Raw Danger!

Day four started by waking up early, getting ready, then lounging around until Lish was up and ready to roll. We headed out and some man in her building said hello, and commented that he was, “happier’n a gopher in soft dirt.” My grandfather’s equivalent was “shittin’ in tall cotton.” No idea why either is a good thing, but no one ever said sayings have to make sense. We got into the car and headed out on a wonderfully grey morning.

(above: water!)

I don’t know the geography, but we were heading out of town, and crossing over water was neat. Plus I just feel better physically when I’m near open bodies of water, zero clue as to why that is. We drove a bit and exchanged stories, then she took me to a Chick-fil-A, which I’d never been to before. There’s one near where I live, but after reading her journal and seeing this place given such good marks, I wanted my first time to be with her. As expected, if it’s something she praises, it’s tasty. I think it’s the kind of place where I could potentially get myself in trouble while ordering, as I tend to have eyes larger than my stomach. Would go again, for sure.

The original plan was to go there, then to a movie, but there was a chunk of time between the two. Lish was debating what to do with said time, and I’m kind of up for anything since I know so little about the area, even just driving around is okay with me. Then her eyes lit up and she goes, “do you want to go to the reptile zoo?” I said sure, and we headed down the highway until we got there.

(above: the name pretty much speaks for itself, yes?)

So, the reptile zoo is really cool. When I hear the word “zoo,” my brain immediately thinks of news stories that either cover mistreatment of animals, or idiots climbing into tiger cages and being eaten. Neither of those are applicable here. The people running the show seem legitimately glad to be there and enjoy taking good care of every living thing inside. Everything looked to be clean and as far as I could tell, all of the animals were happy and healthy. Nothing to complain about there, which was good to see.

(above: leaf insects, albino alligator, caiman lizard)

(above: huge alligator, king cobra, two-headed turtle)

Going to this place with Lish was a good thing. I would look at some animal and she would tell me about it, then a glance at the little information sign on the tank would confirm everything she’d just said. It’s cool to look at these creatures just doing their thing, but I feel like if I had been here alone, I wouldn’t have gotten nearly as much out of it. Plus, I admire Lish’s knowledge on so many subjects, so getting to see her flex that kept me smiling the whole time.

They have the ten most venomous snakes in the world, a bunch of other cool snakes, giant lizards, various insects like the cool leaf insects, and then this humongous-ass alligator. It just hung out under the heat lamps and we looked for a moment, then walked on. It jumped down into the portion of the tank with water in it, and I thought something had crashed into the building, from the noise it made. I feel bad for anything that tries to escape one of those guys in the wild. It was fun to just go through and try to spot each tank’s inhabitant, because sometimes they go into hiding spots or blend into the scenery quite well. After about an hour, we had seen everything except for an anaconda that was sleeping off in the corner, but its tank was huge and I can only guess it was the largest snake there.

(above: d-box is pretty dumb!)

We left the reptile zoo and headed for the movie theater. Lish had mentioned going to an IMAX and I’ve never been, but I asked if she’d seen a movie in D-Box and neither of us had, so that was today’s moviegoing goal. Once inside, we found the D-Box seats, which are in a normal theater but make up two full rows and the rest of the seats are just regular ones. The D-Box seats are fewer per row, due to what’s involved in each seat: actuators and an adjustable rumble meter. So while you’re watching a movie, the seat will rumble when things happen, but will also lean in all directions depending on what’s happening on-screen. A car drives by, it leans in that direction. A person looks up or down, the seat cranes to give that sense of being there. All told, it’s a really silly gimmick that doesn’t *really* add much to the experience, but it was pretty fun to try once. Oh, and we saw Jigsaw, which I found entertaining despite having only watched the first Saw movie previously. Lish liked it more than she had expected to as well, so between the goofy factor of these movie seats and the movie itself turning out nicely, that was a thumbs-up theater experience.

From there, we headed back into Seattle and caught a bit of the afternoon traffic. Having driven from Orange County to Riverside County in the afternoons before, Seattle traffic is kind of nothing in comparison. I’m sure it has its days and its trouble spots like any traffic system, but it felt smooth and we made good time getting back into the city. Stopped off at a place called Rancho Bravo for some Mexican food, where Lish had a taco (I think chicken?) and I had a beef burrito with black beans that hit the spot. A well-made burrito can fill you up for an entire day, and I think that place makes a great one. Got back home and dropped the car off, then hopped on the light rail and made our way downtown.

(above: Seattle underground, not my photo)

The night’s destination was the Seattle Underworld tour; it’s similar to the normal Underground tour, but plays a little more blue. We got a little turned around on the way there for a minute and had to recalculate directions, but made it with time to spare. The tour guide was pretty funny and Lish was chiming in with some pretty good one-liners that the guy said he might add to his future tours. It was interesting to see what is essentially a similar tour to the one we’d taken last time, but the different presentation and subject matter made it feel new despite walking the same underground paths again. The whole concept of how the city was built is fascinating and listening to it is fun. Of course, being there with Lish was extra fun because she is quick and witty anyway, but her and the tour guide playing off each other was just great. I think the tour was around an hour, but it felt like it flew by. We found ourselves back outside after the tour and I was tasked with finding the rail station, which we did with only being in minimal rain. Seattle rain doesn’t seem to fall as fast or hard as it does in Southern California, so even though you’re getting wet, it isn’t instantly annoying. Made it back to our home station, hopped through the QFC so I could get some sugar (a kit-kat) and then it was back home.

(above: T.G.I.F. rubber match)

Since we were currently tied 1-1 in T.G.I.F., the time had arrived for the rubber match. The results were as so, placing me in a 2-1 lead. But it feels unclean since Lish got robbed on the Treasure Hunt in the second game. I added up the totals of all three games, and the score is 137,717 to 135,706. That’s barely over 2000, so I’m thinking we need to either start over clean, or do best four of seven. We shall see, but future battles will still be fun to talk smack and act like we have powers over the RNG.

Not long after this, it was time to call it a day. But what a day it was, completely full of cool things from start to finish, spent with someone that kinda just makes everything better. Went to sleep feeling tired in a good way, and happy yet again.

Last entry for this trip can be found here.