Thursday, October 3, 2013

Portlandia to the Emerald City

Welcome to my experience on Labor Day 2012. On this Monday I had to get up around 8 and leave early, because Christian and Diane were heading off on a trip, though I can’t remember where to. I had Christian help me load up all my stuff into the car, and said goodbye to them both before setting out back on I-84 west toward downtown again. It was a cool morning with a refreshing breeze, so I took a couple of pictures from the balcony:




Back on the highway, approaching a drawbridge:




I keep getting nostalgic looking at these, it’s such a beautiful backdrop, having a downtown with forested hills in the background:









I was of course aiming to go to Voodoo Donuts for a second time in less than 24 hours. Here’s where that “pedestrians have the right-of-way” thing got me good. I come up to a stop sign across the street from there, and I stop a little far into the crosswalk right as a bearded dude was about to cross. I didn’t mean to zoom into his personal space, I just happened to stop there, which he took offense to, and flipped me off. I didn’t like that, so I peeled out hard as I turned right, and squealed to a halt into a parking spot a block away. Guess who shows up right then, and flips me off a second time? Yep, that same guy. He was not thin, so his pudgy middle finger pointing straight up made it an extra ugly flipping of the bird…by this point, I just put my hands in the air, and hung my head on the steering wheel, feeling quite defeated and like I was off to a bad start.

I didn’t take any pictures of the incident, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. There was a line at Voodoo even at this morning hour on a holiday, and it was a more awkward line than the day before. There was an intense looking guy meandering in the street by Voodoo, and every couple of minutes he’d yell really angry statements or simple F bombs, which made me vaguely nervous that he’d randomly attack someone in line. He’d yell some things like “I need some ****ing cigarettes!!!!” Which, judging by that level of irritation, he did! Thankfully he didn’t make any moves in our direction, and after 20 minutes or so, I got inside and ordered 2 maple bacons and another cold brew. I ordered multiple donuts because I hadn’t eaten anything yet and figured I’d need a snack on the way to Seattle. I ate the first outside with some of the cold coffee, again very delicious and attention getting at that earlier hour of day. The lucky upside to this meal was that on holidays, parking in downtown Portland is free!

I got back in the car, got situated with my food and drink, played some Top Gun anthem for a mood booster, and got on I-5 north, across a few bridges and eventually across the Columbia River into Washington. This was my attempt to get a last shot of Portland before I left the city limits, and a shot along I-5 near Washington:




I wish I’d taken more pictures of the forests in Washington on the way to Seattle, it really is the Evergreen State. I got a couple, and then I saw none other than Mount Saint Helens in the distance:






It’s been 33 years since that volcano blew its top. St. Helens is at a point less than half of the 175 miles from Portland to Seattle. I don’t think the two cities have a rivalry as much as maybe Boston and New York, or Dallas and Houston. I didn’t really hear anything bad about the cities from residents of either one, maybe just a mutual respect. Now that I think of it, the Madrids might have been going somewhere in the southern part of the Seattle area on their trip that day…

I took few pictures and listened less intently to music overall on I-5 because I was feeling bent out of shape from the flipping off incident, and other negative emotions that had been beneath the surface began to make themselves known. I needed prayer, and a slowdown in pace; even with staying an extra night with the Madrids, the trip was starting to wear me down a little bit. I did finish the second maple bacon bar, and felt funky in the stomach afterwards.

I had come up with a mission for lunch when I got to Seattle though, and that was to try and find fish’n’chips that was at least as good as the ones I’d had in San Francisco. Thanks to Yelp, I’d located a place in West Seattle that I thought should do the trick.

Seattle has a taller downtown than Portland, and it can be seen from far away, between Seattle and Tacoma even:




And I had to pass by the Port of Seattle, which is a really really big one, to get to the west neighborhood:







The place I went for lunch was called Seattle Fish Company, on California Avenue, in a parallel parking, walkable neighborhood west of the port. It has a seafood market on one side of the restaurant, and a dining area by the streetside windows. I ordered my fish’n’chips in the market area, and got them quickly and sat at the window, looking out on California Ave., for people watching purposes. The restaurant had a map of Puget Sound and pictures of the Sound and Seattle on the walls. The food was quite good, but it wasn’t as heavenly as the fish’n’chips at the Sea Lion CafĂ©. Not a problem, it just helped me appreciate how good I’d had it in San Fran at Pier 39. I filled up and drove back east to get on Aurora North, with a final destination of the O.S. (Original Starbucks) in mind.


