the Seattle Renaissance tell us that they would be more than happy to let us check in early. Sweet! We drop our luggage off and head out to the city to start the adventure!

Renaissance Seattle
Priceline Price $65
Usual hotel price $130
Water Pressure 3
Room Space: Bathroom 2; Room 3
Temp Control 3.5
Décor/Ambiance 3
Staff Helpfulness 3.5
Beds 3; Pillows 5
Coffee –5 NO COFFEE!
Hotel Facilities 3 for the gym
Noise Level (room to room, outside 5=quiet) 4
Other:
-5 No coffee in room
+1 They were holding a Xena convention!
-1 Overcharge for stamps
+1 for open-able window which made smoking possible
-1 No FX! Couldn’t watch race during “rest time”


Seattle. Oh Seattle. We really, really, really like Seattle. If it wasn’t a 5 hour flight out there I’d stamp my feet until I was allowed to move there. I think more than any other city I’ve visited, this is a city I feel at home in. A city where so many different people commingle and coexist. A city with a little bit of an attitude. Seattleites are fun, they have this kind of attitude were they are smiling at you but their tone is kind of dripping with disdain, but in a fun way. A city where everyone is not quite right in the head…but again, in a fun way.

So our first day we head right for the big spot Seattle is known for. Pike Place Market. I really wasn’t expecting to be wowed by this place, I figured if you’ve seen one market…But wow. I was definitely taken aback. So many different vendors. So much fun produce and seafood and wow! Exotic looking flowers for cheap! $5, $10, $15 bouquets of flowers that would go for like $35 here. It was amazing. I loved it. Every single second we were at the market I was happy. KT Side Note: Although fun, the market is dangerous for one Mr. Michael Wood. There are vendors selling belt buckles! Soon we will see that Michael has an addiction to belt buckles!

After the market we head over to Salumi. Salumi is a casual, deli service shop that is owned by Mario Batali’s father. Salumi was on my list before I went to Babbo. In fact it was at Babbo, while we ate the meat plate that I was informed that Salumi was owned by Batali’s father. Anyhoo, it was a bit of an adventure trying to locate Salumi (we walked right by it) but once we did everything was a-ok. I had a pork prosciutto sandwich with provolone and a garlic spread. Hmm tasty French bread. Michael had a plate of meat and cheese. It was spicy salami, proscuitto, bleu cheese, mozz and parmesan/reggiano. The meat was super tasty and kind of melted in your mouth. I also enjoyed the bleu cheese on Michael’s plate. Stuffed to the gills, we head out and take our first adventure on Seattle transit. The bus system works easily enough and isn’t it nice of the people of Seattle, there is a free downtown zone! We take the bus to the Seattle Center where we find the monorail that will take us to Seattle’s other top attraction the Space Needle. But before we hit Seattle’s number 2 attraction, we must hit KT’s number 2 attraction in Seattle, the Experience Music Project.

Ok so besides the actual Sound Garden, I was most excited to get to the Experience Music Project (EMP). It wasn’t until my senior year in high school that I actually found music that I connected with. I mean sure, there are songs & groups from the 80’s and early 90’s that I love, but I was never really immersed in a band simply for the music. And then came Soundgarden. You can all thank Jason for making me listen to Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana & Alice in Chains. So yeah, to get to go to this modern rock museum in Seattle, where my favorite band is from, was a little exciting. Although I thought EMP was awesome I was a little let down by the amount of “seattle sound” memorabilia. It was pretty much one side of a hallway, but wow, it knocked me off my feet. Whoa. Chris Cornell handwritten lyrics. Kim Thayill’s guitar. Badmotorfinger gold record. Cobain lyrics. Posters for Mother Love Bone, Alice in Chains, & Pearl Jam. It was coooool. I think I had to wipe the saliva from my chin as Michael dragged me away. Some other highlights: a Jimi Hendrix exhibit (this was the kind of detail that I expected to see about the “seattle sound” groups), a Tori Amos set list hand written on Hello Kitty stationary, a TRL exhibit which contained Britney’s OOPs Red catsuit. That was michael’s highlight. We sort of bypassed the Bob Dylan special exhibit (I’ll never get it)… but something that was super cool was this recording studio. You could book time and go into a room and record. There were a lot of people hanging out in the little rooms making music. I thought that was pretty rad. Finally, a big –5 to the giftshop. I thought maybe they’d have something cool like an old Soundgarden poster, something fun for nirvana but nothing! Weak, weak, weak giftshop.

Connected to the EMP is the Science Fiction Museum. This was kinda…ehh.. I don’t really remember being wowed by anything. I feel like there was some cool stuff, but it must not have been that super cool because I can’t remember it now.

