Raw Danger!

Day two opened with a brief moment of confusion, until I remembered where I was, then a nice good stretch. Caught a shower and got ready to go, and accompanied Lish on her way to work. I’d never taken a light rail before, but it was nice and quick, and soon we were close to her office. There are many steps due to the hilly nature of the city, but she knows secret elevator shortcuts to avoid them. Got to her work and she introduced me to a bunch of people, and everyone was nice and/or still waking up. After meeting one guy, he sent Lish a message with something in regard to a “long-haired beefcake.” Aw shucks, fella. She showed me the view from one of the office windows:

Super cool. I’d love to have that kind of view. There are barely even windows at my current job, and nothing to see outside of them anyway. Anyway, Lish had a little time before work officially started, so we sat down and made a brief list of places I could go today, as it was my day to go exploring while she worked. I could go here or there, and these are the rail stops that put me the closest to this place or that place, and so on. Knowing there was no way to see everything in one day anyway, I figured that I would just start walking and see where I wound up. She took me to the elevator and we said goodbye, then I headed out to start my wandering. This entry is probably going to be mostly photos –

Started down by the water. Seemed like a good jumping off point.

The arrangement of buildings reminded me of the game Crackdown, and I wished I could climb buildings like one of the game’s agents. I also like seeing art in unusual places, so today was good for that.

You could go on this big wheel for like $12 or something, but it seemed like the kind of thing you ride with someone else and Lish was working, so I just took a photo. Then I found some spiral staircase that led to a view over some of the buildings. Again, Crackdown daydreams. I went through a part of Pike Market, but I had a raging headache at this point and went in search of Excedrin. Off in the distance… is that a Target in the middle of all this?

It was indeed a Target, so I got some drugs and some caffeine. While there, I scoped out their section of wrassle figures because in my area, some individual likes to swap out old figures in a newer figure’s packaging and return them. I was curious if this was a local thing, or a nationwide problem. It has yet to reach the northwest, apparently. Not really a vacation stop most people would make, but I had to know.

The very first Starbucks, which I felt I should see despite never having Starbucks outside of their ice cream. Then I was told that when I saw the pig, I was near the place where the gentlemen throw the fish. I saw a couple of throws, but didn’t get a good shot of any of it, sadly. Next time.

I saw something way off in the distance and decided to walk and see what it was. On the way, skyscrapers. Some people go on vacation to partake in local traditions or see tourist spots. I look at buildings and wish I’d gone into architecture, apparently.

The ceiling of the Nike store. I asked the girl about the possibility of green leather Cortez with a white swoosh. No dice. I don’t think you can even do the custom jobs any more on their site. Bummer!

This was the thing I initially set out to walk to. I had no idea this was the convention center, but I looked at this archway for a little bit. Probably a good thing I was flying solo, what with all the gazing I did at stationary objects.

Guys were working up there. Everywhere you looked, there was some sort of construction taking place up high. I’m okay with heights, but I don’t know that I’d want to spend an entire day up there for my job.

More art I noticed. I thought the second one was Kreayshawn when I first noticed it. Maybe she has a mural in Oakland?

Everywhere I looked, I saw some mass of buildings I wanted to climb, or single buildings I wanted to go inside but didn’t. The tall buildings were nice because any time I got turned around and couldn’t sense direction, I looked for a building I’d been past already. It worked.

Next time I’ll try and hit the museums instead of just walking by. James St might be the steepest street I’ve walked down. Glad it wasn’t the other way around.

A tall church, and a much taller skyscraper.

I passed this and thought it was a really cool thing to have. People donate their time and energy into maintaining these little gardens. I feel like if this happened where I live, bros would run it all over with quads or somehow ruin it. That it can exist and actually yield something nice, says a lot about the surrounding neighborhood, I think.

Made my way into the international district. The secondary street signs were in Japanese and I could actually read a couple of them, which was cool. By this point, I was attempting to track down the pinball museum, and had to be close, but wasn’t sure exactly where it was.

I saw the neon sign first, then the door. I was momentarily bummed, but then figured that I can kinda go play pinball in my area without too much trouble, so did I really want to spend a ton of time playing pinball by myself here anyway? Shrugged it off and continued on.

Found my pharmacy, then headed into Uwajimaya and looked around for a good while. They had a lot of little themed snacks, including this one with the tiger that learns to poop in a toilet. (someone made an Ultimate Warrior edit years ago, don’t ask) Then it was time to sit down and eat lunch. Probably not the healthiest thing, but it was nice to sit outside and people-watch for a little while. There was also a giant Kinokuniya inside of the Uwajimaya, and I took a bunch of photos of books and stuff, but just trust me when I say it was giant and if I lived here I’d probably visit often.

Made my way through Pioneer Square, which was lovely and bustling with people. Made a note to go see this building with the zig-zag on it, and also took note of another museum. The man’s arm is animated, next time I should get a video.

This head was made of styrofoam. It was easy to see even from far off, but people would get close with a puzzled look, lean in even closer, then touch it to confirm. Weird.

Went back to the pier for a potty break, then played the world’s largest Pac-Man. From there, wandered back to the marketplace to get Piroshky Piroshky. Imagine a really fancy Hot Pocket that actually tastes good and you don’t feel like dying after you eat it. Basically, imagine a Hot Pocket, but 100% different and superior in every way. Mine was beef and cheese, it was delightful.

The sign at Piroshky Piroshky, which is the international symbol for “neither of us want this damn thing, can you take it so we can go rest?” Then, what I think is an accurate route of where I walked between 9 am and 3:30 pm or so? Blue indicates the second leg of the trip, which was just to PP and then back to the styrofoam head to sit and eat. It was a really peaceful place. Maybe in the evening it’s super busy and loud, but sitting at a table on those steps for awhile, there was nowhere else I’d have rather been. That was the first moment that I thought, “you know, I could live here” and took myself seriously.

Met up with Lish after work, and she was in a good mood because she’d taken care of a ton of work that day. We went back to her place for a little bit to rest up, then headed to Poppy. [note: neither of the photos above are mine] Poppy is Indian fusion, and while it wasn’t bad, it was definitely a lot to take in for a person who lives out of a microwave most times. There was chicken and other assorted side pieces in the little bowls, but I think it’s definitely something that I’d have to go have a few times before I really felt used to it. The only thing I legitimately didn’t like was the salad, but again, layman’s palate talking.

We got back home and it was time to throw down on TGIF for the Atari 8-bit computer. I had looked at it on YT after Lish mentioned it, then she said we should play when I visit, so we did. We played to $50,000, which is the highest you can do (I think?) and you can see the results. I got spanked pretty hard. There’s an in-game lotto and I’d said if she got all three numbers, I would streak around the block. If she had managed it, this story would take a dark turn into public indecency, but luckily for me, it didn’t happen.

After that, we watched Dr. Horrible, which I hadn’t watched before. It was good, and another case of the ending being totally unexpected. Then she noticed an ingrown hair or a blackhead or something on my neck and asked if she could “get it.” I said yes and she was pleased, so I offered to let her have a go at my back if she wanted. She wanted. It was funny, but pretty cute at the same time, and a way for me to show that I trust her all the way. Which, I do.

So it was a really nice night after a pretty solid day of exploring and walking. Got to bed late again, but went to bed feeling even better than the day before. It was around this time that I started getting legitimately sad at the notion of leaving this place and not being around where Lish is. But it was time to sleep, and again, a few hours of good solid sleep were had.

Continued in Day Three/Four here