Category Archives: Seattle, Washington

Surviving A Melee

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What is the craziest thing that you’ve ever been in the middle of? I haven’t run with the bulls or anything, but this one time…

We had just made some friends in Seattle (finally!) and they invited us out to a couple bars. I of course don’t remember the name of the last place we were at but someone in the group was hungry so we went to a pizza place/bar with good pitcher deals that served food until 1am.

We were hanging around minding our own business when a couple big dudes walked in. I went to the bathroom as they were asking to be served food, but it was after 1am. When I got back the scene had escalated and the dudes were shouting at the young, small guy that worked there to get them some food. Everything had been put away, he explained, and cleaned, so there wasn’t anything to make. Sorry.

The dudes proceeded to start wrecking the place. They threw things from the counter all around and knocked a giant plant over rather clsoe to us, signaling for us to try to find a way out, but we had to pay, and the dudes were blocking the exit.

There was a kitchen pass-through window that held a hundred or so of those giant Feista wear plates (you know – this kind – they weigh a ton!):

The dudes went totally completely insane and started shoving these to the ground, smashing and ruining all of them. All of us were totally there jaws-dropped style wondering if that was the worst of it or if we were all going to be shot because these guys didn’t get any pizza. Thankfully, they left after the dishwasher or someone said they called the cops. It was kind of silly and we laughed about it later, but for a minute there we were all kinda scared, not knowing if it was going to escalate.

Anything like that ever happen to you?

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Try Layering

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Living in 100 degree weather for 8 years had some effect on me. In Seattle it was fine to wear jeans and a sweater all summer, but here in San Diego you’re on the beach! You want to wear a swim suit! Maybe a sundress! The weather living on the water is very inconsistent. There’s these ocean breezes and hot inland systems and something something something meteorology something so sometimes it can be quite cool and quite warm in the same day. Then if you’re driving inland… well, pack a couple outfits.

I have learned about myself from this. I have the world’s smallest range of comfortable temperature. And I think it’s 80 degrees. Maybe 80.1 to 80.2. One ocean breeze and I need a winter coat over that little sundress. Brr. In Texas I just needed a sweater for the AC certain places would blast. Here you have to position yourself out of the breeze. Those plexi/glass retainer type walls aren’t for decoration – you can’t lay out without them. It might be sunny, but it can feel like the temperature changes in the shade by 30 degrees or something.

I am imagining menopause. Since my body is already insane, it will either have no effect on me at all (sweet!) OR I will be able to make ice cubes for your drink in one hand and light your cigarette with the other.

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Martinis And Corn Mazes

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What do you do with your extra special, last visitor? Why, the best stuff ever, of course. ND got to see all the staples: the library, Shorty’s, the Locks, and the city. But he also got a 7 mile walk through the parks and waterfront. He also got us up the Columbia Tower free. We got to go hunting fish and views, be nearly hit by a train, nearly crash a wedding, and all these fun new things. We had drinks at Tini Bigs and Hula Hula, and saw the Red Bull soapbox races from the comfort of a dry indoor table with MW and some Ohio State fans that let us know UT might’ve won had we been elsewhere (not sorry I missed that).

You might notice the pictures are fantastic, we put ND in charge. We ate well, drank better, and kept moving, the whole weekend. And yes, we literally found and paid money to wander through a giant corn maze. You only live once people.

Here are the pictures!

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Western Washington Weekend

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Last weekend MK took me on a great big drive from Seattle up into the Olympics. It was beautiful. The weather wasn’t great but the rain held off during the day and we were able to do some really great hikes. We stopped first at Lake Crescent, where FDR stayed when he made it a National Park. We did a short hike to the Marymere Falls.

We saw the Hoh Rain Forest, one of the few true temperate rain forests in the world.

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We hiked the famous Hall of Mosses Trail and the Spruce Nature Trail. There were just incredible trees and plant life everywhere. We had stopped at Rialto Beach but it was very wet and foggy – there’s a couple pictures of it, the black sand/rock was neat. We saw some sort of seal there…

We spent the night in fabulous Forks, at the motel. That in itself was an adventure…but it was a ‘quaint’ little town. The next day we drove out to the coast and started to really see some more beach. The second day was much clearer. Each beach is named something silly- most memorable were “Beach 1” through “Beach 4”. We made a ton of stops at each little place and made little walks to the water. It was beautiful everywhere.

