A long post with very little thought put into it

            I’m going to warn you right now, this post is going to be very long, and quite possibly not all that entertaining, however, I will try to throw humorous phrases and pictures in where possible.

Well, my dad and I recently took a trip to Seattle for a weekend to see Muse in concert. And I have to say, that was one of the best weekends ever. It started off by getting up at 3:30 in the morning to leave for Seattle. For some reason, I was more awake then than whenever I am at school. My theory is that schools have some form of device embedded in the walls that sucks all life and energy from the students. This energy is then sent to China for the production of lead-based paint for all of the toys that we buy our kids here in America. Anyway, the train that I was taking to Seattle (yes those things still exist) was supposed to leave at 4:40; however, it arrived at the station at 6... So after hours of doing nothing, I got on the train and did nothing for a few more hours.

This was my view for the majority of the train ride…

My knees were comfortably smashed against this wall

So I'm sitting on the train, and across the aisle is just one of those people that if you give them an opportunity to talk, you know you are going to get their entire life's story, so I made a very concerted effort not to talk to this person. I was really successful in this endeavor; however, the lady in the seat behind me was not. This person went much further than talking about their life’s story, this person also went into great detail on the lives of their who-knows-how-many children. After a few hours of agonizing torture of listening to this person’s ramblings, they finally got off of the train. It was at this moment I remembered that I had packed my headphones and my iPod. *facepalm* Once I had realized this, the majority of the train ride was uneventful.

So we arrive in Seattle, and we walk down to one of the piers, I don’t really remember which one, but we got lunch. Now if you’ve never eaten at the Crab Pot and you like seafood, I would highly recommend it. They take a ginormous mixing bowl of crab, shrimp, mussels, clams, corn, potatoes, and sausage and just dump the whole thing right in the middle of the table. It was wonderful!

After lunch we walk next door to the aquarium. Why is it that like every seafood restaurant has an aquarium within a block? Anyway, the aquarium was pretty cool, other than the myriad of little children that were there. I think it was a school field trip or something. When we were about to leave the aquarium, and I noticed these people behind us. It’s not that unusual for someone to be behind you, especially in a place like Seattle. However, after walking about 4 blocks with having no idea where we were going, and them still following us, I was becoming a bit unnerved. But once I realized where we were, I was significantly less worried.

We ended up on Pike Street market. Tourist trap like no other. Thankfully we were able to escape the abyss without buying anything. Frankly, I’m just glad I got out of that place alive.

After we were very nearly subjected to buying useless junk, my dad and I walked roughly a mile to our hotel. Nothing really that interesting happened on the way, but I did find this very nice looking shrubbery about a block from our hotel.

            We got to the hotel and dropped off our stuff, and then walked to the Space Needle. Since we had bought this thing called a city pass, we were able to do a whole bunch of stuff in Seattle for a fraction of the cost. And if you call right now, we’ll give you a free book light that will break within the first week, just pay extra processing and handling.

            So after the celebratory elevator ride, I was at the top of the Space Needle. There were a couple of really cool things that I noticed while I was up there. First was this building…

The second was Mount Rainier…

            I really liked how Mount Rainier looked. In my opinion, it looks like a mountain on top of the clouds.

            So after the Space Needle, my dad and I went to the Chihuly exhibit. For those of you who don’t know, Chihuly is an artist that works with glass. He likes to make really big spiky things made out of glass, for example…

            Or naturey like scenes like…

            After about an hour of becoming cultured, my dad and I went to the EMP Museum, courtesy of our city passes (there are still five hundred thousand book lights that were made by the Chinese using the energy harvested from the American Public School System that I need to get rid of…) Anyway, I wasn’t really that impressed with the EMP Museum, or maybe I was just tired, or both. I’m not really sure as I’m pretty tired right now, so forgive me if I’m not making much sense or rambling a bit… adcxs zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… Oh, sorry, I fell asleep there for a bit and my face fell on the keyboard.

