I scored a job in Seattle this week. Clearly I already have plans to get together with Gabbage Patch, but Seattle already had some plans in store for me.
Walking to get some lunch, I was commandeered by one of those Children's International peeps. Not being in NYC, I didn't have my usual blinders up, so I was totally suckered in. He managed to get me to sign up even though I averted my attention I blame the recent global diversity events I've worked for making my sensitivity level abnormally high. I figured the monthly fee will get me that much closer to getting diamond status on Delta. On my tax write-off receipt, he jotted down the name of 2 of the bands he's in (yup): Chimes & Banners and Ghost Ship (double yup).
After a conference calls and a couple hours of email, there's a knock on the door of my hotel room. It's a hotel guy delivering a gift...
... from the hotel's convention services manager. Now, most of you do not grasp the relationship between the hotel team and the A/V team, but we are pretty much treated like the red headed step child. The CSM may think I am on the client's team, which I kind of am part of, and now I don't know how to act when I see her. Do I thank her for the generous mistake? What do I do when she realizes that I'm with the A/V team? Is she just a very welcoming hospitable person?? I'll think it over as I enjoy the '08 Cabernet and chocolate covered strawberries.
So, as many of you already know, Steph and I have successfully finished our trek across the U.S. which started in Brooklyn, got steamy in Savannah, New Orleans, St. Louis, and Memphis, nostalgic in Chicago, historic and expansive in South Dakota, open and earthy in Wyoming, manly in Missoula and surprising in Wallace, Idaho.
When we arrived in Seattle (just one short week ago), we were both very tired from the days drive which, in the beginning, was not as plush and green as we had imagined. The majority of the drive through Washington reminded me of the Wyoming landscape just with more exits. My mom and her very energetic lap dogs welcomed us to Lower Queen Anne as we unloaded some of my cars contents and attempted to settle in. The next day, we were slow on the uptake, beginning our day for the first time with no real game plan. Seattle was the first big city we had been to since Chicago, so with our limited time frame we decided to just let it happen naturally.
The majority of the pictures I took along the way were shot on my 35mm Minolta film camera, so my hope was to find a decent spot in the city to regularly fulfill my developing needs. I came across Capitol Hill 60 Min. photo via Yelp and this directed our afternoon. We set out on public transport to the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle where sub-culture tends to find it's place. After quoting some prices and checking out the surrounding area, we stopped at Mia's for some delicious tofu sandwiches. Then we decided to stroll through the streets until we got to Puget Sound, but we started off in the wrong direction (thanks to my rusty inner compass) and ended up at Lake Union instead. Not that Lake Union isn't a beautiful body of water in it's own respect.
A few blocks and a couple of brief stops later, we were in the heart of Seattle Tourism casually walking down Elliot Avenue where we stopped to read some papers in the Olympic Sculpture park, dropped into a couple novelty shops to peruse the postcard section, and scope out some restaurants featured on Man vs. Food (a show that highlights some really amazing spots for food, even if the host is a shameless glutton). We made our way down 1st avenue back towards LQA and had a small brainstorming sesh regarding happy hours and eating now or later. We chose later in the name of resting, showering, and giving ourselves time to develop a proper appetite. Steph suggested this crab shack that apparently globs shellfish on your table and you just have at it, but we settled for sushi and sake before meeting up my friend, Bobby and his friend Blake at Unicorn. This place was pretty amazing. Visit the website to check out the digs. The jukebox was on point and then Steph made it even better by pumping in another couple bucks. Steph had an early flight so we kept it professional and took it in around midnight.
As with a lot of things involving cars, people in the state of Washington haven't quite grasped onto the idea that other drivers exist, so the airport drop off was hectic and not nearly as emotional as I had imagined.
Seattle's interesting. I'm still adjusting to the "west coast vibe" and the fact that I only know a handful of people, the majority of whom I met through my mother... There are a ton of things to do every night which is much different than the slim-pickings in Hartford. I'm looking forward to having to pick between several awesome things on any given occasion.
Steph suggested that I do a spin-off blog chronicling my time here in Seattle, but that's what Facebook and Twitter are for...
WELP. I'm not sure how to sign off on this blog so thanks for reading, hope you had as much fun reading this as we did living it, and stephanie... this one's for you:
Our last drive of the adventure took us from Montana, through Idaho and then into Washington. As we neared Idaho, the scenery turned into a luscious dark green mountain landscape.
We planned on stopping in Idaho for some french fries in Coeur d'Alene, but we got into some horrible traffic and opted to pull off into Wallace. Wow. We are soooooo glad we did.
Wallace, the original Largest Little City in the US, is a historic town in the middle of the mountains that claims they are the Center of the Universe, probably because this is where they filmed Dante's Peak
We immediately fell in love when we parked in front of the Cobblestone antique shop. The owner, Mark was parked in front eating a watermelon in an old dentist chair. He gave us a little tour of some of his best treasures, including the banner put up in town when Teddy Roosevelt came to visit, a knight suit from the 20's and a neon advertisement clock also from the 20's.
It was the Annual Historic Wallace Accordian Festival...
Not a clear picture, but this is Mark. He kept commanding us to "come on."
After strolling through some more stores and window gazing at taxidermy collections...
We were going to eat at this place we found on Yelp
but..
We grabbed a bite at The Smokehouse. They have a smoker outside, so of course we had to try their pulled pork and brisket sandwiches.
They didn't have french fries, but we did get our Idaho potato fix with potato salad.
On our way out of town, we dropped into this interesting joint for some coffee and landed in another antique museum of treasures.
The clock on the bottom has 1 - 4, and then "who gives a shit"
The drive to Missoula was pretty short. We got in around 2pm and had lunch at Iron Horse Brew Pub. We enjoyed their delicious dressings (avocado orange vinaigrette. Yum) and washed down our meal with a tasty and award winning local brew, Kettlehouse Cold Smoke Scotch Ale. Gabbie's friend, Auggy, used to live to Missoula and gave us a long list of hot spots. We scoped some out while resting up for the night, and we discovered that there was a G'n'R cover band, Appetite for Deception, that was playing at one of the recommended hangouts. Cool. We had a game plan ready.
We started out at The Rhino where I had another delicious local brew, Big Sky's Summer Honey Ale. Yum! Gabbie had an organic lager that was also tasty, but looked like a milkshake.
We moved over to The Missoula Club where reviews warned us of Eco-jocks and UM alumni. We found both there.
But the "Mo Club" was great!
Gabbie's friend praised their burgers and called it "a religious experience." Their "kitchen" exhaust dumped into the beer garden of The Rhino, where we were, and they smelled amaaaazzing.
At the Club we met some guys who work for Big Sky Brewing. Coincidence? Fate? We got some drinks from them- thanks, guys! Your beer is awesome!
It was about time for the show, so we jammed out to The Palace where the cover band was playing. While waiting for the band to go on (the website said 9, but they didn't go on until 11. We had a lot of time to kill) we entertained ourselves with...
Apples to Apples
Buck Hunter
and Jenga
Which turned into a photoshoot.
The band finally came on, and they were pretty good. Until they stopped playing G'n'S songs so "Axl" could change his wardrobe. We were definitely deceived by Appetite for Deception.
Then we lost interest and saddled up to the bar. Some guy who works for the band noticed me singing along and gave me a pen. We put it to good use...
We left to head back to the Mo Club, but got sidetracked by a dance floor. Gabbie and I both realized that there are more dudes than gals in Missoula, so we had no problem making friends...
Gabbie tore up the dance floor
And got a lesson in breakdancing.
These dads.
We called it a night around 1am and were moving pretty slow the next morning. Haha, thanks Missoula!
