Twirling Around Seattle!

On the way to Seattle, we stopped at Moses Lake for some grub. We weren't in the mood for fried, greasy food so we grabbed the next best thing, Subway. Like most Subways that we have been to on our road trip, it was located inside of a gas station. And like all the other Subways in gas stations, the service was terrible. But, we finally got our food and ate in the gas station while we people watched. On the way to Seattle, we stopped for the view at the Columbia Basin!

We arrived at Amos' friend's house around 9:30pm. His apartment is located right in the heart of Seattle. Not gonna lie, this place is the shit. The entire place was super nice and tall. Kind of too nice, but still pretty awesome. We played pool for a little while and chatted, mostly about Microsoft since they all work at Microsoft. After just about falling asleep on the pool table, we were ready to go back to Amos' apartment for some much needed sleep.

We woke up Sunday and had lunch at Pomegranate Bistro in Redmond (the city where Amos lives). While waiting for our table, we were eyeing these cupcakes. They looked freaking amazing! A huge red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing, we were definitely getting one after we ate. For brunch, Margaret got yogurt, granola and fresh fruit and these amazing and delicious things called Savannah hot puffs. Holy crap were they good! I chose to get the spicy sausage firebread (basically a breakfast flatbread).

Full and satisfied, we headed back to Amos' apartment. I had saved room from brunch for my tasty cupcake, while Margaret chose to save hers for later. This cupcake looked amazing! The bright red, moist cake was topped with a heap of swirled icing, flakes of coconut and then wrapped in elaborate red and gold paper. How could you resist? Well, you could. This cupcake was by far the WORST cupcake that I have ever eaten. Even worse than the ones from my Easy Bake Oven when I was seven years old. There was no flavor to anything. I could have been eating the paper for all I knew. It was such a disappointment. I ended up throwing away all of the icing and tried to eat the rest of the cake, but it was too saddening. I threw away about half of this amazing-looking, but shitty tasting cupcake. (Sad face).

Disappointed, we headed out into Seattle traffic to catch a ferry. On the way, we caught a glimpse of the Seattle Space Needle!

....and of the city :)



It didn't matter where we went, we just wanted to ride on the ferry. Luckily, we got to the ferry just in time to catch the 2:00 ferry to Bainbridge! We felt really cool swiping our card to get onto the ferry, sort of like McDreamy and Addison! (We love Grey's Anatomy too much!).

Margaret looking out at the view from the ferry!

The wind was so intense, it blew my hood up! Thanks dad for the jacket!! :)

The ride was awesome. It was so relaxing to just sit and watch the water and scenery. The ride to Bainbridge was about 35 minutes. Upon arriving, we were told that we had to get off, not sure why, since we were getting right back onto the ferry. So we stood in line for 20 minutes, then went back onto the ferry boat! Gotta love ferry boats! (We have a thing for ferry boats :) ).

If you look all the way to the right, you can see the Space Needle! We tried this like five times before we got it right!

After our round trip from Seattle to Bainbridge, we raced back to Amos' apartment to get all pretty and head out for a night on the town. We showered, painted our faces, curled our hair AND put on heels! We were ready for dinner at the Sky City Restaurant in the Space Needle and lots and lots of drinking.

Our reservation at the Space Needle was for 7:00pm. The perfect time to get some daylight pictures, the sunset and a gorgeous nighttime view of Seattle. Even though Margaret and I have enjoyed our romantic dates together, we felt that for this one night we could add a third member to our romantic dinner, Amos. And since we were staying with him, we felt obligated. (But we actually really wanted him to come anyways :)).

Me and Amos! I've missed him!

The revolving restaurant was awesome! A complete 260-view of the city of Seattle in 47 minutes. How awesome is that?! While eating dinner, you can leave notes for others dining at the restaurant. We found a lot of ripped up menus (which was weird that you would rip up a menu from a restaurant with average meal costs of $50). I found a blank part of someone else's note and wrote a note for others. It said, "We're from FLORIDA! 4/9/11 M&L".

Later, the note returned with a question about the weather. Not exactly sure what it said, since the wine was flowing, but we replied that it was hot and rained sometimes.

Amos and I in the Space Needle!

