On Thursday, July 2, I woke up at four-thirty in the morning in preparation to head out to the airport. I got some last minute things packed up and easily caught my 7:30 flight. It took about six hours to breeze across the country. Six hours later, I hopped off the plane. Thanks to the time warp that is the curvature of the earth, it was only 10:30 or so. Wandering around the airport, I managed to find Tony at one of the auxiliary terminal gates, and we were on our merry way to the bus.
It was a pretty action packed day for the first one out here. When we got to Dustin's, we were treated to a swift egress and trip over to the Boeing plant in Everett, Washington. Apparently it's the main facility purposed with testing and building new airplanes, the most prominent and new of which is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The majority of the tour was made up of trotting through the gigantic building (claimed by our tour guide, Dustin's friend John, to be the largest in the world by volume) and being daunted by the tremendous scale of everything around us. It was truly impressive to see some of the engines up close, especially those of the 777 and 787. The massive scale of these planes is something you can only truly appreciate up close.
After we were treated to this incredible tour, we were cordially invited to a party at our tourguide's home in an area of Seattle. It was a smallish barbecue, and I met a few of Dustin's University of Illinois friends. Highlights included finding out somebody else that liked the Critic and Tony killing one of the biggest mutant insects I have ever seen in my life.
Next up was Friday, July 3, which was the last day Tony was going to be with us, sadly. We sat around for a bit before heading out to grab lunch at a place called Dick's, a quick-and-dirty burger place which I enjoyed immensely. After that we headed to the threatre to watch Moon, which Scott had summarily raved about a few weeks ago after seeing it in Los Angeles. I thought it was a very well-crafted movie, with a bit of slow pacing, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Soon enough, we dropped off Dustin's friend Mark and motored off to the airport to drop off Tony. It sucked that he couldn't stay for long, but it was good that Dustin and I got to see him, and that he got to hang out in Seattle for a bit. The rest of the evening was spent traipsing about the city, checking out the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, and the waterfront.
Follow that was Independence Day, which was filled out by a pair of parties. The first consisted mostly of sitting around in a backyard, talking with new people and eating a plethora of foods. It was fun to shmooze and meet more of Dustin's friends - it's rare that I get to meet so many people at once, but I had a good time. Later that night, we attended a bit more traditional "college" type party with drinking games and lots of yelling. It was less enjoyable on the whole, but we got to watch the fireworks from the roof of an apartment building.
My favorite day in the great state of Washington was probably Sunday, July 5. Dustin had been directed by friends at work to check out Olympic State Park, specifically a place called Hurricane Ridge. It was about a three hour drive, and there was a ferry involved on the way out. Eventually, though, we made it to the park and started the automotive trek up the side of a mountain.
Sadly, this was when I most regretted not bringing my digital out with me. Granted, I let it completely escape my mind when I left my apartment. I do have an okay camera feature on my phone, and Dustin and I purchased a disposable that I'll get files off of soon enough to upload onto here. Anyway, the sights were amazing on the whole - huge snowy mountains off in the distance, incredible landscapes filled with endless numbers of trees. While we were headed up into the mountains, I had thought I was being treated to one of the more amazing sights I had seen; once we reached the apex, though, I was absolutely bewildered. This won't do it justice, but just a preview:
We hiked along a trail for a bit and then headed home. But alas, the wait for the ferry we rode was about three hours according to one of the LED signs they have conveniently placed on the route. So, we re-routed, something we had planned to do anyway; we decided to dip south through Tacoma. We realized halfway across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge that it was the "famous" one. The original structure bridging the span did this some time ago:This path would take us quite near the city of Renton, which has an amazing feature - A FIVE GUYS RESTAURANT. Yes, this west coast rarity, mere moments away. OR SO WE THOUGHT. Initially, my GPS unit led us to what appeared to be an industrial park. Dustin threw the address into his cell phone and entered "street" instead of "place," which brought us to a residential area. Correcting this mistake, his phone began to lead us back to the initial industrial area, which we realized halfway through driving there. But ho! We were eventually able to follow the maps on our various devices to find the new development that featured Five Guys. WE HAD WON THE DAY! And also delicious hamburger.
My last day in Seattle was Monday, July 6. It consisted initially of me cleaning up the apartment a little in thanks for Dustin letting me stay, and packing up all my clothing and souvenirs. Dustin was at work most of the day, so I wandered around downtown Seattle a little before I headed over to Microsoft to meet up with him. We meandered around the campus a little; Dustin showed me the visitor's center and the gift shop. I bought a couple things from the latter, including a stark green 360 water bottle.
Next, Dustin took me to one of the studio buildings that featured a plethora of video game character statues. I had to get my picture with two of them:
For the uninitiated, the first is a picture of the "Big Daddy" and "Little Sister" from the video game BioShock. The latter is a Brotherhood of Steel Knight from Fallout 3; he was about eight feet tall, which was impressive. And yes, I know there's a lot of light saturation behind me in both pictures, since they were taken by horrid camera phone. The rest of the evening consisted of wings and some great and fresh seafood with a few of Dustin's friends. All in all, it was a good way to say goodbye to Seattle.
I slept for about three hours before rising, showering, and heading to take the bus. After wandering around for a bit at 4th and University, I noticed a transit authority van sitting around, so I headed over to him to ask about the bus I had to take; apparently I was a little off target. He gave me a lift to Second Street and dropped me right where the 194 bus would pick me up. All was well, and I hopped my plane in perfect cadence. Off to California!
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