a weekend over there // part 2

The West coast has something all mixed up.

It was the first day of January, and sunny, relatively warm (at least for JANUARY). And there were leaves on the ground. Those crunchy, colorful, earthy-smelling leaves that can only mean… autumn? Wait a second.

Heyyy, I’ll go with an autumn in January. I was kinda cheated out of my chilly, beautiful, coffee-and-colorful-leaf-filled fall and was pacified by a few red leaves and a frosty morning or two. Florida style.

And here in the Pacific Northwest, I could actually work those leather boots.
(which are NOT nearly as yellow as they appear in this picture)

Ro.

There are no other words.

Ro of the big glasses, and the big smile, the big fuzzy hoodie, the big Starbucks green tea refresher.

She looks like my Daddy.

She smiles like my Mom.

And she drinks Starbucks like me.

I guess you could say we’re related (aaaAAGgghH!).
But Lord knows THAT’S a good thing.

The rest of them went for mango smoothies from Panera. Naww, that’s not gonna catch my fancy on a 30 degree morning, thankyouverymuch.

Also, I’m related to another AAAgggHHH!-inspiring person. But she’s a crazy girl and I’m *cough* a crazy girl, so that figures.

A chocolate-filled croissant and caramel brulee latte were a perfect on-the-go breakfast as we headed forrrrrr…

Eeeeep, what’s THAT?! Downtown Seattle, yes sirree.

believe it or not, it was a sunny morning – but there pics don’t show it because of all the smog. Blerrrgh.

These places were literally EVERYWHERE. On every street corner – Starbucksloversheaven. And for every Starbucks there were at least seventeen other little coffee shops. Lord.

Another Starbucks… in which we pretended to buy something (kinda) and stood around with our coffee cups from the last Starbucks and waited in the huge line for the bathroom.

Traveler’s note: for every coffee shop in Seattle, they lack a bathroom. Or it’s closed for repairs. Or the whole building with the public restrooms is closed because it IS New Year’s Day, after all. Be ye warned.

YES. I was here.

I was so much here that I had to take two pictures to prove it.

And the original Starbucks… where else would it be but in this city of COFFEEBEANSGALORE?

I bet if you overturned one of the bricks in any of those famous streets, they’d be laid over black coffee beans. If you peeked in the gas tank of a Seattleite’s eco-friendly Honda you’d probably behold coffee fueling the engine. The whole dang city probably smells like freshly roasted coffee on Citywide Coffee-Roasting Day. (which I made up)

But it’s more than coffee.

It’s miles of docks by Puget Sound – so many comings and goings.
It’s a million (or so) people with a million stories.
A thousand old, glassy windows hiding two thousand secrets.
Ferries steaming back and forth.
It’s old brick buildings with dance studios, art galleries, lawyer’s offices, and creaking wood staircases.
It’s working, bustling, shouting, laughing, crying, raining (raining, raining), full, and lively city.

And I wouldn’t have had more fun exploring it than I did with this girl and the rest of them – not even if we’d had Mr. Seattle showing us around himself.

My car. Please.

And then there was this fascinating rainbow-colored building, that actually changed colors. Depending on how you look at it.

I could grow all philosophical on you and drone about how this is like life, children, and that we could learn a lesson, children, on how there’s always more than one way to look at things, children.

Buuuuttt that would be the part in the show where the viewers all covered their yawns politely and scrolled as quickly as possible through the remaining pictures. So I will spare you the pains.

And inside said fabulously-colored-building there was a shiny ceiling. I felt like Frodo when he first gets the ring. Or maybe like Marco Polo when he discovered China for the first time. Delighted and scared. Is it watching me? Lol NO. (that’s a joke) It’s shiny. It’s… cool. What do I do with it?

And THEN. we were standing at the base of THIS THING, and I was about to conquer my fear of heights for GOOD.

It’ll be okay. Just 520 feet (that’s only like 52 stories). You live 8 stories high in a dorm. That’s only like… a little less than 7 times that height.
Those sorts of thoughts are NOT VERY COMFORTING.

We step onto the window-encased elevator. Less than a two minute ride. Listen to the guide, you don’t even have to look out the… wind… ohhhh.
And lo and behold, I was hurting up to a height of 520 feet and actually ENJOYING MYSELF.

How. The. Heck. Did. That. Happen.

We pulled up to the top and – legs a little shaky – stepped out of the elevator into the 520-foot-high coffee shop. SURPRISE! Coffee shop? In Seattle? WHO’S idea was this?

And then came the real moment of terror. I felt like something from a reality TV show – like one that’s about conquering your deepest-engrained fear. Duuuuummm. Duuuu-daaaaa-dumm—- cue suspenseful and ridiculously over-exaggerated pirate soundtrack.

For there I was. Standing in the frigid on-shore breeze that smelled of a salty Puget Sound. Nothing between me and the ground 520 feet below – except a supposedly sturdy concrete tower with a basement that goes down like 80 feet (they tell you these things on the way up) and steel beams and several wires to keep me from being blown off.

To the west, a beautiful sunset over the Olympic Peninsula (forgive me if my geography is slightly off).
The wind in my face, the city at my feet.
Literally.

And what a beautiful city.

It’s truly unique.

Lights… not so unique. And water. Also not so original.

But huge ferries, important docks, powerful mountain ranges in the distance. As far west and as far north as it could be, probably more usually confused as the capital of Washington than any other city. Lively, artsy, rainy, coffeey.

After a bone-chilling half an hour or more, the rest of them were ready to go down. I could’ve stayed up there until it was fully dark. Looking out over the city, feeling the salt tang of the frigid wind on my face, dreaming, thinking, feeling.

And the next day dawned sunny and beautiful. Again… why?

Northwest Washington didn’t understand that it had a reputation to live up to. But of course I didn’t care about the reputation – the city is much easier to see when it’s clear as a crystal vase and as mild a January day as you could wish. Especially from the top of the Space Needle.

But it was on the road again for us.

Heading into the Cascade range… it never looked more beautiful.

One side of the lake… anddd…

The other side of the lake.

Yeah, weather in Washington changes f-a-s-t.

Back over the river and through the woods…
And we were back.

Of course it wasn’t just like that. But I made a movie to show you.

*insert shy grin*

It’s NOT very good. the music DOESN’T match up as well as it did in the video editor. I have NO IDEA how to get rid of the fast-forwarded chatter in the beginning of the movie, and… well. It was my first ever. It’s probably boring and amateur and. I’ll let you judge for yourself.