Cheers!

The three of us on our date :)

SEXY!

 My dinner consisted of Alaskan Halibut, apparently the first of the season, and duck con fit. Holy cow duck is good! Margaret had King Salmon with some duck con fit as well. The butter was even fancy at this place! It had lavender in it. Interesting, but definitely wouldn't want to eat an entire stick of it.

Full and giddy from eating in a revolving restaurant, we stepped out onto the observation deck and captured the city lights!

It was very difficult for us to get a picture out there. The wind kept whipping at our faces and blew my hair all over the place, mostly in everyone's faces. This is the best we could get:

Margaret, Amos, Lauren

A view from under the Space Needle.

We knew that we would be walking/drinking and tried to decide whether or not to change out shoes from heels to flip flops. The bar wasn't too far from the restaurant, but in the opposite direction of the car. So we had a decision to make. We were told that we could go back to the car if needed after the first bar, so we chose option #1, to the beer! We headed on over to Five Point Cafe and met up with Amos' friends.

This place was...interesting. Mostly older people in their 40's. There was good music, but we had to cram into one of the corner booths. Being semi-claustrophobia, I chose to move onto the next bar.

Because we didn't know where to go in Seattle, we had Amos and his friends direct us in the direction for more beer! But first, we were once again asked if we wanted to go back to the car to change our shoes in order to save our feet. Unfortunately, we declined, especially since we were told it was just a few blocks away. The walk to the second bar, Tini Bigs Lounge, wasn't all that bad. Too bad everything else about this place kind of sucked. The martinis were about $12 with a splash of liquor and there was only ONE beer available in the entire place. Since I've given up liquor, it was a pretty hard decision to pick which beer I would get :). A few more of Amos' friends met up with us at Tini Bigs. Shortly after our drinks, we ditched the place.

This time, we weren't given the option to go back to the car. It was too far of a walk and apparently the bar we were going to next, Shorty's, was just as far as the car, but in opposite directions. Walking in heels was our only option. We didn't think it would be too bad since they told us that Shorty's was about five blocks away. Whatever you do, don't trust Microsoft employees to judge distances. They are WRONG! We must have walked about 25 blocks to Shorty's. It wouldn't have been bad, but we were both wearing skimpy dresses and heels with the promise of a five block walk. So we were forced to endure the blisters and frostbite. (it wasn't that bad, we were just angry that we were lied to :) ).

We made it to Shorty's! Lauren, Amos, Jateen and Matt.

Shorty's was really cool. There were tons of arcade games in that place. They had an entire back room full of them! The best one of all, Big Buck Hunter! Definitely made my night! I think we played at least three games, that I could remember. I was on a high from all the Big Buck Hunting. I didn't think things could get any better, but they did! My friend Ross showed up!!!!! I haven't seen this kid in two years and the last time I saw him, he was living on my couch! It was definitely a fantastic night!

Unfortunately, it had to come to an end. The walk back was really cold, so Amos became my windbreaker until he went to go fetch the car. Meanwhile me, Margaret and Matt stopped for a slice of pizza. Being slightly inebriated, I ate whatever was put in front of me. Later, I found out that they only had one type of pizza, Hawaiian, and that it sucked. Drunk and happy, we arrived back at Amos' place. Luckily I had on my glow-in-the-dark bracelets, so I was sure I didn't get lost. Amos said that the glow was brighter than his LED screen on his alarm clock. Thank goodness for those bracelets or I might still be lost :).

Waking up with definitely tough the next morning, but we were troopers and set out for the Pike Place Market.

Margaret's friend lives on the outskirts of Seattle and was meeting us at the Market. While waiting, we got to see some fish fly! It was mostly already packaged up, but I guess watching food being thrown is still delightful. We also took this opportunity to take a picture with the Golden Pig at the Market.

Margaret's friend, Chris, finally made it! We were off to get some cheese at Beecher's! We were told that this place has the best mac-n-cheese, so we just had to see for ourselves! Holy crap! This mac-n-cheese is awesome. I'm spoiled. No more Kraft for me! The cool thing about this place is that they make their own cheese, Flagship, in the store. It was pretty neat being able to watch them make the cheese. At one point, it got a little gross with all the curds, but the cheese was still really yummy. I actually ended up getting a tub of spreadable Honey Flagship!

