Holiday wrap-up; links to all photos

[thanners]

Well, I'm back home now, in Perth, and it's currently about 17deg C (63deg F). Back to reality, as they say. I realise I've been kind of lax with updating since the 18th, but I had been constantly uploading my photos, at least. This post is just kind of a summary of my trip, as well as catching up on (re-living? :P) the last parts of my holiday.
Previous stuff

The entire collection of photos (i.e. all photos used in my LJ posts, plus others) can be found on my flickr account in the [USA2008 collection]. (It's kind of annoying, since I've also wanted to upload to facebook the photos with people in them, for the sake of tagging, so I've been uploading some photos to both places. Grr).

Here are links to my previous LJ-posts:

• Arriving in Hawaii, my cousin Pam's high school graduation
• Pan Pacific Festival along Waikiki, Cromwell's beach, Nu'uanu Pali lookout, King Kamehameha I statue, walking up Makapu'u
• River cruise, hiking up Diamond Head
• First days in Seattle, one-day camping at Camano Island, Falling can be Deadly, S'mores, Sushi
• Sushi, UW Campus, EMP&SF Museum, Ravenna Park Trail, Dante's

Newer stuff
Pike Place Market


On Thursday (I think?), we went to Pike Place Market. Got to see fish being thrown about at the Pike Place Fish Market, where the employees throw fish to eachother. After you choose a fish, they throw it over the counter to get prepped. In fact, here's a very short four-second video:

Also, nearby is the first Starbucks (which was originally built near Pike Place Market, then relocated to its current position), bearing the original Starbucks sign:

Seattle Public Library
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Since we were downtown, we also stopped by the Seattle Public Library, mainly because it seemed like a good thing to visit, and because Lianne needed to get a library card.


Looked quite large. It was also quite strange. The third floor is for meetings, and is all.. red. Walls, floors, ceiling, doors. The escalator up to the fourth (or fifth) floor has a video sculpture embedded into the walls, and is really weird. I'm not sure if this still, soundless photo manages to convey how strange it was:


About level five-ish, there was a floor with a whole bunch of public-use terminals, and also a wall with monitors that displayed statistics based on the checkout data, what sort of things were being read, numbers of books in each section, and so on. Levels six through nine inclusive are actually a spiral. The floor gently slopes up, winding clockwise around the centre of the building, allowing a person to traverse the Dewey Decimal System in one continuous, unbroken walk. (Or you can go to the middle of the building to hit the stairs and short-cut from 000 to 999 if you wanted to. :P).

I also picked up a bunch of recommended-reading pamphlets while I was there. I really need to get stuck into reading again.
Prior to Summer Solstice

We were going to see the Fremont Summer Solstice parade and street fair on Saturday (June 21st), and since it would've been a real pain to get into Fremont on the actual day, we went to stay at the house of Lianne's friend, Marion. We also looked like homeless people as we trudged around and caught the bus carrying blankets and pillows.

Went for dinner with a few others of Lianne's friends at a Thai restaurant.. the food was good, and very filling.


Four of us walked back to Marion's place due to lack of car space, and because we were so full that the walk really seemed quite beneficial. Further, if we hadn't walked back, we would have missed this graffitied sign:


[Other photos] from Marion's place, and going to a pub later at night.
Fremont Summer Solstice Parade and Market Fair, exhaustion, and a Sunday picnic

Next day after little sleep, we dragged ourselves out to catch the Summer Solstice Parade. The place was really busy. The actual parade wasn't scheduled to start until noon, but when we arrived at 10-something there were already many people staking out spots along the road, and the market was already bustling with people.

The beginning of the parade was marked with the Solstice Cyclists, cycling through in various stages of nudity/bodypaint/costume. Photos and short video can be found on my Fremont Summer Solstice flickr set.

To contrast this obviously evil, wanton, soul-damning behaviour , was this sign being carried by someone in the crowd:


Here's a man who apparently has taken upon himself to do provide bubbles for at least a few years in a row (I think?):


Also, one of the other more awesome things I saw, was the Flying Spaghetti Monster, absolutely made of win:


And finally, a handful of other random photos:








We tried looking through the market for a bit after the parade, but it was just so packed, it was difficult to even move. Getting food wasn't really an option, since the lines were also rediculously long.


Tired and exhausted, we walked for what felt like miles to catch (or wait for) a bus, crammed ourselves onto the already heavily-packed bus, and went home and collapsed.

We ended up going back the next day to see the markets, which were far less crowded.

Later on Sunday, we went to a picnic as a sort of an early birthday thing for another of Lianne's friends. It was fun, we played croquet. We were situated between one group of guys barbecuing very manly, standing with arms crossed and so on, and a fairly large group of LARPers on the other side. It was quite an amusing position to be in, watching one group watching the other.
Hiking up Little Si

Monday morning I followed Lianne to UW on her way to work, to meet some of her friends who were going hiking. We headed out to hike up Little Si, because Mount (Big) Si would've just been too hardcore. :P

The vast majority of my photos from this day were REALLY REALLY BAD. There was obviously not enough light for me to take most of these photos while moving, and I didn't check to see whether they'd actually worked, so sadly.. lots of blurry photos (and I already deleted the more egregious cases, I just left some of these blurry ones in because otherwise I would've had almost nothing left).

At the base, before setting out:


On the trail:


View from the top:


A view of Big Si, from the top of Little Si:


Taking a break at the top. Time for food.








And a flower that looks nice:

End..

Monday evening, met people at Red Robin, a burger place to have an unhealthy dinner. :P

Felt kind of sad saying bye to these cool people I'd met and been hanging around with for the past week.

It's at this point, that I realise I don't know how to end this post. But I've run out of things to write, and also out of photos to post. :P

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my holiday. I didn't go for the whole tourist-trying-to-fill-every-hour sort of thing, which I think helped a lot. I didn't burn myself out, or fall sick which I think would've been a danger had I been trying to pack lots of things in. Honolulu and Seattle were good places to be, with good people.
fin.