Farewell

The last morning in Seattle, Chappy made pancakes and we of course playing one more Mario Kart team race. We played on a cup that we hadn't come within 60 points of winning the night before, and we won! It was a high note to end my video gaming for the trip on, for sure.

Chappy took me to the airport, and I tried to avoid saying goodbye until the moment I had to. The radio stations tried to put on lots of sappy music for us, so we ended up listening to something we didn't even know.

I know no one wants to hear my sappy thoughts, but I just want to sum it all up by saying the trip was amazing. There's no one I would've rather driven across the country with and I will never forget anything about the trip (especially since this blog will be here foreverrrrrrrrr). Thanks so much to everyone who let us stay with them, and especially to the Chapmans for housing me for 5 days. They showed me everything there was to see about Seattle and put up with me for a long time. And to my wife, I love you and thank you for not letting me get eaten by a bear. And for teaching me how to drink whiskey, and for driving the entire time, and for putting up with being the only tent in RV parks. It was a great way to start the summer and we'll have to do it again and go to Wall Drug...or New Orleans. I love you!

A long time coming

Ok, so realistically no one is reading this anymore, but the story of our trip cannot go unfinished. On my last full day in Seattle, I had some more fantastic food and saw some more things that I am sure I cannot find anywhere else in the country.

After we woke up we spent about 2 hours playing Mario Kart, but to no avail. We accomplished pretty much nothing and after more frustration than I ever wanted Chappy to experience, we decided to move on. We went to lunch at Uptown China, which is a very good chinese restaurant with a fantastic lunch special. After that, we finally went to see the space needle! It was a gorgeous day, and though "the mountains weren't out," the city was beautiful. Chappy and her mom spent a long time trying to orient me with where everything was but let me tell you, there are many parts of Seattle, and I still probably have no clue. I also found it funny that on the way up they said the elevator ride was 82 seconds and on the way down they said it was "the same as the way up...41 seconds." hmmmmmm, I'm not a math major (o wait, yes I am), but those are not the same numbers. Also in Seattle center, was this really cool fountain that we went and sat around by. We watched the high school kids think they were really cool and take their shirts off and run through it. One kid thought he was really cool and took his pants off to reveal his tightie whities. He took it too far.

When we got back to the house, we had some time before dinner, so Chap and I decided to exact our revenge on her mom in Mario Party. I lost again, but Chappy won, which is an acceptable defeat for my last game of MP. Mr. Chapman grilled some phenominal salmon. It was to die for. I'll never look at Atlantic salmon the same way ever again. It was the completion of my Seattle cuisine. After dinner, we had the most successful hour of Mario Kart ever, and beat all of the cups on 150, AND played all of the battle modes.

Hoping our luck would carry over to trivia, we headed to Kate's pub with Chappy's sister Katie, her friend, Jason, and Chappy's other sister (ish), Sarah. Trivia at this bar cost 5 bucks to play (we're not used to that up in Medford), and had a cool word games round and picture round. Then they ask 45 questions, and you swap answer sheets with the team next to you to correct them. Weird, right? But it was so fun! We finished with 114 points, in a tie for 3rd. The second place team (who won a pitcher...damn), had 115 points. wondering what our team name was? The One Hit Wonders, because that was the only time the 5 of us will be playing together at Kate's Pub. Sad Face.

Since it was my last night in Seattle, Chappy and I had a sleepover in her room and she even suggested putting Twilight on to fall asleep to (she's hooked!). It was a great end to my trip and it was a little sad to think about going home the next day.

Grab a glass of Rose

So yesterday was another day of casual sight seeing and very intense video gaming.  Chappy and I finally conquered Super Smash brothers, ending a year and a half long quest to defeat every character in the game including our own.  But that was later in the day.  In the morning, we played a lot more Mario Kart and managed to unlock two new cups to play!!  I know this means nothing to you, but to us it meant lots more team racing and frustrations with new courses.

At lunch time, Chappy took me for my first Pho experience (it's a Vietnamese noodle soup that is quite tasty and they give you a huge bowl for basically nothing) and I got to see another part of Seattle.  Then we went with her dad to the fisherman's terminal which is where all of the fresh salmon can be purchased.  We picked out what appeared to be some phenomenal cuts of salmon (we'll know for sure later tonight...mmmmm) and went to see the Locks. 

