Sunday, September 10, 2006

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.

11 comments:

Cricket said...

Yae for Seattle!!!! it has gained a great family

I love the new look and my retinas thank you!

Tolkien Boy said...

Yo, my friend. It seems almost impossible to believe that in two short days we'll both have relocated.

Enjoy your reprieve.

Anonymous said...

So what did you think of the Seattle library (presuming you went to the shiny new steel-n-glass one)? Is it as fabulous as they say?

Congratulations on getting there! I hope FoxyJ's trip goes as smoothly.

JB said...

Wow. I like the new look. Also, thanks for keeping us updated! I hope you guys like Seattle as much as we're liking Silicon Valley. :)

Unknown said...

I like the new title bar.

Congrats on arriving safely at your destination! I highly recommend taking a weekend trip into Oregon and visiting the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry sometime while you're there (they've got great interactive displays for both adults and kids). If I remember right, Seattle also has a great aquarium.

editorgirl said...

Your first pic of Seattle reminded me of a story of a young girl who drives to New York. . . and gets in a car crash. . . even though we don't see the crash. . .

Anonymous said...

Yeah for seafood! You will eventually love it too... if you eat the salmon, and the dungeoness crab, or the salmon stuffed with dungeoness crab and brie. Ummm. I want to live on the West Coast!

And ditto about OMSI! It's the best museum of science and industry that I have ever been to. ;)

svoid said...

Shari's was the name of the restaurant that we had breakfast at on Saturday morning. And I just looked up the name of the seafood place... it was McCormick & Schmick's.

Christian said...

Two comments:

Comment the First: Dec just wanted to make sure nobody was run over by a moving truck.

Comment the Second: eg's comment was the best laugh I've had in days. If it weren't for that whole Me & Dec thing (or that Me & I Don't Quite Dig the Girls thing), I could be a man that would love eg.

Anonymous said...

Umm, Shari's... I spent many a night there after high school dances eating cheese fries with my friends. But, not the best for seafood. Especially breakfast seafood. Try Pig'n Pancake for the best Northwest breakfasts (omlettes w/ crab & Tillamok cheese), but the waitstaff won't evacuate you of there is a tsuanmi warning, so you'll need to keep that in mind.

McCormick & Schmick's is good for seafood, but my absolute favorite place for chowder & calamari is Dooger's Seafood and Grill.

And neither of those places are in Seattle proper, but if you head down to Long Beach-Warrington-Astoria way you can hit them.

Now more jealous of you than ever. Calamari & chowder. Damn, why did I miss my Cannon Beach vacation this year?

Yodame said...

Glad you guys had an awesome trip and that Dan was able to go but what did you do to my boyfriend? He came back and only talks about moving to Seattle now! Seriously though, I'm excited, I'd love to move to Seattle if that should ever occur. I'm looking forward to that Ohana mass migration :)