To preface this scene, you should know I’d been to Seattle twice, in 2004 and 2005 with my parents, going to see family near the Canadian border and to go to Vancouver and Whistler in British Columbia. So I’d been to the Original Starbucks at least once, and I know I got a very decked out Venti Mocha Frappuccino there, which was amazing! I liked what little I’d seen of Seattle back then, and that trend continued on this Labor Day.

Seattle’s downtown towers by Puget Sound look really modern and cool, and Aurora North (great name for a road right?) even goes up a level as it passes Safeco Field, where King Felix has reigned of late:












I got a shot of Puget Sound and what’s probably Bainbridge Island way off in the distance:



I went for the head on approach first, seeing if by a miracle there were any parking spots in Pike Place Market:




There weren’t. From there I drove around a few blocks nearby, even briefly parking in a Zipcar lot before realizing what it was. I eventually found a lot with some spots, for only a few dollars, and a mid-ranged walk from Pike Place:








The area was very vertical, and easy to walk in. Walking down Virginia Street, I had to choose a lower gear so to speak as it descended toward Waterfront Park and into the market:








The Original Starbucks is like a club, with many dozens of people in line outside and inside the store, and I’d saved a free drink coupon to get another $6, decked out Mocha Frappuccino with an extra shot of espresso for this special occasion:





The Duckies and I were psyched to be there. Instragram and Facebook had to be lit up as well, which took a few minutes with everybody on their phones in that crowded area. I gathered up the Duckies and the uber drink and wandered though the market, looking for a list of dinner spots in the city and taking pictures of surrounding buildings:









Nobody tossed any big fish at me, I saw that in the fish market last time in Seattle. I liked exploring the area on foot, there were even some restaurants and shops in the alleys between streets:





I then walked down to the main road to get a couple of pictures of Mount Rainier:






There were a lot of people out on the grass at the park, and I think there was literally some kind of festival celebrating Weed that weekend. Welcome to Seattle!



I was also at a good spot to see the very bright sun gleaming off the surface of the Sound:




And why not, more pictures of the harbor and the towers of downtown before I left Pike Place:




Maybe because of lack of water, or lack of rest, I texted my contact Ben to let him know that at this time, around 5 pm, I was going to go to his house and crash early. He then sent me directions to a house north of Portage Bay, in the University District. I’d originally wanted to revisit the Space Needle and get dinner away from the house, but I was worn down by this point, in many regards. I needed to hit the brakes physically for an evening and regain some mojo.
I made it to the house by 6, driving right by the Space Needle in the process. When I got into the University District, and was driving on narrow and surprisingly hilly streets, I realized Seattle resembles San Francisco in some ways geographically. I hadn’t figured that out before in 2005 because we hadn’t stayed in the city and hadn’t had to navigate any of the low-rise residential areas.
I got to a big multistory house at the end of a cul-de-sac on 52nd, and parked in a full driveway. I walked up to the front door, and met someone who wasn’t named Ben. Turns out that 13 guys lived there, and they’d just started moving in on Friday. Therefore, the place was a freaking mess! Couches and boxes everywhere. Guys were trickling in and out around dinnertime. I just dropped my stuff on the couch closest to the front door and got to know a few of the guys as they came in from hanging out in Seattle on Labor Day. Somebody brought in a pizza around 8, which was my dinner. This was a Discipleship, or “D”, house, like the ones I’d hung out in back in Waco. Everyone who lived there worked odd jobs, ate stuff like hamburger helper in bulk when they weren’t eating pizza, and they were all skinny haha. Nice folks though; I got to talk some sports with Ryan, the house leader who welcomed me in. He coined a good term, that we called “sports hate”, like when you hate a basketball player named Paul Pierce or whatever, you don’t hate him in real life, just in sports life. I like the compromise.
Around 11, people started filing up and downstairs to bed, and a guy named Danny and I chose one couch each, mine in the main living room, and his in the front area closest to the street, and bedded down for the night, ipod sleep playlist soothing me into blissful dreams. I think I slept under my beach towel…goodnight!

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