I make it back to the apartment and grab some food. I figure out the direction I need to go to find the original Starbucks. I put on a long sleeved shirt and my windbreaker/rain jacket. It's Seattle. I'm an Alaskan. I'll be fine. Pike Market is a few blocks away. I take a somewhat round about route and find myself in Freedman Park. It is awesome. It is practically a concrete labyrinth. Well, not that confusing, but concrete stairs and walls and paths going everywhere. I am impressed.
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| Freeman Park! |
I walk by a watch store. A super fancy watch store. I love watches so I decide to go in and just check out these Omega watches. Did I mention it is a super fancy storeI go to open the door and there is a guy standing there to open it for me. He is paid to open that door. Wow. I walk in and a salesman sees me. "You're on a mission today.... to buy a new timepiece!" "uhh, actually, I was just wandering and I saw this place and I like watches so I thought I would look." He doesn't miss a beat. He starts talking about the collection that I am standing nearest. I tell him about my history of breaking watches and that I like to just wear one watch for everything. I never take off my watch. For anything. Ever. I look at all the pretty watches, he pulls a few out for me to try on. I check the price tag just for fun. $6,900. Damn, this thing cost more than my truck. By a lot. I look at some more and I thank him and tell him I will think about it. He insists on giving me a catalog. And putting it in a bag. Great, now I have a bag to walk around Seattle with that advertises that I have tons of money to spend on a watch. Not the message I want to send and definitely not accurate.
I leave the watch store and head toward Pike Market. I am stopped by a girl on the street. "Do you have a minute" "Uhhh, yeah" So she talks to me about UNICEF for a while and wants me to sponsor them. I have been meaning to get involved in some sort of organization so I am an easy sell. Sure, sign me up. I really don't have money now but I can spare a few dollars. After signing up there, I go about 20 steps and am stopped by another girl. This one talks to me about sponsoring a child in a 3rd world country. I try a little harder to resist this one since I just signed up to help people 5 minutes ago. Eventually I am convinced. I am now sponsoring a child in Chili. Oh well, like I said. I had been meaning to get involved in this kind of thing for a while now and just haven't felt financially stable enough to do it. In a few months I will be anyway. Note to self: Do NOT tell ANYONE else that I have time. I am very very busy and in a hurry and not on a 3 month vacation with no obligations to be anywhere at any certain time.
I get to Pike's Market and wander around. It starts to snow a little. I admit to myself that my attire choice was poor and I am freezing. I walk some more and find the original Starbucks. I pull out my phone, take some pictures, and then take a very touristy video. Oh well, I am sure they have seen a tourist before. I walk some more and find a park overlooking the waterfront. I pull out my phone and take some pictures. Some guy comes up behind me. "Want me to take a picture of you?" No, no, I do not. I don't know you and I am not about to hand my iPhone 4 to you buddy. I politely decline. He asks where I am from. I look around. Good, there are lots of people within screaming distance. Just in case. He seems harmless but I don't want to take chances. I tell him Alaska. So is he apparently. He wants to know if I want to smoke some pot with him and his buddies. No, I don't do that. He is confused as to how I can possibly be from Alaska and not smoke pot. I tell him I am just weird like that. He then wants me to meet his other buddy from Alaska. He comes over, I say hi, and he offers me some pot. I decline again. He is also amazed and confused. I just wanted to get out of there so I tell them I am freezing and am going to go find somewhere inside and wish them a nice day. I don't know what about me makes me look so approachable today. Whatever it is, it is not cool and needs to stop. This is getting to be too much.
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| Self Explanatory? |
I wander through Pike Market. I see the Pike Brewery that I hung out at the last time I was in Seattle. I see them throwing the fish. I decide to check out the aquarium. I walk in and buy a ticket. The guy sees my bag and asks if I bought a watch. Shit, I am still carrying this thing. Asking for trouble. I tell him that it's just a catalog. I walk into the aquarium and dispose of the bag. I spend a few hours wandering around looking at fish. Luckily I am easily amused by swimming things. I miss Hawaii and think of how much fun it was to snorkel there. I wander to their mammal section. THEY HAVE A 4 DAY OLD BABY SEA OTTER. And it is CUTE!!!! I spend a lot of time at the otter exhibit. The mom and baby are adorable. They have a male otter too who is flipping over and over and appears to be cleaning himself. It is all cute. I guess I believe that their fur is denser than that of a chinchilla. They are extremely fluffy. Though I bet Chip is softer. I then visit the river otters who are racing around their tank. They aren't as cute but they are fun too.
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| BABY SEA OTTER! ITS SO CUTE AND FLUFFY. |
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| Sea Otter :) |
I leave the aquarium, buy a hot dog from a vendor (claims to be the best in town. It was good but I have nothing to compare it to) and head to Pioneer Square. I wander around for a bit and check out the sights. I am about tired of walking at this point so I head back toward the apartment.
I have walked quite a ways. And most of the way back is uphill. Awesome fun there. I finally make it back and pull out my book and do some reading. At some point Dana texts me to make sure I am finding my way around ok and all. Yes I did. I saw lots of fun things. She gets back a little while later and we go get some dinner. I ask her to take me to the most Seattle-y place possible. Apparently that would be seafood. She doesn't do the seafood thing and I get plenty of that in Alaska so she suggests an Asian place that I cant remember the name of. Sounds good to me! I put on slightly warmer clothes before going out this time. We walk to the place. The food is awesome! We stop by a cupcake place on the way back and I get a mint chocolate cupcake. They give it to me in a near indestructible cupcake holder. The cupcake is awesome too. And I have a sweet souvenir. And "tupperware" for my trip! At some point along the walk I apologize for my inability to take this snow thing seriously. And admit that while the snow here sucks (it doesn't even stick around for a whole day!) the icy, just at or above freezing conditions are pretty bad.
We head back and have a long conversation about skiing and Alyeska and other fun stuff. Which brings me to now. Tomorrow it was supposed to snow 14 inches. It has been downgraded to 6. However, I hear that that much snow will cause some shutting down of things. So I have no plan for tomorrow. I'll just play it by ear. Maybe I'll just make a snowman in the middle of the street. Or something :)
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| Cool Building |
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| "Sinking" parking garage |
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