FlyerTalk Forums - Seat-Tale

WaterGirl and I took LarryU airlines from PDX to SEA, departing PDX at the inception of rush hour. Although we were assigned seats 1A and 1B (both windows), it was a fairly schlocky operation. Seat pitch was pretty good but we had to bring along our own food and buy our own fuel. No hot towels, no menus, no alcoholic beverages and the pilot seemed very stressed and grouchy. By the time we reached the Seattle area, he insisted that we land at Bellevue and eat at Dukes. By the time meal service was complete, he refused to complete the journey into Seattle and opted to go to sleep instead, whining something about jet lag.

Saturday morning was drizzly and dreary, but as a partial denizen of the Northwest for the last seven years, I hardly noticed (although I think PDX has a little better weather than SEA). We had arranged to assemble by Punki's boat for a 10:00AM cruise, so we drove downtown and located a parking lot into which we hoped to stash the car for the day. After inserting (and losing) $5 into the wrong slot and then being unable to squeeze the money into the correct slot, we abandoned the lot with disgust and parked in a nearby garage, a much nicer choice anyway.

The garage was located directly across the street from Anthony's so we ambled on over and then stood there confused as we realized that we didn't exactly know what we were looking for; we didn't know the name of the boat nor precisely where it was parked. As we scratched our respective heads near the marina, the harbor master took pity on us and helped us figured out that the boat was the "Serenity" and it had not shown up as scheduled the night before.

"Serenity, now, Serenity, now", I muttered, as I invoked my favorite Seinfeld mantra, realizing that I might have missed the boat again. But I was able to reach Punki via cell phone at 10:15 and we arranged to be picked up at 11:00ish in front of Anthony's. Meanwhile, the harbor master had cancelled the boat's reservation for the entire weekend as a result of the no-show so I convinced him to reinstate the reservation and WaterGirl and I strode off in search of greener (and wetter) pastures.

A brief walk through the drizzle placed us at Pike Place Market, where we walked through the assemblage of vendors displaying exotic (and somewhat overpriced) fish and produce. We wound up with the rest of the tourists at the "flying fish" place, where we watched the fish mongers play salmon football for a while. There was quite a large audience but very few buyers. At one point, a large fellow with a large voice, bellowed, "Doesn't anyone want to buy some fish?". "NO," I shouted back, thus initiating a five minute discourse that I thought was very funny but I am not so sure that he did.

By 11:00 we found ourselves back at Anthony's looking for Punki. At 11:15 a lavender minivan pulled up, piloted by Joe and copiloted by EPS. We then attempted to reunite with Punki who had parked elsewhere. Joe kept in constant touch with her via two-way radio and kept her informed about traffic and our minute-by-minute progress. Once reunited, the five off us drove off to the marina.

Once we clambered aboard the "Serenity", I dashed down the stairs and said hi to Essxjay and was introduced to Newself. Throughout the journey, I stayed in the cabin chatting the entire time, but Essxjay braved the elements and helped guide the boat safely back to Peer 66 in Seattle. We hit only one rough patch but I managed to save Essxjay's Perrier and the wine bottles remained unscathed. Arturo seemed very well protected in his can. I held onto Freddie Jr for protection until we pulled into calmer waters.

Once the boat had been parked, we all scrambled off and then waited in Anthony's for a short while until our table was readied. I sat at the far end of the table, with EPS on my right and Newself at the head of the table to my left and Essxjay sitting directly across. Lunch took only 3.5 hours, wrapping up just a few hours shy of dinner time, at 4:00PM!

Upon Essxjay's suggestion, I tried the Mirror Pond pale ale which was great and ordered Newself's recommendation of blackened salmon tacos, which was also very good. I am a very big bread eater but EPS blew me out of the water. He must have gone though about five baskets before I had reached the first slice but it was not a very fair contest because, blasphemy though this may be, sourdough is not exactly my first choice. Must be the NewYorker in me. Regardless, I salute EPS as I humbly bow his bread eating excellence.

The waitress was very friendly, perhaps because I correctly predicted that she came from New Jersey. However, she was quick to inform us that she actually grew up in the "valley" and then proceeded to say "fer shur" a lot in order to prove it. Essxjay then told everybody that Arturo is in a can on the boat. I pedantically pointed out that the correct nautical term is "head" http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif The best part about the lunch was the wonderful company and the stimulating conversation. The mug of huckleberry sundae didn't hurt either (at least not until later).

