This summer, as you readers know, has been chockfull of travel, from adventures in the most northern depths of the US to the beautiful and historical countries of Austria and Germany. Of course, I decided I needed even more. About a month ago I overheard my mom invite my father on a business trip with her to Seattle, Washington. He was showing no interest, so I whispered out into the stratosphere that I would be interested in going if dad turned her down. Lucky for me, he did. Consequently, from August 3rd to 6th I got to wander around Seattle while my mom did transportation-like-things with other transit people.
However, before leaving I made a major life decision. As you may know I am about to enter my senior year of college. Afterwards I will be foisted into the real world with no inkling of how to handle myself. This is no doubt an uncertain, stressful time for me. A person in my position needs something solid to fall back on, to cushion her fall, when things get too tough for one person. Therefore, I decided to give myself an imaginary sidekick. I cannot stress enough how much my new friend, Agamemnon, helped me during my travels and will continue to help me as I navigate my last months at Grinnell.
On to my trip!
Both of our flights were early and some passengers had the gull to complain when they had to wait ten minutes to get to a gate. If that’s the worst of their travel problems, I envy and hate them. I don’t think the journey could have gone more smoothly; I even slept!
A quick ride from the airport took us to our nice fancy shmancy hotel—complements of the federal government. Though I wanted nothing more than to pass out, we went to venture around a little bit outside b/c my mom would be stuck inside conference rooms for most of the trip. On our way to the monorail (monorail, monorail, monorail—for you Simpsons fans out there), my Mom took quite a tumble. Luckily she was majorly unharmed, though not without a few scrapes and scratches. We also stopped for a snack at a café that served five kinds of hot chocolate! and ate a delicious peach and mango scone. We eventually made it to the monorail and journeyed onward to the space needle. Where we got to wait in line for an hour. Fun! The view was great once we got up though and 360 degrees. Woot. Our stomach’s brought us down the tower though to eat at a place called Grill cause I was craving steak. Mine was mediocre, but the restaurant had a nice atmosphere and the craving was squashed.
The next day Mom began her conference and I began my “solitary” wanderings around town (with Agamemnon I am never truly alone). It started with lunch because I was too late to get breakfast. Then, came my first comic book store of the trip. Previously, my Mom had asked a coworker what there was for a young gal to do in Seattle. He asked her what I was into and she replied comics. He refered her/me to Zanadu comics. Agamemnon is not a fan of comics, so she went for a swim near the pier while I browsed the store. I ecstatically found exactly what I was looking for—my personal holy grail—the first four issues of “The Return of Bruce Wayne.” Yes, people who probably don’t care, Bruce Wayne is coming back to the DC universe after his supposed death. This series see’s him traveling forward through time trying to reach the present. All the while is arrival apparently will mark the end of the world. What to do!?!!?!?! Anyway, it was a nice comic book shop, but of course it wasn’t enough. The search for my next scheduled comic book stop brought me to a market that I ended up visiting everyday of the trip. It was really great. Plenty of fish, fruit, flowers and more comics. I bought the first few issues of a new series that I had been hunting for. The market and comic buying must have taken longer than I thought (or I can’t remember what I really did next), but afterward I think I returned with Agam to my hotel room to chill and read.
For that evening’s activities I accompanied my mother and a gaggle of her transportation buddies from all over the country on a boat ride to another part of Seattle. The ferry ride gave me great views of the city on the way there (and later on the way back). Once we arrived on land, the large group split into smaller groups to find places to eat. First, my small group tried to eat at a nice looking pub, but it was not meant to be for two reasons. Firstly, no one under 21 is even aloud to eat inside (and I’m only 9 days away!). I learned that Seattle establishments do their food and drink licensing in a really weird way. If the establishment licenses itself as a pub, instead of a restaurant, then no youngins allowed. Secondly, there was an hour wait. Instead, we ate at a very small café that did quite nicely. After dinner we went back to the ferry and the ride back gave me great views like this one:
The next day (our last full day) I did some more wanderings about town. For lunch I returned to the public market and ate at a small Chinese food establishment. Afterward, I fought the urge to return to the comic store downstairs (my wallet thanked me) and instead headed to the Seattle Art Museum, also known as SAM. It had quite an interesting mix of different kinds of art. It included modern art, Asian and African cultural art, and more traditional paintings. Memnon was not a huge fan of the modern art, which included cars hanging from the ceiling, but I didn’t hate all of it. My favorite was a sculpture of a giant mouse sitting on a man in bed. I also quite enjoyed an exhibit (mostly of photos and music) called Kurt—all about Kurt Cobain and his profound affect on a rebellious generation. Including, his trouble reconciling all that his grunge stood for with his own commercial success. To top it all off, the museum was free on Thursdays so I had nothing to lose at least going in and looking around. I’m glad I did. Next, I walked many blocks away to the Olympic sculpture garden. The garden provided several interesting sculptures and more views of the city and water. It was quite sunny though, so I returned to my hotel once more.
For dinner, I attended a small restaurant with a group solely made out of people connected to FTA. I was very frightened that I wouldn’t understand anything they had to say. As I lamented at dinner one night before the trip “they’ll probably just speak in letters and numbers.” Fortunately, there was always at least one conversation going on at a time that had nothing to do with transportation. Everyone also made an effort to make me feel welcome and they were very nice and in some cases funny. Also, I got a delicious burger out of the deal!
The next day Mom and I had a flight scheduled for 1pm. This gave us a little bit of time in the mid-morning to wander a few blocks around the city. I felt a little bit like a native showing mom the places I had found during my own time in the hard streets of Seattle. First, I took her to a place I had lunch before, so I could eat a breakfast-burrito! A wonder I have not tasted since San Antonio (last summer!) Afterward, Mom especially loved seeing the market, where we bought cherries of the fresh and covered in chocolate variety. She also marveled at the many stands of flowers I had somehow missed. The rest of the morning was spent on mom’s own personal quest to find some of Dale Chihuly’s works of glass that could be found in various places around town. The first one we saw was pretty weird. It hung from a ceiling in a performance hall and had many tangled tentacles/snake things protruding from it. Certainly strange. The others were found in a Sheraton hotel and the Seattle community center. They were a little more normal, though still non-functional, but at the very least, interesting to look at. Unfortunately, we were running a little late and Agememnon was tired of looking at glass, so we had to return to the hotel and say goodbye to Seattle. We took a “train” to the airport and then cut it very close getting to our flight. Very very close. Because airports are counterintuitive and nonChurchmans are unreliable. No other reason.
In summary: I’ve always wanted to go to Seattle, for no reason in particular. Probably because I’ve heard about it many times, but I didn’t know what it was really like. It turned out to be quite an awesome city. There was plenty of stuff to do around our hotel, including eating and shopping places, and interesting architecture. Also everything was close enough to walk to, but far away enough to make you not feel like a total bum. I am mighty happy that I begged mom to let me accompany her. I also, as a bonus, got great pictures of the city that I can use for my slowly-in-progress graphic novel which should be done at this rate by, say, 2015. So, to some it up: great trip, loved spending time with my mother and thanks mom for taking me along!
P.S. Only one element of this post was fiction. You who knows who you are, knows why.
