Day 15: Seattle - Just Wow

Ok, so I'm well aware that the Vancouver posting was a bit verbose (yay me - I remember a 9th grade vocab word!) If you made it to the end, you know that I was kind of meh on Vancouver as a place to visit for a day, but still liked the city. Consider this your warning for this post - Seattle is AWESOME. If Seattle were a stripper, her name would be Ginger, it would be her first night and every dollar would get you a dance and a beer. Yeah, Seattle was like that, but better and without the clear plastic stilettos.

(Disclaimer: The above statements are all based on hear say. I've never experienced such an outing and think it is awful. This is especially true if you are a future potential date stalking me - I think such places are disgusting and degrading. If you do see Ginger though, tell her I said hi.)

I just don't know where to start on this one, so I'll take it step by step as written in my little journal (it's pink with a lock, unicorn stickers and a feather pen if you must know).

Starbucks

I know their coffee is sub par, their revenue is down and holding their cups are the ultimate sign of being a pretentious prick, but I still love them. Add to the fact that their new promotion gives out free internet access and drink add-ons just for buying a gift card and I'm sold. They are everywhere in Seattle and had me grinning like a fool in love due to my 20 hour caffeine high.

Boeing

Boeing was founded in the Pacific Northwest and has a huge manufacturing plant just north of Seattle in Everett. This plant offers the Future of Flight Aviation Center and Tour where you are taken to the actual factory to see planes being assembled - including the new Dreamliner. I couldn't talk - I was that dumbfounded. At this point, I thought the tour was the best $15 I'd ever spent in my life. I was wrong...

Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame

What do you do if you co-found one of the world's most successful companies ever and have a few hundred million dollars to play around with? If you're Paul Allen you commission Frank Gehry to build a kick ass building then throw up an unbelievable collection of guitars, verbal histories, videos, hands on displays and an outstanding Jimi Hendrix exhibit.

Still not enough? Relocate the Science Fiction Hall of Fame to an annex you have just sitting there. Fill it with memorabilia that would make any geek, nerd, dweeb or dork wet their pants like it was freshman year in college all over again and you have an instant tourist attraction. Seeing the original model of the Death Star, a Storm Trooper's uniform and a full robot exhibit made me want to cry with both pride and shame.

This double gem was my newest best $15 ever spent, but the day was not over...

Pike Place Market

What can I say - it's a kick ass market.

The seafood is fresh and HUGE!

The meals are yummy and cheap!
The street entertainment was great. You try not to tip two guys playing 867-5309/Jenny on a guitar and accordion. I was cracking up.

Safeco Field

By the time I got to Safeco Field, I was a happy man. The tour guide could have started the tour with a "Kick Chad in the Crotch" contest and it wouldn't have ruined my day. Luckily, Bob the tour guide was not that kind of man. Bob is the kind of man that knows his baseball. He loves baseball. He lives baseball. You have a question - Mariners related or otherwise, Bob knows the answer. Add that kind of knowledge to the fact that the tour covered the following areas, and I had to restrain myself from hugging him at the end:

• The Mariners Suite (Where ownership sits for each game)
  
• Press Box
  
• Visitor's Dugout
  
• Both dugouts
• Media Room
  
• The Diamond club where really rich season ticket holders eat (It had amazingly huge and clear pictures of Ty Cobb, Ruth and Gehrig fishing and Ruth pitching as a member of the Sox).
  All this for only $8? I'm still in awe.
  
  

This was by far the best day of the trip yet. Seattle was amazing. Just unreal. I'm having a hard time not posting 300 more pics...

The night was spent in Jessie M. Honeymoon Memorial State Park in Oregon after a few too many hours of driving, and a couple irritatingly dropped cell calls.

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Wildfires are unfortunately close to Yosemite, so the next leg is still being figured out. Details to come...