Ok so now it is time to go up to the top of the Seattle Space Needle. Oh, brief moment of complete terror. Do I really like heights? Do I need to see Seattle from that high? I know that I don’t like elevators, but this is a glass….before I can have a panic attack Michael pushes me towards the ticket window and off we go. The three people waiting in line in front of us had their very own Julie McCoy; although she was full of all sorts of stupid facts that we didn’t care about. Anyhoo, I think they got slightly annoyed at us because (and this will continue throughout our trip) Michael and I have reached the point in the day when we are completely delirious and start bursting into fits of laughter for no reason. And I just couldn’t understand that the Space Needle has no purpose at all. It was built for the World’s Fair and that’s it. It doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t mean anything…Nothing. For some reason we thought this was really funny as well. Especially when I kept repeating, in a baffled tone, “Yes, but what does it do?”

Finally our elevator opens and we get in. As we ascend to 520 feet our snarky elevator guide tells us that there is a frikkin huge octopus in Elliot Bay. He also says something else that I can’t remember but he was smiling and his tone was dripping with disdain. Tee Hee. We thought that was funny. Anyhoo we get to the top and begin what will be a trip long tradition. Ya know those stupid pictures that you take whenever you go to a “sight”. It is a picture of you and your companion standing in front of a back drop of whatever “sight” you are at. Well we decided (in our delirium) if we took ridiculous pictures at these places it would be funny. So just before the picture snapped I throw myself at Michael and give him a kiss on the cheek while flipping up my back leg. Fun Times. Now we head over to the observation deck to check out the 360 degree view of Seattle. On a clear day you can see Mt. Rainier, but alas, it is not a clear day and we really can’t tell which mountaintop is really a volcano waiting to eviscerate Seattle.

After the elevator brings us back down we head to the gift shop. I love gift shops. They can be so much fun. What will I bring home for me? What will I bring home for everyone else? What magnet does ella get? Well, I have to say that the Space Needle gift shop did not disappoint. They had everything you could think of and it was all stamped/embroidered with a little space needle emblem. I suppose most people would not find it as hysterical as we did, but again, we were in the throws of a manic giddiness. We get ella’s magnet (check!) and we are done! Hurray!

We head back to hotel and plan to take a nap before venturing out to check out Seattle nightlife. Too bad in all the tiredness we forget to set the alarm and instead wake up at 5 am! Boooo!

Friday, May 13
We can’t help ourselves! We go back to the market. Mike can’t handle the pressure of walking past white belt and must purchase it immediately. Then we head over to Matt’s in the Market for some lunch.

Matt’s is cool. The restaurant is tiny (probably 5 tables and counter service). It gives the impression of serving quality food (which they do) in a relaxed & casual setting. I order the wasabi crusted tuna sandwich with mustard pickle relish and a salad with bleu cheese and toasted pumpkin seeds. Mike gets a cornmeal crusted catfish sandwich with spicy mayo and bacon potato soup. My sandwich was good except for that I wasn’t totally on board with the mustard pickle relish. But my salad was outstanding. As was our wine (craziness, I’m drinking white wine!). Michael very much enjoyed his meal as well.

After Matt’s we bus it down to Fremont, which is supposed to be the “wacky, fun” neighborhood in Seattle. I was envisioning a south street type of neighborhood, but it was more like New Hope. There were lots of cute shops, Michael purchases his 75th cup of coffee and a shirt from a vintage clothing shop. Ohhh! Lookie! There are the fun statutes from Say Anything (also known as Waiting for the Interurban). Apparently people in Seattle dress up these statutes to coincide with anything fun happening in the city. The day we are there someone has dressed them up in birthday attire. We also see the Fremont Troll, a big sculpture hanging out under an overpass. Ooooh. Fun secondhand bookstore. Must buy books at bargain price!!

After Fremont we are a little tired, but we press on. Must see Ballard Locks. So we bus it over to Ballard. You know what locks are. When two bodies of water meet (like at a dam) and they are not even a boat must go into a lock, which fills up with water and raises the boat to the level of the other body of water. I thought the locks would be a lot more exciting but truly, they are pretty boring. We sit on a bench and wait for all the boats to line up so we can see how the locks work. Hmmm. Waiting. Still waiting. Yawning. Bored now. Ohhh. Apparently if you go over to the other side of the locks you can see the little salmon jumping through. That sounds fun. So I ask Michael, “Do you want to go over and see the salmon?” We stare at each other in silence. I mean, “Do you care about the salmon?” Without batting an eyelid Michael replies earnestly, “Oh I care about the salmon”. Which leads us right into hysterical giddiness portion of the day. So we get up and walk over to the other side of the locks to check out the salmon. HMPH. Salmon? Hello, little Salmon? I can’t see crap. Booo. They do have this cool underground little area where you can go and see underwater. Maybe we will see Salmon there! Booo no. Anyhoo we head back to our designated bench. The water is almost all lowered. And then the gate opens and the boats go through. Wow. That was cool (I don’t know if you can tell via blog, but I’m being sarcastic)…Ballard Locks, check!

