Seattle, WA

[April 18th, 2008]

All it took was for an ex-roomie to move to Seattle on a project through his consulting firm. My travel radar locked in on the opportunity to spend a weekend with him and the dame from Microsoft. I had just about given this a thought and a clown friend of mine decided to tag along. That all but cemented the trip.
Before we knew it, Clown and I were on a westbound flight on a late Friday afternoon, looking forward to a respite from the the cold unforgiving Chicago winter. We spent the time on the flight very productively, watching videos on my trusty PSP and talking trash.

Day1:
The flight touched down early evening, Pacific Time, and our ex-roomie was right outside in a retro-looking Mercury Grand Mariner. He inevitably turned into our official chauffeur for the trip. With no delay we headed straight for Microsoft's crib. A good 20 minutes later we pulled up in Redmond and Microsoft greeted us with a smile and warm hug each. She whipped up some chips n dip and coffee and smoothies for us (slurrrrpp!). We also had the pleasure of meeting a couple of Microsoft's friends who seemed to be ardent Clown fans.

Dinner Time! Microsoft had reservations at a Moroccan themed restaurant called 'Marrakesh' which incidentally had belly dancers on Friday nights. Clown went PINK in the face when the dancer came up to him and he had to put a $ on her hip. :P

The food was unique to say the least. We had a 5 course meal consisting of a soup, a salad, a phyllo-pie appetizer coated with powdered sugar (which I absolutely devoured, much to the amusement of the others), a main entree and finally ending with fruit salad and mint tea.
We decided to call it a day and retire early so that we could get an early start for the next day. Clown hit the bed the moment we reached home. Chauffeur and I decided to watch a movie 'Apocalypto'. I think we lasted a full 20 minutes.

Day2:
I was up by 8am and a good 45 minutes later, we were back in the Grand Mariner headed towards the city. After picking Microsoft up, we went to have brunch at 'The original pancake house' which served baked 5 egg omelets with mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and cheese served with pancakes and house potatoes. BURRRRPPP!!!!

Now for some sightseeing. We headed to a simply breathtaking location called 'Deception Pass'. Back in the day, explorers didn't know that this channel of water existed. Its one of the most beautiful views of nature I have ever seen. The ocean, pebble beach, cliffs, trees, islands and the sky seemed to blend in a perfect recipe. For the first time since we had met, the 4 of us were quiet.

We were going absolutely camera crazy and with good reason. We decided to trek down to the bottom of the pass. It was a short hike down. The trail was covered with lush trees. The all-too-familiar smell of wet earth was a welcome addition to the experience.

The pebble riddled bank had logs strewn around. We spent a good hour skipping flat pebbles along the water, throwing stones over a hillock, climbing over the logs and other such cliche activities. Of course, the cameras never stopped clicking.

We were pooped. We headed straight back to Seattle albeit a pit stop for coffee and biscotti.

Microsoft's friend had a post wedding party. After a lot of debating we shamelessy tagged along. The food was brilliant. Paneer, Pulav, Pakoras and a load of other indian dishes. I met a guy there who i could have sworn was familiar. To everyones amusement, he looked at me and said i looked familiar as well!! Finally we concluded that each of us had look-alikes in each others cities!! A few photos later we excused ourselves and headed to 'Lucky Strike'.

Lucky strike was FUN! We played half a frame of pool and 2 games of bowling. Chauffeur and Me scored highest and Microsoft managed to retain her 'Gutter Queen' crown. We decided we were hungry again and headed to a burger place that Microsoft suggested. The cashier/chef was kinda rude so we stole his pen and pulled the classic ketchup lid unscrewing technique on him and left in a hurry.

We were tired from all the walking and decided it was time to get back home and get an early start to the next day. The drive back was fun. Clown and I fell asleep in the car. Every time i got up, I could hear Chauffeur swearing as he had skipped a RED. We got home in one piece though. Clown collapsed on the bed the moment we reached and began to snore like a lawn mower. Chauffeur and I made another earnest attempt at continuing 'Apocalypto'. This time we lasted 10 minutes tops.

Day3:
Getting up was hard. It was a Sunday. Surprisingly Clown was the first to rise and hit the showers. Chauffeur and I exchanged a few movies each.
We drove to Microsoft's for a surprise breakfast. She had made hot idlis and sambhar. They were DELICIOUS! We polished off half a dozen idlis each.

We then headed to the heart of downtown Seattle to see the Seattle Space Needle. It is a majestic and very unique structure. We went up to the top in a capsule elevator and took in the magnificent views of Seattle and its neighbourhood.

I bought myself a customary magnet in the Space Needle store which now adorns my freezer door.

We drove a couple of miles to the 'Pike Place Market' which is a flea market of sorts. Men and women selling fish, flowers, fruits, curios and a whole lot of chaos. Reminded me a lot of the markets back home in India.


We bought some citrus fruits and strawberries from a really wild farmer who was running on Energiser or Duracell. He was all over the place. We also got our daily horoscopes from a fortune-teller in a box!

We also had the opportunity to visit the first Starbucks store ever. It was a little place right in the middle of Pike market.

Chauffeur bought himself a Starbucks sipper and we left the little, over-crowded store to get some grub. We ended up at this quaint Bolivian restaurant which had a little balcony overlooking Pike Market. We seated ourselves outside on the balcony, ordered wine and food. We ate slooooowly, enjoying the excellent location and the atmosphere of the whole place. We were really hesitant to step out of there as we knew the next place we would be going was the airport and back to Chicago.

It amazes me how attached the 4 of us got in the 2 days we spent together. Bidding adieu at the airport was definitely my least favourite part of the trip. I actually found myself tearing up a little. I was really gonna miss Chauffeur and Microsoft. A glance at Microsoft's misty eyes and i knew she shared the sentiment. We exchanged warm tight hugs and 'miss you's and split.

An hour later Clown and I were 35,000 feet high headed eastward. We slept through most of the flight.