Seattle: Days 2 & 3

So today is our third day in Seattle, and I'm still falling more and more in love with this city. Yesterday was a pretty relaxing and fun day. Got up around 8:30 and got some breakfast here at the hotel, then got ready to head over to the UW campus for the tour. The tour was awesome. Got to see all the amazing buildings around and campus and checked out one of the dorm buildings, which is fucking awesome. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom this week and it looks amazing. Reeeeeally want to move up here a.s.a.p. After the tour we headed over to Chipotle for some lunch, nothing new, then I had to head back to the campus for some meetings with school advisers and all that. After all the school stuff was done I had some time to sit around and relax at the hotel. One of my old neighbors and close family-friends from back home, Jessica Thompson, goes to the UW now so we met up with her and had some great Indian food. It was great to see Jess, because it's been about 3 years since the last time I saw her. On Sunday, we're meeting up with the rest of her family and that should be great. The Thompsons were like my second family when I was growing up. After dinner, Kat and I decided to head over to a local tattoo shop and see if they had any time to tattoo us. We made an appointment for today, and then decided to go on a little walk around the area. We walked down to the water and caught a great view of the Seattle skyline. Here's a couple pictures from day 2...

Kat in the Harry Potter library

world's largest book (5 ft x 7 ft)

Today was probably the best day so far. We didn't really have anything planned, except the tattoo appointment at 2 p.m. We slept in a little bit, and then just hung out around the hotel room for a couple hours. We walked to Rite-Aid so I could get some sudafed, and so Kat could get a couple rolls of film for a pinhole camera she bought and assembled last night. On the way back, Shiloah, the tattoo artist, called me and asked about the tattoos. Since we were just across the street from the shop we walked in and talked about our ideas and got everything sorted out. After that Kat and I went to this little coffee shop called Cafe On the Ave. I got some hot chocolate that was delicious (and artsy as hell) and a chocolate croissant.


After we had our drinks and pastries we went back to the hotel and relaxed for a while longer, and then walked back to the tattoo shop. We were both slightly nervous about how the drawings would look, but when we got there they were exactly what we had in mind. The two of us got matching emeralds (for the Emerald City) and some lettering. Mine said NxNW (north by northwest) and Kat's said "super delicious" in honor of our Super Delicious Seattle Tour '09. We both got them on our ankles. Shiloah was awesome, and gave Kat all types of advice on getting started in the tattoo business and all that. She's a great artist and I could tell Kat really respected what she had to say.

the finished product

After getting tattooed we came back to the hotel, again. I immediately passed out and took good nap. When i woke up we cleaned our tattoos and then went back to Cafe On the Ave for some dinner. Awesome alfredo penne pasta. Then we got all our camera gear together and walked over to Gas Works Park. The place I've been dying to check out since we got to Seattle. It's this old gasworks-powerplant type of thing that they converted into a public park. Lots of grass and hills, and a PERFECT view of the Seattle skyline. We got there right at sunset and it was gorgeous. We spent a while there taking pictures. I could've sat there and stared at the view for hours. It was incredible. A lot of my pictures came out blurry but I managed to get a few great shots and I'm really happy with them. Some of my favorite shots that I've ever taken. Here's the good ones.

best picture i've ever taken

Kat and I lookin' hard

Mom and I

After we finished up at the Gasworks, we made the walk back to the hotel room. I hopped straight on the computer when we got here and uploaded all my pictures. I was a little disappointed at first, because so many pictures came out blurry. But, once I saw the better ones I was pretty stoked. I'm going to get some sleep now. Check out the rest of my shots from here in Seattle on my flickr. Thanks for reading.

-Dean