Blazing Inferno

We awoke at the W Seattle to find we had one of the rare rooms with a view of the Space Needle. Well, we had a view of the base of the Space Needle anyway—the flying saucer was obscured by fog. We were fearful it would be another cold cloudy day in Seattle but the morning mist quickly burned off to reveal the best day here in 20 years. While Hunnybear went for a morning run to keep herself beautiful for me I fired up Monkeyboy and enjoyed the high-speed Internet access, now one of my primary considerations in choosing hotels, to keep myself well-informed for her. She returned with a Tully’s Coffee, the world’s best, now with two locations in Santa Monica but not yet in Marina del Rey.

Roni drove up from Olympia to meet us for lunch and we walked down the hill to Elliott’s past the Lusty Lady, a strip club run by women that was the last vestige of First Avenue’s seedy past. They always had a witticism on their marquee that changed daily. Today’s was “Naked or Nude? You decide.” The outdoor animal-art mania that had started in Santa Fe with coyotes and gained worldwide attention in Chicago with cows had turned into pigs in Seattle. Porcine productions populated every street corner and a deconstructed model pig sat attached to its frame atop Pike Place market, home of the original pig Rachel.

At Elliott’s we asked the hostess for an outdoor table and she was happy to oblige, first warning us though that it was pretty sunny out there. We said we could handle it. Meanwhile I felt like putting on a sweater in the below-80 Seattle morning. Another hostess took us to a table in the sun and said she was happy we were taking it because three parties had already eschewed it in favor of a shady parasol. Seattle had weather like this once every two years and they were under an umbrella.

We started with iced tea and a dozen of my favorite oysters, Westcott Flats, which went quickly. We ordered refills on the iced tea and told the waiter to make sure to bring more ice because it melts fast in this blazing inferno. We all had different forms of yummy salmon and basked in the rare sun for an hour and a half before paying the bill and leaving that living hell.

We walked along the waterfront to see John Sisko ( www.siskoworks.com ) in his studio. Construction in Belltown continued apace. The sneaky *******s had built the uphill units first and sold them before blocking their views with the next project just downhill. Sisko showed us his cool works-in-progress and plied us with wine for a couple hours before we had to leave to walk back through Pike Place Market, where we exchanged brief greetings with Rob Glaser, CEO of Real Networks and former Microsoft hallmate, driving a silver Porsche Boxster. I got my first glimpse of the new football stadium, built with ugly arches to match the ugly roof of the new baseball park named after an insurance company that paid millions of dollars to name it after them but they didn’t pay me anything so I just call it the new ballpark. The a capella gospel singers were right where I left them in front of Starbucks #1, still graced with the original mermaid logo before the breasts were removed.

We cleaned up and changed to Pluto and Martha’s anniversary party. I looked on the invitation for suggested dress and didn’t find anything so Hunnybear went smart-casual while I went fat-casual. There was no traffic on I-90 but we used the express lanes to get across Lake Washington to Issaquah anyway just so we could exercise our special privileges.

No one was better at throwing parties than Pluto and Martha. They outdid themselves again with a newly planted lawn and a festive tent in their backyard. McCormack and Schmick’s, a Northwest-based seafood restaurateur, catered the affair. The only gin served was the best, Tanqueray Ten, so I had a couple martinis and munched on the wandering appetizers. Pluto and Martha had a tradition I thought everyone should adopt: they gave gifts to their guests. He gave us a rare bottle of 1996 Domaine Drouhin “Laurene” Oregon Pinot Noir. Actually Hunnybear got a gift too so we got double gifts.

Hunnybear drove us back to the W, where the motion-detector kicked in and started bringing the room temperature down from the 150° it had risen to while we were away. When the heat subsided we snoozed.


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