Whole Cooked Fat Dungeness Crab

More vacation blogging. One of my best friends, Brian Arthur, lives in Seattle. I went out to visit him back in 2000, and we climbed Mt. St. Helens. Anyways, when not exploring the natural wonders, Jenni and I spent our downtime in Seattle. Now, I'm not much of a city person. Usually if I'm in one more than 48 hours, I can't wait to get the hell out. But Seattle is relatively mellow, compared to, say, New York, so I can deal with it more. One of the things you notice is that it's a relatively young city (1851), there's not that ever-present 300-year old smell of urine and grime that makes NYC so endearing. Lots of coffee, everywhere. There's about a million Starbucks and other chains, but there's a lot of great indy coffeehouses, too. And the Sunlight Cafe, in the University district where we were staying, great breakfast. There's also the massive Pike's Place Market (see above and below), and Piroshky Pirosky, an eatery thay basically makes a bunch of incredible Russian pastries.



Seattle reminds me of a big Burlington in some ways, in that it's on the water, is relatively progressive, and has an unusually large proportion of white people (compared to other major cities). And also has its share of the clueless lefty variety that makes us reality-based types on the left look bad. You know, the kind that I'm always bitching about. I was in Left Bank books, a great lefty political bookstore, trying to find stuff on the Black Panthers or the Weather Underground. Sure, it had the typical b.s. such as Che posters and such, but a great selection. I was talking to a clerk asking about books on the Chavez thing, and the difficulty in finding something accurate, due to the bullshit from both sides. She gave me this line about how I should look for an anarchist perspective, because 'anarchists always tell the truth and never lie'. I was floored by this... finally, a subset of the human species incapable of falsehood! I didn't even say anything, I just left, speechless. She really believed what she was saying, too. I felt like going back in and asking her to name one major anarchist accomplishment of the past 75 years, other than smashing stuff up at rallies and making the rest of us look bad, but I refrained because I had a billion other things still to do. So, Left Bank alternagirl, if you're reading this, yes, you're an idiot - get a clue.

A moment in time with great beer at the Pike Brewpub

Saw a great band while there, The Motet. As far as cities go, I like Seattle, it has a chill vibe, lots of great stuff to do, a healthy arts scene, and, of course, the Space Needle.