Seattle - October 2012
Went up to Seattle for a few days in mid-October for my cousin's wedding! I was stuck in my hotel room most of the time because I had a ton of work to get done, but I managed to sneak out a few times and check out cool stuff with my family.
Warnings: Uhhhh… rambling? 29 photos.
First things first. Months before we left, my mom asked me to create some sort of box to hold the salted caramels she was making for the wedding. I researched candy boxes, talked to my aunt about the themes, colors, and style of the wedding, sketched, pondered, worried, and then worried some more. I went to Japan, where I thought and worried about it over there. I came back from Japan, filled with worries, talked to my mom and she was all, "You don't really need to make it, it was just an idea." I should have been like, "Oh, okay, phew, never mind then." But instead I was all, "No, I spent so much time thinking about this thing, I'm going to make it!" I showed her some sketches and she pretty much was all, "whatever you want," so I decided on my favorite design: a pumpkin vine holding up two small platforms. It was not so much a box as it was a display stand. I really wanted to make it a kraken's tentacle instead of a pumpkin vine (a nautical theme would have worked really well for my cousin), but my mom shot that down when I brought it up. XD;; The pumpkin vine was more fitting for the fall/Halloween-ish theme of the wedding anyway.
SO THE NEXT FEW WEEKS WERE SORTA CONSTRUCTION HELL. I had this stand to make and two costumes to get done (all these were my choice to do, no one was forcing me, BUT STILL I HAD TO DO THEM), along with regular work so I was in a daze of WORK WORK WORK that was driving me mad. And in the end? The costumes turned out alright, but thr stand? Not so much. I'm very disappointed in it. I would probably make a funeral pyre for it and burn the life out of it, but I'm afraid the fumes from it would kill everyone in my apartment complex. I ended up not taking the stand to Seattle because I was so disappointed in how it turned out.
Aaaaannnd this is the beast. The vine is twelve strands of 16-gauge wire braided together, wrapped in craft paper and then coated in a couple layers of paper clay. It was sanded for twelve million hours, but I couldn't get it as smooth as I wanted. The black sections are poplar plywood my dad cut for me. I stained it to near-black and then put a couple coats of a protective finish on it. The wood is held into place with wire that protrudes from the vine into holes dremeled out of the wood. And then glue. Lots of glue because the wires didn't work very well. I also made two small pumpkin leaves out of sculpy that were going to be glued to a small curly vine I made out of wire, but it just didn't turn out. The vine is white/warm grey because the colors for the wedding were black and ivory.
I'm really, REALLY not happy with how it turned out, but I am happy that I finished it. It's done, it's done. That's all. But now it's sitting next to my bike because I have no idea what to do with the damn thing. Like I said before, I would be fine with burning it (if I could safely), but I just can't bring myself to throw it away. Strange.
Hahahaha, it's sitting on some of my work for the weekend: corrections for X volume 5. There were a lot of corrections. And you can see His Favorite v1 in the background too! Finishing up volume 3 of that series was my other big work assignment for the weekend of the wedding.
But let's get to pictures of pretty things.
Nur and I left our apartment at about 3:30am on the Thursday before the wedding. We had an early flight and figured our best option was walking to the BART (our local commuter train) station and taking BART to the airport stop. But we had to get to BART, and we couldn't just leave Nur's car there for four day or it'd be ticketed. So we decided to walk. It wasn't that bad, only a couple miles. And it was so early, everything was quiet and we just had to walk down a paved trail that led us straight to the station. It was so neat. We saw a big ol' owl, a mommy kitty with kittens, and a skunk! We were all excited about the skunk until we noticed its tail was raised and it started running towards us. I can't remember the last time I made such a high-pitched sound! We probably broke some sort of 100m records with how fast we ran to get away from it.
Met up with my brother Noah at the airport and we all sat in the same row. Noah and I had a good time trying to figure out which mountain was which once we got up into the Cascades area. We made it safely into Seattle and to our hotel, got some lunch at a local place, watched the Giants game on the TV there, and then headed back to the hotel so Noah and I could work. That was pretty much all we did. After Noah finished his work, he went for a walk and then to my cousin's bachelorette party, but Nur and I stayed in the hotel because I still had work and… maybe there was an A's game on… >_>
The next morning, we met up with my parents and sister and all went to Pike Place Market.
