Seattle Part 1

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Saturday morning I clocked out at work and went home to pack and eat before Bill drove me to the transit station in downtown Tacoma. There is an express bus that runs at all kinds of hours during the day (not just at 5-6 am and 4-5 pm like the Salt Lake-Provo express) and it drops you smack dab in the middle of downtown Seattle within about 35-40 minutes. So I caught that and got dropped off and then I walked the wrong direction for a few blocks until I realized that I wasn't recognizing any of the crossing street names, so I turned around and eventually found my hotel after a couple more wrong directions. Seattle is actually a really simple city to navigate. It's not numbered-gridblock simple like Salt Lake, but I was able to find my way around pretty easily with only a casual glance at a map before setting out each day.

So I checked in and got a room on the second floor. Char you would really like this hotel, the interior decoration is fantastic, lots of art on the walls. I liked all the browns and creams and wood. I hadn't slept since the night before and it was about 4pm so I took a shower and tried to sleep but it was hard with it being so light out and all the traffic sounds, trucks honking and cab whistles, so I got about an hour. Woke up and hightailed it up the street a few blocks to Benaroya Hall for the symphony. This is what the hall looks like from outside (photo from Seattle Symph website):

I must confess that I love the outer architecture and design of Abravanel Hall's lobby much better than Benaroya, even though Benaroya is far more world-class. It could simply be because I love sharp corners and bold lines. The rounded glass facade here reminds me more of a prosaic fishbowl than an exhilerating venue of classical music. But that's just me. Benaroya also has two classic Chihuly glass sculptures flanking the main entrance hall:

I got a seat in the 3rd row slightly to the right behind the conductor. Have never gotten to sit so close before, it was awesome! I sat next to a very friendly and gregarious Brit who lives on Bainbridge Island and takes the ferry to Seattle every month to see the symphony. We chatted about music and our mutual ineptness at the violin and about the pieces we were listening to. He was really nice and shared his candy with me.

We listened to Tasmin Little play the Elgar Violin Concerto which I really liked and want to listen to again with headphones. She played with immense passion and it was even more pronounced because the rest of the symphony members seemed to be irked.. seriously, there was no joy on any of their faces. It must be a really demanding piece though - the concerto is almost 50 minutes long. There were so many strange, unexpected notes that came out of nowhere that I really loved. Next on the bill was Dvorak's 6th Symphony (another one I hadn't heard.. I'm ashamed..). I love a piece where you as an audience member are completely engaged visually while you listen. The chattering and imitation between sections was so fun to hear and see. I love how they all play off one another in this piece. It was a great way to end the night.

Afterwards I went back to my hotel and was about to keel over and die I was so tired. And hungry. Ordered room service for my very first time and was a dufas about handling the tip. Wasn't sure how it worked so I gave the kid who brought it 2 bucks while ALSO writing 2 bucks as a tip on the bill, forgetting that they had my credit card as a standby for everything. So he got 4 bucks, grrr. Didn't realize what I had done till I had closed the door. This is what happens when you sleep 1 hour out of 26.

SUNDAY: Slept spotty that night because someone kept jiggling my door handle and people were carousing in the hallway at 3 and 4 am. Woke up at 7 to get ready for the St. Patrick's Day Dash. The Dash start was at the Seattle Center, about 1.2 miles up the hill from my hotel. Being so early on a sunday morning, the only people out on the streets are the drunks who have been sobering up all night and the homeless people bundled up under eaves on the sidewalks. There was a man smoking on a street corner who accosted me. He was chattering on about how he and his friend needed help because of some infraction with the police or something the night before (he was talking fast and I was walking away and couldn't really hear). He wanted me to go with him somewhere and I was just like "I have to go." That was in a really shabby part of town. Anyway, I made it to the Dash venue w/out any more incident, completely soaked already because of the snow and rain. Went to put on my timing chip and number and had the unhappy surprise of finding that the paper race packet I had been carrying had had a small hole soak through in the bottom. I think all my safety pins for pinning my number fell out through that hole. Not only that but SOMEHOW between the hotel and the venue, my big orange timing chip got lost. I have no idea how in the world that happened except that maybe while I was walking it flew out of the packet and I didn't even notice. That is NOT cool because #1 I didn't get an official race time and #2 I may have to pay the Dash people $30 for not returning it. I'm hoping they don't care enough to bill me....

So that is all very sad. I didn't get to wear my number :'(

Other people had similar issues, but the race organizers said they had misplaced the extra giant box of safety pins, so there were a bunch of us w/out our numbers. I had one safety pin that I had been using to help keep my ace bandage in place on my ankle so I tried using that to pin my number on, but my fingers were so frozen by that point that I couldn't even zip the zipper on my pocket, much less use fine motor skills.

It was so cold, I was shivering pretty bad so most of my pictures came out blurry. Despite the bad weather (1st year of snow in the Dash's 25 year history), about 15,000 people came out to run. One guy even ran in BAREFEET! How insane is that?! Here is a pic of the start from the SeattlePI. Look at all those bare legs.

This has got to be one of the funnest short races out there. Everyone came dressed up and in high spirits despite the snow. The attorney general of Ireland was there and gave a short speech in a very Lucky Charms accent before the horn. The green wave went first and then my wave (red) went second. After the red wave was given the horn it took about 2 minutes of walking before everyone was able to all-out run, since there were so many of us. Once we were running it didn't feel so cold out. There were bagpipers on almost every corner piping away for us. I felt good and ran consistently for the first 2.5 miles but had to walk after that because my foot was killing me. I mildly sprained it earlier this week, and I think that after this race and all the walking from this weekend I've only made it worse. The volunteers were great, lots of spectators cheered us on. Many of the houses we passed by had Irish music belting out of their windows. :D Halfway through the course there was a little station handing out lime green icees in little cups which was perfect! Totally felt refreshed after that.

The race was 3.8 miles but it didn't feel that long. I love running with thousands of people!!!

At the end they had a beer garden which I had been hoping would be free, but you had to pay $4 for a big cup and I hadn't brought any cash with me. Beer gardens are hilarious. It's a bunch of corralled adults all mooing over the same drink. What a bore.

They had some tents set up giving away free stuff so I snagged 2 Fuze drinks, 4 bags of chips, an organic apple, a keychain bottle opener in the shape of a foot, a cup of hot chili soup, and some Blue Diamond jalepeno almonds.

The whole experience was a blast and I would absolutely go again next year.

Some of my pics:


This one is blurry, sorry:

And how cool is this woman?? (from SeattlePI):

The race organizers were handing out these arm warmers to all the little kid runners as they completed their 1 mile Leprechan Run, but they gave a pair to any adult who asked for some and almost all of us used them on our hands like this lady. They saved me from frostbite!

To be continued...