 I had no idea what the Locks was, but its amazingly cool and was clearly designed by some super smart engineer (slash Tink in her former life).  It's basically a place that connects the fresh water with the saltwater, so boats can go between them.  It puts them in this hold and then raises or lowers the water level in the hold depending on which way they're going, so they can make the transition.  I know my description doesn't do it justice but it looks really cool!!  And I'll put up pictures when I have my camera near me.  We also went to look at the salmon ladder which is how the salmon get from the salt water to fresh water and vice versa.  Me being from New England didn't even know stuff like that existed and its so awesome to see!

When we got back it was time for me to see the treehouse that I had heard so much about after Maya and Dlo's visit and they were not lying...it definitely lived up to its expectations and then some.  There really is a drawbridge to get in, which wouldn't come down so I had to lift Chappy up by her butt over the side of the treehouse (its fine...shes my wife haha).  We playing some Gin and I drank another Bitch Creek that Amanda gave me from Yellowstone until it was time to get ready for dinner.

For dinner, Chappy's sister took us to this restaurant called the Boat Street Cafe to have this like 6 course lamb dinner.  I don't need to tell you it was amazingly good...but I will anyways.  When we got there, Chap and I weren't sure if we were going to be able to go to dinner because it was rsvp only and we had rsvp'd as a party of 4, not 5.  So Katie went inside to see if she could figure out some way to get us in, and texted us that it was looking good.  So here we were outside standing awkwardly feeling underdressed not knowing how nice it was, and Chappy gets another text from her and reads it aloud.  It says, "We're all set.  Come inside and grab a glass of Rose."  Chappy pronounced rose like the flower and then quickly corrected herself to pronounce it like the wine, after we got a good laugh.

We grabbed ourselves quite a few classes of Rose throughout the entire meal which consisted of breads, a delicious salad, mussels, lamb and strawberries with shortcake and ice cream.  Even though I ate literally 20 little bread pieces, and all the rest of the meal, I was very comfortably full at the end.  Bottom line was it was delicious and we spent a great 4 hours telling stories and laughing at each other.  The only downside was that by spending 4 hours at dinner, we missed our window of opportunity for trivia that night.  But lucky for us, Seattle has an abundance of bars that have trivia and we're going tonight instead.

Just because she's Yoshi doesn't mean she should win!

Of course yesterday was a continuation of our video game playing, but we were sure to throw in some real life experiences as well.

I took Cara to The Dish Cafe in Ballard - a must for anyone who comes to Seattle. The place was packed, as per usual on a Saturday, but they were very fast and we had a fantastic brunch. Once sufficiently full we drove over to the marina where we keep our boat. Cara got to see first hand that I do not own a yacht despite any possible attempts by DLo to photoshop a picture of me at the helm of the Disney Cruise liner.

We then headed home to see if we needed to help with the production that was in swing for the evenings dinner. Our contribution to the night was the choice of beer that my father then went out to get. Once he got back we dutifully drank the beer while playing some more Mario Kart Wii. However, the beer didn't help our driving abilities and the stress of the game quickly got to us - or at least me.

Five o'clock rolled around and we walked across the street to Katie's house. Apparently my sister has taken to hosting cocktail hour (really three hours) once a week in her backyard. We were greeted with a bloody mary each and found out that the evenings theme was vodka. A bloody mary and a cosmopolitan later it was time for dinner of my fathers famous ribs and a few of my mother's choice salads. We of course remembered to grab one of Katie's Wii controllers so we would have enough for my mother to play Mario Party with us.

We stuffed ourselves with food once again and then it was time for some serious Mario Party

It will not be the last game Cara and I ever play together because against all odds my mother won. I'm not sure what to video game gods were trying to do by letting a new comer, and my mother at that, beat two seasoned veterans like Cara and myself, but we were not happy. Being Yoshi shouldn't give you an automatic win! I know he's cool and all, but really?!

After said depressing game we went back to Katie's house where cocktail hour was still going on. Cara got to see where I get my fantastic story telling ability as Katie got out her ukulele and gave us a spoke word version of her run in with the Hug Bug lady (if you want that story just text me Hug Bug).

