Seattle Rocks!

What an awesome weekend we just had! It started Friday night when we went to see our favorite band Sound Tribe Sector 9 at Edgefield in Troutdale, OR (which is about 45 minutes west of Hood River and 15 miles east of Portland). The venue was really nice. It was a small outdoor amphitheater with lots of nice green grass. It has been a while since we've seen a show in a venue like this and they are so much fun on nice summer nights, which is exactly what we had. The show was awesome! The band only played one set (usually they do two separate sets which we prefer) which kind of threw us off, and the show ended really early (I guess because of curfews) but the music was really good - very good song selections and we got to hear some awesome new songs. We danced our butts off and had a really fun time. We also got to hang out with our friends Ari and Allie, and ran into several of our friends from Hood River which was really fun. When we got home (since it was so early still - well, relatively) we took Ika out for a walk downtown to check out the bar scene in Hood River. There are actually a few bars that rock into the night. We didn't go into any of them, but had fun walking around.

The next day we brought Ika to Jim and Erin's house in Portland so they could watch her while we went to Seattle to see STS9 again. Jim and Erin have a brand new little puppy named Lilly! She is soooooo freaking cute! She's a tiny little fluff ball - super fluffy and furry and only about 7 weeks old or so. She wasn't too sure of Ika at first, but it only took a few minutes for them to become friends and start playing together. I'm so glad that Ika will have a dog buddy that is so close to her age now - it'll be really good for both of them!

Anyway, we stayed with Erin's sister Sarah and her boyfriend Alex in Seattle. They live in a really nice part of town, close to lots of cool stuff and have a really nice apartment. They had previous engagements, so couldn't hang out too much when we first got there or go to the show with us, but we had a really good time with them during the time we did spend together. When Abe and I ventured out onto the town, we walked from Sarah and Alex's apartment down the hill to the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is. There is also an amusement park there and a big fountain and all sorts of stuff. It was cool to see and all very nice. Then we kept walking downtown to meet up with Ari and Allie who had also come up from Portland to see the show. We had dinner with them and headed off to the show, which was in a really cool club downtown. Again, the show was excellent! We had lots of fun again and again danced our butts off. After the show we caught a cab back up to Sarah and Alex's house. Well, it actually wasn't really a cab - it was more of a car service car - an independent guy with a nice fancy car with white leather seats. When we got in, the driver (who was wearing a very nice suit and spoke pretty broken English) pulled down a television screen that played a live Who dvd. He also showed us that he had Eric Clapton if we would rather watch that. The sound system in the car was really nice and as we drove back up the hill I felt like I was definitely riding in style. Also as we rode home I really enjoyed looking out the window and observing Seattle at night. It's such a beautiful city. It's so clean and everything looks so new and nice, but not in a bad new boring way like in Florida, in a cool new futuristic sort of way. I really love this city and am so glad I got to experience it like I did! So, when we got back to Sarah and Alex's, Sara was in bed (it was pretty late) but we had great conversations with Alex for a while and Abe and I finally went to bed sometime before 4. :-)

In the morning Sarah and Alex made us a delicious brunch - their take on Jevos Rancheros - it was soooo good! Then we went to the Sculpture Garden which was really cool. But it started raining on us there so we said goodbye to Sarah and Alex and Abe and I headed to the famous Seattle Library. Wow! What an amazing building. It's like the Mecca of libraries. It's so beautiful and interesting and they have sooo many resources. It'd be a really cool place to work, I think. We also wanted to visit the Pike Street Market, but we really didn't have time - that'll be something for next time. :-) So we headed to the Laughing Buddha Tattoo shop to visit Aaron. He had an appointment, so we couldn't stay long, but it was really good to see him and catch up a little bit. Then we drove over to where Alex works (Rainbow Natural Remedies) to say Hi to her. It was great to see her - she is such a sweetie and so awesome. Again, we couldn't stay long, but it was really nice to say hi. The next time we come up to the city we'll definitely have to plan ahead and hang out with Aaron and Alex some more. And they have a dog that they think would love to play with Ika, so we'll have to do that too.

After that we finally hit the road and headed back to Portland to pick up our pup. We got really lucky cause the traffic on I-5 going Northbound was ridiculous - just a parking lot for at lest 60 miles and even more in random spots further south. So we were really glad we were heading South. We took Jim and Erin out for dinner and drinks in Portland to thank them for the Puppy watching and had a really nice time. And we finally made it home around 11pm! We had a long, big weekend, but it was sooooooo much fun! I had a fabulous time - best weekend I've had for a while! Can't wait to do it again!

Photos to be posted to Flickr very soon!