Sea-Town Nirvana

On the way to Seattle, along the 5 in Northern Oregon, we passed a billboard with huge illustrations of Uncle Sam on either side. Side 1 asks, "Where's the birth certificate?" and side 2 says, "I'll take God, guns and gold. You keep the change." Ashley and I had a good laugh at that.

Once in Seattle we were greeted by that evening's lovely hostess, a certain Andrea Sherrow, who's a former co-worker's friend's younger sister. How's that for a little randomness? Andi played hostess with the help of Oscar the pug and Bailey the Weineriemer, and made sure we had enough wine and cheese. She took us at twilight to Gasworks, a place to watch the city sparkle from afar and kites sail above a large sun dial, and from there we checked out the famous Seattle Troll and Fremont, a neighborhood which had, in addition to a fun mix of bars, some interactive street art - well, not exactly: the three of us thought we might be able to "sit" in a 2-dimensional graffiti chair, but we weren't too successful. And to top the evening off, Andi made us pesto from scratch at 3:00 in the morning.

The next morning was sunny and a little hungover, and we hit Sea-Town up for all of its specialties: coffee from the original Starbucks, hot donuts from the Daily Donut, fish-tossing at Pike's Place market, and cheeseburgers from the original Dick's. Seattle had us feeling divine, but the North, where we were hoping the answers would fall like leaves, was calling.