Friday morning May 25th as noted I was hanging in West Seattle. I was sitting in the Easy Street Records garage/front window eating my breakfast burrito when my phone rang. I picked it up, and to my complete shock, Maryann was on the line saying she might fly out here after all.
I've pestered her quite a few times the last few months about coming out for a visit in either city, and due to a lack of vacation time + the cost of the flights she was finding ($1200) she and I had ruled it out, which was a shame, as how often do I have entire big flats like this to myself, and for this long? At any rate, when she called, she said not only were they letting everyone out early at her work (3pm), but the flight rates had dropped, and so she might just do frickin do this. Wow! Cool as it was, I suggested she think about it before acting, as the fact was, she'd be hugely exhausted on both ends of this long weekend, without a day off to recover before going back to work on Tuesday (tomorrow). Flying all the way across the country takes a day to get over, in my experience, so it's not normally something I'd ever consider doing for a weekend trip, long weekend, or no.
I went back to my breakfast, and didn't receive a follow up call. I half expected that she would eventually realize it simply wasn't doable/advisable, and call to say so ... but no call.
Then at some point shortly thereafter I checked my email and there was one from her with the title "Be there tonite."
Holy shit! I was now gonna have company, which is so cool, but also I was now gonna be a host! To someone who had never been to Seattle, and to someone who didn't particularly think it was a place she would like all that much, so ...
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Her flight took off around 6pm, Boston time, and she landed around 9:30 or 10pm here, about an hour late. I got a really good space at the airport so we were able to exit quickly and easily, and traffic was minimal. She wasn't too pooped (that's the difference between her and I. I loathe flying more than maybe anything in the world; she doesn't, so that undoubtedly has something to do with it.)
Anyway, I slept on the pull out couch, and should mention that I found no sheets or extra bedding anywhere on the property, so called the property owner, Ian, earlier in the day. He was kind enough to stop what he was doing and drop by and was incredibly nice, and helpful, offering tips on where to bring her, in addition to bringing by the bedding. Turns out he's from New Zealand for god's sake. I asked how on earth he ended up here, and it turns out he worked for the New Zealand travel bureau and got transferred to LA so lived there for 8 years before he got sick of it and moved to Seattle. He said it's the most similar to New Zealand of anywhere in the States, and I gather he's an outdoorsy type, so this place suited him perfectly.
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The next day Maryann and I had breakfast at my big kitchen table here. It was very weird for both of us that she was here - totally surreal. I've grown quite used now to being on my own, and have had this place to myself for a week. She was having that 'where the hell am I?/how the hell did I get here?' feeling that I know I have the first day I find myself someplace on a trip, but it was especially acute for both of us, seeing as her coming here was a total last minute, spontaneous decision.
The timing could not have been more perfect weather-wise, as Saturday the 26th was by far the warmest, and totally sunniest day of my entire visit here. Blue skies from sun up to sun down - not something I've seen even once yet. It was positively hot at points, in fact, ie it felt close to 80 in the sun, which is pretty warm for Seattle, but I think it was just the strength of the west coast sun, which is way more intense than it is back east.
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So I wanted to show her two places: Pike Place Market, ie just the sign, as to me the market is not really worth it at all, and was guaranteed on this gorgeous holiday weekend to be jam-packed; and my beloved Space Needle. After that it was up for grabs.
We did hit wall to wall tourists at Pike Place, saw the sign, and got the fucking hell out of there after taking a peak at the market itself. It's sort of like Faneuil Hall, though I think a tad less t-shirt-shop-y. Anyway, I still love the sign, which is historic, and especially cool at night, but oh well, we were there in the day.
As you can see, the freaking sky was crazy-blue, and the place, again, was jam-packed.
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Next we hit the Space Needle, after manuevering through the worst in-town traffic I've seen so far, due to the Northwest Folklife Festival, Bumpershoot, and the opening this week of the Dale Chihuly's glass art museum thing ...
(Yes, that yellow & red tree thing is entirely made of glass.)
... which are all within the Seattle Center complex, which is where the Space Needle is. Unfortunately Denny Way, which leads here, is the main east-west road here, or at least, I didn't wanna chance any other roads, as you have to cross Interstate 5 and there are only certain roads that do so when you're going east-west. (My flat here is on the east side of the city, while Seattle Center is in Queen Anne, which is on the west.)