We kept walked through the food side of the market and got some huge, tasty Rose Apples and Pike Place Market's famous donuts.

Chris and Margaret

After shopping the market, we walked over to the Underground Tour. Luckily, we were the last group to be able to make the 1:00pm tour!

Did you know that Seattle was originally built at sea level? What idiots. The streets would flood twice a day and the sewage went out into the ocean, but when it would flood, it would end up back onto the streets. Pretty nasty shit. There was also some stuff about a guy named Crapper that invented/brought flushable toilets into Seattle. The entire thing was built with gravity and very narrow shoots for the poop to go. At one point, the pressure built up so much that when someone went to pull the chain to flush, they were blown into the air and off their crapper. (This is all that I could remember from what the guy said).

Eventually, the town had to rebuild, but above sea level. They built the street first. So there were these tall streets with ladders on each side of the street so you could get from one sidewalk to the other (they hadn't build the sidewalks yet, so they were still at sea level). Buildings that rebuilt would make two entrances, one on the ground floor (sea level) and one on the second floor. This way, when the sidewalks were on the same level as the road, then people could get into the shops.

Anyways, we were walking under side walks and doors that we underground were now the basement of buildings. I probably didn't explain it the best I could, because I'm not a story-teller, but if you're curious, look it up.

Underground

We also learned that on the sidewalks there are these purple glass tiles. But, when underground, it served as a skylight!

Once getting back onto the real streets of Seattle, we hit up Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. We just had to flash our bracelets from the tour to get a discount! woot woot! I met some interesting friends...

Unfortunately, our time in Seattle came to an end and we drove the four hours back to Spokane to prepare for our next adventure, Vancouver B.C!

Keep Portland Weird!

Excited! We so excited to go to Portland! We left when it was Friday, Friday and yesterday was Thursday, Thursday! We were so excited that we planned for all of us, me, Margaret and Rebecca, to wear green! Partyin', partyin', YEAH! Unfortunately, no one noticed, but it was still exciting for us. We so excited. (If you haven't googled Rebecca Black, do it now).

Green group!

Kickin' in the front seat, kickin' in the back seat, gotta make up my mind, I think I'll drive. At 4:00pm, we were told to skedaddle and hit the road! It took us about 7 hours to get there since we stopped for dinner at the Panda Express along the way. It was a gorgeous drive and a very pretty sunset.

We passed into Oregon at night, so of course pictures of the sign didn't turn out. So we stopped at the next exit and found the Welcome Center! Apparently, they really wanted to put the sign where the actual state line was. We ended up driving by some weird, creepy bridge that you see in horror movies, but we made it to the welcome center and the Welcome to Oregon sign!

Welcome to Oregon!

In Portland, we stayed with Margaret's best friend from high school, Jason. He has this huge house and only 3 people live there, so we had our own room with a giant air mattress in it! When we arrived, Jason had already went out and bought us some beers to celebrate us getting to Portland!

While chatting it up, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was a ferret! The ferret's name is Lily and she was the cutest and friendliest little ball of fur!

Me and Lily!

Turns out Lily belonged to one of Jason's roommates, Noah. After meeting Noah and Lily, we were introduced to Marrakesh. This is by far one of my favorites board games! I'm pretty sure it was because you got to play with these fuzzy little carpets the whole time. It was a very interesting board game that we are definitely going to try and find and bring back to Florida! We stayed up playing Marrakesh and chatting until about 3:30am!

Saturday began bright an early at 7:00am! We got up and drove to the Hood River to ride the Mt. Hood Train! Let's just get to the story behind this train ride, shall we?

We booked the train online on Wednesday night and we reserved three tickets for the Sunday train for me, Margaret and Jason. We were supposed to get a confirmation e-mail immediately following making the reservation. I received no such e-mail. On Thursday, I checked my e-mail, nothing. So we thought, well, no news must be good news. Friday, I checked my e-mail before we left for Portland, still nada. Margaret called the office, but no one was there. Business hours are 8:00am-5:00pm. We called at 5:09pm. But wouldn't you know it that when my phone finally got into cell phone range, my phone alerts me to let me know that I have two voicemail messages. Both were from the Mt. Hood Railroad. The first one was dated on Thursday. Apparently, the Sunday train was cancelled because there weren't enough people, but we needed to let them know if we wanted to ride the Saturday train again. Ugh oh. The second message was dated on Friday. Same message. No Sunday train. So, what do we do now?