On the way to the Market. This looks like an… interesting place. There were rubber chickens hanging in the window!
Cool decorative work on one of the buildings we passed. My dad and I were trying to figure out the production method used.
Oh, there it is. Pike Place Market! We all got delicious mini donuts, made dinner plans, and went our separate ways.
That building on the pier is an aquarium!
Back of the main sign.
Cool light fixtures.
Grow, random ferns, GROW!
All I could think when I saw this was, "this would be a cool spot for a cosplay photoshoot!"
A KRAKEN!
We were walking back to the hotel when we spied…
Oh my gosh, it's my building! Eric had showed me the website for this apartment building a couple weeks earlier, but I had no idea it would be a couple blocks away from the hotel we were staying at!
AHHHHHHH
WELCOME TO MY BUILDING. THIS BUILDING HAS MY NAME. I LOVE IT. I really wanted to go in and ask for a tour since OBVIOUSLY the building was named after me, but I just never found the time.
Later, when I was walking with my family, they saw the now leasing sidewalk sign and told me to take it. Even my parents told me, lol. (I was REALLY tempted!!)
Obligatory Space Needle photo. This is from the front of the hotel we were staying in, so yeah, it was super close. Didn't go to it though.
Went to dinner with my family (and Nur, of course!) that night at a delicious seafood restaurant. My sister hates seafood, so she had a bit of a hard time, and then her dish was undercooked, and to apologize they brought her a beautiful cooked shrimp. HAHAHAHAH oh wow, we bust a gut over that and the poor waiters were so confused. It's really a shame she won't even TRY seafood, she just blanket hates it all. I had this glorious parmesan-crusted halibut that tasted like the richest, cleanest cream. It practically melted in my mouth and had absolutely no fish taste. It was SO GOOD.
The next day was the wedding, so we got all dressed up and drove out to a ferry to get to the location!
FERRY! It was REALLY cold and REALLY windy out on the water.
Didn't take any pictures at the wedding, but it was in a beautiful location and although it was cold and a bit windy, everything was just lovely for the ceremony (which was just the right length). The dinner was yummy, and the company was fun! It was a very, very nice wedding. My only complaints are that I didn't get to spend much time with my cousin that was being married and her sister. Guess I should head up there around SakuraCon time to spend time with them! =D
The next morning, we packed up and went to a big brunch with some relatives and my uncle and aunt's (parents of the bride) family friends. The brunch was… okay, but hanging out with the other cousins that came was tons of fun! After, my family headed to Gasworks Park.
This place is VERY COOL. And again, all I could think was "COSPLAY PHOTOSHOOTS OMGGG."
Argghhh, but I want to climb on them! Stupid sign…
I want to climb all over this too, but that big fence dissuaded me. =\
Is someone parasailing over there? When I got over there, they were gone.
The Seattle skyline!
Please, pleaaaaaasssseee, just let me do a little climbing! Look at those stairs and railings! I'm sure it's safe enough!!
Taking pictures at the water. That's my big bro down there!
Taken through the rusted pipe from the previous picture. I kept sticking my camera in and taking shots as fast as I could because I was afraid the little waves would hit it!
It just looks so freaking cool…
On top of a hill, I found my dad pondering this design. It was a sundial and calendar, I think. We couldn't figure out how it worked. But I bet the SUNdial works better when there's SUN, huh?
Part of the sundial/calendar thing. It was pretty neat-looking.
Police boats!!
Hey man, it's not fear that's stopping me from climbing all over these, it's the police that might magically appear if I set foot on them.
Aaaaannnnd yeah. I dunno what this was.
We went to a bookstore, then turned in our rental car, then took the train to the airport and zoomed back home. A Giants home game was going on when we were coming back, and the lights from the stadium were so bright, their reflection stretched across over half of width of the bay.
