Furniture Shopping with the Stars

My feet hurt. 

We shopped. We purchased and finagled.  We looped a block 6 times to get a parking spot and then as we're staring at the meter, looking utterly confused as to how to put money into it, a lady shouts "Hey it's a holiday! No meter!" Thanks stranger, we are rookies and have no idea what the crap we're doing.

Since today is Labor day most of the places we wanted to go were either closed or having  HUGE MEGA BLOWOUT SALES and were crammed wall-to-wall with people. These are not good shopping conditions but we don't have a lot of time to work with so we set out among the Seattle-ites and try our hand at bargain shopping. It didn't go so well. Most of the things that we found were over priced to begin with and the delivery charge sent us over the edge. You can't charge $150 to move a $90 table set. You just can't. But, as you can see above, the drive to get to these places was just beautiful. The view of the side of the highway is just magnificent. You can see right over into Elliott Bay and watch the boats come into port. And right behind that is the huge picturesque Queen Anne hillside that is covered in quaint houses as far as the eye can see. I took about 10 pictures but this was the only one that wasn't blurry from the car. Dad refused to slow down so I could get a good shot. Something about us "crashing and burning." Whatever, learn to take some risks, man.

After striking out at a furniture store we made it rain at St. Vinny's. Their 1/2 Labor Day sale was just the ticket to get lots of stuff for the kitchen. I wanted to get a microwave but Dad was certain that it wouldn't work. He is such a discount hater. If my Mom had been there we would have bought it in duplicate. Oh well. Then we went across the street to Sam's to buy our weight in toilet paper and granola bars. Just call me Annie Oakley. Once that bargain buster was over we went downtown to find another furniture store. This was when we had our parking debacle. But in our parking pursuit we managed to find Pike's Place Market(as pictured above)! RA's take note: It is actually a really cool place once you're not bogged down with Fish Philosophy and "making someone's day." We didn't have a lot of time to look around, but I assume I'll be there pretty frequently in the future. 

We took a break to eat some lunch at this great cafe. The food was so delicious. I've decided that BLTs really shouldn't taste as good as this one did. It's just not fair to other sandwiches. It was a really swanky place and was the type of store where you might not know it's there unless you look right at it. That's what I like about Seattle, it's like there are secret places everywhere instead of a huge sign telling you that this is MACYS. Know what I mean? 

Also--the water here is really good. Unlike Iowa City, I don't feel like I have to worry about my first child coming out with a tail. It doesn't need a filter and doesn't leave any type of after taste in your mouth. This is really important since Dubuque has pretty much the best water in the nation. Seattle so far is matching up quite nicely. 

Eventually we made our way to IKEA. And not just any IKEA. This one, I swear to God, was the size of Seattle. It just. kept. going. We were only in there for 2 hrs but that's because I made us stare at the floor, hold our arms close to our body to make us streamline, and walk like there's free ice cream at the finish line. For my first time there, I have to admit, I was less than impressed. Probably because I wanted the big ticket items and they weren't being cheap on sofas or beds. I did find a suitable dinning table, desk, and end table for pretty cheap so that was a bonus. But by the end I was getting dehydrated and irritable. A lethal combo. This is my furniture in it's beginning stages. I hope that when I take a picture of it in the future, it'll be assembled and looking fly. 

After a particularly unpleasant trip to Target (what do you mean you don't have raincoats?!?) we went and got some pizza. Once again, it was the most delicious pizza I've ever had. No seriously, it was phenomenal. My dad and I talked about what our first impressions of the city were and I think we came to the same three conclusions: 1. It's clean and organized looking 2. It's not hard to get around. Especially when Google Maps is your middle name and 3. The weather is right up my alley. For any one that has ever met me you'll know that I'm a big fan of a jeans and a hoodie. That is exactly what this weather calls for. I couldn't ask for a better situation. (In case my tune changes, remind me that I thought this on day 2)

To finish off our day we decided to head to the Seattle Center and see what we could see. Well, we didn't see much. The one time we try to go off on our own without a map and we take quite a large detour. By the time we finally got there, the sun was going down fast and my feet were starting to feel like they were about to fall off. But I got a nice shot of the Space Needle up close, so I guess it was worth it. The place was buzzing with Bumbershoot crazies and loud music echoing from every corner. We never got around to seeing Seattle Rep, but I figure we have to save a few things for us to do tomorrow. 

Before we left, we stopped at a shop to get my Mom a Seattle mug and inside there was a huge rocks display. They must have also set this up because they knew I was coming. I love me some novelty rocks. I knew my Mom would get a kick out of this.

Now I'm just chilling with my Dad in the hotel room. He was snoring like a freight train last night so I've decided to take half a sleeping pill to help drown him out. As I take the pill I spilled a little down my chin and my dad said, "See those pills work great. Any minute now and you'll begin drooling." Thanks Dad, love you too.

Days in Seattle without rain: 2