Seattle and Mt. Roadclosed, oops, I mean Mt. Rainier

Yo!

Yesterday Alex and I left Missoula and headed towards Seattle. Game 4 of the NBA finals was last night, so our goal was to get there and be settled at a sports bar by tip. It felt good to have a tangible goal, made me feel a bit less worthless. Anyhow, at lunch we stopped in beautiful Idaho, 'cause we wanted to be able to say that we've spent some time in Idaho. We even went to the mall, where Alex picked us up some Idaho Vandals t-shirts. Hehe, bet none of y'all have vandals t-shirts! While we were at the mall, I went to use the bathroom. Now, when I use public bathrooms, I generally never use the handicap stall. I just don't do it normally. But yesterday, I was like "hell, this mall is empty, and the other stall isn't that clean. And what are the chances that someone in a wheelchair is gonna roll into the bathroom while I'm in here?" So of course, as I'm about to finish my business, I see two wheels roll up in front of my stall. No shit. Hahaha, I felt like George in that Seinfeld where Kramer convinces him to park in the handicap space at the mall. Luckily I was not vandalized (get it, "vandalized" - I was bringing it full circle with the Vandals reference...hmmm...)

So we ended up making it to Seattle by 5:00 and went to the Fox Sports bar and restuarant in downtown. We had some great food and watched the Heat spank the Mavs. White hot baby, white hot. Go heat. After dinner/game, I drove Alex to the airport and headed to my hotel. I'm gonna miss Alex, I miss you man!!! I called it a night (and cried myself to sleep, I was so lonely!), so that I would be well rested for today.

This morning my first stop was the space needle. I dunno, I mentioned earlier my penchant for observation decks on tall structures in large cities, so this shouldn't be a surprise. There's a great view of Seattle from the needle, I just thought at $14 the price was a bit steep. But hey, when am I ever gonna get the chance to go up in that freaking space needle again? And it gave me the chance to get a space needle shot glass. You see, I'm buying shot glasses at every site I visit on this trip. I think I'm up to about 7 now (although I didn't get one at the arch or at Badlands). That's a lot of tequila distribution potential, yes lawd.

After leaving the needle I headed to the market on Pike St. This is where they have that fish market where the guys throw fish are they're ordered. I'd seen this on some TV shows, so I thought I'd check it out. While the throwing of the fish was kinda silly, I don't think I'd ever seen such a selection of large seafood items. There were some big fish up in there. I also walked around the market and checked out some of the other merchants. There was a barber shop in there as well, and as I needed a haircut I went ahead and took care of that. Since this market is pretty chock full of tourists, I felt like a spectacle as a I sat there getting my hair cut. This one little lady even took a picture of me. I thought about asking her if I could take a picture of her taking a picture of me, but that would've been weird. I left the market after my haircut and got some coffee at Seattle's Best Coffee. I mean, I had to get some coffee, right?

So that concluded my trip to downtown Seattle. I left and headed towards Mt. Rainier, 'cause tall ass mountains are cool. There's a road connecting the north (Seattle side) and south sections of the national park, and this was convenient as I'm spending tonight in Portland. So I made the hour drive to the park, just to find out once I got there that the connecting road is closed. This meant I could see some of the park, but couldn't go through it. Fuck. So basically my experience was simply a scenic drive with a few glimpses of Ranier's peak (it was cloudy, so the peak was hidden most of my drive). Oh well. I mean, I guess I should've learned my lesson at Glacier, that these mountain parks are iffy before July. But how the hell was I supposed to know the main road would be shut down, again? The guide book said that the park was "open all year". Either way it made my freaking drive to Portland long as shit, and it made me get stuck in rush hour traffic in Tacoma. Watch out for Tacoma at rush hour if you're ever in the Seattle area - don't be fooled by its "secondary member of the metropolitan area" status. I did see a Toyata Tacoma while driving through Tacoma, and it made me pause for a second and think "How cool would it be to own a 'Honda Hillsborough' or a 'Nissan Raleigh'?

I made it to Portland by 9:00 and am now contemplating going out to see the nightlife. It's Friday night, but I'm in a strange city and I'm tired. I guess I should stay in and get ready for my scenic drive along the Pacific coast highway tomorrow. Hmm...