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.
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.
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.
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