Margaret called the place back, again, but this time left a message. We were hoping that we could still ride the train on Saturday and get refunded for one of the tickets (Jason couldn't go on Saturday because he had to work).

On a whim, we headed out to the Mt. Hood Railroad to try and catch the Saturday train. Along the way, we noticed that there was a ton of stuff to do if we couldn't make the train, so we had a back-up plan.

When we got to the train station, we found out that we could ride Saturday's train. On Monday, I checked my e-mail and found one from the train station sent late Friday afternoon. Just our luck.

All aboard the Mt. Hood Railroad!

The ride was an hour and fifteen minute ride alongside the Hood River. On the way up the mountain, the view was narrated and told us about the history of the land. It was pretty interesting. We passed a lot of peach trees, apple treas and grape fields.

Margaret was excited!

We were getting a little antsy to get off the train, so we had a mini photo shoot.

Hood River, OR

Orchards

Someone was kind enough to take our picture!

We stopped in the little town of Parkdale, OR. We had an hour to look around. There wasn't much to look at. There was a gift shop, consisting of 20 different items, a museum, full of random crap that had been donated from people in the town and McIssac's Grocery Store. We quickly walked through the gift shop and headed over to the museum. It was a little interesting. They had an entire dinner table full of rocks that resembled different foods, lots of stuffed animals (not the fluffy kind, but the ones you put on your mantle) and some old weapons. They also had some pharmacy history! 

An old scale and a picture of the pharmacy that used to be across the street.

Once we got out of the museum, we were blown away by a blizzard! We were definitely not prepared for this. Margaret had worn a skirt and flip flops, so we darted across the street in the snow and wound up at McIssac's Grocery Store. We bought a sandwich/wrap, some wine and a few energy drinks (we depend on caffeine these days) and headed back to the train to eat our lunch. While eating, I looked over at the sign in the train and got a little freaked out by how much of a coincidence it was.

May 1987 (my birth month and year); also, #513 (my birth month and day). Weirded me out just a little, but it was also really cool.

The view of the town. The building in the middle is the gift shop. And P.S. it's not a real horse.

The way back wasn't as exciting as the way up there. There wasn't as much narration and we had already seen it all on the way up. I did take some pictures of sheep. I didn't realize how fat they were!

After the excitement of the sheep and the Red Bull from lunch, I decided it was a perfect time for a cat nap. I tried really hard not too, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. Margaret noticed that my head would lean forward, then I would yank it back. Apparently this continued for at last 20 minutes. But a 20 minute cat nap is just what I needed! And we had another photo shoot!

Winning!

While walking to our car after our train ride, we noticed that there was a Winery's wine tasting room in the parking lot! We looked at each other and said, "why not?". We walked into Springhouse Cellar winery and realized that they were currently doing a wine tasting! We hopped on some bar stools and started tasting! We were able to choose six different wines to taste, as well as finger food!

After the tasting, we headed back to Portland. On the way, we noticed a sign for some falls. Since Florida is pretty flat and is highly lacking in any sort of falls, we thought it to be wise to stop and take some pictures.

It was pretty cold out and the Multnomah Falls gave off some serious mist.

Getting closer to the falls!

Falls!

An old sign of how far the cities were from the falls.

This entire trip, we have really wanted to go to the West Coast to see the Pacific Ocean. So when we got back into the car to head to Portland, I picked a place on my GPS. We were in luck! It was only an hour and a half from Portland! If we left within the hour, we would definitely get there for the sunset! It was such perfect timing!