It was a fun trip and I liked Seattle. I just wish I had seen more of it! (I was able to get all my work done in time, if you were wondering!)
Warnings: Uhhhh… rambling? 29 photos.
First things first. Months before we left, my mom asked me to create some sort of box to hold the salted caramels she was making for the wedding. I researched candy boxes, talked to my aunt about the themes, colors, and style of the wedding, sketched, pondered, worried, and then worried some more. I went to Japan, where I thought and worried about it over there. I came back from Japan, filled with worries, talked to my mom and she was all, "You don't really need to make it, it was just an idea." I should have been like, "Oh, okay, phew, never mind then." But instead I was all, "No, I spent so much time thinking about this thing, I'm going to make it!" I showed her some sketches and she pretty much was all, "whatever you want," so I decided on my favorite design: a pumpkin vine holding up two small platforms. It was not so much a box as it was a display stand. I really wanted to make it a kraken's tentacle instead of a pumpkin vine (a nautical theme would have worked really well for my cousin), but my mom shot that down when I brought it up. XD;; The pumpkin vine was more fitting for the fall/Halloween-ish theme of the wedding anyway.
SO THE NEXT FEW WEEKS WERE SORTA CONSTRUCTION HELL. I had this stand to make and two costumes to get done (all these were my choice to do, no one was forcing me, BUT STILL I HAD TO DO THEM), along with regular work so I was in a daze of WORK WORK WORK that was driving me mad. And in the end? The costumes turned out alright, but thr stand? Not so much. I'm very disappointed in it. I would probably make a funeral pyre for it and burn the life out of it, but I'm afraid the fumes from it would kill everyone in my apartment complex. I ended up not taking the stand to Seattle because I was so disappointed in how it turned out.
Aaaaannnd this is the beast. The vine is twelve strands of 16-gauge wire braided together, wrapped in craft paper and then coated in a couple layers of paper clay. It was sanded for twelve million hours, but I couldn't get it as smooth as I wanted. The black sections are poplar plywood my dad cut for me. I stained it to near-black and then put a couple coats of a protective finish on it. The wood is held into place with wire that protrudes from the vine into holes dremeled out of the wood. And then glue. Lots of glue because the wires didn't work very well. I also made two small pumpkin leaves out of sculpy that were going to be glued to a small curly vine I made out of wire, but it just didn't turn out. The vine is white/warm grey because the colors for the wedding were black and ivory.
I'm really, REALLY not happy with how it turned out, but I am happy that I finished it. It's done, it's done. That's all. But now it's sitting next to my bike because I have no idea what to do with the damn thing. Like I said before, I would be fine with burning it (if I could safely), but I just can't bring myself to throw it away. Strange.
Hahahaha, it's sitting on some of my work for the weekend: corrections for X volume 5. There were a lot of corrections. And you can see His Favorite v1 in the background too! Finishing up volume 3 of that series was my other big work assignment for the weekend of the wedding.
But let's get to pictures of pretty things.
Nur and I left our apartment at about 3:30am on the Thursday before the wedding. We had an early flight and figured our best option was walking to the BART (our local commuter train) station and taking BART to the airport stop. But we had to get to BART, and we couldn't just leave Nur's car there for four day or it'd be ticketed. So we decided to walk. It wasn't that bad, only a couple miles. And it was so early, everything was quiet and we just had to walk down a paved trail that led us straight to the station. It was so neat. We saw a big ol' owl, a mommy kitty with kittens, and a skunk! We were all excited about the skunk until we noticed its tail was raised and it started running towards us. I can't remember the last time I made such a high-pitched sound! We probably broke some sort of 100m records with how fast we ran to get away from it.
Met up with my brother Noah at the airport and we all sat in the same row. Noah and I had a good time trying to figure out which mountain was which once we got up into the Cascades area. We made it safely into Seattle and to our hotel, got some lunch at a local place, watched the Giants game on the TV there, and then headed back to the hotel so Noah and I could work. That was pretty much all we did. After Noah finished his work, he went for a walk and then to my cousin's bachelorette party, but Nur and I stayed in the hotel because I still had work and… maybe there was an A's game on… >_>
The next morning, we met up with my parents and sister and all went to Pike Place Market.
