we stayed at an interesting and eccentric little hostel/inn complete with creepy old smells and a surprising view of the space needle (which we forgot to visit). the inn was in a great location so we got to hit up most of the tourist spots with ease like pike place, the waterfront and downtown. we drove a little longer for the uw campus, which was brutally beautiful (i say brutally because it confirmed my worst fear: regret). the campus even smelled of light flora since the cherry blossoms were in full bloom.on our last night there, we went to the waterfront restaurant for an overpriced meal of mediocre seafood. in fact, to my surprise, the shrimp in my "revolutionary prawn scampi" was the least bit revolutionary; the correct words to describe it would probably be "overcooked" or "rubber". the view, however, was gorgeous. richard may have enjoyed the "view" a little bit more than jack and i appreciated. of the restaurants and shops we went to, my favorite meal in seattle was our first. after 19 grueling hours in the car, we were starved for anything but fast or junk food. to our surprise, however, seattle is a city that does sleep and most shops were already closed by the time we started our hunt for food. with the help of our handy iphones and yelp application, we found "lola", a hipster greek joint with an awesome happy hour menu. i ordered a falafel gyro and sampled squid and mushroom kebabs. richard and jack both ordered lamb burgers, which they agreed were amazing, with chickpea fries.
my favorite place in seattle is easily pike place. it's like san francisco's ferry building, the castro and downtown combined with davis' farmer's market thrown together into a three block market of ohhs and ahhs.
of course, being in seattle, we had to get what the emerald city is known for: coffee! starbucks, seattle's best, among others, were ubiquitous; we decided we didn't drive hundreds of miles for a cup of corporation joe so we went to seattle coffee works, just half a block from my beloved pike place. the coffeewas indeed amazing and if we weren't on such tight schedules everyday, i honestly would have been comfortable sitting there for a couple of hours blending in with the locals.
we went to seattle coffee works twice in two days. it was there that we had our final rest stop in seattle before hitting the road once again.
off we went to the highway 5 for a less scenic, more industrial drive. we stopped in portland, oregon for dinner and got the creeps as an appetizer. the city, at least the historical downtown section, was deserted. there was this eerie, dark feeling about the town. their thai food, however, wasn't half bad, especially since we made it in time for the happy hour menu with only ten minutes to spare. although the food was quite delicious, we all missed seattle. after dinner, we walked around a park, and again, there were probably three other people on the streets so we quickly stretched our legs and got back into the car.
i'm glad to be home, in the company of my family. although it's comfortable being home, this trip really solidifies how much i need to leave san francisco, at least for some time, to see the world a little bit more.