We got back to Jason's house and picked him up along with his other roommate, Alex. But before we reached the coast, we needed to fill up on some gas. I was about to get out, when there was a knock on my window from a man telling me to open the little door to access my gas tank. I was utterly confused. Then I was told that you don't pump your own gas in Oregon. What?! This was a strange concept for me! You give them your card, tell them how much you want on it, and they do the dirt work for you! I asked if I should tip them, but the guys in the back were like, "why would you do that, that's an outrageous thing you would do!" Who would have known! Oh, and they have penis pumps! Just like the ones we encountered on the trip up to Washington!

We made it to the Pacific! The drive down was awesome too! We drove through mountains the entire time so it was weird to come out of the mountains, drive for five minutes, and then see the ocean! The next few pictures are a small fraction of the amount that I actually took. This is definitely one of the moments that I will remember!

UF Pharmacy on the West Coast!

Can I live here please?!

Of course I had to put my feet into the freezing Pacific Ocean!

It was really windy and cold out. Keep in mind that Margaret changed into pants, but was still wearing her flips! In the picture from left to right: Margaret, Alex, Lauren and Jason.

WEE!!

I made it!

Goonies anyone?

The sun is setting!

We really wanted to stay for the sunset finale, but I'm pretty sure if we stayed out there any longer that we would come back to Florida without any toes or fingers. After my hands thawed out enough to be able to grip the steering wheel, we headed back to Portland to get some grub! Jason suggested we go to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner, and since we don't have anything similar in Gainesville, we were definitely interested in trying something new!  But then we had to decide which one to go to and which one would be open once we got back to the city. We looked up all of the Ethiopian restaurants in the area and checked out their reviews. Unfortunately, none of the restaurants had good reviews. One was not pretentious enough, another had no atmosphere and one refused to give their patrons silverware. So we picked the only one that would be open and took our chances!

On the way to the restaurant, we picked up Noah (remember he was the other roommate) and headed to Jarra's. My first mission was to dump out all the sand that accumulated in my shoes, which was probably about half a cup altogether! We all ordered a beer to toast to old friends being united and to new friendships being formed. After our toast, our wait, Jarra (the guy the place is named after), took our order. Afterwards, he looked at me and asked if I was Hispanic. What? I was so confused, and to top it off, he started speaking Spanish to me. I had to set the man straight and tell him that I was mostly German. It was weird, because he definitely missed that Jason was part Cuban. Hmm. I'm still confused as to why he was trying to figure out what race I was. Apparently my strong jaw line and eyes gives me a Hispanic look. I'll take it as a compliment. He also dissed Florida by saying it was too low to sea level and flat. He prefers the high land.

Our food had arrived! If you haven't eaten Ethiopian food, like us, I recommend that you look into how it is presented to you. I'll try and describe it here, but I probably won't do it any justice. The plate starts with a bread in a huge circle that covers the entire plate. The consistency is like a pancake, but its not sweet. It really doesn't have that much flavor. The circle of bread is then topped with whatever entree you chose. For instance, I chose potato. So I got a potato stew on one part of my circle of bread. Margaret chose lamb, so she received a huge lamb chunk on bone with some stew. So all dishes are stew-like with whatever type of "entree" that you want. Then comes cottage cheese. It's supposed to help with the fire that starts in your mouth since it's so spicy. It also comes with some sort of bean clump and a little salad with tomato and feta cheese.

So all of this stuff is in little piles on top of your circle pancake-like bread thing. We were then given instructions on how to eat our meal from Jarra himself. You start with the outer circle of pancake-bread. You were supposed to tear of parts of it (with your hands) and then grab parts of your meal with the bread. Basically, you head by picking up your food with the bread. It came with more bread because the bread underneath gets super soggy and kind of gross. It's a pretty messy meal, but it was very freeing to eat with your hands. The only problem I encountered was itching my eye and getting my spicy fingers in them...man did that hurt! Ethiopian was definitely a new concept to us, but one that we welcomed! The experience was worth it.

Back in the car we went. This time, I chose the destination. We arrived downtown and walked over to VooDoo Doughnuts!

 

This had been on our list since we knew we were coming out to Washington! I had seen this place on Man vs. Food. They are known for their weird doughnuts, especially their cock-n-balls doughnut. As the name implies, it is shaped like a penis with cream filling, for effect. We had planned to eat a cock-n-balls, but once we waited in line for 20 minute and finally got to the counter, we were told that they were all out of the cock-n-balls. Our dreams were crushed! Instead of the cock-n-balls, Not knowing what else to get, I blindly ordered another one of their specialties, the Tex-Ass and a doughnut with fruit loops on it called, The Loop. Margaret got a Portland Cream and a chocolate donut with frosting. YUM!

