Wild times in Seattle (Day 1)

Good evening, courageous readers.  Today's title comes from the fact today we left the city via ferry (I get motion sick at the word marine) & visited Blake Island State Park -- called "pristine" by our guide.  Close enough, I guess.

Day 1 is not over -- there's Mexican food on the dinner menu -- but it's enough of a day and there are enough pictures to more than fill this blog.

The line of the day is from Barb: "If you are any kind of specialist, Michael, it's in crapology."  Even Michael, who had just finished indicating his expertise in marine biology, having already rendered expertise on geography, geology, meteorology, and mixology in 12 hours, admitted this was both accurate and funny.

Now, the shot of the day:

Those of you familiar with the area will know this is Mt. Rainier.  It is fairly ubiquitous in Seattle, IF it's "clear."  It's clear here about 90 days a year (acc to today's guide). As you can see, today was a VERY good Rainier day.  It's impressive.  Amazing.  Yes, I know this is cliche, but as we English professors tell our comp students -- there's reason things are cliches. :)

Food du jour: 

The time we didn't spend on the way to the Native site on Blake Island (whence the pic of Rainier comes) we spent in Pike Place Market.  I might like pasta.  We sent 4 lbs home.  In the upper right, that dark stuff is dark chocolate linguini!  NS!  What a thing.

Hey, trivia: did you know there's a Starbucks like on every corner here?  Who knew?

Yes, we took an hour ferry ride to Blake Island, where they dress in traditional local Native garb, did a Native performance, showed us some totems and explained them, and generally reminded us that we are not that far away from not having a Starbucks on every corner. :)  Oh, did a mention the longhouse?  Neat.

Finally, "Ed Norton" was wearing the worst hat. So, we went to Goorin Bros, which we visited in N'Orlins last year.  Ed got a new hat.  He thinks it makes him Frank Sinatra.  Feel free to tell him otherwise.  He's Dr. Crapology.

There will be better hat pics.  Of course, it'll look like shit after he sleeps in it a few nights, but...

And, for those of you who missed the afternoon tweet: 

You can now confirm which of us has Native blood and which of us is the white interloper.  On leaving Blake Island, we compared again and I was darker and he was lighter!  Dr. Crapology tried his degree in dermatology, but none of us believed his explanation. 

I promise less tomorrow.  Unless there's something good, of course.  Bon voyage!