Welcome to Seattle

After loading up Friday morning, Svoid and I embarked on our 15-hour drive to Seattle. The plan was to take turns driving, but each time we stopped, Svoid offered to keep driving, so he ended up driving the whole way.

Svoid closing his eyes while driving.

Me looking like a sexy librarian man.

We saw a lot of these WSE trucks as we passed through Idaho. We were worried for a bit that we'd gone the wrong way and ended up in Arkansas.

Passing through Mountain Home, where Foxy J lived for a year.

My first view of Seattle. Perty, aint' she?

We left at about 11:15 Mountain Time and arrived at 1:30 Pacific Time. Then we went to bed, woke up six hours later, and set out for our Saturday adventure. First we had breakfast at a nice little restaurant whose name now escapes me, then got some groceries for the next few days, then set up my computer in the hotel room only to find out that, contrary to the chain's website, the rooms in this hotel do not have data ports. Wireless, yes, but that doesn't help if you don't have a wireless card. Blaugh.

A little before noon, we set off to find a bike for Svoid to rent and one for me to buy. We had both come across a bike store online that looked good, so we went there first. Svoid rented a bike, but I found that the prices were a little out of my range (I was looking for something cheap that would get me to school and work, not something to win a bike race or climb a mountain with). Svoid's bike wouldn't fit in my car, so he rode while I drove around town looking for a place to buy a cheap bike. He did an incredible job of keeping up with me. Even the used bike shop didn't have anything in my range, but luckily Fred Meyer did. And, as it turns out, Fred Meyer is right at the beginning of the Burke-Gilman Trail that goes right across Seattle, through UW, and past the apartment we'll be moving into on Tuesday. I peeked in the window, and it looks about how I expected student family housing to look.

After a few hours of biking that left me feeling, if you'll forgive the graphic image, like I'd been gang-raped, we headed downtown for dinner. We decided to eat at a seafood place even though neither of us is particularly into seafood, just because we're in Seattle. We were surprised to find that the thing that makes seafood here fresher than in Utah is not that it's caught here, but that it's shipped here twice a day from all over the world. Go figure.

After dinner we crashed back at the hotel, then woke up at 4 so I could take Svoid to the airport. Now I'm all alone in Seattle until Foxy and the kids arrive tomorrow evening. I've got my Seattle Public Library card, though, which gets me an hour on the computer, and tomorrow morning I'll be starting work, so I doubt I'll have much time to feel lonely.

So that's my first Seattle weekend, so far. I'll check in again later, when I can.