This story then lead to another one about Katie's battery operated PA which of course was brought out. Her electric ukulele was plugged in and we had a karaoke session to doo wap music accompanied by the ukulele. Later the iPods were brought out and we sang disney songs and most of the Stand By Me soundtrack late into the evening.

The glorious company was very receptive to our idea of trivia and tonight we will be trying once again to take over another bar's trivia.

And there's more cat piss

Ok ok, we're back. It's alot harder to post so often when I'm not sitting with the computer on my lap for 8 hours a day. Anyways, so I made Chappy watch Twilight, and she actually liked it (perhaps because we had some really stiff Gin and Tonics while watching...or because Edward Cullen is beautiful). I have to admit I was shocked that she didn't turn it off halfway through because of its corniness. We also watched the trailer for New Moon and I think I have her hooked.

Last night we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and had some more quite strong drinks (seems to be a theme of our trip). Then we went to the Mariners game where the UW softball team was honored and Danielle Lawrie threw out the first pitch. Despite our best efforts, we didn't get there in time to see her do it, but we saw them up in their sky box watching the game. The Mariners lost in extra innings, but the center fielder made a SICK catch to rob the twins guy of a home run. Of course the next play the left fielder decided it was time for an outfield fail, so the Twins won 2-1. And to make matters worse, the drunk guy behind us was absolutely obnoxious. BUT while we were getting our tickets we saw a dude in a Tufts sweatshirt and hat and I was like "omg we should totally say something to him." Chappy agreed, but by this time the guy was getting farther and father away so she just yelled "GO JUMBOS!" He turned and looked at us and gave us a fist pump. Gotta love Jumbo nation.

We've also taken a liking to playing wii Mario Kart, and Mrs. Chapman promises to take pictures because apparently we look ridiculous. We're having ribs tonight and possibly going out if we can pull ourselves away from the wii. We'll keep you updated. We seem to have a knack for meeting crazy people and it hasn't stopped just because we're in Seattle.

Oh wait! I forgot to write about the cat piss. So, Chappy's family has three cats, and her sister who lives down the street has 2 and multiple neighbors do as well. So in the neighborhood, everyone is really nice to everyone else's pets and leave the windows open so the cats can get in and out and because the weather is really nice at night. So at about 3am this morning, I woke up to the sound of a plastic bag rustling. I looked over and there was a cat that I did not recognize sitting on the plastic bag. He saw me look at him and he just peaced and jumped out the window. In the morning I saw that he had peed on the bag and told Chappy at which point she and her mom said "That's Cow (literally, he looks like a cow). That cat is such an asshole." It was hysterical and I love it here :)

The eagle has landed

WE MADE IT!!!!  We arrived in Seattle at about 530, having made excellent time allllllll the way from Yellowstone.  We did not smell pleasant at all (some combination of foot, dirt, tent and sweat) but luckily Mrs. Chapman was just happy to see that we had made it in one piece.  We're settling in with some Smash Brothers and a home cooked meal...mmmmmmmmmmm...that has been a long time coming (relatively speaking).  Our exciting first night in Seattle will consist of watching Twilight (a 19 Fairmount favorite) and heading to bed nice and early.  It will be great not to have to wake up at 6am.  Blogging will continue though, so fret not.  The adventures of Cara and Chappy are far from over.

The home stretch

We woke up this morning at 530 and managed to pack up our soaking wet tent and leave Yellowstone by 6.  On the way out of the park I was going through my pictures trying to delete some when Chappy yelled, "dude. Dude. DUDE! A BISON!"  The bison was legit walking along the side of the road.  So close to us (the picture is not zoomed at all).  We also saw a deer on the side of the road on our way out.  After stopping to take pictures at the Yellowstone sign and to prove that we were in Montana, we began our 12 hour journey.  We passed a sign for Milligan Canyon...crazy.  Really this post is here so we can show you pictures of the animals, but if anything cool happens, we'll update.  Also, don't worry.  We aren't going to stop just because we got to Seattle, because technically until I leave, the trip is still going on.  So the blog lives!