We managed to finally get through the backup, and then of course could not find a parking space, so finally coughed up the I think ten bucks to park in a garage, and here it was.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eE1GXx67oM
The above was Maryann's idea - a pretty hilarious video of her casually walking into the camera shot as I film the Space Needle - which we sent off to Frankie and Renee, who had no idea she had decided to take off to Seattle, and it totally worked - this was actually how they found out.
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Afterward, I showed Maryann Kerry Park up in Queen Anne hill, due to the kick arse views
And by then we were pooped, and came back to the pad to relax, then hit Broadway here in Capitol Hill, a bit north of here where I am, to have lunch at Deluxe Bar & Grill
Which had an outdoor cafe, but due to the seats out ther being taken, we sat just inside, by a mostly open front window/door. It was excellent, as was the service, and we were, happily for me, surrounded on all sides by pretty gayboy couples
and their small (usually set of) dogs. There were like, dozens of teacup sized chihuahuas, in fact. It's my one complaint about Capitol Hill (aside from the steepness of the hills, considering how physically drained I am these days) ie that it's supposed to be the gay part of town, but there basically has been zero evidence of this. I miss being surrounded, as I was in Castro.
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Sunday we visited a neighborhood the landlord of this property had circled on the rental car map, which turned out to be Madison Park, northeast of here, and it was absolutely lovely. What a great find - I'd never been here nor would I have bothered had he not suggested it.
Lots of lovely architecture, small cafes and a small old independent grocery store, all overlooking Lake Washington, and with a beach (though I'm not entirely clear on who would swim in Seattle, though people do in Maine, where even in July, the water's icy.)
We ate lunch at McGilvray's Irish pub, and had a super nice waiter who told us about the towns in the area. He asked us where we were from, and said he loved Boston. At one point when discussing Seattle and what to see, he said the city is basically a collection of neighborhoods - which is so true, and exactly my opinion, as well. It's what I think it has in common with both Boston and San Fran. All three are geographically smaller as far as 'big' cities go, and hence walkable for the most part, and with good public transit.
Anyway, the guy really couldn't have been nicer. His coworker, who also works for Microsoft, he said, (wonder how many people around here do), recommended a sushi place we later had dinner at.
So, we really dug the vibe of this end of town. It was really sweet, and featured an absolutely enormous and gorgeous public park called the Washington Park Arboretum. The menu at the pub had the history of the neighborhood, all in one paragraph. Turns out the original settler in the mid 1800's owned something like 400 acres in this area, and cut a swath from downtown straight through it, apparently because it went from salt water (Puget Sound, I think) to fresh water (the lake). He named the area after President James Madison, and once he eventually allowed development on the land (1880s - his family still owned all the land til then), he wanted only cottages put up, hence the 'Park' being added to 'Madison'. Madison Street diagonally intersects the city, almost a la Market Street in San Fran, and cuts right through this neighborhood, ending at the lake.
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Afterwards, as far as I can recall (I am pooped!) we relaxed at the flat again, then made our way eventually to Capitol Hill to the sushi place the girl recommended, Momiji, which was top notch excellent.
We ordered too damned much sushi, in fact, and made the rare move of a sushi doggie bag (which I consumed today for lunch, hee).
Afterwards, Maryann wanted something to read on the plane and I was so particularly pleased to show her Elliott Bay Books and to have the staff there be unbelievable helpful and nice, with one employee sort of bending over backwards to walk Maryann around and quiz her about what she likes, and make suggestions. So cool. Thanks, guys.
The awesomest thing for me personally, because I'm such a freaking Dan Dork and can't goddamn help myself, was wandering over to the LGBT section to check again on that nice 'staff recommendation' writeup for his It Gets Better book ... only to find a new/additional 'staff recommendation' thing right next to it that wasn't there when I was here a few days ago, which as a Dan-obsessive these days, fucking made me want to shriek and whoop and hop around.
There, on the left - "Where are Dan's other books?" Here is the store directing it's customers to them, in case they don't know about them. I've been in loads of bookstores on this trip, in three different major cities, and I don't recall seeing this before, though I could be wrong - maybe this is standard; I don't know, but either way ... wow. The offices of the newspaper Dan's the editor of, The Stranger, are actually right in this neighborhood, and I just think it's so intensely cool and nice to see a hometown guy being supported like this, when it could easily have been a case of the locals maybe resenting or disliking, as I think often happens when somebody local becomes nationally semi-famous.
So, hip, hip, hooray for Elliott Bay!! Wee!
