The Honeymoon Story
Note: This is the official and authorized story of our honeymoon. Any story we might tell about the honeymoon not listed here is probably just rumor.
Hello all,
Well, Stephanie and I have survived our first two weeks and everything is settling down nicely. (By settling down I mean the boxes on the bottom of the pile have been crushed and are now making a nice layer of sediment.) Most of you know that we weren’t planning on taking a honeymoon right away, but at the service Ben took matters into his hands and made a very special collection of $500 so we could travel. We want to thank everyone who contributed to this fund. We did go over the budget a bit, but we had a great time.
We left on Tuesday, July 24 for Seattle, the only plans we had were a Mariners game, the Pacific Science Museum, and the Gameworks arcade. We checked into our hotel, the Travelodge by Seattle Center, and it was a sign of a nightmare just starting to happen. The first room we were assigned was a bit small, but comfy. There was a plunger on the floor near the bathroom and we discovered that it was there because there was two inches of standing water in the shower stall. Yuck. We got another room, and although the shower was dry, it could have done with a good dose of CLR, TSP, and possibly Noah’s Flood to clean it. We had a wonderful view of the travelodge sign outside, and the remote control only controled the volume and power to the television, but it didn’t change chanels on the cable box. I know this isn’t something we should really be upset about, but we decided to be upset and dismayed anyway.
After we rested for a few minutes, we changed into our Mariners shirts and hats and headed for Safeco Field. It took about ten minutes to drive to the park, and about fifteen minutes to find a place to park the car. We eventually parked on the inside of a skate park that had been built into an old building across the street from the stadium for only $15, and that was the cheap parking. On the way we were handed four bumper stickers that read “Two Outs... So What” by a fan in the next lane. Anyone who has watched a Mariners game has probably heard the train whistle in the background everyonce in a while. To get to the park we had to cross the train tracks where we were stopped by two trains. Standing in a crowd of people pushing forward to get closer to a moving train made us wonder about the sanity of baseball fans, but we waited it out, and eventually got across the tracks and around the ballpark to get our tickets. The National anthem was being sung while we were outside, and we saw the first pig of our honeymoon. I’m not sure if it was BallPork Frank or the 2001 All Star Pig, but it was a large white pig with red stitching across its back.
Once we got inside we found our seats in section 345, which is the third and topmost tier of seats, and we where three rows back from the rail. We had a great view of the game and thanks to some preemptive shots of Pepto Bismol, we were able to enjoy hotdogs, nachos, and peanuts during the game. We also enjoyed reenacting the old classic Alka Seltzer commercial that night. “I don’t beleive I ate the whole thing." “You ate it, Josh."
Wednesday morning we went to a Starbucks for breakfast. Even though we were traveling we wanted to keep things somewhat normal. We visited the Pacific Science Museum in Seattle Center and had a good time playing with the exhibits. Stephanie was worried that it might come to close to being work related, but I could tell by the smile on her face that it wasn’t. We caught the a show at the planetarium, which offered some new star related myths that I hadn’t heard, but the show about navigation by the stars was canceled, so we moved on to playing with some of the bigger toys they offer there. The store was only slightly dangerous, as we found some shirts, some canned triceratops, some really long pencils for Stephs classroom (I’m sure that no student want’s to carry around an 18-inch long pencil, so they are sure to return them), and a new toy called Anatomics, which let you build your own critters. I bought a mosquito and went back to get a stegosaurus (www.inhabittoys.com ). These are dangerous toys, so of course I had to have one.
After a quick lunch next to a dance floor that looked very tempting (we haven’t danced since the wedding and my feet are getting just a teeny bit ancy) we took a ride on the monorail downtown. We saw a few more pigs (RoadChopper). We got to Gameworks, which is a large arcade that offers a web coupon special of two hours of free play for $10. We started with a shoot-em-up game called house of the dead, which took us about seven credits each, and it would have cost $1.25 a credit normally, so I think we got a good deal for tweny minutes of shooting at things on a screen. We left right after five o’clock and took the monorail back to Seattle Center, and walked back to the hotel.
At the hotel we tried to think about dinner. We had been on our feet all day and thought that there might be some information in the lobby. We found a card with a coupon for a free desert at the Melting Pot. There was a Melting Pot in Portland, but I had never been there, but Ben and Krista gave it rave reviews, and Stephanie had been several times with Katherine and Julie to celebrate new jobs, so we decided that we would treat ourselves to a fondue dinner.
It was worth every penny.
Even though it’s over $20 a plate, I recommend it to everyone. It took us an hour and a half to eat it all, (and they only give you two fondue forks each, so the meal goes by slowly) and we walked away very late, but very satisfied.
Thursday morning we checked out of the hotel and decided to take the Seattle underground tour, where we encounetered yet another pig (Breather Pig), and we listened to a twenty minute introduction by a tour guide who was from the Stand up Comic school of tour guides, then we went underground at three sites. The tour was cool, and it was fun to hear stories of old Seattle, but the jokes were awful. (Did you hear about the dyslexic devil worshipper? He sold his soul to Santa. I used to work at an orange juice factory but got fired because I couldn’t concentrate. That kind of joke.) Stephanie wanted to go to Weaving Works, which is near the university, so we headed north and ate lunch. Stephanie went into the shop and I stayed in the car play with my Anatomics toys. Since Stephanie did something very unusual this trip in not bringing any knitting along, she bought some needles and some yarn and we went to the gas station. I sat there for fifteen seconds when Stephanie remined me that we weren’t in Oregon and I had to pump my own gas. I always forget that when I travel.
We made it home to mildly annoyed cat and spent the evening back at home, and relaxed. I am determined never to travel like that again without the footbath.