Trueself Takes Seattle by Storm, Part III

Ha! You thought I’d never get around to continuing this didn’t you? Well, you thought wrong. I may be slow, but I get there eventually.

Sites of Seattle (cont.)
In Part II I talked about the things we did and saw using our City Passes and the things I did on my own while BJ conferenced. In today’s post I’ll cover the non-City Pass stuff BJ and I did together, including Saturday evening with Jeni and her boyfriend.

BJ and I had a whole day to be tourists after his conference was finished and we’d seen what we wanted to from the City Pass. We splurged (or I should say he splurged) by ordering breakfast from room service that morning. BJ showered while we waited for breakfast. I lolled in bed as I did every morning we were there.

Once we finally got out and about (yes, I finally got up, showered, and dressed after breakfast in bed) we walked down to the Pike Place Market. Wow! That place is huge! That place is fantastic! If I had lots of money I could have spent most of it there. I’m a sucker for handmade stuff, and they had a ton of vendors with handmade jewelry and clothing and purses and scarves and oh, just about anything you could imagine. While we were there we got to watch the guys who throw the fish around. We also, on our way in, got to see the very first Starbucks ever opened. No, we didn’t go in and have a mocha, but at least we can say we saw it. At Pike Place I bought N a bracelet with his name on it. He loves it. I wouldn’t let him take it to camp because I was afraid he’d lose it, but he wears it just about all the time when I let him. We had lunch at an awesome little hole in the wall Chinese restaurant. Everything we had there was to die for and very reasonably priced. I love little hole in the wall places for just that reason.

After we tired of walking around Pike Place we headed down to the ferries. We decided to take a ferry over to Bremerton and back, staying in Bremerton just long enough to have a light dinner. There is something very peaceful about riding on the water especially when the ferry is sparsely populated. So many things to see, so much peace, it was quite relaxing and beautiful. I suppose if one commuted that way every day one might become jaded and barely notice the beauty, but for a visitor it was just delightful.

Now I’ll go back to the Saturday evening towards the beginning of our trip. We (or I should say I) touched base with Jeni Angel several times prior to the trip. We exchanged cell phone numbers so that we could text/talk. My phone phobia caused me to struggle with making contact once we were in Seattle, but once I did and heard Jeni’s voice, bubbling with energy and enthusiasm, I knew everything was okay. We made plans to have dinner in the Asian part of Seattle. Jeni and her boyfriend were to pick us up at our hotel. They arrived early and went to the hotel bar for a drink while they waited for us. When we finished getting ready we went down and joined them. It is amazing that when you only know someone from blogging and don’t really know what they look like somehow you can spot them when you walk into the bar. Who knows? Maybe it’s that inquisitive look on the faces that say “Are you?” and “Maybe it’s?” that sends you over to greet one another with hugs and squeals of delight as though you’d known one another forever.

Dinner was fine, not spectacular, but good as far as the restaurant and food was concerned. The company, however, was wonderful. We learned a lot about each other, including our food peculiarities (well, Jeni’s and my food peculiarities; I don’t think BJ or Jeni’s BF had any, or at least any that were mentioned over dinner), and it was nice not to be the only one in the group with food peculiarities.

After dinner, Jeni and her BF took us on a driving tour of the Seattle area. I can’t begin to remember everything we saw or everything we discussed on the ride. It was nice though, having our own private tour of the area. We wound through the University of Washington campus where Jeni’s BF had gone to school. There two notables there for me.

First, I don’t believe there was any mention of the Huskies basketball team or Coach Romar. We drove past the football stadium with just a bit of football talk, but no basketball talk, no mention of where the basketball team plays. Hmm, could it be that Jeni and her BF aren’t basketball fans? {GASP} I know, it’s difficult to grasp that such could be the case, but they’re still good people I think.

Second, I had to bite my tongue as we wound through Frat Row (or whatever they call it there) because just about the time I was going to make one of my patented anti-frat remarks Jeni’s BF mentioned he had been a fraternity man and went on to extol the virtues of the system. Ahem. I kept my mouth shut. He’s such a great guy I never would’ve guessed him for a frat rat. I guess they do occasionally let guys in who aren’t pompous asses after all. Go figure. So perhaps Trueself learned a thing or two about stereotypes and judgment that day.

After that we crossed a bridge to the Bellevue area. By that time I was kind of confused as to where we were exactly, but I know it was east of Seattle and not far from Seattle. It looked just as nice or better than Seattle from what I saw of it.

For us Central Time Zone folks it was feeling late by the time we made our way back to the hotel otherwise we probably would have gone out with them to a club or something for another drink or two.

All in all, the evening was great. It was hard to believe we could chat so easily with people we had just met that day. Also, I had to will myself to forget that Jeni may well know a whole lot of less than flattering things about me depending on how much of my blog she’s read. Obviously, how ever much she’s read didn’t convince her that I wasn’t worth meeting, and I’m glad of that. Jeni is a wonderful, beautiful woman, and I have a feeling if we didn’t live half a continent away we’d be close friends.

If you’re patient enough I just may get the final part of this trip tale posted where I take a look at how BJ and I did “living together” for a whole week.