Public Market

Taken 8/30/2013

One of my first stops on my Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip '013 was Seattle's famous Pike Place Market. Even though I was doing Seattle in a single afternoon I had to get a shot of the iconic "Public Market" sign.

Day 3: Mike's Head, An Alligator Man & Never Say Die

Mike's Head

Driving through the lush forests of Washington and Oregon the last couple days has been great. But fairly often I'd drive by a section where the forest had been completely razed, like an open scar on the side of the mountain. The hippie chick the lives in my head was deeply offended by this. "That's terrible! Raping Mother Earth like that!" Then the semi-pretentious glasses-wearing intellectual guy that also lives in my head pointed out "You like furniture don't you, chump? Where do you think we get it?"* And he was right. I like furniture.Without it we'd all just sit around on the floor.

*For those that missed it, this was a reference to Herman's Head. It is significant in that it is the first Herman's Head reference made on the entire internet since April 2007.

Half Man! Half Alligator!

Yesterday I visited the "quaint" touristy town of Port Townsend. Today I visited a different type of touristy town, the "tacky" variety. Both types are identified by a preponderance of shops. The difference is the type of shop. Quaint means jewelry stores, galleries, antiques and a candy shoppe. Tacky means T-Shirts stand, souvenirs made of seashells with googly eyes glued on and fudge shops (no "-pe" at the end). 

Long Beach, Washington definitely falls into the latter category. Don't get me wrong, tacky is great. Without it there'd be no such place as Marsh's Free Museum, home of Jake the Alligator Man (Half Man! Half Gator!). Really it's a gimmick to get people into a very crowded souvenir store, with oddities and antique game throughout to add some attraction. It reminded me of Fort Cody, the one place we somehow could get my father to stop on family trips to and from Denver. Now that I think back, I have no idea how we got him to stop... I think he was amused by the guy hanging over the entrance that had been shot in the ass with an arrow.

Maybe I Should Check Ancestry.com

My mother (whose maiden name is Clark) claims we are related to the Clark of Lewis & Clark. Says her aunt Katir told her that so it must be true. Me, I don't believe it. Maybe if it was Lewis & Milik (a far less common last name) I'd buy it as a possibility. But Clark? That would be like anyone with the last name Adams believing they were related to John Adams. Or anybody with the last name Jefferson thinking they were the heir apparent to a chain of east coast dry cleaning stores. Relative or not, I stopped by the Lewis & Clark National Park, commemorating the spot the two intrepid explorers arrived on the west coast in 1806, singing guide raccoon in tow. I might be confusing certain elements with Disney's Pocahontas... 

Never Say Die!

Few movies hold as special a place in the collective pop-cultural subconscious of my generation as does The Goonies. The ultimate kids finding adventure in their own backyard story.  And today, I got to see the house where the whole adventure began! Plus the the rocks One Eyed Willie's pirate ship sailed by at the end of the movie. Judging by the steady stream of people walking up the street and drive to the house perched high atop a hill in Astoria, Oregon the movie is still as popular now as it ever was. Not bad for a movie nearly 30 years old. Yes. Nearly 30 years old. That makes you old.

Day 2: Doughboys, BBQ and Ruby Beach

After playing it free and loose on Day 2 and being bitten in the ass, I'm up and ready to get going on Day 3. But first a brief recap of yesterday's events. It was a long long day, but I always knew the first day would be relatively long being as there weren't many places to stop for the night along the way. And there were even fewer places to stop than I'd anticipated... did you know lots of people like going to the beach on Labor Day weekend?

Doughboys!

While strolling through the Pulsbo Waterfront & Marina park enjoying the view of the boats and the mountains across Liberty Bay I spid a little girl munching on what looked like the bottom half of a gingerbread man... but a DONUT gingerbread man. I knew immediately that I must have one, so a quick Yelp! search for bakeries and I was soon at Sluy's Poulsbo Bakery. I asked for one of the gingerbread donut men and the guy with the beard net say, "Ah, a Doughboy. Maple or glazed?" I went glazed, and a few minutes later I was biting the head off my very own. Note: Any baked good with a head you should always start with the head. Otherwise you have to listen to them scream while eating them. Same holds true with animal crackers. See below for an example on the proper way to start, before and after the first bite.

