TroytlePower

We had a great mini-vacation up to Seattle last week, during which I did a terrible job of keeping track of what we did. I’m still feeling pretty exhausted, so rather than try to write poetically about our trip, I’m just going to list out as much as I can remember… In the words of Mario, “Here we go!”

• Wednesday
• • Woke up stupid early, drove seven-ish hours through Portland and up to Seattle.
• • Listened to a bunch of Daniel K’s Let’s Plays while my wife read in the passenger seat.
• • Drew up a silly design about a speed limit in Bend while my wife drove.
• • Started listening to Nick Offerman’s “Paddle Your Own Canoe”, really loved chapter 2.
• • Got to our AirBnB too early (we didn’t realize when check-in was), and scared the landlord who was there cleaning.
• • Chatted with the landlord, then set around reading (started Animorphs 38) while we waited for our friends to arrive.
• • Friends got there, set out to walk around the Freemont neighborhood and find lunch/dinner.
• • Ate a Gyro from Sinband Express. Super good food, but we got swarmed by bees and had to run inside.
• • Walked up the Fremont Troll, because you’ve just gotta, right?
• • Stopped at a grocery store for some food/coffee stuff, and also at a boardgame shop where we bought Yahtzee, a bunch of tiny dice, and a dice game called “Qwikk” which we’d never heard of.
• • Went back to the house, played a few rounds of “Qwikk”, which is super fun, easy to learn, and just strategic enough to hold my interest, then learned to play Liar’s Dice, and went to bed.
• Thursday
• • Set out fairly early towards Seattle Center, parked in a garage, and walked over to the Space Needle.
• • Admired the Space Needle for being super tall, then decided it’d cost too much to go up and moved on.
• • Wandered over to the Chihuly museum/garden, which also seemed expensive, but admired the pieces that were on display outside and in the gift shop.
• • Caught the currently free Waterfront Shuttle and rode it over to Pike Place Market.
• • Did a quick run through of Pike Place, including visiting the Gum Wall, a magic shop, and Golden Age Collectibles (an excellent comic book shop).
• • Looked at the Starbucks in Pike Place, decided the line was way too long, went about 30 feet up the street to another cafe and recharged on caffine with coffee/energy drinks.
• • Caught the shuttle back up to Seattle Center, then walked over to Dick’s Drive-in. Burgers and fries were both pretty good, but they offer zero customization on your orders, which was a bummer for my wife (she was actually going to eat meat but wanted to order the burger without something else, and they shut her down, so she just had fries.
• • Walked back through Seattle Center towards the Museum of Popular Culture, MoPOP.
• • Stopped on the way at a giant play structure which my wife climbed up so she could go down a massive slide.
• • Started MoPOP by going through their “Marvel: Universe of Superheroes” exhibit, which was fantastic! It covered the history of Marvel as a company, the origin of major characters, artists and writers who bring comics to life, and featured both statues of characters and props and costumes from the MCU.
• • Also went through the Nirvana and Fantasy exhibits, which were both fine, but not terribly exciting.
• • Begrudgingly went through the horror exhibit. I do not like horror movies at all, but my wife really does. The very first thing you have to do in that exhibit is walk through a curtain made of hanging bodies wrapped in body bags. I avoided that, and basically kept my head down through the whole thing.
• • Next was a sci-fi exhibit that was really pretty cool, with props and costumes from pretty much any sci-fi property you could name.
• • Finally left MoPOP to get my wife a grilled cheese sandwich from Seattle Grind, a cafe across the street.
• • Drove back to the house, chilled for a bit, then walked over to Kwanjai Thai Cusine and had some of the best Chicken Pad Thai of my life.
• • Dropped friends off at Key Arena for the show they were in town to see, then went back to the house to chill and read (finished Animorphs 38).
• Friday
• • Got up early to drop friends off at the airport, then drove out to the suburbs where we’d stay the rest of the weekend.
• • Went to Uwajimaya, an Asian grocery store, and bought a bunch of awesome snacks and treats.
• • Headed back to Pike Place for a more leisurally stroll through. Becky was super intrigued by a vendor selling massage stones, but decided to hold off.
• • Had lunch at Kastoori Grill, an Indian and Tibetan place, which was amazing! Apparently something was wrong with my order (thought I still don’t know what), so the waiter packaged up our two meals to go, gave me another version of my meal to go as well, and knocked both entrees off of our bill!
• • Went back so Becky could pick up her massage stone, but the vendor was closed.
• • Drove up to the U-district to wander through a few thrift shops, found some fun stuff.
• • Watched two homeless dudes get in a fight. And by “watch”, I mean “walked away from the situation real fast”.
• • Got white coffee from a coffee shop I remember going to about 8 years ago… it was just as tasty as I remembered.
• • Drove back to Pike Place to take another shot at the massage stones, but still no sign of the vendor.
• • Drove back out to the house we were staying at, dropped off some stuff, then drove out to a park to read (started Animorphs 39).
• • When it started to rain, we went and picked up dinner from Zeek’s Pizza, and took it back to the house (pretty darn good!), ate it while watching the first episode of Disenchanted (pretty darn mediocre!).
• • Read a bit before going to bed (finished Animorphs 39).
• Saturday
• • Had leftover pizza for breakfast, started reading Animorphs 40, then drove over to Nintendo of America’s Redmond headquarters to take a picture in front of their sign.
• • Drove to Pike Place again, and Becky got her massage stone!
• • Headed up to the Woodland Park Zoo, where we saw red pandas, gorillas, otters, eagles, spiders, butterflies, penguins, wolves, and tons of other stuff. We also had churros and ice cream and lunch at the park, which was all pretty darn good.
• • Parked downtown again to go to The Seattle Store, where Becky got a Grey’s Anatomy hoodie, then met up with some friends at Cyclops Cafe & Lounge for dinner, then got coffee at Starbucks, and strolled over to the Olympic Sculpture Park, which closed before we could actually go in.
• • Stopped at a Wal-Mart on the way home to pick up some snackables for the drive, along with a cooler for our leftovers, then read a bit before bed (finished Animorphs 40).
• Sunday
• • Got up, started writing this blog, got packed up, and hit the road.
• • Read Alternamorphs #2 out loud to my wife as she drove. This made for a very weird introduction to the Animorphs for her, and she died and was eaten several times.
• • Listened to more of Nick Offerman’s book. Really liked the chapter on productive hobbies.
• • Stopped in Redmond at The Pig and Pound for lunch (I had a burger, she had fish and chips, both were great).
• • Finally made it home!