4:01AM
EENNNNNK EENNNNNK EENNNNK EENNNNK EENNNNNK EENNNNK EENNNNNK EENNNNK... HIT
The day (and I use that term loosely) starts out with the worst sound in the world, the blaring of the alarm clock. Though today it signaled something other than having to get up for work, so it wasn't so bad. Oh who the hell am I kidding, getting up at 4AM sucks. I set it for one minute after as a kind of little lie to myself. No snooze, the cab is scheduled to pick me up in 29 minutes.
The next seven hours are the typical jumble of air travel - check your bag, get through security (I've never seen Des Moines airport security as busy as it is at 5AM), a refreshingly phallus free layover in Denver, arrived in Seattle 10:30 local time. After a brief delay in picking up my suitcase (looked at the wrong line on the monitors and headed to baggage carousel 14 instead of 2... 14 was FAR) I hopped on a shuttle bus to the rental car facility where this happened...
"Chrysler 200 or Similar"
When I checked a couple days before leaving I was thrilled to see convertibles had dropped in price to the point they were only about $50 more than the mid-sized SUV I'd already reserved. Reserved one of those instead, cancelled the SUV and has prepared for a "Chrysler 200 or similar" as described on the Alamo site. Then as the woman checking me in called down for he car I overheard something like "If the Mustang is all that's left then he can have that, he reserved a convertible. So now I'm driving a Mustang convertible down the PCH, how perfect is that? And I certainly didn't pull something in my hip getting out of it... an old man might do something like that since it sits kind of low and he may not have been able to figure out how to tilt up the steering wheel at first... Made a brief stop in Des Moines, Washington - honestly just pulled into a Lowe's parking lot so I could check in on Facebook in the city, then headed off to my next destination to the north...
The Fremont Troll
This ugly fellow was a challenge to find, then I turned left not thinking I was in the right place and he was at the top of the hill, straight ahead. He lives under the Aurora Street bridge snacking on Volkwagons. I've heard he was featured in a scene from the movie 10 Things I Hate About You, but since that was a chick flick aimed at high school girls I've certainly never seen it. I don't own a copy of it on DVD either.
War On Words
Seeing a Starbucks in Seattle is about as common as seeing a fat person eating a corn dog at the Iowa State Fair... twirl a butter cow over your head by its tail and you'll hit half a dozen of them. But this particular Starbucks is THEE Starbucks. The original location that opened back in 1971 and started the company's crusade to excise the words small, medium and large from Americans' collective vocabulary.
Tossed Salad & Scrambled Eggs
Of course everyone recognizes The Space Needle. It was made famous by being featured in the logo for the 90's hit sitcom Frasier. There's also a restaurant know for making tossed salad and scrambled eggs. Below are some various views taken from atop the Space Needle on its observation deck, click on them to see them bigger. Going up the side in a glass elevator did freak me out a bit. I'm not afraid of heights. I'm afraid of falling. Which is an evolutionarily sound fear to have.
Eight Legged Freaks
One thing I observed from atop the Space Needle were these giant spiders attacking a warehouse.
(Don't worry Fran, these are far away in Seattle and must only be indigenous to Washington, no need to worry about them heading east towards Des Moines,)
Fish Tossing
No afternoon spent in Seattle would be complete without a stroll through the Pike Place public market. The fish tossing fishmongers were very entertaining to watch, and the colors of the veggies and flowers for sale were absolutely incredible. (Notice how I gloss over the smell of the fish for sale.) The only bad thing was there were just so many damn people there, it was like trying to walk anywhere down the Vegas strip (just replace gambling and those stripper cards with fish, flowers and vegetables). A few more pics below, can you spot my dinner?
(And I'm tired, so my Sunset Over Puget Sound pics will have to wait until the morning...)
When I checked a couple days before leaving I was thrilled to see convertibles had dropped in price to the point they were only about $50 more than the mid-sized SUV I'd already reserved. Reserved one of those instead, cancelled the SUV and has prepared for a "Chrysler 200 or similar" as described on the Alamo site. Then as the woman checking me in called down for he car I overheard something like "If the Mustang is all that's left then he can have that, he reserved a convertible. So now I'm driving a Mustang convertible down the PCH, how perfect is that? And I certainly didn't pull something in my hip getting out of it... an old man might do something like that since it sits kind of low and he may not have been able to figure out how to tilt up the steering wheel at first... Made a brief stop in Des Moines, Washington - honestly just pulled into a Lowe's parking lot so I could check in on Facebook in the city, then headed off to my next destination to the north...
This ugly fellow was a challenge to find, then I turned left not thinking I was in the right place and he was at the top of the hill, straight ahead. He lives under the Aurora Street bridge snacking on Volkwagons. I've heard he was featured in a scene from the movie 10 Things I Hate About You, but since that was a chick flick aimed at high school girls I've certainly never seen it. I don't own a copy of it on DVD either.
Seeing a Starbucks in Seattle is about as common as seeing a fat person eating a corn dog at the Iowa State Fair... twirl a butter cow over your head by its tail and you'll hit half a dozen of them. But this particular Starbucks is THEE Starbucks. The original location that opened back in 1971 and started the company's crusade to excise the words small, medium and large from Americans' collective vocabulary.
Of course everyone recognizes The Space Needle. It was made famous by being featured in the logo for the 90's hit sitcom Frasier. There's also a restaurant know for making tossed salad and scrambled eggs. Below are some various views taken from atop the Space Needle on its observation deck, click on them to see them bigger. Going up the side in a glass elevator did freak me out a bit. I'm not afraid of heights. I'm afraid of falling. Which is an evolutionarily sound fear to have.
One thing I observed from atop the Space Needle were these giant spiders attacking a warehouse.
(Don't worry Fran, these are far away in Seattle and must only be indigenous to Washington, no need to worry about them heading east towards Des Moines,)
No afternoon spent in Seattle would be complete without a stroll through the Pike Place public market. The fish tossing fishmongers were very entertaining to watch, and the colors of the veggies and flowers for sale were absolutely incredible. (Notice how I gloss over the smell of the fish for sale.) The only bad thing was there were just so many damn people there, it was like trying to walk anywhere down the Vegas strip (just replace gambling and those stripper cards with fish, flowers and vegetables). A few more pics below, can you spot my dinner?
(And I'm tired, so my Sunset Over Puget Sound pics will have to wait until the morning...)
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