This is what I was handed after ordering my Tex-Ass doughnut. At this point, I knew there was something special in the box. Step 1: Open the box.

Step 2: Find a doughnut the size of your head! In the picture: The Tex-Ass and Lauren

Since we had such a long day, we decided to take it easy for the night and drink a little and play some board games. During our game of Apples To Apples, I saw Lily, the ferret, walking away with one of Margaret's shoes. Apparently Lily likes leather and was playing in her shoes! So cute!

At this point, we were formally introduced to Rachel Black! O.M.G.! That song has been stuck in my head ever since! As the night grew on, we got a little more drunk and kept playing Apples to Apples. I suggested that we switch to the carpet game because I really like that one. Apparently, I had found a pillow and was laying on the floor, mumbling about carpets, and then fell asleep around 2:30am. Everyone else went to bed shortly after. I woke up extremely confused on where I was, figured it out, found my glasses and snuggled into bed with Margaret! Of course air mattresses make a ton of noise when you get on them, but I tried to be as quiet as possible. Margaret was asleep, but I think she was dreaming, because as I was getting settled in bed, she tapped by leg and told me, "that's enough". Haha! Gotta love it when people sleep talk!

The next morning our alarm went off at 9:00am. Since I fell asleep unexpectedly the night before, I wasn't aware when we were getting up. I asked Margaret, "Why did we set an alarm? It's too early." Plans were made last night to get up and go to the Saturday Market (don't get confused, the Saturday Market is open on Saturday and Sunday). Hungover, we drove downtown to the market.



By the River at the Market!

The market is basically an art festival. There is a lot of vendors selling art, jewelry, food and lots of other stuff. I supported the local art community and bought a little painting.

Along the way, we noticed a man setting up a bunch of buckets on the side of the road. He put them down in a specific order, then added a crate with liquor bottles coming out of it. Then, he pulled out some drum sticks and started playing the drums! It was fascinating!

Please not the sign behind him. It basically said that he needs money to buy weed and beer with. The man behind the sign had a huge hole just as the crease of the buttocks....not his best side.

This is how people make money at the market. Not by selling their craft, but by using their dog to lay in the road with a sign in it's mouth! Adorable nontheless.

We walked through the entire market and headed to the biggest bookstore in the country! But first, we had to walk by China Town of Portland and take this picture:

We made it to Powell's City of Books! This place was massive! It consumed an entire city block and has four floors filled with books. We only spent an hour at Powell's, but we definitely could have spent an entire day there. There were so many books! This place was so huge that they give you a map of the place so you can find your way around! They also paint the rooms different colors so you know what section you are in. Naturally, we got lost a few times and had to call each other to find out where everyone was!

 We stocked up on some reading material and had to get back to the car so we wouldn't get a ticket for an expired meter. By this time, we were definitely hungry. Our plan was to grab some food at a cart and take it to The Rose Gardens and eat it there. Unfortunately, most of the carts were closed on Sundays, but we did learn that cart food is what Portland people eat for lunch most of the time.

This is the cart that we chose, mostly because it was one of three open, but also because it looked yummy. Me and Margaret both got the Bangkok Paradise. It was definitely a good choice. So food in hand, we headed up into a random neighborhood and found ourselves in the parking lot of The Rose Gardens! The view was awesome!

You can see the city in the distance. What a great lunch spot!

Jason and Margaret at the Rose Gardens

Unfortunately, we had to say our good-bye's. We dropped Jason off at his house and prepared for the 6 hour drive back to Spokane.

We finally got a picture of the Welcome to Washington sign! Apparently they don't have them on the way into Washington from Idaho.

We made it back to Spokane! Of course we weren't going to cook food at home, we were too tired and we didn't have any food anyways, so we chose to go back to The Elk Public House! YUM-O!

Luckily when we arrived back to the apartment, we didn't come home to a broken toilet! All in all, a great, successful weekend!