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Published: September 28th 2012
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So the great thing about Seattle is the abundance of coffee. There was never a shortage of caffeine- especially Starbucks. From the minute we parked on the day we arrived, we were completely wired. The first thing we did was walk down to the Pike Place Market. Since it was late Sunday afternoon, a lot of the market was already closing down, but there was still quite a bit to see. We of course got coffee and posed in front of the world’s first Starbucks. Then we just walked through the market, looking at the fruits and fish and flowers and whatnot. On our way out of the market, we stumbled upon an amazing smell: popcorn. We had discovered a delicious homemade popcorn shop, where samples were plentiful and delicious. I decided to buy a bag of bacon maple popcorn. As this snack is comprised of my two favorite foods, it was pretty much perfect. Rob bought some salted caramel corn- also outstanding. Though the popcorn was pretty much the most delicious snack of all time, we decided to eat actual dinner.
What’s the best thing to eat for dinner when you’ve been sitting in a car all day? Obviously
Fish Market
Play. Be There. Choose Your Attitude. Make Their Day. doughnuts. I received a great recommendation to eat at Top Pot, a delicious donut shop on 5
th Avenue. We walked and walked until we came upon the most delicious smell in the world. Once inside, I ordered a glazed/sugared donut with raspberry jam in the middle. It was probably the size of my face. So good. Rob decided on a custard filled concoction and we shared a cup of milk.
With a belly full of fried deliciousness, we trudged back to the car (careful to not go into any shops… which proved to be quite difficult), and drove to the space needle. We had no intentions of going up; we just wanted to see it up close. Turns out, the space needle is pretty cool. We lucked out with the weather- it was a perfectly clear night. The moon provided a nice backdrop to Seattle’s landmark.
After checking out the city a bit, we drove back to camp to prepare for our next full day in Seattle. Monday was a much more exciting time in the market. Everything was just a’bustlin’, and we got to see lots of fish being thrown about. Also, people were handing out so
many samples of fruits and veggies and cheese within the market. We wandered for a bit, of course grabbing coffee, before we stopped to eat some chowder. Quite good chowder, I must say from Pike Place Chowder. Even though the market is quite the touristy area, there are still a lot of good, cheap eats about. Plus, I wouldn’t mind living in a city so close to a great market. It seemed like a shame to be so close to such great, fresh food with no kitchen.
After eating my delicious seafood bisque and salmon sandwich, the gang split up for a bit. I needed to do a little work, so I headed to a coffee shop (Tully’s, where they serve a chai/apple cider fusion) and the others walked around and did a little shopping. Oh yea, we also went to a 3 story Target. All I want is some mustard corduroys, so I’ve been dropping into every Target we see to try and find some. Still a fail.
Anyhoo, I got some shiz done, and then we met back up to head to the Columbia Center. It’s the highest building in the U.S. west of the Mississippi.
Since we didn’t do the Sears Tower in Chicago, this seemed like a close second. On the way up, we stopped at yet another Starbucks, located on the 40
th floor. It’s actually the world’s highest Starbucks. We were just setting all kinds of records with our Starbucks consumption. The 73
rd floor had an amazing view of the water and Sea Hawks stadium, and the Space Needle seemed kind of tiny from the top.
Once we were back on solid ground, we decided it was time for happy hour. This proved to be more difficult than expected. We had to search for a few different bars, because one wouldn’t take Rob’s foreign ID, and a couple were closed. However, on the journey to cheap drinks, we witnessed a public fight within a little park. I think what happened was that a woman was taking pictures of the scenery and people and buildings or something, and another woman wouldn’t get out of her way, and took it totally personally that woman #1 was photographing her. Rather than get out of the way, crazy woman, just started screaming at the photographer, getting all in her face, all while the photographer continued to
take up close shots of crazy woman. At one point, the crazy woman was holding and shaking her boobs, and we really thought they were going to come out of her shirt. Once the cops got involved, we decided it was time to head out. However, I’d love to get my hands on some of the pictures that were taken.
The bar where we ended up was in this little alley by the market with cutesy apartments and also great people watching. We only had one drink, then found a second bar with nachos before leaving the city and watching a movie. We had been walking and walking, so we just wanted to relax with our popcorn. We ended up seeing
Trouble with the Curve. I’d say it was just OK. A little contrived and predictable in my opinion… but Justin was looking pretty good.
The next morning began our journey out of Seattle and into the great northwest. Since we were so close, the gang found it best to drive 3 hours west, into Forks, Washington, the setting of the
Twilight saga. Forks is pretty much lame. We took some pics and visited a
Twilight store, and
then found a little park to eat some lunch. While eating, there was a young man sitting on a park bench near us playing the banjo. It was quite a nice backdrop to our Forks picnic.
Our next stop after Forks was Astoria. It’s the setting of
The Goonies and
Kindergarten Cop, and it also just looks like the cutest town in America. It was too far of a drive to get there in one night, so we stopped for the night about an hour outside. The drive down was gorgeous, and we saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Also, the trees were so tall, it was like driving in a tunnel. We settled at a little campsite, where Rob was admonished for driving too fast. Old Man Withers yelled from his RV, telling Rob that this “wasn’t a racetrack.” Note: the speed limit was 5.
Astoria was pretty much awesome. We saw the Goonies house, and had a little picnic in a park after walking around the downtown area. The town is so cute- it’s just tons of little houses on a hill, all looking over the ocean. It almost looks like a model of a town on TV. Not a bad place to live. To complete our Goonies tour, we decided to drive to Haystack Rock on our way into Portland. We read that when there’s a low tide, you can just walk right up to the rock. Luckily we got there at a really good time because the tide was way, way out. We walked for a really long time before making it, but it was totally worth the trek. It’s really just a giant rock, but it’s very commanding when you’re way up close. We frolicked on the beach for a bit, and then headed back to the car, and on to Portland.
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