It's Always Sunny in Seattle

Leaving the ferry near Seattle, the five of us set off for the beautiful home of Doug and Susan, my (Jackson’s) extremely hospitable cousin and his wife, in the University district. It was a beautiful, sunny weekend, confirming my mom’s theory that residents of Seattle just tell people it’s rainy all the time to keep Californians from moving there.

Doug and Susan immediately offered all of us water and beer and the seven of us had a powwow in their backyard to bring them up to date on our travels (because of our terrible record on blog updates) and determine what we wanted to do in the city. We went out to their local spot, Kate’s, for dinner and drinks, and after dinner we split off from them to explore the University district and the nightlife it had to offer. The next day we took the car in to fix some brake issues we’d been having, and took a bus downtown to check out the classic tourist attractions. We saw the Seattle Center and the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, the Gum Wall, walked along the waterfront, got some local food, and saw a Mariners game. Then we got a bus back, picked up our shiny, fully functional car, and hit the local, extremely cheap burger joint Dick’s before returning to the house to rest up. Dick’s was the most well-oiled machine I’d ever seen; we got our food within a minute of ordering it. It’s this great service, solid food, and ridiculously low prices that make Dick’s a local necessity. That night, Ned, Leighton, and Chris went to the High Dive to listen to live music and celebrate Ned’s birthday, while Alex and I walked around Fremont Street to see more local sights like a giant statue of Lenin. We also got a second helping at Dick’s and headed back, leaving the others to walk home from the bar a few hours later.

The next morning we went down to Volunteer Park to hang out for a little bit, then checked out the Gay Pride Parade that was going on that day. The Seattle Center, at the end of the parade route, was full of a very interesting assortment of people. When we got there, we saw an anti-gay protester get tackled and beaten up while his sign got destroyed and stolen, soon resulting in an arrest. There was music and dancing everywhere, and the whole area was packed. With all the attractive women there, I started to wonder why I hadn’t gone to any Gay Pride parades before. Afterwards, we decided it would be better to do the long drive to Glacier that night, so we packed our stuff, said goodbye to Susan, and got ready for about 13 hours of straight driving. -J