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One of the coolest and maybe the most Seattle-moment of this entire trip was when we were driving by this rock club up the block called Neumo's. We actually drove by it both nights Maryann was here, once on our way to Cupcake Royale (had to bring her there, and yay, she totally dug the chocolate coconut bunny), and once to Elliott Bay.
First time we drove by, it was maybe 6pm and the music was blaring and the (definite) tattooed/pierced rock crowd was spilled all over the sidewalk.
Actually both nights it was like this, and we were never there after 7pm, which is so odd. Since when do hard rock bands play during the daytime ?
The first night when we drove by, suddenly there was a fight amongs the crowd on the sidewalk. I saw tatooed long haired people going at it, and I said to Maryann, 'oh my god, two girls are fighting', but she looked and said no, it was two guys. Silly me, here in grunge-town, assuming because of the hair, that it had been girls ...
It was just a sort of hilarious and perfect embodiment of the stereotype of what you'd find in Seattle -the rocker crowd, the blaring music, and a fist fight.
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So the botton line is ... ta da! Maryann really dug Seattle. This is amazing, because she has long joked about the grunge people, and the mellow people, and that she wouldn't be able to stand the place, but like I've been telling her, Seattle is awesome, and totally Boston-like - high compliment - only it's got steep fucking hills, which kind of sucks, but is also part of it's charm and beauty (cuz, like in San Fran, with fantastically steep hills come fantastic views.)
She left this morning, and so it was mission accomplished. She had a really cool time, the weather was perfect, we touched on a few neat places and she came away really digging it. Hooray.
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Just wanna mention I had a bad night's sleep last night - the new person who moved in in the adjacent apartment made a sound about every 90 seconds that resembled a pool cue breaking up a bunch of eight balls, which went on at 90 second intervals til about midnite, and then I couldn't fall asleep for some reason until about 2am, yet still woke up at 5:15. Dang. So I intended actually to come back to the flat after dropping Maryann off this morning at the airport, and go back to sleep, but damn ... it was Memorial Day and so no traffic, and that West Seattle is on the way back, and that town gets under yer skin ... so I ended up hanging out there from about 7:30am til around 2pm. Crazy, considering how drained I am and how much my feet were absolutely aching by the end.
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I first visited amazing Lincoln Park, which juts straight out into the Puget Sound on the island's west side, and I have to say I was sort of mesmerized by the place and the lovely charming ferry going back and forth to Vashon Island.
For some reason the beach ...
... even smelled good, and I walked happily, a long, long way up and down the paved walkway alongside it.
It turns out there is normally a public pool here, called Colman Pool, which was roped off and being renovated. Presumably it's heated. Unfortunately when I was there, it was chilly and slightly sprinkly and certainly had dark clouds; no hint of what was to come in a few hours - sunshine!
Afterwards, I hit the town for breakfast (and to juice up my Iphone), then went a bit nuts taking pictures of the fucking CRAFTSMANS. I took about a hundred pictures, I think. Fucking place has that sweet little downtown, a 24 hour QFC grocery store I stumbled upon, a PCC organic grocery, a Cupcake Royale, as well as the place I had breakfast at (instead of Easy Street, as it had lines) called Sugar Rush (super nice woman working there - and lovely cupcakes, too) - where I had a ham and broccoli quiche and rested my aching damned feet. The town also has that evil antique mall which makes you buy things, Easy Street, loads of water and skyline views, AND it's got the most kick arse collection of this favorite architectural style of mine that despite my feet, I could not stop myself from pulling over and heading up yet another block and snapping photos of. Evil, evil place.
Three times as I was walking around I stopped and got flyers for places that were for sale - the ones that provide info/photos/price that are at the base of the 'for sale' sign. The first one was over $550k, and the other two were over $350k. I just checked and it says the area's median price is $359,950, and average price as of March last year was $450k, which I guess I'm surprised and disappointed at, seeing as this is hardly a rich area - it's totally middle class, or appears as such, and seeing as there is something called a recession going on, caused by something called the real estate crash. Yikes - have to wonder what prices were here before the freaking crash.
Oh well. I supposed any place with employers like Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon.com (btw we kept seeing box trucks around town for Amazon grocery delivery) as well as the headquarters for Starbucks, which then in the 90's becomes super uber hip-town to the point where movies (Sleepless In Seattle, et al.,) tv shows (Twin Peaks), and from which a genuine, and genuinely massive rock music phenomenom busts out (so huge it actually impacts fashion) ... I suppose will not be cheap.
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