We finally dispersed at 4:00PM and then a few of us went off in search of a pub in which to tide us over until dinner, Essxjay pointed out the sites along the way, such as the place where Kokonutz and AuH2O had lost themselves the prior night. Something to do with fashion and fetishes, I think http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

We arrived at an Irish pub but the air seemed a bit stuffy to me, so WaterGirl and I decided to go for a walk instead, not having achieved our desired level of drizzle. By 6:15PM we gathered back in front of Anthony's; we had arranged to meet EPS and Newself and escort them over to Chinooks. Essxjay was waiting for a lift from MWeiss and we were getting a bit concerned when he failed to materialize on time. After 15 minutes, just when we were about to abandon all hope, he pulled up in his blue convertible Mercedes and Essxjay happily got on board. The remaining four of us ran over to the garage to retrieve my non-blue non-convertible non-Mercedes Toyota. I think my car is tan-colored but it his hard to tell because of the mold growing on it. It is 3.5 years old and only has 13,000 miles - for some reason it spends most of its time resting in the airport parking lot.

I didn't know the way to Chinooks so I opted to follow MWeiss and Essxjay, which proved not to be an easy task as the little sports car sped along, making abrupt and unexpected U turns, perhaps just to see if I was paying attention. EPS and Newself kept a nervous eagle eye on the car, as we watched it recede into the distance.

But we arrived at Chinooks eventually. I disgorged the passengers by the entrance, found a parking place and then reunited in the foyer. Chinooks wouldn't even put us on the waiting list until all of our party had assembled so I waited for a while as Shadow took a head count. Once my head was fully counted, I spent a few minutes annoying the hostess with bad jokes. To her obvious great relief, I then went off in search of dressing room (aka toilet) so I could change my attire into something dryer.

By the time I emerged, attired and tired, our very large group had staked off some territory in the crowded and noisy bar area. After waiting about ten minutes, the hostess presented us with the option of waiting at least another hour for one large table or of occupying four smaller tables right away. Having finished lunch just three hours ago, I wasn't exactly starving, but I was relieved when we opted to take the earlier seating so I wouldn't have to stand and shout for another hour.

We then distributed ourselves amongst the four tables. Neal sat on my right and JayJ was on my left; the other denizens of the table included EPS, HighLife, WaterGirl and LionClaw. We had a very nice waitress and the food was great. This time the bread was focaccia, but EPS and I attacked it with somewhat less gusto than we had a lunch, even after I asked the waitress to bring some olive oil to help lubricate it a bit. I ordered some wonderful ciopinno and then got jealous when I saw that other diners had been served some wasabi with their meal. The waitress happily brought me two hefty lumps of wasabi, which I eagerly added to my seafood stew. I just love electric food, don't you?

EPS brought along a copy of the October Hemispheres and we were all a little surprised to see United's choice of movies for the month, including such recent films as "Field of Dreams". Never exactly known for providing first rate films, it seems that United's offerings are now of 10 year old vintage and I am not all that convinced that some of these films have improved with age. Premex pointed out on a recent thread that the main criteria for selection must be that they are cheap and in color.

I wandered over to the Catman table for a while, to show the Hemispheres to Catman and Wanderlust and to find out what he thought about United's surpising inclusion of a rather scantily clad woman who adorned the inside of this Hemispheres issue. I'll leave it up to you to figure out the page. I also showed off some of my favorite toys, such as my collection of Bill Clinton money from www.slick.com, and my Viagra pen, recently given to me by my favorite client.

After dinner wound down, we all gathered outside for a family portrait and then dispersed ourselves to our appointed vehicles. EPS opted to journey to the space needle on his own so I gave Newself and Essxjay a lift to the boat to retrieve their belongings. Then it was off to their hotel, where they traded in their berth on the "Serenity" to a berth at the Westin.

I opted out of the post-dinner gatherings and got a much needed rest at my hotel. In fact, deciding that rest was the better part of valor, I opted to sleep through brunch as well, arriving back at the Westin a few minutes after 11:00AM on Sunday just as the party was breaking up. However, I was glad that I was able to bid adieu to some of the other FlyerTalkers and to say hello and goodbye to others whom I had never met before. I wish there had been more time to chat.

WaterGirl and I then started back for PDX. We initially planned to stop in Chinatown on the way but opted instead to visit an Asian mall in Kent called Ranch99. I do not fully understand the derivation of the name because its not on route 99 and its not a ranch. But it is very big, consisting of a large array of Asian businesses anchored around a very large Taiwanese grocery in the middle. We grabbed some lunch that consisted of a mixture of Indonesian, Malay and Singapore food and then shopped in the market, which was selling live Dungeness crab for half the price of the market in Seattle. We ultimately arrived back in PDX at about 6:30. My only regret was that the weekend ended much too soon.

[This message has been edited by LarryU (edited 10-03-2000).]