Keeping An Eye On Canada

Next up was the quaint old downtown of Port Townsend, named after famed rock guitarist Pete Townsend who was born here when the town was founded in 1891. While there I thought it was Canada that could be seen across the water, which was good. Somebody needs to keep an eye on those tricky Canadians Sarah Palin style. Checking a map now though I see I had my directions wrong and it was just more Washington across the water. So who's watching Canada? For future reference the term "quaint" when used to describe a touristy town means "lots of little shops."

Follow Your Nose, It Always Knows

A wise philosopher once said "Follow your nose, it always knows." While I don't recall who he was (Confucius I think. Or maybe it was Plato) they couldn't have been more right.  I was thinking seafood for lunch as I drove through Port Angeles. Dungeness crab based on the signs I'd been seeing. Until I drove by the Blue Flame BBQ and the smell forced me to turn around and go back. The same thing happened to me once in Kentucky years ago while roadtripping to Atlanta (because I'd never been to Atlanta prior to that trip so I up and drove there). You expect to find an open cinder block pit BBQ joint in the south. You don't really expect to find one in Washington. Delicious ribs served to me by a young woman who takes her craft VERY seriously. She definitely took pride in her meat and loved sharing it with customers. I've added Blue Flame BBQ to my "must visit" list if ever I'm in the area again. Which probably isn't likely... I'll have to find out if they can FedEx ribs... there were some Bleu Cheese ribs that sounded intriguing but weren't going to be ready for several more hours when I was there.

Rockin' Ruby Beach

I would like to thank the slow driving jackass that forced me to turn off onto Ruby Beach. Had they not been going 10 or so miles an hour below the speed limit on a twisty impossible-to-pass-anyone stretch of Highway 101 I likely wouldn't have stopped here. I only pulled off to get out from behind them by killing 10 or so minutes looking at a pretty beach. Well, 10 or so minutes turned into about an hour and a half of walking along Ruby Beach, taking tons of photos of the big rocks and shoreline. Absolutely gorgeous. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll just let the photos speak for themselves. And once again, thanks you slow diving jackass!

Day 2: Bitten In the Ass

The whole "free and loose" thing came back to bite me in the ass today. Apparently everybody likes to head to the beach for holiday weekends (who knew?) and morons without reservations are... well... morons. In my defense I wasn't sure where I was going to end up or how far I'd be driving. Turns out a lot further than I would've have intended. So I was forced to come inland a bit... to Olympia. The upside is that with no real agenda I'm not really out of my way. Will add an hour to tomorrow's drive. Many thanks to Alan at 1-800-RESERVATIONS for finding me a bed at the Red Lion Inn. Even if there's a high school class reunion going on in one of the ballrooms down the hall. Alan had no way of knowing that. Plus it beats trying to find a manger and bedding down with a bunch of goats.

Check out the weird keys this place has. Some bizarre hybrid of a card key and a real key. An unholy union if ever there was one.

That's all for tonight. Didn't check in until almost 11:30 and it's off to bed. More Day 2 details tomorrow.

End of Day 1: Sunset Over Puget Sound

With Day 1 coming to a close (even if it wasn't even 6:00PM yet, I was exhausted) I headed to hop on the Bainbridge Island ferry. I'm generally not reserving hotels along the way but did this first night. Unfortunately I was just a bit too late to get on the 6:20 (by about 10 cars) so had to wait another hour. Which at the time I was a bit peeved by, but had I not missed the earlier boat I would have missed the sun setting over Puget Sound, which made the delay far more than worth it. Once you've parked your car you're free to head up to the passenger deck to check out the views...

