Monday, September 20, 2010

"...Yep."


On the road, early, again?!  We’re really getting good at this whole driving-across-the-country thing.  This time, we set off to leave of love for nature behind in search of some city living.

We spent the night in Spokane (pronunciation: spo-CAN, for all of us non-native Washingtonians).  The city didn’t offer much in the way of entertainment, so we explored the beautiful Gonzaga campus, which had a very MSU-esque feel, but on a much smaller scale, of course.  Next, we headed to the enormous Spokane Valley Mall, where we both made a few purchases J  (C is determined to turn J into a shopper before the trip is over!)

Turning from irresponsible spenders into responsible adults, we did laundry in the hotel’s “laundry facility,” which consisted of one washer and one dryer for all 87 rooms…  Thankfully, we recycled the “pizza and wine night” idea and were content being reconnected to the world with free WiFi and bad TV.

The next morning, we traveled to Seattle and were greeted with an oh-so-expected constant rain and overcast skies.   We attempted to explore the famous Pike Place Market, but not before grabbing some Starbucks, of course!  Unfortunately, the market was closed, however, the Starbucks barista pointed us in the direction of some AMAZING sushi.  After dinner, we quickly realized that Seattle is BY FAR home to the most attractive men we’ve ever seen in our entire lives as Christine got her bearings around the city.




The next day, we returned to Pike Place and were overwhelmed with the amount of shops and stores the market had to offer.  The bouquets of flowers were amazingly beautiful and such a pleasant surprise.  Then the clouds parted as a choir of angels descended from Heaven to guide us home into the first Starbucks store ever.  Grabbing beverages, gift cards, mugs and whatever else we tourists could get our hands on, we explored Post Alley and more of downtown Seattle.  We had another divine meal – this time some Seattle chowder from a local restaurant right near the market. The constant ca-caw of birds and groups of pigeons scared Christine away, and, post-lunch, we watched the famous fish throwing in Pike Place and explored the Gum Wall in Post Alley.

Leaving downtown, we walked to the Space Needle, while getting completely drenched and crabby, as the locals failed to notice that precipitation was at all present. Seriously.  The view from the Space Needle was gloomy and gray, per usual, but the 360 degree view of Seattle was definitely memorable… as was the horrifying 43-second elevator ride each way…



To ease Christine’s stomach and to get Jess a much-needed pick-me-up, we returned to Starbucks, where, ironically, we found an interior design segment being filmed inside the store.  Once the caffeine was introduced into our bloodstreams, we roamed the city, again, doing some shopping while Christine didn’t complain about the weather (thank you, Jon Ganci.)  C tried to cheer Jess up with some mindless geography trivia… fail.

After roaming the city seemingly forever, we finally found Romy, a cute boutique where we both made purchase (win: Christine).  In the same building just happened to be a P.F. Changs, where we got delicious take-out dinners and were stunned when Christine received a hilariously strange voicemail, providing much of our evening entertainment.  The cliffhanger ending of Covert Affairs left us wanting more… guess we’ll just have to wait until next summer to see if Ben survives being shot.


The next morning, we cleaned our disaster of a hotel room and walked one block to the nearest Starbucks for one last Seattle coffee fix.  While the beverages were delicious, the lovely apples gave Christine an allergic reaction as we proceeded to hit the road. Not. Cool.

We decided to take a quick, uneventful pit stop at Mt. St. Helens on the way, not realizing that the park wasn’t open for tourists to roam.  On a good note, we were impressed by the state’s green efforts.  The public transportation system was easily accessible and almost everywhere we went had separate containers for compost items, recyclables and trash.  Our hotel even eliminated travel-sized amenities and opted for bulk-sized dispensers that could be easily refilled.  Trees and flowers were abundant, giving a suburban charm to the city.


Memorable Quotes:

J: “What do you think that guy is doing?” (pointing to statue)
C: “Hailing a cab.”
J: “He’s Chief Seattle, who the city is named after…”
C: “Oh, I guess no cab then”

C: (gasps)
J: “that guy was so cute”
C: “I was looking at the dog…”
J: “that guy had a dog?!”
C: “that dog had a guy?!”

Little girls from car window: “You’re pretty.”
C&J not caring which of us they were talking to: “THANKS!”
C: “I like this city…”

C: “three o’clock.”
J: “I think he’s gay, Christine…”
C: “no, the one on the laptop…”
J: “there was a laptop? I was too busy staring at Robert Plant’s new CD.”

Starbucks worker (Spokane): “Hey! You girls are in a much better mood than yesterday!”

C: “um…”
J: “...yep.” (moves to line with cute cashier)

C: “yum.”
J: “tattoos?”
C&J: “yep.”

3 comments:

  1. Lol at the gum wall! I didn't know that was a thing, but thanks to your blog, I'm most definitely checking it out whenever I make my way to Seattle.

    Clam chowder!

    Your Mt. St. Helen's pics look cool, despite the general consensus of "not as cool as you'd think." Good job capturing its best assets!

    Hope the rations of goldfish and pears are providing hours of munching enjoyment as you cross the Cali border.

    And for good measure...Starbucks sucks.

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  2. How many times can you go to starbucks in one day?

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