Our last little hikes on the way out were to see the largest Cedar and Spruce trees in the WORLD!!! (or something). On our way back, we stopped in Olympia to say we’ve seen the capitol. I understand why no one lives there… *yawn*.

Here are the (obnoxiously too many) pictures.

And here’s my super high end map of our journey:

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Gone Fishing

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Rounding out my firsts from last week was the Giant Super Crazy Fishing Trip.
Not only did I learn how to make lures and tie and weight and bobber the whole operation (not that I could pass any sort of pop quiz), I learned the skill of acquiring dinner.
First, getting ready.

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You have to know how to tie fancy knots and find colors that fish are attracted to to make them go for the lures. A girl can handle that. Salmon like pink. That makes me laugh. Anyway, so we got the stuff all ready and went down to the beautiful river. We were in Monroe, an hour away from Seattle.

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We’re all fun and games until this little guy walks up and says hi and leaves, and it takes us a bit, but we realize HE STOLE OUR BAIT. MK went after him with a murderous look on his face but to no avail. We had more. But seriously, who does that? Punk.

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We changed spots (yes that is a plane in the background), got burgers, and started fooling around, giving up on the getting any fish part. This is me after I went fishing for the little baby fishies with a french fry.

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Then, NN notices Frank, who will forever be immortalized as “Guy we end up standing next to actually catching stuff and THROWING IT BACK”. He goes with a little of this “Man, I am here from AUSTIN and just can’t catch a fish…all I wanted was to eat some fish from this river tonight, this is my only chance…” just loud enough, Frank offers us a fish.

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Matter of fact, Frank is so cool he catches TWO (yes, Frank 10, Us 0) for us.

Then you learn how to kill a fish. Avert your eyes if you don’t want to know:

you bash them over the head with a rock. Eew.

That didn’t bother us though, we had dinner ready to go! Thanks, Frank.

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NN taught me how to clean the fish, also new to me. Then MP taught me how to marinate the fish. I made some rice and corn, and we went up to the roof with butter lemon garlic and teryaki salmon. Salmon is usually a little strong for my taste, but let me tell you, there is something about spending all day staring at a river full of fish and getting the guy next to you to make you feel like you caught it that makes it great.

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UPDATE: Here’s the link to the video of ‘catching’ a fish.

Breakin’ The Law

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Shh, don’t tell anyone, but last week another adventure of ours was checking out Snoqualmie Falls. I mentioned it once before (click here for that post). This time the weather was much better, and we did the hike to the bottom, and jumped the fence, right next to the big sign that said don’t jump the fence, and walked down to the water. I wasn’t too worried, there were a ton of other conspirators down there. It was amazing. It cleared out after a while and MK and NN noticed an abandoned raft. So, what else do you do but jump in it in the water, the most totally inappropriate thing possible. The guys both floated around in the water for a while, I sat and laughed the whole time. In theory, a 5$ plastic boat at the bottom of falls taller than Niagara may seem crazy but it was in fact, awesome.

We took a ton of pics, here’s the link to some.

There are also four pictures from the top of the Columbia Center, which I also mentioned before, here’s that post.

Random Photos

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Since there are so many things that I’ve done this week and want to share with you, I started with the easiest – the individual pictures. We spend most of the first of NN’s day in Seattle doing the ‘touristy’ stuff.

Here’s my favorite that I’ve ever taken at the Fremont Troll:

Fremont Troll

And here’s a good one of the Pike’s Place Fish Mongers:

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The Space Needle at night from my roof:

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And a wind surfer over at Alki Beach:

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As usual, these will get bigger if you click on them!

Five Thousand Stories

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It’s going to be complicated relating my past week to you, as I’ve had more firsts and more excitement than in quite some time. Of course, it’s always more fun to share through pictures. Thing is, we took something like 257 399 (per comment). So it’s going to take a little while for me to find the best ones. I did however, download Picasa, Google’s free picture editing software. I love it already. I just have to figure out how to use it…

Here’s an example of our fun, the fact that NN knows more people in Seattle than we do:

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Block Party

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Did you know that Harvey Danger, of 1998 “Flagpole Sitta” fame, was a Seattle band? Me neither. They are apparently still together, as well. I will be in their vicinity tonight at the

South Lake Union Block Party. Click on the link, the poster is cool.

I’m going for the cheap (free!) local food, Picoso, and the Mutt-Mazing Race. But Harvey Danger might just get a hold on me. How can I resist?

harvey danger
www.slublockparty.com