I Wish I Would Have Slept More In Seattle

Yeah…

I took that.

Be amazed.

The last stop on our epic road trip was none other than Seattle, Washington. I feel kinda weird being here because my parents lived here when I was in college for 2 whole years and I never came out for a visit.

We left at 7:15am from Portland and arrived in Seattle around 10am. Being Seattle, the first thing we did was find a coffee shop. This place does have some pretty amazing coffee. Cafes out here are EVERYWHERE! They never end. Here is what we did in list form:

– Pike’s Public Market (the place with the fish market where they throw the fish)

-The first EVER Starbucks

– Gasworks Park (not much too it but a pretty amazing view of the city skyline)

– The Space Needle (we didn’t really feel like paying $20 to go to the top)

-The Fremont Troll (It’s a massive sculpture of a troll under a bridge…probably the strangest underground tourist attraction that I have ever seen)

And all of that was just day 1…

The next day (today) we went to the Ballard campus of Mars Hill Church. None of us had ever been but we all had heard a lot about it and I have heard a lot of podcasts by Mark Driscoll. This specific campus was almost a spitting image of the Summit Church in Durham. It was in a warehouse, the chairs were the same, etc. I was kinda blown away by the hospitality of the church. We walked in and were immediately greeted by a guy (who’s name I am ashamed to say, I can’t remember) that walked us over to the coffee area and then proceeded to try and find a friend of his for us to sit with. While walking, I learned that he knew of Summit and subscribed to JD’s podcasts (small world).  For the most part of the day we just bummed around the parts of the city we hadn’t seen.

Conclusion about Seattle:

This isn’t really a city built for tourists who want to do things for free. Basically everything fun/interesting costs money. It seems like a city that would be fun to live in cause there is a lot going on but as a short trip, it leaves much to be desired. Also, with the cold/dreary weather that was a constant, it made it hard to do a lot of stuff. It’s a great place to find a coffee shop, sip coffee, and work or read though. I am definitely glad I got to experience this city though.  Will probably never live here (at least by my choice).

Another post coming soon to showcase probably the most exciting part of my trip to Seattle…

Roadtrip advice

Don’t drive on HWY 1 after San Francisco. It kinda sucks. Sure, the curvy roads are fun to drive on but there is nothing to look at. Stick to the 101 (yeah I’ve adapted and started putting “the” in front of highway names but I can’t seem to do it with 40).

240 Miles North

So it’s 2:40am and I am officially done with my first driving shift of our west coast roadtrip. The following is a short timeline:

0-100 miles
Music: fun., Explosions in the Sky, 90s Pop
Feeling great! No one on the road for the first time since I’ve been in LA. No traffic. Passed by Six Flags. I had a really good time there last year with friends. Driving through the mountains on those really winding roads going 75 mph was pretty awesome.

101-150 miles
Music: Ben Rector, Mat Kearney
Entered the desert. Just flat straight driving. Nothing but 18-wheelers on the road. Reminded me a lot of driving in Texas. Drank a 5-hour energy drink and I’m eating Twizzlers so I’m feelin good. The moon is crazy bright.

150-200 miles
Music: Mat Kearney
Starting to get kinda tired but still feeling good and enjoying the open road.

200-240 miles
Music: Mat Kearney
Ok now I’m exhausted. We need to pull off so I can stretch and we can switch. Pulled off at a gas station. Switch!

Goin on a roadtrip

Leaving tonight at 10pm with 3 friends on what I hope to be a pretty epic road trip up the CA coast to Portland and Seattle and back again. Should be good times. Hopefully I’ll remember to post as I go along. If not, forgive me.

Gainesville, FL in less than 24 hrs

This weekend I was given the privilege of going to Gainesville, FL, the home of the University of Florida Gators, with my two great friends Alicia and Nicole. It was a pretty intense road trip. We left around 3pm (after getting Alicia’s flat tire patched) and got to Gainesville around 11:30. We made INCREDIBLE time and we weren’t even speeding that much. We got to where we were staying, put our stuff up, got ready and went out to a club called “X’s”. They played a lot of 80’s/90’s music which was fairly good except about 1/3 of it you couldn’t actually dance to. We were there til last call at 1:30am. The next morning we got up at 9:30 and headed out around 10. We had to make a couple stops but along the way they showed me around campus. Its a really nice campus. I think I would have liked going there. It pulls enough green with a city feel that it would keep me entertained. Also, the night life is much better than UNC. They have a really nice Union and dining area with a lot more good restaurants. We ate at Subway, bought shirts (yes, even I bought a shirt but I will not be wearing it in Texas or on the day of a Texas game) and then headed to the game. Florida stadium is pretty awesome. Its really pretty and quite large. They were playing FIU and of course the game was a slaughter but still fun to watch. We left immediately after the game. We got back around 2:30am on Sunday. The time spent in Gainesville was less than 24 hrs but it felt like more which is a good thing. I want to do trips like that more often.