Afterward, we went back to the hotel for a break before the concert, which turned out to be a really good idea because we were both really tired from walking around Seattle all day.

           

            At about 6:30 it was finally time for the concert. So we went down stairs to catch a taxi to the Key Arena. (We were both still really tired) To my surprise, there was a couple there that was also going to the concert, so we shared a cab and made our way to the arena. We get inside, buy a couple of shirts and a bracelet, and take our seats. About 15 minutes later, the opening act begins. The name of the band was “Band of Skulls” and they weren’t bad, but not particularly my favorite either. And finally after having been awake for 17 hours with 3 hours of sleep the night before, Muse finally took the stage.

Muse has recently come out with a new album which included a couple of dub-step inspired songs, “Follow Me” and “The Second Law: Unsustainable”. Well they opened with “Unsustainable” which was absolutely insane live. If you are interested, you can listen to the song by clicking on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF_xdvn52As

            My personal favorite song that they performed live was “New Born”, as well as the improvisation afterwards. I’ve also included the link to this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhduQhDqtb4

            If you ever get the chance to see Muse live, I would highly recommend it. That concert was by far the best one I’ve ever been to, but in all fairness Muse is my favorite band so I’m kind of biased…

            After the concert we walked back to the hotel (yes, more walking) and I practically passed out as soon as I got to the hotel room.

DAY 2

            The day after the concert, I woke up at about 9, and sounded like a frog gargling nails whenever I attempted verbal communication. So I relied on hand gestures to get my ideas across.

            After the continental breakfast, my dad and I went to the Pacific Science Center. I was slightly disappointed in this one as well, but it was still better than what I would normally be doing on a Saturday morning; reading the backs of Raisin Bran boxes and checking my email.

http://dramaticpicnictable.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-happens-when-i-get-up-before-noon.html

            The Pacific Science Center is a really cool place to explore different fields of natural science, especially if you’re about 10 years old. Oh, and it helps to have the exhibits that you want to do open… However, my dad and I were able to move a 4000 pound ball with relative ease, which was pretty cool. In case you were wondering, no, I’m not a super hero, although my dad might be…

            After the Pacific Science Center, we took the monorail just for the heck of it and then called a cab. We went to some Caribbean restaurant that I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called, but they had some pretty darn good sandwiches.

            After completely stuffing ourselves on sammiches, we went to the Seattle Pinball Museum. Now I know what you are thinking; only geeks play pinball these days. Well, contrary to popular belief, nerds still play pinball too =P. Actually, if you are ever in Seattle, I would highly recommend you check this place out. For a measly $10 entry fee, you can play as much pinball as you want. This Machine here was probably my favorite of the old ones. And Arabian Nights was my favorite of the new ones.

           

            Now, if you have ever met me or my dad, you might have noticed that we are kinda sorta, maybe a little bit competitive… a lot. So we spent a good 3 hours trying to best each other at pinball on the various machines they had available to play on.

            Sadly, this was the last thing that my dad and I did in Seattle. We walked outside, and as my dad was calling for a cab to take us to the train station, he noticed something. From the corner of King and Marbury (I think) he saw what he thought was the station. It wasn’t the station, but the station did end up being right behind the building that he thought was the station. My dad got a pretty good laugh at how ridiculous we would have looked calling a cab to take us 2 or 3 blocks.

            And finally, after taking the most convoluted route possible to actually get to the train station, we get on the train headed home. If you are still reading this, then I commend you on your patience and willingness to read the near thoughtless ramblings that come from my mind whenever I’m in my transient state of mind where trains of thought go to not only be destroyed, but after being destroyed, scrapped for parts, then built into new trains and then violently smashed again in a never ending cycle of a train lovers nightmare.

            All that’s left to say, I had a pretty nice time on the way home from Seattle. My dad and I both had steak on the dining car, and I rocked out to Muse the rest of the way home. And that’s how my weekend went. I’m done. Probably…

Now I’m done =P