Day 9

Yeah, I know. Days 7 and 8 are missing. Hopefully I'll get back to them. But I want to try to catch up...

Friday (11/21) was my first full day in Seattle, where I'm settling in for a few days before heading down the coast. Found a great cheap room in Renton, of all places. Nothing much to do in the neighborhood, but the hotel is an excellent place to hang out in for the weekend. Spent the first half of the day sleeping in, doing laundry, and resting up my cold.

Then headed into downtown Seattle. What a zoo. There are waaaay too many freaking cars in this city and not enough parking places. I didn't help, of course, but I don't know the local transit system so I pretty much had to drive. First stops were the tourist things. A mediocre overpriced lunch at Ivars on the pier, but I had to do it. Brought back memories of one of my first trips to Alaska, where I caught the ferry nearby. (The Alaska ferry terminal has long ago moved north to Bellingham, though.) Then a stroll through the Pike Street Market and a stop at the original Starbucks. Got that all out of the way, then went to different coffeehouse to wait out some rain showers and doze off for a bit in a comfy chair.

The day finally got interesting after that. A former coworker had strongly urged me to visit a neighborhood beer joint he loved, the Stumbling Monk. (Thanks, Jeremy!) Tracked it down and had a great time. It's a small place that specializes in Belgian brews, both genuine ones from Belgium and domestic Belgian-style beers. They had my current favorite beer on tap, the Duchesse de Bourgogne. Yay!

Had a long conversation with a couple guys at the bar who were friends since childhood in Cleveland. One of them had lived in the Twin Cities, having married a gal from Eagan. One of the owners, behind the bar, was just as friendly and conversational. Some previous customer had given him a wooden nickel from Al's in Center City, MN. When I found out I was visiting from Minnesota, he pressed it on me, insisting I had a better chance of spending it than he did. 

I enjoyed two glasses of the Duchesse and one of Ommegang Rouge, that New York brewery's version of the Flemish sour red ale, which they have made for them under contract by a Belgian brewery. Holy cow, did they emphasize the sour aspect. Kinda like drinking green apples. Glad I tried it, but it's the Duchesse for me...

Wrapped up the day with a really lame late dinner of Dungeness crab cakes in downtown Renton. At least there was some decent live jazz in the place.

Comments

[CVelo]

Hopefully I am not too late with this comment, but don't forget to see the Experience Music Project: http://www.empsfm.org/
(and yes, I am trying to live vicariously through your travels ;-) - keep up the cool pictures).

[RMA]

Sadly, your tip is late. I moved on to Portland and will be heading south from here tomorrow. But you wouldn't know since I keep falling behind in blogging the trip.

[CVelo]

heh! well that works out well, because I keep falling behind in reading the blog.... (I know, what a surprise ;-) ).
At least you are heading into warmer weather...
(hoping to see some surfing photos forthcoming... ;-) )