I must admit that I am leaving tomorrow for Portland on the train, and I am overwhelmed that I have not written anything about my time here. There is still so much that I would like to be writing about the train. However, it would be silly to stress about a blog, and I am certainly not going to lock myself up in a closet for several hours to catch everything up. Basically, you are going to get the abridged version of what I have been doing for the past week.
Thursday was spent simply catching up with my friend Tamara as well as some sleep in the basement of her house in West Seattle. We went downtown Seattle that night to the top of a building where they were having a free screening of the movie Raising Arizona on the side of another, taller building.
Friday I did some touristy stuff on my own. I took the bus in from West Seattle and went to the Pikes Place Market to walk around and check out all the shops. People were selling everything: flowers, pottery, fresh fruit, belt buckles, and if you got there at the right time, a fish might fly over your head going from the seller to the person who just purchased it. It was really a riot. Other than that, I just walked around down by the water, relaxed in the sunshine in a sculpture park right on the ocean, and ate some really good chocolate chip cookies.
Friday night through Sunday was camping in the Twin Harbors State Park right on the coast. I met some of Tamara's friends from college and except for the rain, we had a great time. Come to think of it, the rain really wasn't that bad. It rained all weekend so we didn't get much hiking in, but our time in the tent just playing Settlers of Catan and laughing was about as good as it could have been. And of course, we at some great camp food and Tamara played guitar for us and sang with her gorgeous voice.
Today (Monday), I was again on my own. The one thing everyone has to do when they are in Seattle is go to the Space Needle, so I went. What a cool piece of architecture and great view from the top. I hit it just right too because there was a great view of Mt. Rainier in the background of the city. They told us it is only visible about 100 days out of the year. I thought it was a bit of a rip off though...16 bucks to go to the top. I made sure I stayed a long time, but you could easily take in the view in about 20 minutes.
When I was done at the Space Needle it was time to get out of the tourist district and head down to China town on the free bus. I didn't spend a whole lot of time here, but enough to eat a sandwich at a Vietnamese place. Pretty good, though I'm sure not a traditional meal. After that I walked back to the bus, headed to West Seattle again, then jumped in Tamara's car and drove back downtown to pick her up and head over to the beach where her volleyball team was playing. I have to tell you, the view and feel here was enough to make me want to move. We sat outside of a Mexican restaurant after the game watching the sun set over the sand, Cascade Mountains, and Puget Sound holding a cold Dos XXs and chatting with people I had made friends with quickly...I thought I could spend the rest of the trip here and be happy.
Anyway, tomorrow I'll take the car again and explore some of the parks and go back down by the beach. Tamara and I will have lunch before I get on the train and I may check out a National Parks exhibit in the city on the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890's. Other than that, it will be time to move on. I am in no way ready to go though.
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