Chris and I lost about five pounds each while we were in Seattle. All that walking we did probably had something to do with it, but it also helped that we were eating way healthier foods while we were there. We ate lots more organic whole foods then processed stuff while on this trip (it was soooo easy to do).
I’ve been trying to keep with the whole foods diet since we’ve been back, but it sure isn’t easy especially since I have to go to at least three different grocery stores to get decent stuff. One thing that has been easy to get a hold of is organic milk. I used to love to drink a big glass of cold milk, but over the years it got to where 2% would make me sick. So I switched to 1% and then to fat-free skim. Drinking fat-free skim was pretty much like drinking water and it tended to sit in the fridge. We hardly ever finished a half gallon of milk before it would go bad. So I broke down and bought a half gallon of fat free organic milk a few weeks ago and I love it.
The organic milk has made drinking milk fun and tasty again. Yes, it’s pricey, but worth every penny. For one thing its shelf life is way longer then the other stuff. It’s freaky. I bought a half gallon jug of milk on Sunday with an expiration date of November 26th. The one behind it had December 3rd for an expiration date. It scared me so I went with the Nov. 26th one. The old stuff would start to smell off and look swirly after day four or five. As a general rule, I would never drink the last of the milk from the non-organic stuff. But the organic milk tastes great a week after I’ve open it. It’s weird, but amazing. We actually finish cartons of milk now.
Now if we could only get one of the grocery stores to sell those yummy primeval bars (we got them from Trader Joe’s), I think I’d be almost content.
Last week they held a dedication ceremony for the Flaming Lips Alley in Bricktown. Of course I went and took some cool pictures. The ceremony was a true Flaming Lips production with confetti cannons and giant balloons floating through the crowd. There were Santas and aliens bee-bopping on stage and some poor guy dressed in an inflatable butterfly costume down front.
After the ribbon cutting, Wayne Coyne met people at the front of the stage for autographs and pictures. This was my second time meeting Wayne and I was again amazed at how personable he is. He wants to spend hours talking to each and every one of us. He not only wants to connect with the people, but he’s passionate about community and he can sit and gab for hours about why he chose to keep his home in OKC. He’s just awesome.
I thought it would be a good idea to take pictures of every Starbucks I came across while we were in Seattle. This was a ludicrous idea that I abandoned somewhere around day three. I would just put my camera away, take two or three steps when some one in our group would yell out “There’s another Starbucks!”. They are like crazy mushrooms popping up in the most unexpected places. I did get a picture of the very first Starbucks, but not a very good one. The mermaid logo at the first Starbucks has her ta-tas showing and I didn’t realize this until we had left that area.
The first Starbucks is a funny place. People run up to it like they’re running over to get an autograph from Brad Pitt or Mick Jagger. They pose in front for photos like they are standing next to their most favorite rock star. My favorite Starbucks though had to be the teeny tiny one wedged between two skyscrapers. There used to be an ally there were bums could hang out and sleep in boxes. Then Starbucks comes along and says “If there’s room for bum sleeping boxes, there must be room for us here”.
It’s time for something new. Chris is in the process of re-designing my blog (‘cause Lord knows I can’t). Things may look strange around for a little while. You have entered a construction zone; hard-hats may be required.
This is going to be a long post. I thought I’d fit two days into one entry because I didn’t have that many pictures for those days. But as I started writing it out, I realized that this was going to be a little long, but I’m too lazy to go back and change my picture sets.
The Pete took us on a driving tour of Seattle our third day there. We went to Gas Works Park were we climbed this big hill and had a great view of Seattle. I noticed that Washington has this weird thing called a season. When the calendar says it’s Fall, it is actually Fall. Crazy. The trees were beautiful and the air was crisp (and a little windy). We usually jump strait from summer to winter in this state with maybe a couple of days of autumn if we’re lucky, so it was really nice.
Then we drove over to the Freemont area to see the Freemont Troll. You may recognize the Troll from the movie Ten Things I Hate About You. He is magnificent in his home under the Freemont Bridge. The Freemont area is a neat little hippy town complete with an original statue of Stalin (purchased from the Soviet Union). As we were walking away from the Troll, a VW bug sped by and the wild-haired woman driving yelled out at us something about “giving some love to the Troll�. Kimberly said that this was typical Freemont.
