Day 19 and 20, Sat-Sun, February 17-18, 2013

Saturday

For Saturn's Day (Saturday, so named for the Roman god Saturn, which is less cool than Thursday - Thor's Day, named for the Norse god Thor, who has a hammer and also some goats) we had a simple plan: find our way down to the piers, take a harbour tour, eat somewhere, and, if time, go see the fishies at the aquarium ("Feesh, feesh, feesh, feesh." - Ben).  That is, mostly, what we accomplished.

The harbour tour was on an Argosy bost at one-thirty pm. We made it with plenty of time, having Google-mapped a route in advance, and redeemed our SCCA Guest Services voucher for two tickets and set about waiting to board.

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A bit about our walk:

The most convenient route down to the waterfront was through Pike Place Market, where we descended several sets of several flights of stairs. We discovered whole floors of new stores and a menagerie of new scents, most of which seemed to be variants of urine. There was interesting refuse, which makes me think that it's hard for the custodians to keep on top of the area. Can't remember the last time I saw a used Jimmy Hat (urban dictionary) next to some broken glass and food shrapnel. If I had to guess, and I do, because I haven't looked anything up or talked to anyone, I would venture that the stairwells are highly prized at night by the city's homeless population, many of which hang out in the touristy Pike Place Market area where the begging is good. 

What we discovered, when we got down to the piers, was that we had been largely ignorant of the existence of a significant Tourist Trap, one geared primarily towards families. Here is where all of the nautically themed restaurants hang out (not seafood places, or places with good seafood, I mean places with sea crap on the walls). There are many. Moreover, on the waterfront, there exist a buttload of boats, and, frequently, boatloads of butts.

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While we waited to board, I investigated some of the other tour options, which included (giggle) Tillicum Village. This was amusing enough, in and of itself, until I saw the name of our vessel, the Goodtime II. Seriously. Well, now they're just doing this on purpose.

The Goodtime II (seriously), had seating for at least three hundred people; our tour had two hundred and six. There were two decks for passengers. The main deck was fully enclosed with benches along the walls and many tables and chairs. There was also a full bar, to help lubricate the occupants. On top of the main deck, there was a large, open area with the best views, which was where we started off. We lasted twenty minutes on the top deck before it got windy and cold, and we led the charge down to the enclosed deck, followed closely by just about everyone else. Our tour guide was informative and hilarious, and I learned a lot.

Fun Fact: Puget Sound is, on average, over six hundred feet deep, which is deeper than the Space Needle is tall.

The tour took a little over an hour, and we met a very nice couple from Tasmania (originally from Calcutta), who were in Seattle on vacation from their current home in Ohio. Say that six times fast. Mom gave them our phone number and invited them to call us, "if they were ever in Canada." He was a marine biologist, and I never did catch what her career was.

We went to Ivar's Acres of Clams, just around the pier from the Argosy Tours location. I had clams. I had to have clams. It was alright, but I think it had been oversold to us by the locals, though, in fairness, their selling did heavily feature the three to six pm Happy Hour drink prices, which we didn't actually take advantage of, since my medical team has asked me not to drink. For the interested: Three fifty pints, highballs and cocktails. Short version: Good value for money, but not high end seafood. I watched fat kids lob french fries at seagulls through the window at our table for a while. Seagulls can catch.

After lunch, we walked over to the aquarium for seconds, but they were only open until five, and it was ten after four, so we took our appetites elsewhere. Note: I am making a joke about seafood.

We stopped at Target, for a kettle and headed home. We grabbed a pizza for supper, much later.

Sunday

We got up early and headed over to the Experience Music Project, which is really cool. The Skytrain actually runs through the building, and the building itself is pretty non-standard in terms of appearance. It's cool - I recommend a quick Google.

I love that Google is a verb.

Inside, there were exhibits on Sci-fi and Horror props, the history of the electric guitar, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, the leather jacket, the art of video games, and a really cool uptairs studio full of booths where you can play guitar, keyboard, drums, learn mixing techniques, test out your vocals, and even record your own CD. It's a museum/gallery, so these are all temporary exhibits (except for the studio, that's permanent). There was also a room with an amazing sound system and gigantic screen, playing music from past concerts and rock legends, and a row of computers with Indie games on them for all to play. I loved it there, and could probably have spent half a day exploring everything without getting bored. The gift shops also have just about every t-shirt that Sheldon has ever worn on the Big Bang Theory, if that's your thing.

From there, we walked down to The Crab Pot, which many people have recommended to me (thanks Lisa, Haven), and was featured on Man Vs Food. We were meeting up with Jenni, my friend Teddi's sister, and her family, and we were early. I got an americano, Mom went to look at Pandora jewelry (the charm bracelets, nothing to do with Avatar). Eventually we met up and got to know each other as we waited for our names to be called. The Crab Pot was enormous, and it was packed. Mom, Jenni and I all went in on one of their specialty SeaFeasts (there are four tiers, each with more kinds of seafood).  We had the 'westport'. As with all of the SeaFeasts, they equipped us with a board, a mallet, and an apron. This was followed by ridiculous amounts of molten butter, and two large silver bowls of seafood, corn and potatoes were poured onto the table in front of us. You dig at a big pile of shellfish and smash it with a hammer to get at the good bits. It was gastronomically barbarous, and it was delicous. Eventually, we finished it, and parted company.

Mom and I made our way home, stopping in a couple of neat shops on the way, and didn't eat for a very, very long time.

A penguin walks into a bar and says, "Bar-keep, have you seen my brother?" Bartender says, "I dunno, what does he look like?"