I'm Soooo Jealous!

I'm So Jealous
Those were the words that Master Fob got to hear from me over and over again this weekend. I loved Seattle. It kind of made me wish that I was moving to Seattle too. Seattle just has a neat aura about it. It's a beautiful city, minutes from the mountains and ocean. It's green, as evidenced by their bike friendly streets, abundance of recycling bins and lack of diesel powered monster pickup trucks. It's also politically liberal, as evidenced by a number of anti-bush bumper stickers, including one that read, "The Only Bush that I Trust is My Own". Indeed, my friend. Indeed.

Endurance Driving
The drive out was a little grueling. It took Master Fob a little longer than he expected to pick up the truck on Friday morning so we got a late start packing. We didn't get on the road until quarter after eleven. One of the points of me coming along was so that Master Fob and I could split the fourteen plus hours of driving between Salt Lake and Seattle. I took the first shift driving while Master Fob ate a little breakfast that my sister had packed for him.

At the end of my first shift of driving, I was still feeling pretty alert and decided to go ahead and take the second shift as well. Driving has a soothing affect on me and besides, I get really bored just sitting in the passenger seat.

5 hours later, after 10 hours of driving, we stopped in La Grande, Oregon to refuel and grab a quick bite to eat at a Subway. At this point, it occurred to me that we were only one tank a gas away from Seattle. I wasn't all that thrilled about driving at night and I was starting to tire a little, but was seduced by the lure of being able to say that I drove the entire distance to Seattle. You know me, I'm all about the endurance activities :)

So, I double fisted two twenty ounce cups of cappucino (I am Cornholio, I need TP for my bung-hole) and tackled the remaining distance to Seattle. The last leg of the journey proved to be the most daunting. We were driving through some pretty hairy mountain passes in the pitch black of night in a 14 foot Uhaul towing a Chevy Cavalier behind. A couple of times, I considered pulling over and surrendering the helm to Master Fob, but the closer we got to Seattle the more determined I was to finish the drive.

Bright Lights, Big City
We arrived in Seattle at 1:30 in the morning pacific time; fifteen hours after we had left Orem, Utah. We were greeted by Seattle's rather impressive downtown skyline. It was awesome. I had been through Seattle a couple of times before but never at night when the city was all lit up. Master Fob kept saying, "This is so cool. I can't believe that I actually live here now".

It didn't take too long to get through the city and to find the hotel where Master Fob will be residing for the next couple of days. We took a couple of minutes to unhitch the car and lock up the Uhaul and then headed up to our room where we passed out almost immediately. I was dead tired. It was really quite amazing that I fell asleep so quickly considering that I still had several thousand milligrams of caffeine coursing through my veins.

Our Saturday Adventure
We woke up six hours later on Saturday morning. I probably could have slept a little longer, but once I noticed that it was light outside I couldn't help but get up. I think that both Master Fob and I were excited to go out and explore the city. I was a little disappointed to discover that the weather was very overcast and it was kind of drizzling. Hey, I guess that just life in Seattle.

Master Fob didn't seem deterred by the rain and was still excited about our plans to explore the city by bike. I was really impressed by that. So, we jumped in the car, and after running a few errands, made our way to Gregg's Cycle in Green Lake. We found a bike for me to rent right away, but Master Fob wasn't finding a bike that he wanted to buy. Bikes in a bike store tend to be much higher quality, but they also tend to have a much higher price.

I was anxious to get out on the bike, and was concerned that I might not be able to get a rental if I stopped back later in the day. So, I rented a Trek road bike and decided to follow Master Fob around the city on the bike while he shopped a little more. I have become so accustomed to riding with clipless pedals that it was a little awkward for me to ride a bike without them. As I pulled away from my first stop light, I tried to use an upward motion to help drive the pedal and nearly ended up with my knee in my chest since my foot wasn't actually attached to the pedal.

Riding through the city was way cool. There is an official bike lane on a lot of streets and even when there wasn't an official lane, there was plenty of room. I never felt threatened by riding in traffic. Me riding while Ben drove proved to be an interesting experiment. As we headed through the city to a used bike store I was actually able to get ahead of Master Fob on the bike proving that a bike can actually be a more efficient means of transportation in the city. Although in this particular case it only resulted in me missing a turn and Master Fob needing to chase me down to correct my route.

In the end, Master Fob ended up buying a bike from a Fred Meyer. It was a little painful to see my brother buy a bike that cheap, but I understood that price was a serious factor that he needed to juggle. Besides, he was mostly using the bike to commute several miles a day. It's not like he was going to be riding hundreds of miles a week like I do :)

Once Master Fob had his bike we rode the Burke Gilman trail together for several miles. The trail goes right past the University and his house so he wanted to check things out. After riding together for a short period, I needed to stretch out my legs a bit. I pulled ahead and rode the entire 12 miles of the trail and then met back up with Master Fob a little later. The trail was gorgeous. It was a paved trail that rode beneath a canopy of trees and was lined with fern and wild berries. The views of Lake Washington were incredible.

After meeting back up we rode past Master Fob's apartment, and then checked out the library on the University campus where he will be working. The campus is really neat. It almost made me want to go back to school :) Almost, but not really.

Sending Out Props
I really admired a lot of things about my brother this weekend. I admired that my brother is the type of person to move across the country to chase a dream. I particularly admired that he did this even when he didn't have all of the details worked out for the plan. Sometimes, you just need to jump and then work out the details later. His plans have been a little rocky, but he's rolled with the punches and everything seems to be turning out OK.

I also discovered that my brother is very much an explorer just like I am. We spent the weekend driving and biking around the city. We rarely ended up taking the most direct route, but we got to see a lot of the city that we wouldn't have if we had printed out maps to everywhere and just taken the interstate. I love that.