west, vol. 3

sunday
woke up in a rough way after the previous bar crawl. walked down to diamond jim's grill (what a great name) for fried potatoes, sausage, eggs, and a ridiculous amount of coffee. homeward brought some reading time, and when ad & megan headed out to a social event, i biked downtown. first went to the local everyday music, a northwest chain with a more-than-fair used & new selection. i picked up: kluster's admira 1971 reissue, michael rother's esperanza, yo la tengo's summer sun, hans-joachim roedelius's works 1968-2005 compilation, and group bombino's guitars from agadez, vol. 2, a great sublime frequencies release. all used!
-then popped down to the community food co-op, and picked up flour, eggs, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella, to make pizza and blackberry-cornmeal-buttermilk muffins. was barely able to stuff it all in my satchel, but made it home on the bike without breaking a single egg. whipped up the fantastic cupcake/muffins, and then hung out whilst eating the purple heirloom tomatoes, and toast with goat cheese.

monday
-woke up, had another nice 4mile run, barely even breaking a sweat till i was done. wow...could get used to that.
-biked uphill towards & under the interstate, aiming for a ridge that overlooks the town, as well as the bay. roughly started at the upper-left blue point, towards the blue point at the lower-right.

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-rode through whatcom falls park, up some bike trails that ended abruptly, and up a few hills i didn't think i'd be able to do. had to walk the last mile or so in from the trailhead. the view from the ridge was pretty spectacular, the weather equally so. munched on some tomato-basil bread with the goat cheese we'd snagged from the market, and some blueberries. the route back was much quicker...downhill most of the way.
-after cleaning up, went to the northwest washington fair, which was ... fair. couldn't hold up to the indiana state fair. ate some fried vegetables and bbq beef. found out what "horse pole bending" was...a crazy event where you sprint your horse slalom-style around rubber poles.

tuesday
-woke up, had some breakfast. decided to hit seattle that day. left around noon, with sandwich aims, and a hobo supply list: sleeping mat, grocery bag full of possessions, and my army map bag. true northwest itinerant style.
-located randy's workplace without smartphone or map, and picked up the keys to his apartment.
-ate a fantastic sandwich on the sidewalk at paseo's, where i left a puddle of the finest juices for some lucky hound. the pork shoulder with cilantro, mayo, jalapenos, romaine, and grilled onions on a crusty, oblong loaf was a beautiful thing.
-bro dropped me off at homebase seattle for the next few days, and bro-time commenced when tyler arrived shortly thereafter, fresh from roaming the city. we awaited randy's presence; who then left us to our own bro-devices to go on a date.
-made our way via bus to naked city brewhouse. had one of their house brews, a dubbel, a foggy noggin big chief (irish red), and a firestone walker solace wheat. though the dubbel was tasty (wished i had had a chance for another one of their in-house taps), the foggy noggin was the highlight. and a rather tasty steak salad (yeah, i don't know why i went for that, but it hit the spot). watched soccer highlights and began to chew the fat with ty, anticipating the ever-growing bro-gathering that was commencing...right then. randy picked us up on the way back to his place, and i fell asleep in the terrible glow of the new predator movie. c'mon adrien brody.

wednesday
-woke up pretty early. ty & i had one goal for this day (besides ruling, and meeting up with ben later on): salumi. rode the 5 downtown to 3rd & Pike, and hoofed it south, past frou-frou art galleries and several missions. made it to salumi, whose line was only extending 25 or so people out the door. it was beautiful out...why not wait?
-once we got inside, we were treated to a sample of their mole salami, which was pretty incredible. despite that, i had to go for a hot sandwich, the "slow-roasted flavor explosion" of the porchetta. whoa. just when i thought i'd had the tastiest sandwich in history, i'm treated to something almost on a different level. it was zen, like i said to tyler, "when i'm eating this sandwich...nothing else [redacted] matters man...there is only the sandwich." also ate this on the sidewalk across the street, with a can of coke (seemed apropos) and street pigeons flapping in my general direction.
-despite the sandwich buzz, we pressed onwards, greased mouths toward the sun. tyler hadn't been through seattle's central library, so we headed that way, walking the hills, and exploring one of the few buildings that is able to give me indoor vertigo. or maybe it was the porchetta settling. the red floor 4 is particularly affecting; so intense as you exit up the metal stairs to a wall of light and space.
-turned east and walked to capitol hill in search of sonic boom records. unfortunately, the store was closing in 2 weeks, and we didn't expect much. however, the used CDs were 50% off, and we found quite a bundle that weren't picked through yet. tyler snagged 15 or so at about 2.50 a pop, and i came home with three: stereolab's switched on, vol. 2 and margerine eclipse and the remaster/re-issue of the soundtrack to black orpheus. there were also 4 copies of everything, now!'s spatially severed, at a dollar a pop, likely leftover from an indie listening station promotion we were part of. alas. i recall seeing our records in out-of-state stores for the first time and being so excited---so i am at least happy to report that i still felt a spark of pride, even if they were now priced below cost.
-headed back to pike's place market for a mega-round of people-watching and fruit-obtaining. tyler picked up some utterly choice rainier cherries, and i sprung for some peaches. fruitstand guy greeted me with the quote of the week (one of, at least), "DUDE, how's your day been?" i was immediately part of his vibe-flow and replied, "DUDE...it's been awesome. i mean, this weather, am i right?" him: "yeah, man, totally. santa claus was wrong...this is the season to be jolly." he then sold me some amazing peaches that were bigger than my fist. we walked down to the park at the northern end of the market, which was filled with tourists, do-nothings, itinerants, LARPers (for real), businessmen, tribal folk, guitar strummers, vendors, and sleeping junkies. chilled in the sun for awhile, staring at the bay and mt. rainier, on the most unbelievably clear and sunny day yet. in between mountain gazing, we were reading off funny/bad band names from the local alt weekly. highlights included "crazy and the brains" and "poop attack!"
-bounced up to the bus stop and rode back to randy's. slept halfway. got back in time for to hang out for a couple hours before ben's arrival, striding up with his suitcase in hand. we immediately got in the car and drove to the U-district, walking around the neighborhood before swinging in to a pizza joint with $2 drafts. what!? despite looking like a funky sbarro, it was surprisingly delicious. caught up with ben, and the bro-power was increasing. swung by an albertson's to pick up some deschutes, and a watermelon wheat, and went back to randy's, where relaxing occurred before falling asleep watching the first episode of game of thrones.