Heading Off to Work

Yesterday Dan had to go work, so he handed me the keys to the apartment, a map and told me to have fun. He would have let me drive the Jeep, but decided I needed to walk to train for the Nashville 1/2 marathon (he was right).

I walked to Seattle city center, which is approximately 3 miles from Dan's place - if you go the most direct route. I didn't. I wandered all over the neighborhoods while making my way down there. Some was deliberate, some was my streets kept quitting before I got where I wanted to be. Once there I toured the Science Fiction Museum and the Experience Music Project. If you make it to Seattle - add that to your Must See list. They were awesome. The Science Fiction Museum was all things Sci Fi - books, movies, fanzines - if it related at all it was there. It was very well done and quite impressive. They'll even email you a list of the books they have on display throughout the museum. I guess a lot of people (myself included) want to read the books they mentioned, and it takes too long to write them all down. The EMP is a giant music museum/recording studio/disneyland for music addicts. They have galleries dedicated to musicians and industry pioneers (Jimi Hendrix, Disney). They have a story corps-type set-up with hundreds of brief interviews with musicians, movie directors, authors, anyone with a story to tell. They have computer-assisted instruments that teach you to play - guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. It is really awesome. There was a band performing there later in the evening and they were on stage doing a sound check the entire time I was there. They were good.

Dan is introducing me to some great new music. I'm not sure who the artists are, but he seems to have narrowed in on what I like (beyond my normal country western stuff) and has been playing some really great stuff.

After wandering through the entire city center area, including the Space Needle, a park and a cool fountain that plays to music, I started walking home. It was getting colder though, so I stopped at a cute coffee house to warm up. Good choice - the barista was awesome! It was called Cafe Bella. I was the only customer so she and I sat and talked for almost and hour. Various people would come and go, but we had a wonderful time. It was pushing 8, so Dan came looking for me and we headed to dinner.

Dinner was a restaurant he had never been to (not an easy thing to find - Dan is a restaurant guru) and an ethnicity neither of us had had before - Afghan. We ordered a kabob platter for 2 - and it was delish! I didn't care for the drink - a yogurt/mint blend that was salty. It cut the spice but was just too weird - like drinking alka selzer with your meal. Everything else was really good though.

We spent another late night into early morning talking and catching up - he's probably thrilled I'm leaving for work today so he can get a decent night's sleep!