Days 12 & 13, Sat-Sun, February 9-10th, 2013

Day 12, Saturday, February 9th, 2013

Saturday was supposed to be sunny. It wasn't, but that's okay, really.

We had plans to meet up with our old friend Jaqueline and her friend Louise. Not that Jaqueline is herself old, it's just that I have known her since she was born. They drove down from Gibson, BC, on Friday, and we met up with them today at around noon. By way of a landmark, we elected to converge upon the original Starbucks stand in Pike Place Market, for reasons of touristy photographs and also a known-known in terms of coffee quality.

As far as coffee goes, there are many, many, many places that one may obtain it in Seattle, and a non-trivial portion of those manage to match, if not greatly exceed, the coffee that Starbucks offers at its eighteen thousand locations per square city mile. That being said, Starbucks is completely acceptable coffee, and it is, if nothing else, consistent. (Personally, I have become a big fan of Vivace, the espresso joint around the corner from the SCCA house.)

The Patient Zero of Starbucks was absolutely and utterly packed. While one could have put more bodies in there, most of them would have had to be sitting on the shoulders of the customers that were in there already. Mom and I waited outside for a few minutes, wondering if we were late, or if the girls were, when suddenly, Jaqueline waved at us from the window, with a big smile on her face. She'd braved the plunge for coffee, and had managed to get it and get out in about five minutes, which is pretty good for any coffee shop, let alone one that flush with the press of human flesh.

For expository contribution:

The original Starbucks offers the same fare that you will find at any of their myriad locations, any of which you can find by being in a large city, picking up a piece of refuse, and throwing it in any direction you might choose. It will land in a Starbucks. For all of that there is nothing there in terms of coffee that one cannot obtain at any franchise location, the original does stand out in that it actually looks like a unique local coffee shop, which, once upon a midnight dreary, it was. I didn't see if there were souvenir knickknacks to be had, but it was Pike Place Market, so I can only assume that the answer to that will fall into the affirmative category.

Once convened, we roamed, looking for a place to fill our tummy-tum-tums. After a couple of false starts due to seating that was at capacity, we sat down to eat at a lovely, deceptively not-so-little place named Le Cafe Campagne. It was French. The menu was in French (with English subtitles). The staff did not speak French, which we found out when Mom addressed the server in said tongue. That poor server looked so confused. Once tabled, we, as one does, made selections from the menu (I am being this explicit because I want to talk about what I ate. It will be worth it.). I ordered the cassoulet, which you should google, and it was the best thing I have put into my face since we've been here. I have put a lot of good things into my face.

Cassoulet is a savoury bean stew, with origins in the South of France.

Big deal, you say.

Cassoulet is a savoury bean stew with duck, lamb, pork shoulder, beef, and turkey sausage, with origins in the South of France.

You want it.

It came out in a small-looking le creuset saucepan, still bubbling hot, and the first plateful of it was lovingly ladled onto my plate by our server (not the one who was confused by Mother's attempt to communicate in the restaurant's linguistic premise). It was the first of many. In this context, many means four. I was so very, very full. We didn't have supper until about seven, and I was thankful for that.

We roamed Pike Place Market for the rest of the afternoon. We didn't buy much, but we took everything in. At one point, the girls had to leave to switch hotels - they'd originally only planned to stay for one night, and when they changed their minds, the hotel wouldn't give them the same rate for the second night - and mom and I ventured down to a pleasant seating area overlooking the ocean. Technically, it overlooked the freeway, but after the freeway, it overlooked the ocean. We sat for a little while, and Mom fed a seagull one of her dried cherries. Of course, this attracted many seagulls, for about thirty seconds, until one of them saw something that was very important to seagulls and they all took off in a big explosion of flapping wings, which surprised a little Asian girl so much that she fell onto her bottom and started crying. It was only a little bit adorable.

Later, I learned of the existence of a store called Ross, which is, "like super Winners." I obtained a pair of Sanuks for twenty-five bones, and so am inclined to agree.

After a brief sojourn to the girls' new hotel, we settled on a place for supper (The Lunchbox Laboratory again. The burgers are amazing.), which was delightful. The ladies went back to their hotel room, Mom and I retired to the SCCA House, and a we all settled pleasantly into food comas for the night.

Day 13, Sunday, February 10th, 2013

Sunday had a slower start, but after a light lunch, we met with the girls again, this time at Vivace. We loitered and swapped stories for about an hour, and then off they went, on their way home, the conclusion to a very nice visitation.

The next hour and a half were less enjoyable. We attempted to get Mom's damaged luggage taken care of, which, after one unhelpful salesman and a trip at his urging to a store that it turns out does not service luggage at all, we managed to get started. Then, since I'd blown through ten gigs of data in six days and I needed a refill for my MiFi unit, we went to the Verizon store, where, it turns out, they do not sell prepaid refill cards for any of their prepaid products. I thought this strange. Regardless, one can make payments on accounts at the store ...if one remembers the phone number of the mobile device. I did not remember the MiFi unit's phone number. I was also defeated during the exploration of cable internet (Verizon and Comcast have a partnership).

[Because all of the rooms at the SCCA House have cable internet, what some long-term patients have done is order cable internet through Comcast. Verizon could not help me in this. What I have been told is that I have to contact Comcast directly, because the SCCA House has a special account. I have yet to do this.]

We returned home, and I'll be honest, I spent the rest of the day playing Civilization 5 with my girlfriend, over the internet. Mom finished her puzzle. There was much rejoicing.

Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.

translation: I have a catapult. Give me all the money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head.