My Last Weekend in Seattle
In case you haven't noticed, I haven't really been updating like, at all, since I've gotten back to school. This is a post that I was working on right after (guess what?) my last weekend in Seattle. I've honestly been busy since I packed up to leave that amazing city, and now it's fall break and I still don't really have time to write this - I'm taking time out of other things I really should be doing (like my super-double-extra-late FAFSA). It's seriously been sitting as a saved draft on LJ for 2 months. Of course, it wasn't finished, so I just had to dig back to that wonderful weekend to fill in some details. See if you can guess where the transition point is from where I was writing when I was actually in Seattle to when I was writing after I'd gotten back here to Ithaca! ;)
Anyway, here it is. It's divided into sections with bolded titles, so you can just glance them over and see if there's any that you wanna read more about. Yay for organization! So, now that it's out, I can freely post about whatever happens to cross my mind at the moment. Be afraid. Be very afraid. *cough* I mean... Enjoy! :D
The best weekend of all time! Well, the most exciting I've had in quite a while anyway...
Friday Lunch - Blue Angels Dress Rehersal
After eating my fill of Indian food in the food court at the base of my building (the envy of interns in other buildings, hailed as a "mini-mall"), we went up to the 73rd floor to watch the Blue Angels practice. We were in the perfect position to look down on them as they did their tricks. Since our building is the tallest in the city, they used it as a landmark, and buzzed it once or twice (when they were going away, one little kid said "again!"). It was a pretty sweet show. Let's just say I got back to work a little late ;)
Friday Dinner - Uncle Jeff (Bezos) Reserves a Party at the Pyramid Ale House
Then around 5pm we had an official intern event downtown a ways. We had our own little private area for all us interns (and our mentors/managers if they wanted to come, and our campus recruiters). Unfortunately, instead of meals we were served basically what amounted to Hors D'ouvres (sp): spicy chicken wings, some non-spicy chicken thing, vegetables and dip, fruit, cookies (the lame kind with lots of preservatives), and some brownies. There was a beer garden (considering it was an alehouse), which was just another instance of the segregation of the underage folks. I mean, it's not about the alcohol - it's about the exclusion. Just because I'm a few months younger than some arbitrary dividing age, I'm not allowed to hang out with those who are older. BLARG. Anyway, in short, it was cool that we got some free food, but it's wasn't all that great.
Friday Post-Dinner - Uncle Jeff Buys Us Tickets to the Mariners Game
After the dinner was over, we got to go to a Seattle Mariner's home game. I don't think I've ever been to an MLB game before. It was an interesting experience, but for the first half hour (at least), the sun was beaming directly into our section from just over the stadium walls - directly into our eyes. But then it went down behind the wall and we could actually see the game. There were some pretty sweet plays, but a couple of us ended up leaving in the 7th or 8th inning (tells you how much I was actually paying attention) on a quest for the best cheesecake in the world.
Friday Dessert - Cheesecake Factory
Bus fare to 7th & Pike to try the cheesecake: $0. Having a slice of the best cheesecake ever in the world: priceless. Well, maybe a very insignificant fraction of the buspass that Amazon provided me went toward that trip, but probly not. It was the perfect way to make an awesome Friday even more awesomer.
Saturday - Hiking on Mt. Rainier
The next day: up at the ungodly hour of 6:45ish to make a trip to the airport to pick up a rental car to drive out to Mt. Rainier to go hiking. We didn't give the car rental place enough notice, so they didn't have any cars in their downtown location - only their airport facility. But in the end, it didn't matter. It was the best day trip I've had in just about... forever. We left the city at around 10:30 (had to burn some CDs for the roadtrip... had to buy some blank CDs to burn on... had to find a place to buy CDs). We made our way to the highway and rocked out for a few hours. We found this place to eat next to the railroad tracks. It was a decommissioned train. It had the best veal and spaghetti for the cheapest price I've ever had! Wow!
Anyway, we got into the National Park and stopped at a few good picture-taking spots on the way up the mountain (which I'll post up on my photobucket soon). We got up to the beginning of the trail (and got a parking space) by around 2:45ish. At the info building there were some pamphlets with big footprints on them. I looked around, but I couldn't find a single one in english... so I went with the French one. It turns out that I remember enough french to be able to understand what they were trying to say (stay on the trails) and why (because even a few people going off the trail can cause a whole lot of damage). w00t! Anyway, the views were absolutely ... I really can't find the words to describe it. "Amazing" is too overused. "Awesome" has similarly lost its power. It was definitely awe-inspiring. I can't remember the last time I was inspired with that much awe. Awe-nestly. I'll put some photos up on my photobucket when I get the chance. One of the aspects of the hike that was particularly amazing was all the different plants that I'd never seen before. There was this one species of flower that we kept passing that looked as though it had feathers. I've got plenty of pictures of interesting plants to share.