After all this excitement we head over to happy hour. In our attempt to save money I have researched a few excellent happy hour choices. Cheap food + wine is never a bad thing. We head over to Brasa. Whoa! The bar area is filled to capacity. Luckily we spot a nice couple just about to leave and we hustle over to take their table. Our meal at Brasa was very tasty. We had:

Clams provencal style with chorizo $3.50
Calarmari $3.50

We also ordered a cheese plate but our server got confused and presented us with some kind of hummus/bleu cheese plate. Luckily I like bleu cheese and mikey likes hummus.
We start off slowly. Michael with a bloody mary and I have a nice pinot noir. Well, we start gabbing and catching up on things and 3 drinks later we are a little drunk. The quote of the evening:
“You look European with that hair.”
“Ya know I feel European with this hair!”

We decide to head back to the hotel and take a nap before heading out for the evening. On the walk back to the hotel we realize we are really drunk. Man, wine works fast! Anyhoo, in our happy hour drunkness we forget to set the alarm !again! and thus miss out on another fun evening on the town. Although I have to say that I really enjoyed myself at Brasa. The food was tasty, the conversation was flowing and it was our first official buzz of the trip.

Saturday, May 14

Today we start off our adventure with a trip to Capitol Hill. Actually, we start every day off with a cup of coffee. People in Seattle really, really, really like coffee. No wonder this is where Starbucks was born. Hello, there is a starbucks on every other corner. We saw 14 Starbucks our first day in Seattle. Michael got a cup of coffee at the original Starbucks! Excitement!! Michael is a little distressed that our hotel room does not come equipped with a coffee machine. I have to give him credit for keeping things together in the morning until we found him a cup of starbucks.

Capitol Hill is similar to South Street (every city has some version of it). Michael finds the end all, be all of vintage shops, Red Light. He seriously almost goes into cardiac arrest when he finds a pair of black wings in the costume portion of the store. Actually, in my opinion, he stumbles upon the best find in vintage store history. A baby blue tshirt that reads: New Jersey. Home of the Turnpike

After our shopping excursion we stop for some pizza at Pagliacci. I’ve heard quite a bit about how West Coast pizza doesn’t compare to NY Pizza. Actually, I rather enjoyed my Pagliacci slice. It was tasty, and it may have been the best crust ever.

For our Ferry Portion of the trip we head over to Bainbridge Island. It is about half an hour over to Bainbridge from Seattle. The ferry ride was enjoyable especially after hearing Michael discuss his fear of dirty harbor water. Bainbridge Island is very quaint and it has a very Main St America feel to it. Well, a very wealth main street, America.

Upon our return to Seattle we make our daily stop at the Pike Place Market. Oohhh! There is a cheese festival going on! It is tad overcrowded but I get a few tidbits of cheese and that makes me happy. Wait, hold everything. This is our last day in Seattle and we haven’t had a proper seafood dinner! Madness! Must drop everything and find seafood immediately. Luckily, the Athenian is right inside the market. Hey! I know this place. It was in Sleepless in Seattle. Ya know the scene when Tom Hanks and Rob Reiner are discussing dating. They are sitting at the counter at the Athenian! Bonus for movie location dinner! Mikey orders a whole Dungeness crab and I get fried clams. Our waiter looks exhausted, like he is very busy and very tired. Hmmm. Something is a little off with our waiter. When he brings us our drinks he has a lot more energy and now looks a little crazed. Michael thinks he is on drugs. Anyhoo, our food was soooo delicious and !score! my fries are diner style! Hooray!

After our meal we head back to the hotel to relax. See, relax, not nap. Actually, much to my own surprise I feel the need to use the hotel fitness center. I work out for a good 45 minutes (I’m so proud of myself) and then head back to our room to prepare for our big night out. Actually, our big night out can’t really go too late because the next morning we are off for Astoria. So we choose 2 bars. Linda’s Tavern and the Cha Cha Lounge. See now this just cements how much we like Seattle. Both of these bars are awesome and we know that we could be regulars of both establishments.

Linda’s & the Cha Cha both have great atmospheres and you can tell that both are open to all types of people. Kinda like the people you’d see at the Melody (which means that there is a wide variety). Both places are very welcoming and fun and the Cha Cha has a crazy Mexican theme happening.

So To Sum Up:
1) Seattle is mostly populated by hipsters & hikers
2) Really, really like coffee
3) Love dogs & bikes
4) Smoker friendly
5) Lots of hills
6) Transportation=good; taxi, buses, subways, streetcar & monorail
7) Lots of Very nice, but not mentally right people (makes things more interesting)
8) Lots of people look homeless, but I think that may just be a fashion choice
9) Gay Boy Count (not including gay area) 32
10) People filled with fun disdain, very sarcastic
11) City of Smells. Good smells, there is always some aroma coming your way.
12) I found myself smiling…a lot. At the people especially, but mostly just in general.
13) We really, really like Seattle…a lot!

Next up: The Sound Garden Catastrophe! Astoria! And we really, really don’t like Portland!