Seattle Fireworks

Having just gotten out of the Quinault Rain Forest, Dave, Matt, Neal and I descended on Taco Bell in Aberdeen like starving refugees, practically incinerating our grilled stuft burritos as well as an odd assortment of other semi-Mexican food found on Taco Bells menu. After dinner, which was tremendously satisfying, we sped back to Seattle, making it from Graves creek to Matt's apartment in a little under 4 hours. The plan was to go out for some beers in West Seattle, the hip neighborhood where Matt lives, but that plan took a dive relatively quickly as the exhaustion of a 15 mile day set in.

The next day we got up and spent the day touring the city, getting an excellent breakfast at Easy Street Records (apparently Pearl Jam played here before they were big) exploring West Seattle a bit, taking in incredible views of Mt. Rainier, then heading downtown to visit Pike Place Market, which is notable for the fish throwing antics of the fish mongers, the original Starbucks (for all you coffee addicts out there), get a good look at the Space Needle and generally see the city. And we had to go to Niketown and get me new flip-flops, as the ones I bought only hours before at a drug store had already given me blisters. We got some lunch in Fremont and walked up to see the Fremont Troll, a massive stone sculpture at the top of Troll street, obviously. Dave and Neal left for California around 5. Matt and I hung out with Matt's brother Jason for a bit, then picked up some steaks and crab legs and met Bonnie back at Matt's for Surf n' Turf ... delicious but dinner basically wiped us all out and we crashed pretty early.

The 4th started well, with avocado and steak breakfast burritos followed by a leisurely stroll around Lincoln park and some time hanging with Bonnie's family down in Alki. Then on to the main event, fireworks at Matt's parents place, whose incredible house overlooks the sound. And, conveniently on the 4th, a dock from which they launch fireworks. We hung out, drank some beer and feasted on steak and and salmon. When the fireworks finally came around 1030, half an hour late, they were awesome, as they were basically going off at eye level about 200 feet in front of us. We could also see fireworks displays going off around the sound, down in Tacoma and across at Quartermaster harbor on Vashon Island. Actually, the display on Vashon was probably the most impressive display of fireworks I have ever seen, even from across the bay it looked like nuclear explosions (this picture, from Finchhaven shows what it looked like up close).

After the fireworks I said goodbye to Bonnie and Matt's family, who are just awesome, they make me feel really comfortable whenever I am there, and we got back to Matt's, played a couple games of cribbage (Matt wins 2-1) and then went to bed. The next day I got up and flew down to the Bay Area to check out my Dad and Pegs newly remodeled house ...