When we were way far up on the mountain (though not nearly as far as we could have gone), we heard this faint rumbing that was getting louder and louder, and we were looking around wonder what the heck was going on. Then suddenly the Blue Angels came roaring over the peak in formation! They did a trick before heading back to the city to continue the show that was going on there. So not only did we get to hike up an incredible mountain, but we also got to see the Blue Angels! :D
Saturday Dinner - Outback Steakhouse
On our hike around the mountain, we were talking about where we wanted to eat when we got done. We first discussed Indian food (which is my new favorite culture of food), but then realized that the places we usually go would be closed by the time we got back. Then Jason realized that he spotted an Outback Steakhouse when we were driving up. Well, he may have spotted an Outback Steakhouse. Shashank had never been to one before, so we had to give him a sales pitch. First he was concerned about it being called a "steakhouse" and his no-beef food restriction, but we convinced him that wasn't a big deal because they have chicken and other stuff too. Eventually we won him over - but the challenge was to actually find the place once we got off the mountain. Jason wasn't sure (as he pointed out more and more the closer we got to home) that he even saw it in the first place. We were just driving on in the dark looking for that big orangish-red sign that meant "great food here". After about 50 miles we were getting desparate. We just kept thinking about the Bloomin' Onion, the tender steaks, the juicy burgers, the seasoned fries, and the Outback ambiance. Eventually we find it, but almost too late! Shashank had to pull some emergency detour manuevers to get us over there without having to turn around. Once he read the sign he was dumbstruck - we were looking for "Outback" the whole time! The way he heard us, through his think Indian accent filter, was something like "Al-pack", which he'd never heard of before, but he didn't question us about that because there's lots of big chain places in America he's never heard of before.
We pulled out all the stops on this meal - we got a Bloomin' Onion, got bacon and cheese our fries with our meal, and sprang for a dessert afterwards! If you haven't had the Sydney's Sinful Sunday at Outback, I seriously recommend you try it. It's this oversized ball of smooth vanilla ice cream with fudge dripping down all around it, a sprinkling of coconut shavings, and a strawberry on top! Wow! We could barely finish our burgers (which were also verygood), but we made room for that dessert!
Sunday - Blue Angels
I didn't actually go see them with the rest of the city. After a long day of hiking I just wanted a day of rest. I did see them flying around outside my apartment while I was watching TV and playing Guitar Hero. My friend Jason went to see them from the public park where everyone else was watching. I'm sure it was a great show, but he was definitely not happy about having to wait so long to get back home to rest.
Sunday Evening - Monty Python and the Holy Grail
At some point during the day it was discovered that Shashank had never seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This wasn't all that surprising, since he grew up in India. But then we found out that Jason hadn't seen it. This was just simply unacceptable. We went right out to the Block Buster and rented it. We had a few others over and had a great show - including the special features like key scenes in Japanese and a Lego reenactment of the Camelot song.
Sunday Dinner - Indian Food, Mexican Style
As the perfect end to the perfect weekend, we went out to an Indian restaurant about 3 blocks from my apartment. I'd been building up my spice tolerance the entire summer (since I was hanging out with a bunch of Indians), and I finally got to the point where I could out-spice even them! I had my Chicken Tikka Masala at the full 4 out of 4 stars! Boy, that was good stuff. You know that a spicy dish is good when it makes your head sweat :D. But I wasn't satisfied with just eating Indian food. I really like Mexican food too (Chipotle!). So I sat there and thought, "Hey, maybe I can have both!" At this point I proceded to tear off a good-sized portion of my Garlic Nan, cup it just right in my hand, and stuff it with the Rice/Chicken Tikka Masala mixture that covered my plate. Then I rolled it up good and had - to my great pleasure - an Indian Burrito! :D Something else that you really ought to try if you haven't yet. You just need a Nan that doesn't have holes or weak spots. And after dinner - Kulfi! Indian ice cream seasoned with saffron, cardamum, cloves, and another spice or two! I love Indian food! :D
Since coming back to Cornell I've eaten at the Indian place in Collegetown about 4 times. I've consistently had to order 4 or 5 out of 3 spice stars so that I'd be satisfied. And their Punjabi Kulfi is way better than the restaurant in Seattle. Oh so good!
This has been another installment of Jack's Diatribes about Stuff that Happened at Some Point. I hope you've enjoyed, and do join us next time stuff happens and Jack diatribes about it. Ta!
Jack