And yes, I headed to the front of the boat and had my own Leo and Kate moment facing into the wind, thinking "I'm the king of the world!".  I only thought it, I didn't shout it. Missed opportunities... As the ferry heads westward into the setting sun, from the other end you can catch some great views of Seattle receding behind, lit in that orangey glow of the waning daylight. Have you ever seen big ugly dock cranes look so good?

And one of the city skyline and big ferris wheel built on one of the piers (something for another trip). You can also see the Space Needle in the distance.

Most people come too Seattle for a week or at least a long weekend. Me, I had an afternoon. All in all I wish I had more time to spend in Seattle, seems like a great city. That's the drawback to the kind of trip I'm on, you see a little bit of a lot of places, but you can't spend too much time in any one of those places. A problem that will again rear it's head when I reach the larger "destination" cities of San Franciso, LA and San Diego I'm sure. But they say it's not about the destination, it's about the journey, and that couldn't be truer here. I'm not exactly sure who "they" are though. Maybe I'll come back if/when the Bears play here and make a week of it. Enjoy the city plus experience the added bonus of watching Chicago kick the Seahawks' ass.

DAY 1: Seattle In An Afternoon

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...)

Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip '013 Eve

Tomorrow morning, bright and early (well, early anyway) I take off for Seattle, Washington to start my vacation. I'm roadtripping it from Seattle to San Diego and following the scenic Pacific Coast Highway. Or in true Colbert fashion it's my Pacific Coast Highway Cruntastic Road Trip '013 Sponsored by Cool Ranch Doritos (hereafter shortened to PCHRT'013). I have been asked WHY I am flying somewhere just to drive somewhere else and then fly home. There are a couple reasons. 

First, the trip from Seattle to San Diego is roughly 1750 miles. Nine days of driving, that's a couple hundred miles a day, a nice leisurely (or vacationly if you prefer made up words) pace. Driving from Des Moines to Seattle would add  another 1750 miles to that, then San Diego back to Des Moines adds almost another 1750 (which I'm now realizing would roughly form a giant equilateral triangle which would be kind of cool...). That would require 500-600 miles a day, a very un-vacationly pace.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, is the fact I don't own a convertible. What is the point in driving a regular car with a roof on it, especially once you get to southern California, down the PCH? 

THE LUGGAGE CONUNDRUM

Facing the packing problem everyone faces taking long trips. There's the regular "How many T-Shirts will I need?" "Should I take extra shoes?" "Will I really need to change my underwear EVERY day?" kind of questions that go with every trip. But with this trip I also need to take along my DSLR camera (I plan on taking a LOT of pictures along the way) and all its assorted cords, chargers, lenses, memory cards and filters. Plus the tripod if I actually want to be in any of these pictures myself. Then there's the laptop and its cords. Not to mention the GPS and cell phone plus their assorted cords and chargers. Modern travel is really a lot about cords and chargers for all the devices you take along. Almost none of which can be used on anything other than the one device it's designed for. I thought I had solved that issue with this Case Logic backpack, specifically designed to carry a DSLR camera, a laptop and with compartments for all the stuff that go with them. Only problem is the thing literally weighs a ton* once everything is in there and there is no way in hell I'm carrying that on the plane, much less lugging it down 1750 miles of scenic coastline. So instead I'm forced to take several sub-bags - camera bag, tripod bag and laptop bag - and pack some of them inside the suitcase for the flight. Bags inside of bags...

* For all you grammar police types like me that were thinking "Literally? LITERALLY weighs a ton?!?!", take a deep breath and chill out. If I've told you once I've told you a million times not to get worked up over the hyperbolic use of the word "literally."

TRAVEL SIZES!

As is usual the night before a trip it's off to Target for all the things you somehow have managed to live without all these years but all of a sudden need because you're about to go on vacation. One of the best thing about going a trip is getting travel sizes of things like toothpaste, saline solution or deodorant. Because it's always nice to pay 25x as much per ounce for something just so you can have a miniature version of it. Plus when you hold travel sized items it kind of makes you feel like a giant.