A Trip to the Big City

Last week, the hubster and I went to Seattle for the night. We had reservations at an old hotel in downtown Seattle. We were blocks away from the Space Needle, and Pike Street Market. I was giddy with the excitement of a school girl.

We arrived at about the same time as everyone else in the state, and got a glimpse of a true traffic jam. According to Siri, we needed to exit left, so we remained in the ‘fast lane’, barely crawling along, when suddenly she changed her mind, and we needed to take the next exit on the right. Jesse, the amazing driver he is, maneuvered our way across four lanes (I shut my eyes) and made the exit just in time.

Siri lead us to the Belltown Inn, the bellhop directed us to the parking garage down a tiny alley (looked like the setting of a movie), and under a big building.

We got checked in and decided to go walk around. Evening set in, and we found ourselves walking through the transit center. Not recommended. It was scary, dark, and smelly. The air smelled of old Chinese food, and old people (no offense… but you know what I mean!). It smelled of Sweet Tarts, and sweet cigars. There was the fragrance of a little Lavender here and there, and weed… lots and lots of weed. It seems the people of Seattle are taking full advantage of the most recent law change regarding marijuana, and they were happy to share with everyone walking by.

There were homeless people, there were gangster people, there were business people, there were people definitely high on something other than the weed, there were people of all variety… and there were a lot of them! I was anxious. I clutched Jesse’s hand with fierceness. I white-knuckled the books I carried like the next person I passed was going to be interested in nothing more than stealing them. It’s funny that I was so nervous, as all of these different people seemed just fine mingling amongst each other (except for the woman that started yelling at a man at a crosswalk and he started threatening to kick her ass… that was interesting). Cars zoomed past, people flooded the crosswalks, and I don’t even remember any road rage. Everyone just got along.

It was getting to be eating time, and we thought happy hour at a local sports bar was calling our names… but we were wrong. The neighborhood bar selection consisted of dance clubs and high end places that we were not dressed suitably to enter, so we found a hot dog cart. An amazing hot dog cart at that! Even Rachel Ray thinks so! They recommended cream cheese… I said bring it on… it was delish!

 

After the dogs, we headed back to Belltown. Our hotel room was on the fourth floor, overlooking a doggy park. An inner city doggy park. I was even amused by this. It’s like I’ve lived under a rock my whole life. Our room was tiny, with no air-conditioning and a queen bed. It was old, but it was clean. And there weren’t dishes to be done, laundry to be washed, or chores of any kind. I was thrilled.

 

The next morning we woke up earlier than anticipated and walked around downtown with much more ease. We visited Pike Street Market where I found a customer setting up her booth (So nice to see you Gabbi!!). I oo’d and aww’d at the old buildings, at oddities that the common Seattlite takes for granted, and I took pictures like I was from another country. I didn’t care! Stamp a sign on me that says ‘Tourist’ and call me Pappy… I was happy!

Our goal was to find a sit-down breakfast restaurant. After walking around for about 45 minutes, and only finding ‘to-go’ type options, we asked for some help. We were directed to CJ’s. Ten minutes later we were seated at a table with a view of the Space Needle in a comfortable little restaurant with amazing service. I ordered a Farmers Omelet with bacon, basil, mozzarella, and spinach in it, with red potatoes, and a Dahlia. What’s a Dahlia you ask? It is freshly squeezed grapefruit juice and champagne… how fun!! It was actually a little strong for me, but the omelet was AMAZING! Going to Seattle? Find CJ’s! 1st and Cedar. Jesse went with a more normal order of coffee and chicken fried steak.

 

The trip has been deemed a success.

Lately I have been working on my bio for Clark County Live. I was struggling with calling myself a small town girl, because I’ve seen the likes of a map dot, stop sign on the blacktop (as Tim McGraw would say)  kind of town, and mine doesn’t quite fit the bill. But after our adventure in Seattle, I’ve decided that I don’t care how many stop signs, traffic lights, or anything else my town has… I am indeed, a small town girl at heart. Really, probably a medium town girl would be better fitted, but that just sounds odd.