Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Pacific NorthWest Roadtrip part two

Read part one HERE

(Seattle Hostel)
We woke up early, moved our car to a pay lot, and then a couple more hours sleep before grabbing breakfast. Someone at the hostel recommended a cafe in Pike's Place Market. The view at the place was great, looking out over the sound, but the food was standard greasy spoon fair. They made a decent americano.

Once breakfast was done our geekfest began. We went to the aquarium and caught Caesar the Octopus in an entertaining mood. He played with the wolf eel, changed colors, climbed about and we came back to his tank to see him feed. I've seen many an octopus in many an aquarium, and this was the first time I found one in such a fun mood. All the volunteers were gathering around as it was indeed a rare site. The Seattle aquarium is tiny, but expanding. I can't wait to visit it again in a few years when the construction is done.

The geeking continued with a trip to Bodies, the display featuring real human bodies, preserved and disected every which way. Before heading in we wanted to grab a bite to eat. If we'd not been in a hurry we wouldn't have gone into an internet cafe called "Cyber Dogs". We were so glad we did. Tatiana, the owner is a hillarious and charming character. She makes a great butternut squash soup. She also makes her own vegan cheese, and serves a variety of vegetarian and vegan foods in her cramped little cafe full of computers.

"You will have to pardon me if the music is too much." she told us as we walked through the door. "It is French Day here. I'm playing French music all day and it gets a bit dirty." She spoke in an eastern European accent with maybe some east coast mixed in.

When a man went to sit at the one computer with a screen that faced away from the dining room, giving some privacy, she called out, "Oh good, you get the porn computer. That's nice." We got a picture with Tatiana and then on to the bodies.

The bodies looked more plastic than I thought they would and so at first it's not as strange standing next to a corpse as you'd imagine it would be. By the third room full of bodies and body parts though, the reality sinks in and it is a bit strange. That the display is real presented as educational rather than artistic helps. I highly reccommend the show if it comes to a town near you.

We thought we were done geeking as we made our way to my cousin's house. We stopped at a beautiful community garden that I'd discovered the last time I visited Seattle and then, on our way to the car, we spotted a sign reading "Bug Safari." Bryna (my sweetie) and I had talked seriously at one time about starting a bug zoo. I was real excited to find someone doing just that. The front of this shop is a gift shop with bug related toys, science kits, even edible crickets and meal worms. The back room is a bug zoo. We gladly paid our eight bucks and enjoyed "The Ferocious Water Bugs", along with the local millipedes, several varieties of centipedes, some tarantulas, a pair of rhinocerous beetles (my favorite,) some dung beetles and much more. The owner seemed almost weirded out by our geeky enthusiasm. We may have been a bit overwhelming. He told us a cute story about meeting his wife and on their first date talking bugs with her for two hours. His friends thought he was an idiot, but it worked out perfectly. After hearing the romantic tale I picked up a beetle paper weight for Bryna, my own geeky sweetheart.

We stopped for sushi and ordered a chef's plate. Much to our surprise and dismay the plate came with Octopus. Not wanting to waste, Brett ate the two pieces, thinking of Caesar over at the Seattle Aquarium and not really enjoying himself much at all.

Somewhere in all of this Brett discovered dog penis. While visiting Bob and Irina we met their charming friend Laura and her dog Peanut. Peanut had distemper as a puppy and it caused some nerve damage and now his little red rocket will not stay in it's silo. Brett opened his phone to make a call, and there was a photo of Peanut's penis set as the background image. He's stuck with the photo because the prank was, in his opinion, to funny to just be deleted. Everytime he used the phone after that I heard, "Goddamn Dog Penis!"

We visited my wonderful cousins, Tim and Isa and their wildman of a son Kolya. Brett entertained their dog, something he's very good at. Brett speaks dog, fluently. He hits this certain pose and the tamest, most reserved dog in the world is instantly his insane best friend, an absolute riot. We left a bit later than planned for Vancouver.

Part three and photos and links coming soon. I Promise.
Read part one HERE

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