On the way to the Market. This looks like an… interesting place. There were rubber chickens hanging in the window!
Cool decorative work on one of the buildings we passed. My dad and I were trying to figure out the production method used.
Oh, there it is. Pike Place Market! We all got delicious mini donuts, made dinner plans, and went our separate ways.
That building on the pier is an aquarium!
Back of the main sign.
Cool light fixtures.
Grow, random ferns, GROW!
All I could think when I saw this was, "this would be a cool spot for a cosplay photoshoot!"
A KRAKEN!
We were walking back to the hotel when we spied…
Oh my gosh, it's my building! Eric had showed me the website for this apartment building a couple weeks earlier, but I had no idea it would be a couple blocks away from the hotel we were staying at!
AHHHHHHH
WELCOME TO MY BUILDING. THIS BUILDING HAS MY NAME. I LOVE IT. I really wanted to go in and ask for a tour since OBVIOUSLY the building was named after me, but I just never found the time.
Later, when I was walking with my family, they saw the now leasing sidewalk sign and told me to take it. Even my parents told me, lol. (I was REALLY tempted!!)
Obligatory Space Needle photo. This is from the front of the hotel we were staying in, so yeah, it was super close. Didn't go to it though.
Went to dinner with my family (and Nur, of course!) that night at a delicious seafood restaurant. My sister hates seafood, so she had a bit of a hard time, and then her dish was undercooked, and to apologize they brought her a beautiful cooked shrimp. HAHAHAHAH oh wow, we bust a gut over that and the poor waiters were so confused. It's really a shame she won't even TRY seafood, she just blanket hates it all. I had this glorious parmesan-crusted halibut that tasted like the richest, cleanest cream. It practically melted in my mouth and had absolutely no fish taste. It was SO GOOD.
The next day was the wedding, so we got all dressed up and drove out to a ferry to get to the location!
FERRY! It was REALLY cold and REALLY windy out on the water.
Didn't take any pictures at the wedding, but it was in a beautiful location and although it was cold and a bit windy, everything was just lovely for the ceremony (which was just the right length). The dinner was yummy, and the company was fun! It was a very, very nice wedding. My only complaints are that I didn't get to spend much time with my cousin that was being married and her sister. Guess I should head up there around SakuraCon time to spend time with them! =D
The next morning, we packed up and went to a big brunch with some relatives and my uncle and aunt's (parents of the bride) family friends. The brunch was… okay, but hanging out with the other cousins that came was tons of fun! After, my family headed to Gasworks Park.
This place is VERY COOL. And again, all I could think was "COSPLAY PHOTOSHOOTS OMGGG."
Argghhh, but I want to climb on them! Stupid sign…
I want to climb all over this too, but that big fence dissuaded me. =\
Is someone parasailing over there? When I got over there, they were gone.
The Seattle skyline!
Please, pleaaaaaasssseee, just let me do a little climbing! Look at those stairs and railings! I'm sure it's safe enough!!
Taking pictures at the water. That's my big bro down there!
Taken through the rusted pipe from the previous picture. I kept sticking my camera in and taking shots as fast as I could because I was afraid the little waves would hit it!
It just looks so freaking cool…
On top of a hill, I found my dad pondering this design. It was a sundial and calendar, I think. We couldn't figure out how it worked. But I bet the SUNdial works better when there's SUN, huh?
Part of the sundial/calendar thing. It was pretty neat-looking.
Police boats!!
Hey man, it's not fear that's stopping me from climbing all over these, it's the police that might magically appear if I set foot on them.
Aaaaannnnd yeah. I dunno what this was.
We went to a bookstore, then turned in our rental car, then took the train to the airport and zoomed back home. A Giants home game was going on when we were coming back, and the lights from the stadium were so bright, their reflection stretched across over half of width of the bay.
It was a fun trip and I liked Seattle. I just wish I had seen more of it! (I was able to get all my work done in time, if you were wondering!)