Next we drove over to Golden Garden Park. This was probably my next favorite place (after the library). There are picnic and campfire areas all along the beach. When we looked out onto Puget Sound, we saw all these sailboats whizzing around on the water. I loved it. I ran along the beach and peered into all the little water pools looking for shells and little sea creatures.
That evening we rode the ferry over to Kingston for savory crepes. I had no idea that you could put actual food (other then fruit) inside a crepe and call it dinner. They were wonderful. I had a smoked salmon and cream cheese crepe and Chris had a chicken and spinach crepe. They were cut in half, so Chris and I split ours up so we could try both. The crepes are one of the things we’ve pined for the most since we returned home. We try not to talk about them (or the piroshkies).
On the fourth day, we went to the Seattle Aquarium. This is probably the best aquarium I’ve ever been to. I could have spent hours in the room with all the touchable sea creatures. You could touch starfish and sea urchins, even sea anemones. Each little aquarium was full of the neatest looking fish. It was all I could do to not just press my face up against the glass and stare for hours.
Yeah, I guess you could say that Chris and I had a great time in Seattle.
We were once again on our own for the morning of day 2 in Seattle. We spent our time at the REI store. This isn’t just any old REI store. We’re talking about the mother store. The place is huge. They even have outside bike trails to test out mountain bikes. Alas, I didn’t find a pair of Prana pants that were marked down enough. So I bought a new bag that will also hold my yoga mat.
After spending almost four hours in REI, we met Kimberly for lunch at the Public Market. We had piroshkies. Chris has been lamenting the loss of piroshkies ever since our return to Oklahoma. They are Russian pastries filled with meat or veggies. They even have dessert ones. They’re perfect on a crisp fall day. After filling up on yummy piroshkies (and buying more produce), Kimberly took us on a walking tour of downtown Seattle. She could do this for a living. Kimberly knows her architecture. She took us to all the really great buildings, but our favorite by far was the Library.
The Seattle Public Library was not only built green, but also built for the people. It is the most accessible library I have ever seen. The first floor contains all the foreign language books and the children’s section. The floor of foreign language section has passages from books written backwards in different languages running across the planks. The next level reminds you of a giant living room. In fact I think that’s what that floor is called. It contains all the magazines and movies and a coffee shop. They have one whole level of computers. Then there’s the never ending escalator that takes up through all the stacks which are also laid out in a circular pattern. So if you’re in wheel chair you don’t have to worry about elevators. It really is the most innovative building.
Later that evening I was asking Chris what his favorite part of the day was. He said it had to be the library. I agreed. I would be there all the time. I’d be there so often, I’d have to become a volunteer.
Chris and I haven’t been on a real vacation in almost four years. I define a real vacation as going somewhere for more then two days (that’s a weekend get-a-way) and airplanes may be required to reach your destination. This was the first time we’d flown any where in over four years. That’s a long time. We chose Seattle because we’re looking for places where we may want to live some day. Plus our very generous friends Kimberly and Pete live there and let us stay with them. FOR FREE.
We were on our own for our first day out. We rode the bus with Kimberly from their suburb to downtown Seattle. We had time for a cup of coffee (guess where) before Kimberly had to head off to class. Chris and I jumped on the monorail that took us to the Seattle Center. There’s a bunch of stuff going on here like the Space Needle, but most importantly that’s were the Science Fiction museum is. Chris was really excited about this museum and I don’t think he was disappointed. The problem I had with the museum was that they wouldn’t let you take pictures. Chris was so cute in his nerdy excitement and I couldn’t document it.
We jumped back on the monorail that took us back to were we started and then walked down to Pike Place. I think you actually need two weeks to see every thing about this place. Besides the best produce ever and fresh fish, there are all kinds of shops that thread their way all around and under the main market. We had lunch at the Athenian Inn restaurant which was used in a scene in “Sleepless in Seattle”. The food was yum.
After wandering around the market for a little while, we met Kimberly for pastries and more coffee. Then we walked back up to our bus stop and on home. The first day seemed like we didn’t really do much, but we saw tons of things. It was almost sensory overload.
know I haven’t written anything in a long time. I have plenty to blog about and lots of pictures to post. Chris and I just returned from our vacation to Seattle. We’re both really tired and I can’t hear out of my right ear because it never popped. I’m taking the rest of the week off and one of the things on the to-do-list is to write a freakin’ blog entry.
