We stayed in downtown Seattle at the Silver Cloud Hotel on Broadway. We got the hotel by using Priceline's negotiator and this pick was the result of inputting $150- a night and 3.5+ stars. It turned out to be a pretty good deal when we crammed 6 people into one room. Yeah, 6 people trying to sleep in 2 queen beds. Don't worry, I was okay with my trusty "no-sex wall" of pillows.
I got there on Thursday night to be greeted by the ladies (Jen, Vanessa, and Deanna) who got there a day earlier. I quickly found the closest bar and caught the last quarter of the Heat-Mavs game: the game where the Heat blew like a 15-point lead in the last 5 minutes...UGH. Anyway, the girls (who were dubbed the nickname DJV, which I then evolved it into DeJaVu) had met some guys from the pool at the hotel the night before and were planning on going out with them that night. LOL, WTF. How come they couldn't have met 5 girls at the hotel instead of 5 guys? Figures... Actually, these guys were pretty chill Hispanic Americans and I got along with them just fine. We ended up going to Cha Cha Lounge that night to play Never Have I Ever, a game I DOMINATED because I am just that cool and exciting. FYI, the winner is the person with the least number of things they have done and gets bought a shot by the loser, the one who's done the most. We also stopped by Unicorn, a dive-ish and smelly bar and Havana, a nightclub which actually had some decent Big Band music to dance to. Jen's boyfriend Jon would arrive later in the night. I ended the night with Seattle's finest late night drunk food: Cream Cheese Dogs!!!
The next day, the 5 of us went to Pike's Place, the popular fisherman's market. We ate lunch at the Pike Place Bar and Grill and it had some good clam chowdér (IT'S CHOWDA! SAY IT RIGHT!), but nothing else was really great. I would later learn that we should've gone to the Crab Pot instead.
Vanessa's boyfriend Ryan arrived later in the day and at night we started at a piano bar called Chopstix. Okay, so truth be told, I had actually considered moving to Seattle to find love. Why Seattle? Well, Seattle has a very strong asian population. So I believe that girls that I'm typically interested in (e.g. non-asian and mostly caucasian) have to grow up with so many asians around and consequently they become more accepting and attracted to asian men. If you've ever interracially dated yourself, you'd understand how challenging it is to overcome the interracial barrier. So at this bar Chopstix, I saw this cute blonde with an asian guy and said "OMG! That could be me!" Lol, this wouldn't get old the rest of the trip either. After Chopstix, we headed to Pesos with some of Jon's friends. One of them asked me, "So why are you on a trip with these other couples?" Well, it wasn't initially planned like that, it just turned out that way. I honestly don't care who I'm with on a trip as long as their good company and we have fun. I guess I've just grown out of the phase where I need to be constantly hitting on girls and hooking up with them (e.g. 2010; lol, that phase went by quick). Friday was kinda weird and a little drama-ensuing when Vanessa, Ryan, and Deanna literally ditched us to go another bar. I was in the bathroom at the time this happened. Jen knew they had ditched her when they were M.I.A. for several minutes, but she had faith, "Out of all the ones who left, Andy will come back." I did and she was happy that I wouldn't just ditch my friends like that. Me? I honestly don't care if people ditch me. I figure if you wanna hang out with me you will, otherwise, go ahead and do your thing! Although I did find it odd that you would coordinate a trip with your friends and not hang out with them there. Apparently this is not totally uncommon...to each their own I suppose. We eventually got home that night but Jen was super-hammered and ended up puking when we got back to the hotel. Jon was taking care of her and I was craving more Cream Cheese Dogs, so I went to go pick up a bunch for everyone. :P
Drama aside, on Saturday we went to the Mariner's game against the Rays. Props to Jen and Deanna for making it to the game given how hungover they were. The game was a good one: 3-2 Rays and a save for my boy Farnsworth! However, I was extremely disappointed to see Evan Longoria leave the game. :( After the game, Jen and Deanna had to go back to the hotel and get some rest and recuperation, but the rest of us stayed around the stadium area to do some more drinking...like in the beer garden at the Pyramid brewery. After the beer garden, we found Swannies 'cause we were planning on watching the Stanley Cup game. The TV's weren't easy to see from the table we were sitting at, but it was still a good time. The evening rolled around and we went to this bar called Double Header. Very interesting because we actually got thrown out of the bar in a very polite fashion. Apparently the bartender could "tell" when a group of people have had too much to drink and kindly asked us to leave. I just don't know why he did it 'cause we were a majority of his business at the time and weren't causing a ruckus. Oh well. We walked back towards Qwest Stadium (it's right next to Safeco) and the U2 concert was going on. My friends tried walking into the concert without any tickets (I pussied out) but they were denied. So then it was on to Slugger's Sports Bar for another drink and then finally heading home.
Sunday was my last day in Seattle and I wasn't about to leave without having some asian food. We went to Boom Noodle (Vietnamese) for lunch and I was very pleased with the Tokyo noodle bowl. We kind of took it easy this day...checking out the local parks, the girls did some shopping, and we had ice cream at Molly Moon's. Matt and Pamela, I recommend this place for you two since you two looooooove desert. My friends asked me what I wanted to do on my last day and I honestly said, "I just want to catch the NBA game." And so we did and I watched Miami take a 2-1 lead on Dallas. :) The rest of the series was very disappointing for me obviously, but 'grats to Dirk for finally winning a championship. He really earned it. We went to the Oddfellows building for some late-night dinner at Tin Table. We also learned that they had ballroom dancing which looked kind of fun but I guess the couples weren't into that.
That pretty much wrapped up my Seattle trip, which was my kind of vacation. Not big on doing a whole lot of sight-seeing. I just like to experience the food, culture, and lifestyle, relax a bunch and hang out with my friends. Next up is Vegas next weekend for Kassie's 25th birthday!
